The Curiosity Machine (28 page)

‘I think it's gone to sleep,' Felicity said. She looked at the pistol mechanism that Gerald still gripped. ‘What is that thing?'

‘The world's worst-ever game of paintball?' Sam said.

Gerald released his hand from the grip and flexed his fingers. ‘I don't know. But whatever it is, Mason Green thinks it's worth a trillion dollars.'

Ruby climbed to her feet and dusted off her hands.
‘Well, if it's meant to be the world's best ever insecticide, it doesn't seem to work. I swear that thing is purring.'

Sam's face lit up. ‘Maybe he's planning on breeding a master race of giant insects, then hold the world to ransom. Monster scorpions and gigantic spiders. Only a trillion dollars will buy the only poison that will kill them.'

Felicity peered down at the snoozing millipede and clicked her tongue. ‘Unless he's counting on them dying from mild asthma and boredom he still has some work to do.' She shooed Gerald towards the door. ‘Come on,' she said. ‘We've spent far too long here. We need to get to the
Archer
.
Tout suite
.'

Gerald moved reluctantly. He looked back at the curiosity machine like a child being dragged out of a toy store. ‘It must do more than just make hopeless bug spray,' he said.

‘Maybe it works better if you power it with perpetual motion,' Ruby said. She brushed dirt from her shoulders from where she had landed on the floor. Her hand flicked up her shirt collar and the clasp on the fine chain around her neck popped loose. ‘Bother,' she said, grabbing at the necklace before it fell. A small gold key clattered onto the floor.

Gerald scooped it up and stared at its x-shaped end.

‘What's the matter?' Ruby asked.

Felicity called back to them from the door. ‘Come on, you two.'

‘Gerald?' Ruby said.

He looked at her, wonder growing in his eyes. ‘We found this key under the Billionaire's Club, remember?'

Ruby nodded. ‘So?'

‘It opened the secret passage where we found the plans to the curiosity machine. To this thing,' he said, waving a hand at the creaking contraption behind them.

‘Again: So?'

‘Maybe the key has something to do with the machine.' Gerald raced back to the control console.

Felicity let out a stifled groan. ‘What are you doing?'

It took Gerald a moment to locate the cross-shaped hole in the top of the console. He pushed the key inside: it was a perfect fit. He twisted it to the right and it turned a full circle with an assured
click
.

‘Turn the handle now, Sam,' Gerald said.

‘No,' Ruby said. ‘Flicka's right. We have to go.'

Sam gave the crank a single turn.

This time the curiosity machine did not rattle and threaten to collapse under the force of its own vibrations. Whatever adjustments the key had made, whatever minute alterations to the internal mechanisms, they worked to perfection. The machine spun into life in a picture of silent efficiency. Flywheels whizzed in oiled harmony, gears and sprockets meshed perfectly. The tray of minerals milled its contents with such precision that the multi-hued sand rained down like icing sugar on a unicorn's birthday cake. The stoppered flask flew into position and the machine hummed and buzzed like a
bee that had just landed in the world's fattest daffodil. Within seconds a new ampoule rolled into the slot on the console.

Gerald lifted it out. This time, the tiny tube contained a glittering blue liquid that almost pulsed with vitality when Gerald held it up to the light. ‘This looks a bit more potent,' he said.

Sam held out his hands. ‘Here, toss it over,' he said. ‘I'll give our millipede another bath.'

Gerald drew back his hand and was about to throw the capsule to Sam when a voice froze him in place.

‘What in the name of blinking blue blazes do you think you're playing at?'

Professor Knox McElderry filled the doorway. Gerald had barely turned his head when the burly Scotsman stormed into the hangar. The man's red beard was as wild as an untrimmed hedge and his eyebrows as unruly as a primary-school break-up party.

‘Professor McElderry!' Gerald was astonished at the transformation of his old friend. When he had last seen him in the cellars of the Billionaires' Club, the professor had been dosed to the eyeballs on some potion. But now he looked fit, focused and fierce.

McElderry brushed past Felicity and Ruby in a juggernaut of rolling rage. Gerald could just make out the anxious faces of Mr Fry and Mrs Rutherford over the professor's shoulder before McElderry was on him, bellowing like a shot bull.

