‘All fixed.’ Albert set the microwave down on the kitchen bench.
‘You’re priceless, mate!’ Frank said, clapping Albert on the shoulder. ‘This man deserves a beer,’ he called to Em.
Colouring with pleasure, Albert added, ‘I’d have dropped it in sooner but I had to go to Queenstown and left early. I’m just on my way home.’
‘Oh!’ Alice appeared in the doorway, leaning against it casually — though she seemed out of breath. ‘So you didn’t get my present?’
‘Present?’
‘It was nothing really.’ She waved a hand. ‘I just made a batch of wholemeal pikelets and took some over to you.’
Albert smiled. ‘I shall look out for them when I get back.’
‘If there’s any left,’ Em muttered.
Albert glanced at her then looked about, noting the absence of the children for the first time.
‘The bus went straight past so they must’ve got off at your place. Little monkeys. They’ve got chores waiting for them here.’
It was another half-hour before Albert managed extricate himself. The Townsends were pleasant company but his thoughts kept straying to the car boot crammed with treasures. He was keen to start sorting them out.
He hummed an old Eltherian ditty as he drew up beside the caravan. There on the wooden box they used as a step was a plate of pikelets covered with a tea towel, just as Alice had promised. And that struck him as curious. Why hadn’t the children taken it in?
He got out and moved around the car, noting the stillness. The place was undisturbed — now — but it hadn’t been. There were skid marks on the grass where a vehicle had stopped and then taken off at speed.
He ran to the spaceship.
The protection fields were still in place but he could sense their strength was diminishing. And though the ship was intact, a harsh red light spilled out when he lifted the hatch. He’d no time to examine the strange boy curled up on one of the gel pads. Instead he hurried to shut down all non-essential systems to try to keep the child alive a little longer.
Switch must have been active for hours, and working at some distance too. What on Eltheria were they playing at?
He checked the power consumption and calculated that the switched creature was somewhere within a three kilometre radius. But where? At the present rate of drain it had only fifteen minutes left. He must find it and get it back here before the power cells ran completely dry. But where to start?
Uneasy at leaving the ship unprotected, he hurried back to the caravan in search of clues. There was a gushing note from Alice tucked amongst the pikelets but he only spotted Tim’s when he picked up the plate. A gust of wind snatched it away and he chased it across the reserve. When he finally caught it and read it, he dropped the pikelets and sprinted for the car. It said;
Help! Sentinels at school. Others captured.
Tim.
* * *
‘No!’ Alkemy screamed as the bus rocked backwards, its slipping underside tearing clods of earth from the cliff edge and sending the four figures huddled on the front bumper soaring high into the air. For an instant she glimpsed the jagged rocks below as the surging surf swept over them.
‘Jump,’ Ludokrus called feebly, fearing that even the weight of his breath might be enough to send them plummeting over the edge. ‘Save yourselves.’
In spite of his insistence, no one moved. They clung to the bonnet, wedged into the furthest corner where their combined weight had the greatest effect.
Tim looked about desperately. If there was only something he could reach, something to hold on to, some extra weight they could add. But it was just them and the teetering bus. He knew they had only seconds left.
* * *
Alice Jones eased herself over the fence, tiptoed across a broad shallow stream, and paused. This must be it. The reserve.
She took a deep breath. She knew what she was going to say. She was out for a stroll. Perhaps he’d care to join her? It was such a wonderfully dramatic coastline, didn’t he think ...?
Ahead she spied the clearing where the caravan was parked and heard the sound of a car engine. She’d got there before him. No, wait a minute. The car was driving off. At speed.
She sprinted after it in time to see the big black Cadillac disappear up the road to Rata.
Blast!
Then the fluttering edge of a tea towel caught her attention. It looked like the one she’d used to cover the pikelets. She went to inspect it and found her pikelets strewn across the grass, the willow-patterned plate on which they’d been carefully arranged shattered on a stone. She stared in disbelief. So that’s what he thought of her efforts!
Fighting back her disappointment she gave a determined sniff and marched away.
* * *
‘We have to jump,’ Tim yelled, ‘or we’ll go with it.’
Coral glanced inside the bus. Ludokrus, spread-eagled on the floor, was no longer visible, which was just as well. She couldn’t do it, she simply couldn’t ...
Tim took her arm then looked at Alkemy. Weeping, reluctant, she nodded slowly.
‘All together. On the count of three,’ he said in a choking voice. ‘One ... two ... thr ...’
A huge black shape hurtled towards them, skidding to a halt in a shower of gravel. Even before it stopped moving a figure sprang from the open door and hurled itself at the front bumper, catching it in his hands and swinging on it like a gymnast. The old bus swung smartly back while the rotten tree stump creaked in protest. Then, with an irritated groan, it slid off the roof and vanished out of sight.
For a moment no one spoke. The front wheels settled on the ground with a satisfying thump. A second later the shattering sound of smashing timber echoed up to them, then Ludokrus was scrambling through the broken windscreen and into the arms of his sister and friends.
Albert picked himself up and dusted himself down, keeping one foot on the bumper just in case. A bedraggled woman he’d never seen before eased herself to the ground, turned to him with a slight grimace of pain and held out a hand.
‘I’m Glad,’ she said, ‘and I’m really glad to meet you.’