The History Keepers Circus Maximus (32 page)

As Jake leaped over its sprawling body, the vulture twisted and momentarily raised its head, but collapsed onto the floor again. Jake tore through the opening into the birds’ compartment. Lucius followed and they slid the gate across behind them.

It stuck halfway.

Lucius pushed with all his might, until the veins in his neck bulged, but the metal of the grille was now distorted and wouldn’t slide across. He and Jake rattled it frantically, but it wouldn’t budge. The opening was now maybe a foot wide. Perhaps it was enough to keep the vultures inside.

‘We go back in,’ Lucius suggested. ‘Break their necks.’

Jake shook his head. The effects of the gas were already wearing off: he could see a wing twitching, then a leg. ‘Let’s go!’ He stopped at a point directly below the skylight, then looked at Lucius and pointed towards a spade leaned inside the feeding bucket just outside the cage. ‘Get that. We may need it.’

Lucius did as he was told, slipping his hands through the bars and retrieving the shovel. The coating of dried blood and entrails made it stick to the pail and he had to pull it loose.

Jake surveyed the barred skylight above him: it had a timber frame. In order to provide the strongest hold he would need to fire the dart deep into this. It was a small target and he only had one chance to get it right. Urgency made him bold. ‘Lucius, stand in front of me,’ he instructed.

Jake positioned himself behind his companion, using Lucius’s shoulder to steady his hands. He held up the buckle, aimed the lion’s mouth at the wooden frame, carefully pushed down on the green eye – and fired.

There was a sharp whistle, followed by a flash. Before Jake had registered it, the silver dart struck the wood with a solidly satisfying
twang
. Jake pulled
the wire tight. Dr Chatterju had boasted:
It could take the weight of Henry the Eighth – even in his heavy period
. Jake would find out very soon if this was even half true. Lucius was certainly no lightweight, and the two of them together would test the claim.

‘You put the belt on,’ said Jake, ‘and I’ll hold on to you.’

Lucius obliged, fastening it tightly around his waist. Meanwhile Jake took hold of the spade.

Suddenly they heard a clanging of metal behind them. The largest vulture had woken up and was now flying towards the bars. Still groggy, it misjudged the narrow opening and crashed down to the floor. Furious, it let out an ear-splitting screech before launching itself into the air again.
Crash!
Once more it struck the sides of the gap, but this time one wing got stuck; it struggled helplessly, then freed itself, clattering down again, the wing flapping uselessly. Unable to fly, it spat its fury. It was enough to wake its two partners in crime. Their wings stirred, their necks convulsed and their murderous eyes shot open.

‘I think that’s our cue,’ said Jake, holding onto Lucius while tightening his grip on the spade. ‘Press the blue eye. Now!’

Lucius pushed the sapphire into the lion’s eye socket.

Nothing happened.

The other two vultures were getting to their feet now. One took off and flew around its new compartment, clumsily at first but gradually picking up speed. Jake realized it would be a matter of moments before it angled its way through the gap.

‘Again!’ Jake shouted. ‘Push it again!’

Lucius pressed the button firmly. Now the line tightened, cracking like a whip, and they were quickly pulled off their feet, slowing down as their weight began to tell. Then, with a stiff click, the line stopped completely. They were just over halfway to the skylight, hanging by a straining metal thread.

‘Use your hands,’ Jake hissed.

Lucius reached up, and as he took hold of the line, the pressure on the buckle eased and the machine continued to ratchet them up again. They climbed inch by inch towards the skylight, Jake’s knuckles whitening as he held on, Lucius’s hands straining on the cord. Above them the wooden frame creaked as the silver dart pulled down on it.

They were almost within touching distance when the circling vulture managed to get the angle right
and swoop through the opening. Jake flinched as it flew up towards him. He tried to hit it with the spade, but he could only use one hand, and it was too crafty. There was a rush of air as it beat its wings, before lunging towards his neck. He felt a sharp pain, and blood started trickling down his back. Above him the metal dart shuddered. Lucius continued to pull on the wire, his hands now raw and bloody where the line had cut into them. The vulture flapped its gargantuan wings once more, this time coming in for the kill.

Jake’s eyes made contact with the bird’s as he swung back his weapon. The rough blade cracked into the vulture’s head. For a second it seemed to freeze in midair, then it choked, its neck coiling, and spiralled lopsidedly to the ground, lurching drunkenly along the floor before shaking itself back to life.

