Whether Douglas was there or not, Ivo thought, somehow he had to get the robot round to the house in Western Avenue. He hobbled down the garden and looked at the shape hidden in the outhouse, wondering what he should do.
And then he realized the answer had been staring him in the face all along.
‘Did you know,’ Quomp was sitting in an armchair, pouring himself a second cup of tea, ‘that the hundred years after the Touchstones were discovered are called the Years of Chaos? Anyone who got hold of one kept it and the result was a century of suffering and misery beyond belief. It was a terrible time, more terrible than you can imagine. We got control of things eventually, of course. It wasn't easy, but people came to see it was the only way forward. And we've had almost undisturbed peace for nearly ten thousand years as a result.’
Quomp paused while he added a splash of milk to his cup then drank his tea, sucking the liquid up his nose in a single breath before mopping away the drips with his handkerchief.
‘The problem is, you see, that Gedrus will tell you anything. Anything at all. If you want to build a nuclear bomb or set off a plague that'll wipe out half the population of the planet, he'll tell you how to do it as happily as he'll give instructions on how to make a mug of Horlicks. Here…’ Quomp reached into his pocket, drew out the Touchstone and threw it to Douglas. ‘If you don't believe me, you can ask him yourself.’
Douglas caught the stone by its silver chain, but made no move to touch it. ‘I don't want to build a nuclear bomb,' he said. ‘Or start a plague. I never…’
‘Whether you wanted to or not isn't important,’ the Guardian interrupted. ‘The point I'm making is that if you asked, Gedrus would tell you how. Because that's what he does. It doesn't matter to him if you want to murder someone or save the universe. He just tells people whatever they want to know.
‘And that means he'll tell Kai whatever she wants to know as well.’ Quomp carefully placed his cup and saucer back on the tray as he continued. ‘He'll tell her how to raise an army and how to build the most powerful weapons in the galaxy. He'll tell her what her enemies are planning and the best way to defeat them. Now she has a Touchstone no one will be able to stand in her way, and even if the other side managed to kill her or destroy the stone, she's got a couple of spares, hasn't she? To be passed on to someone else to carry on the struggle.’
‘Kai wanted to help her people,’ said Douglas. He could remember the pain in the alien's eyes as she sat in the kitchen and described the suffering of her world and how she wanted to end it. ‘And they needed help. She was fighting for them because she knew it was the right thing to do.’
‘Ah yes. The right thing…’ Quomp let out a long sigh as he sat back and stared up at the ceiling. ‘In my experience most of the trouble in the galaxy has been caused by people who knew they were doing the right thing.’
‘She was asking Gedrus to help her overthrow a tyrant,’ said Douglas. ‘How could that be bad?’
‘It can be bad because it was the wrong question.’ took out a handkerchief and began busily polishing his glasses. ‘And you can do a lot of damage if you ask Gedrus the wrong question.’
It came into Douglas's mind that he had had the same thought himself, when he found that asking Gedrus to help bring his parents back together had only made things worse for everyone around him.
‘What's the right question then?’ he asked.
The Guardian did not appear to hear.
‘We can't let her take the Touchstones back to her homeworld.’ He put his glasses back on his nose and looked across at Douglas. ‘That's the number one priority. We have to stop her before she leaves this planet. And I need to know if you're going to help me.’
Douglas hesitated. ‘Who says you should have a Touchstone and not Kai?’
‘I should have thought that was obvious,’ Quomp said, standing up, ‘but it's not what we're discussing here. I need an answer. Are you going to help me or not?’
‘I… I don't know,’ said Douglas.
‘Well…’ The Guardian picked up the tea tray. ‘I can give you a few minutes to make up your mind. But don't take too long.’
He began walking to the door.
‘What happens if I don't help?’ asked Douglas.
‘If you mean will you be punished in some way,’ Quomp paused in the doorway, ‘the answer is no, you won't. If you don't want to help I will leave and your life will go back to the way it was. But the real answer to your question is that if you don't help, Kai will get away. She'll return to her planet, we will follow and there will be a war in which many, many thousands of people will die. You might want to bear that in mind while you're making your decision.’
