Part 12 (1/2)

He had made a decision. He and the lions, once they'd escaped, could not hang around where the circus was. They'd be followed and caught. If he didn't hear back from his parents, or a cat, telling him where they were in Paris, he would go straight on to Venice.

In the back of his mind he heard Rafi's tight, angry, violent voice: ”Just stay there and I'll be along to get you soon. Along. To get you. Soon.” He doesn't know, Charlie told himself firmly. He couldn't. But couldn't couldn't and and doesn't doesn't are two different things. are two different things.

Worry about something you can do something about! he told himself. In a very short time he'd be standing on a French street corner with six lions to look after, and he'd need to know which way to turn. Plans in general had to become plans in particular.

The oldest lion smiled down at him. ”I have some ideas, boy. Go and telephone now.”

”Yes, sir,” said Charlie. ”By the way-does anyone know what an Allergeny is?”

The lions all just gazed at him. ”No,” they said. ”What is it?”

Huddled and stiff in the hold of a motorboat, Magdalen was whispering. ”I think we have to try to escape,” she murmured. ”In the submarine we couldn't do anything, but next time we're transferred, we should just knock them down and run. We can't go on like this. Well. Maybe you can, but I can't. Charlie's out there somewhere, he needs us. He's not safe if he has . . . And I'm going mad here, doing nothing. We must do something!”

Aneba was sitting beside her, holding his knees. It was cramped in there; warmer than the sub, but hardly more comfortable. They couldn't stand up, and were instead half-lying on sacks of something that felt like rice.

”If we run,” he said, his voice strained by whispering and by trying to be patient-they seemed to have had this conversation many times before. ”If we run, a.s.suming we get away, how will we find out who hired these fools to kidnap us? How will we find out what they want? We couldn't go home; they could just come back for us again-or for Charlie. We wouldn't be safe. We have to stay, to find out what it's all about. a.s.suming-let's a.s.sume-that it's about the asthma cure. Do we a.s.sume that?”

”Yes,” said Magdalen in a small voice.

”So who wants it? Who wants us? Or is scared of us?”

”Or thinks us so important?” said Magdalen. ”I know, love, but . . .” She was thinking about Charlie.

”I know,” said Aneba. ”But he'll be no safer than us until this thing is sorted out. So that's what we are going to do. Get there-wherever it is. Identify our enemy. Deal with it. Sort it out.”

”Sort it out,” said Magdalen sadly. ”Yes. If only.”

Suddenly the boat jolted. Boxes fell on their heads-”Yow!” cried Magdalen as a crate of sardines fell against her.

”Shut up in there,” came a voice from outside-Winner's voice.

The boat was docking.

Charlie was extremely relieved to hear that the oldest lion had some ideas, because he didn't. However, he did know what to do when short of them. His mum and dad had both drummed it into him: ”When you don't know what to do, get more information!” So after the lions' afternoon rehearsal, and setting up and putting away the ring cage, and having a discussion with Maccomo about the final details of the performance, Charlie went to see Signor Lucidi, to find out exactly what would happen once they were in Paris.

He found him lying on his stomach on the floor of his cabin, with the youngest of his children walking along his backbone.

”Gos.h.!.+” cried Charlie. ”Is this part of the act? Use your dad's spine as a low-wire?”

”Ah, no,” groaned the acrobat. ”I wish it was, but it is not. It is for the pain of my back. Carrying so many of my family makes me hurt, and if I am to hold the Tukul for twenty seconds in Paris, then I must be strong and not aching . . . We are practicing too much and I hurt. That is all.”

”What's the Tukul?” asked Charlie.

”Most difficult human pyramid,” said Sigi. ”Everybody up on Daddy. On Daddy's legs, four people, plus on Daddy's shoulders, five people, plus on Daddy's head, my bambino here. On Daddy's head too-the pride of the family name, because if I don't hold it twenty seconds at least, all Paris will laugh at the name of Lucidi.”

”Gosh,” said Charlie again. Standing upright with ten people on top of you. That must be hard.

”So tell me, what happens when we get to Paris?” Charlie asked.

