by Pam Harvey
‘Let’s go!’ she screamed, jumping to her feet. Another stone smashed into the woodwork just above their heads. Sean scrambled up the small wooden ladder, Ling just behind him. They raced over the rough ground, every moment expecting a stone or rock to come flying their way.
‘You okay, Ling?’ Sean panted, grabbing his bike. Ling was too out of breath to reply. She waved a hand, picked up her own bike and together they raced away from the rifle range.
CHAPTER 10
Tuesday
Sean and Ling arrived back at Gabby’s just as she was getting out of the pool. ‘What’s the matter?’ said Gabby, pausing as she reached for her towel.
‘There are weird things going on, Gab,’ said Ling as she walked past towards the house. ‘Come inside and get warm. I’m going to ring the others. We need to talk about this together.’
Sean looked at Gabby as he followed Ling and shrugged at her puzzled expression. Gabby wrapped a towel around her and ran in after them.
Ling was already on the phone. ‘Hannah? It’s Ling…yeah…I’m glad to be back. Can you come over?…Great.’
Angus was a bit harder to find but finally he answered his mobile. Ling ended the call and looked over at Sean. ‘He’s just finishing with the horses. He’ll be here soon.’
‘Did you find E.D.?’ Gabby asked as she came into the room. Her long hair was plaited into a tight wet braid, and she was dressed in a pink tracksuit.
‘You ring him,’ said Ling, handing her cousin the phone. ‘Here.’
Gabby took the phone, hesitated for a moment, then walked down the hall and into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
‘I don’t understand her,’ said Sean. ‘Or Hannah. They’re acting really strange.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Ling, sitting on the couch next to him.
‘Oh, I don’t know. They’ve been fighting and that makes Hannah go really quiet. She isn’t talking much, and she’s always shutting herself in her bedroom. And Gabby seems to be…sad, I guess. And grumpy. And she’s not being nice to Hannah.’ He told Ling briefly about the pizza party.
‘So Gabby hasn’t told Hannah?’ said Ling after a moment.
‘Told her what?’
‘E.D.’s on his way,’ said Gabby, suddenly appearing in the room. ‘He says he’s nearly finished repairing a tyre on Tony’s bike.’ She gave the phone back to Ling. ‘I’ll go and change.’
‘You just got changed!’ said Sean but Gabby had gone. ‘See?’ he said to Ling. ‘What’s with her? I don’t get it.’
‘You aren’t meant to!’ Ling laughed.
The door bell rang and Sean heard Hannah and Angus’ voices carrying upstairs. A minute later they appeared; Angus was grinning broadly.
Ling smiled back. ‘Hi, Angus.’
Angus couldn’t seem to get any words out. He lifted his hand in greeting and kept grinning.
‘Honestly,’ grunted Hannah. She stepped forwards. ‘Hi, Ling.’
Ling gave her a hug and Hannah patted her on the back.
‘Looks like you guys have got more mysteries on your hands,’ Ling said, sitting back down on the couch.
‘Strange things have been happening in Teasdale,’ said Angus in a television voice.
‘You can speak again, can you?’ Hannah said.
‘You fill me in and then I’ll tell you what happened to us this afternoon,’ Ling said.
‘Well,’ began Hannah. She stopped. ‘What is that noise?’
‘I’ll get it,’ yelled Gabby from her room, and she flew down to open the front door, dressed in new jeans and a hot pink jacket.
‘E.D.,’ said Sean. ‘That’s his bike.’
‘Well,’ Hannah said loudly above the drone of the two-stroke motor. ‘It all started when there were strange lights seen in the sky—Sean saw them—and then these people appeared—UFOSITE—’
‘Unidentified Flying Object Sighting Intelligence Team Establishment,’ explained Sean.
‘—and hid their van in the bush—’
‘—and I found it,’ said a voice. E.D. walked into the room, Gabby at his heels. He nodded and grinned at Ling. ‘Welcome back to the madhouse.’
‘It’s not a madhouse, E.D.,’ said Gabby huffily.
‘Only joking, Gab,’ said E.D., rolling his eyes at her.
‘ANYWAY,’ said Hannah very loudly.
