The Lethal Target(22)

‘Yes, well, that’s the difficult part,’ admitted Jake. ‘That, and getting the real book off the Russians.’

They fell silent, a heavy gloomy silence. Jake was the first to speak. ‘OK, has anyone got any other ideas?’

It was Rona who answered him: ‘If we can get the book back, we let MI5 have it. Properly. Not pretending.’

Robbie stared at her, shocked.

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘We know it’s true what they say: that MI5 want to keep the books secret as well. Well, this way the book will still be hidden.’

‘No!’ burst out Robbie angrily. ‘The books were supposed to stay hidden where no one can touch them. If any government has them, even stashed away somewhere, one day they might decide to use the information in them. That’s why the Watchers were set up. And we are Watchers!’

‘The book’s already been found!’ Rona reminded him firmly. ‘We’re watching over nothing! The only question now is who we want it to stay with: the Russians, who killed Uncle Dougie and will use it to make dreadful weapons; or British intelligence, who’ll keep it hidden away.’

‘No!’ repeated Robbie furiously. He stood up and glared at them. ‘I won’t listen to any more of this! I’m going to get that book back! I’ll destroy it rather than let anyone get their hands on it!’

‘As Rona said, the Russians already have their hands on it,’ said Jake.

‘Not for long!’ snapped Robbie. ‘Come on, Rona!’

Rona shook her head.

‘Not just yet,’ she said. ‘I want to talk about this some more.’

‘There’s nothing more to say!’ said Robbie angrily. ‘We’re finished! We’re on our own!’

‘Not if we want justice for Uncle Dougie,’ said Rona.

Robbie hesitated, and Jake could tell he was on the point of another angry outburst. But then he checked himself.

‘Very well,’ he said. ‘But if you decide to work with them, that’s nothing to do with me.’

With that, he turned and stormed off.

‘I’m sorry,’ Rona apologised. ‘Robbie’s really upset by what happened to Uncle Dougie. They were really close. And he takes his responsibility as a Watcher very seriously.’

‘We understand,’ said Lauren sympathetically. ‘And we’d also understand if you take the same view as him. About recovering the book yourselves and destroying it.’

Rona shook her head.

‘It won’t work for all the reasons we said. If we take it, the Russians will know it was us and they’ll make us tell them what we’ve done with it. And what’s the point of destroying it? The science in the book was meant to be used some day. Destroying it would be a terrible thing to do.’

‘OK,’ said Lauren. ‘So we’re agreed, the first thing to do is get the book from the Russians. Which means finding out where they’ll be keeping it.’

‘We think they’ll take it to the cottage,’ said Jake. ‘They won’t leave it at the site. The problem is, the cottage is heavily guarded. And it’ll be even more so once the book’s there.’

Rona fell silent, thinking. Then she said, ‘There’s a secret way in.’

Jake and Lauren looked at her, intrigued.

‘Where?’ asked Jake.

‘There’s a tunnel that goes up from one of the caves on the shore, and comes out at the back of a cupboard in the kitchen. It was used by smugglers, getting stuff in and out of boats without being seen.

‘Robbie and I watched when Mrs Strange had the cottage done up by Glenmorie the builders, so we know they left that secret entrance intact.’

‘Maybe the Russians have discovered it?’ suggested Lauren.

Rona shook her head.

‘Unlikely,’ she told them. ‘You can only really find it from the tunnel side.’

‘So, that’s our way into the cottage,’ said Jake.

‘Unless Robbie goes in that way before us,’ mused Lauren.

‘Leave him to me,’ said Rona. ‘I’ll talk to him, get him to hold off.’

‘And if he doesn’t?’ asked Jake.

‘I think you’d better show us this cave, Rona,’ said Lauren. ‘The sooner we get in and grab the book, the better.’





Chapter 13



The cave with the entrance to the secret tunnel was a further two miles along the shore. At first sight, it just looked like any ordinary cave: a narrow crevice in the cliff face with rocks around the entrance. Inside, though, there was a tunnel that twisted and turned, and finally came to what seemed to be a dead end, a blank wall of rock encrusted with barnacles. As they got nearer, Jake realised that the lower section of this apparent ‘blank rock wall’ was actually made of wood: ships’ timbers fixed together. The rocks in the floor of the tunnel were wet and slippery, as had been the cave entrance.