Arkie Sparkle Treasure Hunter: Time Trap Read online

  7 treasures

  7 continents

  7 days

  7 books

  6 changes of clothes

  5 suspicious sightings

  4 close shaves

  3 wrong turns

  2 maps

  1 treasure hunter

  p.s. + 1 treasure hunter’s helper

  p.p.s. ++ 1 treasure hunter’s helper’s super-snooper dog

  The biggest treasure hunt in the world is about to begin Eleven-year-old Arkie Sparkle’s archaeologist parents have been kidnapped. With the help of her genius cousin TJ and basset hound Cleo, she must find seven treasures across the seven continents in seven days.

  DAY 2: China

  A mysterious scroll, daylight robbery, the Great Wall of China, the First Emperor

  Posing as an Immortal to find the Book of Songs seemed like an excellent idea. But when Arkie and TJ meet the First Emperor of China, they realise they might be trapped in Ancient China – forever!

  Contents

  Cover

  Blurb

  Epigraph

  What’s happened so far in Arkie Sparkle Treasure Hunter

  Treasure Hunter’s Diary

  Scroll Down

  TJ’s Style File

  Daylight Robbery

  Run, Run as Fast as You Can

  An Immortal Plan

  A Stormy Meeting

  Believe it or Not

  Midnight Meeting

  A Cage for Two

  Travelling North

  Debrief

  In Real Life

  Junior Genius Pre-Program Quiz Answers

  treasure hunter / n 1. a person who hunts for wealth or riches or jewels or gold statues or anything that is treasured by someone.

  2. Arkie Sparkle.

  What’s happened so far in Arkie Sparkle: Treasure Hunter?

  Arkie Sparkle is not having a good day. Okay, she’s been to Egypt in a super-speedy jet but her parents have been kidnapped; she has to find seven treasures; she’s had a scary dream about a frying pan; her insides nearly fried in the hot desert sun; she’s still picking out sand from her hair after the sandstorm where she lost Abu Simbel; Abu Simbel is kind of famous but he doesn’t know it and, even worse, he doesn’t remember that he met her. But she did find a gold statue of Queen Nefertari that had been missing for more than 200 years. And that’s where we’re up to in Arkie Sparkle: Treasure Hunter.

  TJ: Haven’t they forgotten something?

  Arkie: Have they? What?

  TJ: ME! They haven’t mentioned me.

  Arkie: Sorry, TJ. They had to keep it short. Just the main points.

  TJ: But I’m a main point. I’m a treasure hunter’s helper – smart and reliable – well, usually reliable. Anyone could have put the wrong dates into TimeSlip and sent you into the Sahara Desert in the hottest and deadliest part of the day. Are you still mad about that? Is that why they haven’t mentioned me?

  Arkie: I’m not mad. I’ll ask them to put you in the next one.

  TJ: Promise?

  Arkie: Promise.

  TJ: Because I know it’s your name on the front cover but I’m important too. And don’t forget Cleo. And Belzoni and Burckhardt and the Egyptian sun festival and the pharaoh Ramses. And did you tell them about my desert daywear? I think my pyramid pants might take off.

  Arkie: I nearly did take off in that sandstorm.

  Scroll Down

  Arkie Sparkle stretched her legs and looked at the old railway clock on the wall in the THinc Tank, the underground headquarters of Treasure Hunters incorporated.

  She and TJ had been staring at Treasure Clue No. 2 for 10 minutes and 44 seconds, ever since they had opened the box left on the front doorstep by someone who had managed to get past HAL’s security system.

  The tick tock tick of the clock pounded in Arkie’s head – a relentless reminder that time wasn’t waiting for them. They had a treasure deadline: they had to travel across the seven continents to find seven treasures in seven days. Today was only Day Two.

  ‘What do you think, TJ?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s a scroll,’ said TJ.

  ‘We could tell that just by looking at it,’ said Arkie.

  ‘Well, you can’t rush the mind of a genius,’ said TJ. ‘It has mysterious synaptic routes. But as it so happens, I have already expanded upon my initial observation.’ She picked up the scroll. ‘It’s not an ordinary old scroll,’ she said. ‘It’s a 100 percent Chinese silk scroll. datamax has just confirmed the fabric analysis. And I’ve also discovered a vital clue with my infrared X-ray magnifying glass. Look!’

