Part 19 (1/2)

Condon yanked up a gear and tightened his gloves on the wheel. 'When you say life and death, young man, I take it you do mean that, and not just a late essay or some such?'

'I do, sir.' Tim glanced over the rear seat of the vehicle and saw the roaring man running out on to the road, obscured in a second by the bend. 'I do.'

Greeneye slapped his thigh. 'A...' he searched his memory for the term... car! Come on, let's get after them, we can catch up if we try.'

'Don't trouble yourself,' said August. 'He was wearing a uniform, that of an educational establishment, and I do believe -' He clicked a few b.u.t.tons on his scanner. 'Yes, the map shows a suitable building near by. He doesn't know why we're after him. He'll go back there.'

'Good,' hissed Serif. 'If he does not think that he is followed, he will not hide the Pod.'

'He's a little trickster,' muttered Greeneye. 'Don't you think he was moving a bit fast for a human? Don't you think - '

'He came from a school,' Hoff interrupted. He smiled at Greeneye again. 'Not a cattery.'

'I have a very serious matter to report,' Rocastle began. He was standing on the stage, his hands gripping the edges of a wooden lectern. Behind him stood the teachers, listening in a line. At the side of the stage stood Benny and Alexander, looking nervously at the audience of boys. 'This lady and gentleman are in charge of the museum in town. They tell me that a theft has occurred, and it seems that it can only be a Hulton College boy who is responsible. The article stolen is of no value, being a pottery sphere found by archaeologists. I have been a.s.sured that the museum does not wish to pursue the matter via the police. If the boy who took this sphere comes forward now, he will not be expelled, nor his parents informed. He will receive six strokes of the cane, and the matter forgotten. I think that's a fair offer that any honest Christian boy would accept, and I hope that you're not going to let the school down in front of our guests.' He gestured to Bernice and Alexander. 'Well then - who's got it?'

There was silence. Rocastle clicked his tongue against his teeth. 'Very well, one last chance for all of you. Either the thief comes forward now, or he d.a.m.ns his fellows with him.' Silence again. 'Then it is my sad duty to inform you all that the town is out of bounds for the next month, or until the thief confesses. Now - '

There came a shattering explosion from outside the building.

'My G.o.d,' Bernice whispered. 'They're here.' She glanced at Smith, who was looking around at his fellow teachers in panic as the boys started to yell and run.

'Who's going to save us this time?'

The family stood in the courtyard of the school buildings. Hoff lowered his gun, nodding proudly at the remains of a statue that he'd atomised. The others stood in a line, watching the windows, weapons held at the ready. Even Aphasia had a gun, a big showy photon rifle that she'd painted orange with black spots, her balloon tied around the end of the muzzle.

August put a black conelike device to his lips. His voice was amplified and projected by the equipment, winding its way into the school, echoing through every room and gallery. 'Listen to me. My name is August of the Aubertide family Dubraxine. One of the young humans in that building has something we want, a red sphere known as a Biodatapod. You will send it out to us, and we will leave with it. If you do not, then we'll level the building and kill everybody. We're watching every exit.' He put his hand over the mouthpiece for a moment and looked at the others meaningfully. 'I said, we're watching every exit... '

'Sorry.' Greeneye, Hoff and Serif ran off in different directions around the perimeter of the house. August sighed and spoke into the cone again. 'You have thirty of your Earth minutes.' He switched off the machine and smiled at Aphasia.

'I've always wanted to say that.'

[image]

Aphasia aimed her gun at the roof of the school and fired. The recoil sent her flying backwards.

Concerned, August helped her up, glancing over his shoulder at the plume of smoke spiralling from the guttering above. 'Sniper?'

'Gargoyle.' Aphasia explained. 'I hate gargoyles.'

Timothy was watching from a tree in the orchard. He closed his eyes hard as if to banish a dream. So his magical prize wasn't something destiny had given him. It was something mean enough to be struggled over. The people in the courtyard, the Aubertides, natives of the planet Aubis. The Aubertide Queen lays eggs every hundred years, and the King fertilizes them in the ground. The new Aubertides bud to reproduce. You have to find out who's the eldest and talk to them. They like citrus fruit, but they can eat anything, and they're usually terribly friendly. Timothy blinked again, it was as if he'd just made up all that about them. The people in the courtyard were going to destroy the school.

