on Clancy and moved to clutch her heart. She looked up at Hitch. ‘You killed me?’ she said as she slid to the floor. In her left hand the diamond revolver glittered, a pool of crimson forming where she lay.
For just a second the three figures were frozen. Hitch had so many times fought Nine Lives only to watch her somehow leap to her escape – wounded but always alive. Could it really be over?
Suddenly there was a roar of anger from Baby Face Marshall as he flung himself at Hitch, sending him sprawling across the room.
The key! The Count!
Ruby seized the moment. ‘See you in one minute Clance, I gotta do something.’
‘Ruby, don’t go!’ he yelled.
Hitch called out something but Ruby couldn’t make out what it was. She didn’t have time to wait – her watch said one minute to midnight. With the lights back on, the Count would surely have found the glass key – the Buddha might already be gone.
She sped across to the inner vault just in time to watch as the Count reached his hands into the glass cylinder. He looked up in surprise as Ruby plucked off her remaining shoe and flung it hard at his head. It hit him square in the face and he lost his balance – just for a second, but it was enough. At that moment the clock struck midnight, there was a whirring sound, and in the blink of an eye, the glass cylinder shot up through the ceiling.
The Count cried out in fury as the Buddha disappeared from view. The vault was plunged into blackness for just a second and when the lights flickered back on, the vault was empty – he was gone. All that was left was the glass key glinting on the stone floor.
Where is he? Ruby was dumbfounded. He’s got to be in here somewhere – there’s no way he could have gotten past me.
But it was if the Count had simply dissolved away.
Suddenly the passageways were swarming with agents and security guards. When Ruby walked outside she saw Baby Face Marshall being led towards a waiting police car, his hands cuffed, his nose bloody. Not such a pretty sight now.
‘I’ll get you, brat, you see if I don’t,’ he growled.
‘Tell it to the judge, Baby Face,’ shouted Ruby.
‘Hey Rube!’ Clancy came running towards her, flapping his arms Clancy-style and sort of hopping up and down. ‘Boy, am I ever glad to see you, I thought maybe… you know… you’d…’
‘Gone to a better place?’ replied Ruby. ‘Nah, not me Clance my friend – it takes more than an evil genius to get me popping my clogs.’
‘Which reminds me,’ said Clancy, ‘I found your shoe!’
‘Gee thanks, I wondered where that had gotten to – turns out these just might be Dorothy’s “ruby slippers” after all. Don’t s’pose you got my glasses there too? These contact lenses suck.’
A hand ruffled her hair. ‘Hey there Ruby, long time no see.’
Ruby looked up to see the friendly face of Agent Blacker.
‘Thought you might possibly want a jelly donut,’ he said, handing her a brown paper bag. ‘Nothing like a near death experience to give you an appetite.’
‘Hey, you read my mind,’ said Ruby.
Hitch, meanwhile, was talking into his watch transmitter. He looked dishevelled, perhaps even tired, but his easy cool was back. ‘Yes, Baby Face has been apprehended, he’s being taken away right now.’
‘And the others?’ said LB.
‘Capaldi just ran out of lives. But I am afraid the Count, well, he got lucky – slipped right through our fingers.’
‘He always does,’ sighed LB.
‘Just a minute,’ said Hitch. ‘I got someone who wants to say hello.’ He held his watch to Ruby’s mouth.
‘Hey there LB, I got a complaint. Those gadgets of yours – you know some of them are faulty? I coulda been toast, you know what I’m saying? Lucky for you I don’t die so easy.’
The kid’s alive? For one heartbeat LB was speechless – but only for one heartbeat. A second later and she had regained her composure. ‘I presume you are talking about the Bradley Baker gadgets you stole? They are vintage, Redfort – what do you expect?’
‘Bradley Baker’s gadgets? How did you know I even had them?’
‘I like to think I know most things.’
LB disconnected the call, let out a deep breath and smiled. That’s some kid, she thought.
Crowds of people were gathered in the square: fire trucks, TV crews, all the citizens of Twinford, and while no one was looking Ruby slipped under the police tape and up the museum steps. The place was deserted and her footsteps echoed on the marble floor but as she made her way into the great hall she could see the Jade Buddha of Khotan, radiating its mysterious green light, and there standing in front of it was Ruby’s father.
‘Dad?’
‘Hey Rube, do I look wiser?’
Ruby put her head on one side. ‘Nah, just greener.’ Brant Redfort, the lucky soul to look the Jade Buddha of Khotan in the eye at midnight – but then Brant Redfort was born lucky.
‘Isn’t it magnificent?’ His voice had a faraway tone and he seemed almost hypnotized. ‘Just look into its eyes.’
And Ruby did.
And she saw that the Jade Buddha of Khotan really was something.
They stood staring at it for a while longer before Ruby said, ‘What are you doing in here anyway? I thought everyone was out looking at the bank not being robbed.’
‘I came to look for you honey. Your mother and I were wondering where you had gone to. We have been searching all over – thought you might have gotten lost inside the museum…’
‘There you are Ruby!’ came Sabina’s voice from across the hall. She was about to be alarmed by Ruby’s appearance, particularly her T-shirt, which now bore the slogan trouble – the in deep bit somewhat obscured by mud, blood and sand. However, all that came out of her mouth was, ‘oh my! Isn’t it just beautiful!’
And it was – too beautiful for words.
The tranquility wasn’t to last, though; the Redforts were roused from their appreciation by the following sharply spoken statement.
‘Ruby Redfort! I get kidnapped for a few weeks and look what happens – what in tarnation have you done to yourself?’
It was Mrs Digby, who was looking pretty extraordinary herself, dressed in one of Mrs Redfort’s evening gowns, a mink stole around her shoulders. Standing by her side was a short man with a huge moustache.
‘Mrs Digby!’ said Ruby, grinning. ‘You look a million dollars.’
