Poppycock Place Series -Sky Sailing Heroes

by Tobias Dingbat

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  Of their own decision, the seven banded together and set up businesses in a little street called Poppycock Place, occupying five adjacent shops. These shops also had two-storey dwellings built above and were rented by a variety of tenants. The tenants came from many different backgrounds, -singles, couples and families with their own personal joys and problems. Italians, Jews, Africans, Europeans, Latin Americans were all represented, as well as trade-skills from professional to entertainers and ordinary workers. Generally the humans got on well with the Bio-Teks and accepted them into the community.

  That morning, Botzi got a strange letter, a map apparently showing where a great Inca treasure was located in South America. He went around to see his friends working in the neighbouring shops next door. They gathered outside in the street discussing it. However, Alby Monk, the money lender was excluded from the gathering. He however watched with curious interest, from inside his shop window, a scowl on his face. Fungus his accomplice stood beside him, also staring at the group.

  Out in the street, Noodles peered over Botzi’s shoulder. “So do you think it’s genuine?”

  Botzi shrugged, “Dunno, the strange thing is, it’s got instructions how to get to the valley where there’s supposed to be a mysterious treasure and it’s signed by somebody who calls himself a long lost uncle of mine, an old Uncle Reno Botzi.”

  “You have no uncles, you know that, Botzi !” frowned his mate Noodles.

  The group of friends was now in earnest discussion. People passed them by with greetings, “G’day guys”, “Hi-Five,” but they only returned a brief acknowledgment.

  “I know I have no uncle, Noodles, -none of us have uncles or any ancestors except the scientists who created us,” mused Botzi, “but this map looks genuine to me.”

  “Well, are you going there to find out?”

  “I’d like to but I got no money to travel such a long trip to South America.”

  Rory pitched in with a suggestion, “That’s a shame, but you could get a loan and if you went and did find the treasure, you could easily pay it off later.”

  Botzi pondered, “And if I found no treasure, I’d go broke and lose my shop.”

  It must be said that the robots had true free will as well as computational power.

  Botzi, the centre character was good hearted with a great sense of humour. It was no coincidence he was built to look a bit like a circus clown as this didn’t affect his robotic abilities and his job included promoting cheerfulness on what had been expected to be a lonely space journey of a few years. Botzi was to have been the spaceship captain with Noodles acting as navigator. Noodles was strange, but still friendly looking. He was made of powerful amber-gold coloured magnetic rings that somehow hovered close to each other, but did not touch, and collectively they formed his body. But you could see straight through him, between the gaps made by the rings.

  Rory, the co-pilot, was distinctly female with golden hair, rosy cheeks and a smooth chocolate brown complexion. A bright blue outfit contrasted with her shiny chrome shoes. Every effort was made to simulate the psyche of a woman including a high pitched screech that might shatter windows, both as a means of self defence and a warning siren. Later she was to find out that she had a great singing talent as well.

  Banjo, the dog, could talk and think almost to the power of the others and so could Izaak, even though they had animal shapes and purpose-built animal instincts. The two soon became great friends and as they could communicate with other animals, they decided it would be interesting to manage a pet shop. They had great fun acting as interpreters between parrots, turtles and chimpanzees.

  Rory persisted, “Why don’t you ask Alby for a loan to finance your adventure trip. He’s a neighbour isn’t he? When he buys flowers from me, he always gives me a tip.”

  Noodles and Botzi looked at each other. They knew Alby Monk was as hard as nails and he only put on an act with Aurora because he found her useful to have her on side, hoping to get gossip on what the others were doing. The robots initial start-up psyche was capable of further independent development, as humans are, and Aurora gravitated towards simple good-will, and trusted almost everyone at face value.

  But as time went by, two of the robots, Alby and Fungus gradually drifted away from the input of ethics that NASA had taught them, among many other “super-skills”. Alby was ambitious and wanted to get rich quick. Fungus was the last to be manufactured, just as government funds were running out, and hence his intellectual circuits were not developed to the full extent of the others. Yet he was smart enough to choose what he wanted for a career and as he lacked sufficient ethical inputs, he felt comfortable in being an assistant to Alby. Fungus wanted to get rich quick too but just didn’t know how.

  Alby was to be the ship’s engineer. He was designed all black so that on space walks he could absorb maximum solar energy into his batteries. This would give him longer work cycles during his outside space repair and maintenance missions. He also had to be tough, and good looks took a second place in his design. He looked tough, was tough. Some months after he left NASA, he took to wearing a tall black top hat, to look more business-like, so he thought, but instead appeared more sinister, like an undertaker.

  Fungus was to be Alby’s assistant mechanic and general handyman for anything requiring attention during the space journey. Also, to simulate possible short and fat scientists in future missions, Fungus was built with these attributes to test for any drawbacks experienced by these body proportions. Not much physical disadvantage was evident in Fungus however, except that he was affected by budget cuts which came swift and caught the scientists unprepared. The computational/emotional/psychic modules used for the others were most expensive and the package for Fungus had not been started or even designed. Rather than lose the value of work already done on Fungus, the laboratory director ordered a brain package to be completed using what was left of the available components, even if some were outdated and underperformed under stress conditions. So Fungus was born, strong as a gorilla, but he could be unpredictable at times.

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  Two (2)

  Poppycock Place

  So there they were, five new shopkeepers, together in a little shopping lane called Poppycock Place. If you stood in the street and looked from left to right there was “Banjo’s Pet Shop”, with cages of birds and puppies in the shop window. Next came Noodles “Travel Services” showing the usual holiday posters but also some curious mechanical things quietly rotating and whirring in a glass display cabinet. Noodles had a strong wish to be an inventor, he repaired neighbours’ watches for free, but secretly, in the back workshop, he was designing a machine to capture time. Noodles could turn on strong gravitational fields and he best understood the relationship between space, gravity and time.

  Next shop belonged to Botzi. Botzi’s big red jelly-bean body with a shiny black and red-striped pointed hat immediately radiated a figure of fun. He was very well liked, and regarded as a sort of local mayor by the people in the neighbourhood. He chose to run a “Mini-Supermarket”. (He sometimes chuckled at this contradiction). He was interested not so much to make money, but to meet lots of people. Of course he was elected captain of the annual village fiesta. Folks went to him as a source of intelligent free advice on all personal and career matters.

  Then came “Rory’s Flower Shop”. There was a genuine woman in Rory’s make-up and she decided that since an engineering career was always available to her, she instead opted to surround herself with nature’s beauty for now, as this aroused deep interest in her philosophical view that life creates beauty and beauty enhances life.

  And last came Alby’s shop. Thinking he would present his business with an image imitating some local banks, he decorated it in a Gothic look, (pointed arched windows, purple furnishings, heavy wood furniture, and gold lettering) to gain respectability. It looked
odd but so was Alby. Alby wanted power, that is, to rule, to be above the rest, and one way to get there was to make money fast. He became a finance broker, share trader, money lender and even ran a pawn broker operation. He paid Fungus peanuts, but promised him a percentage of any big deals Fungus would bring to the business. Alby told him it was easy to get rich (to keep him on as a hopeful servant) and Fungus worked and dreamed of riches beyond his ability. The business was in a working-class area and was doing quite well as there were plenty of people who did not respect money and were always short. Nobody cheated Alby – one knock on their door or a stare from his big hulking frame was enough to make them repay what they owed, with interest.