‘Interrupting, are we?’ said Gabby, glaring at her.
‘I’m just trying to tell Ling about what’s been going on.’
‘And you think I haven’t told her already? Do you think I’m that stupid?’ Gabby pushed past E.D. and stood glaring at Hannah.
Hannah turned red and opened her mouth to say more but Ling stood up. ‘Wait. Let me tell you what I reckon has happened. You went to investigate the caravan in the bush and met some lovely UFOSITE people, who basically told you that there was probably nothing to investigate as most reported sightings were hot air balloons but then they asked whether you’d found anything strange—’
‘—and I told them we hadn’t,’ E.D. got in.
‘But we had,’ said Sean, pulling the silver object out of his pocket.
‘—and I couldn’t get it open,’ grumbled Hannah.
‘But I have,’ said Ling. ‘Then Sean and I went to see what else we could find and stumbled across someone living at the rifle range who didn’t want us to be there and threw rocks at us.’
‘There’s someone living at the rifle range?’ said Angus.
‘You got it open?’ said Hannah. ‘How?’
Ling took the object from Sean, turned it over in her hands, and fiddled with it. After a short while, it clicked and the inside slid open, revealing an inner compartment.
‘Can I have it?’ Hannah reached out and Ling carefully placed the silver gadget in her hand. Hannah studied it for a long time while the others watched her. Even Gabby said nothing. Suddenly, Hannah tipped the object over and gave it a quick shake.
‘Careful,’ said Gabby, ‘you might—’
‘There,’ said Hannah. ‘Got it.’ She held up the two parts of the gadget.
‘You’ve broken it!’ said Gabby. ‘I told you to be careful.’
‘It’s not broken,’ said Hannah crossly. ‘I’ve just taken it apart. And I reckon I know what it is.’ She held up the smaller piece—the inside bit. ‘It’s got grooves on the side as if it fits into something.’
‘And it’s got UFOSITE written on it as well,’ said Ling suddenly.
‘I think it fits into a machine that we saw in that caravan. I think that if we took it back there, we could play it and it would show some sort of data. It’s like a USB stick.’
‘Or maybe there’s a picture on it.’ Sean leaned forwards and took the cylinder from his sister. ‘Or maybe it’s a type of recording system.’
‘Like a camcorder?’ said Ling. ‘Something’s been filmed?’
Hannah shrugged. ‘Who would know? But I bet we’d find out if we took it to the UFOSITE caravan.’
‘If you took it back to Rod and Judy, they might show you what’s on it.’
Hannah looked at Sean sceptically. ‘I doubt it.’
‘But we should give it back,’ said Angus. ‘It belongs to them—it’s written on the side. It would be stealing to keep it.’
‘We’ll give it back,’ said Hannah impatiently, taking the object away from Sean and closing it up again. ‘First we want to see what’s on it.’
‘By putting it in the machine in the caravan. Hmmm.’ E.D. slid down the door frame until he was sitting on the floor. ‘I’m going back to the bush this afternoon to do more work. You’d better come with me.’
‘Yeah,’ said Angus, ‘then we can—’
‘Not you, dude,’ said E.D. ‘Just Hannah. It would be pretty suspicious if we all turned up again. And if it’s just Hannah, she could hide in the back of Graham’s ute when he takes me back.’
‘But that’s not fair!’ said Sean, jumping up. ‘I found it and Hannah gets to see what’s
on it!’
‘Sean,’ said Angus, ‘we’d get into so much trouble if we sent you back to the caravan and something happened to you. I’m not sure that the UFOSITE people are that nice, you know.’
‘I’d be alright!’
‘No, Sean,’ said Hannah. ‘I’d better do it. I reckon I know which machine this fits into.’
‘Not fair,’ grumbled Sean, sinking back into the couch.
‘You can wait for us at my place,’ said E.D. ‘Mario’s working on his Motoguzzi. He might even take you for a ride.’
Sean looked at him. ‘Alright,’ he said in a voice that was less than enthusiastic. ‘But only because it’s a Motoguzzi.’