  Arkie peered through the magnifying glass and gasped. ‘No, it can’t be,’ she said, her face pale. ‘I’ve seen these Chinese characters before.’

  ‘You have?’ said TJ. ‘Where?’

  ‘Dad was in China last year on a top secret, Code Crimson hunt,’ said Arkie, leaning forwards in her chair and accidentally nudging Cleo who was sound asleep at her feet. ‘Sorry, Cleo,’ she said, patting her on the head. ‘Dad wouldn’t tell me anything about it, but I heard him talking to Mum one night. Dad said even knowing about it was dangerous for me and Mum got all upset and said they should never have involved me in THinc. She said Dad and Edie should have seen this coming.’

  ‘Seen what coming?’ said TJ. ‘Your aunt isn’t even a member of THinc. What does Edie have to do with it?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Arkie. ‘But I hate not knowing things so I accidentally looked in Dad’s notes the next day and saw these exact characters next to some numbers and a map.’

  ‘Interesting,’ said TJ.

  ‘Very,’ said Arkie. ‘So I checked the characters out in Codemode.’

  ‘Smart,’ said TJ, nodding. ‘And?’

  ‘It’s a really old form of Chinese calligraphy called seal script from around 220 BCE. In this kind of Chinese language, each character or sound has a meaning. These characters say Qin Shi Huangdi.’ She paused. ‘The First Emperor of China.’

  ‘Ah, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty,’ said TJ. ‘Isn’t he the one who made the Great Wall of China great by joining it all together, was said to have “the voice of a jackal and the heart of a tiger”, and was buried with thousands of terracotta soldiers?’

  ‘That’s him,’ said Arkie. ‘We saw an exhibition of some of the stuff from his tomb this year. They’ve only discovered a bit of it so far.’

  ‘Weird to think about what you’d take with you when you die,’ said TJ. ‘You’d be packing for the longest journey ever. I wonder if there’s a luggage limit? I’d take my mobile and my computer, although WiFi and 3G might be tricky in the afterlife. So I’d better take my book Great Geniuses as well. I’ll need something compelling to read in eternity.’

  ‘Eternity is a long time,’ said Arkie.

  ‘It’s forever,’ said TJ.

  But even a few hours can feel like forever, thought Arkie. Especially when your life has changed in a blink. One second I’m eating a snack after school, thinking about dinner. The next second I’m zipping around the world with TJ and Cleo on the biggest treasure hunt ever.

  ‘Let’s unravel the scroll,’ she said. ‘There might be something important on the inside.’

  She opened the scroll and spread it out on the table before them.

  ‘Careful,’ said TJ. ‘A lot of silkworms worked all their short lives to make the silk for this scroll. Did you know that the silk is actually secreted by the larva or caterpillar of a moth called Bombyx mori. And “mori” is Latin for death. That’s how we get words like rigor mortis and postmortem.’

  ‘Hmmmm,’ said Arkie, bending over the scroll. TJ had a lot of facts in her head. A
rkie tried not to let them clutter her head too. ‘Look,’ she said. ‘There are more Chinese characters on the inside – and the curly Z’s at the end of the message, just like the other clue.’

  Arkie looked at TJ.

  TJ looked at Arkie.

  ‘I’m a bit rusty on my ancient Chinese,’ said TJ.

  ‘I’ll scan it into Codemode,’ said Arkie.

  When Codemode had finished, Arkie read the decoded message aloud:

  A WALL OF EVERLASTING WORDS

  WHERE THE VOICES OF THE PAST DO CRY.

  SING A SONG OF ETERNAL LONGING.

  THAT IS WHERE THE TRUTH DOES LIE.

  SMALL BUT IMPORTANT PRINT:

  SCAN ONLY AND SEND TO

  [email protected]

  ‘What does that mean?’ she said.

  ‘A wall,’ said TJ. ‘Well I guess the Great Wall is the biggest and most obvious wall around. But I bet this is a Triple C Clue so things won’t be what they seem.’

  ‘Mum says the answer can be right in front of your nose sometimes,’ said Arkie.

  ‘Well, it can be hard to see if it’s there too,’ said TJ, making a cross-eyed face.

  Arkie switched on the information tablet DATAMAX. It was linked to all the databases of museums around the world so THinc always had the most up-to-date archaeological research.

  ‘DATAMAX says thousands of people died building the Great Wall and were buried beneath it,’ she said. ‘Maybe they’re the crying voices of the past?’