  Botzi and Friends survey the Treasure Map.

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  Three (3)

  Ready to Go

  They stood on the footpath still huddled together for some time.

  All three, Botzi, Noodles and Rory by now had a turn in holding the “treasure map”, as it was called, and Rory finally handed it back to Botzi. Banjo and Izaak played quietly around them, acting like a dog and a snake, as their characters were supposed to do.

  A moment of thoughtful silence was broken by Pedro, who walked passed them wearing a cheeky grin. Pedro Lopez was a stage dancer who hardly ever walked when he could dance. A young Cuban, he was very popular in the neighbourhood having lived for some time with his sister, in one of the apartments.

  “Yo, Jellybeans! You gettin’ ready for the Fiesta?” Pedro was chiding Botzi who incidentally, did look like a bag of red and yellow jelly beans. The village fiesta was due in six weeks.

  Botzi smiled good naturedly, “You make sure I don’t dance your pants off, Pedro! I’m quick, you know.”

  “But I’m better lookin’,” laughed Pedro as he disappeared, dancing down the street.

  The Bio-Teks returned their attention to the map. Noodles volunteered a suggestion.

  “I got an idea. There is a hot air balloon kit in the store at the back of my shop. If I can get it to work, we can all go and it won’t cost much money.”

  Botzi replied, “But that would take weeks.”

  “Two weeks only. Well, what else can you do if you have no money?”

  Rory picked up some enthusiasm, “It’s worth a try, can we all go, Noodles?”

  “I think so, it has a large passenger basket. I took it up years ago in a balloon race competition.”

  Our happy crew did not notice that their excitement increased the attention of Alby Monk, still standing inside his shop. He stroked his jaw, deep in thought. Alby could be a mean, unhappy soul and often spoke in a sort of growl.

  At last, Alby grunted: “Arrrrgh --I wonder what’s getting them so excited.”

  Fungus offered an observation. “Something in that big envelope, maybe a letter, no doubt, is the cause.”

  “No Fungus, it’s more than a letter, that’s a chart they have in Botzi’s hands. But a chart for what purpose? I smell an opportunity here. We need to know.”

  “Shall I go and ask them?”

  “Aaaaargh...No, stupid, I don’t want to show my interest. If that chart is leading to something that could make me rich, I want the full details. Fungus, take my long range camera up on the roof and take pictures of everything they’re looking at. Be quick and don’t let them see you.”

  Fungus was quick to obey. “I’m on my way, Boss.”

  Fungus did climb up to the roof, did get some clear shots of every sheet of paper Botzi was looking at, and did fall off the roof in his customary clumsy style. After some time, having put his arm in a sling, he brought the camera over to Alby. He was embarrassed as usual when these things happened, as he thought he was a worthy and professional accomplice of the great Alby.

  Fungus muttered an apology, “Er- just sprained my wrist boss, it’s nothing. -Got some good pics.”

  Alby showed no sympathy. “Harrrumph! Gimme the camera.”

  He flicked through all the photos and took keen interest. “Have ‘em all printed, and enlarge the one about the chart. We might be going on a trip.”

  Fungus smelled adventure, was this the big chance? He sprang into action, “Yes boss.”

  Meanwhile, we find our friends in the little backyard behind Noodle’s shop, discussing the plans for this joint adventure. They all had a role to play. Banjo and Izaak were to be tracker and scout once they landed in South America. Noodles was the balloon owner and pilot, Botzi was the sponsor of the expedition, being the treasure map owner. He also volunteered one month’s food supply for the crew from his well stocked mini-mart. And Aurora would help in navigation and act as co-pilot to Noodles. (Actually she was also a qualified nutritionist and famous for her love of cooking.)

  After an hour Noodles had his balloon unpacked. They gathered around impressed.

  Noodles stated his objective.“Ok, here’s the plan. We’ll truck this lot to the local sports ground, load up with provisions and fire the burners. We start tomorrow at dawn, everybody agreed?”

  A big YES! from the enthusiastic friends sealed the deal. They didn’t want to close their shops while they were away, so each one arranged for a friend or neighbour to take over for the month they expected to be overseas.

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  Four (4)

  Down in Mexico

  The next day, before sunrise, we find the flying quintet gathered in the balloon basket, drifting among the clouds. They were all gazing into the distance, fascinated at the colourful landscape below. Actually they had taken off not far from Manhattan and had a great view of the skyscrapers below them.

  Rory commented on what they saw down in the canyons of office towers. “Look at those cars, they look like toys, especially the bright yellow taxis.”

  Botzi was relaxed (a robot could be relaxed when in energy-saving mode). “It’s so peaceful up here, and no traffic jams. Look -we go from street to street across even the tallest buildings – no red traffic lights to stop us.” He gave a human-sounding chuckle. As the sun was still below the horizon, the city lights glowed bright and clear. “It looks like a giant jewel box,” mused Botzi.

  Noodles studied his maps. “We have one stop in Mexico, to pick up gas for the burners, then it’s all the way to Aguas Calientes village in Peru, the start of our journey.”

  Botzi enquired “Where in Mexico are we picking up supplies?”

  Noodles replied “It has to be a pretty big town, but I thought why not Acapulco?”

  Rory triggered her memory bank, “Oh, the beautiful beach city where Elvis jumped off a cliff in that movie ‘Fun in Acapulco’?”

  Noodles smiled, “Yes, but we won’t be doing that, just spending a day to look around and relax.”

  Botzi agreed, “Count me in, we’re not in a hurry. The treasure has been waiting to be discovered for a few hundred years.”

  Rory asked a technical question, “How do you steer this thing, anyway?”

  Noodles checked his burners as he spoke. “You don’t. You make it go up and down till you find a wind layer blowing in the direction you want to go – it’s a bit like sailing on the sea, we depend on the wind. We’re sky-sailors really -at the moment we are doing alright.”

  Botzi was pleased “Well, I’m not sorry I didn’t have the money for the airfare. I wouldn’t be enjoying the scenery as much.”

  There was a long period of quiet, with occasional “Ooh look at that!” and “What do you think is that?” breaking the silence. They were well over the country side, getting higher, as the day passed and the sun set in the west. Little towns started to wink their lights through the growing darkness. Up above was a beautiful canopy of stars and planets getting brighter and more numerous as darkness fell. Botzi, Banjo and Izaak went into sleep mode and Noodles and Rory took turns to watch their altitude and navigate.

  Morning was also beautiful. The suns rays flowed like water drenching the highest parts of t
he earth first and then dribbling down into the valleys. A clear day finally arrived.

  Noodles made a soft beep-like sound “Wake up boys, we’ll be landing in southern Mexico in a few hours. We’re making great progress, faster than I expected.”

