Dangerous Secrets

Chapter 13

Thank you everyone for the upvotes! Sorry that this story hasn't been the most well-written of my stories - I wrote this around the beginning of my writing career, and, purely for sentimental reasons, I kept it like it was when posting it on here (except for adding those scenes with Kerry's character arc - they are completely new).

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Lady Penelope and Kerry were falling, falling, falling...

No matter how far they fell, they still did not reach the bottom. How far does this go? Penelope thought. When we hit the bottom, that's going to be messy. She thought of Gordon Tracy - handsome, well-meaning, cheeky and sloppy. Everything that she loved. I love you.

"What's that?" Kerry yelled. Something flew around them and grabbed them, taking them upwards. Lady Penelope looked at the person who had saved them.

"Parker!?" she exclaimed. Parker, her loyal chauffeur, was wearing a Jet Pack and was heading out through a tunnel entrance that none of them had noticed before.

He turned to her with a smile. "Don't worry, m'lady," he said, "Sherbet's safe h'inside FAB 1. The dog-proof lock h'is on."

Lady Penelope was so relieved, that she burst out laughing as Parker flew them through the tunnel. "How did you find this tunnel, Mr Parker?" Kerry enquired. Lady Penelope quieted down so as to hear him.

"I was secretly listening h'in to you girls," Parker proudly explained, "when I 'eard you fall through the rock. So, I quickly did a scan of the area around me from the car and found an entrance to the tunnel nearby to where I 'ad parked FAB 1. I put on a jet pack and flew through the tunnel and rescued you two."

By the time he had finished describing his heroics, they had exited the tunnel. Parker landed and turned off the jet pack. They went over to the car. "Thank you, Parker," Lady Penelope said.

"You're welcome, m'lady," Parker replied.

"The letters! We need to go back in and find them!" Kerry remembered.

Parker beamed. "No need to worry about that, Miss Kerry," he told her smugly. Penelope and Kerry looked at each other, both confused, then back at Parker.

"What do you mean?" Lady Penelope asked him.

"When I was flying through the tunnel, I saw a metal box lying on the floor. I picked h'it up and peeked h'inside as I was coming to you. The letters were h'in h'it. Great preservation technique, I must say," Parker explained and he pulled the box from his jacket.

Lady Penelope took the metal box. It was not very big, but not very small, either. "How do you open this?" she asked. Parker pressed a barely distinguishable button on the top of the box. The lid flung open and inside was the letters. Penelope carefully lifted the letters from the box and began reading them. She was amazed. They were the love letters between Errol and Princess Amelia - the rumours were true!

After she read one letter, she would hand it to Kerry so that she could also read it and make sure that nothing was missed. They read through five, but there was absolutely no clues or hints about anything. Why bother mentioning the letters if there was no clue or hint or something?! Penelope thought bitterly.

As Penelope handed the sixth letter to Kerry, something fell out of the neat stack of letters. Something smaller than the rest of the letters. Handing the rest of them to Parker and Kerry, Penelope bent down and picked it up. She wasn't quite sure why, but she was excited. She had a strong feeling that this was it.

It was a newspaper clipping from last month. Huh? A clue! It was an article from The World Daily about an upcoming meeting of the World Parliament, World Council and all the world leaders at Buckingham Palace, London, England. The meeting was being hosted by Queen Bridgette IV. So here's our clue, Penelope thought. What are they trying to tell us with this? She told Parker and Kerry about it, and showed them the clipping. "So, something is going to happen there," Kerry said. "Oh! The meeting takes place tomorrow! We better hurry!"

They climbed into the car and Parker sat down in the driver's seat. "M'lady, I was reading the letters and I found another clue," he announced. "H'in the seventh letter, some of the alphabetical letters were smudged, forming the sentence: Follow the fleur-de-lis."

"Parker, it's time to use the teleporter that Brains added to the cars' gadgets," Penelope ordered. "We are going to visit my ancestor's, Philippe Le Paris, castle in Southern France."

TRACY ISLAND

Professor Moffat entered the lounge. Jeff Tracy had called her to come and help Brains as things were very hectic with trying to do rescues without Scott, Virgil, and Thunderbird 1 and Brains needed help to build the large batteries by two weeks. Jeff looked up at her as she entered. "Hello, Ms. Moffat," he greeted. "You know where Brains' lab is."

Moffat nodded and headed down for the lab. Upon entering, she saw that she was desperately needed. Brains was obviously feeling very stressed, as he was going here, there, everywhere trying to find all the right parts. She cleared her throat to grab Brains' attention. "I'm b-busy!" he snapped. "P-please d-don't i-interrupt m-me!" He turned to see who was there and drew up short. "Oh, I apologise, M-Moffie," he quickly apologised.

"That's alright, Hiram," she smiled. "Mr Tracy sent me here to help you. I hope you don't mind."

"Oh, of c-course n-not!" he hastened to assure her. "I w-was p-planning to secretly d-do very subtle c-changes t-to the b-batteries t-to f-foil them," he said quietly. "I'm sure that the M-Mechanic i-is g-going t-to d-do something v-very b-bad with them and I am g-going t-to attempt t-to d-delay it."

"Hiram, after everything that Jeff has told me about this, I was scanning everything I passed on this island and I am detecting listening devices around the place," Moffat whispered urgently. Brains put his head in his hands. "But I haven't detected any in your lab, but I'm just warning you so that you don't go blurting it out everywhere." Brains breathed a sigh of relief, colour returning to his suddenly pale cheeks. "Don't worry, Hiram," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll do it."

IN A GDF FLYER

Colonel Casey prepared herself for the meeting in Buckingham Palace. It would not happen for a few more hours, but she was heading there, as well as all of Parliament, Council and the leaders. One of her GDF soldiers stuck his head in. "Colonel Casey, I have him," he said.

"Bring him in," she ordered. The soldier shoved a boy in, Adam Hanson, then left, shutting the door. She finished putting on her make-up and turned towards the terrified boy. "Hello, Adam," she said sourly. He glared at her. "I am now telling you that your mother is dead. She died while trying to do the challenge of the castles," she announced. Adam paled and collapsed on the floor, crying and trembling at what that meant. "But, your sister, Kerry, and Lady Penelope have taken up the challenge, fortunately for you." Adam raised his head and looked at her, a spark of hope in his eyes. "But, they won't survive, if I can help it."

"Stuff you," he insulted.

"They now have 27 hours to complete the challenge and work out what we are going to do, all in an attempt to save you. They think it is just 27 hours before you die. It is that, but something much more as well." She paused, enjoying Adam's expression of fear. "It is also 27 hours until we unleash the final stages of our plot, the one they are trying to work out. In an hour, we will unleash Project KJUY980, a.k.a. the diversion. But, Penelope and Kerry don't realize that they will die trying to save you."

Adam's heart raced. Please hurry. Please solve this. PLEASE.