Читать книгу The Curse of the Ancient Mask - Simon Cheshire - Страница 9

CHAPTER TWO

'MY DAD IS AN ENGINEER at Microspek Electronics,’ she began. ‘He’s worked there for years. He’s head of their laboratory, and he helps develop new ideas. He’s normally a pretty laid back, easy-going, jokey sort of dad. But recently he’s become very nervous.’

‘Nervous?’ I said. ‘What of?’

‘I know this sounds silly, but he thinks he’s under some sort of bad luck curse, put on him by this antique mask he bought on a business trip a few months ago.’

‘You’re right, it does sound silly.’

‘Yeah. But he’s convinced. Ever since this mask came into the house, things have been going wrong for him at work. He’s been getting into trouble with his boss.’

‘Why?’

‘His new ideas keep being stolen. Something must be going on at his lab. He’d worked out a brilliant way of running MP3 players from your TV remote, and then a rival company, PosiSpark Inc, suddenly came up with the same thing. He’d also made a toaster which never burns bread, even if you forget it’s on, and PosiSpark got hold of that idea too!’

‘So there must be a spy for PosiSpark working undercover at the Microspek lab.’

‘That’s exactly what my dad’s boss thinks. He reckons that the spy is my dad!’

‘And he’s not? Sorry, I have to ask,’ I told her.

‘No,’ said Jasmine. ‘Definitely not. Dad’s horrified at what’s going on. And so is everyone at the lab. Every last one of them has volunteered to have lie detector tests, their emails and phone records checked, even their dustbins searched! Dad’s assistants are loyal to him. There’s no sign whatsoever of a spy. Dad’s boss still thinks Dad is the only one who could be passing such complete information to PosiSpark, and he’s just waiting to find some proof! Then Dad will be fired!’

‘Hmm. No wonder your dad’s feeling jumpy,’ I said. I would have sat back in my Thinking Chair at this point, but Jasmine was sitting on it. So I sat back on the desk and looked thoughtful instead. ‘This mask. Where did he get it?’

‘In Tokyo. It’s an old Japanese samurai mask. He found it in a little antique shop while he was on a business trip. He buys stuff like that whenever he travels. He’s not an antiques expert or anything, he just likes collecting souvenirs. The man in the shop told him there was a curse on it, but of course he thought that was nonsense. At the time. In fact, he found it amusing and pretended to scare us all!’

‘But if your dad now thinks the curse is real, why doesn’t he just get rid of it?’

‘Ah!’ said Jasmine, holding up a finger like an exclamation mark. ‘That’s the sneaky bit. There’s Japanese writing on the back of the mask. The man in the shop translated it for him. It says that the curse remains even if you throw the mask away! The only way to lift it off yourself is to give it to another person.’

‘And since your dad believes in the curse,’ I said, ‘he doesn’t want to pass it on.’

‘Exactly. He says he couldn’t deliberately give someone an ancient curse!’

A possibility was coming to mind. The mask turns up, information begins to leak from the lab, PosiSpark snatch all the new ideas . . .

‘Where exactly is the mask kept?’ I asked. ‘At his lab?’

‘You’re thinking of bugs, right?’ said Jasmine. ‘Secret agent-type cameras and such?’

‘The possibility came to mind.’

‘The mask is at home, in Dad’s study. He works from home sometimes. The mask is nowhere near the laboratory. In any case, the lab’s been scanned for bugs, listening devices, hidden cameras, you name it. There’s nothing. Dad’s examined the mask, and searched every inch of our whole house. He’s come up with precisely zero. He’s convinced it’s the curse.’

‘Well, it’s a strange sort of curse that brings such specific bad luck,’ I said. ‘Must be a very intelligent and technologically-minded curse.’

‘The thing is,’ said Jasmine, ‘there is a leak of information. My dad will get fired. Him buying that mask could just be a complete coincidence, but one way or the other, this needs to be sorted out.’

‘And it will be,’ I said. ‘Saxby Smart is on the case!’