The boys had inched upwards only a fraction before it took off again. Then the next monster, the leanest and swiftest of the three, flew in and joined its accomplice; both circled around them now.

As Lucius reached his bloodied hand up towards the bars of the skylight, the two birds launched their attack from either side. It was a terrible assault, like
treading water in a sea of daggers and razor blades. And although Jake kept his head down and eyes closed, he could feel the thump of their muscular wings and the sharp piercing of their talons.

‘Yake! I can’t hold,’ Lucius wailed desperately. Jake opened his eye just enough to see Lucius’s bloody fingers still straining on the cord as he ignored the pecks of the vultures. Above them, the silver dart was creaking and straining alarmingly.

Then Jake had a sudden thought: the silver bracelet. He still had it round his wrist. Perhaps there was a drop left inside. Even if it stopped the onslaught for a second, it would be worth it! ‘Lucius, hold your breath,’ he yelled as he twisted the cap. Nothing happened – there was not even the faintest whiff of gas. As he felt a beak tearing at his back, he closed his eyes. He thought again of his mum and dad – of Philip.

Suddenly he heard a booming voice; a roar so deep and guttural, it did not sound human. It was Lucius. He bellowed at the vultures, his face turning crimson. It was effective. For just a second, the birds hesitated – allowing Lucius to seize one by its neck. It shrieked, choking, beating its wings wildly. Lucius squeezed harder, teeth clenched, forcing the life out
of it, until finally it went limp and he let it fall to the floor.

The last bird attacked with renewed fury, claws raking Jake’s face and seeking a purchase on his back. Jake smashed the bracelet against the ceiling to open it. As the casing fell away, a tiny crimson cloud escaped, before dissolving into the air. It was enough: the vulture breathed it in; then its claws loosened and it fell, unconscious, to the floor.

Jake looked up at Lucius, who nodded, the glimmer of a smile on his face.

Then
crack!

The wood gave way above, the silver dart about to rip itself out. Jake felt his stomach lurch and instantly thrust the shovel up through the skylight, hooking the edge of the blade through the bars as the wire snapped free and spun away below them. Lucius, with any strength he had left, managed to grab hold of the frame, unlatch the bars, then haul himself through and pull Jake up behind him.

For a while they lay motionless on the roof, their chests heaving up and down, before Jake turned to his companion. ‘We need to go. Now.’

Four hundred miles south of the city of Rome, in
the villa overlooking the port of Messina, Jupitus Cole was woken by the tip of a rusty harpoon softly digging into his cheek. He opened his eyes and peered up at Rose, who was standing over him with a face like thunder, brandishing the weapon.

‘Rosalind, why are you pointing a fish hook at me?’ he asked calmly.

‘Because it was the first weapon I could find,’ she snapped.

Jupitus examined her more carefully – her rigid stance and gritted teeth. ‘I usually find a cup of tea is a better way to start the day,’ he replied in his most velvety tones, moving the point away with his little finger.

‘If you move so much as an inch,’ she told him, ‘I
will
kill you!’ To make herself clear, she thrust the harpoon further into Jupitus’s throat.

Jupitus made an elaborate show of freezing like a statue. ‘Did I forget your birthday?’ he purred.

‘Operation Black Lotus – what is it?’

He chuckled. ‘What?’

‘Jupitus Cole, I am not joking – I will cut your throat if I have to. You are unable to walk, remember. You do not stand a chance. Operation Black Lotus,’ she repeated. ‘What is it?’

He stared at her and shrugged. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about.’

‘I just received an urgent Meslith from Galliana,’ Rose continued, producing a parchment and waving it at him.

‘Girl’s talk?’

Rose suddenly brought the harpoon down with a thump onto the pillow, before pointing it at Jupitus’s neck again. ‘She’s found your secret room. Yours and Oceane’s little hideaway,’ she spat.

Jupitus frowned, then stared up at Rose with flinty eyes. Finally he said in a quiet voice, ‘It’s nothing to do with Oceane. She was just picking up messages for me.’

Rose gasped, practically hyperventilating with the shock. ‘So it’s
true
? You are actually in cahoots with Xi Xiang?’

