The Curiosity Machine (31 page)

Gerald, Ruby, Sam and Felicity were drawn forwards, like moths to a flame. The habitat on the far left was studded with low-lying scrub and bushes. A dozen dodos picked and scratched at the dirt floor. The birds seemed oblivious to the adjoining pen, where a thick tangle of foliage could not hide the presence of a family of tigers—a male, female and two cubs—lapping from a waterhole.

The third enclosure seemed to be a recreation of a forest clearing with nothing of interest in residence, until Sam pointed to a pile of large green leaves on the floor. ‘That's the plant that almost ate me,' he said. ‘Nasty, slimy thing.' The neighbouring pen hosted a blizzard of butterflies—a flickering array of oranges, yellows, blues and reds darting about the tree canopy.

Next to that were half a dozen large chimpanzees, lounging in the forks of trees and foraging through the undergrowth. One chimp was helping herself to a banana from a bunch suspended by a rope from the ceiling.

‘What is this place?' Gerald asked.

He turned at the sound of boots clicking across the concrete floor. Sir Mason Green and Jasper Mantle were walking towards them, looking like two old pals who had just stepped from the eighteenth green after a pleasant round of golf.

‘Gerald Wilkins,' Jasper Mantle said, spreading his arms in greeting. ‘Is it too late to wish you a happy birthday? I do hope you received my present. I spent a lot of time finding just the right gift.'

Gerald bit the inside of his bottom lip, determined not to say anything that might stall the release of his parents and the others. ‘We brought you a gift as well,' Gerald said, stony-faced. ‘I hope Sir Mason passed on the perpetual motion machine that
we
found.'

‘That, he did,' Mantle said. ‘You cannot imagine my delight. It is more than I ever imagined you could achieve.'

Good, Gerald thought. There was at least some measure of gratitude there. But before he could press his argument for the captives to be freed, Mantle ushered them towards the glass wall.

‘What do you think of my collection?' he asked. ‘Naturally, this is just a sample of what I have amassed, but it suits my purposes. The tests have been going tremendously well.'

‘What tests?' Ruby asked.

‘My environmental tests, of course,' he said. ‘This is all part of my great gift to the world: a means to preserve all the planet's natural environments. Didn't Mr Ursus tell you about it?'

‘He started to in the helicopter,' Gerald said. ‘Then things got sort of complicated.'

Mantle rubbed his hands together. ‘Let me explain,' he said. ‘As you know, I collect butterflies. It has been a lifelong passion. They are a marvel of nature: such intricate engineering in such a delicate frame. But lately, the outlook for them has been grim. Their natural habitat is being decimated by development. Land clearing destroys their homes and crop spraying kills them by the millions. When the butterfly is sick, the planet is sick. So I have set myself the task of making the world healthy for them again. And thus, healthy for everyone.'

‘That's very noble,' Ruby said. ‘But do you have to kidnap people to achieve that?'

Mantle looked at her, confused. ‘Do you mean the
passengers on Gerald's yacht? They'll be free to go just as soon as I'm finished here.'

Felicity's eyes beamed bright. ‘They can go home?' she said, gripping Sam's arm for support. ‘Do you really mean it?'

‘Of course,' Mantle said. ‘I'll be done with them within the hour.'

Gerald raised an eyebrow.
Done with them?

‘But I still have so much to thank you for,' Mantle continued. ‘And not least for finding the Xerxes Blue.' He whipped a cloth from a large box constructed from a fine white gauze. Inside were a dozen butterflies on a branch, their glassy wings shining blue in the light. ‘With Sir Mason's help I tracked down a dead specimen in a private collection in Zimbabwe,' Mantle said. ‘That helped decode Davey's note, but you can imagine my delight at finding there is still one place on earth that has a good-sized natural population. If my work is successful, we could see their numbers return to where they were before humans destroyed their habitats. Now, wouldn't that be something?'

Mantle carried the box to the glass enclosure that housed the butterflies. He interrupted a woman who was recording measurements from a series of gauges. She wore a pale blue polo shirt, also branded with the
Tabula Rasa
crest. ‘And you are sure it is safe to add these to the collection?' he asked. The woman looked up from her work. ‘Yes, it's all clear,' she said. ‘Quite safe.'

