Kensy wondered if that was a good idea. But if Curtis knew some of what was going on, then it was only fair that Autumn did too. ‘Okay,’ Kensy said. Autumn had proven often enough already that she could keep a secret.

  Curtis had the advertisement open on the screen when the girls arrived.

  ‘You look like Magoo,’ Kensy said to Curtis, who had used a bucket of product to make his hair stand out in every direction.

  ‘I’m not him,’ he said. ‘I’m Einstein.’

  ‘Obviously,’ Autumn said.

  ‘So what’s going on?’ Kensy asked.

  Max explained that Curtis had been checking the Beacon ads online every day as a personal challenge. The children had been studying steganography all year in one of their Pharos classes. Steganography was the practice of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video, and it was often used by agents in ads or notices in the Beacon as a way to communicate. This morning the lad had found something alarming.

  Kensy looked at him. ‘So what is it?’

  ‘Huang’s running his empire from Singapore,’ Curtis said. ‘I intercepted a coded message that said he was here.’

  ‘What?’ the girl gasped. ‘But Dad said there was no way that could happen. Singapore’s too heavily regulated.’

  Autumn frowned. ‘Huang?’

  ‘One of a long list of bad guys who our family has upset over the years,’ Max said. ‘He shot at us from a speedboat on the Thames a while back.’

  Autumn and Curtis looked at one another in alarm.

  Kensy’s mind was in overdrive. ‘If he’s here and the others know it, then are they here too?’

  ‘Who?’ Autumn asked what she and Curtis were both thinking.

  ‘I think she means Song and Fitz and Uncle Rupert,’ Max said. ‘Dad said they were on Huang’s tail.’

  ‘Is this tied up with the reason you had to stay with the MacGregors before we came away?’ Curtis asked.

  The twins exchanged glances and Max touched his right earlobe. Kensy nodded.

  ‘Yes. Granny was poisoned,’ Max said. ‘With novichok.’

  Autumn’s and Curtis’s eyes widened.

  ‘Novichok!’ the pair exclaimed in unison. ‘That’s deadly.’

  The twins nodded. ‘Well, thankfully not for her – this time,’ Kensy said. The other two let go of the breaths they were holding. ‘She still can’t talk, but Mum and Dr Foster said that she should make a full recovery. It must have been a miniscule amount. They think whoever planted it was afraid of the stuff too.’

  ‘Do you know who was responsible?’ Curtis asked.

  ‘We’re not exactly sure, but a woman called Cameron Lu – an associate of Honesto Huang – kidnapped Sidney. Then someone disguised themselves as Sidney using one of those creepy realistic masks. They made it look like Sidney was responsible for the poisoning but, of course, he wasn’t,’ Kensy said.

  ‘Sidney!’ Autumn gasped. ‘Where is he now?’

  The twins shook their heads. ‘We don’t know. There’s been no sign of him since Song discovered that he’d been taken.’

  ‘And Huang?’ Curtis said.

  ‘He escaped from a Taiwanese prison a while ago and it looks like he and his associates have been after our family ever since. Long-time grudge, apparently,’ Max said. He really needed to ask one of his parents to explain that.

  ‘So what can we do?’ Autumn asked.

  ‘Keep your eyes open,’ Max said. ‘Be on the lookout for anything suspicious.’

  ‘You mean apart from Ah Meng being stolen from the zoo and all of the other missing animals,’ Kensy said. ‘Who would have thought Singapore would be in the grip of a crime wave?’ She glanced at Autumn, wondering if she was going to share that she thought her father was Heston Fong, but the girl remained tight lipped.

  ‘Do we have a picture of Huang or Lu?’ Curtis asked. ‘That could be helpful.’

  ‘I can call Dad,’ Kensy said, then realised that their phones and watches were still in Mr Reffell’s safe.

  ‘What about the Pharos mainframe? I can get in from my laptop,’ Max said.

  ‘I didn’t think any trainees could access the mainframe at the moment,’ Autumn said.

  Max bit his lip. ‘I might know Fitz’s password, if he hasn’t changed it yet,’ the boy confessed. He’d been watching the man use his laptop at home a few weeks ago and had accidentally seen the code as he watched Fitz’s fingers fly across the keyboard.

