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The big white Merc swung away up an exit ramp and the truck went after it. Nikki frantically signalled a left but they were still boxed in. She eased on the brakes, going slower and slower. Enraged beeping began behind them.
“Not yet!” everyone else was yelling, “Not yet! Now!” At the last moment the Mazda swerved across and onto the exit lane.
Randy read the sign aloud. “Hey: Fotheringham Road!”
Silence.
“Don’t you get it? ‘Following-him’ Road.”
“Groan,” said Piho tiredly
Nikki suddenly said, “Hey you guys, you’d better get down!”
The three boys quickly hunched down as the car swept uphill, closer and closer to the tail end of Charlie’s truck. Randy couldn’t help peeking up between the front seats. There was no mistaking it, and on the back was a sizeable something covered in the same battered old green piece of canvas the boys had seen once before.
“That’s got to be Fossie!” squealed Tammy, “We’re so close!”
“Ring the police!” yelled Nikki, absent-mindedly hitting the brake pedal as if she were still driving her Peppy with its clutch. The Mazda screeched to an early stop, several lengths behind the truck. The phone shot out of Tammy’s hand and bounced away under the front seat. A horn blared close behind.
The boys all came popping up again. “What happened?!”
“Down!” ordered Nikki as she got flustered and put the car into neutral. The engine screamed but they just rolled slowly backwards. The horn behind sounded again, closer! Tammy twisted and glared back crossly as Nikki hit the brakes. They’d stopped with a bare few centimetres to spare.
Nikki jerked down the gearshift as the engine revs dropped off. The car lunged forward and stalled. She sort of sobbed and cursed at the same time as she fumbled for the key in its unfamiliar position and gave it a twist.
Nothing happened.
“Arrrrrrrrgh!”
“Put it into Park,” snapped Winton, “It won’t start in Drive!”
A bronze coloured Pajero suddenly went roaring past them on the side-lane, illegally, blotting out the low slanting sunlight. The bald-shaven driver bellowed something abusive out of his window.
Both Randy and Piho hunched further down. They'd definitely seen it before. That number-plate: 'TEUTN5'.
“Arrogant prick!” Nikki yelled at it as she shoved up the gear shift and twisted the key again. The motor roared back to life.
“Isn’t that the same SUV we saw in Cunnundrom?”
“What’s this?” asked Tammy, having taken the moment to undo her seatbelt and retrieve the phone. She'd missed the whole Pajero thing.
“We think it’s one of Them,” explained Piho, “we saw him in Cunnundrom.”
“Arrrrrgh, we’re losing them!” yelled Tammy, looking ahead. The Mercedes was already gone, having rounded the roundabout at the top of the ramp and disappearing across a bridge that went across the motorway. “He’s going into Ipswich!”
Randy popped up for another quick peek. The truck was also away, following the Merc, with the pushy Pajero tight behind. More tooting. A vehicle braked heavily. Charlie Cob looked directly across the roundabout at the drama, effectively looking straight at his old car. Had he recognised it?! Randy stayed hunched behind Nikki’s seat with Winton trying to jam into the same place. Winton’s hair still stank.
But fortunately Charlie’s glance was only that, an idle glance from a tired and dishevelled man. The truck moved away over the bridge with the Pajero catching up behind. Tammy was frantically trying to phone their police contact.
“Who was that other guy in the truck?” asked Nikki, finally easing the car up to the give-way line at the roundabout.
“Another one of his henchmen, I guess.” said Randy, coming up for air.
“How do you know that?”
“Reinhold’s a criminal, so that makes all his dudes 'henchmen'. Villains always have henchmen.” Winton snorted at that.
“All the more reason to stick to the plan,” said Nikki, huffing impatiently as more and more traffic came from their right, blocking them getting around the roundabout, “We’re not going to mess with them, okay? Police orders!”
“Okay,” agreed Piho all too readily.