  The Gang enjoying their sunrise cruise over New York.

  “It looks like a giant jewel box,” mused Noodles.

  The lads stirred and with some clicking and whirring, they fired up into active mode. Botzi unfolded his chart and studied it intently, with Banjo looking over his shoulder.

  “You know, Noodles, my so-called Uncle talks about a treasure located on this map but in his instructions, nowhere does he say what this treasure is.”

  “A treasure is a treasure. Let’s be grateful.” Noodles paused for thought.“I hope he wasn’t a nut, what a joke that would be.”

  Botzi threw a pun in his reply “I don’t care how many nuts he had as long as they weren’t loose and had the bolts to hold them down.”

  Noodles took the joke half-seriously, “You think he was an early development Bot? I can’t see he would be advanced enough to go exploring.” He frowned. “Let’s hope this isn’t a wild goose chase.”

  Banjo offered another possibility. “Maybe he was a travelling scientist, one associated with our creation program, a ‘god-father’ to you Botzi.” They chuckled at this but did wonder at the truth of it.

  Rory interrupted with an observation. “By my reckoning, our landing at Acapulco should be in three hours. Look you can see a road leading to the horizon – it must lead to somewhere.”

  Noodles leaned over the side. “You’re right, our satnav co-ordinates are looking good, we are heading for the right place.”

  But no sooner had Noodles pronounced the likely success of the mission when the gas burners started to sputter.

  Noodles tapped his meters, hoping they would show a better fuel capacity in the gas bottles. “Oh no, we used more gas than I estimated! We’ll have to land right away.”

  As the balloon slowly sank towards the earth, the wind changed direction and swung them away from where they wanted to go. Noodles, not wishing the balloon to be captured by a rogue wind, brought her down very quickly. As it happened there was a small village not far away, north of San Fernando, and they headed for it. The town appeared to be rushing up to meet them and Banjo got a little anxious that they were going to crash. But he underestimated Noodle’s skill in handling such an awkward craft. Noodles waited until he got a clear patch of flat grass right beneath them, and at about 200 metres height, he toggled the jet burners into a mighty roar spewing fire and hot air into the balloon. This made the balloon lighter in the cold morning air and braked its fast descent, so much so that the basket finally touched the ground with the gentlest of thuds. A loud cheer went up from the excited crew.

  “YAY, HOORAY!” They wasted no time in jumping out and securing an anchor to the nearest small tree to stop the basket drifting along the ground.

  Noodles was taking no chances with sudden gusts of wind. “OK guys, help me fold it away, for now, till we find a general store to refill our gas cylinders.”

  They busied themselves with the folding and packing of the large balloon when, from a distance, two teenagers appeared to be running along the main road towards them. It wasn’t a very big town, and it had one main street, which was mainly deserted. The hot sun was slowly lifting into the sky. Noodles paused from his work and looked in the direction of the two teenagers. He could see they were a tall, lanky boy and a pretty girl with pigtails. They came to a halt next to our adventurers, their lungs gasping for breath, as if they had been running all morning.

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  Five (5)

  Friends in Need

  Both Bots and humans looked each other up and down, wondering what the other was doing, their faces quizzical.

  Noodles smiled. “What’s up hombre?”

  The agitated boy cast a glance at the strange crew before him, decided they looked friendly, then stared back into the distance from whence they came.

  “Please help us, we are in danger.”

  Noodles was calm and confident. “What danger?”

  The girl spoke. “It’s a long story, but we have nowhere to hide and everybody in the village is too scared to help us.”

  Noodles was reassuring. “Let’s sit under the shade of that tree and talk this over. You’d better start from the beginning.”

  They walked over to a shady tree and sat down, a bit like a group of picnickers and after looking them up and down, the boy said.

  “Excuse my saying so, but are you people in costume or something? And how come I can see through the body of that Golden Man?” He was referring to Noodles who was built from a magnetic Titanium alloy and his body rings hovered just in the right place to give him his human looking shape.

  The adventurers laughed.

  Noodles explained. “We are bio-tek people. We have most human qualities plus extra powers. We were created to do good, but we can explain more later, as you seem to have an urgent problem?”

  The girl was anxious. “It’s our parents, they are in danger, father and mother are being held prisoners by Don Horrendez, the nastiest warlord in the county.”

  Botzi also put on an easy smile, asking, “And why is he doing that?”

  The girl spoke hurriedly, knowing time was against them. “Our father was the town mayor and our family owned the biggest ranch in this county. We were living very happily, and father was well respected, until Don Horrendez came into town. After he locked up the Sheriff, he has been trying to force our father to sign the deeds to hand over our ranch to him, but our father refused Horrendez. Some time later Horrendez sent his men to take mother and father away. Father saw them coming – he opened the family safe, gave us our land titles and other papers and told us to run away. They took our parents and now Horrendez has sent his men back after us. We have been running for hours with nowhere to go and we saw you folks as our last hope.”

  Noodles asked, “Where are these title papers?”

  The boy indicated over his shoulder “In the satchel on my back.”

  Rory said “Well, we landed here by accident. What is the name of this town?”

  The girl was pleased that there was a female in this strange group. She gave a friendly look to Rory and answered her. “You landed in Locos Norte. It’s only a small country town.”

  Noodles gave a sigh. “That tells me we might have problems getting gas for our burners. Where’s the nearest big city?”

  The boy replied. “You need to go to San Fernando, but that’s about 100 kilometers away, through mountains.”

  Noodles looked into the distance. “And we have no car.”

  The boy explained the situation. “My father has a car and a van in our garage that you can borrow, but Don Horrendez’s men are guarding the house.”

  Noodles motioned them to gather around him. “Folks, we need to have a discussion as to what we are going to do.”

  They all came together and sat in a circle under the shade of the big tree. Both Noodles and Botzi agreed that something had to be done. They certainly needed transport to get fuel for the balloon and they couldn’t just borrow their friends’ car without helping their unfortunate parents. Don Horrendez’s strange yellow castle was on the side of a rising hill, visible from the centre of town and just a few kilometres away. Don Pablo’s house, however was set in the middle of a big vineyard and a few hours walk into the next valley.

  It was decided that they should go to Don Pablo’s ranch first and pick up Don Pablo’s car and van. Next they would then drive to the castle to rescue the parents. Hoping for success, all of them would make a getaway to the nearest big city to tell their story to the authorities. Hopefully, the police or the army would come after Don Horrendez and his men and put them in jail.

  Noodles concluded, “Well, first things first. We have to
go to Don Pablo’s house to get the cars. It’s a long walk, but the town is nearly deserted, there is no other transport and we have no option but to walk there.”

  Rory showed some concern. “But that’s dangerous. How are you going to keep out of sight from Don Horrendez’s men?”

  “We’ll take a chance.” Noodles turned to the teenagers. “You and your sister can stay here with Rory for protection. You can hide in that abandoned barn at the edge of the field. Botzi and I will go and get those vehicles.”

  Banjo and Izaak, who were quietly listening to all this, started to show their excitement and Banjo spoke in an electronic ringing tone through his voice translator.

