At dinner at Brant Buchanan’s that evening Holly tried hard to be on her best behaviour. She managed to be polite as they arrived at the mansion and as they took their places around the impressive table in the centre of the cavernous dining hall. A waiter brought in the starters and announced that everyone would be eating foie gras except for Holly, who was a vegetarian and was served asparagus.
Archie found it funny the way the waiter said foie gras in a French accent and asked, ‘What’s fwa grar then?’
‘It’s a kind of pâté,’ explained Mr Buchanan. ‘It’s made from a duck’s liver that has been enlarged by force-feeding the animal before slaughter.’ The billionaire scooped up a bit on a wafer and ate it. ‘Delicious,’ he said.
‘That’s so cruel,’ exclaimed Holly, unable to contain herself. ‘Only a monster would do something like that.’
‘Holly,’ said her father, glaring at her.
‘It’s fine, Malcolm,’ said Mr Buchanan. ‘We are all entitled to our opinions. Some do find the process rather barbaric, but then, I say, why is it any worse than wringing a chicken’s neck? In which case, are you saying that all meat eaters are monsters?’
Holly looked at Archie, who had a piece of the pâté held up to his mouth. She scowled at him.
He put it back down guiltily.
Holly turned back to Mr Buchanan. ‘It’s worse because you’re not just killing the animal, you’re torturing the poor thing first. It’s as bad as the experiments you do on animals.’
‘So, I hear Global Sands stock went up this morning,’ said Mr Bigsby, trying desperately to change the subject.
‘Yes, it’s been a good day for us,’ replied Mr Buchanan.
For the rest of the meal, the adults went on about inflation and real estate and emerging markets and all the other boring things that adults talk about. Holly and Archie talked amongst themselves. After dessert, Mr Buchanan suggested that they retire to the lounge for coffee.
‘Can we go and look around?’ asked Holly.
‘Feel free,’ said Buchanan. ‘I’m afraid that having no children myself I have no toys or computer games but I’m sure you can find some way to amuse yourselves.’
As they left the room and headed up the stairs, Archie said, ‘That was easy.’
It was a huge mansion. They took one room each, trying to make it look like they were playing a game of hide-and-seek, searching for places to hide. The rooms were stylishly but sparsely decorated, which made them quick to check, and it wasn’t long before they were heading back downstairs. But the search downstairs proved equally fruitless.
‘The problem is we’re looking for a reel of film but it could be anything by now – a DVD, an MP3, anything,’ said Archie.
‘I know but we’ve still got to try,’ said Holly.
‘Where’s left?’ asked Archie.
‘The library,’ said Holly.
They found their way out of the main building, across the floodlit courtyard to the cylindrical building surrounded by scaffolding.
They pushed the tarpaulin back and found that the door was unlocked. Holly stepped inside and looked up at the night sky, through the glass ceiling. Archie flicked the light switch on, illuminating the curved walls of books.
‘Have you noticed something odd?’ said Holly, looking up.
‘What?’
‘There are no cameras.’
Archie saw she was right. Unlike every other room in the building there wasn’t a single security camera.
‘But didn’t he say that it was full of expensive books? Why wouldn’t he have cameras?’
‘Because he’s got something to hide,’ replied Holly. ‘Look for a clue.’
There were books on everything from fly-fishing to fencing, histories of every country in the world, biographies of great leaders, explanations of astrology, astronomy, mythology. In fact, every subject in the world. Then something caught Holly’s eye. It was a red book spine with a small triangle of white at the bottom. It was sticking out slightly on a high shelf just out of reach.
‘Dragonlore,’ she gasped, trying to jump and reach the book. ‘It’s too high up.’
‘Try this,’ said Archie, pulling out four larger books from a lower shelf and placing them on top of each other.
Holly stood on top of the pile and grabbed the spine of the book. She tried to pull it out. ‘It’s stuck,’ she said, only succeeding in tilting it at an angle.
‘It’s not a book, it’s a switch,’ said Archie.
A section of books had vanished, revealing a blank screen. The screen flickered and then a desert landscape appeared.
‘It’s the film,’ said Holly.
They watched as the camera moved across the scene. They heard Theo Leggett’s voice giving instructions to the cameraman. The shot zoomed in and found the two spiky dragons moving on the shimmering horizon, sending clouds of dust up as they fought.
‘That’s so cool,’ said Archie.
‘But where’s the actual film?’ said Holly.
A voice outside interrupted them. ‘Holly, Archie, come along now. It’s time to go home.’ It was Big Hair.
‘Come on, we’d better put everything back,’ said Archie.
‘But we haven’t found the film,’ protested Holly.
‘At least we know it’s in here somewhere,’ said Archie.
Holly pushed the false book back and replaced the other books as they had found them.
The desert disappeared and, once again, was replaced by the image of book spines.
Holly and Archie went back into the main building, where the others were standing in the hall.
‘I trust that you found a way to amuse yourselves in my stuffy old house,’ said Mr Buchanan.
‘We played hide-and-seek,’ said Holly.
‘It was fun,’ added Archie.
‘I’m glad it wasn’t too boring for you,’ replied the billionaire.