Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 16 - A Dark Night

The familiar shrill noise was oddly reassuring, as was the impression of being two-dimensional like an image on a TV screen, but it was still a shock as the electric bookcase vanished in a kaleidoscope of brilliant flashes. The noise slid down to base vibration that pounded my chest until it stopped abruptly. The light went out, leaving me floating in utter black silence for a moment before my feet hit the floor. I staggered backward into a wall I couldn't see. A strange dusty smell drifted into my nostrils. My heart seemed to have stopped beating.

Licia whispered, 'Aiya!'

'Holy granola!' Miguel groaned. 'Where are we?'

I had an overpowering urge to laugh. ' It didn't work. We must be locked in the electric bookcase.' 

 'Ziff, where are you?' Licia exclaimed.

'I'm here.' 

 'Did anyone remember to bring a flashlight or a cell phone?' Miguel sounded more confident than I felt.

 'Miguel,' I suggested, 'assuming we are still in Silverwood School, see if you can find a light switch. I'll go the other way.' 

 I groped along the wall, stumbling over uneven wooden planks. The air smelled stale and smoky. 

 'Hey,' Miguel exclaimed, 'I think my mark one receptors are picking up a few photons in the visible spectrum.'

Licia sighed sarcastically. 'I suppose that means, you can see.' 

 'That's affirmative,' Miguel replied.

I turned my head and I could just make out Licia behind me. My eyes were adjusting to the dark. I peered around an enormous, polished pillar and saw a pin point of light, a tiny glowing ember on the end of a strip of wood sticking out of a pot. A thin trail of smoke rose slowly in the still air.

 'Incense!' Licia whispered. 'It's used in Taoist temples . . . Why are we whispering?'

'Listen!' Licia ordered as we heard a faint noise. 'That sounded like cockerel crowing. That is so random. '

Miguel laughed nervously. 'There's the R word again.'

 'Ziff, why did the cockerel crow?' Licia asked in her best Sherlock Holmes voice.

'It must be nearly dawn,' I suggested. 

 I had taken two paces toward the incense when I had an overpowering feeling someone was watching me. I looked up into the eyes of a jet black giant staring down at me out of the darkness. Its eyes bulged out of a face grotesque with anger. Great white fangs grew out of a gaping mouth. Its muscular arms were raised to strike. I froze. 

 Nothing happened and slowly my brain started to work again. Very slowly, I exhaled. The giant had not moved and I noticed its skin reflected the light from the burning incense stick. I slowly reached out a hand and touched its leg, half fearing that it would come to life at my touch. I sucked in a breath and uttered a shuddering chuckle. 

 'It's only a statue,' I laughed, 'Phew!'

'A Balrog,' said Miguel, in a tremulous voice.

 'It looks more like the Uruk-hai,' I stammered.

'What are you two talking about?' Licia hissed.

'Lord of the Rings,' I explained. 'The Balrog almost killed Gandalf.'

Miguel looked up as he sidled around the statue. 'Anyway, I wouldn't want to meet that on a dark night!'

'Miguel,' Licia laughed in relief. 'It is a dark night.'