The Emerald Casket (24 page)

Gerald threw himself up from the floor and around the thin man's neck, knocking him against the table and driving out a yowl of pain. The villain slashed around with the blade, missing Gerald's cheek by millimetres. A jolt of the train threw them both to the floor. Gerald landed on his back. He looked up to find the thin man hovering over him, the dagger pointed at his heart. The knife drove home, piercing through cloth and skewering the backpack that Gerald had whipped across to shield himself. The thin man fell upon him, wrestling to extract the knife. Gerald grabbed him by the wrist and they rolled on the floor in a desperate battle.

Gerald kicked his way free, sending the thin man sliding on his back towards the door. The villain stumbled to his knees and turned to Gerald. Blood was smeared across the welts on the thin man's face.

Lying on the floor next to the thin man's leg was a black velvet bag. Half spilled out was a large rectangular gem of the deepest green.

‘The emerald key,' Gerald whispered. Without thinking, he made a dive for it. But the thin man was faster. He scooped up the gem and jammed it into his pocket. Gerald shouldered into the thin man's side and sent the villain flying.

Then Ruby spoke.

‘The train's stopped.'

The thin man paused to check his senses. Gerald dragged himself to his feet and looked about. Ruby was right. The carriage was still. But they weren't due at the next station until dawn.

The thin man edged back, never taking his eyes from Gerald, and pulled open the carriage's interconnecting door. Over the man's shoulder, Gerald could see the endless blackness of night and what appeared to be a red tail light on the back of the train shrinking into the distance. They'd been cut free.

At that moment four bandits smashed into the carriage. Two came through the windows on either side, one dropped through the skylight and one swung feet-first through the door. A pair of ankles wrapped around the thin man's neck and wrenched him out into the night. The bandit girl swung back inside and landed on the rug with the elegance of a cat jumping from a table.

She switched on a one-hundred-watt smile. ‘Hello, Gerald,' she said. ‘Nice to see you again.' A second later everything went black.

Gerald couldn't move or see a thing. He was trussed up tight and seemed to have a bag pulled over his head. He was lying face down across the back of something that, judging by the smell, could only be a horse. The beast didn't seem to be in any hurry. Gerald was starting to feel seasick from the constant rise and fall. He could hear whispers but didn't recognise any of the words. He had no idea if Sam and Ruby were close by. Or Alisha. Not that he ever wanted to see her again.

Gerald stayed quiet. He didn't want to draw any attention to himself. The last thing he could remember with any clarity was when the lights went out on the train. That and the smile on the bandit girl's face.
That smile
. No! He had to concentrate. If she was glad to see him he'd hardly be tied up and thrown over the back of an old nag in the middle of the night a million miles from anywhere.

The horse ambled onwards. Gerald tried to think of something other than the churning sensation in his stomach. It looked like his suspicions about Alisha had been correct. What a lying cow she'd turned out to be. She'd known the location of the second casket all along. An emerald casket.

And Sir Mason Green was back—and not just in some weird dream.

Gerald shuddered. What was Green up to, and why did it always seem to involve him? Gerald's mind cast back to the wall in the Green Room at the Rattigan Club, the silver letter opener stabbed into his throat and the hole burned into his forehead.

And on top of all that he now had a deadly cult of violent bandits to worry about, including one whose kisses set the pit of his stomach on fire.
No! Must concentrate!

Why couldn't his holidays be more like other people's?

After what seemed an age, he came to a halt. Two sets of hands grabbed him and pulled him down to his feet. The binds around his ankles were cut and a sharp push between the shoulders propelled him forwards. His boots scuffled across rocky ground. He staggered along, glad to get some feeling back into his legs.

Fifty paces later and another shove in the back sent Gerald sprawling to the ground. Rough hands rolled him over and his wrists were cut free. The bag was pulled from his head.

He was in a tent—a big army-style tent, all heavy canvas and olive green. The back of a large man with shoulders like a bison disappeared through a flap in one wall.

‘Gerald!'

Ruby's voice rang out. She and Sam were crouched in a corner and they raced across, lifting him to his feet.

Gerald was relieved that Sam had recovered from his ordeal with the thin man. And Sam was quick with an apology.

