The Case of the Missing Cats (13 page)

Quietly, in the middle of the cold river, with no one to hear, she wept.

Dirk watched Holly drifting out on to the river. Poor kid. She looked terrified. He needed to work fast, but he also needed to work smart and that was tricky when he hadn't got the faintest idea what was going on. Not even an inkling. There was something out there and it was dangerous. But what? If he flew over and grabbed Holly the two yellows would see him and he would only endanger her even more. No, he needed a plan.

A twig snapped. He froze. Someone was behind him, creeping up on him. Dirk waited for his moment, acting like he hadn't heard anything, then suddenly he lashed his tail across the ground, knocking his
assailant's feet from under him. He spun round, his claws drawn.

Lying on the ground was a dragon. Dirk stepped forward, but it lashed out its tail, catching his feet, knocking him on to his belly. Before he could get up, he felt the dragon land on his back, pinning him down, but its grip wasn't good enough. Dirk spun round, sending his attacker flying. He sprang to his feet, whacked the dragon's head with his tail, jumped up and kicked him hard in the belly, knocking him backwards.

‘Dirk, it's me. Don't hurt me,' whined the dragon. ‘It's Karnataka,'

‘Karny?' said Dirk, taken aback. ‘What are you doing here? You're above ground.'

‘Don't I know it? It's a lot darker than it used to be, up here. I like it. What happened?'

‘It's night-time, Karny.'

‘Oh right. That explains it,' said Karnataka. ‘Do you mind?'

‘Oh, sorry.' Dirk backed off, allowing the Shade-Hugger to get up. ‘How did you know I was here?' asked Dirk.

‘I didn't,' Karnataka replied. ‘I wanted to see if it was true for myself, what they've got in there.'

‘You know what it is?' said Dirk.

Karnataka nodded.

‘Spill the beans, Karny.'

‘Spill the liquorice, Dilly,' said Karnataka.

‘I'll get it later.' Dirk wasn't in the mood for games.

‘No liquorice, no info. That's the rule.'

‘Karny, tell me what they've got before I toast your tail,' Dirk said threateningly.

‘All right, because it's you but I expect double next time I see you. And laces, make sure you bring laces.'

‘Tell me,' growled Dirk.

Karnataka lowered his voice. ‘They've got an Amphiptere in there,' he whispered.

‘How big?' asked Dirk.

‘It's a female,' replied Karnataka, eyes wide with fear. ‘A big one.'

Amphipteres were ancient beasts, older even than dragons. Dirk hadn't met many of them as they tended to avoid all contact with both humans and dragons, hiding in the deepest regions of the oceans. Dirk recalled one he had encountered while on a case in Egypt. It was twice the size of him, with a snake-like body, two large wings and a long, flowing mane. But as soon as it saw him it had disappeared. Amphipteres were not social creatures. And they
grew big. The females grew really big.

‘So, that's what knocked me out?' said Dirk.

‘You must have swallowed some of its blood when you bit into it,' replied Karnataka. ‘You're lucky you're still around at all.'

‘But what's it doing here?' asked Dirk.

‘The word is that they're holding it here with a chain made from black metal, the stuff the Dragnet use. Not even an Amphiptere can bite through that stuff,' replied Karnataka.

‘It doesn't make sense,' said Dirk. ‘Amphipteres are vegetarians like us. Why would they be feeding it cats?'

Their conversation was cut short by a flash of fire. Dirk jumped to avoid it but felt something land on top of him. A large, yellow face appeared in front of his. Its mouth opened and a flame burst forth. The fire ceased and the dragon's face reappeared. Before Dirk could retaliate he felt a sharp claw under his chin, preventing his mouth from opening.

The large Scavenger yelled, ‘I got me a Mountain Dragon here. What you got, Mali?'

Out of the corner of his eye Dirk could see Karnataka also lying on his back with the smaller of the two yellow-backs on his belly.

‘Shade-Hugger, by the looks of things, Leon.'

‘Above ground? Must be lost,' he said. ‘Now start talking, mountain boy.'

‘We're researching a new, fresh-breath, minty mouthwash for dragons,' murmured Dirk through his teeth. ‘You should try it.'

‘Eh, this one's got a sense of humour, Mali.'

‘I'm not joking. You have some kind of problem,' said Dirk.

‘Can we kill 'em, bro?' said Mali.

‘Not yet, ar' kid. Humans is one things, but we can't have the Council finding out about all this. Remember, it's supposed to look like an accident.' He turned to Dirk. ‘What's your name? And what do you know?'

‘I'm the Loch Ness monster and I know that your breath smells like you've been snacking on badger droppings,' replied Dirk.

The dragon jammed its claw further into his jaw, drawing dark-green blood that trickled down his chin.

‘What about you?' Mali asked Karnataka.

‘My name's Karnataka,' he said quickly, ‘I'm only here because he asked me to find out what you were doing?'

‘Nice,' said Dirk. ‘Thanks, Karny. I knew I could rely on you.'

‘Why?' asked Mali.

‘He's a private detective,' said the dragon, shaking with fear. ‘He works in the human world.'

‘And did you find out what we're doing?'

Karnataka nodded.

‘Eh, what's going on, like?' said another voice.

The Mountain Dragon and the Sea Dragon appeared, rubbing their heads.

‘Where have you been?' demanded Leon.

‘They attacked us,' said Flotsam.

‘It wasn't me,' said Karnataka. ‘It was just him.'

‘Again, cheers,' said Dirk.

