Time Hunters and the Spear of Fate, The (16 page)

‘Then who looks after you?’ Uncle
Percy asked.

‘I look after myself,’ Layla
replied. ‘And I look after my father. And I will look after him again when I
have freed him from his captors.’

A silence swept through the group.

‘You’re planning on rescuing your
dad on your own?’ Joe said with a snort.

‘I need no one else,’ Layla said
fearlessly. ‘I am as skilled with a blade as any soldier in the Pharaoh’s
guard.’

‘But you’re just a girl,’ Joe said,
sounding ruder than he had intended.

‘And you have the face of a dung
beetle,’ Layla snapped back.  

Becky suppressed a giggle.

‘But I will liberate my father,’
Layla continued. ‘I swear this, or may Sekhmet smite me down with her sceptre
of flame.’

Becky studied Layla with a mixture
of compassion, empathy and admiration. ‘We believe you,’ she said. ‘And we’ll do
everything we can to help you get him back. I promise you.’ She glanced at
Uncle Percy, her gaze firm and unwavering. ‘We will get him back safely, won’t
we?’

Becky’s tone made it clear it wasn’t
a question.

Chapter 22

The Great River

‘We shall certainly try,’ Uncle
Percy replied sincerely, leaving Layla in no doubt he meant every word. ‘But
for now, we must get as far away as we can from here. Those Spitfires will have
contacted their Headquarters, so we can expect company any second now. Everyone
… into Blanche, as quickly as you can!’ Turning swiftly, he sprang on to the
bus, followed by Butterby, Joe, Edgar and Will.

Layla, however, didn’t move a muscle
and was staring dumbfounded at the bullet-ridden vehicle.

Becky noticed, and slipped her hand
into hers.  ‘Come with us,’ she said urgently. ‘More iron birds are
coming.’

Layla needed no further
encouragement and, swallowing a deep breath, scrambled onto the bus. Becky led
her down the central aisle and pointed at the seat nearest to Edgar. ‘If you
just sit there, Layla.’

Layla did as she was told, her jaws
dangling open as she surveyed her new surroundings.

Edgar noticed and leaned across.
‘Like you, I’m new to all of this and struggling to get my horns around these
curious modes of transport.’

Uncle Percy kicked the engine into
life and pressed a scarlet button on the dashboard. ‘Hold on everyone,’ he
shouted back. ‘We need to put some distance between us and the pyramids.’

Becky heard a low rumbling sound
beneath her feet. She knew at once the ultra-booster had been triggered.
‘What’s gonna happen might freak you out a bit,’ she said quickly to Layla and
Edgar, as the undercarriage shuddered lightly, ‘but it’s perfectly–’ Her words
were all but ignored as, with a faint
sigh
, the bus took off at a
dizzying speed.  Edgar howled with fright. Layla clamped her eyes shut,
her olive skin turning chalk white.

The landscape passed by in a blur,
the glittering orange sand replaced quickly by the verdant green of trees and
other vegetation. Within moments, the pyramids were merely specks on the
horizon. Despite their astonishing speed, Uncle Percy looked unruffled as he
maintained a steady hand at the wheel, before decelerating and looking back at
Edgar and Layla. ‘Sorry ‘bout that, but we’re quite a few miles from Giza now.
Hopefully, that’ll give us a head start.’

A petrified Edgar looked on the
verge of tears. ‘S-smashing, Perce…’

As the bus trundled along the bumpy path,
Uncle Percy seemed to relax and said, ‘Now if I can just draw your attentions
to the left. At over four thousand miles, I give you the longest river in the
world:
The Nile
…’

Becky felt the hairs on her neck
stand on end as a vast stretch of water, its banks hidden by thick clusters of
papyrus reeds, extended before them; wide and calm, it snaked into the horizon
like a never-ending road. She gave a half smile, sat back, and watched a heron
paddle the shallows, its spindly legs barely fracturing the water’s surface.
This moment of calm came to a sudden halt, however, when she glimpsed Uncle
Percy, who was examining the dashboard intently, a troubled look on his face.
Feeling suddenly anxious, she hurried over to him and said in a low voice,
‘What’s up?’

Uncle Percy sighed heavily. ‘It
appears the Invisiblator has been damaged in the attack.’

‘And?’

‘And I was relying on it to keep us
hidden from our adversaries. We are, after all, driving a rather conspicuous
red bus across Ancient Egypt. Blanche may as well have ‘drop your bombs here’
plastered all over her roof…’

Becky’s gaze shifted to the
Alto-radar: six purple rhombi had suddenly appeared in the top left hand corner
of the display, and were moving rapidly towards the centre of the screen. Her
heart sank. ‘And they’re more Spitfires, aren’t they?’

