CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Darkus Decoy

Lucretia Cutter had dispensed with the wig, sunglasses and gold lipstick at the Film Awards. She no longer had a chin, but in its place were beetle jaws and mandibles. The top of her head was a patchwork of black scales, tufts of wiry hair and her long antennae. Standing on her hind legs she was nearly nine feet tall. She still wore her lab coat, but underneath her dress was slashed up the front so her chitinous limbs could move freely. Darkus and Virginia walked in front of her into the lift. There was no need for restraints: she could sense they were going to move before their brains had even sent the message to their muscles. There was no escape.

Baxter had retreated, clambering inside the collar of Darkus’s T-shirt and down his back. He was now nestling in between his shoulder blades, just above the rucksack. All the Base Camp beetles had scurried down into the bag.

Lucretia Cutter took them up in the lift. As it travelled up the glass shaft Darkus saw a misty sunrise casting a rosy light through the roof of the enormous greenhouse on to an impossibly beautiful rainforest, but the icy fear that was gripping his insides eclipsed all of his senses.

‘How do you like my new home?’ Lucretia asked.

Darkus looked at the ground, ‘What you’re doing here is cruel.’

‘You father loves it here.’

Darkus bristled. ‘You’re lying.’

‘I can’t wait to tell him about your visit. He will be surprised.’ She brought her jaws close to his ear. ‘Or perhaps I won’t tell him. I might save the news for when it will have the most . . . impact.’

Darkus glared so hard at the floor that he could have burnt a hole in it. A bell sounded and the lift doors opened.

‘For children, you’re surprisingly resourceful.’ Lucretia shoved Virginia with a claw, pushing her out of the lift. ‘Like rats, but what I really want to know is, how did you know where my Biome was?’

Darkus and Virginia glanced at each other, clamping their lips shut.

‘It was that hack, Emma Lamb, wasn’t it? I know she’s out there in the forest. Did she tell you about my Biome? I’ll bet she did, didn’t she? Who else has she told?’

Darkus kept his face blank. ‘I’ll never tell.’

‘Ha!’ Lucretia Cutter snapped. ‘Be certain, young Cuttle, anything I want to know, you’ll tell me in seconds.’

‘Don’t bet on it,’ Virginia muttered.

‘I’d be careful, girl.’ Lucretia swung her head round angrily. ‘You are of no use to me at all.’

‘Leave her alone.’ Darkus jumped between Lucretia Cutter and Virginia.

‘Darkus Cuttle, you have broken into my Biome uninvited, which is a crime.’ She bent down so that her saucer-sized black eyes were an inch from his face. ‘I’m going to put you in my cells and have a good long think about what I’m going to do with you.’ Her antennae quivered. ‘It would be good to have more children to experiment on.’ She grabbed hold of Darkus’s shirt and Virginia, by her braids, striding up the corridor, dragging them, stumbling behind her.

They arrived at the cells and found Mawling sitting on a chair, snoring, his eyes closed and legs splayed. Lucretia Cutter kicked him. He choked on his own saliva as he woke up, stumbling to his feet when he saw who’d it was.

‘Yes, boss, I mean, Madame, errr,’ he saluted, ‘ready for duty.’

‘I have two for the cells,’ she said, letting go of Darkus and Virginia.

‘There are only two vacant cells left.’ Mawling scratched his bald head. ‘Shall I split them up?’

‘No, put them in a cell together. I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be more rats out there in the jungle. Am I right?’ She looked at Darkus and he kept his face blank. ‘Tell Craven and Dankish to use the beetle borgs to find them, and then go out and bring them in. I don’t want any more surprises.’

Darkus felt sick. Uncle Max, Bertolt, Emma and Motty would be caught as they woke up, just as they realized that he and Virginia were missing, and it would be his fault.

‘And,’ Lucretia placed her hand on Darkus’s rucksack, ‘I think I’d better have that bag, don’t you?’

‘No!’ Darkus jerked away, but Mawling grabbed him and wrenched the backpack off, handing it to Lucretia Cutter.

‘Leave him alone!’ Virginia cried.

‘Thank you for bringing my beetles back to me.’ Lucretia waved the bag at him, her mouth a slash of smiling malice, all trace of gold lipstick gone. ‘I’m going to enjoy analysing these.’

Darkus felt Baxter scrambling up his back. The rhinoceros beetle shot out of his T-shirt, hissing as he fired towards Lucretia Cutter. At the same time the Base Camp beetles exploded out of the bag, swarming around her head, stabbing, biting, shooting acid and scratching where they could.

‘Marvin!’ Virginia cried as the frog-legged leaf beetle flew to his cousins’ aid.

