Late that night, after the rest of the family were in bed asleep, Jacob went to the computer room to find his father already seated before the Brick, calling up the map of York. Silently he sat on the stool beside him.
Onto the screen above the Brick came the outline of the Minster, casting a shadow over the street map. Steven manipulated the keys on the Brick till the image moved to the north, to the houses in Linden Drive, to the back garden of Number 8, and then – Jacob gasped as he saw it – right to the bulbous eyes of an enormous stone frog.
‘There,’ said Steven, holding the image and sitting back for a moment to contemplate.
‘What now?’ said Jacob.
‘Now,’ said Steven ruefully, ‘I must get a probe to penetrate right through that monster so that I can see inside their spaceship and tamper with the clock. Heaven alone knows if I’ll be able to manage it.’
At that moment he was concentrating his mind on how the clock, with no override, could be changed. He did not realize that there was another serious obstacle to be overcome before he could begin.
He leant forward to the Brick and began skilfully to create a laser-like probe and direct it very precisely at the centre of the frog’s head, between those two protruding eyes.
Then . . . Go!
Then . . . Go! Go!
But the probe went no further than the surface of the frog.
Steven increased the power as far as he could.
Go! Go! Go!
He sat back and exhaled loudly.
‘What’s wrong?’ said Jacob.
‘I’ll tell you what’s wrong,’ said his father crossly. ‘That big, ugly monstrosity of a beast squatting in that little pond’s what’s wrong!’
Jacob stared at the screen where the frog sat immutable, surrounded by a narrow moat of water.
Steven sighed.
‘It seemed such a good idea at the time, a good place to conceal the spaceship. Mind you, I remember thinking, They’ve got a hope! Do you know how many times a ship lands spot on target? No more than twice in a hundred years! And here we were hoping that this one would set down plumb in the middle of a little pond behind a very ordinary suburban house in York!’
‘But what about the frog, Dad?’ asked Jacob, trying to make sense of what was being said.
‘The frog was already there in the back garden. The previous owner of the house was a sculptor with crazy ideas about size. That was something we clearly sympathized with! Our people acquired it, complete with frog, and thought what a good housing the pond would make for our craft. So the pond was drained and the frog was rolled back on to the lawn, ready for the ship to land spot in the centre like an arrow hitting a target. From all that distance! I remember thinking it was laughable. But it made it. I was really thrilled when it did – and not just because it saved me the job of guiding its passengers to their new home and checking that the landing site was viable.’
‘You watched them arrive?’ said Jacob, encouraging his father to tell more.
‘I watched it. You were still a baby and the twins hadn’t been thought of yet. I even remember when their child was born, a little girl they called Nesta – Neshayla at her entwining. She’s a year younger than you. It was a totally unexpected event, as you can imagine, but there was no problem with her entwining, both parents being Ormingatriga.’
Jacob winced, but Steven did not notice it.
‘A smug little family, I always thought,’ he went on. ‘Sitting pretty in that house in York, doing their bit of research, reporting home once a year with all their findings. Nice work if you can get it, as the saying goes. And here am I slogging away year after year, keeping them all out of trouble. Then there are observers like Elgarith who have to live by their wits from day to day and need constant watching. The Gwynns don’t know they’re born!’
But now Steven had had his pause. He bent over the Brick again and made one more futile effort to penetrate the skull of the frog.
‘It just can’t be done,’ he said, sitting back and looking at Jacob almost hopefully, as if his son could come up with an answer. ‘Clearly situating the ship beneath that – that object was a monumental mistake.’
Jacob suppressed a grin at his father’s unwitting pun. ‘Can you not move the frog somehow?’ he said. ‘I mean push it to one side for the probe to enter?’
‘Telekinesis?’ said his father. ‘Not a hope. The Brick is fine-tuned, a subtle object, not designed to work by brute force. Kraylin had the earthmover – the super telekinesis instrument – but it broke down five years ago, just before Kraylin was due to return to Ormingat. He has never been replaced – and neither has the STI!’
Father and son looked blankly at the screen as if trying to outstare the frog.
‘There is one way,’ said Steven meditatively. ‘If I could go up there, trowel out a small hole, and insert a tube diagonally into the soil outside the pond, the ship would soon draw it in to make contact as soon as it identified its source. We are incredibly clever, you know, even if we aren’t perfect!’
‘So you’ll go to York tomorrow?’ said Jacob. ‘Can I come with you?’
‘It’s not as simple as that,’ said Steven. ‘I can’t be in two places at once and if it is going to work I have to be here to manage the Brick.’
‘I could do that,’ said Jacob. ‘At least I think I could.’
‘You couldn’t, Javayl ban,’ said Steven, ‘not to the level that is needed. It is not just a matter of pressing a few buttons.’
He bit his lip as he pondered his next suggestion.
‘You could go to York,’ he said. ‘I would watch you every step of the way and my protection would be all around you. Nothing could go wrong. Nothing could possibly harm you.’
‘What if it draws me in? Our ship does. Will I be able to get out again?’
Steven smiled. ‘Nothing more simple,’ he said. ‘It’s my job, after all! You shall be totally protected, even from the Gwynn spaceship. It will draw in the probe, just far enough, nothing else. I shall be completely in control.’
Then Jacob thought of another, more mundane problem. ‘Tomorrow’s Tuesday,’ he said. ‘I have to go to school. What would Mum say?’
‘I’ll see to that,’ said Steven eagerly. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll see to everything.’
At breakfast, after the twins had gone to catch their bus, Steven said to Lydia, ‘Jacob won’t be going to school today.’
Jacob, at a nod from his father, got up and left the room.
‘Well,’ said Lydia calmly, ‘and what is Jacob doing today?’
‘He is going to help me. This afternoon he has to go to York on an errand for me. I know it’s unusual and that he ought to be in school, but I think we can waive the rules for once in a while, don’t you?’ He smiled at Lydia, the buccaneer smile.
Lydia looked doubtful. ‘It seems an odd thing to do,’ she said, ‘at such short notice.’
Steven took her hand in his. Their eyes met in what could have passed for frankness.
‘It’s to do with my work,’ he said softly. ‘I need Jacob to be in a place some miles away to test communications on my latest system. He’ll be perfectly safe. He’s fourteen and he is clever and resourceful. So let’s give him the chance. He’ll be home again early this evening. It’s really no more than a flying visit. And he knows exactly what he has to do.’
‘Is there nothing I can do?’ said Lydia. ‘Should I go with him?’
‘He’d be insulted,’ said Steven, looking appalled. ‘He’d think you thought he couldn’t manage on his own. And we both know that he can.’
Lydia had to agree but she looked disappointed: she would not have minded joining in the trip to York! The twins were at school and Steven’s presence made sure that they would not be returning to an empty house.
Steven saw her faltering and said sweetly, ‘You can run him to the station, if you like. That would be a real help.’