Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis

  “It’s really important,” said Amphora, batting her eyelashes. Amanda couldn’t believe she’d resort to such obvious tactics, although they seemed to be working. The guy was hanging on her every word. “A matter of life and death.”

  “I might be able to take you, but you’ll have to wait until I finish this tour,” he said. “Even then I won’t be able to wait around. I’ll lose my job. In fact, I shouldn’t even be thinking about leaving my route. Say, you’re the kids from that school up on the hill, aren’t you?” He searched Amphora’s face. He seemed to want to accommodate her.

  “Please,” said Amphora. “One of the students is in trouble. We have to save him.” She paused and looked him in the eyes. “I’ll be ever so grateful.” Boy, she was good at this flirting stuff.

  “Did you say the school on the hill?” interrupted the large woman.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Amphora.

  “Is one of you Amanda Lester?” said the woman. She peered at the group, then, for some reason lighting on Amanda said, “Amanda, darling! It’s Despina and Hill. Lester. From Liverpool.”

  Amanda thought she’d just about die. What were they doing there? “Uh, hello, Despina,” she said. “Hill. I’m sorry, but we’ve got an emergency.”

  “Ooooh, that sounds luscious, dear,” said Despina. “Isn’t it lucky we ran into you? Now we don’t have to wait until Saturday. We’ll help you. What seems to be the trouble? Oh, but aren’t you precious? You look much cuter in person.”

  Amanda rolled her eyes and looked at Holmes, who was stifling a laugh. “This is dangerous, Despina. I, uh, don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Nonsense,” said Despina. “We’re Lesters. You know what that means.” She winked.

  Yes, Amanda did know what that meant but she couldn’t think about her dingdong of an ancestor right now. Blixus was making crystals while they dilly-dallied and they had to stop him.

  “She’s right,” said Hill. He had a high, squeaky voice. “I think you might be pleasantly surprised.” This from a court clerk. What did he know about dangerous situations?

  “I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt,” said Amanda. “Why don’t you take your tour and we’ll find some other way to get to the quarry?”

  “Quarry, darling?” said Despina. “Is that what all that noise is about?”

  “Come on, you guys,” she said to her friends. “Let’s let my relatives go on their tour. We’ll find another way.”

  “No, you won’t,” said Despina, suddenly developing an edge. “Young man.” She waved at the driver. “Take us to the quarry at once. There’s a nice tip in it for you.” She waved a five-pound note at him as if that princely amount would convince him to risk his job.

  Amanda was so surprised she almost tripped, which would have been a neat trick since she was standing still. The driver looked from one of the group to the other, ostensibly hoping for some kind of definitive solution to his conundrum. Holmes was contorted with giggles, and Ivy was hiding her laughing face in Nigel’s fur.

  “I said drive,” said Despina imperiously. Hill was nodding, obviously pleased with his wife’s decision.

  That convinced the young man, who seemed to be terrified of the woman. “All right,” he said. “I can hear the noise up there. It doesn’t sound good. But remember, I have to leave as soon as I’ve dropped you off. You’re sure you’re going to be all right?”

  “We will,” said Amphora. “We won’t be if we don’t get there, though.”

  “Hop on,” said the driver. Amanda couldn’t tell if he was happy or worried. Probably both.

  The kids boarded the tram, which was arranged in seats of two facing the front. Amanda found herself near the back sitting next to Ivy and Nigel, who were huddled together. Every time there was an explosion, Nigel cowered and buried his head in Ivy’s lap. She, in turn, leaned over him so that he was almost completely covered, but her effort to insulate him didn’t seem to be doing much good. Despina called out, “Buckle up, dear.” Everyone stared at her as if to say, “Now what have you done to us?” Everyone except Holmes, that is, who was laughing his head off. Amanda was glad to see him enjoying himself. He needed to let up once in a while.

  “I have pictures of your cousin Jeffrey,” Despina yelled back. “Oh, and many nice shots of Windermere. I think you’ll especially like the one of a pet monkey we saw.”

  Amanda didn’t want to think about monkeys. She would have been happy never to see one again, even in a photograph. She pretended not to hear.

