Hollow Earth (29 page)

‘I can only imagine how you got all this gear up here,’ the stranger added.

They smiled sheepishly.

‘So who are you?’ asked Matt, doing his best to control his anger.

‘We met a couple of months ago, don’t you remember? My name is Vaughn.’ The man sank back into the couch, his long legs stretched out in front of him.

The man in front of them had not shaved in a while; his hair was longer and unkempt, and his dishevelled clothes were very different from the sharp suit he’d been wearing when they saw him last. But Em remembered him now. ‘Vaughn!’ she exclaimed. ‘Mum’s friend from Covent Garden.’

Zach looked perplexed, but Matt’s face cleared. ‘Do you know where Mum is?’ he asked at once.

Vaughn shook his head. ‘But I do have some theories about what could have happened to her. That’s why I came up from London. I’m sorry about your grandpa. He was a close friend of my mum’s, too. They trained together here at the Abbey when Renard was a student.’

I believe him.

Hard to imagine any girl not.

Em scowled at her brother.

‘So how did you find us?’ asked Matt, unfolding a deckchair before dropping into it.

Vaughn grinned. ‘When I was wandering around the island yesterday, I found the cable you’d rigged up to steal power from the Abbey. That’s what led me here. Ingenious.’

‘That was Zach’s idea,’ said Em proudly.

Zach acknowledged the compliment with a nod, finding a spot to sit where he could read the conversation more easily.

‘Well done, Zach,’ Vaughn signed. ‘So I assume the main breaker is under the dock?’

Looking surprised at Vaughn’s adept use of sign language, Zach nodded again.

‘You’re too young to remember me, Zach,’ Vaughn said, ‘but I was living at the Abbey when your dad first brought you here. We all learned sign language together.’

‘So did you know my mum, too?’ Zach signed eagerly.

Zach’s question shocked the twins. Their friend had never said more than a few words about his mum; the most they knew was that she’d died when he was born.

‘I didn’t. Renard had only recently recruited your dad to join him at the Abbey. You came as a package.’

‘So were you the one playing the circus music?’ Zach asked.

Vaughn lifted a small violin-like instrument from under his sleeping bag. ‘It’s a hurdy-gurdy,’ he explained, letting the tinkling sound fill the cave. ‘Do you remember when you last heard this, Matt?’

‘Covent Garden,’ said Matt, nodding. ‘You thought the hurdy-gurdy man was trying to kidnap me.’

‘He would have, given the chance,’ said Vaughn. ‘But I should add that
he
was actually a
she
disguised very well, and someone who’d been watching you both for a long time.’

‘Who?’ said Matt and Em at once.

Before Vaughn could answer, the children’s three watches beeped in unison.

‘You can’t possibly get a mobile signal inside this hillside,’ said Vaughn, frowning at the sound. ‘At least, not a real one.’

The twins looked at their watches. The same instant message flashed on each of them.

Matt looked at Em. Em looked at Zach. Zach’s hands sketched four letters.

‘Mara!’

FIFTY-SEVEN

Z
ach grabbed his backpack and put on his helmet at once. Quickly, he headed to the cave opening with Matt and Em right behind him.

‘Before you go rushing off back to the Abbey at Mara’s beck and call,’ said Vaughn urgently, ‘you need to know something. It’s important!’

The twins stopped. Unable to hear Vaughn’s plea, Zach had already disappeared down into the tunnel.

‘Don’t trust Mara. I found this hurdy-gurdy in her room. She was watching you in London that day, dressed up as a street musician. It was probably the easiest way to follow you all since your mum would have recognized her. I think she may even have been in the National Gallery earlier. Mara is not who you think she is.’

Em didn’t know what to make of this. ‘We really have to go,’ she said hesitantly. ‘If something’s happened to Simon, we need to be there. He’s been like a dad to us. But will you wait for us here so we can talk later?’

‘I’ll wait,’ Vaughn said. ‘But promise me one thing. Be wary of Mara, okay? Trust your Guardian instincts.’

‘Are you coming or not, Em?’ Matt demanded, looking over the lip of the tunnel to where Zach was already far into his descent.

Vaughn grabbed Em’s hand.

‘Your grandfather was the one who sent me to work in London when you all fled Auchinmurn,’ he said. ‘My mission was to keep an eye on you, Matt and your mum. With Sandie missing and Renard hurt, you may need me. I think Mara may have something to do with your mum’s disappearance.’

Em knew Matt had stopped his descent and was listening. After finding the envelope in Mara’s room last night, their suspicions about her had grown.

‘Mara was once very close to your dad,’ Vaughn explained. ‘She may even still be in love with him. I don’t think she’s ever forgiven your mum for his disappearance.’

‘But even if that’s true,’ said Em, ‘why would she want to hurt Grandpa or us?’

‘I don’t know,’ Vaughn confessed. ‘It’s one of the reasons that I had to return to Scotland when I heard your mum was missing. While I was in London spying on the Council of Guardians for Renard – yes, that was part of my job description too – I learned that Mara was doing the same here on Auchinmurn for someone else. I thought it was Sir Charles Wren, but now I’m not sure. You know I’m telling you the truth.’ His piercing green eyes held Em’s transfixed gaze. ‘Don’t you?’