Let them. Let it burn. What he had was worth much more.

No, that was a wicked thought. The lives of all his - no, not his friends, his enemies. The lives of his enemies were worth more than his happiness.

He gathered all his resolve together. He had to do something.

At the appropriate moment, that inner voice told him. Timing was everything.

Rocastle shouted again. 'Silence!'

The yelling ma.s.s of boys and teachers actually quietened. Rocastle had raised himself to his full height and he was actually looking at them proudly, with a slight smile on his features. 'Very good. Now, does anybody know what that was all about?'

Silence. Benny looked quickly at Smith and was about to say something, but by the time she'd thought of anything that Rocastle would find even remotely reasonable, he'd turned to one of the other masters. 'Thought not. Mr Moffat, you always have a fine white handkerchief about you. Here - ' He picked up the cane he'd propped on the lectern and handed it to the teacher. 'Wave it from the window, and tell these... Aubertides... Greeks, I think, that we don't know what they're talking about, but if they're willing, I'll pop out and have a chat and we can sort it out. All right?'

Benny turned to Alexander. 'That's just what I'd have done,' she whispered.

'Rocastle's not as stupid as he looks.'

Rather nervously, the bursar tied his handkerchief to the end of the cane. He walked through the rows of children to the end of the hall, where a triptych of large panel windows looked out on the grounds. He opened the latch on one of them and poked the cane out nervously.

'd.a.m.n soft tactics,' Hutchinson whispered to Merryweather. 'Who are they, anyway? Where are the police?'

'h.e.l.lo,' called Mr Moffat, nervously. He waved the cane gently back and forth, the handkerchief flapping. He was standing a good distance from the window. 'We don't know what you're talking about. But Mr Rocastle wants to meet with you. We can work something out.'

'Until the police get here, anyhow,' Rocastle murmured to Alexander. 'This thing they're after; it isn't the artefact you're missing, by any - '

There came a sound from the window. The cane and handkerchief had spread across the room in a wash of red light. The bursar was staggering backwards, clutching his chest. He was shouting at something that had fixed itself there, a blazing red spot that he was scrabbling at like it was a stinging insect.

With a great cry, he managed to catch it and threw it at the window. The spot exploded, and the gla.s.s shattered into a billion pieces, the window exploding outwards in a sonic boom.

The boys fell to the ground, covering their heads with their hands. The bursar staggered back to them, his palms bleeding.

'Doctor...' hissed Bernice, her hands curling into fists. Smith was shooing Joan back behind the curtains of the stage, his expression full of panic and confusion.

Rocastle was staring at the stormy light that was flooding through the windows, the first strikes of lightning making their way across the distant fields. A slight smile seemed to force its way on to his face, but then he clenched it down and his eyes shone with a determined certainty. 'Farrar, Wolvercote, Trelawny, away from the windows!' he shouted. 'Captain Merryweather, run to my office, call the police!

Mrs Redfern, tend to the bursar! Boys, find your house master, and in those units, follow me.' He pulled a set of keys from his pocket. 'We're going to break out the arms and make a show of it until help arrives!'

'Doctor...' Bernice tried to catch Smith's eye as he stared at Rocastle in disbelief.

'Other teachers are to check that doors are locked, board up windows and otherwise provide for a state of siege.' He spun back and called to the boys. 'Get up! Buck up and play the game!' The boys were getting to their feet, the Captains running round their forms, pulling the younger ones to their feet and slapping them on the back.

'We're going to show them that Hulton College boys are made of old English stuff!

The stuff that built the Empire, the stuff that doesn't back down to threats and bullying! Who's with me?'

A great cheer came from the boys, who ran to cl.u.s.ter around their form masters, the Captains saluting quickly to Rocastle as they snapped to attention.

'Right!' Rocastle called, his stare fixing on the ma.s.ses of cheering children before him. 'Let's break out the weapons and fight!'

'Doctor!' Bernice shouted.

He turned, annoyed, from staring after Joan where she'd gone to aid the bursar.

'What?'

'Who!' Benny growled, and grabbed him by the collar, yanking him off behind the curtains at the back of the stage. 'That's the question. Come here, git!' He vanished as Rocastle turned to look for him, the boys of Farrar house cl.u.s.tering around the Head.

Alexander realized that they were all looking at him and shrugged. 'I think he just...