And he was gone.
Douglas stared at the closing door for some seconds before he realized that he still had the Touchstone, hanging by its silver chain from his fingers.
Ivo had known, even as he steered the robot out of the outhouse, that it was not going to be an easy journey. The Indestructible was large enough for him to sit on, and moved very smoothly, but the force field that surrounded the robot made it feel as if he was sitting on polished glass. It was almost impossible to hold himself in place at the same time as working the remote control, and twice he slid off completely before he stopped and tied himself on with a length of washing line.
It was quite tricky even then. He really needed both hands to steer the robot with the remote control, but he also had to carry his crutches under one arm and the Nihilator under the other. Holding it tightly as he went round a corner, the bone in his elbow inadvertently pressed the trigger – and an arc of energy flashed out in front of him and a bus shelter and most of a maple tree in the garden behind it disappeared.
It meant further delay while he stopped to work out somewhere safer to keep the weapon and then he wondered if he should leave a note of apology about the bus shelter. Eventually he put the Nihilator in the hood of his anorak, decided it was safest not to write anything and continued on his way, determinedly ignoring the people that turned to stare as he sped by.
When he finally arrived at Douglas's house he noticed a maroon 4x4 Toyota parked in the driveway.
It looked as if Douglas had a visitor.
The more Douglas thought about it, the harder it was to make a decision. Kai wanted to get back to her home planet to fight for her people's freedom, which seemed perfectly reasonable. Gedrus had shown him what was being done to them by the tyrant, and there was no doubt that the sooner he was overthrown the better. With the Touchstone she could do it, and without it she would be defeated.
But according to Gedrus, Quomp had been telling the truth as well. Everything he said about the Years of Chaos and the peace that the Guardians had brought to the Federation was true. And Douglas could also see that, in the wrong hands, the Touchstones were extremely dangerous. If the Guardians were prepared to go to war to get the stolen Touchstones back from Kai, maybe he should do what Quomp said and…
Douglas paced restlessly up and down. It would be much easier to make a decision if he could see that one side was wrong and the other was right but, as far as he could make out, you could argue for either side. You couldn't say either of them was bad – at least Douglas couldn't – but somehow he had to choose between them. He had to choose. Even not choosing would be a choice because if he refused to help Quomp it would mean that Kai would get away.
It wasn't just a difficult decision, Douglas thought. It was an impossible one. He was twelve years old. He didn't know enough to make a decision like this. He didn't begin to know enough.
He stared at the stone, lying on the sofa where he'd left it. The one person who did know enough was Gedrus, because Gedrus knew everything. But if Douglas had learnt anything over the last few weeks it was that asking Gedrus for help did not necessarily make things better.
You could ask Gedrus how to build a robot and wind up putting a friend in hospital. You could ask him to help with your homework and find it led to someone else running a
way from home. You could ask him to help get your parents back together and find it did exactly the opposite of what you wanted.
All he wanted to do was whatever was best and yet…
And yet…
And from nowhere, he had it. If that really was all he wanted to do, then the answer was simple. So simple he couldn't think why he hadn't thought of it before. It was all a matter of asking the right question and, for the first time, he had an inkling of what the right question might be. He picked up the Touchstone.
‘Hi there!’ Gedrus was sitting at his desk doing a crossword puzzle. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I have to choose,’ said Douglas, ‘whether to help Guardian Quomp get the Touchstones back from Kai, or let her get away.’
‘Oh yes?’
‘And I don't know enough about Guardians and Federation politics to know what to do, but you know everything about all those things, don't you? So what I want is for you to tell me the best thing to do.’
‘Hmmm.’ Gedrus drummed his fingers lightly on the desk. ‘Would this be best for you personally? Or best for…’
‘Just… best,’ said Douglas, ‘for everyone. I want to do whatever is going to help the most people and not hurt anybody at all, if possible. If you want me to keep quiet and help Kai, I'll do that. If you want me to help Quomp, I'll do that. And if there's another idea that's better than either of those, I'll do that instead. You're the one who knows. You tell me what to do and I'll do it.’ He paused. ‘You can tell me, can't you?’
