The Case of the Wayward Professor by Gareth P. Jones

Author:Gareth P. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2007-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Dirk found Holly standing on one leg, the other angled out in front of her, frozen mid-stride. Her arms were outstretched, her lips curled into a smile, her eyes open with a faraway look as though remembering a happy but distant memory.

‘Rats of the wild frontier,’ he cursed.

He zipped around her, lifted his paw to her face, said, ‘Sorry, Holly,’ and slapped her hard on her cheek.

Holly toppled to the side, waking from her stupor. ‘What did you do that for?’ she said, regaining her balance.

‘Sorry, kiddo. The only way out of the trance is a jolt to the head. I tried to go as easy as I could.’

‘What happened to me?’

‘You heard Dragonsong.’

‘Yes,’ said Holly, the light returning to her eyes, ‘it was beautiful. Like … Like … Like no music I’ve ever heard.’

‘Well, I’m sorry.’

‘Why are you sorry? It was amazing.’ ‘Come on, I’ll show you.’

They approached the cottage. A yellow car was parked outside. As they went through the front door, Dirk said, ‘Try not to scream.’

Holly stopped in the doorway. In front of her were the two crooks. Reg was sitting at the table. Arthur was standing by the doorway. A man with a bald head, who she guessed was the professor, was leaning over the cooker with a box of matches in one hand and a match in the other, as though about to light the hob. All three of them wore the same vacant look on their faces, standing perfectly still, like a moment preserved in time.

‘Don’t worry, I turned off the gas,’ said Dirk.

‘Is that what happened to me?’ asked Holly.

‘Yes. You heard the music right up to the point that I slapped you, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘I only sang for a few seconds. It gets inside you.’

‘It was almost like I was making it,’ said Holly, smiling at the memory. ‘Do they know we’re here?’

‘They can see the world around them, but they’re not looking at it, and they’ll only listen when spoken to directly. All they care about is the Dragonsong.’ Dirk turned to the professor and said, ‘Professor Rosenfield, I want you to stand upright and light that match.’

Instantly Rosenfield did exactly as Dirk told him.

‘Wow. Can you make him do anything?’

‘Yes. I could make him blow out the match or light the hob and make us all a nice cup of tea …’

‘That’s brilliant.’

‘Or I could make him drop it and burn down the cottage with him and these two in it.’

Holly blew out the match. ‘You could make him kill?’

‘Lots of good dragons have died this way,’ said Dirk. ‘Dragonsong is a gift in the right hands, but a deadly weapon in the wrong. It’s been against our laws to use it as a weapon for thousands of years. I hate it. I’d never have used it at all but I had no choice, I couldn’t let them see me.’

‘What do we do with them now?’ asked Holly.

‘We’ll send them home after we’ve extracted information from the professor. Needless to say, these two idiots don’t know anything.

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