  TJ shuddered. ‘Memento mori,’ she said. ‘That’s Latin for “Remember you must die.” ’

  ‘Do you have to keep talking about death?’ said Arkie. ‘It’s freaking me out.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said TJ. ‘It’s just my natural tendency to be morbid. Geniuses slide quickly from one end of the mood scale to the other.’

  ‘Is there anything on the box it came in that might help us?’ said Arkie. ‘A postmark? A fingerprint? The kidnapper’s address?’

  TJ took out her hairbrush and started brushing her hair.

  ‘It’s not really the time for personal grooming, TJ,’ said Arkie, staring at her.

  ‘I’m powering up the supermagnification microscope in my hairbrush,’ said TJ, unfolding the hairbrush into a microscope. ‘Twenty brushes should do it. I added this feature a couple of days ago so I’m keen to check it out.’

  She ran the microscope carefully over the whole box. ‘There’s a faint image in the top right-hand corner,’ she said. ‘Part of the stamp maybe.’

  Arkie scanned the image into DATAMAX and pressed SEARCH. DATAMAX glowed blue as it searched and then glowed red for FOUND.

  ‘What have you got, DATAMAX?’ said Arkie.

  ≥≥ The image you have scanned, Arkie Sparkle, is a watchtower – one of many found along the Great Wall of China. This particular watchtower is called Watching Beijing. It is part of the Simatai Great Wall, which has 35 watchtowers in total. ≤≤

  TJ’s mobile suddenly roared. ‘The call of the wild,’ she said, checking the ID flashing up on the screen. ‘Mamma Bear.’ She pressed answer. ‘Hi, Mum, yeah – everything’s fine. We’re doing a project on China. The First Emperor and the Great Wall and all that . . . No, we’ve just started. We’ve got a few things to do yet . . . Yes, we’re getting Chinese takeaway tonight. Don’t forget you said I can sleep over all week. Okay. Bye. Love you too.’

  TJ pressed end. ‘Mum can sniff something suspicious at 100 metres,’ she said, ‘so it’s best to pack the fib with as many facts as possible. I call it a fibruth – it’s a little bit of a fib and a little bit of the truth.’

  ‘And we are researching China,’ said Arkie. ‘It’s just that we’re planning to go there in a turbo-charged supersonic jet.’

  TJ looked at the railway clock. ‘We’d better leave soon,’ she said. ‘The new series of Junior Genuis is on at 7.30 tonight. Mum’ll be super suspicious if I don’t watch that and tell her about it tomorrow. She knows how much I want to be on it. Come on, Cleo. No more dog naps for you.’

  Cleo opened a sleepy eye.

  ‘BLUR’s fuelled and ready to go,’ said Arkie. She handed TJ a small clip-on earring. ‘And here’s a Lexi for you.’

  ‘Luckily, I already have some Chinese costumes in my wardrobe,’ said TJ. ‘I’m traversing the globe for sartorial inspiration. I’ll just dash home and get them.’

  TJ was back in less than 10 minutes with a bundle of clothes.

  ‘Now that I’ve stabilised the molecular reconstruction sequence on TimeSlip, both of us can use it at the same time,’ she said as she joined Arkie in BLUR’s cockpit. ‘Two heads are better than one.’

  ‘Unless they’re on the same body,’ said Arkie. ‘But Dad’ll be so happy you’ve fixed it. He’s been grumbling about the faulty reconstruction sequence forever. Quincy never got around to fixing it. And now he’s disappeared.’

  Just like Mum and Dad, she thought. I’m all by myself.

  But then she remembered TJ. And Cleo. They were a team.

  ‘It’s just as well you’re a genius, TJ,’ Arkie said, smiling. ‘And you’re a dog, Cleo.’

  Cleo barked and wagged her tail. She was awake now.

  ‘Ready, Alfa Sierra?’ said TJ.

  ‘Ready, Tango Juliet,’ said Arkie.

  They strapped themselves into BLUR and hit the switch for the steel doors, which groaned opened to reveal a dense forest. As they watched, the trees and bushes parted into a short runway. Lights flickered and soon the runway was ready for takeoff.

  BLUR’s engines roared.

  ‘Destination: the Great Wall of China,’ said TJ.

  ‘And Treasure No. 2,’ said Arkie.