  Banjo wagged his tail. “We want to come too, we can help!”

  Botzi knew they would not take no for an answer and he thought it was no use wasting time arguing. “OK, but stay close to us.”

  Noodles switched on his sensors to long distance alert. He immediately detected a moving vehicle far on the horizon. “There’s a car in the distance heading our way. Quick, you people go and hide and leave this to us.” Aurora and the teenagers took off to hide in the distant barn.

  After about ten minutes the car approached, driving slowly. It was a big, black limousine. Three occupants inside were carefully looking in all directions obviously looking for something or somebody. They soon spotted Noodles and Botzi and the car veered towards them, coming to a sliding halt on the dusty road. Two sinister-looking men, in black shiny suits favoured by gangsters, loped out of the opened car-doors, squinting hard under their black hats. In their arms they swung a double-barrelled shotgun, one to each man. They stopped in front of Noodles, puzzled at his appearance, and then turned to look at each other. They jabbered something in Mexican and although both Noodles and Botzi knew everything they said, because they were fitted with a language processor module, they pretended not to understand.

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  Six (6)

  Bandits Dumb and Dangerous

  The men in black leered at the strange group as if they belonged to a circus. Finally one of the men tried some broken English.

  “You speak American?”

  Botzi confronted them, “Yes”

  “Why you here? What is you?”

  “We’re American Bio-teks on holidays.” Botzi pointed to their grounded balloon. “We have balloon trouble, no gas, no fly.”

  The gangsters broke into a long discussion in Mexican and the bots listened to what they were about to do. In short, they assumed these were some kind of American robot cops who came over to spy on their criminal activities. Certainly they couldn’t go back to Don Horrendez and tell him they met some funny robots and let them go. So it was decided to take them hostage and let the Don figure out what he was going to do with them. One of the gangsters mentioned they might get a trip to the junk-yard car crusher in the next town and this set the two of them laughing.

  Turning ugly and serious once more, both gangsters raised their shotgun towards the adventurers. “You come with us. –Now!” There was no mistaking the strength of the order as they pointed towards the limousine. But both Botzi and Noodles were relieved that at least they had distracted them from searching the old barn –that was good. Noodles looked at Botzi, with a faint smile.

  Botzi arched his eyebrows, a sure sign of asking a question. But the bots had switched to radio transmission, a kind of telepathy, so as not to voice their intentions and be heard by the crooks. “Do you want to go first, or shall I?’ was Noodles’ transmission to Botzi.

  “I think I’ll have a go.” The bots were not talking about obeying the gangsters, rather they were tossing up as to who would be first to switch on their extra-human powers.

  Botzi began to speak softly in highly-educated Mexican. The gangsters were taken aback, this was something unexpected. Botzi concentrated his eyes on the leader of the two and said to him, in a soft commanding voice. “Listen carefully. We are friendly, so put your guns on the ground.”

  Botzi had turned on his power of hypnosis and gradually took control of the gangster’s mind. In a strange monotone voice, the leader said, “You are friends, we lay down our guns.”

  The other man was startled by this and turned to his accomplice “Eh? Are you crazy?”

  But before he could utter another word, Botzi was already staring at him, his eyes locked into his. “That’s a good idea, those guns are so heavy.”

  With a surprised expression the Mexican muttered, “These guns are too heavy, I can’t hold it,” as he bent down to place his shot-gun on the grass.

  Both guards now stood motionless staring into the distance with glazed eyes. They looked as if they were asleep standing on their feet, with their eyes open.

  Botzi explained, “Noodles, the hypnosis lasts about 8 hours or until I clap my hands and unhypnotize them. We can have a problem though if the others wear very dark glasses as the driver is doing. I won’t be able to penetrate their mind.”

  “Ok, we’ll think of something -but if we are going to save time rescuing the parents, I thought we would use the limousine, - it’s big enough and that driver can take us directly to the Don’s place.“

  “What do we do with these two?”

  Noodles improvised a plan. “First we need to capture and control the driver, then we’ll talk to the teenagers about directions to the town jail and lock these two up. We’ll use the driver to make our approach to the Don’s place so as to look legitimate.”

  Both bots walked past the frozen gangsters towards the car but the driver, who after watching all that happened, had guessed there was something wrong and saw the two bots as a threat. He quickly wound down the car window and poked out a big revolver. Before Botzi could say “He’s got a gun!”, Noodles had already energised a magnetic wave at the driver and pulled the gun out of his hand. It flew into the air along the path of Noodle’s force field and came to rest in Noodle’s magnetic hand, which he’d morphed into the shape of a baseball glove.

  What happened next was exactly as you would see in a funny movie. The driver, seeing that he was overpowered, jumped out of the car and ran towards town in a cloud of dust. Botzi, laughed and nodded to Banjo and Izaak. “Guys, you know what to do, bring him back.”

  Banjo needed no second request. Both he and Izaak, who had stayed quiet, watching with interest during the proceedings, went into one of their circus routines. Banjo of course was a bio-tek dog. His specialty was that he could run as fast as a racing car, and his bite was like a steel vice, impossible to loosen once he grabbed any part of you. He also had super hearing, which would come in handy later. He needed Izaak for this exercise and because Izaak couldn’t run as fast, he would usually hitch a ride by wrapping himself around Banjo’s body and travel with him. So, using this routine, the dynamic duo bolted down the street after the gangster driver.

  Noodles and Botzi watched, as Banjo soon caught up to the driver, leapt into the air and tackled him to the ground in a swirling cloud of dust. Banjo clamped on to his leg and in a flash, Izaak acted like a strong rope and wrapped himself around the gangster, pinning his arms by his sides. Banjo, next bit off the man’s shoes, chewed them to bits and spat them out as a demonstration of his biting powers. Banjo could also talk through his speech synthesizer and he told him to get up and walk back or he would chew him to bits just like what happened to his shoes. The man didn’t argue, he knew he was in trouble so he walked back to the waiting group, with Banjo directly behind and Izaak coiled around the bandit, occasionally hissing into his face, just to show him who’s boss.

  As they approached, Botzi went across and took off the driver’s dark sunglasses and smiled at him, Botzi locked into his eyes and said “You have nothing to worry about, we are friends, just visiting.”

  The driver acknowledged and stood still staring into space like his mates. “I have nothing to worry about, you are my friends.”

  “Good. Now
all of you sit down here. Just turn around and face the car.”Botzi made sure they could not see the barn. Then the bots all walked away towards the barn to discuss their plans with the others. It was decided that they would first lock the two gangsters in the local jail, which was at present deserted as the sheriff and deputy were also imprisoned in the basement of Don Horrendez’s castle. The driver, under hypnosis would continue to be their driver to the Don’s residence. But first they would go to Don Pablo’s house and take one of their family’s cars. Micalos and Josina, the teenagers, would take the van and drive to San Fernando, the nearest big city to the south-west. They would go to the city courthouse and alert the authorities to get police and army help as soon as possible.

