The Alchemist's Key (16 page)

‘We are friends,’ Andy shot back at him. ‘In fact, you’re my best friend. But this was my stuff up! How low do you think I feel?’

‘You wouldn’t even have been there, if it wasn’t for me —’

‘Yes I would!’ Andrew roared over the top of Wade. ‘And I’ll pay for my own mistakes, if that’s quite all right by you, Your Excellency.’ Andrew opened the back door and waited for Wade to climb inside.

‘Look …’ Wade paused before getting in the car. ‘I thought I was doing you a favour.’

‘How do you figure it?’ Andy eased up a little.
‘I mean, it’s not like you were going to fire me, now is it? But the snobs at Glenoak won’t wear this. You’re going to lose your teaching position, and that’s my fault.’

‘Well.’ Wade slapped Andrew on the shoulder to relieve him of the responsibility. ‘They probably would have found out sooner or later, anyway. I really don’t know who I was trying to kid? Me, a teacher!’ Wade roused half a smile and shook his head, sinking into his seat in the back of the car.

Andy closed the car door and gave a deep sigh. He knew as well as Wade himself did that the Baron had been excited about the position, and no slap on the shoulder was going to relieve him of the guilt of ruining it for his friend.

Still, no sooner had Andrew pulled the car out from the curb, than Wade was lighting up a joint. ‘You are completely insane! You know that, don’t you?’

‘I am what I am,’ Wade agreed calmly, ‘and if the rest of the world doesn’t like it, well … stuff ’em.’

Come the next morning, Wade didn’t feel so nonchalant anymore. As he gazed down from his bedroom window, his eyes met with a huge cluster of reporters and photographers gathered on the front steps of the manor.

‘Who let them in?’ he complained, as Talbot placed his breakfast tray on the table beside the bed.

‘They let themselves in, Sir, the same way the locals do, I would guess. Shall I call the police and have them removed?’

Wade forced a laugh at the suggestion. ‘I think that might only add fuel to the fire.’

‘Very good, Sir.’ Talbot went back to laying out the Baron’s meal.

‘Hannah returned to the college, I presume?’

‘She was most upset after you left last night, my Lord. Strangely enough, she couldn’t seem to understand why you would flush a promising career down the toilet … women are funny that way.’ As breakfast was laid out, Talbot took up his tray and went to leave.

‘Look, Talbot. A bum and a drug addict I may be, but a liar I am not.’

Talbot turned back with an affectionate look upon his face. ‘For the record, Sir, I think what you did was most admirable, however stupid.’

‘Thank you, Talbot.’ Wade wasn’t sure if he was being patted on the back or kicked in the teeth.

‘You’re most welcome, Sir.’

As there was no way Wade was venturing outside, he connected to the college’s computer to do some
more work on the new system. He was of a mind to finish the training program before they fired him. He wasn’t proud of the fact that this scandal was going to leave the Contessa in the lurch, but at least if the system was set up, it would make life easier for his replacement.

Wade had tried calling Hannah a couple of times, but she was always tied up. Either that or she wasn’t taking his calls.

As it seemed everyone he cared about was mad at him, Wade had begun to wonder why he’d done what he had. Perhaps the teaching position represented more responsibility than he usually felt comfortable with, and thus he’d just jumped at the first opportunity to shrug it off?

‘Aw, I don’t know.’ He slouched back in his chair, unable to concentrate. ‘Maybe I’m just a natural born loser.’

‘I think you might be exaggerating.’

Wade turned in his seat, to find Louisa in the doorway.

‘I came as soon as I heard.’

‘About my big drug scandal?’ Wade supposed.

‘No, that I only just learnt about.’ She took a seat, without kissing him as she normally did. ‘You’ve got reporters from every major social magazine known to man out front.’

‘Yes, I know. I’ve had so many bids for my story, I could probably make enough money to buy my way out of this mess.’ Wade raised himself to pour them both a drink. ‘So then, what brings you here?’

Louisa smiled. ‘The key. Hugh said you’d found it.’

‘You’ve actually spoken to Hugh?’ Wade could hardly believe his ears.

She nodded. ‘And you’ll be pleased to know we are officially getting along.’

‘Is that why I didn’t get my kiss?’ Wade teased, handing over her drink.

This made Louisa laugh. ‘I was afraid Hannah might be lurking around somewhere, ready to take my head off, should I get anywhere near you.’

‘I’m afraid not. I think she might be a little angry about my new outlaw status.’

