Chapter 5

“Where are we going?” Terry shouted.

“The harbor!” she yelled back. One of the eight spots on the map was right in the middle of the bay, on a little rock far from shore. She was nervous about landing on such a tiny space but didn’t have time to worry about it.

Their path to the bay brought them through more mountains. Terry yelped as Gadget took sharp corners and flew into tight passages between cliffs, but at last they sailed past the mountains and over the harbor. A small, rocky beach surrounded the bay. The water was roiling.

“What are you doing?” Terry cried as she flew past the beach and continued over the water.

“You’ll see!” The small, snail-shaped island came into view, and she started their descent. She braked and this time made a soft landing on the island. She got off and looked around.

“There’s nothing here,” Terry said. He was right—the rocky island had no grass or trees, and the surface was too hard for anything to be buried there. “That’s two dead ends in a row,” he complained.

Gadget narrowed her eyes. This is why I don’t like working in groups. Seems like I do all the work and just get criticized. Guess I’ll keep that decoder to myself.

Terry slid up to the driver’s seat. “I want to pick the next destination.” As he nudged the cloud-skimmer forward, Gadget noticed a thin crack forming a perfect circle at the very center of the island. She’d missed it before because the cloud-skimmer had been directly on top of it.

“Look!” She pointed. Terry got off the cloud-skimmer and saw it too. They hauled the machine aside. Terry dropped to his knees and ran his fingers along the circle. “How do we open it?”

“I don’t know.”

Terry leaned back on his knees and pointed at a boulder. “Maybe if we both push, we can move that. See if there’s anything under it.”

“Good idea.” Together, they were able to roll it over, revealing a crank. Terry turned the crank, grunting with effort. The round door slid open.

“Bingo!” Gadget cheered. She hurried over and peered into the hole. Water slapped at the lip of the hole. Terry crouched down and reached into the water, deeper and deeper until his sleeve was wet to the shoulder.

He stood up and shook the water off. “It’s too deep. Somebody has to go in.”

“Hullo!” shouted a voice behind them. Gadget turned and saw what looked like a spaceman waving at them. He had a fishbowl-style helmet and a baggy, gray body suit. Tubes led from the helmet to the back of the suit.

This game just got weird, she thought.

The spaceman removed his helmet. “How lovely! I see you have one of those sky-hoppers.”

“Cloud-skimmer,” Terry corrected. “What are you wearing?”

“It’s an underwater exploring suit.”

“I’ll let you take a ride on the cloud-skimmer if I can try that diving suit,” Gadget said.

“It’s a deal!” The diver started to take off the outfit.

“I could go,” Terry offered.

“I’ll be fine,” she said.

While she climbed into the suit, Terry showed the diver how to use the cloud-skimmer. Gadget put on the helmet and lowered herself into the water.

When she hit the bottom about twenty feet down, she found a tunnel. A light on her helmet flipped on automatically and lit up the path. She walked along the ocean floor, hopping over urchins and avoiding spiny fish and a giant octopus. The octopus grabbed her, and she nearly lost her breathing pack as she frantically wriggled free. She couldn’t reach her sword with the diving suit on, so she had to punch the creature in the head. The octopus blinked and swam away.

At last she found a ledge and climbed up out of the water into a cavern. She found herself face-to-face with a skeleton. Its bony hands held an intricate-looking safe covered in gears and dials.

The skeleton turned its head to face her. It stood up and lurched toward her.

She backed up, unzipping the diving suit so she could reach her sword. As the skeleton reached for her, she took a big swing with the sword and knocked its arm out of the way. The skeleton growled and leaped at her. She swung the sword again and again, knocking the skeleton into pieces. At last its fragmented body fell to the ocean floor. Then Gadget noticed a skeleton key hanging around its neck on a chain.

“Sorry, Bones,” she said and grabbed the key. “You won’t need this anymore.”

She unlocked the safe, and it opened, the gears turning and spiraling. Inside she found a metal cylinder with grooves on one end. It looked like part of a machine.

I was expecting gold or jewels, but treasure is treasure. She slid the part into her pouch. Maybe Captain Fawkes will know what it is. And pay me for my half, since we’re not going to cut it in two.