Kensy reached forward from the back seat to touch her brother’s arm. ‘You could have been killed,’ she said.
Max squeezed her hand and smiled. ‘But I wasn’t and, here, I got your watch,’ he said, passing it back to her.
She received it with shaking hands and held on to it tightly, not trusting herself to put it on again just yet.
‘Well, thank heavens for those suits is all I can say,’ Romilly Vanden Boom declared as she drove them to the pits while the inferno that was Esmerelda raged unchallenged.
A garage door opened and she steered inside what appeared at first glance to be a mobile medical centre. Romilly hopped out of the car and retrieved a device that resembled a torch from a locked cupboard. ‘You’ll need to hop out and put this on so you’re not affected by the light,’ the woman instructed, handing Kensy an eye mask.
Once Kensy did as she was bid, Mrs Vanden Boom told her to hold out her arms as she flicked a switch on the cylindrical instrument and pointed it at the girl. A hologram of Kensy appeared beside her. The teacher examined the image, bringing up the statistics on Kensy’s heart rate, blood pressure, brain function and various other faculties. When she was satisfied that nothing was amiss, Romilly switched it off and the image disappeared back into the tube.
‘Whoa – that’s incredible. I just saw your heart beating and the blood flowing through your veins,’ Max said.
‘Yes, we find the RUOK 4.0 very handy, particularly when assessing injuries in the field,’ Romilly said, handing Max his own mask and giving him the once-over. When the woman was finished, she stepped back. ‘You’re both fine, although, Kensington, you’ve suffered quite a shock. And, Max, what were you thinking? It’s only a watch. I know it’s special, but we could have got Kensy another – perhaps not exactly the same but close.’
‘No, we couldn’t!’ Kensy blurted. She glanced away from the quizzical look on their teacher’s face. ‘Mum and Dad gave it to me for my birthday,’ she added softly.
‘Ah, I see.’ Romilly punched a couple of buttons on the side of the device. She peered at the screen intently.
‘Has Esmerelda ever done anything like that before?’ Max asked.
Romilly shook her head. ‘Not to my knowledge. There will be a full investigation, and we should be able to get the data from the black-box recorder. Hopefully we’ll find out exactly what happened. Kensington, you did an amazing job – the speed you were going . . . Well, let’s just say there could have been a very different outcome.’
A few sips of water and a honey sandwich procured from a chiller box in the Land Rover seemed to have a restorative effect on the girl. Kensy’s mind went from numb to churning in seconds.
‘I think Esmerelda tried to kill us,’ Kensy stated. ‘Lucky we got her first.’
‘That isn’t possible,’ Mrs Vanden Boom said firmly. ‘Her technology is state of the art. I suspect there has been human intervention.’
‘So, someone else tried to kill us,’ the girl said, reeling at the prospect. ‘Great.’
Romilly thought for a moment. It certainly did appear that way. She directed the children back into the car and returned the RUOK 4.0 to its drawer.
Kensy looked at her brother. ‘I wish Fitz was here.’
‘Me too,’ the boy replied. Maybe, by some miracle, Fitz would find their parents and they’d all be home for Christmas. Even Max wasn’t immune to the odd fanciful notion.
‘Do you think this could have had anything to do with those headlights we saw going over the hill before dawn?’ Kensy whispered. ‘When I ended up in Miss Witherbee’s room last night, she was talking on the phone and told whoever it was not to worry and that Shugs was on it first thing. What if it was him – again?’
‘We have no proof that it was Shugs in the first place. Whoever did this must have known we were on driver training today,’ Max said. ‘We can’t go around accusing Miss Witherbee or Shugs until we have some evidence.’
Kensy slumped in her seat and folded her arms. ‘I hate that you’re right,’ she said, much to her brother’s surprise.
The children hushed as Romilly hopped in behind the wheel.
Kensy leaned forward in her seat. ‘Mrs Vanden Boom, do you think we could keep this quiet for now – at least the bit about the sabotage? I know you have to tell Granny, but the kids don’t need to know, do they?’
Romilly started the engine. ‘Of course. I’m sure your grandmother will leave no stone unturned looking for the culprit.’
‘You can just tell everyone Kensy’s a terrible driver and that poor old Esmerelda came off second best,’ Max said, garnering a glare from his sister.
‘Don’t worry,’ Romilly said, ‘I’ll get Esmerelda – or whatever’s left of her – locked up tight. Perhaps you’re right about a cover – although Kensy is a magnificent driver.’
Kensy grinned at Max. ‘Yeah, we might have to tell everyone it was you driving. It’ll be more believable.’
Romilly drove the children to the house, where they were met by Song at the back door. He’d cleared the decks, making sure they could get upstairs without any questions. As was to be expected, the explosion had caused a fuss and there had already been quite a bit of speculation.
‘Miss Kensington, Master Maxim, I am pleased to see that you are both in one piece,’ the man said as he helped Kensy from the car. ‘Confucius says by three methods we may learn wisdom. First by reflection, which is the noblest; second by imitation, which is the easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. It sounds as though you have experienced number three.’
The poor girl was still shaking. Song led the way upstairs but instead of turning left towards their bedrooms he turned right.
‘Where are we going?’ Max asked.
‘Dame Spencer has requested you use her suite to get some rest. The house is getting busier and her wing is very quiet. I have organised some clothes for you both, and may I suggest a bath? It might help settle your nerves.’ The man continued to the end of the hall and gave a perfunctory knock on the door before pushing it open.
The trio was greeted by Wellie and Mac, who danced excitedly at their feet. Sitting in front of the window was a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, the smell of its pine needles filling the room.
