The Inventors and the Lost Island Page 8

  George let go of the handles seconds before the massive ball struck the water cannon with an earsplitting crunch of wood and water and metal. The device exploded in a shower of splinters, but it protected the ship from suffering any more damage. The cannonball rolled into the ocean on the other side of him with a splash and sizzle.

  Head ringing, George skidded down the deck, and only just managed to grab on to the hatch to stop himself from plunging into the water below. With a final tug, he pulled himself through the opening, then slammed the door down on top of himself and scurried down the ladder.

  “We survived the Society!”

  George wiggled his stockinged toes with a laugh, grinning so much that his cheeks began to hurt. The water cannon was destroyed, but they were alive.

  “And the only casualty was your boot!” Ada called back.

  “And your water cannon,” George said, letting his body collapse against the rungs of the ladder. He watched as Ada settled in the captain’s chair. The whale rumbled pleasantly under his legs, bringing the feeling back into them.

  George had opened his mouth to let out a breath of relief when he spotted something that made his hair stand on end. A trail of water snaked from the porthole to the other side of a pillar—three paces away from where Ada sat.

  George did not have time to cry out a warning because the pirate shrieked first.

  Chapter Eleven

  The man launched himself toward Ada, silver teeth bared in an earsplitting howl.

  Sliding forward on his stockinged foot, George charged the pirate. On the way, he ripped one of the wooden spoon levers from the control panel. He collided with the pirate’s chest.

  The pirate grunted but didn’t fall. George jabbed the spoon into the softest part of the pirate’s belly, but the pirate was quicker and stronger. He grabbed the spoon and shoved it back into George. As George fell into Patty, Ada sprang up from the captain’s chair to escape. Again, the pirate was too quick. He seized her by the waist, pinning her arms to her sides. Ada thrashed and kicked, but the pirate’s grip was firm, and he was able to lift her in the air. As the pirate carried her away, Ada hooked her feet around the ladder to stop him. “George!”

  Still dizzy, George seized Patty, then flung her forward with all his strength. “Catch!”

  The pirate was so shocked to see a porcelain-faced girl flying toward him that he dropped Ada. Patty’s heavy mechanical body knocked the wind from the pirate’s lungs when she crashed into him. He spun the mechanical girl around like an awkward dance partner before pushing her back into a corner. Ada vaulted off the ladder in a graceful cartwheel, landing next to George.

  Ada and George looked at each other. Then, at the same time, they looked at the bucket of snail slime at their feet.

  George kicked the bucket of snail slime over with his booted foot. A sharp pain radiated up to his shin, but it worked—the slime oozed between him, Ada, and the pirate. The scraggly man froze in his tracks as soon as he set foot in the slime. While he attempted to free his leather boot from the layer of snail slime, Ada grabbed a chair from the back of the ship, frantically coating it in more slime.

  “Sit,” Ada said, shoving the chair hard into the back of the pirate’s legs. The pirate’s black eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape. He squinted menacingly at George. The dry, sunburned skin around his eyes cracked. Finally, he sat.

  George looped a rope around the pirate’s chest and arms and tied him to the chair for good measure. Everything had happened so fast, he’d had no time to be scared. Blood was pumping in his ears louder than the ocean outside.

  “Who are you?” Ada demanded.

  Emboldened by the pirate’s captivity, George shouted, “Tell us your name!”

  The pirate ran his tongue across his sharp teeth. He thrashed against the ropes, but they held firm. “Cabeza de Perro,” he said proudly. “My name is Cabeza de Perro.”

  “Dog Head? Your name in English is Dog Head?” Ada asked.

  “Sí. My mother named me Ángel, but the name did not fit me. I am no angel. This name fits better. But my name should not concern you. I am a Nobody,” said Cabeza de Perro.

  George felt himself go pale as he imagined Oscar and his father facing an entire crew of Nobodies, but Cabeza de Perro didn’t seem to notice. “What is this liquid? Poison? Please, do not kill me.”

  George scoffed. “You were going to kill me!”

