Atlantis United

by Gerard Siggins

  Luce stared back at Joe.

  ‘I … I suppose you’re right about needing to tell them. But we don’t really know much about the drones ourselves. I’ll talk to the captain and I’ll call down to you in half an hour when you’re at dinner. But please say nothing until then.’

  Joe left the bridge and spent the next thirty minutes avoiding Ajit. He wandered into the practice room and decided to try out the rugby set-up. He had never played the sport before although he had enjoyed watching it on television and reckoned he might even be better at it than he was at football – but he loved football too much to give it up.

  There were a few drills that Kelly had taught them that he enjoyed, including passing to a hologram player who called out your mark out of five once he had ‘caught’ the ball, and a type of darts for line-out throwers which also registered your score against the computer. Joe had checked into the room using his swipe-card so all his scores would be recorded in his file. It was a good way of checking how you were progressing in each sport or activity.

  He got a bleep on his watch telling him it was dinner time, so he tidied up and rambled down to the canteen. The other four were already tucking in.

  ‘Hey, Joe, what happened to you? Did you get to talk to Luce?’ asked Ajit.

  Joe just shrugged. ‘I did, and she’s going to come down to talk to us in a few minutes…’

  ‘So, what’s she going to tell us?’ asked Kim.

  ‘What are those lights?’ asked Jess.

  Joe held up his hands. ‘Sorry, sorry, l really don’t know what exactly she’s going to tell us, but I think she will say that we’re being followed.’

  Chapter 27

  The rest of Joe’s classmates were a bit stunned by his suggestion and were still chatting about it in loud voices when Luce came through the door five minutes later.

  She raised her right hand in greeting – and to call them to silence.

  ‘OK, class, I apologise for the quick change of plan and our dramatic departure from Barbados. This was because Joe here spotted lights in the sky which we now believe are part of a drone which had been following us for some time. We are confused because there is no way of tracking us underwater and yet it keeps cropping up when we surface, so we will investigate that further. But we are no wiser as to why it is following us.

  ‘We do have our suspicions, however. You understand that you are here to avail of the most modern techniques of sports science, nutrition, training and technology. We hope we can apply these to turn you five into brilliant sports professionals, capable of anything with your minds and bodies in your chosen field.

  ‘But that sort of information is highly sought after. Sport is such a lucrative business that there are governments, top sports clubs and sports kit manufacturers who would pay millions to get inside this facility and study what we are up to. And we know that some of these people will go beyond the law to do so.

  ‘We had some information that someone would attempt to infiltrate the voyage across to Leap Island, but we put some plans in place to prevent that. I understand Craig’s taxi was followed, but wasn’t intercepted?’

  Craig nodded. ‘The taxi driver turned off his lights and shook him off. But it was a bit hairy for a while.’

  ‘Well, we aren’t sure who is behind this, but we fear they have been able to plant something on the island that acts as a beacon for some sort of tracking device, which is either in this mysterious drone, or in some ship following it.’

  Kim put up her hand to ask a question. ‘But are we in any danger? Are they going to sink the island?’

  ‘I’m sure you won’t be in any danger,’ replied Luce. ‘Whoever is doing this is looking to copy or steal our methods.

  The five looked at each other. There wasn’t any panic, but they were all very concerned.

  ‘Can we go home?’ asked Jess.

  ‘It would be more dangerous to try to get you to an international airport,’ Luce replied. ‘We are in no danger under water, and we will be trying to find out how they are following us. Stay calm and keep working away, we’ll talk to Victor and see if we have to make decisions like that at the right time.

  ‘The captain has a plan to hide out for a while at a quiet island he knows in the Caribbean – we have to link up with Deryck, the cricket coach who we were supposed to collect in Barbados. It’s about two hundred kilometres away, so we’ll be there by morning.

  ‘I suggest you get some sleep, and please don’t worry, we have everything in hand,’ said Luce before she left the canteen.

  The five were very rattled by the developments and had little appetite for the rest of their meal.

  As he toyed with the food, Craig turned to Jess. ‘Were you serious about wanting to go home?’