“Come on!” growled Randy as Nikki missed a promising gap, “go for it!”
“Shut up! You want us to crash? I’m doing my best!” Nikki sounded half crazed. The hours of driving were really beginning to get to her.
“Engaged, ... engaged, ... still engaged!” yelled Tammy in frustration, actually hitting the phone.
“We’ve lost them!” wailed Randy.
“Not on my watch!” growled Nikki, suddenly blasting them through a gap and hard around the roundabout. The tires squealed. They roared across the bridge and sped through the suburbs on the other side. Nikki was soon going eighty.
“Slow down! It’s a sixty-k zone!”
“No, go faster! We’ve got to catch them!”
“How about you all just SHUT UP!” yelled Nikki. Even so, she slowed down.
“We’ve lost them,” sighed Randy, defeated.
“We have not lost them,” snapped Winton beside him, “we’ve still got this.” He held up the satellite phone and waggled it violently, “What we have lost is the ability to make use of the data!” His anger mainly seemed directed at Randy.
Randy felt his anger rising too but he knew he shouldn’t blow it off on Winton. Tammy would never forgive him. So he tried to kick the seat in front of him, except the big atlas was in the way, exactly where he’d put it some hours earlier.
Then a light went on in his brain.
Heaving up the book he flipped it open, seeking a page he had discovered earlier. There was one map that was a sort of close-up of the Brisbane area, and he knew it had Ipswich on it. He found the page, glanced at the edges, and bingo! It had those numbers: longitude and latitude.
He’d sat through interminable hours of this drivel last year in Geography but now, finally, it began to make sense. Grabbing Winton’s arm to keep the phone still, he looked at its little screen. At which point his brain fried. He still didn’t actually know how to translate the numbers into a position on the page. Instead he boldly hit the map with his finger, “They’re right about here!”
It was a guess. What he’d actually seen was how the roads were lain out. He had stuck his fat fingertip on the first and only place where the motorway connected to the western side of the Ipswich urban area.
Winton’s glanced at the numbers on the edge of the page then traced a finger in to check on Randy’s reckoning. “Hey, pretty good, Kiwi.”
Randy raised his eyes to fix onto Winton’s, “Aw, just some Kiwi Ingenuity.”
Winton’s eyes seemed to fill with something Randy had not seen before. Was it, just possibly, a bit of R.E.S.P.E.C.T?
Winton reworked the data, trying to be more accurate, but the car kept bouncing and swaying as Nikki pushed on.
“Hey, pull over will you?! I can’t do this!”
But it seemed Nikki could not stop.
“Pull over!”
Still she didn’t stop.
Winton tried a different tack, “We’ve got to get a local map! Higher resolution!”
“Where?” asked Piho.
“Gas station,” snapped Winton, “convenience store, I don’t care!”
“We do need gas!” added Tammy helpfully.
“There! There’s a place!”
Nikki went right past it, seemingly in vapour-lock.
“Turn back!”
Nikki suddenly hit the brakes and the car swerved to a bad stop halfway through a corner. A car tooted as it shot close by. They waited for a turn, all bickering aloud. The tension and anger was overflowing.
Finally the road cleared. Nikki made a surging turn and they got tooted at again. She pulled up outside the Seven-Eleven ten seconds later and collapsed onto the steering wheel, her shoulders heaving.
Winton was still focused on his map-studies so Randy leapt out and raced into the shop. “I need a map!” he shouted to the assistant, jumping the queue.
“A map of what?” she asked crossly, still serving her first customer.
“Of this place!”
“You’ll need the Brisbane book, then.”
“No, no, I’ll need the Ipswich book won’t I?”
“There is no Ipswich book! That’s the book you need!” She pointed at a huge book, a 'Refidex'. Weid word. “Now do you mind; we're busy here!”
Randy wavered. “Isn’t there a cheaper one?”
“Take it or leave it!”
