Wednesday 30th March
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
Charlie Brown woke with a start. The alarm on his watch was going off. It was almost 3am, and the plane was nearly about to land. Everyone else around him was asleep. He knew he had set the alarm so he wouldn't miss the plane landing, but at this time, it was so dark that it was almost impossible to see the landing outside the window. Charlie Brown looked around him. Everyone else was still sleeping. He saw Linus next to him, fast asleep, and nudged him awake.
"Hey, Linus." He whispered.
"What is it, Charlie Brown?" Linus asked, sleepily.
"We're about to land." Charlie Brown said softly.
"That's nice." Linus said, yawning. Their murmuring made Lucy begin to stir, and sure enough, Lucy woke up, and her expression looked very sour.
"It's 3am. How dare you ruin my beauty sleep." Lucy said. Even though she hadn't shouted at Linus, her comments had roused the rest of the entourage.
"Charlie Brown says we're about to land." Linus said quietly.
"Oh, right." Lucy replied sarcastically. After a short amount of time, the murmuring and bickering woke Ms Othmar.
"What's going on?" she yawned.
"We're about to land." Marcie said. "See, the seatbelt sign's on." She noticed, pointing at the seatbelt sign. Everyone on the trip was already wearing their seatbelts, so they looked outside of the window. It was dark outside, but those sitting next to the window could see the landing lights. The plane pitched downwards towards the runway, before landing smoothly without a hitch.
The Trip-goers then went to the terminal and collected their luggage from the baggage hold. The Trip-goers were all exhausted, but eventually they dragged both themselves and their luggage onto the minibus that Ms Othmar had organised for them. The minibus drove them to a hotel not far from the city centre, at which point they staggered off the bus and walked into the reception, standing there whilst Ms Othmar handled all of the booking arrangements and paperwork. The lot of them each went to their respective rooms. Charlie Brown, Linus and Five ended up in one room, Schroeder, Franklin, and Pigpen ended up in another, whilst the girls all slept in one large room. Charlie Brown tucked himself into bed ready for the day ahead.
Early that morning, just after 8am, Sally, Morag, and Eudora had already woken up and had already walked to a café down the road from the hotel. It was a quiet place, with a mixture of contemporary and antique aesthetics. At this time of day the café was pretty much empty, as it had only just opened. The three of them sat on a round table in the far corner of the café, with cups of hot chocolate, and began to discuss their situation.
"So where do you guys think this 'King's Shooter' is then?" Sally asked.
"We don't know." Morag replied. "Though I can guess that man Marko was one link in a much bigger chain."
"So we can discount any small businesses such as here." Sally said.
"Probably." Morag responded. "But I'm sure none of the larger businesses will take kindly to us poking our noses in their affairs."
"Well no. not unless we had a few connections." Sally suggested.
"I'm not sure how well that would work." Eudora said, somewhat defensively.
"Maybe, seeing as it's only our first day in the city, we might as well do a bit of exploring. Sally suggested.
"You mean sightsee?" Morag asked.
"Partially. But we're not going to find the culprit until we know how to get to them." Sally explained.
"That's a good point." Morag said. "What else should we do?"
"I say we should learn the language a bit." Eudora suggested. "I don't think anyone here's going to speak English."
"Do you have a phrasebook?" Sally asked.
"Yes." Eudora replied.
"Is it accurate?" Morag asked.
"Yes." Eudora answered, slightly annoyed.
"We should probably get learning then." Morag said to them.
Whilst the three friends practised their Hungarian, Charlie Brown and the rest of the students were eating breakfast in the hotel cafeteria. Charlie Brown was having cold cereal, with milk, as well as toast. Even though there was plenty of fresh, European options, Charlie Brown was perfectly happy to stick with what he was used to. Linus sat across the table from him, eating a croissant. Charlie Brown then asked Linus about the day's plans.
"Linus, what do you think about this Art Gallery we're going to?"
"I'm not sure. I've never even heard of it." Linus replied.
"Do you have any idea where it is?" Charlie Brown asked.
"No, but I think the teacher knows." Linus answered. Just then Ms Othmar showed up in the middle of the cafeteria.
"All right class." She spoke. "Today, we will be seeing the art in the Hungarian National Gallery."
"Where is the gallery?" Charlie Brown asked.
"It's in Buda Castle, Charlie Brown." She replied.
"The castle thing sounds really cool." Pigpen commented.
"I'd say it's more interesting than the art." Lucy said.
"It's worth it, though." Schroeder said to her.
"Especially if you're here." Lucy said. Schroeder just frowned in response. Eventually, once everyone had finished their breakfast, Ms Othmar led them out of the hotel and they began to travel to the castle.
Having brushed up on some basic Hungarian, Sally, Morag and Eudora made their way out of the Café and started walking through the streets of Budapest. As they were walking, a minibus full of schoolchildren went past. Sally looked to try to see if Charlie Brown was there, but the bus was going too fast for her to distinguish between anyone. Sally watched as it drove out of her sight.
"Come on, Sally." Eudora said, noticing she was lagging behind. A little later, as they came to the junction…
"Do you guys actually know where you're going?" Eudora asked.
"Do you?" Morag asked in return.
"No, but we could do with a map." Eudora suggested.
