In London that Saturday evening, Jacob went to bed early. He was determined to be wide-awake in the hours after midnight. He wanted to see whatever there was to see when the spaceship in York took flight and left the Earth. His heart ached with the thought of it. Though it was not just one thought. There was pity and anxiety for Nesta, yes. The blue-grey eyes still haunted him. Then, the thought of all three Gwynns hurtling off into space was an uneasy one. And under all that there was envy. These were pure-bred Ormingatriga going to a place where they belonged. Do I belong anywhere? he wondered. Who is Jacob Bradwell?
After midnight, when he got to the computer room, Steven was already there, looking somewhat dazed in front of the Brick’s screen. He did not even speak as Jacob came and sat beside him.
‘What’s wrong, Dad? What is it?’
‘Just look,’ said Steven. ‘Can’t you see?’
Jacob leant forward to look more closely at the screen. The picture, bathed in reddish light, was of the Gwynns’ back garden. To the left he could see, at an angle, the rear windows of the house and the projecting sides of the porch. Then there were the flower borders with shrubs at intervals around them. In the centre was a stretch of lawn. And to the right, massive and ugly, was the grey stone frog.
‘It’s the Gwynns’ back garden,’ said Jacob. ‘That is what we are supposed to be watching, isn’t it?’
‘And why are we watching it?’ asked Steven through clenched teeth. ‘Think about it. Give it thought.’
Jacob looked at the picture again, but still could reach no conclusion. ‘We are watching for the spaceship to leave the Earth,’ he said, though this was so patently obvious he didn’t see why it needed to be said.
‘Yes,’ said Steven, ‘and leave the Earth it will, less than two hours from now. I have made very sure of that. But it will leave without its passengers.’
‘How do you . . .?’ Jacob began, and then knew the answer to the question without asking it. ‘The frog’s still in place! It’s not lying on the grass! They’d need to move it to get in. And once they were in, there would be no one there to put it back.’
‘Exactly!’ said Steven.
‘But you said they would want to go,’ said Jacob. ‘You were sure they would.’
‘Want or not want,’ said his father, ‘they clearly are not going. My guess is that they have stayed behind because of their runaway daughter.’
‘Runaway daughter?’ said Jacob, amazed. ‘You never told me Nesta had run away.’
‘It didn’t seem necessary for you to know,’ said Steven. ‘I learnt of her disappearance on Thursday. There was no way I could help. But I naturally assumed that if she didn’t turn up in time they would go without her.’
‘Of course they couldn’t, Dad,’ said Jacob. ‘You’re not thinking straight. Would any right and responsible parents desert their child like that? Would you?’
‘What a question!’ said Steven indignantly. ‘Do you think I’m heartless?’
‘If you’re not,’ said Jacob, ‘why do you expect them to be?’
Steven sat back in his chair with a sigh. It was a mess, the biggest mess he had yet encountered. The parents were presumably looking for the daughter. The daughter was hiding goodness knows where. And the spaceship hidden under the frog was on a fast countdown to take-off.
Then came another appalling thought. The frog was in the ship’s flight path. What if it couldn’t penetrate the stone? The beam had not penetrated it. What would happen to all that energy if it were hemmed back into the ground?
‘What do we do now, Dad?’ said Jacob anxiously.
‘Nothing we can do – but watch,’ said his father. He kept to himself his own fears about what calamity might ensue when the countdown ended.
‘They might do a last-minute run for it,’ said Jacob, staring towards the porch.
‘They might,’ said Steven, ‘but I doubt it. I don’t even know if it is possible. Doors are shut tight; shields are set up. Taking off is not accomplished in a matter of minutes.’
The next two hours felt like for ever. Steven and Jacob grew weary with watching. Steven was sick to the stomach, thinking silently of what might yet ensue.
And then came two o’clock.
Countdown complete.
At countdown plus one minute, there was suddenly a great heave from the frog, as if it had decided on a froglike leap commensurate with its size. It appeared to fling itself right up into the air and then it disappeared over the roof of the house. In the sky above it a red pinpoint of light left a trail across the clouds before it vanished.
‘Gone,’ said Steven tersely.
‘The frog?’
‘The ship.’
‘But what has happened to the frog?’ said Jacob. ‘Where is it now?’
Steven manipulated the Brick’s controls till he was able to see the front of the Gwynns’ house. There they saw the chaos the flying frog had caused. The road was gashed with great holes. A spurt of water from a main was shooting up into the lamplight. A policeman got out of a car and went towards the house.
Steven groaned. ‘More work for me,’ he said. ‘Always more work for me!’
The screen went blank, of its own accord and with no intervention from Steven.
Then on it appeared the message:
GO TO YOUR SHIP. YOUR ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED
Steven sighed. This was a not unexpected consequence of the events of the night. The ship without passengers could cause no end of trouble.
Jacob looked at his father anxiously. They had never been to the spaceship at dead of night. It was, to be honest, a bit scary. Yet he wouldn’t think of holding back. He felt too deeply involved.
The first message disappeared off the top of the screen. A second one scrolled into place:
DO NOT BRING THE BOY. COME ALONE
Jacob gave the screen a look of disgust. Why was he to be excluded? Did they think he was still a child? ‘The Cube said I should always come with you,’ he said. ‘So why not this time?’
Steven looked at him apologetically. ‘We can’t go against orders,’ he said. ‘You must stay here.’
‘Till when?’ said Jacob aggressively. ‘Doing what?’
Steven thought rapidly. ‘Stay by the Brick. I’ll set it ready for you to watch. You will see me go into the spaceship and come out again. Then you can watch me safely home.’
‘What will you be doing inside the ship?’ asked Jacob. ‘Why is the Cube in such a hurry to see you at this time of night? Could it not have waited till tomorrow evening? And why does it not want me?’
Steven was too preoccupied to notice that his son was speaking as if the cube were itself a person and not simply a channel of communication.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I simply don’t know.’