Atlantis United

by Gerard Siggins

  Joe winced as Jess realised what was about to happen.

  ‘No! He’s going to shoot Brian!’ she cried.

  ‘That’s not Brian,’ Joe said, resting his hand on Jess’s arm.

  A single shot rang out and all eyes switched to where it had been aimed.

  All they could see was something small and dark drop straight down, with a trail of feathers coming behind.

  Jess wailed, insisting that her favourite sea bird – or one like him – had just been shot.

  ‘That’s so against the law,’ she said. ‘I’m going to report Luce to … to … to whoever’s the nearest police.’

  The children watched the sailors rush across to collect the remains of their target and ferry it back to Atlantis.

  ‘What just happened there?’ asked Kim. ‘You seem to know more than you’re telling us, Joe.’

  Joe shrugged his shoulders once again. ‘Sorry, Kim, Luce told me not to say – she’ll be back in a minute.’

  ‘Why did they shoot Brian?’ wailed Jess. ‘Was that your idea?’

  It took ten minutes for Luce to return to the viewing room.

  ‘I’m sorry about the delay, but we had to make the device safe,’ she explained.

  ‘What device?’ demanded Kim. ‘That was a bird they just shot!’

  ‘No,’ said Luce, glancing across at Joe and grateful that he had kept quiet. ‘It wasn’t a bird. Joe noticed the bird had red eyes that reminded him of the drone that had been following us – and we thought it important to check it out.

  ‘Our sailors checked it on their scanners when they were out there and they discovered it was made of metal, which is why they shot it out of the sky. They collected the debris and it was indeed a drone carrying a very, very clever device which is likely to have been transmitting video from your training sessions.

  ‘We presume Kratos is behind this and the captain is currently on the phone to Victor explaining the situation. If they know all your plans and tactics I’m sure he’ll want to cancel the bet and call off the game.’

  Joe felt his heart sink. After all the work they had put in preparing for the game, it would be very disappointing not to play it. He noticed the others looking at him with long faces too.

  ‘Hey, don’t blame me,’ he said. ‘I only saved us from those spies. It could have been dangerous.’

  ‘I know,’ grumped Craig, ‘it’s just if you kept your mouth shut we’d still be going somewhere amazing to play football. Now… who knows?’

  Chapter 39

  Atlantis remained above water, and although Professor Kossuth insisted that they join him for training next morning, the children’s hearts weren’t in it.

  As they stopped for a water break, a sound began to break the silence of the morning.

  Whuppa, whuppa, whuppa – the kids scanned the sea and the skies to see what was causing it. The sound grew louder and the tiny speck on the horizon grew bigger until they realised that a helicopter was its way to Atlantis.

  ‘Return to the cottage,’ insisted the Professor, ‘and leave me to see what this aircraft brings to us.’

  Kim and Joe stood at the window and watched as the helicopter came in to land in the middle of the football pitch.

  The Professor stepped out towards it as the side door opened, and out stepped an elderly gentleman who looked a little familiar. Kalvin opened the door to the cottage and ushered the youngsters outside.

  ‘Ah, so this is my Atlantis United team,’ smiled the newcomer, who was well groomed and wore an expensive blue suit and purple silk tie. ‘We meet again.’

  ‘And who are you?’ asked Craig. ‘I don’t think we’ve met?’

  The old man adopted a funny pirate accent. ‘Arrrr, Oi’m the cap’n of the good ship Pirate Queen,’ he chuckled, and all five of the kids’ eyes widened together.

  ‘You’re King Victor,’ laughed Jess. ‘And that’s a much nicer way to come on board than that old ship you had for us. Why couldn’t we have a trip in a helicopter!’

  Victor joined in the laughter.

  ‘Well, I apologise for that, but there were security issues which forced us to act as we did – as I’m sure you now understand,’ he added, before looking at Joe and smiling.