There were other people in the shop, all looking at him crossly. He pulled out his wad of money, peeled off a fifty and flung it onto the counter, “That’ll cover it.”
Someone huffed in disgust.
He sprinted back to the car. Nikki was quietly weeping on the steering wheel and Tammy was leaning right into the front trying to comfort her, while Piho sat looking helpless. From Nikki’s wet whifflings came the muffled words, “We’ve lost them and I’m just such a lousy driver and I’m so tired and this is all just so hopeless...”
Winton, endeavouring to be precise despite Tammy hanging across his lap, finally got a fix on the signal. He carefully marked a spot on the atlas map, then checked the satellite numbers again.
“Hey, they’ve stopped!”
“How far away are they?” asked Randy.
“Hang on, hang on...” He grabbed the brand new book of maps, checked a kind of index map, then flipped onwards to a particular page number.
“Got it!” Suddenly he lunged forwards and hung over Nikki’s seat, ignoring her misery and shoving the map in front of her, “There, see? Just this side of the railway line. We're only two k's away!”
“Nice work, Winton,” she sniffed, dripping tears onto Randy’s brand new book, “Sorry, I just got a bit flustered. Over it now.” Nikki wiped her nose on Tammy’s sleeve then focused on the map. “So, where are we at the moment?”
“Right ... here!”
Nikki took hold of the steering wheel. “Okay, I’m better now. Just give me directions. Good directions.”
Winton’s directions went a bit like this: “Okay after this corner you’ll see a school on the left; Brassal School to be precise, then you’ll come to a roundabout - no it’ll be traffic lights! Red dot means traffic lights. Anyway we take a right there onto Hunter Street which puts us on a bearing almost due south, actually about five degrees west of south – no more like four, then ... oh here’s the lights! Right here! Take a right! ...” It drove Randy nuts.
#
FIVE MINUTES LATER they cautiously approached the last corner into the first of the two roads they had decided to search: Coalpick Road and Stanchion Street. It was an industrial zone near the railway lines and there was nobody about, which wasn’t surprising since it was well after six o’clock and getting dark.
“Why here?” asked Tammy, peering ahead nervously.
“Warehouses,” said Piho knowingly, “They’ll be stashing the goods till the heat dies down.”
“You may be right,” contributed Winton, “But I think we’d better ditch the car before proceeding. It’s already been spotted once, and as you know...”
“Yeah, yeah, it used to belong to your dad.”
“Over there!” said Tammy, pointing, “Get under those trees!”
Nikki pulled in under some large trees and switched off the engine, then breathed out a huge sigh and melted down in her seat. Piho opened his door, letting in the heat and the noise of what must have been a thousand birds above them.
“Hell! Listen to that!”
“Rainbow lorikeets,” said Winton in that smug I-know-everything way he had.
Randy gladly got out too, stretched and glancing around. The little group of trees was on an odd triangle of land at the start of Coalpick Road but after that there was no easy cover. There were some small warehouses, a car wrecker, and various other small businesses.
“Okay,” said Piho as he took command, “We’ll advance on foot, straight down to the end and then into Stanchion Street if we don’t find anything first. Keep to the shadows. Retreat if you see anything. And don’t engage with the enemy.”
“We’re not at war,” huffed Tammy, although Randy could see just how nervous she was. Everyone was shouting because of the bird noise above.
“Whoa!” said Nikki, who had by then clambered onto the back of the car for a better view. She pointed down the street, “Isn’t that the same SUV that passed us at the roundabout? There, see? Just the roof sticking up.”
“Ah, I don’t see it.” said Tammy.
“Find the sign that says ‘U-Stash-It’, then come straight down.”
Randy peered at the place she meant. He could easily see the sign:
“TEUTON?” HE MUSED ALOUD, “Like on that number plate?”
“I still don’t see it,” said Tammy in frustration, but then her eyes were not very good at a distance, as Randy already knew.