  The driver started the engine with a single vroom and shifted into first gear. Suddenly Amanda felt someone come up behind her and plop down. She looked around. It was David Wiffle!

  “Have to get to the quarry,” he said, panting. “Blixus . . . the book . . . roommates.”

  Amanda could see Holmes in front of her trying to hack the Moriartys’ computers. As the tram rattled toward the quarry he was thrown back and forth. She thought it must be difficult to work that way and hoped he’d manage. If Blixus wasn’t stopped soon, he might amass enough crystals to do a huge amount of damage. Not to mention the fact that he’d be torturing and killing more and more of the little creatures.

  The six-mile trip seemed to take six hours. Once they had left the town the road narrowed and turned to dirt. The tram kicked up so much dust that the group looked like they’d been in a sandstorm. Simon had to keep wiping his glasses with his shirt, but even that didn’t help much. Amanda’s eyes were getting sore and poor Nigel was sneezing his head off. Needless to say, all the bouncing was making Amanda nauseous. She may have forgotten to bring money, but she always carried gingersnaps and she ate one now. It worked immediately.

  “Any luck, Scapulus?” she said.

  “Nope,” said Holmes. “Sorry.”

  “What’s that young man doing?” Amanda could hear Despina say. “He seems ever so dedicated.”

  Holmes ignored her. Everyone did except Hill, who said, “Playing some game, I expect.”

  “Almost there,” called out the driver. The tram was bouncing so much that people were hanging on for dear life. Amanda was glad she’d eaten her cookie.

  The tram rumbled through a narrow opening in the road, if you could call it that, and then they saw them. Blixus and Mavis were standing at the far end of the quarry setting off explosions in a bed of pink sugar, although they both looked weird—were they in disguise? Blixus had a mustache, and Mavis was wearing some sort of wig. David’s roommates were standing off to the side holding the book and yelling like rabid sports fans.

  “It’s the book,” yelled Amanda.

  “I knew it,” said David. He stood up in his seat and fell back down as soon as the tram hit another bump.

  A white van with its doors open was parked near the Moriartys. A pile of apricot crystals sat on the ground next to it. Pink dust filled the sky, punctuated by glints of apricot-colored light from the crystals that were being created and thrown up in the air. But something else was happening too: the sky was just a little bit darker over the quarry than everywhere else. Amanda hoped it was from the dust, because if it wasn’t, it was a sign that Blixus had found a way to force feed extra light into the crystals and they were draining it off from their surroundings. That would have meant that the crystals were indeed capable of stealing light and leaving people in darkness.

  The flat floor of the quarry was surrounded by gigantic buff-colored walls studded with blocks of rock and naturally shaped boulders, some of them forming terraces. Tall piles of small rocks and bits of earth-moving machinery dotted the landscape. Off to the right as the tram faced it stood a large pit filled with water. The scene would have been beautiful under other circumstances.

  As the tram approached, the kids yelled at the Moriartys to stop. The two of them looked up briefly, broke into laughter, and set off another explosion, throwing more pink dust into the air. David hurled himself off the tram and ran toward them.

  “Scapulus, how are you doing???
? yelled Amanda. Holmes shook his head. Then she caught sight of something moving behind the roommates. It was tall and dark and looked like a person. Amanda couldn’t believe her eyes. There before her, alive and seemingly well, was none other than Nick Muffet.

  33

  The Quarry

  Amanda gasped. The shape couldn’t possibly be Nick. The dust must have been playing tricks on her eyes. The only problem was that the others were staring too. Editta screamed so loud that Amphora clamped a hand over her mouth. Ivy said, “What is it? What’s going on?” Simon froze. David Wiffle, who had been pleading with his roommates to give the book back, stopped and gaped. Despina said, “Who’s that when he’s at home? Why is everyone screaming?”

  Nick smiled and walked toward Amanda. “Hello, Lestrade,” he said, when he’d got within speaking range. “Surprised to see me?”

  Amanda burst into tears despite willing herself not to, and Nigel licked her hand. Ivy rushed to her side and hugged her. “What is wrong with you, Nick Muffet?” she said. “And what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead.”

  “Not quite,” said Nick, clearly enjoying himself.

