He gathers one of the trolleys as he passes the now closed store room door and pushes it in front of him along the corridor. When he comes to the lift he takes that down to the main floor. He wheels his trolley away from the main exit, going right, as far as the end of the building. By the time he makes it there, there are some people using the exit door to go out to their cars. Ricardo abandons his trolley round a corner, where he quickly whips off his work clothes. He walks quickly, but casually, back round the corner and out the door.
Chapter 22 THE WATCHER
The way the woman and the dog are able to move immediately tells The Watcher and The Wise Soul that they are clearly capable of much more than what they have been built from. Someone also seems to have enhanced the programmes in their heads as they are able to communicate, which there was certainly no capability of in the trackers they are made from.
The woman looks round the room, while the dog walks over and sits at her side. The woman then looks up at them and talks to them.
‘I am Vee and this is Bar. Thank you for assembling us. We will go back to the planet Earth and see what we can do to control the situation there. We suspect that there will have been others activated. We believe there may be another three or four, but it could be only one or two. We will not know until we get there.’
‘Are you going to be able to manage to achieve much’ The Wise Soul asks.
‘If you are meaning our size, then that will be taken care of when we have the opportunity to do something about it. You have done well with the limited resources you had to hand. In fact you have done an excellent job’ she finishes with taking stock of her body. Bar’s tail thumps on the work top and nudges into Vee.
‘You will have to stay with The Watcher’ Vee says to The Wise Soul ‘as when we get bigger there will not be room for three to return in the craft. It is unlikely we will find the trailer, but even if we do I don’t think its engines will be powerful enough to get lift off.’
‘Is there anything else we can get for you or do for you, before you go on your way?’
‘I don’t think so. We need to get back there as soon as possible and you need to get on your way back to Velchitta. My understanding is that GM3 will not make straight for there, but will stop at his own base first. Only then will he venture towards Velchitta and or Parlantte. He could decide to make for the easier targets first. If he does that, then he could be anywhere in the Universe.’
Vee and Bar leap down onto the floor. The Watcher leads the way to the launch pad for the small craft. They load Vee and Bar onto the craft. It looks as if she is already familiar with the controls, because it is in no time she asks them to clear the pad ready for her to launch.
At an incredible speed the craft exits The Watcher’s craft and swings round in front of it, dipping the bow, before flashing past the side of them racing back towards planet Earth.
‘That is moving faster than I would have thought it was able to’ The Wise Soul comments as they watch the craft move steadily across their console. It isn’t that long before it moves out of range and disappears from their screens.
‘It is time we made it back to the travel pods’ The Wise Soul says to The Watcher just after Vee and Bar leave the screen.
‘You go if you like. I think I am going to stay out here. I need to plan what we are going to do, if he has managed to get to Velchitta before us. My biggest fear is that we are about to find out just how fragile The Balance is. It has kind of been taken for granted for far too long. The way Velchitta’s population reacted to a relatively innocuous suggestion is quite scary. If every colony around the Universe gets a reaction like that and then people like Algreb move in, take their moment, then things start to look quite scary. In fact they would be worse than that.
The Watcher walks along with The Wise Soul and makes sure he is safely in his pod. The others are fine in theirs too. He is glad to be alone, because he is worried about their ability to stop GM3, if he hits the right places first. He is disappointed with how easy it was for GM3 to be able to snatch The Keeper and leave with him. He is disappointed with how easily he had been put out of action, such a simple error. He is pleased that they appear to have someone with them helping them create the two who have just left, Vee and Bar. He is disappointed that they appear to be so small, so will they have sufficient to be able to combat the other side, even if they are just Earth people?
He has a niggle in the back of his head that he has had a glimpse of and he doesn’t like the picture he has seen. The Keeper was unable to protect himself, as to all intents and purposes was he. What if this whole thing about the Keeper is a bluff? What if he has nothing, is able to do absolutely nothing to stop anyone who wants to change The Balance whenever they like. The real thing that is irking The Watcher is that there is nothing at all that they or anyone can do against someone who is determined to ignore the rules and do everything for their own gain. The consequences of that are not worth contemplating. Well, they are, but they are too scary.
CHAPTER 23 VEE AND BAR
Vee and Bar both settle down for their journey towards Earth. There is a travel pod of sorts in the limited space available, but it is not necessary for them to go there. They are both getting accustomed to their systems. They are both also very busy trying to work out where they are going to land. They have the coordinates of The Watcher’s craft which is now an integral part of the mound, if the melting of it was successful. What is going to be more of a problem is the reception they are likely to face on their arrival. The Watcher has already told them that the people where they left from were not keen for them to just go, so another craft landing so soon afterwards might encounter more resistance generally.
On the other hand it would advantageous for them to land there, as it will give them the opportunity to check out The Watcher’s craft. What they are trying to establish is whether there is any way that they can disguise their craft once they have landed. Some kind of cloaking device would be good, but they haven’t been able to see anything like that in their research so far.