‘Don't you dare throw that!' he bawled, spittle spraying from his whiskered lips. McElderry grasped Gerald's wrist and twisted it. Gerald yelped with pain.

‘Give it to me, laddie,' McElderry said, squeezing so hard Gerald thought his arm might break. The ampoule slipped into the professor's cupped hand, and McElderry cradled it as if it was a newborn chick.

Gerald fell back and nursed his arm. He glared at the professor. ‘What's your problem?' he said. ‘What does that thing even do?'

McElderry did not shift his eyes from the glass capsule that nested in his meaty palm. ‘Never you mind,' he said. ‘Tell me how you did it. How did you get the mixture so pure? Can it be done again?'

When Gerald didn't respond straight away McElderry advanced on him, and yelled, ‘Tell me!'

Gerald flinched. ‘Uh, we used the key,' he said. ‘It seemed to make everything click into place.'

The professor glanced towards the console. Gerald took a step towards the door, but just as quickly McElderry took a step to block his way.

The professor screwed his right eye shut and clenched his empty hand tight, as if it was all he could do to restrain himself from beating Gerald to a pulp.

‘Key?' McElderry said, spraying Gerald in spit and indignation. ‘How the devil did you—don't bother answering. It'll only make me mad. Just tell me where it is.'

Ruby spoke up from near the console. ‘It's over here,' she said. The tiny golden key dangled on its chain, which was draped over her finger.

McElderry thrust out his hand. ‘Give it to me,' he demanded. ‘Give it to me now.'

Ruby stood firm. Her fingers spidered the chain up into her hand and she shot a glance at Gerald. ‘Maybe we should leave the professor here and just be on our way.' She said it as casually as if suggesting they pop out for a cup of tea and a scone.

McElderry barrelled towards her, like an overheated steam train running off the rails. ‘Give it,' he said. ‘I won't ask again.'

Ruby went to run but the professor caught her and snatched hold of her wrist. ‘Ow, you're hurting me,' she gasped. She tried to twist free but McElderry's grip was absolute.

‘I've come this far,' the professor said through clenched teeth. ‘I won't have everything put at risk so close to the end.' He wrenched Ruby's arm.

Her cry of pain was silenced by a howl as McElderry collapsed to the floor in a screaming heap, rolling in agony. Ruby looked in surprise at the sight of Mrs Rutherford, who was tapping an iron pipe into the palm of her left hand.

‘Mrs Rutherford!' Ruby said in astonishment.

The housekeeper clicked her tongue as she peered down her nose at the writhing form of Professor
McElderry. ‘Honestly,' she said. ‘Anyone would think the man had never been kneecapped before. Miss Ruby, I suggest you all toddle along now. Judging by the professor's appalling language, his mood is unlikely to improve anytime soon. And judging by the volume, security can't be that far away.'

‘You and Mr Fry should come with us,' Gerald said to his housekeeper. ‘It'll take more than an iron bar to deal with Mason Green's guards.'

‘We would just slow you down, Master Gerald,' Mrs Rutherford said, and she gave a knowing dip of her head towards McElderry where he rolled on the floor, clutching his knee. ‘It's not like me or Mr Fry has the first notion where you children plan on going.'

Gerald smiled. He wrapped his arms around Mrs Rutherford and squeezed a surprised ‘Oh!' from her ribs. ‘You're the best,' he said.

Mrs Rutherford's cheeks shone red. ‘Toddle on now, Master Gerald. And you all take care. This island is not for the weak of heart.' A moan floated up from the floor and she gazed with disdain at its source. ‘Oh, put a cork in it, Knox. You'll get no sympathy from me, you great hairy pillock.'

Gerald whipped his backpack to his shoulder and he and Ruby ran to join Sam and Felicity at the doorway.

‘Nice work there, champ,' Sam said to Mr Fry as they dashed outside. ‘It's good to know that Mrs R has a sidekick to watch out for her from way back here.'

The butler arched an eyebrow and sniffed. ‘Mrs Rutherford is more than capable of looking after herself.'

‘Lucky for you,' Sam said. ‘Otherwise you might actually have to do something.'

They didn't wait for Mr Fry's response. McElderry screamed his bloody revenge as the four of them ran along the boardwalk into the deep, dark jungle.

