by Pam Harvey
They went a bit further on. ‘What about Byron Watts’ house?’ asked Angus. ‘That’s not far away.’
Hannah nodded. ‘Yeah. Sometimes he goes to see Byron.’
They sped up now that they’d made a decision. Byron’s house wasn’t far from the rifle range. It was a gloomy house, with an overgrown yard. Hannah put her bike down and knocked on the front door. No one answered. Typical, thought Hannah. Everyone’s out when you need them.
‘Come around the back,’ called Angus, disappearing around the corner of the house. ‘I thought I heard—hey! Sean?’
By the time Hannah reached Angus, Sean was there as well. ‘Where have you been?’ scowled Hannah. ‘Mum sent me to look for you.’
‘I’ve been waiting for Byron to come home,’ said Sean, glaring at his sister. ‘He wasn’t around last time I was here, either.’
‘Maybe he’s gone on holidays,’ said Angus, peering through the grotty window at the back of the house. ‘Well, if he did, he left in a hurry.’
Hannah looked in as well. ‘Gross! It looks like those dishes have been there all year. Is that fungus growing on those baked beans? And that is the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen.’
‘Where?’ Sean pressed his nose against the glass. ‘Yeah, that’s gigantic. But what’s that, Hannah?’
‘A mutant rat?’
‘No, that silver thing.’ Sean pointed.
Hannah studied the object that was on the kitchen table. ‘It looks like a small satellite dish. I don’t know what those other things are. Byron reckons he signals aliens, doesn’t he?’
‘He says he’s been abducted by aliens,’ Sean said solemnly.
Hannah snorted. ‘Yeah, right.’
‘Yeah, right, what?’
The new voice made them turn around.
‘E.D.,’ said Angus. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Looking for you lot.’
‘Coming to the pizza party?’
‘Of course. Have you known me to miss any party that involves free food?’
‘No,’ said Hannah. ‘Never.’
E.D. laughed at her. ‘So we’re all going to Angus’?’
‘I haven’t rung Gabby yet,’ said Angus.
‘Yeah, but I did,’ said E.D. ‘Gotta have everyone there tonight.’
‘Why?’ said Hannah.
‘Because,’ said E.D., running his hand through his thick hair until it stood on end, ‘we’ve got some exploring to do.’
CHAPTER 7
Monday
‘Pepperoni pizza,’ said E.D. with his mouth full, ‘has got to be the best invention since the wheel.’
‘It is a wheel,’ said Angus, picking up another slice.
‘Not any more,’ said E.D., taking the second last piece. ‘It’s a wedge. Pepperoni pizza has got to be the best invention since the wedge. What do you reckon, Gabby?’
Gabby sat curled up in an armchair eating a piece of chicken pizza. ‘Whatever you say, E.D.’
E.D. shrugged, took the last piece, crammed it into his mouth, chewed for a few seconds then swallowed. ‘Right. Let’s go.’
‘Go where?’ said Gabby, looking around. ‘We’ve got enough pizza to last for three days. And there are ice-creams in the freezer.’
‘There’s never enough food, Gab,’ said E.D. looking at her in astonishment, ‘and if you reckon this would last three days, you haven’t noticed that I just ate a whole family-sized pizza. And that was for entrée. But this time I’m not talking about food.’
‘What, then?’ Hannah said. She was sitting as far away from Gabby as possible. She hadn’t meant to but since she’d walked into the house, Gabby had refused to look her in the eyes. Even now, Gabby was looking at the cover on the armchair, plucking at it as if it needed unravelling.
‘We need to go into the bush and check out the caravan I discovered.’
‘What—now? Walk around the bush?’ Gabby shook her head. ‘It’s freezing out there.’
‘Where’s your sense of adventure, Gabby?’ said Hannah. ‘Lost it on your way here?’
Gabby grunted, refusing to look at her.
Angus glanced from one girl to the next, puzzled, then shrugged. ‘It’s a fair distance, E.D. It’s a long way for Sean.’
Sean sat on the rug next to E.D. His mouth was so full he couldn’t answer but E.D. spoke for him. ‘Don’t worry about Sean,’ he said. ‘Even if we had to walk, Sean would make it. He’s a superkid. But we don’t have to walk. We’ve got other transport.’