Winton opened the car and rummaged in the glove-box. He emerged with a little pair of binoculars. He climbed up beside Nikki and looked.
“I cannot as yet confirm your observation ... oh yes, I see it now. Yes it could be the same one, but I cannot see the numberplate ... uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh what?” asked Randy.
“Warning, warning, alien life-form approaching!” Winton clambered hastily down and scuttled around behind the car. Randy peeped nervously down the street until he saw what Winton had seen: a man was coming out from the U-Stash-It yard and into the middle of the roadway. He was a real bruiser too and he was looking straight up the street towards them.
“Uh oh,” repeated Randy.
“No it’s alright,” said Piho, “He’s going back in.”
“Ah, guys,” said Nikki who had also come down, “I’m not so sure.”
They all saw it then: the bronze-coloured SUV was backing out into the street. Its front end swung their way, the headlight went on and it began to move.
“It’s coming this way!”
“Winton! Get down!” shouted Nikki.
She grabbed Piho, pushed him up against the side of the car and started kissing him passionately. Suddenly Randy was attacked by Tammy in exactly the same way. She was smooching vigorously, pushing him hard against the Mazda, kissing him damn-near in his ear. He tried to pull away but she hissed, “Don’t look at them!” She even messed up her hair and wrapped it over his face.
Genius! Reinhold's thugs wouldn't recognise her at all!
He heard the Pajero cruise by slowly, turn around at the end of the street and back down the slope, studying the necking teens almost too intently. Through a gap in her hair he finally noticed the logo on Pajero's door: Teuton Security. Everything finally locked into place. Reinhold was a super-villain, and had everything set up real sweet!
And just as suddenly as she had started, she stopped. “They’re gone.”
Keeping him covered she looked down the street. “Damn, they’re still parked on the road. We can’t get any closer!”
“So, like, why don’t we just carry on then?” suggested Randy, making a suggestive kiss on her earlobe.
“Really, Randy! Is that all you can think of at a time like this?!”
“What’s happening?” he heard Winton ask from inside the car.
“They’re still watching us, so we’re keeping up our front,” said Nikki.
“What front? What exactly are you doing up there?”
Randy didn’t want to tell him anything, in case he got the wrong idea about Tammy. “You don’t want to know,” he said, “It’s too disgusting.”
“So, you were kissing?”
“Yes.”
“You’re right, I didn’t want to know.”
“So what’re we going to do?” said Nikki, “Did you get through to the police, Tams? They really need to get here fast to catch those guys in the act!”
“Damn,” said Tammy, suddenly remembering that particular gap in her duties, “I left the phone in the car. Everything just got so exciting.”
Yeah, thought Randy, then it suddenly stopped again.
“Hang on,” said Winton, I’ll get it.” Randy felt the car rock as Winton crawled around inside. “What’s the number?” he shouted a few moments later through the glass right behind Randy.
“It’s in ‘phonebook’,” Tammy shouted back, “just go down to ‘Police’.”
“Arrrgh! I hate these things! They’re so illogical.”
“Give it to me!”
The car rocked again, something went click, then the window behind Randy whirred down jerkily. Winton’s hand extended with the phone. Randy had to fight the urge to bite it.
Tammy made the call. “Ringing this time! Come on, come on...”
“Hey!” yelled Piho, “they’re all coming out!”
Tammy’s head flicked around, her hair whipping Randy’s face. He looked past her. Sure enough there was renewed activity down at U-Stash-It.
“What’s happening?”
“I think they’re finished.”
“Yes, they’re moving out!”
Sure enough, a vehicle edged out of the yard; the Mercedes. Reinhold was talking to one of his minion who was walking alongside. He nodded after a few words and sped up, coming straight towards them, its headlights on full.
Tammy lunged onto Randy once more, the phone still pressed to her ear. There was something desperate about the whole situation. Terrifying. They both knew that Randy had to be totally unrecognisable, or ...
Or disaster.