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  Seven (7)

  The Rescue Plan

  It was unknown how long it would take for the rescue forces to arrive from the big city, and the bots had no idea what a desperate warlord might do with his hostages in the meantime or even in the heat of the battle. Perhaps if they captured the Don, they could use him to order his men to lay down their arms and surrender. In principle this looked simple, in practice they knew the gangster boss wasn’t stupid nor would he give up easily. There was no point in going into too much detail as they did not know the plan of the castle or how many men were guarding it. All they knew was that it was a yellow-stone castle, very old and set in a large garden and surrounded by a high stone wall. On top of this wall was razor wire and electrified fencing. There were also savage dogs roaming around. Whilst the savage dogs could be managed somehow, climbing over the electrified fence pleased none of the bots as it risked shorting their sensitive electronics. Therefore a bold-faced entry through the main gate with their driver turned out to be a sensible decision, after all.

  So the whole group went into action. They left the barn, Botzi approached the gangsters and ordered them to get in the car, and everybody then piled into the limousine. Using directions from the teenagers, they arrived at the county jail and two of the gangsters were marched inside. The driver was left in the limousine under hypnosis but Banjo and Izaak were watching him just in case.

  Inside the jail, there were no keys to be found but the three cells were empty, all with their doors swung open.

  Botzi pointed to the left cell and the two men entered. “How are we going to lock it with no keys?” he asked Noodles.

  “No problem. Some strong magnetic force on the steel lock will flick it into shut position, but better than that, I’ll twist it from the inside to make it impossible to unlock, even with a key.”Botzi watched as a bolt of magnetic force actually heated the lock almost welding it into whatever Noodles had in mind.

  To the men, Botzi said, “You two sit down. Relax here and be happy. You’re on holidays, Ok?”

  The gangsters sat down and with an expressionless monotone voice said together “We’re on holidays. We can relax now.”

  Noodles made for the door. On one wall he saw two guns and three pairs of handcuffs. He took the guns and buried them outside but kept the handcuffs to use later, if necessary. “Let’s go, we’ve got a bit of a drive to Don Pablo’s ranch.”

  Botzi and Noodles decided that Banjo and Izaak should stay back and guard the balloon because if it were stolen or damaged that would destroy their treasure hunting travels and they had not enough money for return air fares anyway. Banjo was disappointed, but he agreed that the balloon had to be guarded.

  Again they bundled into the limousine and Noodles stared into the driver’s eyes. “You know the way to Don Pablo’s ranch?”

  “Si, Senor.”

  “First take us back to the balloon then drive us to Don Pablo’s ranch, the quickest way.”

  “Si Senor.”

  Within five minutes they dropped off Banjo and Izaak and turned the car around. They sat in silence, all busy with their thoughts. Noodles was glad the teenagers would go to San Fernando and get help and so be out of danger’s way. If worst came to worst, all the bots were repairable, but it wasn’t so easy to repair natural born humans. Through pretty little valleys and around scenic hills the big black car wheeled its way along the narrow road until a Spanish mission style homestead, painted a rich yellow, could be seen partly hidden behind big green shady trees. It was still some distance away.

  “That’s our home,” pointed out Micalos.

  “Driver, hide the car inside that bushy area and stop there.” Turning to the others, “We need to check if it’s safe. Aurora, this is a job for you.” said Botzi.

  Aurora knew what he meant. All the bots had wireless communication in that they could talk to each other silently and across the world if they had to, using the electronics in their head module. It was like telepathy for humans. Of course not many humans could do that at the time.

  Aurora, Noodles and Botzi got out of the car and grouped together under a shady tree. The teenagers watched from the car wondering what was going on. Aurora was seen to be behaving a bit strangely, sort of doing a little wiggle dance with her feet fixed in one spot, like she was twirling a hula hoop. Micalos blinked and opened his eyes wider to see better as he thought Aurora was starting to take on a fuzzy outline. Not only that, it appeared that he was beginning to see through her.

  “Josina, can you see that, or is it the shimmering hot air currents creating an optical illusion?”

  His sister too, was amazed. “I see her, or I mean, I don’t see her.” Rory was now a faint outline and in a second, she was no longer there. Noodles and Botzi walked back to the car. Micalos noticed footsteps crushing the grass, making a line of repeating patterns. Something invisible was walking towards the house.

  Noodles explained to the brother and sister, “Well, guys, Aurora is going to do some reconnaissance for us and check if there are any guards in the house. You stay here, while we do our plan.”

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  Eight (8)

  House of Don Pablo

  They wandered down a little side lane towards the house and soon came to the entrance gate flanked by a high wall on either side. It was not locked, and Rory went ahead while the two mates stayed just outside in some bushes. Rory went around the house, looking through the window. Inside she could see one bandit sunk in a lounge chair, snoring, with an empty bottle of wine perched on the coffee table beside him. She came around the back door leading to the kitchen and it, too, was open so she tip-toed in. In the kitchen was another nasty character, also with a half empty bottle of wine, and sharpening his large hunting knife.“That’s two,” she thought. Expecting more, she looked into every room in the house but found no more bandits. Lastly, she checked the barn (only chooks scampered around) and the garage. There was a sedan, a van and an extra car probably belonging to the two bandits. Satisfied she’d found everybody, she walked back to the front gate and reported the situation.

  Noodles didn’t hesitate “We’ll capture the one in the kitchen first, quietly so as not to wake the other.”

  They sneaked up to the kitchen window and Botzi signalled he’d go in first and hypnotize him. Noodles nodded. But Botzi miscalculated. The kitchen bandit had decided to go outside and had put on his dark sun glasses. By the time Botzi walked around and faced him, he eyes were already shielded, deflecting Botzi’s power to hypnotise. The bandit took one look and knew Botzi meant business. In one quick motion he yelled to his accomplice and threw his knife straight at Botzi’s head. But Noodles was right behind Botzi. Noodles hummed like an electric motor and deflected the knife which dug deep into a timber post. Next, he swept his friend aside and with an even angrier hum, he pulled everything metallic off the bandit’s body. So, two guns, a belt buckle, and his jacket buttons ripped through the air into Noodles outstretched hands. Rory who had slipped past the bandit and was now behind him, picked up the heaviest fry pan from a hanging hook and wacked him on the back of the head, sending his sun glasses flying into the air.
Botzi saw his chance and riveted him with his eyes.

  “We are your friends, your arms are very heavy, your legs are very heavy sit down on the floor, don’t move, don’t speak.”

  The bandit suddenly felt exhausted as if he was wearing clothes made of lead and he slumped into a heap on the floor just as Botzi had ordered, looking very weary. The one in the lounge was by now fully awake, but instead of bursting into the kitchen, he leapt upstairs and stood on the balcony, his guns pointing at the kitchen door. Noodles was careful but not careful enough, as he poked his head around the edge of a door a loud bang announced a flying bullet coming at him. The projectile went right through his cone-shaped hat and splintered into the wall behind him. His hat, like his body was a series of hovering rings made from a special metallic material. These rings were kept apart from each other by a magnetic field but at the same time kept together as a whole to form his hat, body, arms and legs. Between the rings was empty space, so you could actually see through Noodles through the gaps between the rings. Each ring had electronic circuits and transmitted instructions to its surrounding rings. The bullet happened to shoot through a gap between the rings of his hat doing no damage. But Noodles was also quick on the defence. He almost glowed with power as he generated a maximum force shield around him, so strong that the rapidly firing crook was astonished to see his bullets deflected away from Noodles, into chairs, walls, and windows.