‘Oh yes,’ Gedrus nodded. ‘No problem there.’
‘OK,’ Douglas took a deep breath. ‘So what should I do?’
And Gedrus told him.
The Guardian was standing at the sink in the kitchen. He had taken off his jacket and was wearing Mrs Paterson's apron while he washed up the tea things. He turned round when he heard Douglas come in.
‘Have you decided?’
‘Yes,’ said Douglas. ‘If there's something you want me to do, I'll do it.’
‘Good.’ From under his bushy eyebrows, Quomp looked carefully at Douglas as he dried his hands on a towel. ‘And may I ask how you came to this decision?’
‘I asked Gedrus what would be best and he told me just to do whatever you said.’
‘Was that best for… yourself?’
‘No,’ said Douglas. ‘Just what was best. For everybody. What would do the least harm and the most good. That sort of thing.’
For the first time since Douglas had seen him, the Guardian smiled. It was a warm and surprisingly gentle smile.
‘Well, it's not the official phrasing, but close enough.’ He put a hand on Douglas's shoulder. ‘You had me worried for a minute. I thought you weren't going to get there. But you did. Well done!’
‘I don't understand,’ said Douglas.
‘No,’ Quomp nodded, ‘and you are owed a good many explanations, but first…’
Before he could finish his sentence the Guardian was interrupted by the noise of the back door slamming open as Ivo, sitting on the Indestructible, crashed into the kitchen and spun the robot through ninety degrees to face him. In one quick movement he pulled the Nihilator from the hood of his anorak and pointed it directly at the Guardian's head.
‘Take your hands off my friend,’ he said in a voice that was only slightly shaking, ‘or you're dead.’
The Guardian stared for a moment at the weapon, then at Ivo and then back at Douglas.
‘Is that a Nihilator?’ His voice rose in horror as he spoke. ‘It is, isn't it! You've built a Nihilator!’
‘I'm going to give you three seconds,’ said Ivo. ‘One…’
‘Have you any idea how dangerous those things are?’ Quomp's voice was full of indignation. ‘For goodness sake, put it down before someone gets hurt.’
‘Two,’ said Ivo.
‘Put it down, Ivo,’ said Douglas and as his friend hesitated, he added, ‘It's all right… I think.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘The thing is,’ said Quomp, ‘we don't have much time.’
He was standing in the dining room, stabbing deftly at a number of buttons on a small device he had placed on the centre of the table. As he did so an image of the earth appeared above it, a vivid sphere of blue and green covered in slowly moving clouds.
‘Kai is somewhere on the planet,’ Quomp pointed to the image, ‘building a ship to take her home. We calculate she could be ready to leave any time in the coming week but we don't know where she is or how to stop her.’
Looking closer Douglas could see there were two groups of ships, like clusters of flies, orbiting the image of earth. The image flickered for a moment until Quomp thumped the device impatiently before continuing.
‘We have two battle fleets patrolling each hemisphere and, once she's launched, they will be able to detect her. But Gedrus says they won't be able to destroy her before she disappears into y-space. She'll be gone before we can overpower her defence shields.’
The boys watched as a tiny gleam of light launched up from the surface of earth. The black ships moved towards it, several of them firing beams of glowing orange light, but the ship continued moving until, a few inches from Ivo's nose, it suddenly disappeared.
‘If she gets home, it'll take an army to stop her. We have to find her before she leaves the planet.’ Quomp leaned forward, turned off the device and the image disappeared. ‘But she has a Touchstone so it won't be easy.’
‘You found Douglas,’ said Ivo.
‘Douglas was obliging enough to draw attention to himself by buying shares.’ The Guardian walked over to the window and briskly drew back the curtains. ‘But Kai won't be so helpful. The first thing she'll have done is ask Gedrus to warn her if anything she plans to do might give her away.’