  TJ’s Style File

  HOT TIPS FOR CASUAL CHINA

  Daylight Robbery

  The mist curled around the mountains, clinging to Arkie like a second skin and seeping deep into her bones.

  She felt cocooned within its swirl; suffocated by its clammy reach.

  She switched on DATAMAX to check her position.

  She was definitely where she should be: on the narrow pathway that led to the watchtower Watching Beijing – one of the highest sections on the Great Wall of China.

  Arkie knew the pathway overlooked Mandarin Duck Springs – where the east spring was cold and the west was warm – but both water and land were blanketed by mist.

  She folded the parabrella and tried to calm her breathing:

  in out

  in out

  She couldn’t see TJ and Cleo anywhere.

  They had all jumped from BLUR at the same time, flying through the clouds with their motorised umbrellas, but maybe TJ and Cleo had blown off course? A fierce wind was racing across the mountain peaks.

  As Arkie braced herself against the cold, she felt as if she were standing on top of the world. It was a lonely, silent place. She shivered and pulled her jacket even closer.

  ‘TJ?’ she yelled into the wind. ‘Cleo? Where are you?’

  Whereareyouareyouareyou, cried the wind, catching her words and tossing them into the mist.

  Arkie unclipped Lexi and shook it. Maybe the battery’s wet, she thought.

  Then she heard a whisper of sound coming from it.

  ‘Arkie. Can you hear me?’

  ‘Is that you, TJ?’ yelled Arkie, re-attaching Lexi. ‘You’ll have to shout. You’re really faint. Where are you?’

  ‘I don’t know. But we’re caught on something. And it doesn’t feel very safe.’

  ‘Is Cleo okay?’ said Arkie.

  ‘Yup, she’s in the paraback,’ said TJ. ‘But we’re both fffrr-eee–zzz-iinng .’ Her words chattered with cold.

  Arkie put on her Super Enhanced Goggles and set them to DEMIST.

  The SEGs fogged completely at first but then, slowly, the landscape in front of her began to clear. She ran further up the steep path, towards the watchtower. Then she saw TJ.

  TJ was caught on the roof of the watchtower. Her Chinese knickerbockers had snagged on the corner o
f the roof and the parabrella’s spikes were still trying to turn, knocking against the bricks of the tower.

  Fragments of brick were raining over the side. The whole tower looked as though it was about to tumble down. One sudden move and TJ and Cleo would also tumble down with it.

  ‘TJ,’ said Arkie. ‘I can see you and you need to stay very still. You too, Cleo.’

  ‘You’ve got your serious voice on,’ said TJ. ‘Is it a capital “T” for TROUBLE or just a little “t”?’

  ‘It’s “DP” for “Don’t Panic”,’ said Arkie. ‘Just hang on. I’m coming.’

  She switched the parabrella’s handle to PA for parascend and flew up towards the tower.

  TJ’s knuckles were white with tension as she gripped the handle of her parabrella.

  ‘Did I ever tell you that I don’t like hhhh-heights?’ said TJ. ‘I know lots of people say they dddd-don’t like heights but they still go on ffff-ferris wheels and climb bbbbb-bridges and take hairy-scary ggggg-gondola rides up mountains. But when I ssss-say I don’t like heights, I really mean it.’

  ‘Stop talking, TJ,’ said Arkie, assessing the situation. ‘I’m trying to think.’

  ‘That’s gggg-ood,’ said TJ, ‘because my bbbb-rrrr-a-aa-in’s an ice cube. You can tttt-hin-kkk for both of us.’

  ‘Close your eyes and don’t look down,’ said Arkie. ‘This is going to be painful.’ She paused. ‘I have to cut your knickerbockers.’

  ‘WHAT?’ said TJ. ‘But these kkk-nickerbbb-bockers are originals. They might be worth a ffff-fortune one day. Especially if I ssss-survive this. Ddd-danger and dddd-drama add dd-dollars to ddd-design!’

  ‘Well, it’s the knickerbockers or you,’ said Arkie. ‘But don’t take too long thinking about it because the tower’s about to fall down.’

  ‘I guess it’s the plight of every designer to suffer for their wwww-work,’ sighed TJ. ‘Do what you mmm-must. But I’m not going to www-watch.’

  Arkie pulled a small knife out of her pocket and sliced the knickerbockers. TJ’s parabrella spluttered free, hovering in the air above the tower.