‘I'm so sorry,' he said. ‘I was so messed up with this whole Alisha thing. I couldn't believe what you were saying. But you were right. She knows exactly where the casket is hidden.'

‘No, it's my fault,' Gerald said. ‘I got carried away with the idea of getting even with Mason Green.' He looked from Sam to Ruby.

‘We're good,' Ruby smiled. ‘But what's with these bandits? If this cult is tied up with your family, they've got a funny way of showing it.'

‘It's hardly the red carpet,' Gerald said. ‘Did you see what happened to Alisha, or the thin man?'

Ruby shook her head. ‘Last thing I saw was the lights going out and someone shoved a bag over my head.'

‘There's a few things I'd like to ask Alisha,' Gerald said.

Ruby's face darkened. ‘There's a few things I'd like to tell her too.'

‘But there's one good thing,' Gerald said.

Sam laughed. ‘You mean apart from the beating from the thin man and the train getting hijacked?'

‘Yes,' Gerald said. ‘I know how to find the lost city.'

Ruby and Sam stared at him, mouths open.

‘No time to explain now,' he said. ‘First we have to find a way out of here.'

He surveyed the inside of the tent. It was cluttered with piles of camping gear: sleeping rolls, tinned food, jerry cans. Then he saw something familiar.

‘Our stuff from the train,' he said. ‘They must have cleaned out the carriage.'

Gerald tossed bags out of the way and turned up his backpack. He reefed it open and pulled out the bandit's dagger.

‘This could come in handy,' he said.

Ruby looked at the dagger doubtfully. ‘You're not going to fight your way out,' she said.

‘Maybe not. But we may need to defend ourselves.' Gerald unzipped a pocket in one leg of his pants and slipped the knife inside. ‘What else can we use?'

They scoured through the bags—Gerald was about to upend Mr Fry's backpack when he saw a bright colour in among the blacks and greens.

‘Alisha's handbag,' he said, diving to get to it.

‘So?' Sam said.

‘Mobile phone.'

Ruby and Sam crowded over Gerald's shoulder while he tipped out the bag. In among the perfume, lip gloss and moisturiser he found it. They stared at the screen.

‘Still no signal,' Sam said.

Gerald glared at the piece of plastic in his hand. He was about to toss it away when he heard a light rustling behind him. Then came the lilt of cooing. Gerald spun around to see Lethbridge's pigeons in a corner of the tent.

A spark went off in his brain.

‘Ruby,' he called. ‘Look in my backpack for a piece of paper and a pencil. Lethbridge might have done something useful for once.'

Gerald stabbed at the buttons on Alisha's phone and after a second found what he was looking for. ‘Okay,' he said to Ruby, ‘write this down.' He read off a series of numbers and letters.

‘What's that?' Sam asked.

‘Navigation co-ordinates, geography boy. We don't have any mobile coverage but Alisha's phone can still pick up the global positioning satellite.'

‘Yes, very interesting,' Sam said. ‘But not much good to us if we can't phone somebody and tell them.'

Gerald grinned. ‘Ever heard of pigeon post?' He took the cover off the birdcage. ‘There's only three here—Lethbridge must have already sent one to his friend in Delhi.'

‘Or eaten one,' Sam said.

Ruby tore off two more pieces of paper and copied the co-ordinates again. She wrote a message for help at the bottom. Sam rolled the notes and slid them into the metal tubes on the pigeons' legs.

Gerald stole across to the tent flap and lifted an edge. His view was blocked by the back of a large man dressed in black.

He retreated into the tent. ‘We're not going out that way,' he said. ‘Let's try over here.' Sam carried the box of birds to the rear of the tent. Gerald pulled the knife from his pocket and stabbed through the canvas wall, slicing a neat line up, then across. Sam shoved the first bird through, and the others close behind.

‘Think this'll work?' Ruby said. They peered out through the opening as the pigeons took flight.

‘If they're as smart as Lethbridge made out, they should fly straight to his pigeon fancier mate in Delhi,' Gerald said. ‘Hopefully he'll call the police.'

There was a sound behind them and they spun around to see the large bandit filling the entryway. A white dressing covered his chin.

