‘They’re not going to want to get involved,’ said Jake. ‘Not after what’s just happened. They’re still torn up over Dougie.’
‘But the two kids are Watchers,’ Lauren reminded him. ‘And they’ll want revenge for what happened to their uncle. Getting the book back from the Russians will be a good way towards that revenge.’
‘And you still plan to let the kids keep the book if we get it back?’
Lauren nodded.
‘Yes,’ she said.
Jake shook his head.
‘I still think that’s a bad move,’ he said.
Rona was the first one they saw when they got back to the guest house. She was working in the small vegetable garden, weeding. Lauren and Jake headed straight for her.
‘The Russians have found the book,’ said Jake.
Rona looked at them, shocked. Then she pulled out her mobile phone and made a call.
‘They’ve found it,’ she said urgently. She listened for a second, then said, ‘Meet us at the cave.’
She put away her mobile, then said to Jake and Lauren, ‘We need to talk where we can’t be heard.’
She wiped the soil from her hands, and headed for the path that led along the cliffs. Jake and Lauren followed, descending yet another path that twisted and turned down the rocky face of the cliff to the shore. They walked along the beach until they saw the two upturned boats that Dougie and Robbie had been painting.
‘There’s a whole series of caves along here,’ said Rona. ‘Some can be seen, but Robbie and I like this one. It’s got trees and bushes in front of it, so no one ever goes in except people who know it, which usually means just us.’ She gestured towards a clump of bushes and small trees apparently growing out of the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. They followed the girl towards the undergrowth. When they got there, Rona pushed her way through a thick bush, and disappeared. Jake and Lauren pushed their way through after her, and found themselves in a very narrow fissure in the rocks, but one that seemed to go a long way in.
Robbie was sitting inside the cave, waiting for them. He stood up as they came in.
‘Is it true?’ he asked.
Jake and Lauren nodded.
‘We saw them,’ said Jake. ‘They put it in a cool bag.’
Robbie slumped back down on to the rocks, his head hanging down.
‘We failed,’ he said miserably. ‘Our job was to stop the book from being found, and we failed!’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ said Lauren firmly. ‘There was nothing you and your uncle could do against them.’
‘That book has been hidden there for over thirteen hundred years, kept safe by generations of Watchers, and we were the ones who lost it!’
‘No,’ said Lauren. ‘The Russians had something that no one else who was looking for it had. They had The Index telling them where it was buried.’
Rona shook her head.
‘They only had a fragment of The Index,’ she said. ‘I saw it.’ She let out a deep sigh. ‘Enough to spot what it was.’
She took out her mobile phone, then scrolled through various messages and pictures, until she came to a particular one and held it out towards Jake and Lauren.
‘I was in the cottage soon after the Russians first arrived,’ she said. ‘I saw this photocopy of a part of a page on the table.’
Jake and Lauren studied the image. It was in an unfamiliar script.
‘What language is this?’ asked Lauren.
‘Gaelic,’ said Robbie. ‘Goidelic Gaelic. The old style. We do it at school here.’
‘That’s what set alarm bells ringing,’ said Rona.
‘Can you translate it?’ asked Jake.
Rona nodded.
‘It says, “137. Dioscorides. De Materia Medica Continuum. Human Fire. Dalnaha.” ’
‘Dalnaha is the name of this area of land, on the south side of Loch Spelve,’ added Robbie.
‘And the book the Russians have found is this one by Dioscorides, about spontaneous human combustion,’ said Lauren.
‘None of us knew what the book was about, just that it had to stay hidden,’ said Robbie.
‘How come you were in the cottage?’ Jake asked Rona.
‘A woman called Mrs Strange owns it,’ replied Rona. ‘She lives in Edinburgh and rents it out as a holiday let. Mum used to work for her, cleaning it and getting it ready for visitors. I used to help.’ Her face darkened. ‘Until the Russians arrived. They decided they would look after their own cleaning.’
‘You look like there was more to it than that,’ said Lauren gently. ‘What happened?’
‘It was the second week they were here,’ said Rona. ‘Mum and I had gone along to do the cleaning as usual, thinking Mrs Strange still wanted us to do the work for her. Mum has a key that Mrs Strange left with her. We were working away, when the Russians came back and found us, and one of them went ballistic, started shouting at us in Russian, and grabbed me by the arm and started shoving me towards the door. Mum stepped in and told him off for grabbing me, and I thought there was going to be a fight between them. But then that professor guy stepped in. The tall one.’