"We'll get one where we can find one." Morag said.
"I'm sure there's a tourist information board near here." Sally said calmingly, as they continued to walk. Eventually they got to a tourist information board, where they bought themselves a map. the writing on the map was small, and difficult to read.
"We need to find a place where we can read this map in peace, and without it being ruffled by the breeze." Morag suggested.
As the minibus pulled up to the Castle car park, Charlie Brown sat and looked at the castle through the window. The building stood with grand repose, and Charlie Brown imagined what it would be like to live in the castle, if only for a few seconds, as the minibus came to a halt. As everyone filed off of the bus, Ms Othmar counted everyone and began to proceed to the entrance of the gallery. The children chatted among themselves.
"Enjoying it Charlie Brown?" Linus asked.
"I'm liking the Castle." Charlie Brown replied.
"I can't wait to see the art." Schroeder replied. I'm hoping for there to be some music too.
"In an Art Gallery?" Linus asked, puzzled. Schroeder shrugged and hope someone would change the subject. At that point, Ms Othmar beckoned the students towards the inside of the gallery.
Inside the gallery, there was a selection of paintings and sculptures, built and drawn by Hungarian Artists. Among these were paintings by Joszef Borsos, Karoly Marko the Elder, and Tivadar Csontvary Kosztka, and sculptures by Istvan Ferenczy and Gyula Donath. The Trip-goers stared at the paintings and art work, and tried their best to stay interested. As the entourage passed by the National Szechenyi Library however, Linus was intrigued about the books within. He made his way towards the library but he was halted by one of the staff members.
"I'm sorry young man, but the Library is closed." He said to him.
"Why?" asked Charlie Brown who had joined him.
"The Library is off limits to members of the public." The staff member rebuked.
"Okay, so what's that person doing in there?" Charlie Brown asked, gesturing towards a man, dressed in a black suit, and sunglasses, who was peering into an old history book. This man looked markedly different to any staff member or official.
"Don't ask questions, now go away." The staff member said.
"Ok fine, I'll go look at something else." Linus said, with Charlie Brown following him back to the rest of the group. As they rejoined the entourage, Linus said something to Charlie Brown.
"You're not one for backtalk like that, Charlie Brown." Linus remarked. "What's gone into you?"
"I'm not sure." Charlie Brown replied. "I think this whole Marble thing has got to me."
"And?" Linus asked.
"Well, that guy looked suspicious to me." Charlie Brown.
"He could just be a manager, or an executive." Linus suggested.
"I guess." Charlie Brown said. "When's lunch?"
"Soon." Linus assured. Charlie Brown and Linus continued to walk with the group. Once the group had finished exploring the gallery, the kids went outside, back onto the tour bus and went to a nearby café, on the other side of the river, to eat some Lunch.
At the Café, with help from Ms Othmar, the children all bought sandwiches and drinks and sat down. Charlie Brown and Linus tucked into their sandwiches. On another table, Pig-Pen was spinning his scissors through his fingers, when suddenly, it flew out of his fingers. Surprisingly, he didn't hear the expected clang of it hitting the ground. Ms Othmar scolded him for being so careless. Pig-pen looked down at his sandwich in shame. Charlie Brown's tasted of ham that was no longer fresh, regardless he suffered his way through the sandwich and drank his orange juice. Linus looked around at the table on his left. One of the people on that table looked back at him. "Hi, Linus." She said, smiling. Linus ignored her and turned around.
"Who was that?" Charlie Brown asked.
"I don't know." Linus replied. "It sounded like Sally, but…" Linus turned round again. Sally was still looking at him, somewhat unimpressed. "Sally? What are you doing here?" Linus asked.
"Saving the world." Sally replied nonchalantly.
"I might have guessed." Linus replied in a sarcastic tone. Charlie Brown sat still, surprised.
"You okay, Big Brother? Sally asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay, I think." Charlie Brown said, panicking. Morag chose this moment to get up from her seat and greet Charlie Brown.
"You must be Charlie Brown. Hi there." Morag said.
"Hello." Charlie Brown said. "I guess you must be Morag."
"And you'd be right, I am Morag. I appreciate the letters you send me, even if you smudge the pen."
"The difference now, is that I know the purpose of the letters themselves." Charlie Brown added.
"Yes. Only a few people do. But it's useful anyway, even when they don't." Morag responded.
"What are you talking about?" Linus asked.
"You know those superspies from those movies?" Charlie Brown said, gesturing with his eyes.
"I understand, I think." Linus replied. "So how well is your 'mission' going?" Charlie Brown asked her.
"Not much info so far, but we have to keep at it. Let me know if you find anything of interest. We're staying at a chain hotel on Raday Street." After that, she left them and returned to her table. Charlie Brown turned back round to the table. Lucy, Schroeder, and one or two others had been focusing on the conversation, although thankfully, Ms Othmar was preoccupied with the soup she was eating. "Eat up, children." She said, unaware that half of them had already finished their sandwiches.
"Well, that was interesting." Lucy commented.
"Yes, but can we keep it a secret between us?" Linus asked.
"Oh sure. It's not like anybody's going to kill you or anything." Lucy replied. Linus perished any thoughts of that scenario and continued eating his sandwich.