Julian and Helen Fossfinder and their son Mark gave a final wave to Clive as he passed through security control at Rio airport to return to London. Their older son, aged twenty, was returning with the Bonaventures, ostensibly to get back to his medical studies, but Julian suspected the real reason had more to do with Clare, the Bonaventure’s nineteen-year-old daughter with whom Clive seemed to have become very friendly. Their younger son Mark had opted to stay with his parents in Rio while they had a holiday before returning to their university jobs in England. They certainly felt that they had earned a break. Julian, as the pilot for the party of adventurers from the two families, had flown thousands of miles in the previous fortnight, across the remote vastness of the Amazon jungle. He had managed to save the lives of his passengers when his plane had been hit by a giant pterosaur in a lost valley dating from the Cretaceous period sixty-five million years ago. He, Richard and Lucy had survived attacks by velociraptors in the lost valley and his wife, Helen, had been at the mercy of villains hidden in invisibility robes who had attempted to take her hostage. Finally, he had himself only narrowly escaped being killed by a brilliant but evil professor who, had he not walked backwards into Julian’s propeller, would have kidnapped and eventually killed Julian and left the rest of the party to die, marooned in the remote crater without a radio.
As they now bade farewell to those heading home Julian turned to Helen and Mark with a grin.
‘Phew! What a fortnight! And now I think we’ve earned some time doing nothing but sightseeing.’ The others heartily agreed and that evening they made plans for their holiday. The next day Julian apologized to the others.
‘I know I said we were now going to chill out, but there’s just one thing I must do before we start our break’.
Helen looked across at Mark with a resigned smile.
‘How did I guess there’d be something?’ she said. ‘Nothing changes! Well, hurry up and do it and then we can all relax.’
‘Actually, it’s not just me. You should come too! I’m sure Mark can occupy himself sunbathing by the pool and chatting up some of the local talent.’
Mark was only too happy to do this and after breakfast Julian and Helen went to the UN offices. They were both by now highly respected scientists who had benefited from UN support for a number of projects, including the one they had just completed. Up until now, the prehistoric crater that they had discovered with the Bonaventures had remained a secret because they had been terrified of its being exploited for commerce or tourism. They now realised, however, that it was only a matter of time before the crater was discovered by others and they had agreed with the Bonaventures that the UN should be told, with a request that the information should be restricted to a few senior officials until the future management of the site could be properly planned.
Helen and Julian insisted on speaking only to the most senior official at the Rio office, who listened in astonishment to their story about the prehistoric crater with its two extraordinary valleys. As they showed him dozens of photographs and videos of giant ground sloths, sabretooth tigers and dinosaurs of every size and shape, his attitude turned from an initial one of deep scepticism to one of wonder and admiration.
Helen and Julian also told him about the villains but did not mention the invisibility robes. They mentioned the visit to the crater by the policeman investigating the deaths of the villains, Inspector Colarinho, but explained that he knew nothing of the prehistoric nature of the site. At one point the official rang the detective, without disclosing the secret, and the inspector was able to confirm the details that Helen and Julian had given concerning the position and inaccessibility of the crater. When they had finally finished their story and requested that the information they had given him should remain confidential to all but the most senior people, he sat in deep thought for several minutes. He then asked an assistant to download all the photographic material he had been shown on to his computer and turned back to Helen and Julian.
‘They’re just not going to believe this,’ he said with a wry smile, ‘but let’s give it a go.’ Over the next hour he spoke to UN officials in New York, London and Paris, and then to the Brazilian Minister for the Environment. Every call followed the same pattern. First, frank disbelief at the other end, then the emailing of the photographic evidence, then an excited discussion about what to do next. The Rio officer proved to be a strong and eloquent advocate for Helen and Julian and they were relieved to have had the good fortune to be dealing with such an intelligent and sympathetic person.
Finally he turned back to Helen and Julian.
