The Case of the Stolen Film (21 page)

‘So Ladbroke brought you here?' said Dirk.

‘He was kind enough to fly me over,' said Mrs Klingerflim. ‘We only arrived today, didn't we, Mr Blandford?'

‘I wanted to know why Buchanan had brought Holly to Los Angeles,' said Ladbroke. ‘I did a little research and learnt about the Summit of Skull Rock. There were no details in our case files, except for the names of those involved – Ivor and Elsita Klingerflim.'

‘Elsita?' said Holly.

‘That's my name, dear,' said Mrs Klingerflim. ‘You didn't think my first name was Mrs, did you?'

Ladbroke continued. ‘My contacts at NAPOW informed me that Buchanan was turning the library into some kind of trap. My contacts at the electricity board told me that the substation had gone down, so I dropped by and opened the roof for you. I never had any contact with you directly, so I didn't really break any rules.'

‘Is that why you left Mrs Klingerflim to get out of the car and confront the Kinghorns on her own?' asked Dirk.

‘No,' said Mrs Klingerflim. ‘I told Mr Blandford to stay inside in case they used Dragonsong. Good thing too.'

‘Now, Mr Dilly, I'd appreciate your thoughts on what to do about this situation,' said Ladbroke. He gestured to the nine dragons, looking like models in a waxworks museum.

‘Leave them to me,' said Dirk. ‘Will you make sure Holly and Archie get home safely?'

‘The whole family will be flown home courtesy of the Department.'

‘I owe you my life, kiddo,' Dirk said to Holly, and they hugged.

‘When will we see you next?' said Holly.

‘Very soon,' replied Dirk.

‘It's been a pleasure never having met you, Mr Dilly,' said Ladbroke, shaking Dirk's paw.

After saying his goodbyes, Dirk watched the black car drive away into the darkness then turned to look at the three Desert Dragons, the two Scavenger brothers, the Sea Dragon, Vainclaw, his nephew, Jegsy, and the yellow-bellied, coal-black Cave Dweller, all frozen with the same faraway look in their eyes.

‘Fairfax Nordstrum,' said Dirk, looking at him. ‘Don't worry, you'll be back behind bars soon enough. Only this time, I'll have a word with Captain Karnataka and make sure you're convicted alongside these other Kinghorns.' Dirk looked at the rest of the dragons and smiled grimly. ‘I know none of you can hear a word I'm saying now, but in a minute, you will.
After I've sung a little Dragonsong you'll all do exactly as I say when I tell you to turn yourselves in.'

Dirk stood back and opened his mouth to sing. He hesitated. His mother had been killed while under the influence of Dragonsong. He hated it. It was against the law to use it as a weapon, but he could think of no other way of resolving the situation.

Nine dragons stood frozen in front of him.

Nine sets of yellow eyes stared blankly ahead.

Then one set blinked.

Before Dirk could react, Fairfax Nordstrum's mouth opened and he felt a burning sensation as black flames shot out. The Cave Dweller leapt forward and landed forcefully on top of Dirk, his claws digging into his skin.

‘Here's something interesting,' he said in a low voice. ‘Did you know that the older the dragon the shorter the effects of Dragonsong last? I'm guessing not, otherwise you might have cut your speech short. I'm an old dragon, Mr Dilly.'

Dirk wrestled a leg free and kicked Fairfax off him, leaping up and diving at him, claws drawn. Fairfax evaded his attack and swung his tail at Dirk, but Dirk rolled out of the way and the tail smacked into Sorrentino's face, knocking him out of his stupor. Dirk
jumped to his feet but too slowly. Fairfax was on top of him, pinning him down.

‘So, Dirk Dilly, the dragon detective,' said Fairfax. ‘Traitor to your species, my black fire will melt your pathetic brain. Do you have any last words?'

Dirk looked into Fairfax's cruel yellow eyes. He could feel the heat from his breath but he was helpless to stop him. ‘I guess it's true,' he said. ‘The bad guys do get their fair share of winning too.'