‘It’s a little more complicated than that—’

‘Complicated?! There are more than a hundred communications between the two of you!’ Rose was pushing the harpoon into his neck so hard, it pierced the skin. ‘Xi Xiang is one of our most hated enemies. Do I need to remind you that he butchered Galliana’s husband, along with her only child? That he tied weights to the boy’s feet and
threw him off his ship? And you are plotting with him? You are a monster, Jupitus!’

Jupitus watched her, showing neither fear, nor anger, nor even guilt, but only the profoundest pity. He waited for her to calm down and then spoke in a soothing voice. ‘Rose, listen to me. You may not believe what I tell you now, but it is the truth.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Yes, I have a secret room at Point Zero, from where I have communicated with Xi Xiang.’

This brought only sobs from Rose. Jupitus carried on softly, ‘As you remember, Rose, Xiang and I, years ago, used to be friends.’

‘Of course I remember! How could I forget?’

‘But for nearly two decades we did not speak. Two years ago, a chance encounter brought us together in Tibet, in a distant corner of the Zhou dynasty. It was an extraordinary coincidence, nothing else, but I saw an opportunity and I took it.’

‘What opportunity?’

‘I pretended that I was disillusioned with the History Keepers, that I wanted a new life.’

‘You
pretended
?’

‘I became, in effect, a double agent, a
spy
, passing on “secrets” from Point Zero. Nothing important,
nothing that would affect anyone, but enough to make Xiang believe that I was on his side and take me into his confidence.’

‘If you were really a double agent, why didn’t you tell Galliana?’

‘You know why. Galliana can think straight about everything but Xi Xiang. It is her Achilles’ heel. She would have closed down the operation immediately.’

Rose shrugged, reluctantly agreeing.

‘Finally my work started to pay off,’ Jupitus continued. ‘The Black Lotus is the name of a project Xiang has been working on for years. Even now, I have only the sketchiest details. He was about to pass on vital information when the trail suddenly went completely cold. I have heard nothing from him since I left for London months ago, and have no idea where he is or whether he is alive or dead. The day we set sail for Italy, I asked Oceane Noire to check my secret bureau twice a day, in case anything had come through.’

Rose did not take the harpoon away, but she let it drop slightly.

‘And Rosalind,’ Jupitus continued, looking at her very seriously, ‘I have to say, it felt good to be doing
something important again. To be back in the game. It’s the young ones who have all the excitement. We’re nothing more than pen pushers these days.’

The phrase struck a chord with Rose. She smiled sadly and mulled over everything he had said. ‘So Oceane Noire is just working for you?’ she asked.

‘Do you know why I proposed to Oceane?’

‘I haven’t the slightest idea.’ Rose put her nose in the air. ‘I assumed she’d put a voodoo spell on you.’

‘Because she told me that if I didn’t ask her to marry me, she’d tell everyone I was spying for Xi Xiang – and prove it. I’d worked too hard on the operation to give it up then.’

Rose felt another rush of emotion and tears came to her eyes. ‘You – you mean,’ she stammered, ‘you
don’t
love Oceane Noire?’

It was something that rarely happened, but Jupitus’s eyes twinkled and his mouth curled into the warmest, most beautiful smile. ‘Rosalind, how could you think such a thing?’

21 C
IRCUS
M
AXIMUS
!

‘THERE SHE IS,’
said Charlie, peering out from the shadows. ‘Isn’t she just breathtaking?’

Topaz and Nathan nodded in agreement, the latter, for once, struck dumb. They were huddled in a portico in a dark corner of a long square that was packed with people. The boys were already wearing Charlie’s disguises; beards and moustaches that made them look much older – in particular Nathan’s, which was thick and black. Topaz had pulled her hair back and half hidden her face under the hood of her cape.

The object of their attention was the vast building at the far end of the square, towards which the crowd was hurrying.

The Circus Maximus.

They were facing its immense rear end, its
northwestern facade, and up close for the first time they could see that, even by the standards of ancient Rome, the building was a monster. Each of the two giant towers was surmounted by a striking golden statue of galloping horses and god-like charioteers, at least five times life size. The towers were connected by a series of twelve enormous arches, through which Charlie and the others could just glimpse the interior of the arena – tier upon tier of white marble, gleaming in the morning sun as the population of Rome packed themselves in.