Danny Dempsey and the Unlikely Alliance (15 page)

Mr. Pearson was quite modest about the whole thing. After he'd brought Danny around, he explained how he'd just happened to be passing by, and was only too happy to be of assistance. He didn't go into very many details, refraining from informing Danny he'd set out specifically to test his invention, or, indeed,
why
he'd resorted to constructing it in the first place. Danny already knew he worked in an electronics plant, and was into all sorts of gadgets. He was hardly likely to forget the one that had held him helpless the morning he'd foolishly taken Charlie for a walk in his original form. It had certainly held him fast until Mr. Pearson was forced to shoot away from the bedroom window as Charlie had been showing off his wall-climbing abilities.

Now, as he listened to Mr. Pearson explaining
some
details of his invention, and how various buttons could be brought into play for different needs, Danny was in absolute awe. Here was a Mr. Pearson a million miles removed from the one he thought he knew. Every time Danny had seen him previously, he was practically being towed along by his wife as though on an invisible lead. But this was a different man entirely. He was confident and friendly, and not in the least bit proud or boastful about what he'd just accomplished. He didn't seem to even notice that the terrifying monster that Charlie now was, was gazing at him with what could only be described as a mixture of admiration and adoration. And that sort of reverence, coming from a pterodactyl, was something to behold.

‘But you saved my life, Mr. Pearson,' Danny said for about the fifth time, after each of his attempts to thank him had been brushed aside as nothing to get excited about. ‘Only for you I'd be
dead
now.'

‘Well, I suppose,' Mr. Pearson conceded. But I'm sure you'd have done the very same for me if the circumstances were reversed.'

‘But I wouldn't have been able! You're a genius, Mr. Pearson. I'll never be able to repay you for what you've done. But let me do something! Please! Anything at all. All you've got to do is ask.'

Charlie was feeling very guilty. He wished a hole would appear to swallow him up, or that Mr. Pearson, much as he admired him, would go away, so that he could turn into a squirrel or something, climb up a tree and hide his face in its foliage. Then he heard Mr. Pearson saying something which made him wonder if his prehistoric ears were playing tricks on him.

‘Well, there is one thing, seeing as you're so insistent. I'd simply love to zoom around up in the sky the way you were doing earlier. It looked
so
exciting! Do you think you could persuade your friend to let me have a go?'

‘Are you sure, Mr. Pearson?' Danny asked nervously. ‘You saw what happened to me.'

‘I'm certain, Danny. Absolutely certain. I've got something special to celebrate tonight.'

Danny watched anxiously from the ground. He needn't have worried. Charlie had learned his lesson. But he didn't hold back too much either when providing the thrills Mr. Pearson had asked for. He dipped and rose and tilted ever so slightly as he sped along, skimming in between trees, only missing colliding with them by a hairsbreadth, giving Mr. Pearson the flight of a lifetime, without any fancy looping the loop or aiming for the moon that might possibly precipitate another accident. He thought it was the least he could do for the man who'd just saved Danny's life.

L
ily was glad to feel the cold night air in her face after Mrs. Stevens finally agreed to take her for a short walk. She knew for certain now all that talk about wild animals and ugly monsters was nonsense. Mrs. Stevens would never have taken her outside otherwise. It
was
a bit scary, though.

It was very, very dark, and Lily couldn't help but wonder why a rich woman like Mrs. Stevens hadn't had proper lighting installed so that they could see where they were going. Apart from the faint glow of light underneath the extending roof of the house itself, everywhere else was covered in an impenetrable black cloak. But Mrs. Stevens seemed to know exactly where she was going. She held Lily's hand tightly, so that Lily had to ask her if she could please hold it more gently, as she was hurting her.

‘I'm sorry, Lily,' Anna said, loosening her grip slightly. ‘I just don't want you to get lost.'

But Lily knew it was more than that. Her uneasiness about the whole situation she found herself in was causing her more anxiety with each passing day. She knew something wasn't right. She realised she was only a child, and that her Mommy did peculiar things from time to time, but never anything quite like this.

And how was it that when she saw the house from the outside it looked enormous, yet inside where herself and Mrs. Stevens were staying was quite small in comparison? It was as though as soon as they'd gone in the main entrance that first day, the house had shrunk in size. It didn't make any sense. She didn't believe in magic any more than monsters and the like, so what was it, she'd asked herself over and over again, that was going on? And why hadn't Mrs. Stevens allowed her to text her Mommy when she'd asked her to? Or even talk to her on the phone? The excuses Lily had been given hadn't sounded very convincing to her.

Mrs. Stevens brought her right around the house. Lily noticed that one of the windows seemed to be covered in black paint or something. She hadn't noticed anything like that from the inside. That was another thing to add to the list of her concerns.

Lily couldn't say afterwards what had come over her. She just instinctively felt it was the right thing to do. If she'd planned it beforehand, she imagined she'd have been too scared to even try it.