‘Such as?’ said Hannah.
‘I’ve got the quadbike. Angus has a horse. We can get there almost straight away and be back by the time Mr Mac gets home.’
Sean swallowed his last mouthful. ‘So let’s go.’ He stood up and was outside before anyone else moved.
‘Sean!’ yelled Hannah. ‘Wait.’
It was just turning to dusk outside. Angus took King out of his stable and saddled him quickly. ‘Come on, Gabby. You come with me.’
‘I think Gabby should come on the back of the bike this time,’ said E.D. quickly. Gabby looked at him. ‘Change of pace, you know?’
‘Well, who’ll come on King with me?’
‘I will,’ said Sean eagerly. ‘You’ll just need to help me get up there.’
Angus boosted Sean into the saddle and swung up behind him. By this time, E.D. had his quadbike going, and Hannah and Gabby sat together on the ledge behind his seat. Their helmets knocked together as E.D. carefully turned the bike around but they didn’t say anything to each other. ‘Let’s go!’ E.D. shouted.
They made their way carefully across the paddocks towards the area of bush where E.D. had worked that day. E.D. was not right about one thing—it took ages. He couldn’t quite remember how Graham had taken him there until he began to see familiar landmarks. ‘Not far now,’ he yelled back at the others.
Gabby and Hannah were hanging on to the back of his seat. ‘This is ridiculous,’ said Hannah loudly.
‘Where’s your sense of adventure?’ Gabby yelled back.
‘Probably left it with yours,’ Hannah shouted.
‘Oh, very funny.’
‘Hey!’ said E.D. suddenly. ‘This is where I was.’ He swung the bike to park under a tree and turned it off.
Angus pulled King to a stop. ‘I can’t see anything.’
‘Through there. Thought I’d better leave the bike here.’
Angus swung off King, and helped Sean down. ‘I’ll leave King here, then.’
E.D. waited until Angus had arranged things so that King wouldn’t step on his reins, and then started off into the bush. The others followed him, stretching out in single file. They walked for about five minutes. Then E.D. stopped, slowly raised a hand and pointed to his right.
The caravan was parked a little way off, the purple UFOSITE logo shining on its side. Hannah studied it carefully, noting the wires and antennas on the roof with leads snaking down to portals in the side of the van. Cameras at each corner blinked red every ten seconds. As she watched, a small satellite dish turned just a fraction. ‘See that?’ Hannah whispered.
‘What?’ Angus peered at the van.
‘The dish moved.’
‘What dish?’ said Gabby.
‘The one in front of your eyes.’
‘I can see it,’ said Sean. ‘I wonder what it’s tracking.’
E.D. started creeping forwards. ‘Let’s go and see.’
‘I don’t know…’ Hannah chewed her lip. Gabby looked at her and followed E.D. Hannah changed her mind and went after them.
They reached the van together. It was impossible to tell whether there was anyone inside. E.D. put one hand on the van. ‘It’s vibrating.’
Hannah traced the UFOSITE logo. She could feel a faint trembling as if some sort of machinery was operating inside. Carefully, keeping one hand on the smooth walls, she walked around the corner, and around another, until she had reached the front of the caravan. The door was closed. No light came from underneath. ‘I
think it’s empty,’ she said to the others gathered behind her, reaching for the door handle. ‘No one home.’
Gabby shrieked as the door suddenly swung open. Lights blazed out into the evening, and a figure stood silhouetted in the doorway. For one crazy moment, Gabby could have sworn that the figure was an alien—a tall, skinny creature with a large head and bulging eyes like a blowfly’s. It reached a long hand towards its head and pulled at its eyeballs—and Gabby saw that the figure was a woman and she had taken off a pair of headphones.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ asked the woman in a stern voice.
‘Bushwalking,’ said E.D.
‘At night-time?’ The woman tilted her head towards him.
‘It’s not quite night. And we’re on our way home.’
The woman stepped down onto the ground and stood in front of them. She was tall but Gabby could see that she wasn’t unusually tall. She didn’t look the least bit alien—in fact, Gabby thought she looked a little bit like their school headmistress. She certainly spoke like her.