  ‘Well, yes,’ she replied. ‘I’m not hanging around here to get shot at by criminals or whoever it is. This is scary.’

  ‘I don’t think there’s much chance of us getting shot,’ said Joe. ‘We seem well protected here and they were able to get the whole island under water in a couple of minutes.’

  ‘Well, I wish they’d find out what it was that keeps that drone thing coming after us. It makes me very nervous,’ said Jess.

  Chapter 28

  Few of the children slept well that night. The submarine was travelling at top speed so the hum of the engines was noticeable and Joe, for one, couldn’t get the image of the drone out of his mind.

  He woke to a bleep from his watch telling him he would have classes as normal, with the tennis coach keen to work on their serves. He dragged himself out of bed, knowing full well that he hadn’t had nearly enough sleep, and stood under the shower.

  The water woke him up and sparked him into action for the day ahead. He dressed quickly and left the dormitory, heading for the spiral staircase that took him up to the room where he had first spotted the drone.

  As he reached the staircase, however, he found it was being guarded – by Kalvin.

  ‘Good morning, young Joe, and what has you in this out-of-bounds part of the island?’

  ‘Eh, good morning Kalvin. I was just out for a walk and wanted to check out that staircase. It’s good fun to run up and down it – it really warms up my leg muscles before tennis. There’s no other staircase on the island.’

  Kalvin looked suspicious. ‘Really? Well I suppose there’ll be no harm done. Just don’t climb out the exit hatch onto the cliffs, won’t you?’

  Joe nodded, wondering what exit hatch Kalvin was talking about. ‘Of course. I’ll not be longer than ten minutes up and down,’ he added.

  Joe raced up the stairs as fast as he could and didn’t even stop for breath before he reached the top deck.

  ‘198… 199… 200…’ he gasped as he climbed the last step and leaned over the fence to rest. After a few seconds he realised time was short so he scurried along the walkway to the viewing room. Inside he went straight to the windows, realising they had just surfaced as the sunlight flooded the room. He stared down at the waves below before he scanned the skies for any aerial objects.

  There was nothing to be seen, so he quickly slipped out of the room and descended the stairs as quick as he safely could.

  ‘198… 199… 200…’ he uttered as his feet hit the floor after he had finished his descent.

  Kalvin grinned at him. ‘Two hundred up and down, that’s some serious step work,’ he laughed. ‘I would be ready for going back to bed after that. You enjoy your tennis and take it easy,’ he added as Joe waved his farewell.

  Joe joined the rest of the class in the canteen for breakfast.

  ‘Porridge today, for some reason,’ grumbled Craig. ‘We’re here in the Caribbean where they have lots of fresh fruit and other delicious things and we have to eat grey stodge from home – which looks even more disgusting in a turquoise bowl.’

  ‘Oh, stop being such a grouch, Craig,’ laughed Jess. ‘Porridge is the breakfast of kings – I bet King Victor eats it anyway. If you didn’t daydream in nutrition class you�
��d realise how good it is for you. All my distance running heroes swear by it.’

  ‘I see you’ve stopped worrying about the evil criminals following us and have moved onto the important stuff like breakfast,’ sniggered Kim.

  ‘Well, whatever about the criminals, the captain has decided we’re safe for now. We’ve just surfaced,’ Joe told them, going on to explain his pre-breakfast excursion to the top deck.

  ‘Do you not worry about getting into trouble?’ asked Jess.

  Joe shrugged. ‘I’m usually a bit of a goody-goody to be honest, but I couldn’t sleep and wanted to see for myself what was going on. And what’s the worst that could happen? They can’t expel me – they already said they can’t let us off the island and I’d say they’d be afraid we’d sell the secrets. If we could remember what they were.’

  The five were silent for the rest of breakfast, each having plenty to think about. Their meal was again interrupted by Luce.

  ‘Good morning, and welcome to Carriacou…’

  ‘Where?’ asked Jess, who knew loads about geography, but had never heard of this place.

