The professor was now consulting his GPS with ever-increasing frequency and getting progressively more excited as they neared their goal. Although the roads they actually drove along seemed to bear little relation to those shown on Sid’s maps, eventually they reached a spot that corresponded precisely with Peter Flint’s map reference. The location seemed unremarkable. They had driven up a long hill with dense forest on either side and then came out into a more scrub-like, rocky area.
‘See if you can pull out onto that rocky stuff,’ Luke said to Sid. ‘I think we’ve actually got here.’ Sid pulled off the road and followed a stony gully up a further small rise in the ground and then stopped. Luke jumped out and walked to the top of the ridge. An astonishing view lay in front of him. He was standing at the edge of a small narrow gorge. A river coursed one hundred feet below, parallel to the road they had just turned off. To the left, the west, the river ran down a series of cataracts along the gorge before disappearing into the depths of the rainforest which, from his elevated vantage point, he could see stretching to the horizon in all directions. On the opposite side of the ravine, easily accessible from this side by large boulders straddling the river, was a cliff similar to the one he was standing on. The side of the cliff had been eroded over the centuries and various rock strata were easily visible. To the right, the east, the ridge he was standing on gradually diminished in height and disappeared into the forest. On the opposite side, however, the stratified cliff ended abruptly in an escarpment that plunged down almost vertically to a giant swamp that stretched for several miles to the north-east. The river itself arose from the swamp, its greenish-brown waters starting their immense journey to the sea by gushing through the boulders immediately below him. The professor felt a surge of excitement as he gazed at the striking geological feature of the cliff opposite. This was obviously it. Even the colour of the principal visible rock stratum reminded him of the rocks he had collected in the Amazon crater. He looked down. There was a flat grassy area adjacent to the river that was free of trees, probably a meander left where the river had changed its course. It was adjacent to the boulders that led across the river and was an ideal site for a camp. Getting the stuff down from the truck to the riverbank would require some labour and he decided a psychological boost was necessary. He knew from long experience that there was nothing like greed to get things moving along. He turned back to the men who had all alighted and were now coming to see what lay beyond the ridge.
‘This is it, boys,’ Luke said cheerfully. ‘We’ve arrived – at last! And there …,’ he waved expansively at the cliff opposite, ‘… is the best diamond ore on the planet – enough for me to make millions of gems. In a month we’ll be the richest men on earth.’ The excitement in the group was almost palpable. The thugs did high fives, cheering and congratulating Luke on his navigation. ‘But now,’ Luke continued, ‘there’s work to do. We’ve got to build a camp and a cabin where I can process the minerals we’re going to extract.’ He didn’t add that the only minerals any of them were going to receive at the end of their labours would be cupronickel and lead in the shape of a bullet. His psychology was perfect and soon the men were eagerly unloading boxes from the lorry and manhandling them down the steep rocky slope to the river bank below.
The professor took a geologist’s hammer and a pair of binoculars and went with Sid across the river to reconnoitre, picking his way carefully from boulder to boulder. He inspected the entire cliff face with the binoculars, then grunted with satisfaction. Viewed in close-up, the rocks comprising the principal stratum looked identical to the samples he had left in the South American crater. He scrambled up to the nearest seam and hacked at it with his hammer. As he did so Sid looked over to see how the men were coping with the hill and his eye caught a glint on the hilltop. He counted the men; they were all visible. He saw the glint again.
‘What’s that, Luke?’ The professor turned. ‘That glinting over there, above the men.’ The professor looked through his binoculars. The sun had glinted off somebody’s spectacles; somebody who, with two companions, was looking down at the men below. As they began to look up again Luke recognized them instantly and groaned. He immediately turned back to the cliff – he was pretty certain they hadn’t seen him.
‘What is it?’ said Sid.
‘It’s strangers,’ said the professor. Don’t look!’ he added sharply as Sid started to turn to stare. ‘I don’t want them to know we’ve seen them.’
‘Who in Gawd’s name is out ’ere in the middle of nowhere?’ asked Sid in astonishment. Luke thought rapidly: he needed Sid on side for the moment.
‘It’s prospectors,’ he said. ‘I recognize them from another dig. They’re after our diamonds.’ He paused; he might as well use the opportunity to gain a little extra credibility with Sid. ‘And the reason they’re here is the same reason we’re here. They are among the world’s leading mineralogists and, like me, they’ve obviously worked out that this is likely to be the richest lode of diamonds in the world – even without the benefit of my enhanced extraction technique.’ he added hurriedly. Sid was clearly impressed.
