Chapter Six
No More Dillydallying
“You know where the camera is?!” asked GEORGE.
“I do. But it won’t be easy to get it,” Indie warned. “You can find it in—”
BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ! went GEORGE’s communicator. His internal audio activated.
“Georgie!” The voice of Darcy Luna boomed in his antennae. “Just checking in.”
GEORGE sighed. What awful timing! He lowered the volume.
Darcy continued, “I’ve been watching your video camera. And it seems you’ve gone off track. The video screen I am monitoring shows you hanging around—” She paused for a moment, and then added, “Yes, first a mammal, a plateau pika. And right now you’re looking at, um, a bar-headed goose?”
Oh, drat, GEORGE thought. I forgot about the video camera.
He clicked off the monitor.
“I saw that!” Darcy said. “Turn that camera back on, Georgie.” She mumbled under her breath, “Ay! I thought we had all these bugs worked out.”
It’s not a bug, GEORGE wanted to say. It’s just me doing my mission, like you programmed me to do. But he couldn’t communicate with Darcy without turning the camera back on. And right now, he had a goose to talk to.
Meanwhile, Indie gazed at him curiously.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
GEORGE landed on a nearby branch.
“My boss is wondering why I’m dillydallying. But I’m not. I’m just finding the lost camera my own way.”
Indie nodded. “Humans. Strange bunch! These days, they hike up and down the mountain, even though it’s dangerous, and they leave trails of rubbish behind. Tents, coolers, pots and pans, you name it.”
GEORGE shook his head. “I noticed that. Sometimes, I don’t understand humans. Well, lots of times I don’t.”
He realized that he had not heard anything more from Darcy Luna. Most likely, she was trying to work out the “bugs.” GEORGE’s video camera remained off, so at least Darcy couldn’t see that he was still talking to the goose.
Indie rustled her feathers and tilted her head. “Listen, young fellow. Let me give you a bit of advice. Don’t worry about trying to understand humans, or anybody else. Just learn to understand yourself, deep down.”
GEORGE’s vision receptors narrowed. Indie wanted him to figure out who he was on the inside? The part that others didn’t see?
“Well, anyhoo,” continued Indie, “about that lost camera. It was found by the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad of a local fox named Khyber.”
GEORGE computed. “Ten! That’s a lot of greats!”
“Yes, the camera has been in his family for many generations,” Indie said. “Khyber the Fox—that’s what he likes to be called—will not let it go easily.”
“How do I find him?” GEORGE asked.
Indie raised her small black eyes toward the horizon. “His den is under the largest boulder between two deep valleys, down the far side of the mountain.”
“Thank you for your—”
Just then, Darcy came back on the audio monitor. “Georgie, if you can hear me, please stand by. We’re working on your video camera. I’m sure we’ll get this bug worked out soon.”