‘We will obviously need you to come to a top-level conference in the near future to discuss this in detail and to formally present your evidence,’ he said. ‘My colleagues point out that, before that meeting, it will be essential for our experts to verify that the photographs and videos are genuine. In the meantime I think I’ve managed to convince the appropriate authorities that the site should be put completely out of bounds. The Brazilian authorities are, with immediate effect, banning all flights within an area of fifty square miles centred on the crater on the grounds of national security. This won’t raise any eyebrows; there are lots of military sites that are restricted and everybody will just assume it’s just another defence project.’
Helen and Julian thanked him. They exchanged contact details and it was agreed that a strategy meeting would be arranged in the next month or so, to which both the Fossfinders and the Bonaventures would be invited.
As they left Helen and Julian were delighted with the outcome of their interview.
‘The crater is now safe, but is still effectively secret as far as the public are concerned,’ said Helen. ‘I can’t wait to tell the others but we’ll wait till they’ve recovered from their flight.’
Two weeks later, relaxed after their holiday, it was time to return to England. Before they left Rio, Julian arranged a meeting with Inspector Colarinho’s colleague in Rio, Inspector Poirot, to enquire about the professor. Poirot was the detective who had originally investigated an attempt by the professor to murder his research assistant, Lucinda, and steal her research.
‘I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news,’ said the detective after they had exchanged greetings. ‘The blighter’s escaped’.
‘What do you mean escaped?’ asked Julian with a frown. ‘I thought he was desperately ill under armed guard in hospital.’
‘He was,’ said the policeman uncomfortably. ‘He had a brain operation – that was about three weeks ago now – then made an amazingly good recovery; he’s a tough character all right. Then he suddenly disappeared under the very noses of the guards.’
On hearing the word “disappeared” Helen and Julian immediately looked at each other in horror. Not only was the professor at large once again but it sounded very much as though he had recovered an invisibility robe that he must have kept concealed in Rio. They were frustrated at not being able to explain about the invisibility factor to the policeman, especially as it would reassure him that his arrangements for guarding the professor had not been as inadequate as they now seemed. They both knew, however, that the invisibility robe must remain secret until Lucinda was ready to present it as a scientific development to the world of physics.
‘What about Lucinda Angstrom, the girl he tried to kill?’ asked Helen.
‘Well, that’s really confidential police business, but between ourselves we’ve told her to remain in hiding with her sister. The only other person who knows she’s still alive, apart from the university authorities, is her boyfriend, Peter Flint. He sends her work from the university. If the professor learns she’s still alive I’m sure he’ll have another go at her.’
Julian and Helen thanked the detective for his help, wished him luck in re-capturing the professor (though privately they knew that it would be almost impossible) and headed back to the hotel to pick up Mark and their baggage to head for the airport. Later, on the plane, they discussed the professor’s escape.
‘The first thing he’s going to do,’ said Julian, ‘is try and get some more ore to extract that special stuff – what was it – photogymnospar?’
‘Photogyraspar,’ corrected Helen with a smile.
‘Well, whatever it is, he’ll need more of it. He’ll probably try to return to the crater to pick up that crate of the stuff he left behind. He doesn’t know we brought it out with us and sent it to Peter Flint at the university.’ Julian was referring to the fact that the professor had tried to force Julian to transport a crate of ore out of the crater and had only been prevented from doing so by his near-fatal collision with the plane’s propeller.
‘It doesn’t matter now, either way,’ said Helen with a grin. ‘After our chat with the UN the crater is now a complete no-go area. He can’t get anywhere near it.’
‘Gosh you’re right!’ exclaimed Julian, ‘I hadn’t thought of that. ‘And that means …’
‘Yes,’ Helen finished for him. ‘If and when his present robe fades, or stops working, or whatever, he’s done for as far as making himself invisible is concerned. It’s probably just a question of time. How long nobody knows, except perhaps Lucinda. We’ll just have to hope he doesn’t get up to too much mischief in the meantime!’
And on that note they settled down to sleep as the plane headed east into the night sky.