CHAPTER TWO
21Alice clambered to her feet and ran out of the library and down through the hotel. There was no sign of Claude. She dashed out of the front door and turned towards the pavilion where the cable car hung, creaking in the wind. There was only one way off this mountain and she had to get to it before Uncle Robert did. As she rounded the corner of the hotel she spotted him climbing over a railing near one of the café terraces. She picked up her speed and raced down the path. In moments she had caught up with him. Alice reached out to grab his coat, but he dodged away from her round one of the large ornate plant pots. Alice leapt over it, caught the tip of her toe and fell sprawling to the ground. As she looked up, Robert Éclair reached the edge of the mountain, where the cable car was beginning its descent. He took a leap towards it and grabbed at the car.
The car rocked on its wire and Alice cried out as her uncle slipped, lost his grasp and fell. Everything seemed to go into slow motion. She saw his arms flail, fingers clutching at empty air, and then the car swung backwards and his hands closed on the metal bar that ran underneath it. Alice 22scrambled to her feet and dashed forwards. She reached out to grab at the car and was about to leap when she felt arms around her waist pulling her back and Claude’s voice yelling, “Don’t be a fool, Alice!”
As the car swung away from the mountain and began its descent, Uncle Robert swung himself upwards into the safety of the car.
Alice shook herself free from Claude and glared at him.
“I could have got to him!” she cried.
Claude shook his head. “It was too far, and even if you had made it, what then? You would be alone in a cable car with a dangerous agent and out of reach of any help. There are times when we need to act, Alice, and times when we need to think.”
Alice let out a huff of exasperation. “Well, you must at least have agents in the village,” she yelled. “Come on, we should phone someone. The operator at the bottom of the cable car must be one of our agents. Alert them! He mustn’t get away.”
She turned and ran, but was halfway across the lawn before she realised that Claude was not following her. 23
“Claude, hurry!”
“There’s no use, Alice,” he shouted. “I tried the phones just a moment ago and they were down. I suspect that when we investigate we will find they were cut. There is no way to get a message out to anyone.”
He kicked at the ground in annoyance. “He was here, right under our noses, and we never saw him. What a mess.”
Alice stopped running. “He always slips out of our grasp,” she said miserably.
“We’ll get him one day, don’t worry about that. No one can hide forever,” said Claude. “He won’t come back here though. His cover’s blown now. He must have been sneaking round gathering secrets from the guests and then passing them out.”
“I wonder why I didn’t spot him,” said Alice. “But then, Maman has kept me very busy in the kitchens.”
Claude sighed. “If there is a chance that your uncle is involved in my friend Jan’s disappearance and it is linked to the letters that his daughter is receiving, then I hope you understand that she could be in great danger. I think I should tell you the next step of your mission.” 24
He led Alice back towards the hotel.
“That young cyclist I mentioned,” he said as they walked. “I want you to keep a close eye on her. With her father missing and these strange notes appearing, I think there is more to it than just poison pen letters, but I can’t work out what. Someone may be trying to frighten her away from competing for the Olympics.”
“But why?”
“Well, the Olympics are keeping her safe. She is staying at the athletes’ camp with her brother, Hugo. She’s visible, and everyone who enters that camp – every journalist, every coach, every baker – is checked. If she gives up and goes home it will be easier for the enemy to take her and potentially use her as a bargaining chip to get to her father. I don’t know yet if they are linked, but I would just feel safer if Adele stayed at the camp till their mother gets back from whatever mountain she’s climbing at the moment.”
Alice nodded.
“You said she has a brother?”
“A twin, in fact. Adele is the athlete. Hugo is the artist, a talented designer.” 25
“They must be so worried,” said Alice, sure that she would go out of her mind with worry if Maman ever went missing. “Will they know I’m a spy?”
“Goodness, no,” said Claude. “I’ve arranged for you to work your magic at the training camp gala banquets. The organisers want to wow their sponsors and they jumped at the chance to have Alice Éclair, Paris’s rising star baker, showcasing her cakes and pastries. And if you should happen to drop in on the daughter of one of my oldest friends while you are there, no one will find it strange. Oh, and you should be wary of Adele’s coach. He’s a strange one. Very vain and with quite a bad temper. Try not to get on his bad side.”
Alice thought for a minute. “How did you know that Adele was receiving strange notes?”
Claude grinned. “You’ll work that out when you get to the training camp,” he said.
“The Olympics?” asked Madame Éclair. “Absolutely not, Alice. They are being held in Berlin! Germany is not safe at the moment and there is no way I could let you travel there.”
Alice shook her head. “It’s a training camp for the 26athletes trying out for the French team,” she said. “It’s just on the outskirts of the city, so I’ll be in Paris all the time. I only need a week or two away from the pâtisserie.”
“And what will you be making for athletes?” asked her mother, raising an eyebrow.
Alice laughed. “Even athletes like sugar and butter,” she said. “And anyway, it will mostly be for the sponsors and visitors. There will be lots of important people visiting the training area and the organisers are keen to impress them.”
“Well, you’ll certainly do that,” said her mother. “Oh, very well. I can spare you for a couple of weeks, and it will be an excellent advertisement for the pâtisserie, not that we need much of that. We’ve been run off our feet lately.”
It was true. Since Vive Comme L’Éclair’s triumph at the World Fair and the appearance of Alice’s cakes in a hit film about Marie Antoinette, Alice and her mother had been extremely busy. Vive Comme L’Éclair was quickly becoming the most popular pâtisserie in Paris.
“They’d better not have you making ‘healthy’ cakes,” muttered Madame Éclair. 27
In spite of her worries about Stella, Alice found she was smiling. If only her mother was on their team. The enemy would not stand a chance against the steel of Madame Éclair.