under cover goose on the Titanic

Part 24 - By the Tingling in My Toes

As I swooped down, I saw Triple Oh lying on the ground. The two bandits left to guard him had their hands glued to their faces by gobs of purple spaghetti foam.

'Jingle bells. Batman smells. Robin laid an egg . . . ,' Dunc was diving at a steep angle singing. The bandits were swatting at him with their Kalashnikovs. I tried to snatch the guns away but they were glued to their hands. I ended up lifting them a few metres off the ground before dropping them. They went down heavily, stuck together like a giant purple pretzel.

I landed beside Triple Oh almost stepping on his spray bottle. He was grimly trying to crawl toward Murga's suitcase.

'Take . . . the suitcase . . . radioactive . . . isotopes,' he gasped painfully and then, very inconveniently, he passed out.

I picked up the suitcase and grabbed his belt. The suitcase seemed weightless but it had a lot of mass. Triple Oh was considerably larger than Dad but I was able to lift his bulk with no effort.

Something whistled past my head and I heard gunfire. The two of the remaining bandits were walking back down the trail about 200 metres away and taking pot shots at us. Fortunately, their aim was poor. Dunc flew off, lights blinking, to distract them.

I must have been getting the hang of this anti gravity stuff because, even encumbered with Triple Oh and the suitcase, I made good time back to the crevice. There was no sign of anyone and my first thought was that they had all gone through the nexus, until I saw Miguel, draped face down over a boulder. I dropped Triple Oh, put two fingers on Miguel's throat and gasped with relief when I found a pulse. I checked his breathing. Normal.

I ran around madly looking for Mom and Dad but I saw no one except the bandits, far below us, who were trying to untangle the purple pretzel. Dunc skimmed the rock face on the updraft shaking his head. 'Nary a sign of any o' them,' he called. 'Murga and Porco have gone too.'

I was sick with rage and despair as I shook Miguel roughly. 'Wake up! What happened to Mom and Dad?'

He shook his head making an effort to speak. 'Murga took them.'

My thoughts were swirling with dread as I wandered around kicking at stones in frustration, until I hurt my toe. Maybe they had gone back to Ottawa. I had no clue who was controlling the nexus but we had to get back while it was still operating. If it closed, we would be stuck on the mountain.

Miguel slowly recovered and we scrambled into the crevice towing Triple Oh between us. I had a momentary fear that Murga had disconnected the electric bookcase but the rock face was still flickering with a ghostly green light. I pushed Triple Oh in front and we stumbled into the corridor at Silverwood School. I tripped over the suitcase and grabbed Licia to save myself hitting the floor. She misinterpreted my action and gave me a hug in return. 'Omigod Ziff you look terrible,' she gasped. 'What happened?'

I sucked in a lungful of dense, warm, soupy, wonderful air. 'Where's . . . Murga?' I coughed. 'Did you . . . see my parents? How long have we been gone?'

'I didn't see anyone and you only just left,' Licia added. 'Miguel, your face is blue!'

'Don't shut the electric bookcase off!' he gasped. 'Dunc's still behind us. And I need a hug, too. I'm freezing.' Licia wrapped her arms around him.

'I don't know how to turn it off,' she said in a perfectly reasonable voice. 'And, anyway, Oppy is not listening to anyone. Just look at that.'

The monitor was flashing urgently with the words,

WHAT THE *$!##!$* ARE YOU DUMMIES DOING TO MY INTERFACE COMPUTER. WHAT KLUTZ ENTERED A TWO YEAR DISPLACEMENT? I LEFT STRICT ORDERS NOT TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT SETTING. THIS MESS WILL TAKE DAYS TO SORT OUT!!!!!!