Dame Spencer was downstairs greeting the guests with the assistance of Song’s twin brother, Sidney, her city butler. He had arrived earlier from London.
‘I will be back shortly with some soup.’ Song bowed and exited.
‘Bags having a bath first,’ Kensy said, and promptly disappeared.
Max sunk down onto one of the couches, exhausted by his mind replaying the lead-up to the accident in an infernal loop. ‘There has to be a double agent – someone working for Pharos who, for whatever reason, wants us dead,’ he mumbled to himself. ‘But why? What have we done?’
The events of the morning sat like a brick on his chest. He closed his eyes for just a moment. When he opened them, his nostrils twitched at the smell of pumpkin soup. There was a steaming bowl sitting in front of him on the coffee table. Kensy was on the other couch, dressed in a tracksuit, her hair wrapped in a white towel atop her head.
‘How long have I been asleep?’ Max asked, sitting up and discreetly wiping the trickle of drool that had collected on his chin.
‘Half an hour,’ she said, and pointed to the left side of her mouth. ‘I think you missed a bit.’
Max stretched and stood up, walking to the window where a steady stream of black cabs was puttering up the driveway, delivering the rest of the guests. Mr Nutting was back in PE-teacher mode, refereeing a vigorous game of football on the lower lawn beyond the Atlas fountain. Every now and then one of the children would peel off to greet their parents.
Max turned away from the scene. ‘What do you make of that headline about our grandparents?’
Kensy shrugged and slurped her soup. ‘Mum never said anything about her parents being murdered. I suppose she might’ve been trying to protect us – if it’s true.’
‘We should do some research.’ Max glanced around the room, wondering if by any chance his grandmother had a laptop lying about.
‘Or ask Song or Mim – they might tell us,’ Kensy said.
There was a knock on the door and Mim poked her head inside. Unusually for her, the woman’s grey hair was pulled back into a loose bun instead of snaking down her back in a long plait. She’d swapped her customary overalls and wellington boots for a pretty floral dress. ‘Hello,’ she said, walking in. ‘I hear you two have had quite the adventure this morning. Are you all right?’
The twins nodded. When she’d had her bath earlier, Kensy had noticed some red marks that were likely to turn into bruises on her right shoulder, and she imagined her brother would be black and blue on his left arm given how hard he’d smashed against the side of the car, but at least there was nothing on their faces. For all intents and purposes, they both looked perfectly fine.
‘Have you heard from Fitz?’ Kensy asked.
‘No, but I’m sure he’ll check in later,’ the woman said. She perched on the arm of the chair beside the girl.
‘Mim, can we ask you something?’ Max said.
‘Yes, of course,’ Mim replied, ‘but that doesn’t mean I’ll know the answer.’
‘Were Mum’s parents really murdered in a botched robbery?’
Mim brushed her hair off her face. ‘Who told you that?’
‘We saw something – and we don’t know if it’s true because Mum never said anything to us about it,’ the boy explained.
Mim nodded slowly. ‘It was a terrible business. They were wonderful people.’
Kensington felt her stomach drop. She left the last spoonful of her soup and put the bowl down on the coffee table. ‘You knew them?’
Mim stared ahead as if thinking about something. ‘Only a little.’
‘What were they like?’ Kensy asked.
‘Lovely. Terribly clever and both very funny. Your grandfather, Hector, was a gifted storyteller and your grandmother, Marisol, was quite possibly the most elegant woman I’ve ever known. She could make a lab coat look like couture,’ Mim mused.
‘Were they part of this too?’ Max asked. He waved his hands around the room.
‘Oh, no, your mother wasn’t born into Pharos – she married into the organisation, same as Cordelia,’ Mim said. ‘Cordelia was a young cadet journalist working at the paper. She was a feisty girl – so determined to succeed in what was back then very much a man’s world. You remind me a lot of her, Kensy. She’d earned herself a scholarship to study at Oxford and had made quite the journey from her home in Sydney all the way to England. Anyway, she and my brother fell madly in love and the rest is history.’
Max frowned as he remembered something. ‘Mrs Grigsby at the newsagency in London told us that Granny Cordelia’s parents were killed – run over by a bus, I think she said. Is that true?’
Mim paused before answering. ‘I’m afraid we never really got to the bottom of it. It was a terrible tragedy and just so unlikely.’
The twins looked at each other in alarm. There was so much about their family they didn’t yet know, and surely that was one too many accidents for it to be mere coincidence.
‘Did Mum’s parents know about Dad and what he did?’ Kensy asked.
‘As far as your grandparents were concerned, your father was a newspaper man, like my brother had been.’
Max flinched. ‘Was he?’ All their lives the children had thought their father was a paramedic, but of course that could have been his cover once he and their mother left the organisation.
‘Your father was – is – a very clever man. He met your mother at university, where they were both studying medicine, but then your grandmother needed him and he put his medical ambitions on hold and ended up working at the paper with her.’
‘So, Mum took after her parents except it said they were medical scientists,’ Max said. ‘What sort of research were they involved in?’
Mim put her hand on Kensy’s shoulder. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know anything more.’
Kensy looked at the woman, a wave of emotion rolling over her. No matter how hard she tried to stop them, tears filled her eyes.
‘Oh, sweetheart.’ The woman opened her arms and Kensy tumbled into them.
‘I just want Mum and Dad to come home,’ the girl sobbed. ‘I miss them so much.’
Max’s eyes began to prickle. Mim looked at the boy and beckoned for him to join them. She wrapped an arm around him too. ‘My darlings, have faith in that son of mine,’ she said, hugging them tight. ‘He’ll do everything he can to find them. I know it.’