Arkie Sparkle Treasure Hunter: Untold Gold Page 4

  ‘Roger that, Alpha Sierra,’ said TJ. ‘I need to re-plaster my blisters too. My boots are killing me.’

  They settled into the roots of a large tree and ate their sandwiches.

  As TJ and Cleo closed their eyes for a catnap, Arkie checked the compass. They were still travelling in the right direction – to the place where both Septimus and Colonel Fawcett had disappeared.

  After a few minutes, she got up and walked back to the tree where she’d left the Sneaky Snake Sound Synthesizer. She picked it up and pressed PLAY.

  A small control panel rose up in the centre of the snake and the frequencies of all the different jungle noises began to register as a single block of colour across the screen.

  Arkie pressed FILTER and the Sneaky Snake Sound Synthesizer began to sort through all the layers of sounds, running them as different bands of colour across the monitor:

  for the birds calling

  for the animals snuffling

  for the insects buzzing

  for the monkeys hollering.

  For a few minutes, all the noises seemed to be falling into these main colour bands, until – a single thread of black suddenly appeared on the screen. Black was the colour for an Unidentified Sound.

  Arkie zoomed in on the band, amplified it 100 percent, pressed REPLAY and listened carefully.

  And then she heard it.

  A sneeze.

  She played it again and again.

  A sneeze. A sneeze.

  Someone was following them.

  Someone with a cold.

  She dropped the Sneaky Snake Sound Synthesizer, put on her SEGs and scanned the jungle around her.

  A flash of red, darting off to the right.

  Arkie dropped everything and ran after it.

  run run run run run run

  There was an uneasy pause between the shriekings of birds and frenzy of insects as Arkie stumbled through the undergrowth. The jungle seemed to be holding its breath with her.

  Someone’s following us.

  Who?

  What do they want?

  The flash of colour wove in and out of the trees, ducking behind bushes, and then reappearing in front of her.

  Then it stopped.

  Arkie crouched behind a large rubber plant, her heart pounding.

  She put on her SEGs and set them to ZOOM. The focus blurred and then sharpened. She could see the person clearly now. He was dressed in dark blue cotton trousers and a red jacket.

  It was Clem Sparkle.

  Surprise, surprise, thought Arkie. First Cate Sparkle. Then Clem. They’re like a tag team. Now you see them. Now you don’t.

  Clem looked at his watch.

  He’s waiting for someone, thought Arkie.

  As she watched, a figure emerged from the bush in front of Clem. He or she was wearing a safari suit and a hat, pulled low over their head.

  Arkie clutched the side of her SEGs.

  Could it be Sebastian?

  Was Arkie finally about to see her uncle?

  She switched Lexi to Lora – activating the long-range microphone embedded in Lexi so she could eavesdrop from a distance.

  Several mosquitoes hovered around her ears.

  ‘What’s zzzz problem?’ said the voice, a man’s. ‘You zzzz plan.’

  A mosquito must be trapped in Lexi, thought Arkie. But I can’t take it off and shake it out now. I might miss something. Something important.

  ‘zzzz notebook,’ said Clem. ‘zzzz Arkie keeps zzzz her zzzz time.’

  ‘She’s been zzzz taught,’ said the man. ‘But we’re running zzzz. Don’t you zzzz rendezvous point.’

  ‘zzzz thought zzzz’ said Clem.

  Arkie jumped as she felt a sharp twinge on her neck. An ant had bitten her. She brushed it away but a twig snapped beneath her feet as she shifted her weight.

  ‘Quiet,’ said the man. ‘zzzz hear zzzz?’

  Arkie froze. Her breath stopped mid-lung.

  ‘zzzz jungle,’ said Clem, wiping his palms on his trousers.

  Clem’s hot and scared, like me, thought Arkie.

  ‘zzzz following them?’ said the man, scanning the forest around them.

  ‘No, careful zzzz,’ said Clem.

  Not careful enough, Mr Sneezy, thought Arkie.

  ‘zzzz,’ said the man. ‘zzzz to do, so zzzz it.’

  Arkie couldn’t stand it any longer.

  She yanked Lexi off her ear and shook it furiously.

  Hurry, hurry, hurry.

  Every second without Lexi was a word she wouldn’t hear.