  By the time Noodles had climbed the stairs towards the gangster, the bandit had run out of ammunition and was now fumbling and trying to load the next clip of bullets. Again, a magnetic pulse retrieved everything metal off him leaving him helpless. His gun, his hat with the metal star on the front and even his belt were jerked into Noodle’s catching hands.

  He turned to run, but his pants soon wriggled to his knees and he got no further than the outside staircase down which he fell like a rolling tumble weed. Botzi, meantime went around the back of the house and was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Here let me help you,” said Botzi, “look at my eyes, you have to be more careful. You are very tired. Come with me to join your friend.”

  Again the man offered no resistance and followed Botzi to the kitchen.

  “We’ll tie them up and handcuff them, then put them to sleep for about eight hours. That should be enough time for the police to pick them up when they arrive.”They found a wine cellar under the house with a steel lockable door and that’s where the bandits were locked up, stretched out and snoring on the floor as if they were drunk. Noodles clanged the door shut, locked it and hid the key.

  They signalled the teenagers waiting by the limousine that all was clear, and to come over. The youngsters decided to take the bandits’ sedan and after packing some drinks and fruit took off to the big city to summon help.

  The dynamic trio now had their work cut out for them. The hypnotised driver would drive them to a secluded spot near Don Horrendez’s castle and park out of sight.

  Whilst Noodles and Botzi waited outside, Rory would get out and change once again into invisible mode to get information about the place, the guards, the hostage parents, where the bandit Don was, and the layout of the rooms and report back. That was the idea.

  __________________________________

  Nine (9)

  Horrendez Castle

  It wasn’t long before their driver had them at the gates of the gangster‘s castle-mansion. He had been instructed to stop a little distance away, so Rory could get out and render herself invisible. This she did, and after some time reported back to the bots.

  Rory re-materialised as she spoke. “Firstly, the parents and the sheriff are together, locked in a wine cellar in the basement of the castle, pretty much like the one we used at Don Pablo’s house. Getting them out shouldn’t be too difficult. The problem is, there are four guards outside with dogs constantly monitoring each corner of the house, as well as two guards at the gate.”

  “What about Don Horrendez?” asked Noodles.

  “The castle is only small and there are no bandits inside. There is another building behind it which is a big barn used as a garage. I looked in and saw there were no cars. It seems to me that the Don and his men have gone out on some kind of mission, and we have arrived at the best possible time to do this operation, as any other time, there might be a small army of bandits to have to fight.”

  “Let’s get moving then,” said Noodles getting back into the car. The plan was for the driver to present Noodles and Botzi as two robotic soldiers that Don Horrendez had purchased on a trial basis and Rory was to walk in again in invisible mode. Once inside the guard gate, the driver would ask the Bio-Teks to get out and demonstrate how these robots walk and talk so as to have a bit of fun. At the right moment when the guards were relaxed, Noodles would take their hardware and Botzi would put them to sleep.

  The driver went through the gate and stopped in front of the gate guards. He was programmed by Botzi to say exactly what the bots wanted. Botzi and Noodles sat stiffly in the back seat staring out the windscreen just like dumb robots that have been switched off. What followed was a slapstick comedy worthy of Charlie Chaplin. It went something like this.

  Driver “Hey, muchachos, look what I’ve got! Don Horrendez is buying some new soldiers!” As instructed, the driver ordered the robots out of the car and told them to walk around. Noodles and Botzi did so, staring straight ahead, waving their arms and goose–stepping as in a military fashion. The guards burst out laughing and made all sorts of jokes about dumb puppets. But when Botzi deliberately tripped and fell on his back waving his legs in the air as if he thought he was an upturned turtle, they were almost hysterical. Noodles, not to be outdone, deliberately walked into a nearby tree and stopped there. The gangsters could hardly catch their breath.

  One gangster called out to the driver “Looks like we won’t be losing our job for a while, har, har, har!”

  “Don’t ask for coffee, they’ll burn the house down, heh, heh, heh!” rejoined the other.

  “These are not soldiers, they’re circus clowns, payasos de circo! The Don must have got them for entertainment.”

  The driver, again under Botzi’s influence, called a halt to the shenanigans. “OK help me get them back into the car. I’ve got to take them into the house.”

  Gangster one went over to Botzi to help him up, but to his surprise, Botzi knocked off his sunglasses and smiled at him. “You are very sleepy, give me your weapons.” The gangster didn’t know what hit him. He did as Botzi commanded, handing over two guns and a knife, then stood up straight, looking into the distance.

  Noodles, now motionless, was approached by gangster two. As soon as the gangster was near enough, a magnetic pulse stripped him of his weapons, and even some metal coins ripped through his pocket and clanged against Noodle’s body.“What the hell is going on?” exclaimed the gangster. He turned around to check what his mates were up to, and sees Botzi right behind him, again smiling. Botzi spoke softly, “You too, want to sleep. Stay still and follow me.”So now they had three gangsters under hypnosis. They marched the two guards and driver out of sight, to a nearby tree surrounded by bush. They were made to hug opposite sides of the tree and then handcuffed to each other, around the tree.

  “OK,” said Noodles, “now for the four guards around the house.”

  Rory had found the large kitchen in the house and went to the big freezer looking for a particular object. She found it – a large leg of ham. She put it in the large microwave, defrosted it, then shaved off bundles of ham into a bag. This done, she went out to the first guard dog and without the guard noticing (as she was still invisible), led the dog by the smell of the ham to a secluded spot away from the sight of the others. When the guard went after his dog, cursing his disobedience, he was surprised by Botzi and Noodles who soon overpowered him. They left him there, in a quiet hypnotic trance, holding on to his dog. His dog leash was clipped to his belt and the dog,
with some gentle persuasion from Botzi accepted that all was well.

  This operation was repeated successfully another three times and now the bots had unhindered access to the whole castle. Rory drove the limousine around the back of the garage nearby so it could not be seen from the house or the front gate, and prepared it for a quick getaway. Then she went up to the balcony of the house and set herself up to watch the road leading to the property gates for any newcomers. All seven bandits including the driver, were rounded up and escorted to the wine cellar in the basement where the hostages were kept. The guards with dogs brought their canines with them and ordered their dogs to behave, which was an order from Botzi anyway. Don Pablo, his wife, the sheriff and his deputy were astonished to see seven zombie-like guards marching towards them with four large dogs, one golden ringed robot and one shiny red robot at the rear. He couldn’t speak for a moment as he tried to understand what was happening.

  Noodles saw his puzzled face and after commanding the guards to stop, went to talk to Don Pablo.

