Chapter 7
Maud walked into the dining hall feeling like every eye in the room was on her. she hoped and prayed that this scheme would work. There was no telling what the teachers were going to think when they found out, but Maud suspected that, if Ethel was responsible for all of this, and their scheme brought that out that the teachers would forgive her.
Maude slowly made her way toward Ethel's table. Maud's hands were in her pockets. One was gripping the vial of potion and the other the night vision pill.
Looking around to make sure no one was really watching her the casually stuck the pill in her mouth, like it was a mint.
"Come on Enid," he murmured under her breath, "hurry up before this pill dissolves!"
A split second later the lights went off and the dining hall was nearly pitch black!
"Everyone remain calm, and stay where you are." said Miss Cackle, "the lights will be back on momentarily."
The pill's effects kick in right away. Maud could see plainly she quickly emptied the vial in Ethel's cup.
A split second later, the lights came back on. Mr. Rowan-Webb re-appeared on at the faculty table.
"It seems the breaker got tripped," he said, "It was a simple fix."
Maud turned and saw Enid standing next to her. Enid gave her a subtle questioning look. Maud nodded slightly in reply.
Suddenly Miss Hardbroom was standing over them.
"What did you two do to Ethel Hallow?!"
Everyone turned and looked. Ethel Hallow was sitting at her table looking straight ahead obviously in a trance!
Jason and Millie were strolling around the gallery under the pretense of enjoying the exhibits, but they were also using it as an excuse to check out the various entrances and exits.
Jason was sure he could feel Murtaugh glaring at the back of his neck from here.
Sure enough, when Jason and Millie turned around Murtaugh was glaring at them from across the room.
"Boy, is he giving us the stink-eye!" said Millie
"Yeah," replied Jason rolling his eyes, "he can be such a baby!"
The two of them turned and walked back over to join Jason's parents.
"From what I can tell, dad, everything is secure, and all the exits appeared to be covered."
Jason's dad nodded.
"Good!" he said, "It looks like Murtaugh may have actually done something right for a change!"
Jason and Millie snickered.
Just then Murtaugh came storming over.
"Steele," he snapped sounding like he was on the verge of tantrum, "I don't need your kid checking my work!"
"Somebody, get the baby his pacifier!" quipped Mildred
Jason and his dad snickered. Murtaugh just huffed and stormed off.
"Dad," said Jason, after his snickers died down, "I'm going to go over over to the security room and take a look at the monitors."
His dad nodded.
"That's a good idea," he said.
"I'll go with you," said Mildred
They hurried off to the security room. a few minutes later they were standing behind the two guards sitting at the computers and scanning the monitors.
Suddenly an alarm on the console went off!
What's going on? Asked Mildred
"According to this, we just had a partial shut down of the electronic security system in the Dragon's eye exhibit!" replied the guard
"Great and I can guess which part!" snapped Jason. Mildred nodded and they started toward the door.
"Hold it!" said the guards. Jason and Mildred heard in unmistakable sound of a round being chambered in a semi-automatic."
"You kids are staying here." Said the guards brandishing their guns, "You'll make good hostages to make sure the police and your dad don't interfere."
"Yeah," said the other guard, "Now turn around!"
Jason and Millie put their hands up and turned around.
"Over there and face the wall!" the guards commanded
As Jason and Mildred turned to face the wall. Mildred's eyes flashed gold and the guns in the guns in the guard's hands flashed red hot!
The guards cried out in pain and dropped their guns. Jason whirled and threw a front kick into the stomach of the one closest to him. Jason followed up the kick with a right cross that laid the man out cold.
The other guard and gone for Millie, he had tried get his hands around her throat but she kicked him in the groin and, just as Jason turned around, she grabbed a metal clipboard off the table and bent it across the guy's head. He too slumped to the ground out cold.
"Great Job Mildred!" Jason grinned, "I'm glad you're on my side!"
Mildred grinned back.
