The Eye of Neptune (23 page)

Blight climbed up, trailing a waterfall from his sodden clothes. He slumped beside Dakkar, glowering through the porthole as if he might see Georgia waving to him as she swam past. He slammed his fist on the wheel of the
Liberty
and yelled some incoherent curse.

‘She won’t get far,’ Dakkar said to Blight. ‘Those Qualar will find her – that’s if she doesn’t drown.’

Blight gave a nasty smile that told Dakkar he hoped for the latter.

They returned to the cavern in silence, Dakkar hardly noticing the beauty of the jellyfish and the distant shapes of the wary Qualar.

Cryptos dismissed with a shrug the news that Georgia had escaped. He stood leering at the Eye of Neptune as it sat sizzling in the water at the front of the
Liberty
.

‘Excellent,’ he murmured. ‘You have both done well.’ He clapped his hands and four human guards dashed forward. ‘Place the Voltalith into the rubberised sling and bring it to my laboratory. Be careful not to touch it or you will die in an instant. I’d hate for it to be dropped.’

‘Nagh,’ Blight growled, and pointed to the water.

Cryptos turned to face him. ‘The girl doesn’t matter. If she survived, my God, we’ll soon recapture her.’

I hope not
, thought Dakkar, following them out of the cavern.

‘Success is so close!’ Cryptos said. ‘I will slice this Voltalith into sections. Each one will power a different device, including the Mole. It’s best not to tell Oginski and Fulton about the girl. They’re modifying the
Nautilus
’s engine to accept the Eye of Neptune and I don’t want them becoming difficult. Soon it will begin.’

Dakkar forced a smile, then went to his room to change and to put the next part of his plan into action.

A few hours later, Dakkar crept from his room down the corridor. He’d noticed a lot of activity. Guards were carrying boxes and sacks. It seemed they were packing up. Dakkar moved among the bustle unnoticed. His bodyguard had disappeared and Dakkar wondered whether this was because Cryptos trusted him now or because everyone was needed to clear the island.

When it goes up, anyone left behind will be killed in an instant
, Dakkar thought as he squeezed past people.

He came to the slave chamber and pushed the door open. A Qualar guard blocked his path with a spear.

‘Do you not know who I am?’ Dakkar spat, glaring up at the guard. ‘I am Count Cryptos’s heir apparent. Would you make an enemy of me so soon?’

The guard glanced around for some higher authority but Blight was clearly still recovering from his undersea ordeal and wasn’t present. Finally the guard pulled back his spear and Dakkar strode through, searching the chamber for Olszar.

He found the Shoal Lord sitting with a group of other Qualar at the side of the cave. Human guards stood close by, rifles clutched in their hands.

‘We have a few minutes’ rest,’ Olszar murmured, looking sidelong at the nearest guard, ‘before we resume. The work is nearly complete though. And there are fewer guards.’

Dakkar laid his jacket down next to Olszar.

‘This island is going to be blown apart,’ Dakkar said quietly. ‘In a few days’ time you and your loyal followers will be dead. I want to prevent that.’

‘If we fail, then Cryptos will destroy our spawning chambers,’ Olszar replied, lowering his head. ‘He will doom our race.’

‘But if we succeed,’ Dakkar said, ‘then you will be free and the Qualar can live as one again.’

‘What is your plan?’ Olszar muttered as the guard wandered out of earshot.

‘In two days,’ Dakkar said under his breath, ‘my friend Georgia will drop an explosive from up there.’ He glanced up at the hole high in the darkness. ‘Under my jacket is another charge. Can you attach it to the Mole?’

‘We can try,’ Olszar whispered back. ‘It was worth a bump on the head then?’ He smiled slightly and rubbed his head.

‘Well worth it,’ Dakkar said. ‘Are you with me?’

‘We won’t sit here and wait to die,’ Olszar hissed, narrowing his pearly eyes.

‘If we destroy the Mole and your people rise up,’ Dakkar said, ‘we may be able to take Cryptos by surprise. Now bow before me.’

‘What?’ Olszar said, looking bewildered.

‘I said, bow before me, dog!’ Dakkar said, raising his voice and pushing Olszar down.

