UNDERCOVER - WHITE OUT (book 2)

Part 32 - The Tian Mountains

'The Tian mountains in western China,' he explained. 'Theo called in sick and, when we observed negative mass at the nexus, I judged the ImmobilFoam would be enough to disable those dog-hearted knaves. Alas, Murga was too quick.'

'Negative what?'

I must have looked puzzled because he added, 'Time is relative. Gravity and time are both depend on mass. No mass, no gravity. If thou canst remove mass and yet keep the object, thou canst create negative gravity and time.'

He grinned at my baffled expression. 'It cannot be distinguished from magic.'

'Before you disappear again,' I demanded, 'what's going on? Why has Murga kidnapped my parents?'

'Thine grandsire, Professor MacPhun, was a master of genetics and developed a modification in thee before thou wert born. This endowed thee with a sense for time phase gravity shear and the ability to use gravity distortions. This was kept secret at the time as there was some controversy about his research into genetic brain enhancement for humans. 

 Thou wert born at a time when all children were free of harmful genetic errors and most animals and plants were genetically engineered to produce beneficial improvements. Duncan was the result of one of his research projects and secretly, against all regulations, so wert thou.'

 'So Grandpa altered my genetic code.   Is that why I can fly?' 

 Triple Oh shrugged sadly.  'He didn't think it would cause any problems. But Murga found out and tried to extort the knowledge from him by threatening thee and thy father. That was when thy mother, Alianor sent thee here . . . to protect you. She was an expert on time phase technology and knew about Dr Lee Zhang's research.'

'My birth mother? Alianor was an expert in time?'

'Aye lad. Thy father did not tell thee?' Triple Oh pulled out his cell phone and showed me a photo of a blond woman with a baby. 'This is thy mother.'

'That's my mother?' I asked doubtfully. 

 'Aye, she is. And that was thee with her.' Dunc craned his neck over my shoulder to look at the photo. 'Thou wert a bonny bairn,' he honked softly.

Triple Oh looked at me sadly. Your father brought you here to get away from Murga.   Alianor remained with your grandfather.  And when he realized he could not return, your father married Helen, here, in this time.

I turned to Dunc.  'Is this true.'

'Ah dinna ken. Ah was still in the egg at the time.'

'Aye 'tis true. He was but a baby goose following thy grandfather around after you had gone.'

 'How did you meet Dunc?' Miguel asked Triple Oh.

'Hah! That was Ziff's grandfather's doing. When Dunc grew to full size, he had a problem. Dunc didn't want to spend his life with other geese so he asked me if I could employ him. That was the first time I met thy grandfather. He had spent a life time experimenting with genetically modified organisms and he specialized in improving the intelligence of animals. Dunc was one of his successes . . . But methinks he left out a few screws.'

Dunc honked his derision. 'Gloik, gloik, gloik.'

'What about Murga?' I asked.

'Aye . . . He did not give up. He hired Kozak who eventually found thy father prospecting for oil and gas in western China and told Murga. It must have been quite a shock when Murga showed up with a group of bandits after twelve years.  When your adopted mother, Helen, arrived in China looking for thy father, he kidnapped her also.' 

 I choked up at the thought of Mom being stuck on that mountain for weeks. I couldn't speak until I changed the topic.

'How is it I can fly?' I croaked.

'The nexus distorts the space-time field causing negative mass but only thou wert able to reflect gravity.' 

'You mean I can fly only near a working nexus?'

'That is true. Thou canst reflect gravity only where it is distorted.'

'So, what now?' I asked. 'How are we going to find my parents?'

Triple Oh sighed. 'The Time Agency is tracking Murga. It will not be an easy task to rescue them but I promise we shall succeed.'

'Can I help?' I asked.

He sighed again. 'You can help by staying close to your home or Silverwood School so that Theo can protect you. Murga may try again to abduct you again.'

Miguel was groping around in the bottom of the cookie bag. 'Hey,' he complained, 'Dunc has eaten all the cookies.'

Dunc belched loudly. 'Guluk gloyk. Ah didnna eat them all. It was just a wee bitty snack. Anyway, ah needs nourishment to repair ma feathers.' 

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