The Beast of Seabourne (40 page)

Miss Arkwright was out of her tent, and so were lots of pupils. Pandemonium was a word Oz had heard a few times, but he'd never really understood what it meant until that moment. The lanterns they'd all been issued were great for inside the tents but completely useless outside, as they threw as much light back towards the holder as they did forwards. As result, nothing outside of ten feet was really visible to anyone holding one. Miss Arkwright had decided this was an occasion that required lots of noise and was barking out orders.

“Right, everyone out of the tents. We need to get all this sorted. Where is Mr Skelton? Can someone please find Mr Skelton?”

Oz went straight over to Ellie's tent. It had been flattened. The curved plastic framework had snapped, and both Ellie and Bernice were fighting to get out. “Ellie, it's me, Oz. They've gone, whoever they were. I'm here now. You have to stop struggling.”

Instantly, one of the flailing bodies stopped, but Oz's calming words had no effect on the other. Bernice Halpin was sobbing hysterically, thrashing to get out of the enveloping layers of sleeping bag, clothes, and tent. Oz grabbed the apex of the damaged frame and yanked. It snapped up, one arm of the curved framework jutting out from where it had shattered. He heard purposeful movement, and a lantern flicked on. Oz knelt and unzipped the flap. Ellie was on her knees, looking flushed and angry but otherwise none the worse for wear. Bernice immediately yelped and curled up into a ball.

“Something attacked us,” Ellie said in a surprisingly calm but tremulous voice. “Something was trying to get in through the tent. It fell in on us…”

“I know, I saw them,” Oz said.

“Them?” Ellie asked.

Bernice lay on her side, keening and wailing. Ellie put her hand out, and when it touched Bernice's shoulder, she wailed even louder.

“Bernice, it's me, Ellie. It's okay, they've gone.”

“I heard it,” rasped Bernice, her face buried. “It was right on top of me. I could feel its breath…”

Ellie tried a consoling hand again but Bernice squirmed away.

“
Don't touch me
!” she screamed. “I saw its face. I saw its face through the tent.”

“Saw whose face?” Oz asked.

“Its face. The Beast of Seabourne. It's here,” she moaned. “It's going to get us all. IT'S COME TO GET US ALL!”

Oz felt a hand on his shoulder and looked behind him. Ruff's sleep-puffed face was peering in.

“That's guano,” Ruff said. “How can the Beast of Seabourne be here in Wa…Cornwall?”

Bernice yanked down the sleeping bag she'd pulled over the top of her and threw Ruff a wide-eyed glare of pure venom. “I know what I saw,” she wailed.

“I'm sure it was a bit scary, but…”

“A bit scary.” Ellie rounded on him. “You try waking up in the dark on a mountain with something trying to rip your arms off through the tent. It's complete… sugar.”

“All right, all right,” Ruff said, sounding shirty. “Just trying to be helpful.”

Behind them, Miss Arkwright was trying to take charge and failing. Bernice claiming that the Beast of Seabourne had attacked her had thrown Oz for a moment. He shook his head to clear it and looked behind at everyone running around like headless chickens. Miss Arkwright was still shouting for someone to get Mr Skelton.

“Ellie, get your boots on and wrap up. Quick as you can. Ruff, do the same. Meet at our tent in three minutes.”

Oz ducked out of the tent and went back to his own with Ruff, found his anorak, gloves, and hat, and went back out. By this time, someone had told Miss Arkwright about Bernice, and she'd gone over to Ellie's tent.

“If Ellie's not already out of there, she's going to be stuck for a while,” Ruff said as he pulled on a sweatshirt.

“I'm here, you gonk,” Ellie hissed, approaching them from behind. “Came to see where you two slowcoaches were.”

“Right. This is our chance. It's going to take ages to get all this sorted. Now's the time to slip away.”

Ellie nodded, but Oz saw Ruff hesitate.

“What?” Oz said.

“I know that this Beast of Seabourne stuff is supposed to be rubbish, but then who was attacking Ellie?” Ruff asked with a little warble in his voice.

Ellie shrugged. “Well, no one can find Skelton.”

Oz stuck his head out of the tent. He saw lots of faces, but in the chaos, it was impossible to recognise anyone. He saw Marcus stoking the fire and a group of six girls huddled in blankets around it. He couldn't see Dilpak or Niko or anyone else, and he could only hear Miss Arkwright. He ducked back inside.