Douglas wondered why he hadn't thought of doing this himself.
‘We only have one chance.’ His hands behind his back, the Guardian turned to face the boys. ‘And it's Douglas.’
‘What can I do?’ asked Douglas.
‘You can send Kai a message through Gedrus, saying you want to see her before she goes.’
Douglas looked doubtful. ‘You think she'd agree to that?’
‘It's possible,’ said Quomp. ‘You saved her life so she owes you a life debt. The Vangarians take that sort of thing very seriously.’
‘But won't she know it's a trap?’ asked Ivo.
‘How can it be a trap?’ said Quomp patiently. ‘She has a Touchstone. If I ordered troops to lie in wait and ambush her she'd know about the orders before the troops even boarded their transport. She'll have asked Gedrus to tell her if anyone is planning an attack.’ He turned back to Douglas. ‘When you meet her, you will be entirely alone. Neither I nor anyone else will be at hand. It's the only way this will work.’
‘So what do I do when I see her?’ asked Douglas.
The Guardian took a deep breath. ‘You explain to her that taking the stones back to her people will cause more harm than good and ask her not to do it, but to return the Touchstones to me.’
There was a long pause while the boys looked at him.
‘That's the plan?’ said Douglas, doubtfully.
Quomp nodded.
‘You want him to persuade her to give back the Touchstones?’ said Ivo.
‘Yes.’
‘I don't think it'll work,’ said Douglas.
‘Well, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.’ The Guardian's face had taken on a defensive look. ‘But it's what we have to do because Gedrus says it's the best thing.’ He turned to Douglas. ‘Will you do it?’
Douglas thought about it, but only for a moment. Gedrus had been very definite that he should do whatever Quomp told him and if the Guardian wanted him to talk to Kai, there was no reason he could think of to say no.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Of course I will.’
The Guardian gave Douglas very precise instructions about how to send the message to Kai through Gedrus, and what it should say. Then he warned him that th
e reply might come at any time in the next few days – or not at all – but in the meantime he was to carry on with life as normally as possible.
‘You won't see me, of course,’ he explained as he led the way back to the kitchen to retrieve his jacket. ‘I'll have to keep right out of the way. If Kai does decide to contact you, the last thing we want is for her to see me hovering in the background.’
‘What's happened to my robot?’ Ivo limped into the kitchen and looked round. ‘It's gone.’
‘I've had it destroyed.’ The Guardian pulled on his jacket and straightened his tie. ‘The Nihilator as well, I'm afraid. Call me old-fashioned, but there was something about the idea of a plasma cannon and a warship's force field in the hands of a twelve year old that was more than my nerves could take.’ Determinedly ignoring the look on Ivo's face, he added, ‘Don't worry about getting home. I'll give you a lift. But we'll have to hurry. Gedrus tells me Douglas's mother will be here in four and a quarter minutes.’
Outside he paused before climbing into the Toyota and turned to Douglas. ‘Remember, you send the message this evening. If you're not certain about anything, do whatever Gedrus tells you. I'll be in touch when all this is over.’
Douglas nodded, and the Guardian glanced across to where Ivo had already heaved himself into the passenger seat. ‘Have you two known each other long?’
‘Not really,’ said Douglas. ‘Only a few weeks.’
‘Interesting.’ The Guardian paused with his hand on the door. ‘Not everyone would have done what he did. Must be good to know you've got a friend like that at your back, eh?’
Douglas thought what it must have been like for Ivo to arrive at the house, look through the kitchen window, see a man with a Touchstone, realize he must be a Guardian and then burst in and point a Nihilator at his head.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Yes, it is.’
When he finally got to bed that night Douglas felt it had been a very long day.
His mother had arrived home almost immediately after Quomp had driven off, and announced that she had left her job at the supermarket. A few minutes later, sitting at the kitchen table, while Douglas got a chicken curry from the freezer and put it in the microwave for supper, she burst into tears and admitted that she had not left her job but been fired.
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