“Honestly, that farmer Robert Williams is a bit weird,” Miss Wan told Nancy, Pete and Krish at break-time.
Miss Wan was a small woman with black hair. Her intelligent eyes were hidden behind purple tinted glasses. She was sitting at her desk with a mug of tea and a pile of marking. Behind her on the wall was a display of poems the Year Eights had written last term.
“You didn’t get any photos of the ectoplasm?” Pete asked.
“It was gone by the time I got there,” Miss Wan replied. “If there even was any. All I saw was this.” She took out her phone and showed them a photo of some bones and bits of wool lying in frosty grass.
“Do you think the farmer made it up?” Nancy asked as she perched between Pete and Krish on the edge of a classroom table.
Miss Wan sipped her tea. “Robert Williams tried to buy Hilltop House a few years ago but couldn’t afford it,” she said. “Perhaps he’s just jealous of the Spencer Institute and is trying to make them look bad. But I did see those bones, so …” She took a deep breath. “It’s definitely a mystery.”
Pete leaned forward and grinned at Nancy and Krish. They loved a good mystery.
“So why did the Spencer Institute want to build their research facility at Hilltop?” Krish wondered.
Miss Wan took another sip of tea. “Why not?” she said. “There’s plenty of land. And Hilltop was for sale.”
“And it’s in the middle of nowhere,” Pete said. “Which means they can do dodgy research without anyone finding out.”
Miss Wan took a deep breath. “I went up to Hilltop,” she said. “They were very friendly and took me on a tour. You know, they’re making some amazing discoveries.”
“What kind of discoveries?” Krish asked.
Miss Wan paused for a moment before saying, “Well, they’re bio-engineering plants that—”
“‘Bio-engineering’?” Pete said. “What does that mean?”
“Basically, it means messing about with something’s genes,” Krish told him. “Like taking DNA from one plant and putting it into another to make it grow better.”
“Yep, that’s pretty much it,” Miss Wan agreed. “So, at Hilltop they’re bio-engineering plants that can absorb huge amounts of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. And they’re working on a plant that can be turned into a clean bio-fuel to run cars. But there’s something else. You see, when I visited Hilltop, there was part of the facility they didn’t show me: a huge building, right behind the old house. They called it ‘the Vault’.”
“‘The Vault’?” said Pete. He sat up straight, unable to hide his excitement. “And they didn’t let you inside?”
“No,” Miss Wan replied. “They said it’s for ‘secret’ research.” She put her mug down on the desk, turning it around so they could all see the design. “But I’d love to see inside that building,” Miss Wan went on. “I wonder what secrets it holds?”
Pete, Nancy and Krish all stared at the design on Miss Wan’s mug. It showed a picture of a UFO hovering over some trees. Underneath were the words “I WANT TO BELIEVE”.