  Cabeza de Perro wriggled his wet shoulders as much as his position would allow. “I do not want to kill. My captain says only to capture you and the girl. Everyone else…” He trailed off, then tossed his head to the side and made the universal throat-cutting sound.

  “Your captain? What about the true captain of that ship, Captain Bibble the Beastly, the Bane of Britain?” George asked.

  The pirate grimaced and spat on the floor. “That is not my captain. That is my enemy. We took his ship from him and left him to die.”

  “To die?” George repeated. His heart stuttered, and his chest felt as tight as if a giant fist had squeezed all the air out of his lungs. He met Ada’s eyes. They were dazed with surprise and shock.

  George whirled on the pirate, anger roaring in his chest. “Were a boy and an orange ape on board? What happened to them? Did you hurt them? If you hurt them, I’ll—”

  “No boy, no boy, only the men with no arms, no legs,” said Cabeza de Perro. “We take the ship easily. The crew is lazy. They leave their boat in the Bahía de Algeciras and think they are safe and that no one will touch them. Well, they are wrong. My captain gave us special weapons that no one else has.”

  George let out a shuddering breath. Oscar and Ruthie were safe. He cracked his knuckles and straightened up. “Tell me who you’re working for. Who’s giving your orders?”

  Cabeza de Perro threw his shoulders back proudly. The snail slime squelched underneath him. “El gran jefe Nobody, Don Nadie, the pirate of all pirates! He is a pirate of the land and the sea and the sky. The king of all criminals. He has suffered more than any of us. He would grind your bones between his teeth and then feed the powder to the sharks.”

  Cold gripped George’s chest. He tried to swallow his fear, keep his voice calm. “We’re familiar with him. Is—is he on your ship now?”

  The pirate let out a braying laugh. “No. He is not the captain of my ship. He is my captain’s captain. My captain’s captain’s captain. My captain’s captain’s—”

  “Yes, he’s very high up, I get the point,” George said.

  “Well,” Ada said, a note of relief in her voice, “why didn’t you say all that in the first place? You could have saved us the trouble of tying you up.”

  With a skeptical frown, the pirate asked, “So you let me go?”

  “Of course. I’m terribly sorry. If these ropes weren’t stuck to the chair, I would untie you right now. As soon as the glue unsticks, we’ll let you go,” Ada said sweetly.

  George looked at Ada. “We will?”

  “Yes. We wouldn’t want to harm one of our compatriots, would we?” She shot George a pointed look, then turned back to the pirate and continued, “I deduce that you also received an instruction to attack any unfamiliar mechanical creatures? Those were our instructions, too.”

  Cabeza de Perro’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at Ada, but when he turned his gaze to George, they narrowed even further. “Ha! You? You are a Nobody?”

  Although Ada was lying, George was still offended by the pirate’s disbelief. “Why not me? My grandfather was a maritime war”—Ada elbowed him—“criminal. Yes, he was a pirate, too. The fiercest, most pirate-y of pirates.” He cleared his throat, trying to keep up with the deception. “A mechanical bat delivered the message to us earlier this morning. Isn’t that right?”

  The pirate’s black eyes darted between Ada and George. “The messenger was not a bat, it was a bird.”

  Ada scoffed. Her hands flew to her hips as if she were deeply offended. “Of course it was. Are you saying that the fearless
Don Nadie couldn’t make a mechanical bird that could also transform into a bat?”

  “No, no—I am only testing you,” the pirate said quickly. “I knew it could do that.”

  “Of course you did. We received the same message, which is why we boarded this whale only thirty minutes before you did. But that bald boy and very short girl escaped.”

  “Bald boy? Short girl?” Cabeza de Perro’s glance bounced back and forth between them. “That is not how I remember the message.…”

  A sheen of sweat broke out on George’s forehead. He quickly wiped his sleeve across his face. Ada turned her back on the pirate, leaned over, and whispered into George’s ear. “See if he knows Don Nadie’s true identity, and be quick.”

  Just then, the clock on the wall began to chime. “Teatime!” Ada announced.