Lucretia Cutter lurched backwards, momentarily stunned by the attack, then rallied, brushing off their offensive like it was nothing. She hammered beetles aside, grabbing Baxter between her jaws as she crushed others underfoot. The rhinoceros beetle screeched as it writhed about, trying to escape her bite.

‘Aaaaaarrrrrghhhhhhhhh!’ Darkus yelled, throwing himself at Lucretia’s legs, knocking her backwards. She let go of Baxter and he tumbled to the ground with a sickening clunk. Darkus curled up in a protective ball on the floor around his fallen friend.

‘Baxter, are you OK? Baxter? Oh, no, please no. Baxter? I’m here, buddy.’ The rhinoceros beetle didn’t move. He gently ran his finger over Baxter’s elytra. ‘Can you hear me? It’s OK now. I’m here.’ Hot tears streamed from his eyes. He saw that one of Baxter’s legs was missing. ‘Please, Baxter,’ he whispered. ‘I need you.’ Darkus gently picked up the beetle in his cupped hands, blinking furiously to clear his eyes of tears.

‘You’re a monster!’ Virginia shouted, as Lucretia got to her feet.

There was a loud bang from the closest cell door. ‘Lucy?’ a man’s voice shouted. ‘You can’t keep me locked up in here like this. Do you hear me? We can rule this planet together!’

Ignoring the children, Lucretia made a series of unwholesome clicking noises, and the beaten Base Camp beetles filed back into the bag obediently. She picked it up, cantering off down the corridor like an angry stilt-walker.

There was a second bang. ‘Lucy!’ Through the small window in the door, Darkus saw a black compound eye and a scaly face; a second later it was replaced by an ice-blue eye. ‘Mawling, my old friend,’ the man said, ‘you’ve got to let me speak to the old shrew. She can’t keep me locked up in here. I’m on your side. Remember?’

‘I’m just following orders,’ Mawling replied, grabbing Darkus by the scruff of the neck, pulling him to his feet, and yanking Virginia’s arm.

‘Get off.’ Darkus aimed a well-placed kick at Mawling’s ankle.

‘Ow!’ Mawling grunted, let go of Darkus, and then hit him across the back of his head with the flat of his hand. Darkus cried out as he stumbled forward, his ear ringing.

‘Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?’ Virginia tried to throw a punch at Mawling, but he held her, thrashing, at arm’s length. Ignoring their protestations, the thug marched them past the cell containing the man with two different eyes, past another, and then opened the third using his thumb print on a sensor pad. He shoved them both inside and waved, as the door closed.

Darkus threw himself to the floor and opened his cupped hands.

‘Is he OK?’ Virginia knelt down beside him.

‘He’s not moving,’ Darkus whispered, ‘and his middle leg is gone. Is Marvin . . .?’

Virginia pointed to her braid, and Marvin was there, clinging to it. ‘He’s a lover not a fighter. He got thrown to the floor almost immediately and I grabbed him.’ She reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out a tiny pot of banana jelly, opened it and handed it to Darkus. ‘Here, try this.’

Darkus lifted Baxter and held the jelly in front of his mandibles. The rhinoceros beetle’s antennae shivered. ‘They moved! I saw his antennae move,’ he said, hope rocketing up inside him.

‘I saw it too,’ Virginia agreed. ‘Maybe he needs a bit of time to recover.’

Darkus rolled over on to his back, carefully putting Baxter on to his chest and holding the banana jelly where the beetle could reach it. Slowly, but steadily Baxter’s strength seemed to return and soon he was nibbling away at the jelly. ‘I think he’s going to be OK,’ Darkus said with relief.

‘We need to get out of here.’ Virginia looked around the cell. ‘It’s a triangle. Each cell must be an equilateral triangle, meeting at the point to make a hexagon, which means there are five other cells, all full except one. I wonder who is in the other cells?’

Darkus didn’t reply, he was tired. He couldn’t help but imagine Craven and Dankish discovering their camp, and Uncle Max realizing Darkus was gone.

‘One roll-up mat and a folded blanket, not much of a bed. No windows. White walls, white floor and a white door.’

‘What are you doing?’ Darkus said.

Virginia was running her fingers around the edge of the door. ‘Do you think your thingamabob will open this?’

‘Of course it won’t,’ Darkus snapped. ‘Dankish used his fingerprint.’

‘Well, we could at least try.’ Virginia gave him a pointed look. ‘It’s better than giving up and sulking.’

Pulling the device out of his pocket, Darkus threw it to Virginia. ‘You try.’

‘Thank you. I will.’ Virginia turned her back on him and started pressing the screen.

What use were two beetles and two kids against Lucretia Cutter’s armies? He’d hoped to come here and rescue his dad, but he’d just made everything worse. Now, Dad would have to do everything Lucretia Cutter asked him to, because she had Darkus in her cell. This was the exact situation his father had warned him about, when they had argued before Christmas. He closed his eyes.

