Part 17 (1/2)
He saw Rebecca's cross look out of the corner of his eye.
”I'm fine, thank you, Tane. How is your mum? I haven't seen her in such a long time.”
”Oh, she's fine, thanks,” Tane replied.
”What's happening on your program?” Rebecca asked conversationally, casually turning the Chronophone plans upside down on the tabletop as her mother poured herself a gla.s.s of orange juice from the fridge.
”Oh, I don't know.” Her mum looked quite annoyed. ”It's getting hard to follow. They keep interrupting it with those blasted news reports.”
”News reports?” It was Tane who asked.
”Oh, all those cordons up past Whangarei. Mad cow disease, something like that.”
The three of them sat openmouthed as Rebecca's mum disappeared back upstairs.
”There's a TV in the lounge,” Rebecca said unnecessarily.
The newsreader was as smooth and polished as a greenstone tiki. They watched with increasing shock as the details of a quarantine zone were announced. A police spokesperson was interviewed and urged residents to stay calm but to avoid any unnecessary travel. Mad cow disease had been discovered on a Northland farm, a cattle disease potentially damaging to New Zealand's dairy exports.
The main highway had been cordoned off at Kawakawa to the south of Russell and at Kerikeri to the north. All ancillary roads had also been blocked. There was no movement in or out of the quarantine zone without special permission of the police and military who were policing it.
In the same bulletin, but declared as an unrelated story, the police were searching for two teenagers and an unknown number of accomplices in connection with the disappearance of a prominent scientist from a research station in the Bay of Islands.
A photo of Professor Green was displayed, along with a potted summary of her career, followed by a police sketch of Rebecca and Tane. It wasn't a good likeness.
”What the h.e.l.l is going on?” Fatboy wanted to know when the bulletin had finished.
”Disappearance!” Rebecca's mouth just about hit the floor. ”So that's what the soldiers meant by 'Where are the hostages?' They think we kidnapped Vicky!”
”And the rest of her team!” Fatboy realized.
Tane said, ”But we didn't. So who did? And what's this about mad cow disease?”
”It's not mad cow,” Rebecca said. ”That's just a story, to avoid panic.”
”So what is it?” Tane asked.
Rebecca said chillingly, ”Isn't it obvious? Something bad did did happen on the island. The Chimera Project.” happen on the island. The Chimera Project.”
Tane got up and turned the sound off on the TV. The sudden silence in the room seemed to take all the warmth out of the day, despite the unfettered suns.h.i.+ne outside.
Rebecca said, ”I think we were too late. That whatever it was that we were supposed to stop has already happened.”
'TIS THE S SEASON He sees you when you're sleeping, He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good, So be good for goodness sake!
-J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, ”Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
The week leading up to Christmas was full of the noise and fun and shopping that is like no other time of the year. Christmas was full of the noise and fun and shopping that is like no other time of the year.
Carolers sang joyously on street corners, whole streets of houses were festooned with thousands of tiny lightbulbs, and children sat fearfully on Santa's knee in the shopping malls and asked for outrageous gifts like ponies and s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps and magic rings that could make them fly.
Shops promised pre-Christmas sales, large corporations sponsored nighttime light shows and drew Santa's sleigh on the clouds in colored laser light.
Drivers and shoppers alike grew increasingly irritable as stressed-out motorists and frazzled parents gesticulated at each other over places in motorway queues, or parking s.p.a.ces, or the last stock of a special-priced toy.
In other words, the year progressed just like those that preceded it, and apart from the occasional slightly disturbing news report from the north, life was pretty good.
To Tane, Rebecca, and Fatboy, it all seemed like sheer insanity.
The man in the Santa suit glanced casually over at Tane again. Too casually. For the third time.
”Let's get out of here,” he said to Rebecca, who was comparing the component numbers on some electrical parts with the list that Fatboy had given them.
Fatboy was still circling the block. He had given up looking for a s.p.a.ce after half an hour of trying. Kmart had a sale on and there wasn't a free parking s.p.a.ce this side of Western Springs.
”But we haven't got the capacitors yet.” She frowned, running her finger along a row of small, labeled plastic bins.
”Santa Claus has been watching us for the last five minutes.”
Rebecca looked around at the man, who quickly looked away. ”Might be a store detective. The way you're acting, I'd be watching you too.”
”A store detective in a Santa suit?” Tane took a deep breath and tried to calm down. It didn't help. A police car went past outside with its siren crying, and he accidentally knocked over an entire stand of Dummies Dummies books. He picked them up quickly, before the sales a.s.sistant could come and help. books. He picked them up quickly, before the sales a.s.sistant could come and help.
Santa was watching them again, Tane realized, half hidden on the other side of a circular stand of electronics magazines. He was curiously thin-faced for a Santa, who was usually a chubby, jovial fellow. This Santa had a scar above one eye, not quite masked by the stuck-on bushy eyebrows. He looked like a spy in a Santa costume. Or a hired killer. Or a soldier.
”He's still got his eye on us,” Tane whispered, covering his mouth with his hand in case Santa could read lips.
”You'd better watch out,” Rebecca said quietly.
”What? Why?” Tane hissed urgently.
”You'd better not cry...”
”Cry?” Tane stared at his friend in confusion.