  Ada bustled to the kitchen to prepare a cup of tea. George pulled a chair next to Cabeza de Perro, leaning in as close as he dared. The damp pirate smelled as if he’d been smeared with fish guts. Though the smell made his insides churn with disgust, George plastered on his most engaging smile. “Isn’t being a Nobody simply the greatest? My friend and I are rather new, but I think we’re doing well, don’t you? What has your crew captured lately besides that old pirate ship?”

  Cabeza de Perro lifted his chin defiantly. “Nobodies do not capture anything. Nobodies take back what was rightfully ours all along.”

  “Yes, that’s what I meant,” George agreed, deepening his voice to keep it from squeaking from fear. This had the unexpected consequence of making him sound eerily like his father, and doubly pompous. “I heard old Don Nadie is sending us to London soon to steal inventions from some place called S.C.O.N.E.S. Or was it M.U.F.F.I.N.S.?”

  George snapped his fingers as if he couldn’t remember the name. Cabeza de Perro stared at him blankly.

  “C.R.U.M.P.E.T.S., that’s what it’s called,” George said. “I guess Don Nadie hasn’t given your crew that information yet. Or maybe he never will. He must not trust you rusty-guts fishermen the way he trusts me. I bet you don’t even know Don Nadie’s real name, do you?”

  Cabeza de Perro leaned forward, flashing his silver teeth. The rope strained against his chest. “Nobody is the only name I need to know. If that is the name he calls himself, then that is who he is. You know nothing about trust. Nobody’s plans are bigger than the sea itself. He will give this mundo injusto, this unjust world, to the pirates and thieves. He says we will be able to walk free again. Wherever we want, we go. Whatever we want, we take. We are Nobodies, but soon we will be Somebodies again.”

  Ada returned, offering a cup of tea to Cabeza de Perro. Since the pirate could not hold it in his hands, she put the cup to his lips and let him sip it.

  Cabeza de Perro licked a drop of tea from his cracked lips. “Don Nadie is unlike any other man. What he does not have, he finds. What he does not possess, he takes. What he does not like, he destroys. There is only one thing that is his, and his alone.”

  George tried to suppress a shiver. “What is it?”

  “His revenge.” Cabeza de Perro’s lip curled. “He will never give up until he has his revenge. Until he has taken back what was taken from him, what rightfully belongs…” The pirate yawned, exposing several teeth in the back of his mouth that flashed like diamonds.

  “What has been taken from him?” George interrupted. “The map? Is that what’s been taken from him?”

  The pirate blinked slowly. His eyes settled on George, unfocused and bleary. “The map…” A growling laugh escaped his throat. “Much more has been taken from him.…”

  The pirate’s bearded chin drooped onto his chest as he fell fast asleep. George pounded a fist on his chest. “No! Wake up!”

  Next to him, Ada peered into the drained teacup. “I hope that was the right amount of laudanum. He should sleep for a while.”

  George shook the sleeping pirate’s shoulder. “Did you hear what he said? We need to wake him back up.”

  “He won’t wake for hours,” Ada said, lifting up the pirate’s eyelid to peer at his pupil underneath. “I heard enough. I don’t think he can help us, George. He clearly doesn’t know Don Nadie’s true identity.”

  “Do you think Don Nadie can really do all that, Ada? How can he give the world back to thieves? How can Nobodies be Somebodies?”

  Ada murmured something to herself; then her face glowed with understanding. “Well, I’m sure he meant it figuratively. Don Nadie’s plan isn’t bigger than the sea, nor is he literally planning on giving the world back to thieves. I’ve been studying my father’s poetry. Poetry is full of figurative language and metaphors.”

  “I don’t think the pirate was speaking in poetry,” George said.

  “No, but he wasn’t making much sense, either. Neither does poetry sometimes, at least until you look deeper. What does it mean to be a nobody?” Ada held out her hands as if she were slicing the air between her syllables. “A no… body.”

  George wrinkled his forehead. “It means you don’t have a… body? You don’t belong anywhere? Maybe that’s why Don Nadie wants my house. He wants somewhere to belong.”

  Ada tapped her fingernail against the teacup as she considered what George had said. “Maybe it’s not just your grandfather’s house he wants. Your grandfather was a nobleman. He belonged to the ruling class. Or a body can also mean a larger body, a group of people, like a political body or government. Maybe Don Nadie feels as though he doesn’t belong to any group.”