  “Senor Don,” he said “We are bio-teks who flew over from New York in a balloon, on our way to South America. Unfortunately we ran out of gas and landed in this little town. We weren’t here long when your son and daughter ran up to us asking for help as they were being chased by some bandits. They told us what happened and we sent them to San Fernando city to get help, after capturing your family car. We have overpowered all the guards and are now here to rescue you.”

  Don Pablo still speechless said softly, “Thank you. Are you sure the children are safe?”

  “Yes, absolutely, they are half way to San Fernando by now. All we have to do is follow them and let the authorities come back with the army and police force. But do you know where Don Horrendez went? We have to be quick, in case he comes back soon.”

  Don Pablo spoke. “There was some talk among the guards that he went to take over another ranch for his illegal activities. We don’t know when he’ll be back.”

  Noodles looked around. “I don’t see the keys anywhere, but no matter, a little magnetic manipulation on this primitive lock will soon have you free.” The lock clicked open as he finished saying this, and the hostages were let out.

  Botzi directed the gang to go inside the cell. “Sit down on the floor and stay quiet boys and don’t get up till I tell you to. Tell your dogs to sit next to you.” They shuffled inside the wine cellar and Botzi closed the door.

  Noodles ramped up some more magnetic power and did the same operation as before, fusing the insides of the lock so that it couldn’t be open, even with a key.

  “Ok, let’s go.” Botzi led the freed people up the stairs into the kitchen and was heading for the back door, when he got a wireless message in his head from Rory.

  Rory turned on her invisibility to enter the castle of Don Horrendez

  __________________________________

  Ten (10)

  The Big Chase

  “Three black cars are coming up the road,” warned Rory, “they don’t look friendly.”

  “Head for the limousine. We’ll meet you there.” Botzi turned to the others. “Keep going, I’ve got an idea. I’ll go back and get the gang to create a diversion.” Botzi went back down to the wine cellar.

  Noodles knew what Botzi was going to do and with a chuckle, he motioned to the others to follow him to the car waiting behind the garage.

  Botzi skidded to a halt in front of the cellar’s door. “Boys, I want you to do me a favour. Stand up straight and take a deep breath. Now, altogether, sing! ‘Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to Yooo..’” The gang formed a chorus. “Get the dogs to howl their best!”

  “C’mon! C’mon! Old ladies can sing louder than that. RAISE YOUR VOICES !! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU....”

  The gang complied, now bellowing out a big volume that blasted through two little ventilation windows high up in the cellar wall, so that the singing and howling could easily be heard around the house. Under hypnosis, they sang lustily as if their life depended on it, and with all seriousness.

  “HUPPY BIRD-DAY TO YOOOO...” they sang, and the dogs picked up the lyrics, “OW-OOOOOO..”

  “HUPPY BIRD-DAY TO YOOOO...”, “OW-OOOOOO..” and so on. It sounded deafening.

  “That’s it, repeat over and over. Don’t stop and keep it as loud as you can.” Botzi by now was breaking into a smile as he bolted upstairs, dashed through the kitchen and headed outside for the waiting limousine.

  In a short while all were in the big black limousine, except for Rory, who stood invisible at the front corner of the garage to check what will happen next. What did happen was that the lead car, also a big black limousine, screeched to a halt in front of the entrance staircase and Don Horrendez got out and looked around, followed by his men. He waited until the other cars had stopped and those occupants also walked up to him.

  Don Horrendez’s face contorted into a snarl. “Can you listen to that? I pay those idiots to guard the house –what happens? Nobody at the gate and they get drunk while I’m away. They’ll regret this.”

  Bandit One (crawling to the boss): “You’re right Boss, the sound is coming from the wine cellar –they’re drunk alright.”

  Horrendez became threatening. “I’m going to whack their faces till their noses break off. I’ll teach them a lesson. Half you guys follow me to the cellar, the other half get up on the roof and have a look around the property. The Don made his way to the cellar and was confronted with an amazing sight. All prisoner bandits and dogs were singing at the top of their lungs, but they were steady on their feet, they didn’t sway from side to side like drunks do. He looked behind them and could see none of his hostages.

  “Where’s Don Pablo and the sheriff?” he roared at them. They gave no answer. In fact they didn’t even acknowledge he was there –they kept on hollering and looked right through him.

  His sidekick volunteered an opinion. “Something’s wrong boss, they’re not drunk, they’re on drugs.”

  This infuriated Don Horrendez even more. “You have broken my number one rule –no drugs on duty! And you have lost the prisoners!! You’ll pay for this trouble you caused me.” He was growling in a very loud voice. “Leave them here for now, till I decide what to do with them. They’re useless anyway.” His anger could have been worse. It just happened that his birthday really was coming up soon –next week actually, and he thought they were practising for that but they let things get out of hand. He turned to go back into the house and was nearly knocked over by a gangster rushing towards him.

  “Something’s happened! Someone driving a limo has got away through the gate. We think it had Don Pablo and some strange men in it.”

  The Don’s anger was now complete. “Aaaargh, Damn!!” He almost choked with frustration and picking up a wooden chair, he hurled it at the singers. It collided with the steel bars of the cell and smashed to pieces. The choir was unfazed, HUPPY BIRDAY to YOOOO....” and the canines “OW..OOOO!!” kept repeating over and over.

  Don Horrendez heard gunshots going off outside and knew it was more trouble. He quickly staggered upstairs and ran outside, just in time to see a cloud of dust behind a car disappearing fast down the road. “Get the hell after them!” he roared.

  While the Don was in the wine cellar, what happened outside was this. Rory, waited for the right moment when all guards were either inside the cellar or going up to the roof, then ran to the limousine and slammed the door, signalling Botzi to drive. They were already through the gate when the first bandits on the roof saw the car. In the time taken to realise who was inside, the car was already behind some trees and getting further away. They drew their guns and fired in the general direction, with little hope of doing any great damage, but they had to make a good show for the Don.

  Don Horrendez, standing in the driveway, looked up at his outwitted clowns who stared back at him from the roof. “Get off that roof and get
into the cars, you monkeys! Pancho! Zeppo! -You two stay behind and guard the place!”

  With engines revving, and the Don scowling, the last of the roof-scouts finally tumbled into one of the limousines and before he could even slam the door shut, three car-sets of screeching tyres flicked pebbles, rubber smoke and dust into the air as the cars lunged down the driveway in hot pursuit.

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  Eleven (11)

  Show-Down

  Botzi was in racing-car-driver mode. He handled the steering wheel not only by feeling the road as a normal driver would, but he was sending out radar signals to be able to see around winding bends and over the crest of hills in the road. This gave him a 5-10 km per hour advantage in speed as he only needed to brake when it was absolutely necessary. But of course, the bandits were reckless drivers and drove nearly as fast as Botzi. So the chase went on, sometimes all cars were in view on straight roads, and sometimes not, on curving sections. The odd gunshot from the gangsters assured them that this was a serious chase.