Mantle nodded, then opened a panel in the glass wall and positioned the crate to the hole, shaking the butterflies free. They tumbled out in a cascade of silvery blue. Then he closed the hatch and locked it in place. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands.

‘Look, this is all very nice,' Ruby said, ‘saving chimps and butterflies. But can we see our parents, please? They're probably worried about us.'

A side door opened in the main hangar, and Mantle turned to see who had entered. He ignored Ruby's question. ‘Ah, the mad professor,' Mantle said. ‘Does it work? Does it improve the process?'

Gerald looked around to see a familiar shambling form coming their way. Professor McElderry limped straight past Sam, Gerald, Ruby and Felicity as if they did not exist.

‘It has distilled the purest version yet,' McElderry said to Mantle. He held up a glass vial. The liquid inside glowed blue. ‘Adding the perpetual motion machine to the drive shaft milled the ingredients at precisely the right rate and quantity. It is a design marvel.'

Mantle smiled with satisfaction. He took the vial from McElderry and held it to the light. ‘Is it ready for testing?' he asked.

The professor nodded. ‘Aye. It has been months in the making and a colossal pain in the posterior every step of the way.' He paused to drop a hand to his knee.
‘And not just the posterior. It's amazing what an actual set of plans and the right components will do to make everything work properly. Yes, it is ready for testing.'

‘And how much stronger is this than previous batches?'

‘Oh, a good fifty times more potent,' McElderry said. ‘Maybe a hundred times. The effect should be instantaneous.'

Gerald took a step forward. ‘Look, we found the perpetual motion machine for you, so we'd really like to see our parents and go now. We don't need to be here.'

Professor McElderry shot Gerald a furious glare. ‘Quiet boy!' he snapped. ‘This is no time for you to get involved.'

Gerald recoiled at the ferocity in the professor's tone. ‘What is the matter with you?' Gerald said, his voice cracking. ‘It's like you've been brainwashed. Don't you even remember who we are?'

McElderry's face blossomed as red as his beard, but Mantle placed a placating hand on the professor's arm before he could speak. ‘Be calm, now,' Mantle said. ‘The importance of our work will become clear with a demonstration.' Mantle turned to the woman with the clipboard. ‘Prepare cell six,' he said.

The woman nodded, and turned to the control panel to flick a series of switches. Overhead, a bank of floodlights flared into life with an electric
clunk
, illuminating the darkened sector next to the chimpanzee enclosure.

Gerald blinked to adjust his eyes to the sudden flash of light, and then stared in wonder. Sealed behind glass and milling around in a bare concrete space were the crew and passengers of the
Archer
.

‘Mum!' Felicity cried. ‘Dad!' She rushed forward and slapped her palms against the glass wall, desperate to get their attention. But it was clear that those on the other side could neither hear nor see them.

‘Do not be concerned, Miss Upham,' Mantle said, walking towards the control panel. ‘Everyone is quite well. That is most important.'

Ruby looked at Mantle and narrowed her eyes. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Why, for the experiment to work, naturally.' Mantle clicked his fingers at the professor, who picked up a telephone handset from the bench and spoke into it.

‘What experiment?' Gerald asked. A feeling of dread tightened in his stomach.

‘We're going to spray them,' Mantle said. He held up the vial of vibrant blue liquid. ‘With this.'

Chapter 30

Gruff voice had the gun barrel under Gerald's chin before he could move. More armed men filed into the building through the side door. The last people into the room were Ella and Irene.

Mantle looked to Professor McElderry. ‘Is all this really necessary, Knox?' he asked. ‘They're only children.'

‘You don't know them like I do,' the professor replied. ‘They're capable of villainy if you take your eyes off them, even for a second.'

Sir Mason Green brushed the underside of his chin with the back of his fingers, and spoke in a voice of calm authority. ‘Surely you are not serious, Jasper. You mean to actually poison those people? Surely just the threat is sufficient for our purpose?'

‘For your purpose, maybe,' Mantle said. His head moved upwards with a defiant jerk. ‘I mean to save the planet. This is why I haven't told you everything, Mason. I knew you wouldn't appreciate my thinking on this.'

Green's expression did not change. ‘Try me.'