‘Sorrentino, come and watch me kill this dragon,' said Fairfax. ‘Sorrentino?'

Suddenly Fairfax's face contorted with pain. He let out a scream so loud that it seemed to fill the empty desert with noise.

Dirk felt the weight lift off him as Fairfax fell to the ground, screaming, twisting in pain and lashing out in desperation. ‘What is this?' he cried.

Dirk stood up and saw on Fairfax's black back a patch of sticky green liquid hissing, burning its way through his thick scaly skin. Behind him, Sorrentino wiped his mouth.

‘Thank you,' said Dirk. ‘But I thought you worked for him.'

‘I'm off the clock,' said Sorrentino. ‘Besides, I like my life just the way it is. I don't need no Kinghorn
messin' things up, startin' wars.'

Fairfax writhed in agony as the poison tore through his body. He lashed out, limbs flying in all directions, catching Leon with his tail, sending him smacking into his brother, who, in turn, barged into Jegsy and Flotsam.

‘Boss, what's wrong?' said Flotsam.

‘Help me,' shouted Fairfax.

‘Come on, boss,' said Flotsam, grabbing Fairfax and dragging him on to a large piece of flat rock. He uttered a few words in Dragonspeak and the rock drew the two of them down, closing over their heads, muffling the sound of Fairfax's screams.

Jegsy awoke Vainclaw with a smack in the face. The dark Mountain Dragon looked around. ‘I don't know what's happened here,' he said with a deep growl, ‘but now let us finally rid ourselves of this turbulent detective.'

Dirk stepped back, trying to work out the best way to fight the four dragons. The Kinghorns advanced.

‘I don't think so,' said Sorrentino, leaping over them and landing next to Dirk.

‘I'll make it worth your while not to get involved in this, Sorrentino,' said Vainclaw.

Sorrentino remained where he stood.

‘Very well, we will destroy you both,' said Vainclaw.

‘I thought I already explained that out here in the desert we fight fair,' said Kitelsky, and he and Putz landed next to Dirk and Sorrentino, claws drawn, spikes splayed.

Vainclaw sent a burst of fire forward and the Kinghorns attacked, but this time the Desert Dragons worked as a team. Putz grabbed Kitelsky's forearms and swung him round, smacking Leon and Mali sideways. While they were still reeling, Sorrentino flew over and came down hard on Vainclaw's head. Jegsy tried to help his boss but Putz swiped him with a claw. Leon roared fire at Sorrentino but he ducked and the fire caught Mali straight in the face.

‘Watch it, bro,' said Mali.

Vainclaw attempted to send another burst of fire at Sorrentino, but Putz was on him, jabbing his claws into his back.

In fact the Desert Dragons were fighting so well, instinctively reading each other's moves, working together, that Dirk stepped back from the fight and watched. The Kinghorns were losing ground. It was only a matter of time before Vainclaw cried, ‘Kinghorns, retreat. We'll save this fight for another day.'

Finally defeated, Vainclaw and the Kinghorns ran to
the rocks, spoke quickly and vanished into the ground.

‘Nice job,' said Dirk.

‘Now, that's what I call a rumble,' said Kitelsky.

‘Yeah, they won't be coming back here in a hurry,' said Putz.

The flight back to England was distinctly less glamorous than the flight over had been. Ladbroke had pulled some strings to get round Archie's lack of passport but instead of Buchanan's luxury jet, they flew on an ordinary plane full of ordinary people, crammed in like sardines.

‘I still don't understand why Brant made me redundant,' said Mr Bigsby, moving his elbow out of the way of the stewardess, who was coming down the aisle with the duty-free trolley.

‘Don't complain, Malcolm,' said Big Hair. ‘With the redundancy money he's given you we'll be able to do whatever we want. You could even set up your own business.'

Holly and Archie were in the seats behind them. The seatbelt sign went off and they twisted round to kneel on their seats. Behind them Mrs Klingerflim was snoozing next to Ladbroke Blake. He leant forward and said quietly, ‘She fell asleep as soon as we sat down.'

