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desperate not to cough as she breathed in. desperate for Ralph not to look up and see her.
    A patter of dust sprinkled across Ralph’s shoulders. He looked up.
    At the same moment, the curtain began to tear.Jade could hear the threads ripping apart. She felt the curtain fall, jolt to a stop, then start to fall again. She was accelerating rapidly as the material ripped under her weight.
    â€œJade!” Rich shouted.
    Ralph was staring up at her in surprise.
    Then the curtain gave way entirely and Jade was falling.
    Ralph gave a cry of realisation. But it was too late – Jade fell right on top of him. Her feet cannoned into the man’s bulky form and sent him sprawling backwards. Jade was on her feet at once, running to where Rich was tied to the chair. She tugged at the knots.
    Several metres away, Ralph struggled to his feet. Then a massive moth-eaten theatre curtain landed on him, burying him in dusty, ragged material.
    â€œCome on!” Jade yelled as she finally prised apart the knot.
    The curtain heaved as Ralph tried to get out from under it. His hand clawed through the decayed fabric, clutching at the air. In a moment he’d be out and free.
    â€œThanks. That was pretty neat,” Rich gasped, as they ran for the back of the stage.
    â€œThat was pretty scary.”
    Rich was grinning. “Looked it. There must be a back way out of here.”
    Behind the stage was a corridor. They sprinted along it, Rich rubbing at his sore wrists, Jade punching Dad’s number into her phone. At the end of the corridor was a fire door. As they approached, it sprang open.
    â€œBack the other way!” yelled Rich.
    But Jade skidded to a halt. “No – wait.” She could hear a phone ringing. “It’s Dad!”
    And sure enough, Dad appeared in the doorway. “Quick. Someone vandalised their car, but they’ll be back soon.”
    â€œWonder who that was,” Rich said as they emerged blinking into the bright sunlight beside a narrow canal.
    â€œSame guy as lied about drinking, gambling and kidnapping in Mont Passat,” Jade said.
    â€œNot fair. It was a rescue, not a kidnap,” said Chance.
    â€œWhatever.”
    â€œLater!” Rich yelled at them both.
    At the same moment, there was another shout. The skull-faced man had appeared down the side of the theatre ahead of them. He was holding a gun.
    â€œLater,” Jade agreed.
    The other Mafia men were close behind Skull-face. They didn’t look happy. Rich, Jade and their dad turned and ran. Ahead of them, the pavement ended in a small wooden jetty. Beyond that was the canal. They were trapped.

4
    â€œI am not swimming,” Jade said. “Got that?”
    â€œNot a lot of choice,” Rich told her.
    â€œThere’s always a choice,” Dad shot back. He was in the lead, running full pelt across the jetty – heading straight for the canal. And when he got to the edge, he kept running.
    Rich was waiting for the splash, but as they reached the edge of the jetty, he could hear Dad yelling at them to hurry up. Somehow – impossibly – Dad was standing on a narrow strip of pathway further along the canal. He looked completely dry.
    Three strides on to the wooden jetty and Rich could see what he’d done. There was a line of five gondolas moored next to the jetty – a bridge across towhere Dad was standing. Except the gondolas were bobbing in the water and there was a gap of a metre or more between each.
    The boards were wobbling under their feet, but Rich and Jade ran faster – right to the edge of the jetty. And jumped.
    â€œOh, my God!” Rich said. His foot jarred painfully as it hit the bottom of the first boat. The gondola heaved beneath him and he almost fell. Water in the bottom of the shallow boat washed over his shoes. Jade clutched at him as she landed too. They both leaped for the next in the line.
    Again, it was a jarring moment as they landed. But immediately