Chapter 27

They heard the first
whoop
of the sirens as they cleared the boardwalk at the jungle's edge. They jumped onto a sandy expanse of low-scrubby land that ran down to a broad stream that cut across their way.

Felicity led the trek but her brisk jog soon dropped back to a walk when Sam called out for a breather. ‘We must have gone a kilometre by now,' he said, puffing. ‘Green and his goons don't know which way we're going so we should be right to walk for a bit, surely.'

Gerald and Ruby fell in behind Sam, and the little procession made its way along the bank of the stream. Thick clumps of rushes lined the waterway that bubbled towards the ocean. In the far distance, the sirens faded and the bush around them returned to the buzz and
chirrup of flying insects and tropical birds.

Gerald nudged shoulders with Ruby. ‘That was pretty clever of me, don't you think,' he said.

‘What was?'

‘Figuring out how to work the curiosity machine,' he said. ‘You saw how that bucket of rusty bolts started running like clockwork once I turned the key.'

Ruby pulled the golden key from her pocket and draped the chain around her neck, tucking it under her polo shirt. ‘Clever, maybe,' she said. ‘But probably not very smart.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘You saw the look on Professor McElderry's face when he held that capsule up to the light,' she said. ‘I thought he was going to burst an artery or something. Whatever that blue liquid is, it's what he has been trying to produce out of that contraption.'

‘And now he has a nice working sample of it,' Felicity said.

‘Do you think he'll spray the millipede with it?' Sam asked.

‘You'd have to think so,' Gerald said. ‘It looked like he'd sprayed the poor thing with every other dose he'd made.'

Ruby shivered at the memory of the writhing creature in the box. ‘That thing was disgusting,' she said. ‘What do you think the blue spray will do to it? All the purple one seemed to do was make it sneeze and go to sleep.'

Sam's eyes popped wide. ‘I bet it's a superfast growth drug that turns ordinary yucky things into extraordinary yucky things. Just look at the scorpion that took a fancy to Ruby, and the Venus flytrap that tried to eat me. Those things aren't natural.'

Gerald considered this for a moment. ‘So that blue liquid is another magic potion made from a recipe in the Voynich manuscript, but to perfect it you first have to build the curiosity machine? I guess that makes sense, and it sounds just the type of thing old Emperor Rudolph would have been into.'

‘What about the perpetual motion machine?' Ruby asked.

Gerald jostled the backpack on his shoulder. The weight of the stainless steel sphere inside bounced against his back. ‘Ursus said it was the power source for the machine,' he said. ‘There was a hollow space on the control console where it would fit. Maybe it's like the key: the machine operates at its best when it's powered by perpetual motion and not just Sam cranking the handle.'

They were making good time along the sandy bank, putting greater and greater distance between them and the compound. The sun was getting lower in the afternoon sky, but it still carried a smothering heat. The bridge Mr Fry mentioned couldn't be much further away.

Sam and Felicity kept up a rapid pace, and Gerald and Ruby fell a step or so behind. ‘It hasn't been much
of a birthday, has it?' Ruby said, flashing Gerald an impish grin.

‘It won't be one I forget,' he said. They walked on in silence for a while. Then Gerald said, ‘Look, about when we were on the deck of the
Archer
, just before the gunmen came on board.' He saw Ruby tighten her jaw. ‘You were, you know, crying—'

‘I was not,' Ruby protested.

‘Well, you were. You were crying and you blamed me for inheriting all Great Aunt Geraldine's money. And you called me a big dope.'

‘A big dope? Really?' Ruby stared at the back of Sam's head. ‘That seems an extraordinary thing for me to say.'

‘Doesn't it?' Gerald said. ‘It sort of demands an explanation, don't you think?'

Ruby's molars clamped tighter. ‘We can all agree that your birthday has been a bit of a bust, Gerald. Let's try to not make it a heartbreaking disaster as well.'

Before Gerald could reply, Sam's voice carried back to them. ‘What do you think, Gerald? Felicity and I have been trying to figure out how Mason Green can turn his insta-humungous bug spray into a trillion-dollar business. The best we can come up with is he'll either cash in with butterfly freaks like Jasper Mantle by selling them monster moths to add to their collections, or—'

‘Or,' Felicity continued, ‘he has bought up every can of insect spray in the world and will sell his to people for a thousand dollars apiece.'