  ‘Now, let me go inside for a quick chat with Luce and the captain, and then I’ll come out and see how you are getting on with your football training. Maybe we could have one of those famous 5 versus 2 games that the Professor and Kalvin are so fond of organising for their own entertainment.’

  The visit of the island’s owner seemed to energise the children, and they threw themselves into the rest of the training session with new spark.

  ‘So, these five against two games are a regular thing,’ said Kim to Joe, as they waited for Ajit to put his right boot back on after it flew off in a tackle.

  ‘I wonder how many of the previous kids’ team even got a draw or scored a goal?’ said Joe.

  ‘Well, I’d say that guy in the hallway must have scored a few,’ laughed Kim, referring to the star striker from Chile who had won the golden boot in Europe in each of the last three seasons.

  ‘Actually, he only scored once against us in his four years,’ smiled the Professor, who had been listening in. ‘Although Kalvin and I are a few years older now…’

  Chapter 40

  When his meeting was over Victor came outside and offered to referee the game between the kids and their two coaches.

  Both sides took it very seriously, with Kalvin unbeatable in the first half. Craig had also been excellent, saving the only two shots the Professor was allowed get off.

  So with the score at nil-nil, Victor blew the whistle to start the second half. ‘Just ten minutes this half,’ he announced. ‘It’s too hot to referee so it must be too hot to play.’

  Joe was enjoying the battle in midfield with Professor Kossuth, and he had the better of him on a few occasions. The older man was able to do almost magical things with the football, which sometimes seemed to Joe as if it was attracted to his boot by an extra strong magnet.

  ‘Give him the sandwich treatment,’ whispered Victor as Joe trotted past in pursuit of the Professor. ‘If you both tackle him at once he won’t be able to do his tricks.’

  Joe told Ajit his plan and next time Professor Kossuth got the ball they both closed in on him. Ajit ran alongside his left shoulder and angled his own across to meet it. The Prof flicked the ball to avoid Ajit’s lunge, but Joe nipped in and stole it right off his toe. Joe pushed the ball ahead of him and with one bound he was out of the coach’s range. He looked up and saw Jess on the edge of the area, but racing towards him. As he drew Kalvin out towards him, he speared a pass with the outside of his boot which just beat the goalkeeper’s left hand, leaving Jess to sidefoot the ball into an empty net.

  ‘Yippee!’ screamed Jess as she leapt in the air and the rest of Atlantis United rushed to congratulate her. The Professor looked ashen-faced and tried to avoid the gaze of Victor as he pointed to the centre spot.

  ‘How long is left, referee?’ asked Kim.

  ‘Ninety seconds or so,’ replied Victor.

  Joe decided that defence was the best option for his Atlantis side so he urged all his team to retreat behind the ball, but that also meant that Kalvin was able to join The Professor for the kick-off. It was all or nothing now for the senior side.

  For a big, lumbering man, Kalvin was remarkably fast on his feet, but Kim marked him closely and the Professor grew impatient at not being able to find any space. Joe and Ajit never let him get past them, while Jess hovered around the edge of the Atlantis penalty area ready to lend a hand where she was needed.

  The Professor’s mind was whirring fast, they all could see that, but no-one was sure where he would make his move. He looked up at the goal, and from just ten metres inside the opposition’s half, he lifted his leg back as far as it would go and swung down quickly. He had calculated the power, distance and wind speed in his head, and reckoned the ball would fly into the top le
ft hand of the goal about six centimetres under the crossbar and another six from the upright.

  The ball flew high into the air, almost like a rugby kick, and dipped as it began returning to earth. Joe looked on with horror as he watched Craig try to work out the angle at which the ball was coming towards the goal.

  ‘Jump! Now!’ called Joe, as the keeper continued to dither.

  Craig took two steps across the goal-line and leapt as high in the air as he could. He stretched his arm out as long as he could make it and flicked his extra-large style keepers’ gloves at the descending ball. His fingertips brushed against it, but that was just enough and the ball was deflected off target, bounced off the goalpost to Kim who controlled it and ran away upfield with Kalvin chasing after her.