”Well, tomorrow morning we go into the Ca.n.a.l St. Denis, and we should get to our stopping place near the Bastille a few hours later,” said Sigi, between grunts of pleasure as his little boy's heels dug in along his spine. ”It's convenient-the ca.n.a.l joins on to the river. We dock, we parade, we get everything ready, then the next day everybody comes, we perform, we all go out and get drunk to celebrate. We stay three weeks, then we are back to normal, following the ca.n.a.ls down to the Mediterranean Sea, performing all the way. Then we perform the Italian coast, all the holiday towns and fis.h.i.+ng villages down to Rome and Naples, then over to North Africa for the winter and up the Spanish coast and back to Ma.r.s.eilles, and who knows where-maybe around Britain again, maybe to the Caribbean and the Empire Homelands. We can go anywhere on this boat-anywhere Major Tib wants to take us.”

Listening to this list of places, Charlie wished and wished that his parents were safely at home where parents ought to be, and that the lions could be happy in captivity, and that he could stay with the circus forever and ever.

But he couldn't.

”Is the Bastille near the Marais?” asked Charlie.

”Yes, it's very close,” said Sigi. ”It's close to everywhere. The university, the station, the menagerie, the river, the ca.n.a.l, the police, the courts of justice . . .”

Charlie ticked all these off in his head. Police and courts of justice-oh, dear. The station-aha!

He was just about to ask Signor Lucidi if the train was the best way to Italy from Paris, when he realized that this would be a very stupid thing to do. After he and the lions were gone, Maccomo and Major Tib would ask everybody if they knew anything about it, and if Lucidi said that Charlie had been inquiring about routes to Italy, then everybody would know that's where they'd gone. And they'd come after them, and they'd be extremely angry.

Charlie resolved to get a map of the area.

Back out on deck, the little envelope was flas.h.i.+ng on his telephone.

He pressed the b.u.t.ton. c.o.c.kY SLIMY GIT.

He took a breath, and retrieved the message.

”You stupid little kid, Charlie. You're on completely the wrong track. You haven't got a clue, have you? I'm here with your parents now-your mum's really ugly, isn't she?-and you know what? You're not going to find them. And you know what else? They don't want you. Why do you think they left without you? 'Cause they don't want you. Who would? Little squit like you. Uppity little squit at that. Stupid uppity little squit who couldn't find his stupid uppity parents if they were squashed on the motorway under his nose. So as you're obviously not going to get here on your own, I'll be along to get you soon, like I said . . .”

The voice was low and vicious and went on and on. Charlie listened in a frozen, horrified fascination, unable to hang up, for just a little too long.

The next night they were due to enter Paris. They stopped early at a place called Chatou, found the dock, and rested up for an early start in the morning. Charlie went about his duties, chanting, ”You don't fool me, you don't fool me, you don't fool me” under his breath, trying to drown out the echo of Rafi's nasty voice and nastier words. ”I'll beat you, Rafi,” he repeated over and over. ”I've got lions. I've got six beautiful, strong, huge, killer lions, with ma.s.sive teeth and sharp hard claws that could cut you in half. Have you seen how big a lion's claw is, Rafi? Do you know how many they have? They're like carving knives, Rafi, and they keep them tucked into their paws so they stay good and sharp! sharp! I've got lions, Rafi, and all you've got is a nasty tongue . . .” I've got lions, Rafi, and all you've got is a nasty tongue . . .”

”What are you muttering?” demanded Maccomo. ”I have a headache. Quiet down.”

Charlie was glad he had a headache. He hoped the drugs had caused it.

Later on, sitting on the deck with his sleeping bag around his shoulders and Pirouette's old street map of Paris on his knee, Charlie discovered that the Ca.n.a.l St. Denis would take them to the Ca.n.a.l St. Martin, which would take them back to the Seine, in the center of Paris, at the Port de Plaisance de Paris a.r.s.enal, Bastille for short because it was very close to where the old prison called the Bastille used to be, and the Marais, he saw, was close enough to be a sensible choice of area for Maccomo and Mabel to go out to dinner, but not so close as to make it risky. Also, it was in the opposite direction to the station. Things were beginning to fall into place.

Above him the small, high moon sailed across the night sky. Below, it made a still, gleaming path toward him across the river's waters. He tried hard to still his jumping mind. And for a few minutes he let himself wonder about what the barge cat had said. About the story, the Allergenies, his parents' work-the great mystery.