"Thanks!" she said, then she saw the monitor and her smile disappeared.
"Um Jason," she said pointing to the screen, "I think we've got a problem."
Jason turned and saw what she was looking at.
On the monitor they could see armed figures in ski-masks emerging from bathrooms, Janitor closets and storage rooms all over the Museum.
"I should have known foiling a jewel robbery wouldn't that easy!" snapped Jason pulling out his phone and texting his dad to warn him.
A split seconds later over the unconscious guard's radio they cold here Murtaugh alerting his men.
In the background they heard Jason's dad.
"Nice job sweeping the place, Murtaugh!" He snapped then the radio went dead.
"What happened?" asked Mildred
"These guys must have some sort of jammer with them," said Jason, "which is even more proof that they're pros and until we take out that jammer, they'll be the only ones who can communicate with the outside world!"
Miss Cackle had come over to stand next to Miss Hardbroom. She was looking down at the girls as well albeit a little less harshly than her black clad colleague.
"Girls," she said, "we await your explanation!"
Instead of answering Enid turned to Ethel.
"Ethel Hallow you will now tell us everything you know about the disappearance of Mildred Hubble!" she commanded
"My mother and I caused the disappearance of Hubble Bubble," Replied Ethel managing to make a monotone trance voice sound smug, "we discovered that with addition of an elixir I found in one of the tomes in the library that the invisibility potion that the class was scheduled to work on that day could be changed into an explosive transference spell that would send her to a random location somewhere in the world. And with the modifications my mother made, the potion also left her with no memory of who she is or of her powers. And I knew that he explosion that would occur would cause everyone to blame Mildred especially Miss Hardbroom, I knew that as long as she didn't see me add the elixir to Mildred's potion, she wouldn't even stop to consider the idea that someone else had caused the explosion."
Miss Cackle flashed a look of reproach at Miss Hardbroom as a look of shame momentarily washed over her normally stoic face.
"We need to locate her," said Miss Cackle
"Don't bother," said the still entranced Ethel, "The elixir is modified to render Hubble invisible to all forms of magical location."
"I think we'd better call the grand wizard about this!" said Miss Cackle gravely
Jason tied to the two crooked guards with their own belts then he and Mildred decided to get out of there before any of the other crooks came looking for their friends.
as they crept slowly down the hallway keeping an eye out for patrols these guys might have sent out. Mildred leaned over to Jason and spoke softly.
"Where do you think they would put this electronic jammer of theirs?" she asked
"They would need a high place to get the most coverage so my guess would be somewhere on the top floor." Replied Jason
Millie nodded and they headed for the nearest elevator. Just as they came in sight of it, the elevator doors opened and three armed men stepped off.
"Hey!" one of them yelled as Jason and Millie bolted down a side hallway barely avoiding the gunfire the men let loose.
They rounded a corner and ducked through a door into another gallery that was filled with all manner of medieval artifacts.
They ducked down behind one of the tables in an exhibit and practically held their breath until the crooks passed by.
"What is this place?" asked Mildred when she finally started looking around
"This is the alchemy exhibit." Replied Jason, "I heard that the collection was donated by a man from Wales."
Mildred nodded.
"I see," she said
They stepped out the exhibit they were hiding in and were about to resume their quest to find the jammer when suddenly the room was filled with a soft blue light.
They followed the light and found themselves standing in front of a plexiglass display case. Inside the case was a staff that was a little taller than Mildred. It was ornately carved, and silver plated with a crescent moon at the top and in the crescent moon was a giant blue crystal which was now glowing!
"What is that?" asked Mildred
"The information on the plaque says that it is supposedly the staff of Merlin!" said Jason, "I've seen it several times before, but I've never seen it glow like that before!
To Be continued…Please Read and Review
What will happened to Ursula and Ethel Hallow?
Why did Ursula suddenly decide to help Ethel in her ongoing quest to get rid of Mildred Hubble.
And why has Merlin's Staff suddenly started glowing?