Zach was waiting for them at the bottom.

‘What took you so long?’

Quickly, Em brought him up to speed.

‘Let’s not jump to conclusions,’ signed Zach. His own anxiety about his dad was mounting, and he could sense Em’s deepening dread.

‘And how do we know we can trust this guy anyway?’ Matt demanded. ‘He did shoot me, you know.’

‘Well, he was right about one thing,’ signed Zach. ‘No true signal or instant message could have got to us in the cave. It must have been—’

‘An animation,’ said the twins together, realizing at once that it was the only answer.

‘But who animated it?’ Em said. ‘Mara, or someone else?’

The three of them splashed through the rising water and out on to the beach, where they had to shield their eyes from the blinding daylight for a few minutes before getting into their boat.

Zach sat in front, the spray soaking his face and hair as Matt gunned the small engine. Every few seconds, Zach checked his watch for messages and sent more texts to his dad’s mobile. Clutching Matt’s drawing of the outboard motor tightly in her hand, Em tried to smile reassuringly at Zach.

Your dad will be okay.

But she knew he sensed that she was far from reassured.

Cutting across the wake of a fishing vessel heading out to the Atlantic, Matt bounced them back around the point of Era Mina and across the bay in half the usual time. When they got close to the dock, Em tore up Matt’s drawing. The motor vibrated noisily, then disappeared in a shower of silver sparks, leaving the twins to row the boat up to the jetty.

In their haste and heightened emotional state, neither the twins nor Zach spotted the hooded figure climbing from a skiff near the tower on Era Mina. Robes sweeping the packed sand, the figure glided into the cave, stopping at the bottom ledge where the steps up to the children’s hideout began. Cocking its head, listening to the sounds above, the figure slipped an ornately covered sketchpad from the cowl of its sleeve and began to draw.

As its hand flew across the page, the wall of the cave shook and shifted. A fissure of light flashed up the rock face, cleaving the rock in two as a fracture rose high into the darkness above.

Vaughn had no intention of letting the twins out of his sight. Grabbing his saddlebags from the couch, he slung them over his shoulder before following the children’s path down the rock face. Halfway down, his hands began to tingle as the wall of the mountain trembled underneath him.

He tried to speed his descent, but he couldn’t. The cave wall was too slick, his footing too precarious. One minute he had crevices in which to place his hands and feet – the next, the entire rock face shifted, smoothing itself over, leaving nothing for him to grasp or hold on to except air. Vaughn fell backwards into the rising water of the tidal pool, bouncing off the rocks as he landed.

Outside the cave’s entrance, the hooded figure tore up its drawing and walked back to the skiff.

FIFTY-EIGHT

T
he first person the trio saw when they entered the Abbey kitchen was Mara. The twins faltered, but Zach dashed forward.

‘What’s happened to Dad?’ he signed frantically.

‘Come with me to my studio.’ When Mara looked at the twins, her eyes were dark. ‘What I have to show you will explain what’s happened to Simon.’

‘Isn’t Jeannie back from Largs yet?’ asked Em, listening for sounds of Jeannie in the house. Nothing.

‘Oh, I’m guessing she won’t be back for a while,’ said Mara, flipping on the kitchen television to BBC Scotland. ‘Not if the news is anything to go by.’

She pointed at the screen. A reporter was standing at the dock in Largs, where hundreds of people were lining the pier, staring down into the water. The camera panned the length of the ferry, which looked as if it was stuck in translucent pink jelly.

‘Seems like the inevitable has finally happened,’ laughed Mara. ‘A sudden infestation of jellyfish has clogged up the ship.’

Zach stared. ‘That’s impossible. You’d need to have …’

He dropped his hands, feeling something twist inside his gut.

‘… animated an infestation of jellyfish to stop the ferry,’ Em finished for him. ‘Why would anyone do that?’

‘Aren’t you more interested in who?’ asked Mara.

She’s scaring me, Matt.

‘Come out to my studio,’ Mara coaxed. ‘Everything will make sense when you do.’

The trio didn’t move. Suddenly, all they could think of was Vaughn’s warning.

‘You animated those jellyfish!’ Em accused. ‘You’re not going to explain anything to us. I can feel it. You’re going to do something to us.’

‘Oh, come on now,’ Mara said, leaning over the kitchen counter. ‘If all I wanted to do was to hurt you, I could have done it years ago. This has never been about you.’

‘Where’s Simon?’ asked Matt, shifting closer to Em.

Mara opened the doors to the terrace. ‘You’ll just have to take my word that he’s okay. For now, anyway. Before we go to my studio, I’ll need you to empty your pockets. Can’t have you drawing anything unexpected, can I?’

Matt dumped his sketchpad and chewed pencils on to the counter. Em fished a piece of charcoal from her pocket, snapping it in two, bringing out only half.

‘And your watches, please.’

The children removed their watches, setting them side by side on the counter. Before he set his down, Zach double-tapped a command when Mara wasn’t looking. Then the three of them reluctantly followed Mara back outside.