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Reinhold drove past. Randy’s heartbeat raced beyond 200. Tammy went into a wild frenzy. Then, just as it sounded like the Mercedes was slowing down, Randy heard that all-too-familiar voice call out, “Get a room, yer dirty yutes!”
The Merc went past, paused at the next intersection, then roared away into the night. Tammy slowly relaxed, turning slightly to peek after it, then broke away gasping for breath. “Hello?!” she shouted into the phone, “It’s Tammy Turinger here...! Damn! They hung up!”
“We’ve got to follow him!” yelled Winton, rocking the car violently as he scrambled into the driver’s seat. Moments later the motor started. Everyone grabbed for the doors, suddenly afraid he was crazy enough to drive away without them.
“Hey!” Winton howled in anguish, “How long’s the warning light been on?!”
Nikki opened the driver’s door and leaned in. “What warning light?”
“There! Low tank! How long?”
“I don’t know!” she snapped back, “And will you please stop talking to me like I’m some kind of idiot!”
“If this runs out of gas, we’re all screwed!” screamed Winton, “The whole system will need to be blown out and refilled.”
“Okay, whatever, so turn it off why don’t you?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re not following them.”
“What?! But they’re getting away!”
Nikki reached in and twisted the key off. “We made a deal with the police...”
“Yeah, we’ve found Fossie...” Tammy tried to add.
Winton went wild, “But they’re international criminals, you idiot! They won’t stop at this! ...”
Nikki dragged him bodily out of the car and pulled him close to her furious face. “Listen you little twerp, ...”
“Hey!” shouted Randy, “It’s the truck!”
They all turned as one. Charlie Cobb’s truck was coming slowly up the street. They could see him at the wheel, alone and looking very hang-dog. And right behind the truck was the Pajero!
“Action stations!”
Nikki had a problem. Instead of Piho, she now held Winton. Piho was on the far side of the car. Randy and Tammy were similarly separated, each poised at the two opposing back doors. Randy didn’t hesitate. He dived full-length across the back seat towards her, leaving only his shoes in view. Tammy quickly scrambled in on top of him and lay flat. The laptop and satellite phone thudded to the floor. Whatever they were supposedly doing, Randy couldn’t imagine it. Kissing each other's knees?
Piho on the other hand had a terrible choice. He knew if he tried to get back to Nikki he would be clearly seen. With a curse, he dived into the space in front of the passenger’s seat and buried his face into the clutter of muesli bar wrappers and empty drink cartons he had spent the afternoon accumulating.
Winton had the worst experience of all: Nikki promptly shoved him backwards across the driver’s seat and fell right on top of him. It was all flailing legs and gasps of pain and Nikki’s butt waving wildly at the passing vehicles.
“Don’t get any funny ideas, mate,” she warned him as their faces almost collided.
Winton whimpered in terror. Heck – she might even kiss him!
They heard the truck grinding closer, then the roar of the Pajero passing. Its horn tooted cheerfully and a male voice called out, “Woo, woo woo! Go, girl, go!” Another voice laughed as the vehicle went by, hesitated at the intersection just beyond the trees, then raced away. The sound of the truck lingered a lot longer, then it moved away more slowly.
Everyone struggled up to look.
The truck was stopping just fifty metres beyond the intersection.
“What’s he doing?”
“I don’t know,” said Winton, pulling his clothing and dignity back together, “but we’ve got to catch him!” And he was off and running.
They all hesitated, then followed. “What’s he doing?” yelled Tammy in alarm.
“I don’t know,” answered Nikki, “But I wish he’d take a shower sometime soon!”
#
THEY CAUGHT UP WITH Winton. He was at the truck, having just opened the passenger’s side door. It seemed that he had caught Charlie Cobb counting a paper bag full of money, for Cobb was just in the act of shoving said bag down between his knees.
He gawped at Winton, looking stunned. “Winton?”
“Yeah, Dad. It’s me.”
“What the hell are you doing here?!”
“You took the fossil, Dad.”
“Wha – huh?” Then Cobb let out a confident little laugh, “What are you talking about, boy?” His eyes flicked up, nervously taking in the other four teenagers.
Winton mimed the size of the fossil with his hands, “Supine fossil of a small dinosaur curled around a nest consisting of exactly 15 eggs, two of them missing; embedded in fine mudstone probably of Late Triassic origin. Sound familiar?”
Cobb’s eyes flicked guiltily away towards Coalpick Road.
