21
The four spent the rest of the time in the tree house hatching their plans in more detail as the light grew stronger and the branches of the horse chestnut swayed majestically, dropping conkers here, there and everywhere, like a schoolboy losing his marbles.
After a lot of deliberation Alex held up the scrap of paper he’d been writing on as Sophie dictated. It was the strangest to-do list ever!
- Find out whether allowed to perform in front of Council as a group. If not, Sophie to ‘persuade’ President Pickle that it’s OK.
- Ask whether can borrow safe from council chamber. (Ask politely. Or persuade. Again.)
- Find quickest escape route out of Grand Theatre. And quickest route to Buckingham Palace.
- Alex to practise lock-picking from inside a pitch-black safe with the thing he’s made.
- Zack to think of how best to charm Queen of England with the news that the Young Magicians* know where her Crown Jewels are really stashed (without getting beheaded) so that she believes them about the thieves’ latest plan.
- Capture the thieves? Then do what with them?
- Return to Magic Circle and appear to come out of safe after a significant period of time – impressing Council.
- Zack to receive public apology from Council, having saved the country’s millions on two occasions.
- Cash reward/date of next Queen’s Honour List ceremony?
- Make sure DI Caulfield pays for taking the glory the first time round!
- Ask Magic Circle Council to offer full membership to young magicians – access to library, etc.
‘On point one …’ said Sophie. ‘I checked the constitution online, and there’s nothing that says magicians can’t perform as a group, providing they each give an individual performance as well.’
Alex looked a little deflated. Oh well, he thought, encouraged, he was a lot better prepared than at the start of the week.
‘Right, now – regarding point three, getting to Buckingham Palace,’ said Jonny. ‘I might be able to help there. It’ll be quick, but it might … it might be quite dangerous.’
Alex looked up. Given that Jonny was quite comfortable with leaping on to a rickety banister and pushing himself off without a care in the world, this was worrying.
‘How dangerous?’ asked Zack, smirking, his dark eyes shining over at his best friend.
‘Well, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now,’ said Jonny slowly. ‘You know how we’re pretty near the river?’
‘Go on.’ Sophie hadn’t got a clue where Jonny was headed.
‘Well, OK … It’s a bit science-y, but just bear with me on this.’
‘Fast becoming our motto!’ said Sophie, laughing.
Jonny turned over the piece of paper Alex had been writing on and grabbed a thick crayon from the pot on his shelf. ‘Let’s imagine the Magic Circle is located here, say –’ he drew a big cross at the top – ‘and that Buckingham Palace is here –’ another cross, but this time at the bottom of the page – ‘and the river is here –’ a thick wavy line at the very, very bottom of the page beneath Buckingham Palace – ‘what does that tell you about these two locations?’
‘That one lies north of the other?’ offered Zack slowly.
‘Yes …?’ said Jonny, suggesting that Zack was technically correct but that this wasn’t the answer he was looking for. ‘Think where the river is.’
‘South of Buckingham Palace,’ Sophie replied.
Jonny let the statement hang in the air.
‘Which means …?’ she went on.
‘Which means that since the river is the lowest point of the city, then travelling towards the Magic Circle is like going uphill.’
‘How … How does that help us?’ Alex was puzzled.
‘Well,’ said Jonny, ‘it means that going from the Magic Circle to Buckingham Palace is downhill.’
The other three watched as he picked up a piece of extra-fine fisherman’s wire to make it look like the porridge ladle was floating. ‘Ever heard of a zip-line?’
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding, Jonny!
‘Hang on, mate – are you suggesting we get a zip-line from the Magic Circle all the way to Buckingham Palace?’ Zack couldn’t stop laughing.
‘There’s no reason why not!’ countered Jonny. ‘Providing I use enough fixed locations to distribute the weight evenly, it’s all downhill. We’ll be there in no time! We can always come via this place if we want to alter our angle of final approach.’ He banged on the side of the tree house with his fist, causing one of the small fixed panels to snap off and fall rapidly to the ground below, startling the dawdler again. Whoops! If Jonny was ever trying to impress them with his building skills, now wasn’t the best time to show that bits dropped off his constructions every now and again.
‘You won’t have much time to rig it up,’ said Sophie nervously.
‘In that case, you guys go ahead to the Magic Circle and tie up things there,’ said Jonny. ‘I’ll get going tying things up here!’
‘Well, just be back in time for the auditions – otherwise we’ll be well and truly –’
A fat pigeon landed on one of the nearby branches, causing it to sway and shower a load of conkers on to a baffled walker below. Plop, plop, plop!
‘OK then!’ said Zack, not quite believing their stint in the tree house this morning had culminated in a plan to pay the Queen of England a visit via a zip-line. ‘Good luck!’