‘In that case,’ Louisa raised herself and gave him a peck on the cheek, ‘there you go.’ When she was again seated, she raised her eyebrows in expectation, and posed the big question once again. ‘So where is it?’

When Hugh arrived at the manor he was surprised to have to fight his way through the press to the front doors. All manner of accusation was flying
around about Wade, but Hugh just hid his face and mumbled, ‘No comment’, until he was safely inside.

‘How the hell did Wade’s habit become common knowledge?’ Hugh queried of the butler angrily, once inside the closed doors of the foyer.

‘The afternoon paper, Mr Prescott.’ Talbot handed the newspaper to Hugh as he relieved him of his hand luggage. ‘You will find the Baron and Lady Sinclair in the main drawing room.’

‘Yes, thank you, Talbot.’ Hugh wandered towards the staircase, reading as he went.

‘You bloody idiot!’ Hugh stormed into the studio, where Wade was lifting the crystal dodecahedron from its box.

As Wade and Louisa looked over to Hugh, they didn’t notice the electrical waves that began to enfold the stereo, the closest piece of electrical equipment to them that was switched on.

Hugh stood, aghast, as a current of electricity shot forth from the hi-fi unit towards the sparkling key Wade held.

‘Ouch!’ The shock wave caused Wade to drop the precious dodecahedron back into the box.

All three of them then looked to the stereo system to find it shorted out and smoking.

‘What the hell was that?’ Wade blew on his fingertips in an attempt to cool them down.

‘Are you okay?’ Louisa couldn’t help but laugh, as Wade’s hair was standing on end in the wake of the electrical discharge.

‘Oh fabulous!’ Wade eyed his reflection in the blank television screen. ‘I always wanted to look like one of the Jackson Five.’

‘That was extraordinary.’ Hugh dropped the paper and scrambled over to view the key.

‘Don’t lift it out for God’s sake,’ Wade warned as Hugh took hold of the case. ‘I don’t want it frying anything else.’ Wade then moved to inspect what was left of his hi-fi unit. ‘Aw, this is completely wrecked.’

‘It’s really not your day, is it?’ Louisa sympathised with the Baron.

‘Yeah, I think you’re right. Maybe I should just go back to bed while I’m still alive.’

‘No fear,’ Hugh protested. ‘I didn’t travel all the way down here so you could sleep. We’d best shut that archaic machine down, don’t you think? If any of those reporters spy some of your deceased forefathers wandering about the place, they’ll really have something to write about.’

‘Good point,’ Wade granted, as the telephone on his desk began to ring. ‘We can probably sneak out to the dig via the tower, without any of the press seeing us.’ He picked up the receiver. ‘Talbot, I said
no more calls. Oh, if it’s the Contessa, you’d better put her through.’

‘Tell me it isn’t true, Wade.’

Her plea nearly brought tears to his eyes as Wade turned from Louisa and Hugh to face what was coming to him.

The incident had forced the Contessa to call an emergency meeting with her primary patrons and sponsors.

‘Chances are, they’re going to want to withdraw your position.’ The Contessa, though disappointed in him, was still sad to admit this.

‘I understand,’ he told her, as a large lump developed in his throat. He hadn’t really realised how much the position had meant to him until now, when it was being taken away. ‘I’ll still be allowed to fund you, won’t I?’

‘I really couldn’t say at this stage. This kind of publicity certainly won’t do the college any good. They may insist we disassociate ourselves from you altogether.’

‘I see.’ He couldn’t prevent his voice going hoarse.

‘I’ll do what I can and keep you informed,’ she told him.

‘I am sincerely sorry, Contessa, I never meant —’

‘You did what you thought was right, Wade. I know that.’

By the way she said this, Wade knew Hannah was with her. ‘Could I speak to Hannah?’

All was quiet at the other end of the line for a time.

‘Well, that’s that then,’ Hannah announced.

‘Look I know you’re disappointed —’

‘Disappointed! Wade, I’m way beyond disappointed. I’m furious! Did I actually say you were clever, yesterday … I must have been delusional.’

‘You did,’ Wade confirmed, ‘and you said I was talented too.’

‘That you are,’ she was sorry to admit, ‘and if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s seeing talent go to waste.’ Her tears began to choke her, as she considered all that would never be. ‘It was a glorious vision, Wade. It’s a pity we couldn’t have followed it through.’

‘But, you’re still there, babe. You can do it without me.’

