After a few minutes of tinkering inside the suitcase, Lou looked up with a grim expression on her face. ‘It’s no good,’ she said to Frankie.
‘No good?’ He gulped. ‘You mean you can’t fix it?’
‘Actually I’m pretty sure I can,’ said Lou, ‘but I can’t do it here. I’ll need to round up some stuff. There’s a village nearby. Let’s go down there and I’ll search for what I need.’
Lou scooped up the case and then the siblings headed off to join the rest of the gang, who were hiding (not very well) behind the massive marble leg of a discus thrower.
‘Oh, hello there, Lou,’ said Drew, popping out and pretending to be surprised. ‘Fancy meeting you here!’
Lou laughed and rolled her eyes, and both Grandad and Alexi gave her a hug. ‘You look much better without the beard,’ the kid said.
‘Hello, my little friend,’ said Lou in perfect Ancient Greek, rubbing his head affectionately as the padlock translated. ‘Where is Alessandro?’
Before Frankie could explain, Alexi said bravely, ‘My donkey is taking a little break and I am as certain as the sun is hot that he will return when the time is right.’
Frankie crossed his fingers tight and threw him a grin.
The group hurried down the narrow path that led to the village, which was almost as crowded as the area around the Games. The shops were doing a roaring trade, and a number of travelling vendors had set up in the town square, displaying their wares on the ground.
Lou darted between the shops and vendors, speaking rapidly to the shopkeepers in Ancient Greek and paying for things with coins she had stashed in a little drawstring bag around her neck. Before long, she returned to the group and laid out the things she’d purchased on the ground. Frankie felt his heart sink a little. The items seemed so random. There was a piece of string, a shard of pottery and some kind of thick paste that smelled terrible.
The group squatted around the suitcase. The sparks had died down but the whole contraption was making an unpleasant popping, fizzing sound. When Grandad opened the lid and exposed its inner workings, things looked even worse. Broken wires curled out in all directions.
‘Are you sure the stuff you got will fix the suitcase, Lou?’ said Drew doubtfully.
‘Well, it’ll do most of the job,’ said Lou. ‘But I do need something to connect these,’ she added, pointing to two little cogs at the back of the case.
‘I’ve got some chewing gum,’ said Drew brightly.
Grandad gave him a withering look. ‘The Sonic Suitcase is a state-of-the-art piece of technology, birdbrain. Do ye really think chewing gum could fix it?’
‘There are some pretty weird things in there already,’ Drew pointed out. ‘Isn’t that a toothbrush working the gears?’
‘For yer information, toothbrushes happen to work very well in this kind of machine,’ Grandad shot back.
‘You should all relax and trust Louicles,’ Alexi reprimanded them, looking with interest at the suitcase. ‘I do not know what this thing is, but I know she’ll be able to fix it.’
Everyone went quiet as Lou and Grandad bent over the suitcase, muttering about the timessplactor node and the multidirectional dial. Lou replaced a broken rod with the shard of pottery and tied it in place with the string. Then she used the foul-smelling black paste to glue some of the wires back into position. Then, with a sigh, she sat back. Her face was smeared with grease, and even more of her hair had escaped from her hat.
‘Have you fixed it?’ asked Frankie and Drew simultaneously.
‘Sort of. The glue needs to dry before I know for sure. Also, we need one last part,’ Lou said. ‘Something stretchy. And no,’ she added quickly to Drew, ‘chewing gum won’t do it.’
Frankie groaned. They were so close getting back home, and so far away! Not to mention they had to stop stupid Lisa Chadwick and her stupid ponytail from getting into the Forbidden Shed. What if she was in there already, live-streaming what she’d found? What if –
Wait. Frankie frowned, and then he snapped his fingers. ‘Lou,’ he said excitedly, ‘do you have your hair in a ponytail under that hat?’
‘Well, yes,’ said Lou, surprised. ‘Why?’
‘And did you use an elastic band to make that ponytail?’
Realisation dawned on Lou’s face. ‘Frankie, you’re a genius!’ she declared.
She yanked off the hat and pulled the hairband out of her hair. ‘This is perfect.’ Sure enough, the elastic band was just big enough – and stretchy enough – to link the two rogue cogs together. She leapt to her feet.
‘Come on!’ she cried. ‘It will hold for a bit – hopefully long enough to get us back home.’
‘Where are you going?’ demanded Alexi, looking both annoyed and scared. ‘Can I come too?’
Everyone stared at Alexi in dismay.
‘We can’t just leave him here, can we?’ muttered Frankie to Lou.
‘No, we definitely can’t do that,’ Lou said firmly. ‘But the suitcase is already pretty shaky …’
At that moment, there was a sudden shout from Grandad. ‘HEY!’
Frankie whirled round to face him. Grandad Fish was purple in the face and trembling all over. He was trying to speak, but he was shaking so much it was impossible to understand him.
‘Grandad! What’s wrong?’ said Frankie, alarmed.
‘Look – look – LOOK!’ spluttered Grandad.
Everyone turned to where he was pointing. A vendor had set up a small table at the edge of the square, selling all manner of unusual goods – slightly rusty knives, rugs and animal skins. And then Frankie spotted what had set Grandad off.
Right behind a display of lumpy, misshapen pottery was a familiar-looking man with curly hair that looked like it had slipped from the top of his head.
‘It’s him! The con artist who stole our sculpture!’ yelled Grandad. ‘Get him!’