‘I believe so.’ Uncle Percy slammed
his foot in the brakes. The bus screamed to a halt. He leapt to his feet.
‘RIGHT EVERYONE,’ he yelled. ‘CHANGE OF PLAN. WE’RE WALKING! BETTER STILL ….
RUNNING!’

Suddenly, it was pandemonium.

Uncle Percy snatched a small, padded
leather rucksack from below the dashboard, and looked at Will, who had grabbed
an identical rucksack from between his feet. ‘Will, could you help Charles,
please?’

Will ran over to Butterby, who looked
flustered.

‘Oh, my,’ Butterby puffed. ‘Not more
running?’

‘Allow me to take your bag,’ Will
offered, holding out his hand.

Butterby clutched his bag tightly to
his chest. ‘Not necessary, William,’ he said. ‘I can hold my own.’

Becky sprinted over to a confused
Layla. ‘More planes are coming,’ she said urgently. ‘We’re gonna have to run
for it.’

Terrified, Layla nodded, and the two
of them followed the others out of the bus.

Becky glanced up at the empty sky,
waiting with dread for the first sight of the Spitfires she knew would come.

Uncle Percy glanced left and right,
his eyes brightening when he spied a thick copse of date palm trees. ‘Everyone
into the trees!’ He watched everyone set off, before taking a fleeting glance
at Blanche. ‘Best of luck, old girl,’ he whispered to no one. Then he ran.

Blood pounded Becky’s ears as she
raced alongside Layla. Much to Butterby’s embarrassment, Edgar had hurled him
over his shoulder again, and was now charging towards the undergrowth, Uncle
Percy bringing up the rear.

Becky and Layla were the first to
reach the trees.

Panting wildly, Becky whirled round
and gestured for the others to hurry as the faint drone of engines met her
ears. ‘Come on!’ she yelled.

Will, Joe, Edgar, Butterby and
finally Uncle Percy made it to the trees just in time to see six Spitfires
thunder overhead.

Becky tracked the Spitfires’ path.
One curved away from the pack, then another; the two planes circled back.
Almost immediately, the other Spitfires followed suit, amending their target. Just
then, machine gun fire shattered the air.  

Blanche swayed violently side to
side, pounded by a relentless hail of bullets.

Through dampening eyes, Becky
watched a succession of bombs tumble from the planes above. BOOOM! BOOOM!
BOOOM. Deafening blasts ruptured her ears; she closed her eyes as a blast of
heat singed her face. Forcing her eyes open, she saw Blanche had been engulfed
in a swirling cloud of flame and black smoke. As the inferno settled, she could
see the bus had been torn apart; nothing remained, bar the twisted, misshapen
remnants of a scorched metal shell.

Blanche had been obliterated.

*

‘We’ve lost the time machine?’ Becky
gulped, glancing at Joe, whose face had hardened with shock. ‘How will we get
back to our time?’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Uncle
Percy replied. ‘I’m wearing a portravella and it’s stocked with enough
Gerathnium to make a number of time trips. That’s not what worries me.’

‘So what does?’ Becky asked.

‘Drake and Heim will know we’re
here,’ Uncle Percy replied flatly. ‘Now darkness won’t be falling for another
few hours so we’ll need to move fast and remain hidden from plain sight.’

‘And where exactly are we going?’
Joe asked. ‘I mean, I know we’re heading for Memphis but – ’

‘The caves … in the Mokattam Hills,’
Layla interrupted. ‘The caves will give us safety and shelter. We should go
there.’

‘Excellent idea, Layla,’ Uncle Percy
said. ‘How well do you know these caves?’

‘Like a shepherd knows his flock,’
Layla replied.  ‘I was raised in Memphis, and played daily in the Hills.
All the children did. My father moved us to our village some time ago to assist
my Uncle Ammon with his farm, but whenever we visit the city we always lodge in
the caves.’

Uncle Percy gave a nod of
satisfaction. ‘Then that’s where we’ll rest up.’ He smiled warmly at Layla. ‘I
am very glad we met you, Layla.’

Layla beamed back at him ‘And I am
happy to have met
you.’          

‘This is all very lovely, but
shouldn’t we get a move on?’ Butterby cut in, peering anxiously through a web
of leaves to see the Spitfires scouring the desert in all directions. ‘My guess
is that a squadron of Lancaster Bombers teeming with those damn Associates are
winging their way here at this very second…’

No one disagreed with him.