‘I’m sorry, Wade.’ The Contessa had resumed the call. ‘Hannah is a bit upset at present, perhaps I could get her to call you back later.’

‘Yes, do that, thank you.’ Wade hung up the phone and after a moment turned back to Hugh and Louisa, who both appeared to feel for him. ‘Could things really get any worse?’

B
y late that evening most of the press had given up on capturing a glimpse of the Baron. Wade had Andrew drive the Rolls out of the manor’s grounds, and as the lush car sported dark-tinted windows, the die-hard press who had remained on duty assumed the Baron was inside the vehicle, and followed it.

With their privacy restored, Wade, Hugh and Louisa headed out to the dig site to put an end to the strange time occurrences once and for all.

Wade had instructed Dougal to run a couple of extension leads out from the house, so they now had enough light to see what they were doing. Hugh replaced the crystal cube, the octahedron, the tetrahedron and the icosahedron in their respective boxes.

‘Now for the dodecahedron.’ Wade carefully lifted it from its case and was about to hand it up to Hugh, who was on top of the machine, when someone was heard to sneeze — and it wasn’t any of their party.

‘Who’s there?’ Wade quickly replaced the key in its box, and grabbed a torch to investigate.

Hugh jumped down from the machine and stood alongside Louisa, just in case.

‘Don’t be alarmed.’ A tall, slim, blonde woman stepped out into the light, her hands held in the air in truce. ‘It’s only me.’

‘Who the hell are you?’ Wade demanded an explanation from the woman, when an overweight fellow, sporting a large video camera, followed her out of the shadows.

‘I’m Tace Bonnell, freelance reporter,’ she advised, then motioned to the cameraman. ‘And this is Rex Coen.’

‘Well, this is private property,’ Wade announced, becoming quite irate, ‘so get the hell out of here before I sue your arse for trespassing.’

‘So you’re Baron Ashby, I presume.’

‘Correct.’

‘Well, then, Baron Ashby, we’ll be happy to go,’ Tace advised, sporting a confident grin, ‘if you’ll just tell me who the stiff back there on the
chair is?’ She motioned into the shadows from where they’d emerged.

‘There’s a corpse back there?’ Wade was shocked by her query.

‘Oh damn.’ Hugh slapped himself on the head. ‘I forgot to mention that we found old Johnny’s remains.’

‘Who’s old Johnny?’ Tace pushed for information. ‘And what is this?’ She referred to the huge piece of archaic machinery.

‘None of your business!’ Wade insisted. ‘Louisa, would you kindly go and call the police for me?’

As Louisa moved to the ladder, Tace folded her arms to confront Wade. ‘Yes, call the police. I’m sure they’d be most interested to know who the skeleton in your closet is.’

‘For your information, he’s my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, who’s been dead for over three hundred years. Shit, I don’t have to explain myself to you.’ Wade grabbed hold of her arm to show her the way out.

‘Hey,’ the huge cameraman warned, ‘let the lady go.’

Wade halted and looked to the big guy, not complying at once.

‘Or I’ll make you,’ Rex clarified himself, in a calm fashion.

‘Then leave.’ Wade let her go, and took a step away.

‘Look.’ Tace mellowed into a more friendly attitude and tone of voice. ‘I’m not here to cause you any grief.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Wade scoffed.

‘Have you seen any of my stuff?’ she appealed. ‘I’ve never made a good man look bad.’

‘I don’t watch the news.’ Wade looked to his two companions to see if they could confirm her claim.

‘I recognise her from a couple of reports I’ve seen,’ advised Hugh, ‘and they were both on the side of the downtrodden.’

Louisa shrugged, reluctant to voice her view, as Tace was a tad too good-looking for comfort. ‘From what I know of her, she’s less brutal than most in her field.’

As Wade was clearly still not interested, Tace quickly added: ‘The policeman who took your statement at Ashbury told me that you’d confessed to the drug charges laid against your chauffeur. Now there’s not many of the gentry who would do that. Hence, I figured if you wanted to tell your side of the story, it might make you look a whole lot better in the public eye.’

‘I don’t,’ Wade again motioned her to the exit ladder, ‘thanks all the same.’

Tace gave a heavy sigh, resigning herself to go. She directed Rex to follow her out, then hesitated. ‘Look, I saw those illuminated objects you placed into the machine, and, reporting aside, I’m really curious to know what that thing does.’

‘What’s in it for us?’ Hugh reasoned, and Tace desperately contemplated an exchange.