  What was really scary though, was when several times Botzi had to screech down the winding sides of a mountain into a valley, and the bandit cars were visible on the road above them. The gangs wasted no time in shooting down the valley at the escaping car, but the roof was bullet proof. However, several bullets did pierce the bonnet and ricocheted around the engine compartment. Botzi powered along, concentrating on escaping from the valley so that he could reach a straight run of highway ahead.

  No sooner, had he entered the highway, when he floored the pedal and roared away putting a good distance between him and the bandits’ leading car. Some gangster in that car must have seen this and demanded more speed. The trouble was, the gangster car had one more bend to negotiate, and this was badly handled. The tyres screeched, the bandits cursed and the car shot over the edge like a spear, flying 30 meters into the river below.

  Don Horrendez, in the second car, raged at their stupidity and bellowed to his driver “Let them swim for it, stupid asses -asnos estúpidos! Keep going! If we don’t catch Don Pablo, I’ll pull your ears off. He’s going to the authorities, for sure!”

  But, the incident put them further behind Botzi, and he was now just a dot on the horizon.

  “I think we’re going to make it,” said Botzi happily, as the outskirts of the city came into view. There were people on the road now, going about their business, such that his car horn was blaring almost constantly. But it wasn’t all that easy. A small hiss from under the bonnet of the car indicated something was wrong.

  “Uh, oh – sounds like the radiator,” said Noodles, “one of those bullets must have holed it.”

  “Well, we can’t stop, we might get another few kilometers,” replied Botzi.

  But not even half a kilometre went by when, in a final angry hiss of steam, the radiator went silent. And, not long after that, the engine stopped, having overheated beyond the ability to go on. As Botzi manoeuvred the limousine to a gradual halt he looked over his shoulder and saw the gangsters approaching.

  Noodles took charge. “Ok, you people get out -run and hide among those village huts! Leave this to Botzi, me and Rory.”By this time, Rory was already half invisible. Don Pablo, his wife and the Sheriff ran for a hiding place.

  The plan was to approach the gangsters, with Noodles acting as a deflecting magnetic shield to any bullets coming their way. Botzi walked close behind him, under his protection, waiting for a chance to lock his eyes into their eyes. Rory was to create a diversion to distract the gangsters from searching for the hostages.

  Fearlessly Noodles walked towards the Don and a group of his men, now all out of their cars and menacing him with their guns.

  “What iz dis?” sneered the Don at Noodles, “You Ronald McDonald gone crazy, hombre? What? -You’re gonna knock us down with hamburguesas?”

  Noodles kept his steady slow walk towards them. “Better surrender, you can’t win.”

  This was like waving a red flag to a bull -to Don Horrendez. “Fire – mow ‘em down!” A hail of bullets sped towards Noodles, but for some reason, some bullets seemed to just miss and did no damage, others stopped dead in front of him and fell down onto the road with a clatter, still smoking hot.

  “Can’t you fools shoot straight, idiotas!” barked the Don, “Here! give me that machine gun.” The Don ripped the gun from the gangster’s hands and sent a fusillade at Noodles’ chest. Noodles was prepared for this, having already ramped up his force-field to maximum. Again the bullets deflected to either side of him and most hit the stationery limousine behind.

  “Aaaarrgh!” squealed the frustrated gangster Don.

  Meanwhile, Rory had pulled an old shirt off a nearby washing line, pinning a $50 note to the clothesline as payment, and ran to the last car. The car still had its doors ajar, the key in the ignition lock. She popped open the fuel tank flap, unscrewed the cap, soaked the shirt in fuel and threw it inside the car. Using the hot cigarette lighter, she touched it to the soaked shirt and blew strongly to initiate a flame. In a second the shirt caught fire and started to burn the seats. She whipped the key out of the lock, slammed all doors shut and locked them. Some doors had window glass not fully wound up and these gaps billowed thick white smoke

  “Caramba, the car, she iz on fire!” screamed one of the gangsters.

  “Go put the fire out!” yelled another, “The boot is full of big fireworks for the Don’s birthday party for next week!”

  “I can’t get in –the doors are locked!!”

  “Shoot the door lock, you idiot!” Six seconds of rapid gun fire punched a fist sized hole where the lock used to be and the gangster reached inside to pull the door open. The blazing heat burnt his hand and the door didn’t budge.

  He recoiled with a sharp pain screaming, “It’s jammed, you try it!”

  “No way, I’m outa here!”

  This wasn’t said too soon as a loud bang blew the boot lid clear into the air. Then it was on. Crackers exploded, roman candles whooshed sideways, Catherine wheels hissed into the air and rolled down the highway and rockets snaked into the sky.

  Don Horrendez stopped firing at Noodles and looked around in amazement. “Santo caballos! (Holy horses!), what’s going on?”

  The fireworks had been kept as a surprise and he couldn’t understand what had happened. Most of his men were now scattering for cover and a remaining few looked at the Don for instructions. But things had changed in favour of our heroes. Firstly, Noodles forced a collection of all weapons from the standing gangsters and Botzi went around person to person, eye to eye locking them into a trance. One or two tried to swing a punch at Botzi, but he simply wacked their fist with his elbow in a super-fast action, that made them feel they had punched a brick wall. They were ordered to stand still, hands on their heads and stare at a distant tree.

  __________________________________

  Twelve (12)

  Handcuffs for You and You

  The good news kept on coming. In the distance was heard the fluttering whump of two army helicopters, and sirens wailing of half a dozen police cars. Noodles turned to the Don “Either you hold out your hands to receive a pair of bracelets or we have ways of making you do so.”

  “Grrr...rr!” scowled the Don. But he could see that resistance was useless and held his arms out to be handcuffed. “My lawyers will nail you for this, you piece of junk!”

  “We’ll see,” smiled Noodles.

  Within minutes, the city police chief and an army major with a full compliment of troops arrived on the scene, trucks and cars screeching to a halt in every direction, raising clouds of dust. Don Pablo, his wife and the village sheriff and deputy came out of hiding and went straight to the police-chief whom they knew. The army major joined them. After a quick explanation of who the bandits were, and how many, the army group fanned out and went searching through the whole area. The sheriff explained the whole story and what Don Hernandez wa
s doing to their valley and its’ people.

  Don Hernandez was bundled into a waiting police van, along with the hypnotized gangsters. Soon after, the teenagers arrived and went over to hug their mum and dad. The police chief, after being assured the Bio-Teks were genuine American balloonists who had run out of fuel, and how they played an important part in the rescue and even risked their lives, offered a patrol officer to drive Noodles and his gas cylinders to a fill-up garage.

  The army platoon was also successful in finding and arresting the run-away gangsters and handing them over to the police. They then climbed into their truck and with the helicopters leading the way, drove to Locos Norte. They headed for the village jail and the houses of Don Pablo and Don Hernandez, to get the remainder of the gang out of the wine cellars and jail cells. Extra police cars and another custody van followed.

  The teenagers took their mum home and Don Pablo offered to drive the three bots back to their balloon landing spot, after Noodles came back with the gas fuel. They had refused an invitation to stay for dinner, laughingly pointing out to the Don that bots took no ordinary meals and their efficient fuel cells lasted a month without re-fuelling.