“What do you think it was after?” Ruff asked as he pulled on a woolly hat.

“By ‘it,' do you mean the Beast?” Oz asked.

“There is no Beast,” Ellie said angrily.

“But what if there is?” Ruff argued. “What if it woke Skelton up as it went for Bernice and you? Maybe Skelton's gone after it.”

“Funny you should say that, 'cos the bigger one of the two I saw looked a bit Skelton-shaped,” Oz muttered.

“See,” Ruff said, his voice rising with justification. “Maybe Gerber set the thing on us.”

Ellie growled with frustration. “There is no such thing as the Beast of Seabourne. Everyone, and I mean everyone—Gerber included—thinks we're in Cornwall. How could he possibly set the Beast on us here?”

But Ruff had his answer ready. “You're forgetting about the Cuckoo. If Gerber recruited her and she really can talk to dead people or see the future—”

“She's a fraud, Ruff,” Oz said impatiently.

“Yeah, all right, but what if she wasn't a complete fraud and could track you with a crystal ball or something and summon up some sort of supernatural demon thingy? What if that was what you saw?”

“I think someone put something in your soup,” Ellie said, shaking her head. Both she and Oz waited for the inevitable comparison between their current situation and some obscure Xbox game that Ruff played, but nothing came. Instead, Ruff just stared at them, blinking rapidly.

“Look, I don't know exactly what it was I saw, but it wasn't a demon. Besides, I think this is the chance we've been waiting for,” Oz said.

They both looked at him.

“I'm not going to like this much, am I?” Ruff said.

“Shut up, Ruff,” Ellie snapped. “What are you saying, Oz?”

“We leave now while everything's mad. Only two things are for certain—Ellie and Bernice's tent was attacked, and Skelton's gone. Let's use that. Since he isn't here, they might assume we're with him.”

“Arkwright is going to go ape-shape,” Ruff said.

“Yeah, she is, but I don't suggest we ask permission.

Look, phones don't work here, the only other responsible adult is gone, and it's pitch-black. Arkwright is going to be worried sick, and I hate to do this to her, but I reckon it gives us a good couple of hours before the guano really hits the fan.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ellie said, grinning.

“You would say that,” Ruff said, his face, in the light of the fire, a pale, unhappy mask. “But I have a very bad feeling about this.”

“We're not going to have a better chance for finding the ring.”

The other two remained silent. Oz added, “This is what we came here for, isn't it?”

“Yeah, but that thing that attacked Ellie…”

“Don't be such a wimp, Ruff,” Ellie said.

Ruff threw her a fearful, accusatory glare, but Ellie ignored him and switched on her lantern. Oz quickly pulled her hand down and turned it off.

“No lights,” Oz said. “Someone will see us.”

“But it's completely black out there,” Ruff protested.

He was right. Beyond the lantern-lit campsite, the mountain was a dense black emptiness.

“What time is it?” Oz asked.

“Ten to four in the morning,” moaned Ruff.

“Right, we've got about two hours until it gets light.” Oz reached into his pocket for the pebble. He felt immensely reassured when his fingers found it, and he pressed the maker's mark. The tickle in his head was welcomingly warm.

“Soph,” Oz muttered, forgetting to think it. “Can you help us? I need to see.”

“Of course,” Soph said in Oz's head.

Instantly, everything went a strange tinge of green in Oz's vision. At the same time, he could see every hillock and outcrop, every path and footstep.

“Right,” he said to the others. “I've got night vision. Ellie, you follow me. Ruff at the back.”

“This is buzzard squared,” Ruff warbled.

“Shut up and come on.” Ellie grabbed his arm and pulled him forward.

Quietly, without any fuss, Soph explained to Oz that she had set up a holoshield, so anyone looking at where the three of them now stood would see nothing but the outline of tents. Behind it, Oz, Ellie, and Ruff slipped out of the encampment, and within seconds, the darkness of the Black Mountains swallowed them up.