  She drew in a sharp breath. “The Organization! When I didn’t know what the Society of Nobodies was, I called it the Organization. I thought they were trying to take down the government. I was wrong about their name, but maybe I was right about that! There are all sorts of people who don’t belong—pirates, criminals, the poor, the enslaved, the imprisoned, the forgotten people everywhere who don’t get a say in how the government works.”

  “But—”

  “Even women can’t vote. What if the Nobodies want to change that? What if taking their lives back means making a better world where everyone belongs? A world where a woman can be anything she wants to be.”

  George watched Ada’s eyes begin to sparkle. Her mind had leapt ten thousand steps ahead, as usual. “You’re talking about a revolution.”

  Ada rolled her shoulder as if a revolution did not cause her any great concern. “If Don Nadie is planning to overthrow the government, then what would he need? An army. And what does an army need? Weapons.”

  “That’s an excellent theory, Ada. There’s just one problem with it.”

  Ada frowned. “What?”

  “Don Nadie is not a good person. If he’s going to overthrow the government, he’s not trying to make a better world.”

  She nodded. “I suppose. Don Nadie is dangerous, but he won’t win. He has an entire society of people to carry out his bidding. But we have—”

  Ada paused and looked around, waiting for George to finish her sentence. George knew exactly what she wanted him to say, which wasn’t that they had a ship and food and favorable currents. What George was supposed to say was that they had each other. The problem was that without the rest of the others—Oscar and Ruthie—George couldn’t say it.

  Ada bit her lip. “I wish Cabeza de Perro had been able to tell us where Oscar and Ruthie are. And I hope Captain Bibble is safe.”

  With a lurch of his stomach, George recalled what Cabeza de Perro had told them about attacking Bibble’s crew at Bahía de Algeciras. The pirate hadn’t seen Oscar or Ruthie…

  A spark ignited in George’s brain. He grabbed Ada’s shoulders. “Oscar. Ruthie. I think I know where we can find them.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Slow down. We’ve rounded the peninsula. The caves should be just ahead!” George exclaimed.

  About an hour after they’d encountered Captain Bibble’s stolen ship, the whale passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow channel of water that connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. On a map, i
t looked like two fingertips—the pointer finger coming down from Spain, the thumb coming up from Morocco—that were almost pinched together, but not quite touching. In real life, there were still miles of water between the two sides of land. George couldn’t even tell they were passing through the strait until he saw a hazy pyramid-shaped rock appear on the northern horizon.

  He swiveled the periscope around to scan the shoreline of the Rock of Gibraltar, a towering peak whose sheer white cliffs rose up mythically from the sea. The cliffs reminded George of the walls of Chillon Castle, which they had invaded in Geneva, but built by nature, not man. Hollowed arches of stone lined the base of the cliff as if a gigantic mouse had nibbled away at the rock.

  “Excellent navigating,” Ada remarked from the pilot’s chair. “You’re almost as good as having a map, George.”

  Ada’s unexpected praise caused a prideful flush to creep into George’s cheeks. He dipped his head to hide the smile that tugged the corners of his lips. “I was just lucky that Mr. Cabeza mentioned that Bibble’s crew was in the Bahía de Algeciras and that I remembered that its English name is the Bay of Gibraltar. My grandfather had a map of this area, including the bay and the rock. If Oscar wasn’t on the ship when they were attacked, he must have been exploring the rock. It’s probably the most famous hunk of limestone in the world.”

  “Your deduction makes perfect sense to me. I have no doubt that if Oscar wasn’t on board his father’s ship, then he must be here,” Ada said.

  Finally, through the periscope, George saw a small rowboat anchored near the mouth of one of the caves. Until he saw the boat, George hadn’t dared to trust that his luck would let him find his friends. But now a strange thrill tickled his ribs and puffed out his chest. If this was how Ada felt every time she correctly deduced the answer to a problem, it was no wonder she chased adventure. She didn’t belong at the Somerville School for Ladies of Substance.