The sight of Cam with Mie made me miss Charlie suddenly. A pang hit my stomach as I thought of her. I wanted to make sure she was OK, but I couldn’t risk another call right now. As I turned back towards the screen, although I couldn’t see Katarina Kreng’s ugly face, I could hear her horrid voice. Her oversized front teeth made her spit every time she came to an s, or a p sound. I was glad I wasn’t that webcam. Creeping forward a few steps, I tried to hear her more clearly.
‘Well, the little geese are on the chase. They should be reaching clue number two anytime now. I don’t think they will riddle their little feathers out of this one,’ she giggled at her own joke. Then she carried on, ‘but even if they do, it will probably be too late. The train leaves in twenty-five minutes. Then it’s just a matter of time before “pouff”!’ I just caught sight of her throwing her arms up in the air.
I was stuck to the floor with horror. My mouth hung open but my brain was totally frozen. Was she talking about my dad? What did she mean by “pouff”? Then the image started forming in my mind - my dad and a bomb. My dad and a bomb…
My dad and a BOMB!
My senses screamed back to reality. I wanted to run to the screen and smash it into a billion tiny pieces, but that wouldn’t help! I wanted to attack Hali but there was no point. Not now that I knew, that there were two of them. They both had to be stopped.
Then Hali turned to look at me over his shoulder. ‘There is just one small problem with your wild goose chase, Katarina,’ he growled. ‘There were a few more geese than you anticipated, and some of the geese weren’t in the mood for a treasure hunt!’ He reached out and grabbed me by the sleeve, tugging me forward, until I stood in front of her ugly face.
‘Mmmmm, what a pretty little gosling!’ she jeered and suddenly, I felt jittery, as if ants were crawling all over me.
‘He had a little girlfriend,’ Hali joined in the jeering, ‘but she got away.’
‘What do you mean she got away?’ snapped Katarina. ‘We can’t have some child running around, messing things up! Go and find her!’
‘Bu…bu... but… the timer. Who is going to stop the annihilation?’ Hali stammered, his eyes flashing worriedly.
‘Once you set it up, I can monitor it from here,’ answered Katarina calmly. Then, glaring at Hali, she moved closer to her webcam.
‘Well I can’t find her from here, can I? I knew I should have come there straightaway. I knew you couldn’t handle it on your own.’ She was getting angry now and Hali was shaking slightly. ‘Transfer the controls to me and GO FIND THAT GIRL!’ She was almost screaming by the end of the sentence.
Hali jumped to it. He started typing furiously, mumbling to himself all the while. After a few moments of huffing and puffing, he lifted his head. Turning towards me, he raised his gun. Fear tore through me, as I froze on the spot. ‘Come and help me find your little girlfriend, then,’ he said waving the gun towards the door. I had just started to move slowly to my left when Katarina cried out, ‘No. The gosling stays!’
‘But why?’ asked Hali pathetically, turning back to face her.
‘I can keep an eye on him from here. I don’t want to take a chance on him escaping from you too. It’s bad enough that we have one little loose goose running around!’
Obviously furious at the way she spoke to him, Hali gripped my arm tightly.
‘Owwww,’ I yelped in pain.
‘Oh, sorry,’ he replied gently, his face changing from fury to pity. I couldn’t figure him out. He really was a Jekyll and Hyde creature. Maybe years of defeat and lack of achievement did that to a person. Despite his cruelty, I began to feel sorry for him…
So, I was tied to another heating duct, and Hali raced out the door.
‘That man is such a fool,’ grinned Katarina, sitting back in her chair. ‘I never would have dreamt of using him, except that I needed someone on the inside!’
I looked nervously at the screen. Was she talking to me? Why was she telling me this? I didn’t like where this was going. I turned my head slightly away from her horrible face. But that didn’t stop her.
‘That poor fool thinks that I’m interested in money! I only needed him and his little ‘King Ag’ buddies to gain access to the LHC, but now I have the controls!’ She threw her head back and laughed like a maniac. Then she stopped suddenly, staring straight into her webcam. ‘Now, my little gosling, do you know what day it is today?’
I knew that it was a Friday, but I shook my head, knowing that she wasn’t looking for an answer from me.
‘Today, she continued grandly, ‘is the day we get to see what happens… after the end of the world…’