Chapter 19

Stewart And Ogilvie

They followed the footprints out onto the mountain, walking quickly to keep warm. Oz scanned the countryside, but there was no sign of the two running figures. The moon was still playing a tantalising game of hide-and-seek with the clouds, but as they crested a rise and Ellie stopped so they could take some water from the bottle she'd remembered to bring, the clouds broke open once again to light up a breathtaking landscape. Oz's vision reverted seamlessly to normal as he took in the expanse of silver and deep indigo that stretched away in every direction. The high moor was like a lake of pearl with frozen waves, white-tipped where the snow had settled on the tussocks. Far off to their right, yellow-and-orange lights twinkled in farmhouses and cottages on the other side of the valley, but to the east, great dark shadows of granite grew out of the moor like slumbering giants.

“Wow,” Ellie said as she took it all in, the word escaping in a steamy plume from her mouth.

“So, are we just going to keep chasing after Skelton and the Beast or what?” Ruff asked.

Adjusting her level of brightness so as not to bleach out the moonlight, Soph appeared next to them.

“Soph?” Oz asked.

“As you are aware, I am able to scan for molybdenum silicate alloys within a maximum radius of two hundred metres.”

“She means the ring,” Ellie said to Ruff.

“Two hundred metres?” scoffed Ruff. “But this place is massive. I mean, where do we start?”

“McClelland visited this area because of his deep interest in walking and archaeology,” Soph explained. “He kept returning to this area because he had found something. He writes of Druidic burial chambers in his notes. I also believe that, if he were being pursued, he would have made for one of these sites to hide himself.”

“So where, exactly, are they?” Ellie asked.

“I do not know, Ellie. Hamish McClelland did not appear to use map references. He refers only to names—Stewart and Ogilvie.”

“Great,” Ruff said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, in a voice quivering with cold.

“So, we're looking for two burial chambers, one called Stewart and one Ogilvie?” Oz pondered.

“They are common Scottish names,” Soph said.

“But they could be anywhere,” Ruff whined, stamping up and down to keep warm.

“Maybe Stewart and Ogilvie are clues to something else,” Oz said. “Was there anything on the archive? Did he have a Facebook page?”

“I have searched for cross-references and there are none. McClelland used the department's computer to compose his thesis but did not use it for anything else, apart from backing up his mobile phone address book.”

“So, were there phone numbers for Stewart and Ogilvie?” asked Ellie. Oz and Ruff looked at her quizzically. “Well, what else do you suggest?”

Soph's eyes flashed silver next to them, and Oz knew she was seeking the answer to Ellie's question. “There are two six-digit numbers listed under Stewart and Ogilvie.886191 and 888127.”

“No code?” Ruff asked.

“No.”

“Maybe they're local numbers. Where did McClelland come from, again?” Ellie asked.

“Edinburrrgh,” Ruff said through chattering teeth.

“There are no Edinburgh numbers with this listing,” Soph said.

“Damn,” Oz said. He was beginning to feel frozen, too. Standing here like this was not doing his circulation any good. His feet were rapidly turning into blocks of ice. One look at Ruff told him he was feeling exactly the same. Oz felt frustration bubble up inside him. They'd come so far, and yet now that they were here, they had no idea of where to go.

“Come on, guys, think,” he urged.

“Well, they're Scottish names, aren't they?” Ellie reasoned. “So maybe he didn't bother to write down the area code because he knew it so well.”

“Can we go now, please? I'm freezing here.” Ruff shivered.

“Unless…” Ellie said and didn't finish the sentence as she frowned in concentration.

“What?”

“Unless they aren't phone numbers. Maybe they're code numbers. Bank accounts or PINs or…”

“Grid references!” Ruff yelled, loud enough to make the others jump. “How stupid are we? Soph, what's the national grid reference code for this area?”

“SO,” Soph said.

“Stewart and Ogilvie,” Ellie said, grinning.

“So, the numbers are grid references,” Ruff said. “Simple, really.”

Oz stared at him. “Ruff, you're a genius.”

Ellie was less complimentary. “How do you know about grid references? You can't even remember the way to the bus station in Seabourne.”

“Ah well, Miss Clever Clogs, in
Road to Oblivion
—it's called that 'cos there's been this huge war and all the roads and stuff have gone, so—”

“I should have known,” Ellie said, folding her arms across herself.

“I'm only explaining how I know about it,” Ruff said, adding a petulant sigh. “What was the first number again?”