  Kim was about to fire the ball into the empty net when a loud whistle sounded two blasts and Victor raised his arm straight in the air over his head.

  ‘That’s it, game over,’ he called.

  ‘Ah, ref,’ complained Joe. ‘She was sure to score.’

  ‘Now, now,’ chuckled Victor. ‘You don’t want to go too hard on the elderly gentlemen, do you?’

  The Atlantis team were still overjoyed by their result and were given great cheers from the crew of the submarine island who had heard the scoreline and rushed to see the historic first defeat for the football coaches.

  ‘Well, that was a very entertaining game,’ announced Victor. ‘And a wonderful result. In all the years of our Academy the staff have always beaten – and usually hammered – the pupils. So I see this result as a win for both sides – there is no way your team would have won the game without Professor Kossuth’s brilliant coaching, which of course is the main reason he works here.

  ‘However, it does set a bad example, and if it ever happens again I’m afraid I will have to sack the Professor and Kalvin,’ he added with a grin, winking at the beaten side.

  Chapter 41

  Victor joined his five students for dinner, and he was full of questions about how they were getting on at Atlantis Academy.

  ‘But you must have some questions for me too,’ he said as they finished up their main course. ‘I’ll be happy to answer any of your questions, except about this game against Hy-Brasil because Ross has yet to finish his investigation and Luce and I will need to have a serious discussion about what it all means.’

  Kim asked Victor why he had built Atlantis.

  ‘Because I wanted you, and dozens of other children just like you, to have the best chance of fulfilling your sporting dreams by becoming as good as you can be.

  ‘When I was your age I was a very ordinary player of football, tennis, hurling, rugby, and many other sports. But I loved sport – every sport – and threw myself passionately into it as soon as I discovered a new one.

  ‘But I was never able to improve because there weren’t nearly enough coaches and the ones we did have only concentrated on the really excellent players. I became convinced that there was a fantastic footballer inside me if I could only find a coach to believe in me and bring that great player out.

  ‘But it never happened, and that made me sad. So when I became successful in my life, earning greater wealth than I ever could spend, I decided to try to give other children the chance I never had. I then set up a network of coaches and scouts to go out and look at underage football teams – not to identify the best players, but the find the weakest. Then I had people investigate how passionate those children were about their pursuit – I wanted kids who lived every spare moment for their sport – whether they were the type of kid who practised on their own, for example,’ he added.

  Angela came in with a tray of drinks and some of Victor’s favourite chocolate biscuits as treat. Victor stirred his cup of green tea and opened the wrapper on a small bar. He took one bite before he laid it down and carried on with his story.

  ‘We looked at tens of thousands of eleven-year-olds and whittled it down to about a dozen before we invited them to join our football camp. Some of their parents were unsure, but the kids saw the opportunity we gave them with the best coaches and facilities laid on. The camp just lasted for eight weeks in summer, based deep in a forest in Scotland, but two of that first group improved so much that they played underage international football before they were fifteen. One later became a professional with a lower-league team in England.

  ‘But the summer camp was very limiting. I wanted to expand our range to far more sports, but also to restrict the numbers we recruited to just a handful of pupils. We developed plans for an island off the coast of England, but we found that sports clubs started spying on us and trying to steal our methods or poach our players before we were finished developing them.

  ‘Then we looked at buying and converting an aircraft-carrier into a floating school which could visit lots of countries and sample the different sports and sporting cultures around the world – but that would have been too easy for spies to track as we travelled around the seas.

  ‘So…’ he smiled, ‘I woke up in the middle of the night with this mad idea to build an island that could move around the oceans, which meant we could visit all those places, but also submerge like a submarine when you wanted to stay out of sight and work in privacy.

  ‘And that’s where we are!’ he announced, with a flourish of his arms.

  ‘It must have cost you millions,’ said Ajit.