‘Excuse me, Mrs. Steven, but my lace has opened.' she said as they were coming back around to the main entrance again. ‘I don't want to trip and fall.'

Anna released Lily's hand. ‘We couldn't have that, now could we?' she said, kneeling down to tie the offending lace. ‘Your Mommy wouldn't think I'd been taking good care of you if you went home with a bruised knee.'

Lily grasped her chance as soon as Anna knelt down. She hadn't expected her to, but it made her task that little bit easier. She leaned forward and shoved Anna's shoulders as hard as she could, sending her sprawling, then raced off blindly into the inky darkness as fast as her legs could carry her. But, oh dear, the thing was now to decide in which direction she should go?

The field over which she raced was very uneven. She fell a few times, once stumbling into an unexpected hollow, then was tripped by a big turf of grass which had grown into a miniature hillock. Next, she ran full tilt into a gorse bush she didn't see until it was too late. She scratched her legs, but hadn't time to worry about it. She'd more important things on her mind. Like trying to locate that big steel gate hidden behind the hedge Mrs. Stevens had driven through the day she'd brought her here.

Lily picked herself up, heading off once more. Her eyes were becoming more accustomed to the darkness. The shadowy shapes of trees and bushes loomed everywhere. Then, she heard a sound that stopped her in her tracks. A frenzied howling that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention. It seemed to be coming from everywhere all around her, closing in on her from all directions, increasing in volume with every second.

*

Anna scrambled to her feet, furious at herself for having been tricked by a mere child, yet confident that Lily wouldn't get very far before she was recaptured. For one thing, she wouldn't have a notion were to go, and would more than likely end up running around in circles out there in the dark. And the gate behind the hedge was always kept locked, so even if by chance Lily did reach it, she'd still wouldn't be able to escape.

The thought of that happening sent shivers down Anna's spine. She'd been given the responsibility of guarding Lily once she'd abducted her. The Boss had specifically entrusted her with the task, stressing how important Lily would be in the ransom negotiations. For Anna, letting him down was out of the question. Lily had to be recaptured at all costs.

Anna raced back into the house and made her way to the lounge, removed the painting behind which the intercom was hidden, then gave orders to Central Control to send whoever wasn't on duty around to the main entrance immediately. She'd meet them there and give them further instructions. Anna didn't give any reason for her request. Being second-in-command, she knew nobody would question her. She also told Control to start relaying the howling of wolves over the sound system. The speakers hidden all about the grounds would do the rest. If that didn't send Lily scurrying back towards the house, nothing would.

‘What kept you?' Anna snapped at Dapper Desmond as soon as he arrived. ‘And where are the others?'

Dapper could see she was on edge. He was the first one to get here, and it had only taken him about two minutes from the time Control had passed on Anna's orders. ‘Needles and Teddy Tattoo are on the way. They were in the swimming pool when they got the call. And what's with the sound effects? This isn't Halloween, is it?'

‘The girl's out there somewhere,' Anna replied authoritatively, ignoring his flippancy, refusing to give him any further information. ‘All that you need concern yourself about is that I want her found.'

‘Cute kid,' Dapper observed casually, secretly delighted that Anna had somehow caused this problem for herself by letting Lily escape from the house. ‘How'd she give you the slip?'

‘Never mind all that now,' Anna snapped, relieved to see Needles and Teddy Tattoo make their way towards her. ‘The important thing is that we go out there and find her!'

Needles was fighting for breath, having been in the middle of his fourth length of the swimming pool when the call to arms reached him. He'd only ever managed to complete three lengths in any previous session, always running out of steam and being forced to haul himself up to sit on the edge, gasping. He just wasn't cut out to be an Olympic contender.

To make things worse, Dapper Desmond ribbed him unmercifully about his lack of stamina. Dapper could do twenty lengths without the slightest bother. Tattoo could do a hundred. Needles had given up counting the number of times Tattoo had overtaken him as he swam effortless length after length with that Australian crawl of his. Needles stroke resembled that of someone who was convinced that they were about to drown at any second if they didn't continue to rotate their arms as though imitating a windmill. Still, he'd started into the fourth length for the first time in his life tonight, but now
this.

Trudging through the undergrowth, hardly able to drag one foot after the other, with the skinny beam of his torch lighting a narrow pathway ahead of him, wasn't his idea of leisure time. He'd rather have been in bed, recovering from his swimming efforts. He'd apologised to Anna for not arriving as fast as Desmond. So had Tattoo, who'd been decent enough to wait for him to get ready.

Teddy Tattoo was like that. Every inch of his body apart from his face was covered with images of snakes, dragons, and daggers dripping blood. He'd such a massive body, he even made Dapper look small. He shaved his head every day, was built like a couple of JCB's stacked on top of each other, and had muscles a sledgehammer wouldn't have made a dent in. And the funny part was that as intimidating as he looked, he had more thoughtfulness in his little finger than Dapper had in his entire, arrogant body.