‘We would rather you didn’t snoop around our van,’ said the woman. ‘We have a lot of delicate equipment on it.’
‘Judy!’ yelled a voice from inside. ‘I’m sure they’re okay.’ A man appeared in the doorway. He was short and dark and—Hannah saw with relief—smiling.
‘I don’t know about that,’ said Judy, frowning at E.D. ‘Aren’t you the boy who was here this afternoon?’
‘Me?’ said E.D. ‘I was working here this afternoon and your caravan was in my way.’ He paused. ‘But how did you know it was me?’
‘The cameras are on, E.D.,’ said Hannah. ‘Didn’t you see the lights?’
‘Why are you in the bush?’ Sean spoke up, stepping out from behind Angus. ‘Don’t the trees interfere with your signals?’
Judy and the man looked at each other before the man turned back to Sean. His smile had widened to a grin, but there was something forced about it. ‘We’ve got some smart ones here, Jude.’
‘Well, maybe they can help us,’ muttered the woman. ‘Want to come inside?’ She disappeared into the caravan without waiting for an answer.
‘Come on,’ said the man. ‘My name’s Rod. Let’s go inside with grumpy guts.’
It was a tight squeeze in the van with seven of them. E.D. stood stiffly with his hands in his pockets, afraid to move in case he knocked something over. The van was full of radios and computers and other things E.D. had never seen before.
‘Are you trying to track UFOs?’ asked Sean.
‘Sort of,’ said Rod, leaning back against a small table at one end of the caravan. ‘Our job is to investigate sightings that the public report.’
‘We find IFOs,’ said Judy.
‘IFOs?’ said Angus. ‘Independent Flying Objects?’
Judy shook her head. ‘Identified Flying Objects.’ She reached over and took a thick book from a shelf above Angus’s head. As she flicked through the pages he glimpsed columns of dates and names. ‘When people report that they’ve seen a UFO, it’s usually an IFO. You know—they think they’ve seen an alien and it turns out to be someone’s washing blown off the line. Some people have very vivid imaginations. It’s all in this report.’
Gabby looked down so that no one could see that her face had gone very red. She could understand how people could get carried away by their imagination—she could have sworn Judy was an alien when she’d first seen her.
‘We investigate everything,’ Judy continued. ‘Party balloons that are bombs from outer space; shooting stars that are Martians coming to land; remote control aeroplanes that are spaceships.’ She sighed. ‘I think I’ve seen everything.’
‘Except a real UFO,’ laughed Rod. ‘Judy’s been in this business for so long she doesn’t believe in anything any more.’
‘What about you?’ Sean asked.
Rod looked at him. ‘Ah! Well, I haven’t been in this job for that long.’ He leaned down and whispered in Sean’s ear. ‘I believe that anything’s possible.’
Sean stepped back, wary of the intensity in the man’s voice.
‘Anyway,’ Judy said, ‘we’re investigating the Teasdale lights. The council has granted us permission to park in the bush so that we can continue our investigation undisturbed.’ She frowned at them. ‘I suppose we’ll have to move now that you know where we are.’
‘We wouldn’t tell anyone,’ said Angus.
Judy just grunted.
‘While you’re here, though,’ said Rod, ‘maybe you can help us with a few things. Did any of you see the lights?’
‘I did,’ Sean said. ‘They were like bright flashes. They didn’t last long, though.’
‘Anyone else see them?’
Hannah shook her head. ‘No.’
Rod looked around at E.D. and Angus. ‘Have you seen anything suspicious since the sightings?’
‘No.’ E.D. stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets. ‘But then, we were miles away.’
‘Any people acting strangely, snooping around looking for things?’
‘Besides yourselves,’ said Judy dryly.
‘No,’ said Angus.
‘Fair enough,’ said Rod. ‘Have you found anything that you’ve never seen before?’
Sean shrunk back a bit at this but no one but E.D. noticed. He elbowed the boy gently. ‘What sort of things?’
‘Oh, you know, rocks or metal things.’
‘No,’ said E.D., shaking his head. ‘Everything’s normal.’
There was an awkward silence. Rod looked intently at E.D.