  ‘You’ll be in trouble when he finds out,’ Kensy said.

  ‘Actually, he’ll be the one in trouble,’ Max said, which was probably true. It was company policy to change passwords every two weeks.

  Max punched in the code and waited. The wheel spun for a few seconds and then he was into the central criminal database, which contained references to all of the reprobates Pharos had helped bring down over the years.

  Max put Huang’s name in first. Honesto Huang was a man of medium height and build, though beneath the suit he was wearing in the picture you could see the outline of a taught physique. The man’s rap sheet went on for pages.

  ‘This guy’s been busy,’ Kensy said, as she and the others leaned in and scanned the details of what he’d been up to. ‘Money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, murder. It says he has a penchant for fast cars and big boats and an impressive collection of Rolex watches.’

  ‘So the guy loves violence with a side serving of bling – what a charmer,’ Autumn said, and glanced at the clock beside one of the beds. ‘We’d better hurry. We have to be downstairs in ten minutes.’

  Max quickly typed the name ‘Cameron Lu’ into the search engine while Kensy ducked to the bathroom. Suddenly there was a loud explosion. ‘Sorry! I’ve had a funny tummy since last night . . .’

  Max rolled his eyes. ‘I apologise for my sister. She was raised by wolves.’

  They could hear the toilet flush and the tap running.

  ‘So have you got her?’ Kensy asked as she re-entered the room. She looked at the screen before stopping dead in her tracks.

  ‘What?’ Autumn asked. ‘What’s the matter?’

  Kensy pointed. ‘That’s her. The woman at the zoo with the pram. She stole Ah Meng.’

  ‘I’m calling Dad,’ Kensy said. She picked up the hotel telephone and began to dial her father’s number.

  Max snatched the handset and hung it up.

  ‘Are you mad? We can’t talk to Dad on an unsecured line – not about Pharos business. We can use the computer. And, yes, he’ll know that I’ve busted into Fitz’s profile to get those pictures of Huang and Lu, but we had no choice.’

  Max sat down in front of the laptop and initiated the video call. There wasn’t time to log out and log back in with his own profile. They only had a few minutes before they needed to leave.

  ‘Fitz, mate, are you okay?’ Ed said, then leaned in closer to the screen when he realised that it was Max he was talking to.

  ‘Dad, I can explain later why I’m on Fitz’s profile but you need to listen. It’s important.’ Curtis and Autumn were sitting on the end of Curtis’s bed, out of the laptop camera’s sightline, while Kensy was perched beside Max.

  ‘Is he with you?’ Ed asked.

  Max shook his head. ‘No, but Curtis found the message in the Beacon about Huang running his operation out of Singapore and Kensy saw Cameron Lu last night when we were at the zoo.’

  Ed was taken aback. ‘How do you know what Cameron Lu looks like?’

  ‘That’s why we needed to use Fitz’s profile – so I could get into the database. You know trainees can’t access everything,’ Max said.

  Kensy leaned across her brother to give a quick rundown of everything they knew about the poaching situation. ‘Cameron Lu stole Ah Meng, the orangutan. I told Mr Koh the man who seems to be in charge of everything and he said the facts didn’t line up, but I know it was her and I’m sure that I saw a real orangutan hand fall out of a covered pram. The woman was in such a hurry and literally disappeared when I turned around,’ she finished.

  Ed nodded but didn’t say anything.

  ‘Have you found Sidney yet, Dad?’ Max asked.

  Ed shook his head. ‘No, but we think he’s been trying to send a message via his watch. It seems as if it’s been damaged. We’re only picking up snatches of the Morse code.’

  ‘What do you want us to do?’ Kensy asked. She glanced over at Autumn, who had stood up and was now tapping on her wrist and motioning towards the clock beside Curtis’s bed. They couldn’t leave yet.

  ‘Absolutely nothing other than participate in your competition, enjoy the social engagements and come home safely on Thursday,’ Ed said.

  ‘But Dad, we’re here. Huang’s here, and Cameron Lu, and I presume Fitz and Uncle Rupert and Song too,’ Kensy protested. ‘Surely we can help. We’ve also got thirteen trainee agents and five fully-fledged ones with us as well.’