  Clem was speaking and waving his hands in the air. He looked frustrated. The man began to reply. Arkie put Lexi back on her ear just in time to hear the last thing the man said: ‘Your father is watching you.’

  Your father is watching you, repeated Arkie. So it wasn’t Sebastian. But who was it?

  The man looked around again. He was getting ready to leave.

  As he turned, Arkie caught a glimpse of his profile.

  Her breath caught in her throat and a scream filled her being.

  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

  She put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from crying out, biting into the flesh of her palm.

  Shock flooded her through as Clem and the man vanished into the forest.

  Then her knees fell away and she crumbled, the long sob inside her finally escaping.

  That man!

  She knew him.

  It was Quincy.

  Her father’s best friend.

  Her godfather.

  He was here.

  In the jungle.

  Talking to Clem.

  The son of Sebastian Sparkle.

  The enemy.

  How could that be?

  How could Quincy sound not like Quincy?

  How could he sound like Quincy’s evil twin? Stern and severe.

  Quincy didn’t have a twin.

  He had a younger sister, Persephone, who lived in London and played the piccolo in the London Symphony Orchestra.

  And one of Edie’s warning words of the jungle came crashing into her head:

  Two-faced

  Arkie forced herself to stand and stumble back the way she had come.

  Must find TJ. Tell her. Warn her.

  As she fell through the leaves into the clearing, she could see TJ and Cleo in a frightened huddle.

  ‘ARKIE!’ cried TJ, running towards her. ‘Don’t you ever leave us in the middle of the largest rainforest in the world again.’

  ‘’orry,’ said Arkie.

  She couldn’t speak properly just yet.

  How could she find the words to tell TJ what she’d just seen?

  ‘Remember that documentary?’ said TJ. ‘Do you know how easy it is to get lost in the Amazon?’

  ‘S’easy,’ said Arkie.

  One word at a time. Build up to a sentence.

  ‘Where have you been?’ said TJ. She looked closely at Arkie. ‘And what’s wrong? Something’s happened, hasn’t it? You look like a crazed version of you.’

  Arkie nodded, and pointed back behind her.

  TJ took Arkie’s wrist and felt her pulse. ‘Your heart’s racing,’ she said. ‘I think you’re in shock. Lie down and put your legs up on the tree. That helps blood flow back to the organs and the brain. I passed the First Aid course at school with a High Distinction last year.’

  Arkie lay on the ground with her feet raised, closed her eyes and took some deep breaths. Slowly, the blood pumping through her head and heart began to slow.

  She sat up and TJ handed her the canteen. ‘Drink this,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks, TJ,’ said Arkie, wiping her mouth as the water dribbled down her chin. ‘That was such a horrible feeling. Like a tornado was twisting inside me.’

  ‘Can you talk now?’ said TJ. ‘Can you tell me what happened?’

  ‘There was a noise,’ said Arkie. ‘Someone’s been following us.’

  ‘WHAT?’ said TJ.

  Arkie nodded. �
��I followed them and that’s when I saw him.’

  ‘Saw who?’ said TJ.

  ‘Quincy,’ said Arkie.

  ‘Quincy?’ said TJ. ‘Quincy was following us?’

  ‘No, he was meeting up with Clem Sparkle,’ said Arkie. ‘Clem was following us.’

  ‘WHAT?’ said TJ.

  ‘I know,’ said Arkie.

  ‘But what’s Quincy doing here?’ said TJ. ‘Has he come to help us?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Arkie. ‘It didn’t look like that. It looked like he was helping Clem.’

  Arkie let her words sink deep into the space between them.

  ‘You mean —’ said TJ.

  Arkie nodded. ‘Yes. It looks as though Quincy is working with Sebastian Sparkle.’

  But things are not always as they seem.

  ‘But maybe it just looks like that,’ said Arkie quickly. ‘Things can look one way but be another. There’s probably a really good explanation.’

  ‘Maybe Quincy’s a double agent?’ said TJ. ‘Pretending to work for ZETA but really still working for THinc. He might be our man on the inside. The path of a double agent is a dangerous one. It’s like crossing the Niagra Falls on a tightrope. One false move and KAPUT.’