‘Come,' he said. It was a tone that suggested he wasn't going to ask twice. The bandit wrapped cable ties around their wrists, binding their hands in front of them.

He led them to a rough bush camp in the middle of a glade of trees. Three logs formed a triangle around a central campfire that burned a bright hole in the night. About twenty metres away Gerald could make out another cluster of tents and beyond them some horses grazed in a tight bunch.

The bandit nodded towards one of the logs, and Gerald, Sam and Ruby sat down. A moment later, a lithe figure, slim, toned and dressed in a set of fitted black overalls, emerged from a tent and walked towards them.

‘Heads up,' Sam said. ‘Looks like your girlfriend's on the way.'

‘She's not my girlfriend,' Gerald said. ‘Will you quit it?' For the first time in a long time, Sam grinned. Gerald was glad to see it.

The figure walked into the light of the campfire. Her sleeves were rolled to her muscled biceps and she wore a black scarf around her head. She unwound the cloth to reveal the weathered face of a woman well into her forties.

‘Jeez Louise!' Sam yelped. ‘You kissed
her
?'

The woman raised an eyebrow. ‘You must be the one who's not so bright,' she said.

A svelte girl dressed in identical overalls stepped from the shadows. To Gerald's disgust, his heart started pounding the moment he saw her.

‘That would have been me,' the bandit girl said. ‘Hello Gerald.' She winked at him. Gerald felt his cheeks redden.

Ruby glanced at the expression on his face. ‘Oh,
puh-leese
.'

‘Ah! My daughter,' the woman said, shaking her head. ‘Not as modest as one would hope. But teenagers these days, what can you do?'

‘A mother and daughter bandit team?' Gerald said, trying to keep his gaze away from the girl.

‘I thought you would have realised by now,' the woman said. ‘We're all about family.'

‘You don't act like it,' Gerald said. ‘Where are we? And where's Alisha?'

The woman turned and whispered to her daughter, who nodded and half walked half ran towards the collection of tents.

‘The Gupta girl is quite all right,' the woman said. ‘But you will not see her again.'

The woman said this with such finality that it made Ruby gasp. ‘What are you going to do to her?'

The woman's face was like stone. ‘The Guptas are no friends of the fraternity,' she said flatly.

A triangle of light appeared at the front of one of the tents as a flap was thrown open. Two people emerged; judging by their shapes one was the bandit girl and the other a man. The man led the way across the glade, his rolling gait accentuating his round shape. There was no doubt in Gerald's mind that this was the leader. The man burst into the firelight and stopped. He fixed his fists to his hips and a scowl to his face.

Gerald's mouth dropped at the sight of the man and the fury on his face. He could barely form the words that fell from his lips.

‘Mr…Hoskins.'

Chapter 19

T
he man who stood before them was definitely Mr Hoskins, but his expression bore no resemblance to the man who had collected them from the airport days before. He got straight to the point.

‘What have you told the Gupta girl?' His tone was cold, demanding an answer.

‘Told her?' Gerald said. ‘I don't understand. Told her what?'

Hoskins chewed the inside of his bottom lip. ‘About us.'

Gerald was mute, unsure what to say. He was horrified at this transformation.

‘Why are you being like this?' Gerald asked.

‘Because there's too much at stake to be any other way.' Hoskins turned towards Sam and Ruby. ‘And you think you can trust this pair?'

‘Course I can trust them. What are you saying?'

Hoskins maintained his gaze on the Valentine twins. ‘How long have you known these two? A few weeks?'

Gerald pulled his shoulders back and glared at the man. ‘I'd trust them with my life.'

‘Good. Because that's exactly what you're going to have to do.' Hoskins jerked his head at the bandit girl. She unsheathed a knife from a scabbard at her waist. She grabbed Ruby roughly by the shoulder.

‘Hey!' Gerald yelled. Hoskins caught him by the shirt before he could move. The bandit girl cocked her head at Gerald and flashed him another one of her smiles. She then sliced through the bindings at Ruby's wrists. She did the same to Sam but stopped in front of Gerald and took hold of his hands.

‘You need to relax,' she whispered, then cut through the cable tie with a flick of her blade.