  ‘Hundreds of millions, I’d say,’ replied Victor, ‘and about a million a month to keep it afloat too. But it’s my pride and joy. And when I leave this world I know I’ll have helped hundreds of young people to improve and enrich their lives in an important way.’

  Kalvin popped his head around the canteen door and signalled to Victor.

  ‘I’d best follow Prince Kalvin,’ he joked. ‘But I will talk to you later – as soon as we decide what is happening. However, after watching you today, I am confident you can beat anyone they can throw at us.’

  Chapter 42

  ‘I hope we get the chance to play this High Brazil crowd,’ said Jess. ‘It would be such a waste of an amazing place to let them just steal it away from us.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Kim. ‘This has been Victor’s life’s work. If we do get a chance to play for it we must remember that. We have to do our very best.’

  ‘Obviously,’ sniffed Craig. ‘I just think it’s really unfair that it falls on our shoulders.’

  The five cleaned their plates away and were so exhausted after their efforts in the match that after they returned to their rooms they all went straight to bed.

  Joe lay outside the duvet reading a book – his body might have been tired, but his brain needed something more to get him to sleep. He loved reading, especially about sport, and he enjoyed putting himself inside the mind of the hero. This book’s main character was a hopeless rugby player at first, but met the ghost of an old player who gave him hints on how to get better and it seemed to work.

  Joe closed the book and smiled. He knew he wasn’t much use when he played with Woodstock Wanderers, but he knew he had improved and he was one of the stars of his new team. He was pretty sure Kalvin and the Prof weren’t ghosts too.

  When they returned to the canteen next morning for breakfast, Luce and Victor were already tucking into bowls of muesli and banana.

  Joe, Craig and Ajit sat down at the next table and said hello.

  ‘Good morning,’ said Victor. ‘We’d better wait for Kimberley and Jessica to arrive before we start.’

  ‘I don’t think her name is Kimberley,’ laughed Ajit. ‘Her mum and dad are Chinese and Kim is a common enough name over there. It’s just Kim.’

  Victor laughed, and at that moment Kim and Jess walked in. Victor explained his error, and Kim smiled at his apology.

  ‘But enough of Victor’s stupidity,’ chipped in Luce. ‘He has something very important to tell you.’

  The five sat forward and stared at the old man as he stirred his tea.

  ‘Well, you know already that we discovered the �
�sea bird” was actually a drone that was being used to track our island. Our investigations have found even more alarming details – that the bird’s eyes acted as a video camera, recording everything it saw and transmitting it back to whoever controlled it.’

  ‘But it was sitting up on top of the fence all week!’ gasped Ajit.

  ‘And it was spying on all our plans,’ sighed Jess.

  ‘But who would have done that,’ asked Craig. ‘Your brother?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ replied Victor, ‘but he has denied it, and I have to believe him. I know him better than anyone and I think I know when he is lying. He has changed, and we want to be friends again.’

  ‘Who else would have done it though?’ asked Joe.

  ‘We are still investigating,’ replied Luce.

  ‘We are very upset and concerned at what we have discovered, but on the balance of things, we have to go ahead with the game. I gave Aston my word about what would be at stake, and he has given me his that Hy-Brasil is not behind the spying. There are other rivals in my world, people who wish to steal our secrets, so we will continue to search for answers. But right now, with nine days to go, I want you to concentrate on getting tuned up for this game.’

  Chapter 43

  The five young footballers worked very hard in the training rooms. Atlantis had a gym, but the strength and conditioning coach, Connor, wouldn’t let them near any of the equipment that they had seen used on television.

  ‘Your bodies haven’t grown enough to use weights or these machines. That will come, but don’t rush it. There’s plenty of other things we can do such as push-ups, squats and resistance bands.’

  Joe found the gym boring, but made up little number games in his head to help him get through it. Craig loved it, however, and revelled in being the best at most of the exercises they did.

  ‘Is there any exercise you can do to make you taller?’ he asked Connor.