‘Move!' ordered Leon. ‘The show is about to start. And you two have just earned yourselves front-row tickets.' He turned to address Jegsy and Flotsam. ‘Come on, you idiots, make yourselves useful,' he said.

The two dragons stood over Dirk and Karnataka as the brothers released them.

‘One step out of line and you're charcoal, OK, Mr Detective?' said Leon, releasing Dirk.

The four dragons surrounded Dirk and Karnataka and led them out of the trees into the clearing by the river, emitting bursts of fire to keep them in line. The
odds weren't good. Even if Karnataka fought on his side, Dirk and he were outnumbered two to one. And those were exactly the kind of odds that would make a dragon like Karnataka think twice about fighting on his side.

They stopped by the wooden post that kept the raft in place and Leon opened his mouth and burnt straight through the rope, setting the raft adrift.

He picked up the remaining rope in his teeth and, with the others' help, pushed Dirk and Karnataka into place and tied them back to back against the post.

Wrapping the ropes round Dirk's mouth, Leon said, ‘Don't want you burning your way out, do we?'

He pulled a large, dark, metal key shaped like a dragon's head from behind his wing and threw it at Flotsam. ‘It's time to give her some slack,' he said. ‘Make sure she can't escape, mind.'

Flotsam caught the key and dived into the river.

They waited in silence for a couple of minutes and then the water began to lap against the shore as though a boat had just passed. But there was no sign of a boat.

Flotsam climbed out of the river and said, ‘She's coming up.'

* * *

Holly lay flat on the raft, which rocked violently from side to side. Her hands were numb with cold; her clothes, soaking wet. Her body shivered and her teeth chattered. She had gone beyond crying. She was too scared to feel any self-pity. All that was left now was fear. Desperately she grabbed the rope, but it came too easily. It had been cut loose. The undercurrent was too strong to swim. She was stranded.

Something broke the surface. It was as though a grassy island was slowly emerging from under the water. A light appeared in the side of it, round like a full moon, but fire-red and bigger than Holly's head. She was trying to work out what it was when another one appeared. They blinked. They were eyes. This was no island. It was an enormous head. What she had seen as long strands of grass was, in fact, a thick mane of hair.

It opened its mouth, revealing hundreds of teeth, and then suddenly the head shot high into the sky, followed by its long body, like a giant oak tree shooting from the water. The creature unfurled two expansive wings. And all the time more and more of its smooth serpentine body appeared from the depths below.

Even fear left Holly now. There was no escape. No hope. She was going to die. She clung to the raft and awaited her fate.

Dirk watched the Amphiptere appear. He had never seen one this big, nor this far inland. It flapped its wings and roared. He could imagine the panic on the faces of the humans in the surrounding area that could see it, but there was only one human he was worried about. Holly.

‘We call her Mandy,' said the large Scavenger, laughing. ‘Hey, ar' kid, keep an eye on Mr Detective here.'

‘Keep an eye on him yourself,' replied Mali.

‘When are you going to understand that I'm in charge?' asked Leon.

‘When your name is Vainclaw, that's when. He's the boss.'

‘But while he's not here, I am.'

‘Oh yeah?' challenged Mali.

The two dragons squared up to each other.

‘Eh, you two, leave it out,' said Flotsam. ‘Shouldn't we get going?'

‘I want to see if she eats the human,' replied Leon.

Having reached her full height, three times higher than any surrounding buildings, the Amphiptere was flailing in the water, making an awful screeching noise.

Dirk needed a plan. His legs were bound tightly and his mouth was tied shut but his tail was free. He stretched it as far as he could. The dragons were all just out of reach.

‘Flotsam's right. We should get going,' said Mali.

‘Ar-right, blueberry boy, we'll go in a minute,' said Leon.

‘Don't call me that,' snarled his brother.

‘Give it a rest, like,' said Jegsy.

‘Take it back,' said Mali.

‘Ar-right, ar kid. Calm down, I take it back,' said Leon, taking a couple of steps back, bringing him just in reach. Dirk stretched out his tail, aimed carefully, then whacked Leon's backside with the tip, before quickly drawing it back to his side.

‘What d'you do that for?' Leon said to Mali.

‘Do what?'

‘Oh, don't come the innocent with me, if you want a fight, just say so.'

‘I'm ready any time, bro. You want a piece of me?'

The dragons stood nose to nose. Smoke billowed from their nostrils then Leon reared up on to his hind legs and sent a burst of fire from his mouth. Mali ducked and it missed him, instead singeing Dirk's chest. It hurt like hell, but it had done the job. It had burnt straight through the rope. Dirk hastily grabbed the charred ends and held them together, but the dragons were too preoccupied to notice, Jegsy and Flotsam holding the brothers away from each other.

‘Come on, lads, there's no need for this,' said Jesgy.

‘Yeah, we haven't got time,' said Flotsam. ‘We should go.'

‘We go when I say so,' said Leon, turning on the Sea Dragon.

‘But what about Mandy?' asked Flotsam, pointing at the Amphiptere thrashing around in the water.

‘Yeah, what about her, like?' said Jegsy.

‘It's true, bro,' agreed Mali. ‘We hang around much longer and there won't be anything much left of us to fight.'

‘I have decided,' announced Leon, ‘that we should go.'

The other three dragons looked visibly relieved. Leon turned to Dirk, who bowed his head to hide the loose rope.

‘Enjoy the show, Mr Detective,' he said. ‘See you round, Shade-Hugger,' he added to Karnataka.