  Holmes glanced from Nick to Amanda and back again. An expression of horror crossed his face and he turned away.

  Suddenly Nigel broke loose and ran toward the Moriartys. Ivy screamed, “Nigel! Come back here.” Simon dashed the fifty yards to the stash of crystals sitting by the van and grabbed some, then banged them together as hard as he could. This action caused beams of light to shoot out of them like lasers as the crystals released the excess light. Simon lifted the crystals, aimed them, and began to zap the Moriartys and David’s roommates with bolts of energy. Taking a cue from him, Blixus, Mavis, and Nick picked up the deepest orange crystals, slapped them around, and started zapping back. David’s roommates copied them. Amanda and Clive joined Simon, as did the tram driver, whose name was Eustace. And then something even more unlikely happened: Despina and Hill grabbed a couple of crystals and took their place on the Legatum side. Meanwhile Holmes was still trying to hack the virus, Editta was still screaming, and Amphora was running back and forth waving her arms.

  Suddenly a small aftershock hit. Rocks flew into the air, boulders rattled, and even more dust flew about. The battle stopped as the participants fought to stay upright. While the Moriartys were distracted, David took the opportunity to charge Mavis, knocking her down. She screamed, “You little creep! Who do you think you are?” but she had obviously been hurt and was struggling to get up. At the same time Simon zapped Nick, who had been trying to get to his feet as well, and he fell back down.

  Amanda took the opportunity to check on Holmes’s progress. She ran back to him, looked over his shoulder, and said, “How’s it going?”

  “Badly,” he said. “I’m trying to hack the Moriartys’ whole network so I can find all the copies of the formula. I’m working to implant a cybervirus, but I can’t quite get—” His jaw dropped. “Oh no! I’m out of juice.”

  “No!” cried Amanda. “Do you have any kind of power source with you?”

  “No. Maybe that van over there. Do you think the key is inside?”

  “We can find out, but don’t you think Blixus will stop us if we try to do that?” she said.

  “How about the tram? I can plug in my charger.”

  He ran to the tram and turned the key, which Eustace had left in the ignition, but the engine wouldn’t start. He tried again. Nothing. Amanda screamed, “Do something, Scapulus!”

  “I’m trying,” he said. “I hate to say this, but I’m going to need to go back to town.”

  “How are you going to get there?” she said.

  “Good question. Maybe I can hijack the van.” He surveyed the situation, then struck out toward the van, carefully skirting the action.

  Mavis had recovered from whatever injury she had sustained and the battle had resumed, with Nick going for Simon’s jugular, so to speak. He was obviously furious that his former friend had knocked him down and was shooting beams out of the crystals as if they were some kind of automatic weapon. Simon was doing a good job of deflecting them, but he was looking tired and Amanda was worried that Nick would knock him unconscious or worse. With each shot Amanda could see the sky darken just a little more.

  Meanwhile Amphora, Editta, and Ivy were following behind Holmes, sneaking round to the van. Not to be left out, Despina and Hill tiptoed after them. When the kids got there they began to take crystals out of the back with the help of Amanda’s relatives, who talked nonstop. Amanda would have felt sorry for Hill except that he was as bad as Despina. How they lived with each other she couldn’t imagine. While the battle raged, the girls and the Liverpudlians reversed their steps and carried the crystals to the tram, with Hill dropping a few and having to scurry to retrieve them.

  David Wiffle was like a machine. He had taken on both his roommates using a combination of martial arts, but they were beating him up badly. Simon glanced in their direction and zapped them royally, which allowed David to get away. Unfortunately that may not have been the best idea because the next thing Amanda could see was David running to the book, grabbing it, throwing it in front of a bulldozer that was sitting next to the pit, getting into the cab, and running over it.

  Amanda screamed and ran to the bulldozer. “David, stop it right now!”

  “No!” he yelled. “They’re not going to have it.”

  She waited for him to stop while backing up, then before he could move forward again climbed into the cab, flung her arms as far around him as she could, and pulled. “Get off me,” he screamed and pushed her away. Holmes looked up from his position inside the van, ran to the bulldozer, and leaped inside the cab. David was exhibiting superhuman strength now: he threw him off too.