  ‘Carr-i-a-cou,’ said Luce, slowly. ‘It’s a tiny island in a small island group called the Grenadines. Our captain spent some time here a few years ago and has some friends here who will look after us. We need to do some serious investigation to find if there’s something on Atlantis Island that is helping the drone keep up with us.

  ‘You will be leaving the island and spending the day on Carriacou while we complete our search. Kalvin will go with you, but please, please, please don’t wander off,’ she said, staring at Joe.

  ‘Will we have classes there?’ asked Craig.

  ‘No, I’m afraid they don’t have the facilities there. Consider it as a mid-term break – I’m told there are beautiful beaches here, and Kalvin will take you to a turtle sanctuary if anyone is interested…’

  ‘Turtles?’ said Jess. ‘Yes please, I LOVE turtles.’

  Chapter 29

  When the children emerged on to the surface of the island, a dinghy was waiting for them with a very short local sitting at the back.

  ‘I’m Mokie,’ he grinned. ‘But my friends and enemies call me Mini Moke.’

  Kalvin introduced himself and the five students and told him they’d like to go ashore.

  ‘I’ll take you to Hillsborough first, that’s our capital city,’ he said.

  The island was anchored close to shore off a quiet bay, overlooked by just one building. The dinghy skipped quickly over the water, which was almost entirely flat, and headed down the coast.

  Joe trailed his hand in the crystal-clear water; he could see brightly coloured fish darting below.

  ‘Careful there, big boy,’ warned Mokie. ‘Those white ones have teeth like razor blades. They’d give your hand a good shave if they got too close.’

  Joe snapped his hand out of the water as his classmates laughed.

  ‘And don’t get off the main tracks on the island,’ suggested Mokie. ‘There’s plenty of snakes and other beasties in the long grass.’

  ‘This place doesn’t sound like a great place to visit when you’re trying to stay safe,’ sighed Kim.

  Mokie steered the dinghy around the headline and made for the harbour wall.

  ‘Welcome to capital city,’ he grinned, sweeping his arm across the horizon at a scattering of little more than a hundred one-and two-storey buildings.

  ‘That’s not a city!’ said Jess.

  ‘It is, it’s our capital city,’ smiled Mokie. ‘We don’t have any bigger ones on Carriacou.’

  A large black SUV was waiting on the harbour wall, and the party was quickly ushered inside.

  ‘Luce said we weren’t to dilly-dally in any public areas,’ explained Kalvin. ‘So we’re going to take you to the turtle sanctuary and later we’ll go to a small hotel which Victor has paid to be closed down today and tonight if necessary.’

  ‘Tonight?’ asked Kim. ‘Does that mean we’re staying over?’

  ‘Nothing is confirmed yet,’ replied Kalvin. ‘My instructions are to take you to the hotel for a meal and then wait for someone to collect us. We’ve booked out all the rooms just in case there’s a delay with the island.’

  ‘What about clothes?’ asked Craig. ‘We need to change twice a day in this heat and we’ll need a change for tomorrow too.’

  ‘Twice a day?’ laughed Kalvin. ‘You’re obviously not doing your own laundry Craig! But don’t worry, Mokie is heading out to the island and will collect a change of clothes for the morning – and whatever else Luce decides you need.’

  The driver set off through the city, and quickly reached the countryside. Craig and Kim were arguing about something so Joe switched his brain off and took in the surroundings. The sky was as blue as he had ever seen it, but the people seemed to live in shacks.

  ‘We get hit by lots of hurricanes,’ said the driver, spotting Joe staring at one basic homestead. ‘Lots of homes get wrecked so people live in shanties until they build a new house.’

  Joe thought of his own home in a land that didn’t have to worry about extreme weather events like this place. He reckoned wind and rain was a small price to pay for that.

  The SUV left the road and headed up a track with jungle on each side. This was what Mokie had warned about – Joe had no intention of wandering into these trees and allowing his legs to become a pin cushion for deadly snakes. The track seemed to go on forever – for three or four kilometres anyway – and the group were sore and exhausted from holding tight as the SUV bumped along.

