The Valley of the Ancients Read online

  ‘The three of us were trapped in one of these valleys, and found it to be a “lost world” containing creatures from the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, that means animals that existed from five million years ago down to about ten thousand years ago. These include sabre-tooth tigers, giant ground sloths which give the valley its name, and other weird and wonderful creatures. Because of the central escarpment we were never able to explore the other valley in the crater – which the animals call the Valley of the Ancients. And now it’s really for Helen and Julian to tell you why we’re all here today. It was their idea, after all.’He smiled at Helen who took over the tale.

  ‘The day that you …’ she looked at José, ‘… kindly arranged for a plane to rescue us, Julian and I found a small animal at the base of the central escarpment. It had obviously fallen down from the top and we think it must have climbed over from the other side.’

  ‘Why?’ asked José.

  ‘Because we’re pretty certain it was a dinosaur. That means it lived at least sixty-five mya and probably much more.’

  ‘What is mya?’ asked Francesca.

  ‘Sorry. Million years ago,’ laughed Helen. ‘Nothing complicated – just palaeontologists’ shorthand jargon.’

  ‘So now,’ said Julian, taking up the story, ‘we’re going back to see if the other valley is another lost world, only one that is much, much older than the one we stayed in before.

  ‘And that brings us to something we need to discuss with you. The only people who know that the crater is special are our three families, and we all agreed that it should remain secret.’ José and Francesca nodded. They knew that the three scientists were worried about the possible destruction of the unique plants and animals that lived in the crater by commercial exploitation or as a result of contamination by modern-day species.

  ‘The three of us,’ Julian indicated to include Richard and Helen as he continued, ‘have now reluctantly decided that we can’t keep our secret for ever so we’ve got a plan for breaking the news to the world in a way that we think will minimize any ecological risks. The first thing to do is to establish for certain whether or not there really are dinosaurs in the other valley and that’s the purpose of this trip. Then, with unassailable video and photographic evidence, and physical items such as eggs, horns and hides, we’ll present all our findings in the utmost secrecy to an international environmental committee. That committee can then set in place appropriate safeguards for the protection of both the valleys of the crater, before the stupendous news of its existence is revealed to the international scientific community and the world media.’

  José looked at Francesca who smiled and nodded. He turned back to the others.

  ‘We think it’s a great plan,’ he said. ‘In fact, before you came we had already been wondering how long it was going to be possible to keep such an incredible discovery secret. But,’ he continued, ‘from your description of the crater and the impenetrable jungle surrounding it, how on earth can you find anywhere safe to land your plane? Especially as,’ he added, looking at Julian, ‘without meaning to be rude, you’re not an experienced pilot and you’ve never even seen into the dinosaur valley – the terrain might be impossible to land on.’

  Julian laughed. ‘You’re not rude at all – it’s a very good question, though I have put in hundreds of hours of practice in the last few months; the flying club say I’ve flown as much in the last year as most amateurs do in five years.

  ‘Ideally,’ he continued, ‘we would have a helicopter, but the distances involved are really too great and there is simply no way in which I could have learned to fly one safely in the time available. No, we have a different plan, which may sound crazy but it’s the best we can do. You may or may not know that Richard here,’ he nodded in Richard’s direction, ‘in addition to all his other talents, is something of an expert mountaineer. It was his hobby as a young man and proved incredibly useful in his career as a botanist looking for rare and exotic plants on mountain ranges and inaccessible cliffs.

  ‘Clive is also a keen climber and he’s just been elected captain of his university climbing club.’ He looked over at Clive who blushed slightly with embarrassment but nodded in agreement. ‘Anyway,’ Julian continued, ‘this is our crazy plan. I will land the plane in the original valley – the one we know, on the landing strip Helen and I prepared for our rescue last time.’

  He didn’t mention that, at the time, Helen had been suffering from an infected leg which meant that she could barely walk, never mind prepare an air strip. The landing strip had actually been prepared, under Lucy’s instructions, by four giant ground sloths, each as big as an elephant.

  ‘I can remember the geography exactly,’ he went on, ‘– we did live there for six months after all – and I have been practising steep-approach landings for weeks at my flying club; I explained to my instructor that we might have to land in some pretty confined spaces for our fieldwork and he’s helped me to develop a safe technique.’

  ‘But I thought you said that the valley you now want to explore is separated by a steep escarpment from the one you’re going to land in,’ said José. ‘How will you get into it?’

  Julian grinned. ‘That’s where Richard and Clive come in. We’ve brought all their climbing kit with us – ropes and all kinds of stuff. And some of the new lightweight rope ladders used for escaping from fires in tall buildings. Richard and Clive are going to climb the cliff at its lowest point and fix rope ladders for the rest of us to get from one valley to the other. It sounds complicated but it will be far safer than either trying to land in the dense jungle surrounding the crater, or attempting to land directly in the dinosaur valley about which, as you correctly pointed out, we know nothing. To hit a hidden rock or a crevice in the ground that was invisible from the air would be disastrous.’