  At last Ivy yelled, “Nigel, sic!” The dog raced for the bulldozer, leaped into the cab, and jumped up on David, who yelled, “Eeeeeeek!” He pushed Nigel and jumped down, then grabbed the crushed book, hurled it into the pit, and ran off.

  “No!” yelled Amanda, jumping into the water. Holmes took one look and leaped in after her.

  The water was icky—cold and gritty with a terrible smell—but she barely noticed. Down, down she dove, just as she had when trying for the skateboard back at Enchanto. However this time she wasn’t able to find what she was looking for. It was too hard to see. She surfaced, yelled, “Can’t find it,” and dove down again.

  She swam all over the pit, or at least it seemed so, without finding so much as a page. The water hurt her eyes. She could kind of see Holmes zooming around like a fish, but he didn’t seem to be having any luck either. She wasn’t actually sure she wasn’t swimming in circles, as there were no landmarks to go by.

  When she couldn’t take it anymore she propelled herself to the top. Holmes followed a moment later, holding up his hands to show that he hadn’t found anything.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” she said.

  “We can try again,” he said, diving down for a second go while she treaded water and coughed. Soon he was back again, empty-handed.

  The sides of the pit were so steep that they had trouble climbing out. Hill managed to find a foothold near the water and reached out a hand, pulling first Amanda and then Holmes up onto dry land. Simon, Clive, and Eustace were still fighting the Moriartys and the air was still crackling with electricity.

  Holmes didn’t stop for a moment. He ran back to join the fight, only to hear Simon yell out, “Electricity.”

  “What?” said Holmes.

  “You need juice?” said Simon, releasing a bolt into Blixus’s foot.

  “Yes,” said Holmes.

  “Hold up your tablet,” said Simon.

  “What’s that?” said Holmes.

  “I say hold up your tablet. Get right over there and don’t move.”

  Holmes raced back to where he’d left the tablet, ran to the spot Simon had indicated, and held it up. Simon took aim and let out a soft beam of light, which hit the USB port. The tab
let burst into life, lights flashing, startup noises sounding, screen painting. “We got it!” Holmes yelled.

  “Thought it might work,” said Simon, dodging a blast from Mavis.

  Holmes handed the tablet to Amanda, who was still recovering from her foray into the pit, grabbed Simon’s crystals, and faced Nick. Nick laughed and said, “Who are you?”

  “You know perfectly well who I am,” said Holmes.

  “Oh, so that’s it, is it?” said Nick. “You look like you’re pretty tight with Lestrade there, Holmes. Better watch out. She’s trouble.”

  Nick pulled a glowing orange crystal out of his pocket, aimed it at Holmes, and let go with an electric blast that knocked the shorter boy to the ground. Simon stopped zapping Blixus for a moment and threw Holmes a crystal, which gave off such a crackle of light that it knocked Nick back and nearly into the pit. Holmes got to his feet and let go with another blast, but Nick recovered his footing and got off his own bolt right before it hit him. Holmes went flying. When Holmes regained his balance, he zapped Nick three times in a row and sent him right, left, then right again.

  The two boys were glaring daggers at each other—Holmes and Moriarty, Moriarty and Holmes, just as their ancestors had done a century before. Amanda, Editta, and Amphora screamed on the sidelines, and Ivy kept yelling, “What’s going on?” Despina and Hill joined Simon, Clive, and Eustace in their fight against Nick’s parents, which was a sight to behold, and David Wiffle had returned from wherever he’d run off to and was struggling to hold his ground against his roommates. As the combatants blasted each other over and over, the crystals began to turn red and wink out. Seeing that the weapons were failing, Amanda and Amphora ran to supply the Legatum fighters with fresh ones, which made Amanda want to cry, or would have done if she’d had time to think.

  The fighting kicked up so much dust that sometimes it was hard for the foes to see each other. The fact that the sky above the quarry was like twilight now didn’t help. More than once Amanda and Amphora were almost hit by friendly fire, and Despina accidentally grazed Eustace, causing a long, narrow part to form on the right side of his yellow mane. Nigel didn’t like the dust at all and he pulled Ivy back to the tram, which was parked sufficiently far away from the action to remain if not pristine, at least less dusty than everything else.