  ‘That must be it,’ said Arkie. ‘I just can’t believe that Quincy would betray us. It’s impossible.’

  ‘But what does Clem Sparkle want, anyway?’ said TJ.

  ‘I think he’s after Septimus’s notebook,’ said Arkie. ‘I couldn’t hear all their words but Clem mentioned a notebook. Maybe there’s something important in it. Some kind of clue to the location of the Lost City of Z.

  ‘Are there any suspicious looking entries in it?’ said TJ.

  Arkie flicked through the notebook. ‘The last two pages are stuck together,’ she said. ‘I’ve never noticed that before.’

  TJ handed Arkie a comb and Arkie gently prised them apart. She stared at the writing on the page.

  ‘Hmm,’ said TJ. ‘It’s some kind of weird message that it looks like it’s been written upside down, or under water, or something?’

  ‘Or,’ said Arkie slowly, ‘it’s a mirror image of the actual message. Have you got anything with a reflective surface, TJ?’

  ‘You mean like a mirror?’

  ‘You brought a mirror to the Amazon?’ said Arkie.

  ‘Of course,’ said TJ. ‘I’m not going to let my standards of personal grooming slip just because I’m in the jungle!’

  She handed Arkie her compact mirror and Arkie placed it at the side of the message.

  ‘What’s our position now?’ said Arkie.

  TJ consulted the compass. ‘We’re close to those coordinates,’ she said. ‘Possibly another half hour’s walk.’

  ‘Let’s get going,’ said Arkie. ‘The jungle’s too crowded for me.’ She looked behind her as they started to walk. Was Clem Sparkle watching them even now?’

  eyes spy eyes spy eyes spy

  As the rotting vegetation stewed in the afternoon heat, Arkie and TJ walked in silence.

  Arkie tried not to think about Quincy, but the scene of him with Clem played on a loop in her head. Quincy had been with THinc since she was born. She’d never known life without him.

  ‘Okay,’ said TJ, stopping in front of her. ‘This is it: 11 degrees, 42 minutes South. 51 degrees, 35 minutes West.’

  They were at the edge of the forest, with the river behind them. A small cliff covered in trees and scrubby bushes was before them.

  ‘Face the cliff and find the mouth,’ said Arkie.

  She turned and stood directly in front of the cliff, scanning it for something that might resemble a mouth.

  ‘Can you give me a leg up, please, TJ,’ said Arkie. She pulled herself up onto a ledge, about a metre off the ground. She’d seen a small crevice – big enough to conceal something from the spying eyes of the jungle.

  ‘Septimus must have found this place on his previous expeditions,’ said Arkie, helping TJ climb onto the ledge. ‘It was his safe place in the jungle. Maybe he’s hidden something here?’

  ‘Well, I’m not putting my hand in there,’ said TJ, peering into the crevice. ‘What if I don’t get it back? I’ve only just learned to touch-type. I need both my hands.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ said Arkie. ‘I’ll do it.’ She put her hand into the crevice. ‘I can feel something.’

  ‘Is it furry with eight legs and answers to the name Goliath?’ said TJ.

  ‘No, it’s hard and flat with four sides,’ said Arkie. ‘I think it’s a box.’ She pulled it out and put it on a rock beside them.

  They both looked at it.

  ‘It’s an old safe box,’ said TJ.

  ‘With a combination lock,’ said Arkie.

  ‘Actually, that’s not strictly true,’ said TJ, inspecting the lock. ‘Technically, it should be called a permutation lock because the lock has many possible permutations.’

  ‘Great,’ said Arkie. ‘Since you know all about these kinds of locks, does that mean you know how to open one?’

  ‘Oh, no,’ said TJ, looking at it closely. ‘I don’t know anything helpful like that. I just know that because this permutation consists of three letters and two numbers between 1 and 10 that means there are 26 × 26 × 26 × 10 × 10 possible permutations, which is …’ She paused and closed her eyes, muttering to herself, ‘…17, 576,000 possible permutations. I therefore estimate that that could take us 292,933 minutes to work out, which is 4889 hours, which is 203 days.’ TJ took a deep breath. ‘And because we’re already on Day 5, that’s 201 days longer than we have to finish this treasure hunt. So my conclusion is that we have zero to the power of zero chance of cracking this lock.’