‘What sort of things do you think might be around?’ Hannah asked. ‘I thought you said that UFOs were usually IFOs. That would mean there would be nothing to find.’
‘Oh, sometimes people find things and we take them back to base for testing. They end up being bits of junk but I guess that we’re hoping that one day someone will give us a piece of meteorite or…something special.’
‘Quartz,’ said E.D. suddenly. ‘That’s all there is around here. Quartz.’
‘I don’t suppose you’ve seen anyone else snooping around looking for things?’ asked Hannah.
‘Besides yourselves,’ said E.D. quietly.
‘Why do you ask?’ said Rod.
‘Someone we know seems to have just disappeared,’ said Hannah. ‘We were wondering where he was.’
‘We haven’t seen anything,’ said Judy. ‘Or anyone.’
‘No,’ said Rod. ‘Nothing.’
Everyone was silent. After another awkward moment, Angus went to the door. ‘I’d better go and find King. My horse,’ he added.
‘We should get back before Mr Mac comes home,’ Hannah said, ‘or we’ll never be allowed to have a pizza party again.’
They stumbled out of the caravan. Rod and Judy came with them and stood watching while they went. ‘Don’t bother coming back tomorrow,’ called Judy. ‘We’ll have moved on.’
The bush was dark but Angus could hear King moving quietly through the scrub and they found the quadbike and horse quite easily.
‘What do you think of that?’ asked Angus as he put Sean back in the saddle.
‘Not much,’ said Hannah. ‘I don’t think they were telling us everything.’
‘Then it’s lucky we didn’t tell them everything either,’ said E.D., fastening his helmet.
‘What do you mean?’
E.D. looked up at Sean and winked at him. ‘I’ll tell you on the way home.’
CHAPTER 8
Monday
It wasn’t possible for E.D. to explain anything to Hannah as they went back. It was almost dark and he had to concentrate hard to keep the quadbike on the track. Behind him, Angus and Sean cantered on King. When they reached the house, Angus put King in his stable and the group turned to go indoors. Mr MacDonald was standing on the doorstep. He was home early.
‘Don’t tell me—you’ve been fossicking about looking for pieces of alien spaceship,’ he said with a smile.
Angus breat
hed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure how his father would react to the fact that no one was home when he returned from his trip into town. Joking about a spaceship was a good sign. His dad was still buoyant about his win.
‘No, it’s my fault, Mr Mac,’ E.D. said, driving the quadbike forwards. ‘I bet Angus here that my quadbike was faster than his horse.’
‘You’ve been racing King against a quadbike?’
Angus groaned. ‘Dad, we just went up to Baker’s Paddock and timed some run-throughs. It wasn’t dangerous.’
‘Were the lights on?’ Mr Baker had made a trotting track complete with lights and even a small stand. Sometimes in the evening Angus would take King up to the paddock next door and watch Mr Baker’s pacers going through their work.
‘Yes.’
‘Lit up like a Christmas tree it was, Mr Mac,’ E.D. said, nodding.
‘Funny, I thought Dan Baker was away till Wednesday at the trots meet in Panbroke.’
‘Well, it’s probably time we were getting home,’ Gabby said, moving towards the house to distract Mr Mac.
‘Yes, jump in the truck. E.D., I assume you’ll be making your own way home?’ said Mr Mac. E.D. nodded.
‘Thanks for the pizza, Mr Mac.’ E.D. put his helmet back on, exchanged glances with Angus, waved to the others and then headed off in a cloud of dust.
It didn’t take long to drop the others back home. Gabby was first. She left the truck with a wave, not saying anything as she walked towards her house. Hannah watched her as they pulled away. She felt very sad. What was going on?
Mr Mac let Sean and Hannah out at the end of their driveway and drove away with Angus. Hannah could hear him whistling as they went. Even on this cold night the driver’s window was down and Mr Mac was tapping the side of his door. Hannah went in the house first, leaving Sean to shut the front door.
‘Hannah, do you want to look at what I found now?’ Sean asked, following Hannah towards her bedroom.
‘Sean, your bedroom’s that way,’ his mother called from the end of the passage. ‘Move it!’
‘Show me in the morning, okay? I promise I’ll look at it then.’