  At the end was a small cluster of buildings and steps leading down to the beach. A woman came out to greet them.

  ‘Welcome to our sanctuary,’ she smiled, ‘I understand you are friends of Mokie, which means you are friends of mine. Come in and make yourselves at home. We have a group of little sea turtles we rescued this morning I’d like you to meet.’

  Jess was in heaven, cooing and grinning at the tiny creatures that the woman, Wanda, brought to show them. Joe and Ajit were less impressed but pretended to be interested. Craig and Kim just wandered down to the beach to sit on the hull of an upturned rowing boat.

  After a while Joe rambled down to join them and joined in an impromptu gymnastics session where Craig was trying to stand on one hand for as long as he could.

  ‘Impressive, Craig,’ smiled Joe. ‘You’ve really taken to the new sports. Anna will be delighted when she sees how far you’ve come.’

  They all tried different exercises, showing off the tricks they’d learned, marvelling at how much fitter and stronger they had got. But they soon tired of it and lay on the sand staring out to sea.

  ‘This is a bit lame, isn’t it,’ said Kim. ‘It’s like they’re keeping us out of the way.’

  ‘Well, I suppose they need to check everything,’ said Joe.

  ‘But surely they checked all that before we even got there,’ suggested Ajit.

  ‘Unless one of us is a spy?’ said Kim.

  Chapter 30

  Joe refused to believe that any of his classmates could be spying for someone who wanted to steal the secrets of Atlantis. But all the way back to Hillsborough he sneaked glances at each of them in turn, just checking if they looked in any way worried or shifty. He caught Kim doing the same thing and they exchanged a thin smile.

  They met up with Mokie at a small guest house outside the town, where he had brought along a big holdall full of their changes of clothes. Dinner was already waiting for them.

  ‘Excellent, I’m starved,’ said Craig. ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s a local delicacy, called pepperpot, with potatoes and callaloo,’ replied Mokie.

  ‘It looks like stew, with spuds and cabbage,’ said Joe.

  ‘Well, I suppose it is,’ said Mokie, ‘but this is most tasty. Give it a go.’

  The kids tucked into their meal, which was a delicious meaty dish in a thick, rich gravy. Joe liked vegetables, so he asked for more callaloo, which tasted like spinach.<
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  While they ate, Kalvin was called away, but returned almost immediately.

  ‘OK people, I’m afraid it’s time to go,’ he said. ‘Can you finish that in ninety seconds? We have to be back at the island as soon as possible, and I’ll load the car up again while you eat.’

  The five didn’t bother to discuss this latest development as they were keen to cram as much of the delicious pepperpot into their mouths as they could before they went back to the same old menu in the academy.

  When Kalvin called ‘time’s up’ they waved their thanks to the staff and bundled into the back of the SUV.

  ‘What’s up, Kalvin?’ asked Kim, as their transport raced back to the harbour.

  ‘I haven’t been told,’ he said. ‘I was just ordered to make sure you all get back as soon as possible. Luce sounded angry.’

  The news of Luce’s bad mood ensured the return journey was subdued, but the five felt strangely relieved to be back ‘home’ on Atlantis. Luce took Kalvin and Mokie aside for a short, animated conversation before ushering the students back underground.

  ‘Please go straight to the lecture hall,’ she insisted.

  The five followed her instruction and when they arrived sat in their usual chairs. They were followed into the room by Ross, the security officer, and Luce, who waited silently for a minute before they were joined by the captain.

  ‘Good evening, and I hope you had a good day,’ said Luce. ‘We have completed our search and are confident we have now found the reason why the drone has been following us – which we believe it has been since we left Clew Bay.’

  Ross stepped forward. ‘We have found a piece of technology that acts as a beacon, sending out a signal which the drone can track. I’m sorry to say this – but the beacon was brought aboard Atlantis by one of you.’

  The five students were stunned, but after a couple of seconds they began to glance sideways at one another, hoping to catch a glimpse of a guilty conscience. The adults also studied each child’s expression, for the same reason.