Free The Turning Tide by Rob Kidd Page A

cross-legged, and, strangest of all, he had four arms.
    In the flickering candlelight, it was an eerie, imposing sight.
    “This must be a temple,” Carolina whispered, glancing down at the marigolds and other offerings arranged on the low stone altar before the statue. “I don’t know for which god.”
    “Well, I hope that monster can’t get in here,” Diego said, climbing to his feet. “Whatever it is.”
    Carolina started laughing. “You don’t know what it was? Silly Diego—that was an elephant.”
    “An elephant!” Diego cried. “But it was enormous! Are you sure?”
    “It looked like the drawings I’ve seen—from what I could tell,” Carolina said. “But I could be wrong.”
    “So why did we run away if we knew what it was?” Diego asked.
    She wrinkled her nose at him. “I still don’t want to get trampled by anything, even if I know its name!”
    “Well,” Diego said. “I wish I’d known; I wouldn’t feel quite so ridiculous—”
    A voice intruded on them, speaking somewhere outside the temple door.
    “Hold on, let me get away from all these horrid mosquitoes. There’s a door up ahead.” It was a woman’s voice. It carried a British accent and the clipped, nasal tones of high society.
    Carolina broke away from Diego. Her eyes were wide in the candlelight. Diego was still too dizzy to speak, but Carolina glanced around the room quickly. There was nowhere to hide. There was nothing else in the room except the altar and the statue.…
    Carolina leaped over the altar and clambered onto the statue’s knees with Diego right behind her. There was only a small space between the statue and the back wall. Carolina rolled over the statue’s lap and pulled Diego after her. They crouched, pressed together in the tiny, dark space. Diego put his arms around her and they ducked as low as they could as a woman carrying a lantern came through the temple entrance. They could see her shadow stretching up behind her across the front wall of the temple.
    The stranger set the lantern down on the altar. “That’s better,” she said. “Can you hear me now?”
    “Yes,” said a second voice. Carolina and Diego glanced at each other. Who was she talking to? Only one shadow moved on the wall; she seemed to be alone.
    “Good,” she said. “Now, have you been taking notes? You’ll remember all that about the fake rocks?”
    “Yes, yes,” said the other voice. It sounded male and impatient. “You mentioned a curtain of moss covering the entrance on the outer wall. Can you get to it and lift it for us?”
    The woman inhaled sharply. “But that would be dangerous ! You wouldn’t want me to be in any danger , would you, Benny?”
    Benny? Carolina mouthed to Diego.
    “Everything you’re doing is dangerous,” Benny’s voice growled. “It would be helpful, that’s all.”
    “I think I’ve been QUITE HELPFUL ENOUGH,” the woman snapped. “You know this is the closest the Company has ever come to catching Sri Sumbhajee. I can’t do everything for you, Benedict. Would you like me to storm the palace, too? Sail our ships into the harbor? Hold the Pirate Lords at gunpoint? Take them back to England with me? Tell you what, you don’t even need to show up at all. I’ll just defeat the Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean by myself, shall I?”
    Carolina’s fingers were digging into Diego’s arm. She was talking to Benedict Huntington! They’d thought the Pearl had escaped him in Hong Kong! How had he followed them here?
    “Barbara, Barbara, I’m sorry,” Benedict said, trying to stem the tide of angry words. “You’ve been amazing.”
    “I know,” she said snippily, “and I think I deserve a little appreciation, that’s all.”
    “I do appreciate it,” he said. “The entire East India Trading Company will thank you for it. Why, you’ll probably get a medal.”
    “I’d rather have some new perfume,” Barbara sniffed.
    “I’ll buy you all the perfumes of the Far East,” Benedict promised.