Vee is working on that, while Bar is trying to plot an entry route into Earth’s atmosphere which will maybe disguise their true destination. Bar knows that they will most likely be tracked coming towards Earth, so it is a question of trying to fool them as to where they intend to land. The fact it might be obvious to make for the burnt out craft rather makes things a bit harder. So far Bar is not having much success with satisfying their needs for a quiet arrival.
Vee, meanwhile, is looking for a simpler solution to their visibility problem once they are on the ground. Initially all they have to do is get it out of sight as soon as is possible after landing, preferably before people swarm to see what has arrived on earth now.
Time passes far quicker than either of them would have liked. Neither problem has a solution that is fool proof. They have committed to their entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Bar has run his loose plan by Vee and she can’t come up with any better. This is not going to be a direct route, but hopefully it would be a hard one to follow or for them to keep up with.
There is also an element of risk involved but they agree it is worth taking, as it should leave them to get on with their task on landing.
Bar has slowed their speed significantly. They are still going faster than the speed of sound, nearly three times that in fact. Even with all detection systems on, it is going to take exceptional skill to get them through to landing. Vee keeps quiet beside Bar. They speed at a frightening angle towards the large body of water below them. Bar levels them out at a point which would have had most beings thinking the end has come.
Initially they are making away from the land mass out into the ocean. They do this until Bar has adjusted their altitude to around 50 feet. Once Bar has control and is comfortable with things, they turn 180 degrees and make towards the land mass of North Africa. Tacking as they go and trying not to make it easy to follow their intended direction, should anyone have picked them up and is tracking
them.
They fly over the coast of Morocco, with no sign of a welcoming committee or anything worse. Bar is already finding life trickier coping with the contours of the land and their low altitude. His systems reactions are excellent, as is the response of their craft to its controls.
Soon they are over Algeria followed by Tunisia and shortly after that Libya and then Egypt. There are warning signs on their screens that they are attracting undue attention, but as yet nothing has made an effort to get to them. Then they are swinging Northwards over Israel, Lebanon and Syria, before turning West again across Iraq and Iran. They then loop round, crossing the Caspian Sea, the Southern tip of Russia, over Georgia and across Turkey. They turn to the North again, crossing the Mediterranean Sea to fly over the Ukraine before starting a real zigzag course over the mainland of Europe. They zigzag across Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, and Sweden and Norway. Next are Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France. They continue with a second trip to Germany, Holland & Belgium before skipping out into the North Sea. They make land again over the South East of England. They can see some planes in the skies above them, but none are going anything like as fast as they are flying at. Having made to go northwards towards Scotland, Bar once again changes direction and flies towards the South-West of the country. They do the equivalent of an emergency stop near the area they intend to reach, but maybe a mile or so short of their destination. Bar does this as he sees there is reasonable tree cover, which solves their initial problem of disguise.
The landing is smooth and they waste little time in getting out of the craft. The area looks as if it is fairly off the beaten track, but they spend a few minutes trying to make the craft blend in with its surroundings in the woods.
CHAPTER 24 MARIO & TZ
They quickly lose the urge to hunt for it. It is not important that they find it. They wouldn’t know what to make of it even if they did.
Mario gets out his laptop and boots it up. TZ is looking over his shoulder as he starts to search for something. Mario doesn’t say what it is and TZ doesn’t bother asking. The truth is that consciously neither of them knows. A few minutes pass before he stops at a page.
‘We need one of those’ he says as he starts nodding his head. TZ leans in a little closer and looks at the armored vehicle Mario is looking at.
‘I’ll just go down to the corner store and get one. Give me a couple of bucks in case the price has gone up since I last bought one.’
‘You are so funny, sis. You can’t buy one of those from the corner store!’
‘I know that, stupid. So where are you going to buy one of those from?’
Mario doesn’t answer his sister. He doesn’t have the answer straight away. After all he has only just seen something that has ticked a box inside his head. Now he can feel his thoughts stirring and trying to help him give a viable answer to her question.
‘What do we want one of those things for anyway?’
‘It will help us stay alive when we start our task.’
‘What task is that?’
He turns and looks at her incredulously.
‘You’re kidding me, right? You don’t know the task we have been set to do?’
TZ looks blank for a few seconds before something clicks inside her head. Mario can see that she is now aware of what they have to do. Well she is aware of the first part of what they have to do.
‘Have a look on ebay!’ she suddenly announces ‘bet you a dollar they have them on there.’
‘That is not a bad call TZ. I am going to do that.’ He changes tack on his searching and brings up the ebay site. ‘There you go’ he says tapping the screen after a couple of minutes or so of hard searching. It is more searching for the right words, to bring up the page he has in front of him now. He scrolls down the shortlist of his search. The first one is nothing like an armored vehicle. The next one is, but a little older than he would have liked. The next few are really modern vehicles that say they are armored, but Mario is not convinced. Anyway, the first proper one he’d seen is the type of vehicle he has in mind. He scrolls back up to it and clicks the item to get a better description.