  ‘Not necessarily,’ said Arkie. ‘Try SOS78.’

  ‘It’s true I didn’t factor chance into my calculations,’ said TJ, ‘and when you’re looking at insurmountable odds, a random response is as good a response as any.’

  TJ keyed in SOS78 and the lock popped open.

  ‘WHAT?’ gasped TJ. ‘But how in the jungle did you know the combination – I mean permutation?’

  ‘Just deduction and logic,’ said Arkie. ‘People always personalise their passwords, or locks. They use their birthdays or other significant things. SOS stand for Septimus Octavius Sparkle, and Septimus and Octavius come from the Latin words for seven and eight.’

  ‘But how did you know that?’ said TJ.

  ‘I took an ancient language course at the Treasure Hunters’ Summer School,’ said Arkie. ‘I can count to ten in Latin.’

  Arkie opened the box and saw a folded note.

  She picked up the note and read it aloud.

  ‘He sounds delirious and a bit rambly,’ said TJ. ‘Strange to be asking her to remember his birthday.’

  ‘Unless …’ said Arkie. ‘It’s not a date. I read on DATAMAX that Colonel Fawcett often wrote coded coordinates in his letters home. So his family would know the true coordinates of somewhere important, but no one else.’

  ‘Secret coordinates,’ said TJ, nodding. ‘They could be. And “teas” is an anagram of east.’

  They spread the map out in front of them.

  ‘So we’re here,’ said Arkie. ‘And if we add those coordinates in it forms a kind of arrow that way.’ They both looked ahead at the mountain range that lay before them.

  ‘Guess it’s time to climb?’ said TJ.

  Arkie nodded. It is just like a game of snakes and ladders, she thought. But are we taking a shortcut to the end of the game? Or will we tumble down to the beginning again?

  Arkie, TJ and Cleo climbed steadily, weaving up and down through the mountain pass. After about 40 minutes, they reached the edge of a steep narrow canyon, cleaved in two, like a deep V.

  White water rapids rushed by in the gorge below, and a derelict footbridge across the canyon swayed in the wind. The rope handrails were frayed like feathers.

  ‘Uh oh,’ said Arkie, looking at the compass.

  ‘We don’t?’ said TJ.

&
nbsp; ‘We do,’ said Arkie.

  ‘Why is everything we want always on the other side?’ said TJ.

  ‘I don’t think we should all cross,’ said Arkie. ‘The bridge doesn’t look strong enough.’

  ‘Can we use parabrella?’ said TJ.

  ‘No, parabrella only works on the principle of vertical movement,’ said Arkie. ‘It doesn’t travel horizontally. Quincy was still working on that.’

  ‘Rock, paper, scissors?’ said TJ.

  Arkie nodded. ‘Winner gets to walk on the bridge and maybe find the Lost City of Z.’

  ‘One, two, three,’ said TJ, curling her hand into a rock on the count of three.

  Arkie had her hand flat for paper.

  ‘I guess I win,’ she said.

  ‘I don’t know if WIN is the right word for it,’ said TJ, looking at the bridge. ‘Best of three?’

  ‘No, I’ll go,’ said Arkie. ‘It’s my mum and dad. But, thanks, TJ.’

  ‘Just don’t look down. Keep your eyes ahead,’ said TJ. ‘It’s not that far to the other side.’

  But far enough, thought Arkie, as she began to walk across the swing bridge.

  All Fall Down

  Arkie gripped on to the rope on either side of the bridge and took a deep breath. She took a last look at TJ and Cleo, then, she put one foot before the other.

  The wooden planks beneath her creaked and moaned.

  Arkie’s legs were like jelly. She felt as if she’d forgotten how to walk:

  Left foot forward. Right foot forward.

  A couple of planks were missing and Arkie had to take an extra big step in the middle. The bridge rocked from side to side as she lunged across the gap.

  She could see the wild water below through the splintered planks.

  Don’t look down.

  How could a short walk seem so long?

  Five more steps, four, three …

  She lunged across onto the narrow ledge of the cliff face, and steadied her legs. Then she stood up, her back to the steep cliff behind her.

  How could this be the place Septimus wanted her to find? It was more like a dead end.