  Ed caught sight of a shadow near Kensy.

  ‘Who else is in the room with you?’ he asked.

  Kensy looked at her brother and shook her head ever so slightly.

  ‘Do not even think about lying to me, because when I brief your grandmother I can guarantee she will not be best pleased,’ Ed barked.

  ‘Is Granny talking?’ Max asked.

  ‘Yes, she’s getting stronger every day, but you need to answer my question,’ the man said sternly.

  ‘Autumn and Curtis,’ Max replied.

  ‘But they won’t say anything, will you?’ Kensy turned to the pair, who leaned in view of the camera and shook their heads.

  ‘I’m sure they won’t,’ Ed said. ‘And Curtis that was impressive work on the steganography. That particular skill took me many years to master.’

  Curtis grinned. ‘Thanks, Mr Spencer.’

  Autumn looked at the clock again. ‘We really have to go soon. Mrs Vanden Boom will kill us if we’re late.’

  Kensy nudged the girl. She wanted her to say something about Heston Fong but Autumn shook her head.

  ‘What about Huang and Lu? They’ll kill us if they find out we’re here, won’t they?’ Kensy looked at her father, who loosened his tie.

  ‘No – it’s Granny they were after,’ Ed said.

  ‘What did she do to him?’ Kensy asked.

  Ed took a deep breath, as if to brace himself. ‘Years ago, when Huang was trying to be a legitimate businessman, he orchestrated several opportunities to meet your grandmother. She thought he was charming and took a great interest in some charitable projects he had set up in Asia to look after orphaned children. There was some talk of a romantic attachment – your grandfather had been gone a long time and Granny was lonely – though I’m not sure that was true. But Sidney and Song had their suspicions and found out that Huang was trading the children on the black market.

  ‘You can imagine how well that went down with Granny. She’s done everything in her power to keep the man in prison ever since. But he’s a master of escape and, unfortunately, we think he got his hands on quite a bit of information about Pharos during the time they’d grown close. In any case, it’s very personal. And you all need to forget that I ever told you any of that – if your grandmother finds out, she’ll likely give me a side serve of novichok too.’ Ed explained.

  ‘So what can we do?’ Max asked.

  ‘Just keep your heads down. And I don’t want you telling anyone about what you think you saw with Ah Meng, Kensy. Especially not Sedgewick Koh. It’s important. If it was Cameron Lu with that ape – well, that changes a lot. Do not say a word about any of this to anyone – including the teachers. And that’s an order, kids. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more but you’ll just have to trust me. Stay with your group and look out for each other. You’ll be fine – I promise. We’ll take care of things.’

  The four children nodded their heads.

  Ed logged out of the call and Max closed the lid of his laptop.

  ‘Poor Granny. She’s so strong – I can’t imagine her being easily charmed,’ Max said.

  ‘That’s such a horrible situation,’ Autumn agreed. ‘How awful for her to be fooled by an absolute rogue.’

  But Curtis had been thinking about something else the man had said. ‘I wonder why your father was so adamant that we don’t say anything to Sedgewick Koh.’

  ‘Another mystery,’ Kensy huffed. ‘And so much for us being helpful. Seriously, what’s the point of all this training if we never get to use it.’

  A strong scent of frangipani flowers mingled with the delicious cooking smells that were coming from the various food stations set up around the lawn.

  Tonight the children were experiencing the delights of a replica hawker market, all within the grounds of Sedgewick Koh’s mansion.

  ‘How are you feeling, Mr Reffell?’ Carlos asked the man as they walked up the long driveway towards the imposing black and white residence.

  ‘I think I’ve swallowed a flutter of butterflies,’ said Monty, who had come to the party dressed very convincingly as Pythagoras in flowing robes and a long beard. He crossed his hands over his chest. ‘Oh my, oh my, look at those windows and those shutters – and that porch!’ The man fizzed with excitement and hurried towards the house.

  ‘I’m so hot.’ Autumn tugged at the collar of her long black dress. Why she hadn’t come as someone modern – like Jocelyn Burnell, who had discovered radio pulsars and would have worn regular clothes suited to the climate – was a mystery.

  ‘Me too,’ Max said. His decision to channel a young Steve Jobs in the Apple founder’s trademark blue jeans and black skivvy hadn’t been well thought-out at all. ‘I never imagined it would be quite this sticky.’

