Magenta Mine (Invertary 3)

“Man up. Don’t retreat. Be strategic. Strategy wins the war.”

“Okay,” Harry said slowly. He had no idea what any of that meant.

Lake grunted and went back to work.

“I’m not sure I like this plan,” Magenta said.

“This plan is awesome,” Claire told her.

“Harry’s going to freak out.”

“That’s why it’s awesome.”

“We could traumatise him for life.” Although she’d been avoiding Harry in the week since the mine moaning incident—as the twins were calling it—she still wasn’t sure she wanted him to suffer. Her anger had worn off, and she was left feeling oddly protective of the man. Even though he was the reason for the stream of people who’d come through the shop purely to gawk at her. “He really seems to have some sort of phobia. I’m not sure this is the best way to get back at him. We should think of something else.”

“Stop being a big chicken.” Megan dragged the last two bags from the car.

Magenta straightened her shoulders. Megan was right. She was being pathetic. The fallout from Harry’s trickery would last for months. Long after he got fed up with Invertary and crawled back to London.

She ignored the part of her that balked at the thought of upsetting Harry, and narrowed her eyes. “Let’s get to it.”

“That’s the spirit.” Claire pulled out a key to her brother’s police-issue house and opened the door. “Had to steal the key from Mum. Matt won’t let us have a key because he doesn’t trust us.”

“Because he thinks we’re still ten years old and up to no good.” Megan rolled her eyes.

Magenta gaped at them. “You are up to no good, you pair of bubble heads.”

“Name-calling, Magenta—remember we talked about that.” Megan smothered a giggle as Claire used her kindergarten teacher voice.

They let themselves into Matt’s house, which was a standard 1970s box with no personality whatsoever. It even had orange glass in half the windows. Magenta shuddered. Inside it was pristine. So much so that she wondered if Matt actually lived there.

“Harry’s staying in the spare room,” Claire told them as they made their way up the stairs. The twins were carrying several large bags and Magenta was carrying a cage.

“Here it is.” Megan threw open the door at the end of the short hallway.

The room was pin neat, like the rest of the house.

“Are we sure he’s staying here?”

Megan opened the closet and pulled out a T-shirt with Einstein’s head on it. “Yep, this is his room.”

“Okay.” Magenta took a deep breath. “I guess we better get on with it, then.”

The twins upended the bags they’d carried from the car and about a hundred toy rats fell out. They giggled as they threw them around the room.

“Unscrew the overhead light,” Claire ordered. “That way he’ll have to walk into the room to put the lamp on.”

Megan pulled a chair over from the desk and removed the light bulb. “You got the camera?” she said to her sister.

Claire dug around in the messenger bag that was slung across her body and came out with a webcam. She stuck it above the door, facing the room. A minute later, she dug out her iPad and connected to the camera. “Perfect. We can see most of the room.” She pointed at the camera. “Motion and sound sensors. It will activate when Harry comes in the room.” She grinned widely. “Our cousin isn’t the only one with mad computer skills.” The twins high-fived with glee.

“Hold on a minute,” Magenta said. “Where did you get the camera?”

“Lake’s security shop,” Megan said.

Magenta smacked her palm to her forehead. “Then Harry knows all about this.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “Do we look stupid? We waited until Betty was manning the shop and bought it then.”