Olszar fell to his knees and grabbed the jacket, pushing it behind the feet of his comrades. ‘Forgive me, Prince Dakkar,’ Olszar said, not too convincingly.

‘Good,’ Dakkar said. He turned to the guard. ‘Get this dolt back to work. I’ll teach him to insult me.’

‘Get up!’ the guard yelled as Dakkar stalked off.

He glanced back to see his jacket and its contents being carefully slipped behind a large rock. He turned and walked straight into a worker dragging a barrel.

‘Pardon me, monsieur,’ said the familiar figure, standing straight and then making a slight bow.

‘Monsieur Lafitte,’ Dakkar said, raising his eyebrows.

The pirate’s once-fine clothing hung in rags, and dirt streaked his face. He looked intently at Dakkar.

‘You forget that I am a master smuggler,’ Lafitte said in French. ‘I saw what you did there – the work of an amateur!’ He spat on the ground.

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Dakkar said, his heart thumping. Sweat trickled down his back. ‘What do you want?’

‘Just for you to know that I am with you and your fishy friends,’ Lafitte said, and winked at Dakkar before hefting the barrel on to his shoulder and striding off.

Dakkar’s stomach lurched. If Lafitte had noticed, then had any of the guards? He glanced around but they seemed at ease. With Blight out of the way and the impending evacuation of the island, they seemed more relaxed than normal.

There was nothing to be relaxed about though. Dakkar knew that. So much could go wrong in the next few days.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The Worst Laid Schemes

Cryptos kept to his laboratory the next day, leaving Dakkar to wander the jetty unsupervised while Oginski and Fulton worked inside the giant
Nautilus
. Dakkar could hear them through the hatch.

‘I’m tellin’ you, Frank, I’m worried about Georgia,’ Fulton said over the clinking of tools. ‘Cryptos hasn’t let me talk to her since she went off with Dakkar in the
Liberty
.’

Oginski’s head popped up from the hatch and he fixed Dakkar with a steely gaze. ‘Why can’t we see Georgia? What’s going on?’ he snapped.

‘I don’t know. Cryptos hasn’t told me. He’s working on the Voltalith,’ Dakkar said, shrugging and staring at the floor.

He wanted to tell them that she’d escaped, that she was all right – but was she? He hadn’t seen her reach the surface. All he knew was that she’d escaped from the
Liberty
. If he told them that now, they might down tools and delay everything. Or do something rash and endanger the slaves in the chamber.

Oginski paused and looked long and hard at Dakkar. ‘Why are you doing this?’ he asked softly.

‘Why did you lie to me?’ Dakkar said, his breath quickening and tears stinging his eyes.

‘Sometimes we have to lie to those we care about,’ Oginski murmured. Shaking his head, he disappeared back into the
Nautilus
.

‘Then that’s your answer,’ Dakkar whispered, and rushed from the jetty before he gave in and told Oginski everything.

Time dragged by. Dakkar wandered the quiet corridors. He even tried to see what Cryptos was doing in his laboratory but his guards blocked the way. He crept up the vent at the side of the chamber and looked down on the toiling slaves. Few of them were actually carrying things now. The last barrels of gunpowder were being rolled up the side tunnels. Gangs of exhausted slaves sat gasping at the side of the chamber, watched over by armed guards. Blight stalked those poor souls still working.

Dakkar squinted, making out the lines of what he thought was fuse wire leading from each side tunnel to a central core near the Mole. Presumably, once the Mole had dug deep enough, the fuse would be lit and the whole island would go up. He crawled back out of the tunnel and returned to his room, thankful that it was late and time to sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day. Only a handful of guards remained in the volcano now. The others had been sent elsewhere. Dakkar frowned.
Where to
? he thought. Cryptos must have another base like this. His stomach tightened as the thought struck him. His brothers may be there, planning similar schemes, breeding similar monsters. Stopping Cryptos might be only the beginning of what was necessary.

Dakkar slept badly that night. Worries – about Georgia, about the explosives in the chamber, about Cryptos – tangled in his dreams, waking him with a start.

A knock on the door made him leap from his bed. His heart pounding, he opened it to find Cryptos standing there, gripping a Sea Arrow in each fist. His guards pointed rifles over his shoulder at Dakkar.