  ‘It sounds as though you’ve thought of everything,’ said José, ‘I only wish we could go with you – it sounds like the adventure of a lifetime. But I’ve got too much on at work and Rio goes to summer school in a couple of days.’ The others all breathed silent sighs of relief. They really couldn’t cope with the complications of having expedition members who didn’t know about Lucy’s power.

  Julian then spoke to José about back-up plans for the rescue of the expedition should their plane break down or some other disaster befall them.

  ‘We’ll have our radio of course, so if there’s a problem we’ll give you a call. We can also give you the GPS coordinates for the crater, but if you do have to send somebody out to us the best person would be the pilot who rescued Helen and me last time. He knows exactly where the crater is and he seemed pretty expert at flying. He did some kind of ballasting job with rocks which was a great help as we took off.’ José frowned and shook his head.

  ‘It would have been a great idea to use him but we can’t. After what happened to him the company’s policy has been only to use company pilots for this kind of job. We don’t use any outside contractors any more.’

  ‘What happened?’ asked Richard. ‘Did he have an accident?’ He knew about the company’s new policy but hadn’t realized it was anything to do with the pilot who had rescued Julian and Helen.

  ‘No, he’s in jail. He was using his plane to fly drugs across the border and got trapped in a police operation. Our company was exonerated of course, we only used him for occasional jobs when our own pilots were too busy, but we decided we couldn’t risk any dealings with dodgy contractors and there’s no real way we can check up on them. Don’t worry though, we’ve got some expert pilots in the company who are experienced in rainforest flying. If you have a problem, radio me and we’ll get you out.’

  With the discussion over, Francesca suggested that they sat outside on the patio while she made coffee and they all wandered out into the balmy evening air. While the others were chatting, Lucy drew Richard further down the garden to where there was a cane seat lit by garden lamps.

  ‘Wait here a minute,’ she said, ‘I need your help.�
� Richard was intrigued and sat down obediently while she disappeared upstairs and returned a few minutes later with a hard, plastic spectacle case.

  ‘What’s that for?’ he said, curiously. ‘I saw you buying it at Heathrow, but I thought you already had a case for your spare specs.’

  ‘I have. This isn’t for glasses – it’s for your letter.’

  ‘What letter?’

  Lucy laughed. ‘The one you’re going to write for me.’

  ‘To whom?’

  ‘To José, saying we are trapped in the crater and we need rescuing. You’re to tell him we’ll light a bonfire as a beacon at midday every day so they can find us.’

  ‘But …’Richard was utterly bewildered, ‘… we’ll have a radio with us and, in any case, what’s the use of giving him a letter now when we’re not even lost?’

  ‘We’re not giving it to him now.’ Lucy chuckled at his bemused expression.

  ‘Anything might happen to our radio – you of all people should know that after what happened to you last time – and we’re not giving him the letter now, we’re giving it to Cerberus. Now, are you going to write it, or shall I ask Helen or Julian?’

  Richard looked even more mystified but by now he was used to his daughter and her extraordinary ways. He gave a puzzled smile and wrote a note along the lines she had suggested. When he had finished she read it, nodded approvingly, and put it in the spectacle case. Then she stood and a faraway expression came over her face – the one that meant she was talking to an animal. A few seconds later the Verdades’ dog Cerberus came bounding up, tail wagging and then sat at Lucy’s feet while she fondled his ears and, Richard knew, spoke to him, even though she just appeared to be gazing silently into space.

  ‘Greetings, O wolfkin,’ said Lucy.

  ‘Greetings to thee, O Promised One,’ replied the dog. ‘It was known that thou wouldst come to the Great River but I am honoured that thou art here in my home. How might I serve thee?’

  ‘I have a small task for thee, but the help of another is required. Is there another wolfkin to assist thee?’

  ‘There is another within my ken,’ the dog sounded slightly guarded. ‘He lives close by. He … he likes me not, but will undoubtedly serve thee in the common cause. What wouldst thou have us do?’

  Lucy then explained what she wanted him to do.

  At that moment Francesca appeared down the path from the house with a coffee tray.

  ‘We wondered where you two had got to,’ she said, smiling. ‘I thought you’d like a cup of …’ She stopped in surprise as she saw Lucy and the dog.

  ‘Well!’ she exclaimed, ‘that’s a first! He’s not really a bad dog but he isn’t very sociable, I’m afraid. We adopted him from the kennels to save him being put down. He was treated very badly when he was young and has never really got over it. He’s OK with the family and is a reliable guard dog, but he really isn’t good with strangers and he’s never let anyone stroke him like that before. You must really have a way with animals, Lucy!’

  ‘Yes, I suppose I do,’ said Lucy, with a little grin to her father. ‘It comes in useful now and then.’

  After Francesca had returned to the house Lucy spoke once more to the dog which then stood up, wagged its tail, took the spectacle case and bounded off into the bushes at the end of José’s garden.

  Richard looked enquiringly at Lucy.

  ‘He’s going to bury it. If he ever gets a message from me through the animanet he’s going to dig it up and give it to José. He’s also going to tell the dog next door, as a backup. José won’t have the faintest idea how it got here but he’ll know it’s genuine and assume you managed to get it out with the help of some remote tribe in the Amazon. We’ll almost certainly never need it, but it could save our lives and after what happened last time I’m not taking any chances. Oh,’ she added with a chuckle, ‘and after what Francesca said I told him to try and wag his tail a bit more often!’