‘I could document the experiment for you,’ Rex suggested, casually. ‘If something should go wrong, it would be handy to have film of the event.’

‘If something goes wrong that’s the last thing I’m going to need, believe me!’ Wade stressed. ‘Now, I’m not going to ask you again.’

‘Come on, Rex.’ Tace finally gave in. ‘Let’s go.’

‘I’ll see them out.’ Hugh followed Rex up the ladder. ‘Wait for me,’ he told them, before disappearing up through the hole.

Hugh came to a stop at the mermaid fountain to watch Tace and her cameraman complete their long stroll to the front gates.

‘Is he still watching us?’ Tace enquired of Rex, who glanced back towards the house.

Hugh gave the cameraman a wave and a smile of encouragement.

‘He sure is,’ Rex confirmed, and, having
worked with Tace for years, he had to figure she was foxing. ‘We’re not really leaving, are we?’

‘Hell no. We’ll just get back in the same way we got in in the first place.’

When Hugh returned to the machine room, Wade was poised ready to place the dodecahedron in its central compartment. ‘No!’ he protested. ‘Let me do that. You and Louisa man the lever.’

Wade shrugged, not fussed either way. ‘Whatever. But let’s get on with it … all those press people are making me nervous.’ He climbed down off the machine and handed the key to Hugh.

Once they were all in place, Hugh looked to Wade who gave him the nod to proceed. ‘Here goes nothing.’ Hugh placed the dodecahedron into its compartment and locked it.

He’d been using an allen key to secure the objects in their respective compartments. When wriggled around correctly in the locks, the allen key served its purpose almost as well as the old key that John Ashby would have used in his day.

‘Go!’ Hugh urged Louisa and Wade to throw the lever into the ‘off’ position.

They pushed, but although the lever shifted a couple of inches it would not move any further.

‘It still won’t budge,’ Wade said in a panic. Just then a rumble was heard from deep within the belly of the machine.

‘O-oh,’ Hugh struggled to unlock the dodecahedron from its casing, and in his rush the allen key proved to be not so efficient.

‘Hugh, get down from there!’ Louisa entreated him.

He resisted a moment, still battling with the lock. ‘I’ve almost got it.’

‘Hugh!’ Wade stared in horror at the blue waves of energy that had begun to enfold the lower part of the machine. ‘Move it, now!’

Hugh took a dive for the earthen floor not a moment too soon. The blue energy waves engulfed the machine in his wake, shooting up the long metal spike and through the roof.

The three were thrown backward by the awesome force of the occurrence. They watched helplessly as energy unleashed itself upwards in waves.

Tace and Rex had found their breach in the estate’s fence, and as the outlying trees of the gardens parted before them, they spied the metal spike crawling with iridescent electromagnetic waves.

‘Rex!’ Tace urged him to start filming, but Rex had already lifted the camera onto his shoulder.

‘I’m on it.’

As they rushed towards the pulsing light show, a beam of electricity shot forth from the manor’s fuse box to connect with the metal spike.

‘Holy moley!’ Tace stopped in her tracks. There wasn’t much she was afraid of, but as she’d never seen anything like this before she decided it would be best to proceed with a little caution.

Wade, Hugh and Louisa scrambled out of the dig site in time to see the electricity bolt collide with the tip of the spike overhead.

‘This is very bad,’ Hugh mumbled. The three of them backed up, staring in awe at the towering conductor, as its surface colour changed from dull silver to glowing red.

‘What the hell is feeding that?’ Wade traced the steady stream of power back to the manor’s fuse box, which was consumed by the blue pulsing waves. That’s when he spotted the strange blue current passing down the telephone cable. ‘Shit, it’s headed for the school!’ Wade hit himself on the head with the palm of his hand.

Hugh found Wade’s announcement a worry. ‘Please clarify.’

‘I was doing some programming,’ Wade whined.

Hugh grabbed hold of him. ‘Yes. So?’

‘I’m still connected to the system at Glenoak,’ Wade blurted out in frustration.

‘How many computers?’

‘About sixty.’

‘Oh dear.’ Hugh let Wade go, stunned by the information.

‘Not to mention the rest of the electricity the school uses,’ Wade added. ‘I shudder to think just how much power that could amount to.’

‘That means we’re in big trouble, right?’ Louisa ventured.

‘Maybe yes, maybe no.’ Wade endeavoured to stay positive.

‘I think, yes.’ Louisa pointed to the electrical wires that ran down towards the house.