‘Darkus?’ a soft voice whispered. ‘Darkus, is that you?’

‘Novak?’ Darkus sat up, on his elbows, wondering if he was imagining things, but Virginia had spun around and was looking at him.

‘Oh, it is you!’

It was definitely Novak’s voice. Darkus looked up at Virginia. ‘Novak, Where are you?’

‘I’m over here, by the vent.’

Darkus scanned the wall and saw towards the triangular point was a small white air vent. He scrambled over to it, Virginia was right behind him.

‘Novak? Are you OK? I’m in here with Virginia.’

‘Hello, Virginia.’

‘Hi, Novak.’

‘Did she . . . put you in the pupation machine thing yet?’

‘No. She tried, but your dad and Spencer, they saved me . . .’

‘Spencer’s here? You’ve met him?’ Darkus looked at Virginia who gave him a double thumbs-up.

‘Oh, yes, he’s really nice. He’s got a dung beetle called Scud.’

‘Did you say that Darkus’s dad saved you?’ Virginia asked.

‘Yes. Oh, Darkus, you were right, he is on our side. I’m sorry that I said he wasn’t.’

Darkus felt a warm flood of relief. ‘That’s OK.’

‘Where’s Bertolt? Is he with you?’ Novak asked.

‘No,’ Virginia replied. ‘He’s with Uncle Max and two other grown-ups.’

‘Novak, I’ve messed things up,’ Darkus admitted. ‘I wanted to rescue you, Spencer and Dad. I thought it would be better if it was just me and the beetles, slipping in unseen to free you, so I ran off. Virginia tried to stop me, but she couldn’t persuade me, and so came with me. Now, Lucretia Cutter has caught us and we’re as trapped as you.’

‘What about the others?’ Novak asked.

‘They’re outside in the forest,’ Darkus replied.

‘Well, then, there’s still hope,’ Novak said.

‘I don’t think so. Craven and Dankish are being sent out to catch them.’

‘Um . . .’ Virginia started to say something and then bit down on her lip.

Darkus looked at her; her eyes were wandering all over the place and she was blinking. ‘What is it? What’s the matter?’

Virginia lowered her head right to the vent, and waved Darkus closer.

‘I have to tell you something, but you mustn’t get mad,’ she mouthed.

Darkus stared at her and nodded.

‘We’re a decoy,’ she whispered. She watched his confusion and winced.

‘What do you mean, “we’re a decoy?’”

‘It wasn’t just me that got up when you did last night.’ She gave Darkus a meaningful look. ‘We all got up.’

Darkus shook his head and frowned. He still didn’t understand what she was trying to say.

‘It was Bertolt’s idea.’ Virginia put her finger to her lips. ‘We’re a decoy,’ she whispered again. ‘To distract attention from the others. It’s good that we got caught.’

‘They’re here?’ Darkus hissed.

Virginia nodded, her eyes wide. ‘And Craven and Mawling have been sent out to search for them.’

‘So the rescue is happening right now!’ Novak squeaked.

‘I’m tired,’ Virginia said loudly, stretching out her arms and doing a fake yawn. ‘Let’s bring the bed over here and get some rest. We’ve been up all night and NEED SLEEP.’ She looked at Darkus.

Darkus got up and helped her drag the roll mat and the blanket over to the vent. His head was reeling. That whole night trek through the forest, Uncle Max and the others had been following them the whole way? And they were here, inside the Biome? He felt shocked and hurt that they’d made a plan without talking to him – but then, he had planned to go off on his own and leave them. A spark of excitement ignited a tiny blue flame of hope at the thought that the others were here somewhere, and they had a plan.

‘Let’s rest here, until . . .’ Virginia paused, ‘something wakes us up.’

On the other side of the grate, Novak had dragged her bed over too. When the three children lay down their heads were beside the air vent, separated only by a wall.

Darkus pulled the blanket over his and Virginia’s legs. He turned on his side, his back to Virginia, so he could hold Baxter in the palm of his hand, against his chest.

‘Darkus? Virginia?’ Novak whispered.

‘Yeah,’ they both replied, lifting their heads.

‘There’s something you need to know. There’s a man in the cell on the other side of me.’

‘The one who was shouting earlier?’ Darkus asked.

‘Yes.’ Novak paused. ‘Whatever happens, you must not go near him.’

‘What happened to him, he looked . . . I mean, I thought I saw a compound eye.’

‘He’s been through the pupator. He’s very dangerous.’

‘Did Lucretia Cutter . . .?’

‘No, he did it to himself, but it’s turned him into a monster. He eats people.’

‘Eww, gross.’ Virginia pulled a face.

‘Just, whatever you do,’ Novak said, ‘stay away from Dr Lenka.’