Moving swiftly, the group traversed
their way along the riverbank; the air was as thick as glue, sticky and close,
and the trees offered scant protection from the sunlight. Uncle Percy had
warned them that crocodiles often lurked in the shallows, which seemed to make
Butterby particularly cautious of the water, ensuring Edgar stood between him
and the river at all times.

As the first breath of dusk
freshened the air, Becky felt Layla’s hand tug at her arm, pulling her away
from the others. ‘Becky, may I question you?’

‘Sure. What’s up?’

Layla seemed nervous as she took a
second to voice her question.  ‘Are you from the heavens?’

Becky looked confused. ‘The
heavens?’

‘From the stars? My father said the
black cloaks were from the stars. He said no earthly culture could construct
such devices as the iron birds.’

‘Oh, you think we’re aliens?’ Becky
replied with a grin. ‘Well, I’m not entirely sure about Joe, but the rest of us
are definitely from earth. We’re from the future.’

‘The future?’ Layla replied,
perplexed.

‘Many, many years into the future,’
Becky replied. ‘It’s a long story but some people in the future can travel back
and forth in time. They’re called time travellers.’

Layla did her best to take it all
in. ‘I think I understand. And why are you here?’

‘We’re here to stop the black cloaks
from finding something, something they believe is in Memphis.’

“What?’

‘The Spear of Fate.’

‘And what’s The Spear of Fate?’

‘We don’t know for sure. All we know
is that it’s a really old relic, that it’s dead powerful, and that if the black
cloaks get it – well, let’s just say it’ll be very bad for everyone, past and
future.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You see, their boss, Emerson Drake, is just
about the biggest scum-sucking scumbag that’s ever lived. And –’ She paused. ‘
– And he took my father, too.’

Layla looked shocked. ‘To dig?’

‘No,’ Becky replied. ‘He took my dad
because he knows loads about relics like the Spear of Fate.’

‘Your uncle mentioned another, the
one he called Heim?’

‘He’s another evil goon. He’s
Drake’s current number two, and probably the one calling the shots in Memphis.’
Becky’s expression hardened. ‘Don’t worry, though. Whatever happens we’ll beat
them. We’ve done it before. And we’ll get your dad back.’

‘But how?’ Layla asked. ‘There are
many black cloaks. And you number but six…’

Becky smiled proudly. ‘Because we
have Uncle Percy and Will. And they’re the best there is. You’ll have to trust
me on that.’

Layla grinned back at her. ‘I do
trust you. And you must not forget Apis …’ Her head bowed playfully at Edgar.
‘You have the God Apis, too. You cannot fail!’

Becky smiled. ‘That’s right. We do…’

With each mile that passed, the
group found it harder to maintain their brisk pace. Much to Uncle Percy’s
frustration, Butterby insisted on taking short but regular breaks, often
wandering away from the group and, when he thought no one was watching,
muttering quietly to himself as if searching within for the courage to do the
job at hand.

By seven, the light was dimming and
a smattering of stars had appeared in the sky. A tangible sense of relief had
filtered through the group, each one of them thankful for the lack of further
Associate activity.

Her legs feeling like girders now,
it was Becky who was the first to spot a large, rutted mass of limestone that
sprang from the wasteland like a desert island emerging from a tranquil sea.

‘The Mokattam Hills,’ Layla said.
‘The great city of Memphis stands just beyond its reaches.’

Uncle Percy stepped from the trees
for a moment, his eyes scanning the empty landscape. ‘Let’s stay here until it
gets darker and then make a move.’

They waited in an edgy silence for
thirty minutes until the sky had darkened. Then, one by one, they moved from
the shadows, exposed and vulnerable. Will led the way, his Joe Bow extended, an
arrow positioned on the bowstring. The group moved swiftly and silently over
the stony ground. Gathering at the foot of the nearest hill, they heard distant
clangs and squeals and growls on the windless air.

Becky shivered with fear: Memphis,
the Associates and Aribert Heim were so close now. She glanced up to see the
rock was speckled with caves, their entrances like holes in a gigantic Swiss
cheese; a vulture eyed them menacingly from an overhanging ridge. It didn’t
help her mood.

‘We need to be quick,’ Uncle Percy
asserted. ‘Layla, would you care to lead the way?’

Layla nodded, before scurrying
nimbly up the hillside like a mountain goat, assured of her footing as if she
knew every step by heart.