A huge ball of electricity headed another great beam of power that was headed towards the manor’s fuse box.

At present the machine was only being fueled by the manor’s power supply. But if, as Wade surmised, the energy source reached out to draw additional power through the phone link with the modem, the anomaly heading down the electrical wires toward the house could well represent the
additional power stores that the strange magnetic energy source was beginning to draw from the school, linked as it was to his computer. Once the mobile current reached the house mains the machine would have created a complete circuit between Ashby and Glenoak, and would be drawing electricity from more equipment than it had ever had access to before.

‘Jesus!’ Wade cried. ‘Run!’

As they bolted away from the manor, watching the beam’s progress as they went, the three collided with the reporter and her cameraman, whereupon they were all sent toppling into the grass.

The power surge hit the fuse box and combined with the beam of electricity already feeding the machine. The sound that resulted was equal to that of a bomb going off, yet no explosion could be seen.

A great blast of energy was felt to rush past the young people who witnessed the event. Then all was quiet, except for the constant buzzing sound that steamed from the machine. The metal spike had again changed in colour from glowing red to white.

Rex, who was used to recovering from a crisis situation quickly, was the first to raise himself. ‘Is everyone okay?’

‘What the hell are you still doing here?’ Wade sprang to his feet, annoyed.

‘I think you ought to be thankful that any of us are still here.’ Tace stood to confront him in a righteous fashion. ‘What the hell is that thing?’

Wade had never struck a woman in his life, but he was really tempted at this point.

‘Forget her,’ Louisa pacified him. ‘Hadn’t we better shut off your modem? Or a least try and warn the Contessa?’

‘Good call.’ Wade immediately turned and headed for the house, with Louisa hot on his heels. ‘Where’s your mobile phone?’ he asked her, figuring that the house phones would be useless to them.

‘In my room,’ Louisa advised.

‘Wade, what if you-know-what happens?’ Hugh called out after his companions. ‘We can’t just leave them here.’

‘Just watch me,’ Wade called back. ‘They had their chance to leave, now they’re on their own.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Tace started hounding Hugh for answers.

‘Hang around long enough and you’ll find out.’ Hugh started to move off after the others. ‘However, I strongly recommend that you leave. Curiosity has been known to kill the cat.’

Tace turned to Rex to see whether he thought they should take Hugh’s advice.

The cameraman smiled. ‘No way, I’m not leaving.’

The Baron’s party disappeared into the manor, whereby Tace waved Rex after her. ‘Come on. Let’s get a closer look at the workings of that machine.’

As they approached the dug-out site and Rex lifted the camera onto his shoulder to resume filming, a bolt of energy lashed out from the metal spike and struck his precious piece of equipment from his hands. The camera was rendered an unrecognisable, burnt out, smoking shell of metal in a matter of minutes, and the battery oozed a gooey muck. ‘I don’t think my insurance covers acts of God.’ He tried to make light of his loss.

‘I doubt very much that that is the case in this instance.’ Tace looked to the manor entrance through which Wade had disappeared. ‘And when I prove as much, those responsible will pay, I assure you.’

Wade headed straight upstairs to the studio and, seeing his equipment swamped by the blue waves of energy, he realised he stood little chance of getting close enough to switch it off.

‘I need something long and wooden,’ he commented over his shoulder to Louisa, scanning the room for such an item, although he knew he wouldn’t find one.

‘Perhaps in the kitchen,’ Louisa suggested. ‘You look, and I’ll grab my phone.’

‘Right you are.’ Wade barged past Hugh who was on his way to the stairs at the end of the old musician’s gallery. ‘I’ll meet you down there.’

‘No, we should all stay together,’ Hugh insisted.

‘You go with Louisa,’ Wade instructed, continuing on his merry way.

‘Oh, come on, Hugh.’ Louisa grabbed his hand and dragged him into the domed picture gallery. ‘Let’s be quick about it.’

The pair nearly flew down the staircase of the Great Hall, and entering the downstairs drawing room, Louisa let Hugh go so that she could rummage through her bag. ‘Got it,’ she announced, pulling the phone out and slinging her bag over her shoulder.

‘Alright, let’s go.’ Hugh grabbed hold of Louisa’s free hand and hastened her out the door, where they nearly ran over poor old Talbot.

‘Did you hear that frightful noise, Sir?’

‘Yes, we heard it.’ Hugh shuffled around the butler, dragging Louisa behind him.

‘Do you know what it was?’ Talbot followed the pair as fast as his aging limbs would allow.