‘What are we goin’ to do?’ asked Sid, ‘should we follow ’em?’
‘No,’ said the professor. ‘They’re smart. They’ll be away before we reach the top of the hill. But they’ll be back. They were just spying out the land. And when they come, we’ll be waiting for them.’
As they made their way back across the river Luke was feverishly working out what had happened. He remembered telling them all about the ore needed for invisibility robes in the crater so they must be after the photogyraspar, just as he was. But how on earth …? In a flash it came to him. Peter Flint of course – he was in contact with both the Bonaventures and the Fossfinders and he had copied them in on the e-mail about the Congo deposits. Well, if they thought they could start making invisibility robes they had another think coming. But what to do about it? He was more than prepared to kill the three of them without compunction but he knew there were others in the family and that the three he had just seen were almost certainly part of a larger expedition. No, he had to deal with this problem at its source and that meant using Hans. But how? His mobile was useless out here. His problem was solved by a shout from Fred who was leading the working party of men they were now approaching.
‘Half the stuff we need for buildin’ the camp – saws an’ axes an’ spades an’ stuff was in the other truck – the one with the snakes.’ Sid swore but the professor saw his chance.
‘Let them carry on as best they can with what they’ve got,’ he said to Sid, ‘and I’ll come with you in the truck. We’ll find the nearest town and nick all the stuff we need.’ Annoying though the situation was, Sid could see there was no alternative course of action and soon he was driving the truck out on to the road with the professor next to him. It was over four hours before they reached a settlement, fortunately a small town which even had a general store. As Sid was choosing the equipment he needed Luke slipped on his invisibility robe and walked into the police station. He picked up a phone and dialled a number in Kinshasa.
‘Hans,’ he whispered, facing the wall in case his disembodied voice attracted attention. The phone he held against the wall as though it were still on its hook.
‘Hans, I can’t go into detail but our little plan is threatened by some characters I know of old. They’re called Bonaventure and Fossfinder. I want them out of the country. See if you can get their visas cancelled or something, and chuck them out. If you don’t, we can kiss our fortune goodbye.’
‘Bonaventure,’ said Hans thoughtfully. It was an unusual name. He didn’t tell Luke that he knew exactly where the Bonaventures were. His inferiority complex made him want to impress Luke by appearing to manage to track them down. ‘I’ll get straight on to it. Ring me when you next can for news. Good luck.’
‘Auf weidersehen’ said Luke and put the phone down.
‘Bonaventure,’ Hans repeated slowly to himself. He was determined that nothing should stop Luke creating the wealth that would be his own salvation. ‘I think I can do better than just getting them kicked out,’ he murmured with quiet satisfaction as he picked up the phone again.
Luke slipped out of the police station and, still invisible, returned to the store where Sid was deep in conversation with the shopkeeper about the relative merits of two spades. A pile of items he had already selected was lying at the base of the counter, hidden from the shopkeeper’s view. Luke picked up several items from the pile and took them out to the truck, taking three trips in all to transfer everything. He then removed his robe and rejoined Sid who was now looking about for his other goods. Luke murmured in his ear, upon which Sid hurriedly paid for both the spades he was holding and they made a rapid exit.
‘I can’t believe you did that right under his nose,’ he said to Luke as they got in the truck. ‘You must be a bloody magician.’ As they drove off Sid saw the shopkeeper come out and look about, scratching his head. As they hadn’t quite got everything they needed they stopped at a couple of farms as they left town and each time the professor told Sid to keep his head down and keep the engine running. Then he got out, slipped his robe on, and helped himself to various tools.
‘You must ’ave ’ad a very interestin’ life,’ said Sid as the professor climbed back into the cab after his second successful sortie. ‘I thought I knew ’ow to nick stuff, but I ain’t never seen anyone op’rate like you before.’ The Professor gave a modest smile.
‘I expect it’s because I don’t really look the part,’ he explained. ‘If people don’t expect to see a thief, or see someone who doesn’t look like a thief, they just don’t see one even if he’s there.’
Sid still looked perplexed as they began the long and arduous drive back to the camp with their booty.