‘Will she be OK? It was a nasty fall,' said Holly.

‘Don't worry. She's tougher than she looks. I'll keep an eye on her,' replied Ladbroke.

‘What I don't get,' said Archie, ‘is that Buchanan said he got the idea to set a trap when he heard Holly talking about the film, but wasn't it his idea to steal the film in the first place?'

‘No,' said Ladbroke. ‘Chase Lampton hired Sorrentino.'

‘Chase? Why?' said Holly.

‘He knew that the movie was going badly and the studio had told him that if he made one more flop they were going to drop him. He had a problem, so he phoned Sorrentino for a solution. Sorrentino told him to take his cameras to the desert.'

‘But how would a film of dragons help?' said Archie.

‘From what I've gathered Chase believed that people in Hollywood are easily distracted. His plan was to reveal the footage the same week that Petal's film was released, and while everyone was inviting him on chat shows to talk about dragons, Petal's film would go unnoticed.'

‘Would that really have worked?' asked Holly doubtfully.

‘Who knows? But I can see how people might be
more interested in the fact that there are dragons in the desert than in a rubbish film about a pop star's daughter. Eventually, Chase planned to reveal that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, by which time he would already be making his next film and everyone would be left wondering how he made such realistic special effects. I think he was hoping to get an action movie off the back of it.'

‘But it wasn't a hoax,' said Archie. ‘The dragons were real.'

‘Chase didn't know that,' said Ladbroke, pouring himself a drink. ‘He thought Sorrentino was giving him a brilliant fake. He never dreamt that the footage would be real.'

‘What if someone went looking for them in the desert?' asked Holly.

‘Sorrentino would have told Putz and Kitelsky to hide out until the whole thing blew over.'

‘So if Sorrentino was doing it for Chase, who stole the film?' asked Archie.

‘Sorrentino,' said Ladbroke. ‘When no one was looking, he decided to take the film so he could charge Chase more for it.'

‘But he didn't sell it to Chase?' said Holly.

‘No, he got a better offer,' replied Ladbroke, opening
a packet of free nuts and chucking a couple into his mouth. ‘After hearing you telling Dirk about it on the phone, Buchanan told Hunter and Frank to acquire the film, whatever the cost. Then Sorrentino got greedy. He sold it to them for loads more money than Chase was willing to pay.'

‘Chase can't have been happy.'

‘He wasn't. First he accused Theo of working with Sorrentino. Then he kept phoning Sorrentino, calling himself Mr Tanner, which is the name of a character from one of his films, apparently. Eventually Sorrentino promised to do the only thing left to save Petal's film. He set fire to the rushes.'

‘But won't they just make it again?' said Archie.

‘No. After all the bad publicity, World Studios has decided to leave it. The funny thing is that it turns out that because of the insurance payout,
Petal – The Movie
is Chase's biggest success in years financially. He's already got a new film in production. It's called
Alien Cats Go Digital
.' Ladbroke snorted with laughter.

Holly and Archie laughed too.

‘Talking of films,' said Ladbroke, pulling a set of headphones from a plastic bag, ‘if you don't mind, I'm going to watch a movie. I'll speak to you later.'

Holly and Archie sat back down in their seats and
flicked through the films on offer on the monitor in the seat in front.

‘What do you fancy watching?' asked Archie.

Holly looked at the options. ‘Hey,
The Big Zero
,' she said. ‘That's the one Dirk said was Chase's best film. Let's see what it's like.'

They both put on their headphones and the opening music began.

Soon they would arrive back in London and they would have to deal with school and Archie's mum and all the other bits of reality they had avoided thinking about on holiday. But for the moment they lost themselves in the film.

The screen showed an aerial view of Los Angeles. The camera moved in and a gruff voice spoke over the music.

‘In some stories,' said the voice-over, ‘the kind they like to tell you in Hollywood, the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose. Well, I live in the real Hollywood and I can tell you that in real life it ain't like that. In my experience, the bad guys get their fair share of winning too.'

Holly thought of Dirk and how she had almost lost him. She wondered how he was getting home.