‘Well done, my prince,’ he sneered. ‘You managed to fool even me for a while but, as the poet Burns would say, “The best laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry”. And yours, my friend, was not even the best laid of plans.’

Dakkar was marched down the passage and through the doors into the chamber. Oginski, Fulton and Georgia sat, tied together, not far from the scaffold that held the Mole upright and in place.

‘Dakkar, I’m sorry,’ Georgia burst out, her face tear-stained and filthy. ‘I got to the volcano’s rim but . . .’

‘Did you think I wouldn’t have that entrance guarded?’ Cryptos said, pushing the Sea Arrows into the hands of the nearest guard. ‘My Qualar brought her to me. All it took was to point a loaded musket at her precious uncle’s head and she told me everything. Weakling!’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Dakkar said, smiling at Georgia. He turned to Oginski. ‘At least you know that I’m not a monster.’

Oginski gave a sad smile back and nodded.

‘Not yet, my prince,’ Cryptos said, his voice low and full of emotion. ‘But what if I leave you alive while these unfortunates fry in here? Would you seek my blood then? Hatred is such an easy emotion to stir in a young heart.’

‘No. I feel sorry for you,’ Dakkar said, his voice small.

Cryptos swung the back of his hand across Dakkar’s face, stinging his cheek.

‘Imbecile,’ Cryptos spat, running to the foot of the scaffold. ‘You’ll feel sorry for yourself when today is through.’

He pulled a lever and a low humming vibrated through the Mole machine, the scaffold and then through Dakkar’s feet. The massive pointed drill began to rotate, cracking and splintering the rock, its sharp nose biting into the very stone. Faster and faster it turned. The whine became deafening and stone chips sprayed across the chamber, making everyone screw their eyes shut for a second.

The guard holding the Sea Arrows threw his hands to his face as a chip caught him in the eye.

Dakkar spun round and brought his leg high, kicking the man in the side of the head. The guard flew sideways, dropping the explosives. As Dakkar landed, he snatched them from the air and turned to the Mole, hurling the arrows with all his might.

Time seemed to slow. Cryptos lunged forward, his mouth wide, his long fingers clawing at the flying missiles. The arrows arced high above his grasping hands and landed on the scaffold, blossoming into fiery blooms of destruction.

The chamber erupted into a nightmare of fire and deafening explosion, screeching metal and pounding rock. Dakkar felt himself being lifted into the air and hurled across the chamber. Rock and flame stabbed and seared his skin.

And then all fell silent.

Dakkar grunted and rolled over. His whole body ached. His face felt numb and he could taste blood in his mouth.

Rock dust filled the air along with the sound of men’s groans. Dakkar staggered to his feet. The huge Mole lay at an angle, half buried in the ground. Rock and twisted metal clung to its cylindrical body. Oginski, Fulton and Georgia lay semi-conscious, their ropes still binding them.

‘What . . . have you . . . done?’ Cryptos wheezed, standing up. ‘All my work, all my plans . . .’

‘Even the best laid plans . . .’ Dakkar said, smiling grimly.

The rest of the chamber came to life. The guards, their weapons blown from their grasp, backed away from the slaves. The slaves, realising their strength in numbers, began a mumbling, bloodthirsty moan that grew into a full-blooded howl as they charged at the fleeing guards.

‘For Qualarium!’ Olszar bellowed, lifting one of Cryptos’s men above his head and hurling him across the chamber.

Lafitte stood for a second, shrugged, then yelled, ‘Vive la France!’ He wrenched a pistol from one guard and fired at another.

Bodies flew and pistols cracked as the guards were quickly overwhelmed.

‘Give up, Cryptos,’ Dakkar said. ‘It’s finished.’

‘Oh, is it?’ Cryptos hissed, grabbing a smouldering beam of wood and tossing it at the central fuse that lay at his feet among the wreckage. Eight spurts of fire came to life, racing across the chamber floor. ‘You can’t put them all out, and the
Nautilus
awaits me. Farewell, Dakkar. You should die knowing what a disappointment you are to me and your father.’ Cryptos turned and raced for the door.