An hour later Hannah found herself slipping under the cover of the back of Graham’s utility, and being bounced over rough dirt tracks until finally the car stopped where E.D. had been working the day before. Hannah climbed out while Graham was showing E.D. the next collection area and hid behind a tree until he had unloaded the containers for E.D. and driven off.
E.D. looked around. ‘Hannah?’
‘I’m here.’ Hannah came out from behind the tree, her curly hair wild and tousled from the rough ride under the ute’s tarp.
‘Having a bad hair day, Han?’
‘Huh?’
‘Don’t worry.’ E.D. handed her a container.
‘Once we get this over and done with, we can go looking for the caravan.’ He explained what needed to be done and Hannah did it—quickly and efficiently. E.D. was surprised. In less than half the time that he took yesterday, they were finished.
‘Wow, Han. You’re pretty cool at this.’
Hannah shrugged. ‘It’s just data collection and cataloguing. It’s sort of what you do when you write computer programs.’
‘Oh.’ E.D. didn’t know what to say. ‘Well. Let’s leave all the stuff here at the pick-up point; then we can go exploring.’
They left their things in a neat pile and pushed through the bush in the direction of the caravan. E.D. felt confident about which direction to go in. It took five minutes but finally they arrived at the small clearing where they had been only the night before.
‘Great,’ said E.D.
‘Yeah, terrific,’ said Hannah. ‘They’ve done exactly what they threatened to do.’
The clearing was empty, with no sign of the van anywhere.
CHAPTER 11
Tuesday
‘So, what now?’ Hannah put her hands on her hips and looked around.
E.D. checked the time. ‘We’ve got about 50 minutes before Graham gets back. That’s a bit of time to try and track the van down.’
‘What do you mean?’
E.D. pointed to the ground. ‘See? Tyre tracks. Going that way.’ He pointed into the bush. ‘Follow me.’
They trudged along a faint dusty track, E.D. keeping his eyes down. Hannah followed, a few metres behind. The wind was cold and Hannah kept her arms wrapped around her body, hugging herself tightly to keep warm. They seemed to have walked for ages when E.D. finally stopped. ‘Well?’ said Hannah.
E.D scratched his head. ‘I’m not sure. The ground is really rocky here. I can’t see where they went next.’
Hannah almost said ‘good’. She was tired of walking but the silver object was heavy in her pocket. ‘Come on, E.D. We need to find that van. Angus is right: we’ll have to hand this thing in sooner or later and I want a chance to see what it is first.’
E.D. shrugged, scouted around a bit then called out, ‘Here, Han! I reckon it’s this way.’
They moved more quickly, half running across the stony ground. Suddenly E.D. stopped. ‘Got it.’
The UFOSITE van was hidden behind a clump of granite rocks. A four-wheel drive was hitched to it but there was no one in sight. Hannah and E.D. watched for a few minutes, crouching in the scrub and making sure they were out of view. ‘Maybe they’re inside,’ Hannah whispered.
‘Maybe they’re outside.’ E.D. nodded towards the car. Rod and Judy, still dressed in their white UFOSITE uniforms, had come out of the van and were walking into the bush, holding between them what looked like an aerial.
‘They’ll be trying to find a higher place to put that,’ said Hannah. ‘They parked in the wrong place.’
‘You mean, they parked in the right place—somewhere nice and hidden. Shame about the reception.’ E.D. nudged Hannah forwards. ‘Go on, then. I’ll watch out for you.’
‘What?’
‘Go and do what you’ve gotta do with that silver thing in your pocket. They’ve gone. I’ll call you if they come back.’
‘That’ll seem very suspicious. “Hannah! Come out! They’re coming back.”’
E.D. frowned. ‘I won’t call your name. I’ll do a bird call or something.’
‘A bird call?’
‘Will you just get going? We haven’t got long.’
Hannah looked at E.D. doubtfully then stood up and ran to the van. She gave one last look around—no one in sight—and pulled the door open.
Inside, the van was a bit like the inside of Byron Watts’ house. Computer screens and hard drives, recording equipment and radios lined the benches. At each end of the van a thin, narrow bed was set up but the mattresses were covered in papers and books. Hannah couldn’t see anything that might indicate that they cooked in the van. ‘Maybe they eat radio waves,’ she remarked to herself.