Mantle flustered at the challenge. ‘Do you have any idea how many species become extinct each year? Somewhere between two hundred and a thousand. Every year. And all because of the most destructive force that has ever walked this planet.'

‘You're going to say “humans”, aren't you?' Green said.

Mantle bristled. ‘Of course it's humans. Whether it's tearing down forests or introducing foreign species that take over, humans have had a hand in every extinction event of modern time.'

Gerald could not believe what he was hearing. ‘So you want to punish all humans by poisoning our parents? That's nuts.'

Jasper Mantle exhaled slowly and looked at Gerald as if he was a particularly dense student. ‘Don't think on such a tiny scale, Gerald,' he said. ‘Can you imagine what would happen if all humans were removed from earth? Life would flourish. This little blue dot of ours would shine brighter in the cosmos. It would return to its verdant self, free from the greed that drives people to destroy: that overwhelming and self-consuming desire to have more than you could ever possibly need.'

Sir Mason Green raised an eyebrow. ‘Look, I admire a good takeover-the-world plan as much as the next chap—heavens, I tried to turn myself into a god last year. But you're a human too, Jasper. Aren't you part of the problem?'

Mantle pulled his shoulders back and stood as tall as he could manage. ‘I am continuing the work of Emperor Rudolph II of Bohemia and the authors of the Voynich manuscript,' he said. ‘I am saving our planet.'

Green's poker face cracked for a fraction of a second. ‘That manuscript is just a cookbook for crackpots,' he said. ‘Some mind-control potions and little else.'

Jasper Mantle smirked. ‘That is where you are wrong, Mason. Thanks to the work of Professor McElderry and his colleagues from the British Museum, whom I brought here—'

‘Abducted, you mean,' Felicity shouted at him. ‘Just like you kidnapped my mum and dad.' She pounded on the glass wall again. The people inside continued to mill about, unaware of anything on the other side.

‘I had to get your attention somehow, Miss Upham,' Mantle said. ‘It was a multi-pronged strategy to get those plans for the curiosity machine, as well as to track down Drebbel's invention. Mr Ursus has been methodical in helping me reassemble the emperor's legendary cabinet of curiosities. These were the final two pieces in Rudolph's puzzle.'

‘But why?' Gerald asked. ‘What does the curiosity
machine actually do?'

Mantle tilted his head to the side, giving him the appearance of a bird listening for worms after the rain. ‘To put it simply, there are too many people. Too many people for the earth to cope. And this isn't the first time in history that the population has grown too big and too disruptive. In the 1300s, the cities of Europe were overcrowded and pollution was rampant. But then along came the great plague to bring the numbers back to sustainable levels. The Black Death killed one in every three people in Europe. Can you even conceive of death on that scale? It was extraordinarily effective as a form of population control. And all thanks to the Voynich manuscript.'

Gerald's eyes shot wide. ‘The manuscript has a recipe for the Black Death?'

‘Oh yes, and in the 1600s Rudolph perfected it. His cabinet of curiosities is in effect a pantry of plague ingredients,' Mantle said. ‘All those exotic plants, the herbs, the minerals, the seashells from far-off lands. He tipped them all into the curiosity machine which, powered by Drebbel's perpetual motor, milled and combined the ingredients in very specific quantities to produce the purest distilled plague formula known to history.'

Gerald thought back to the humming, thrumming machine and the rainbow shower of mineral sand that it produced.

Mantle could barely contain his enthusiasm. ‘With
the help of the Voynich manuscript, the professor and I were able to make educated guesses about the various quantities and processes required. But it wasn't until we secured the original design of the curiosity machine that we were able to produce the full Rudolph version of the plague.' He held up the vial between his forefinger and thumb. ‘I hold the solution to the world's population problem right here.'

Ruby could contain herself no longer. ‘Are you serious? You want to kill a third of the world's people?'

‘Why not?' Mantle snapped back. ‘Is a human life any more important than that of a chimp, or a Bengal tiger? It was the devil's own job rebuilding the dodo population on this island. Not to mention some of the creatures that pre-date our arrival. I can assure you, there will be no such problem with humans regaining their numbers. They breed like rabbits.' Mantle pointed to the logo on Ruby's polo shirt. ‘
Tabula Rasa
,' he said. ‘The world needs to wipe the slate clean and start again.'