  Richard shook his head in admiration as he experienced an intense sense of déjà-vu. During their last adventure he had been impressed by Lucy’s resourcefulness and organizing ability but for the last eighteen months she had just been an ordinary schoolgirl. Now that they were back in action she was clearly once again mistress of the situation. For her father, used to being in charge or, at least imagining himself to be, it was strangely comforting to feel once again the sensation of security that existed within the umbrella of his daughter’s extraordinary power.

  The next morning José took Richard and Julian to the small company airfield, which was situated a few miles outside the city.

  ‘I think you’re going to like what you see,’ he said confidently as they pulled into the airfield. ‘Your new plane was delivered two weeks ago and, even though it’s brandnew, our mechanics have checked everything just to be on the safe side. They’ve also fitted the long-range tanks you wanted. I’ll send you the bill for the work and parts you requested.’He paused. ‘I’m afraid it’s not going to be cheap … how …?’ His voice tailed off and Julian rescued him.

  ‘Don’t worry, José, the whole expedition is being paid for by the United Nations scientific committee that funded our original research trip.’He explained that the committee had been so impressed with the evidence brought back from the prehistoric valley that they had readily agreed to support another visit to the crater. They hadn’t realized, of course, that the extraordinarily detailed knowledge that had been given to them had been based on observations on living animals rather than fossils.

  ‘There was a bit of a problem when it came to getting a new plane,’ Julian continued with a smile. ‘We could hardly tell them that the old one had been destroyed by giant ground sloths but, as luck would have it, the insurance company agreed to cough up. I described what had happened in true but deliberately vague terms to a rather bewildered official who said we were covered, even though they had no previous record of a plane being torn to pieces by wild animals.’

  José looked relieved at this news and pointed across the airfield. There at the edge of the runway was a gleaming white plane with large extra fuel tanks under each wing to increase its range across the vast stretches of jungle they would have to traverse. Julian’s eyes lit up at the sight. He spent the rest of the morning familiarizing himself with the controls of the aircraft and making a test flight while José talked to Richard about company business. In the afternoon the three of them packed the plane with all the equipment and supplies that would be needed on the trip.

  3

  Living in a Greenhouse

  The plane flew in a cloudless sky across the apparently interminable jungle. Clare and Clive, for whom this was a new experience, gazed out in awe at the immense green canopy of the rainforest, stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction. Clare had been eagerly looking forward to the expedition. It was her first visit to South America, and she had been fascinated by Lucy’s stories about the Amazon jungle and her amazing adventures there with animals and villains. She was also looking forward to spending some time with Clive. He was at the same medical school and, though they met occasionally there, they were both extremely busy on their separate courses and he was shy and quiet by nature. She hoped she might get to know him better on the forthcoming trip – she little knew that her wish would be more than fulfilled; soon they would face mortal danger together and need all their reserves of courage and resourcefulness to survive.

  Early that morning they had taken off from Manaus and, after a brief refuelling stop at a small private airfield, were now heading along a remote tributary of the Rio Negro to Cayman Creek, the logging camp at which Lucy had been held captive during her kidnap.

  The previous day they had flown up the Amazon from Macapá to Manaus and had been spellbound by the sight of the mighty river, pouring the water from over seven million square kilometres of the South American continent into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising high in the mountains of Peru on the other side of the South American continent, and in places reachi
ng up to sixty-five kilometres in width, the Amazon was by far the largest river in the world, and along its sprawling tributaries lay the greatest remaining areas of rainforest on the planet. During their long flight they had seen numerous examples of the destruction of the rainforest by logging and burning and Richard had told Clare and Clive some of the grim statistics relating to the rate at which this vast natural resource, with its abundance and diversity of animals and plants, many unique, was steadily disappearing.

  An area of forest equivalent to the size of several football fields was being destroyed every minute of every day, he explained, and much of this land contained species of flora and fauna as yet unknown to science, doomed to extinction before being discovered, with their possible benefits to mankind as food or medicine unexplored. As the plane headed north and west the settlements and signs of human activity became fewer and fewer until, eventually, it seemed as though they were flying over a world uninhabited by anything but forest and the river below, itself growing narrower and more tortuous as they followed it towards their destination. Eventually Helen, who was navigating, said they must be very nearly there and Richard, who had seen the creek twice before from the air, suddenly pointed out the little airstrip. Richard’s timber company had now closed down its operations at Cayman Creek as part of its ecofriendly policy of only using renewable resources, but the airstrip had remained in operation during the dismantling of the camp and was still usable. The landing area looked terrifyingly small from the air and Julian knew he was facing his first big challenge. His months of practice stood him in good stead, however, and he brought the plane down in a perfectly executed landing, which brought him a chorus of congratulations from his relieved passengers.

  ‘Look!’ said Lucy, pointing to the side of the airstrip. ‘That’s the drugs plane the animals trapped, and you can still see the mounds of earth dug out by the armadillos … just in case,’ she added with a broad grin, ‘you thought me and Dad were exaggerating.’