Time was running out. Hannah pulled the silver object from her pocket and carefully undid it. She held out the narrow end and scanned the row of gadgets in front of her. Somewhere, on their last visit, she’d noticed a communication device that had a portal about the same shape. Where was it now?
After an anxious minute, she saw it. Tucked away on a lower shelf, as if it had been hidden from direct sight, the device sat with its leads running up to a computer monitor. Hannah paused to listen but she couldn’t hear anything from outside. If E.D. was doing his bird thing, too bad because she couldn’t hear. She squatted down and turned the device on then inserted the narrow end of the silver object into the portal.
The monitor lit up with the brand name of the hard drive then went black. Hannah tapped her fingers impatiently on the bench, trying to guess what sort of data would come up. Maybe it would be graphs of sound waves, or maybe some sort of binary code like computer programs used, or maybe it would be random colours indicating heat transfer or—
It was nothing that she imagined. As the monitor finally revealed the contents of the silver gadget, Hannah nearly fell over. She stopped her tapping and leaned closer to the screen to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. She wasn’t. The monitor was showing a video.
A satellite image, that’s all it could be, she thought. The view was from far away but as she watched, it zoomed in. It now showed a picture of a dark suburban street—not one she recognised. A street light shone in the distance, giving out just enough light to show a grey footpath leading all the way from one side of the screen to the other. Nothing happened for several moments and then figures came into the picture.
Figures? People? Hannah blinked. They were sort of like people, but something was very strange about the way they walked. They didn’t walk, they glided. And they seemed unusually skinny, like they were on stilts. ‘You can’t be on stilts and glide,’ said Hannah to herself. The figures went off the screen.
Hannah kept watching the video but there was nothing to see other than the footpath. A dog went past—but that was it. Hannah bent down, ejected the silver object, pushed it back in and started the video again. The figures entered the screen, glided along and disappeared. Hannah replayed the footage for the third time.
It didn’t make sense. Who were those people? What were they doing? And—most importantly—why was UFOSITE so interested in them?
Hannah ejected the silver object and closed it up again before putting it back in her pocket. She glanced around the van. There must be something here that told her what was going on. She flipped through some papers on one bed, confused by the number patter
ns written across them. Nothing here seemed to make any sense and that was the most frustrating thing. Hannah wished she had the Internet handy; typing some of these numbers in might have come up with something useful.
She was rifling through another pile of papers when the door opened with a bang. Suddenly, outside noise came flooding in. There was a demented magpie going off in a tree nearby but it was too late. Rod and Judy stepped into the van.
‘What is going on?’ said Judy loudly, grabbing Hannah by the arm.
Hannah looked at Rod, half expecting him to tell Judy to let her go. He stood back, frowning. ‘You are trespassing,’ he said. ‘We could have you arrested.’
‘Sorry,’ Hannah said, twisting free of Judy. ‘I knocked but you weren’t here so I just came in to find you.’
‘And decided to have a little look-see while you were here?’ Rod’s voice was getting louder.
‘I decided I would wait for you,’ said Hannah, feeling like she was going to cry any second. She swallowed. ‘I was just moving some papers from the bed so I could sit down.’
‘Don’t touch anything!’ Rod roared. Hannah shrank back.
Judy lifted her hand to quiet Rod down. ‘We know you, don’t we? You were here last night?’ Hannah nodded. Judy looked at her curiously. ‘We told you we’d have to shift the caravan because of you, and you still came looking for us. Determined little thing, aren’t you?’
‘I only came…’ Hannah’s voice was trembling. She took a deep breath and looked Judy in the eye. ‘I only came to give you this.’ She fished the silver object from her pocket and held it out.
Judy gasped. Rod grunted. They suddenly looked very pleased.
‘Oh, good girl,’ said Rod and reached out to pat Hannah on the shoulder.
‘Ah, yes,’ said Judy, taking the gadget from Hannah. ‘Very good.’
‘What is it?’ said Hannah innocently.
‘Oh, it’s nothing much,’ said Judy, not looking at her. ‘It’s one of those expensive things that we’d rather get back. Otherwise we’d have to pay for it.’
‘But what is it?’