Winton blew his stack. “Dad, it’s a crime! It’s fossil poaching! You’re ripping off a bit of our heritage! And I thought you were proud to be an Australian?”
Cobb glanced around at the others but said nothing.
“You can still save the day, Dad!” continued Winton angrily, “All you’ve got to do is tell the cops where it is; and tell them who else was in on it!” Winton smacked the seat with his hand, raising a small puff of dust, “And we can still get that bastard if we’re quick enough!”
Cobb slumped back in his seat. He looked completely exhausted. “You mean you want me to go to prison?”
“No, but I want you to be honest! I want you to do the right thing!”
Cobb lifted his face, perplexed, “Anyway, how the hell did you find me?”
“That doesn’t matter right now!” Winton was getting quite hysterical.
Tammy put her hands soothingly on his shoulders. “Winton, take it easy. Your dad’s got a lot to think about.”
“Hey!” shouted Nikki suddenly, “I’m through!” They all turned to look at her. She had her phone pressed to her ear. “Yes,” she was saying, “yes I’m Nikki ... yes, yes, Tammy’s here too. And guess what? We know where the fossil is!” She pulled away from the others to get a bit of distance from the noise of Cobb’s idling truck.
“Mr Cobb,” Tammy said, “in case you haven’t figured it out, she’s talking to the police right now. Now we know you took the fossil. We know it’s stored back there. And we know the police are going to be here real soon. So I guess you’ve got a choice: if you want to run away then I suppose we can’t really stop you. But if you want to be a hero, stay and help us put that crook in jail!”
Cobb sighed, looked about at the five teenagers, sighed once again, reached forwards slowly and turned off the motor.
“Okay,” he said, “Let’s get it back, for Australia!”
Tammy squealed with delight.
Cobb opened his door and dropped tiredly to the road. Tammy was right there to hug him. Winton stood back, looking slightly teary, then hugged him too.
“Dad,” he said, after Cobb had hugged him back for a lot longer than Winton obviously preferred, “Ah, there’s one thing I’d like you to do for me right now.”
“What’s that, boy?” asked Cobb with a tear in his eye too.
“Give us that can of petrol.”
#
PIHO AND RANDY RE-FUELED the car while Winton got comfortable and resumed the laborious business of tracking Reinhold. His father leaned in one of the back doors, holding his big torch to light the map. “So where is he, mate?”
Winton carefully finished using Tammy’s pencil to plot the location of the satellite signal. “Here,” he pointed to a motorway, “still heading towards Brisbane.”
“Right! said Tammy, “let’s get after him then!”
“Are you nuts!” protested Piho, “Didn’t you see those gorillas he’s got with him! What’re ya gonna do, kiss them to death?”
“We'll ... uh, we'll think of something.” Randy's brain was empty.
“Yeah well it ain't gonna be easy, bro,” continued Piho, “He's got the whole set-up running; a whole business front. Those apes probably work for him full time. He'll have his story fully worked out. Our word against his.”
Cobb nodded, “You got it in one, Kiwi. Even if you call in the cops, even if they find the rock, they’ll still have a hard job pinning it on Klaus. It’ll be stored under a false name; he’ll deny all knowledge; so will his boys, of course. They’ll have it all covered. And he’ll be able to afford bigger lawyers than me.”
Cobb reached out and tugged at Winton, who shrugged him off. “Sorry, mate, but I think I’m going to be doing a lot of time for saving your precious dinosaur.”
“Not if I can help it!” said Piho confidently.
They all turned to him. “What do you mean?”
He just grinned secretly, reached under his seat in the car, and pulled out a toiletries bag in the shape of an over-size softball. Randy recognised it immediately. He’d given it to Piho that Christmas. With a touch of dramatic flair, Piho unzipped the bag and pulled out a rock.
“It’s the last egg!” shouted Randy in delight.
“Yep.”
“Where the hell did you get it?”
“Hell it was!” answered Piho with a grin, “Remember that fallen tree with the dead animal? This was jammed in the roots along with a bunch of other rock. Guess that tree must have been growing on top of the fossil for like years.”
“Then it blew down in the storm! So that’s how I came to find it.”
Tammy and Winton touched the fossil reverently. “So, what’s the plan?”
Piho hefted it carelessly, “Well I’m thinking, like; fossils are worth big money, right? But what always kills the value of anything?”
Randy shrugged, “I dunno.”
“When something’s got a piece missing. This,” Piho patted the rock lovingly, “will literally double the value of Fossie. She’ll be complete. This’ll be worth a million bucks to our friend Mr Reinhold, and he’ll want it like crazy!”