The four of them moved out from the house about a hundred yards apart from each another. Anna was sorry the Boss wouldn't allow searchlights to be installed around the house. Secrecy was the watchword. Decent lighting was his only concession where the helipad was concerned, which was an absolute necessity, anyway.

She knew he was right, but searchlights would certainly have come in handy now. The torches were something, she supposed, but it was a pity the Boss forbade anything more powerful than the ones they were issued with. The beams were no more than an inch wide. But Anna was confident that they were adequate enough for the job on hand. They'd soon find the child, wherever she was.

She was surprised that Lily hadn't come rushing back to the safety of the house the minute she'd ordered the recorded howling to start. Anna felt a bit guilty about that part of it. She didn't want to get Lily into a state of panic, but at the same time, Anna told herself, she hadn't much choice in the matter. Lily had been too clever for her own good. It would make her think twice about trying to trick Anna again.

Lily watched the four torch beams advancing towards her. They were no more than pinpricks of light, switching this way and that as they probed the area in front of them. The howling in her ears was no more than an annoyance, now that she'd discovered its source, whereas when she'd heard it first, she'd begun to believe Mrs. Steven's stories of wild animals and the like.

That's why she'd climbed a tree a couple of minutes after it started. She thought it the safest thing to do, seeing as the frightening howls seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once. But the higher up the tree she went, the louder they became, until all of a sudden they seemed to be right next to her ear. Which, of course, they were.

Lily saw exactly where they were coming from. There was a speaker fixed to the trunk of the tree beside her, with a neatly stapled wire running downwards keeping it in place. She wished she could turn it off, for it was beginning to give her a headache. But at least now she knew for
definite
that there was something not at all right going on. What sort of people, she wondered, would go to all that trouble if they weren't up to something awful altogether? And where had the others come from? There were four of them down there searching for her.

All those stories Mrs. Stevens, or whoever she was, had been telling her were nothing but a pack of lies. Then it dawned on her that she must have been kidnapped. The thought of it brought tears to her eyes. She never wanted anything more in her life right now than to feel her Mommy's arms around her, or her Daddy's hand stroking her forehead like he did on those nights when she found it difficult to go to sleep.

Lily felt like crying, but she told herself she'd have to be brave. She heard Mrs. Stevens calling her name over and over again, telling her everything was going to be all right. Lily wanted to believe her, but knew that it was just another lie. She clung to a branch while standing on another, and forced herself not to sob, telling herself she had to stay as quiet as possible.

They'd never dream that a little girl like her could be able to climb high up into a tree the way she had. As soon as the horrible howling had started, she hadn't thought about it one way or the other. And could hardly remember doing it. She just knew that she'd have to get to safety somehow.

Then a sliver of light shot upwards and scurried around the foliage, skittering about the leaves, making them look like golden butterflies before returning them to darkness. Lily glanced down and saw the outline of someone standing directly below her at the base of the tree, waving the torch around in a circle, before shouting the words she'd been dreading to hear.

Dapper Desmond was fervently hoping their search would be in vain. Anything that served to undermine Anna's standing with the Boss was fine as far as he was concerned. Even if he spotted the kid, he was going to keep mum about it. It was about time he moved another few rungs up the ladder anyway. Needles and himself had pulled off their part of the caper without a hitch.

He'd only learned about the kid being part of the snatch after he'd seen Anna's car parked at the house that day they'd brought the old guy back to base. And he'd had to ask around to discover what was going on. Dapper was disappointed Anna had pulled off her end of the job so efficiently. Up to now, that was. He grinned to himself in the dark. With luck, the kid had got clean away. Dapper couldn't wait to hear what the Boss would have to say about
that.
He'd probably exile that snooty know-it-all to Siberia or some place. And promote Dapper into her slot.

As if in answer to his hopes, the drone of a helicopter sounded in the distance, and it wasn't long before they saw its lights appearing over the treetops to hover above the camouflaged helipad. Dapper felt like cheering. But then his wishful thinking evaporated as quickly as it had come. Needles torch beam was waving excitedly beneath the dark outline of a huge oak tree, and he was calling to Anna that he thought he'd found the fugitive.

It would have to be him, Dapper thought bitterly. It looked like the little ferret-faced twit had gone and ruined everything. Dapper sighed. Nothing for it but to hurry over and pretend to be enthusiastic about the discovery.

Lily watched as the four shadowy figures gathered around the trunk of the tree. All four were training the beams of their torches upwards now. Then, she heard Anna on her mobile phone ordering someone to switch off the sound system. The howling stopped about two seconds afterwards.

‘Lily!' Anna called softly to her. ‘Come down, there's a good girl. There's nothing to be afraid of. I won't let anything happen to you.' Lily heard her lower her voice as she asked one of the people if he was certain she was in the tree.