  The garden was already thronging with people. Given the party was fancy dress, it was nigh on impossible to identify anyone.

  Unlike at the River Safari the previous evening, tonight the students were able to roam freely. It was an opportunity for everyone to mingle and get to know each other. They’d been greeted at the gate by white-suited waitstaff offering an array of drinks – sparkling water, mango smoothies, pomegranate juice, kombucha and a range of iced teas. They were also handed a map of the grounds with the food stalls and facilities clearly marked.

  Kensy, Max, Curtis and Autumn had all remained shtum about the conversation with Ed back at the hotel. The man’s words had hit hard, though Kensy was still thinking that there had to be some way they could help.

  ‘I wonder where Mr and Mrs MacGregor are,’ Curtis said. Everyone had been ready and on the bus at quarter to five, except the headmaster and his wife. They’d waited another five minutes before Mrs Vanden Boom made a call, only to learn that the couple had planned to make their own way to the party – they just hadn’t thought to tell her.

  ‘You have to feel sorry for Mrs Vanden Boom,’ Max said. ‘The MacGregors aren’t exactly being super helpful, and I’m sure they’re only here to appease Dad.’

  ‘And bask in the glory if we win.’ Kensy rolled her eyes.

  ‘Which you definitely won’t,’ a boy said loudly. He was dressed in a full wetsuit with a snorkel and face mask on his head and diving booties on his feet.

  Kensy spun around. ‘Oh, not you again. Why are you so obsessed with us, Lars?’

  ‘I’m not Lars. I am the famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.’

  ‘No, you’re Lars and you’re always listening to our conversations. It’s not normal.’ Kensy balled her hands into fists and punched her right arm into the air.

  ‘You are not normal.’ Lars pulled a face and scurried away.

  ‘Is he for real?’ Curtis chuckled, and the others did too. ‘I bet that wetsuit is wetter on the inside than out at the moment.’

  Students were beginning to mix on the lawn, though being sociable was the last thing on Kensy’s mind. While her father had forbidden her from speaking to anyone about what she’d seen, he hadn’t said that they couldn’t do some investigating of their own. She’d been turning her father’s words over and over in her mind. He’d been so adamant that she wasn’t to talk to Sedgewick Koh again. But why? Did her father suspect him of some wrongdoing?

  ‘We should get food,’ Autumn said.

  ‘It’s too hot to eat,’ Kensy said. ‘But I’m not going to risk getting into trouble again for ordering room service at midnight. I don’t know how Mrs Vanden Boom found out, but she wasn’t happy this morning.’

  ‘I need to take this skivvy off,’ Max said. Fortunately he’d worn a T-shirt underneath. He tied the long-sleeved garment around his waist, not caring how daggy it looked. Steve Jobs wasn’t exactly a fashion plate in his younger years either.

  ‘Let’s go for a walk,’ Curtis said. They had less chance of being overheard when they were on the move.

  The group headed down to the food stalls, where the earlier crowds had now thinned out. They quickly found some satay sticks and rice and sought out a place to sit.

  ‘What about near the pool?’ Autumn said. Kensy nodded and they found themselves a spare table in the cabana right under a giant fan.

  ‘This is perfect.’ Autumn plonked down, wishing she had something cooler under her outfit. Stripping down to her underwear probably wouldn’t go over too well.

  ‘Do you think we have a chance of winning tomorrow?’ Curtis asked.

  Max shrugged. ‘There are a lot of smart kids here. We’ll have to be top of our game. And that’s hard when we’re thinking about all those other things.’

  The children ate their meal, which was delicious, before they heard the sound of laughter coming from the lawn. There was the squawk of a PA system being switched on too.

  ‘Come on.’ Max stood up, wondering what they should do with their plates and glasses, but before he could investigate, a waiter had scooped them all up and disappeared.

  ‘Good evening, children, teachers and honoured guests. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to my home, and I must say how impressed I am with your fancy dress – I have just seen one of the best impersonations of Einstein ever. Though I think the suit might be a little modern, his hair is perfect,’ Sedgewick Koh said from a small plinth that had been placed on the lawn to give him some elevation.