“We tell him?” asked Tammy, incredulous.
“Yeah, we just phone him up right now and tell him we’ve got it, and that we’re ready to sell it – for, say, five thousand bucks.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Nar. The cops do it all the time. It’s about evidence. They’ll want to see him actually buying it. Then bam, they’ve got him.”
“Brilliant!” whispered Winton.
“I don’t know...” murmured Tammy nervously, “this is the last bit of Fossie. If we lose this...”
But she was already too late. Piho was dialling the number.
Reinhold’s phone rang three times, then it was answered. Of course the others could only hear what Piho was saying, and they all kept a deathly silence.
“Hey gidday, mate. It’s Piho. Remember you met me the other night? We sold you that fossil egg, eh?”
“Ah...” Reinhold sounded really surprised.
“Hey, so like, you ready for the next one now?”
“Another one?”
“Yeah. Remember in the photos there’s like two empty sockets? We got both them out, but like none of the others would budge. And anyway, how’s progress on that funding you promised us? Cos, ah, we like need it pronto.”
“Oh, ah ... it’s looking good. Ya. Give me two more days.”
“Hey well we can’t wait that long, mate. See we’ve like blown that first lot, so we need to sell you this one A.S.A.P.”
Reinhold sounded pretty troubled, like he really wanted it but was afraid of something. “Ya, sure. But I don’t think I’ll be back in Cunnundrom for a while.”
“No worries, cos we’re not there either. We flew to Brisbane this morning for a bit of fun with the money. So, like, where are you right now?”
Reinhold answered cautiously, “I can get to Brisbane, ya.”
“Cool! So do you want this egg or what?”
Reinhold began to sound a bit more hopeful, “Ahh, ya, ya. It would be good. Do you have my telephone wit you too? I’m wanting to get that back because, your idiot friend, he forgot it last night.”
“Sure, not a worry. Got it right here. So where shall we meet? We’re staying at the ...” Piho seemed momentarily lost for words. Randy, who was listening in, quickly said, “...the River City Hotel.”
“...the River City Hotel,” repeated Piho.
There was silence on the line, as if Reinhold was weighing up the situation. Then he spoke again, “How much you want?”
“Aww... let’s just say just ten thou for this one. It ain’t as good, see. Just a regular egg. Nah, make it five, mate. Should be sweet.”
“Okay, ya, I think I might be able to get that organised for you... Ya, here it is in my briefcase. Good. Now when you want to meet? I can make it say one hour?”
“One hour. No worries...”
Nikki was violently shaking her head ‘no’. Piho quickly changed his tune, “No, mate. We can’t do it in an hour. See we’re a bit out of town,” (he was following Nikki’s finger on the map that Tammy just shoved in front of them) “we’re like down on the Gold Coast.”
“Sounds like you’re under a tree,” said Reinhold suspiciously.
“Well yeah, in a limo, under a tree, right by the beach, man! Hey, you want to know about these babes we’ve picked up? They’re hot!”
“No thank you. And please, do not bring them to meeting. Not secure. Just you and Roody, and da telephone. Must give back da phone!”
“Sure, no worries. Yeah, so why don’t we say eight thirty? ...” Nikki was shaking her head frantically, using a hand to try and ‘lift’ the time. “... no better make that nine ....” Continued Piho. More gestures. “... nine thirty?” Nikki was now nodding, relieved. Piho smoothly continued, “Yeah, actually that’ll give us time to like scoff this caviar and stuff, and make out with these babes, eh?”
“Okay,” said Reinhold, curtly, “nine-thirty, on da dot. I be in da lobby. You know da seating near the big staircase? Red leather, by da drinking bar, ya?”
“Sure thing, mate, no worries. See you then.”
He ended the call and looked proudly around at the group. Nikki didn’t look happy. She was scowling at him with her hands on her hips. “What?” said Piho.
“Making out with the ‘babes’? What sort of male fantasy was that?”
“Hey chill out, babe. I just made it up. You know – to like create a realistic background. Like, see we want him to think we’re just a couple of stupid kiwis with a truckload of money, eh? Put him off his guard. Hey, and if anyone has any good ideas on how two guys can blow twenty thousand bucks in a day, let me know.”
She didn’t smile or anything. “Babes,” she repeated dryly.
“But hey,” he said with a disarming shrug, “you can ride in the limo with us.”
“What limo?!”