1981 Ford F600 Moore & Sons Armored Truck Bullet Proof Great Advertising Tool
‘Look at the price of that’ TZ says as she reads about it.
‘Yeh and then that isn’t buying it as there is a reserve.’ Mario replies
‘We haven’t got that kind of money to buy something like that.’
Mario remains quiet for a minute or two before responding.
‘We aint gonna buy that thing’ he says eventually ‘we’re gonna take it away from him. If he’s a good boy, then we might even let him live. We’ve got to have something like that or we won’t be able to do anything.’
‘What do you mean by ‘do anything’?’ TZ asks him genuinely not knowing.
‘I mean that we are going to be creating mayhem, picking up our buddy, putting the place into turmoil.’
‘What do we want to do that for?’ she asks despite knowing what their task is.
‘I thought it had come to you what we have to do?’
‘I have it, but I just haven’t interpreted it the same way as you have.’
‘What are you going to do? Ask people politely before you punch them on the nose, stand on their foot, or rob them maybe. That isn’t gonna work but this is.’ He finishes by tapping the screen.
‘How are you gonna make him give it to us?’ she decides to move onto another issue she has with what he intends to do.
‘We’ve got a pistol. Just happens to be old and broken, but we have a pistol. We can take it with us and hold him up with it.’
‘Don’t you think a guy in Boston who owns an armored truck is going to have a gun too? In fact don’t you think he is going to have an whole arsenal of guns?’
Mario’s face lights up as she says these words.
‘Hey, I hope so. That way we will be able to do most of our shopping in the one place. Nice one Sis!’
Mario turns his attention back to the screen.
‘We need to contact the guy and arrange so that we can go up there and take a look at his precious armored car.’
‘Where is it?’
‘It is just this side of Boston’ he replies and then after tapping some more keys he announces ‘yeh and it just about 200 miles for us to get there.’
‘How are you aiming to do that?’
‘Guess we are going to have to borrow something’ he says with a twinkle in his eye. ‘I haven’t done anything like that since I was fourteen.’
‘That would be because you got caught and it was only because the guy pleaded on your behalf you got let off.’
‘What other way are we going to be able to get to Boston?’
‘Better make sure it has a full tank of gas before you take it then’ she says to him, smiling.
I guess we should take some of our things with us. I don’t expect we will be coming back here anytime soon.
CHAPTER 25 THE GRAND MASTER
I guess what he is saying is that the whole deterrent thing is a sham. There are pieces set out on the playing board, but the pieces are not what they seem. Or maybe they are what they seem to be, but they are not what everyone has been told they are. They are toothless when it comes down to it. I am stopped temporarily in my thoughts as I remember The Watcher talking to me directly into my head. He is certainly capable of doing more than just standing there.
I squint from my position, not wanting GM3 to know I am looking at him. I don’t want to attract any unwarranted physical abuse, just for being caught looking at him. I can also remember George saying to me that The Watcher spoke to him in his head too. I wonder if GM3 can hear me talking to him in his head if I try. I debate whether I should try. It would be a good thing to know if he can or not. On the adverse side he has just become very disturbed when finding out I don’t have any special powers. He believes that everything that has been p
ut in place is a sham. Do I really want to disturb that belief he has?
Probably it is not the wisest decision I have made in my life, but I land on the side of it would really be a good thing for me to know. Maybe it will make the difference sometime in the future that I can speak to someone else in my head without him hearing me. I am taking some kind of precaution; well at least I think I am.
I get ready with the simple thing I have decided to say in my head. I have also thought that I should try to make my voice sound different. This is pushing the boundary in something that I am already unsure of how it works, but here I go anyway. I choose to go higher in my in head pitch.
‘Ker-bang’ I try to get it to sound like something has happened somewhere nearby. It may well not have come out that way. Only time will tell me how successful it has been, or not. I keep my eyes closed and my slumped position unmoved. I perk my ears up to try to pick up any movement. Nothing happens, so I venture to open my eyes in as tight a slit as I can, with still being able to see. He is still standing as he was before. I keep my eyes open as I give him another silent ‘Ker-bang’ followed by a shriek ‘ching’.
His immediate reaction is non-existent, so I decide to try one more time and then ask him if he has heard anything. I count down to my trial, 3,2,1.
‘AAAAgghh’ I decide upon as my silent contact. I then leave no time at all before giving a jerk in my chair and opening my eyes.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ he asks gruffly. I am almost regretting trying this.
‘I thought I heard someone saying something?’
‘I didn’t. What did you hear?’
‘Thought I heard a scream somewhere is all. But then I did have my eyes shut.’
The Grand Master Page 7
