Plague Island

by Justin D'Ath

  CONTENTS

  1 Something Beginning with V

  2 Regent Firebirds

  3 Hostage

  4 Unbelievable

  5 Danger Stranger

  6 Secrets

  7 Father Bird

  8 Sea or Air?

  9 You’re the Pilot

  10 Little Sister

  11 Tip Off

  12 75 Knots

  13 James Bond Without Spies

  14 Bang

  15 Plague Island

  16 Bullet Hole

  17 Smelly Hero

  18 Thirsty

  19 New Home

  20 Bird Thief #4

  21 Goldie and Scarlet

  22 Mussels for Muscles

  23 World of Rats

  24 Rat Army

  25 The Five Stages of Rat Flu

  26 Battery Low

  27 Enzyme-C

  28 Stage Five

  29 Wild and Free

  For Kathy and René

  ‘Van?’ said Colt.

  Birdy hesitated for a couple of seconds. ‘Kind of.’

  Colt twisted round in his seat. His friend Birdy was sitting in the back, next to a plastic crate with a mother and a baby mouse-deer in it. The fawn was only three days old and about the size of a real mouse – not that there were mice anymore.

  ‘What do you mean, kind of?’

  Birdy looked apologetic. ‘Van isn’t right. But you’re really, really close.’

  ‘Vanmobile?’

  ‘No. Is that even a word?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Colt admitted.

  Kristin’s eyes found Birdy in the rear-view mirror. ‘Vardo?’

  ‘Ding!’ went Birdy.

  Colt sighed. It had been staring him in the face – Vardo, in chipped silver letters, on the rear of the small grey van that had just squeezed into the barely van-sized space between his mother’s Ford Appaloosa and Mr Greene’s truck in front.

  ‘I’m useless at I Spy,’ he said.

  ‘What do you think, Birdy?’ asked Kristin, dropping back a bit because the van was drifting all over the road. ‘Should we let him have a turn?’

  ‘Sure. I almost said yes when he said van.’

  ‘That would have been cheating,’ Colt told her.

  ‘Says the boy who came up with vanmobile!’ laughed his mother.

  She stopped laughing when the little grey van suddenly pulled out across the no-overtaking lines and went roaring past the big circus truck ahead.

  ‘Some people shouldn’t be allowed to drive,’ she muttered.

  The next moment Kristin’s own driving skills were tested when the truck’s brakelights flashed on in a blaze of red that seemed to fill their windscreen. She had to brake so quickly that the HoloPad in Colt’s lap nearly slid onto the floor.

  Mr Greene’s truck, Kristin’s four-wheel drive and the caravan it was towing all came to a screeching standstill.

  ‘Sorry about that, guys,’ she said, sounding a bit shaky. She sat staring at the rear of the stationary truck, her fingers lightly tapping on the steering wheel. ‘Colt, could you go and ask Mr Greene if everything’s okay?’

  Mr Greene looked after the circus aviary. His truck carried a priceless cargo – almost all the remaining Lost World birds on the planet. Only the emus, ostriches and peacocks were missing – their trucks had gone ahead with the other circus vehicles.

  Colt jumped out and went to see what was going on. They had stopped on a narrow stretch of road bordered by hectares of vacant scrubland that had once been farms. A man he’d never seen before came hurrying towards him. The stranger had multiple ear-piercings and spiky ginger hair that would have earned him the name Ranga at Colt’s old school. And Ranga seemed angry.

  ‘Can I help you?’ he demanded.

  Colt tried to see past him. The grey van was parked crookedly just in front of the truck. Another man – this one wore a dark hoodie – had opened the truck’s passenger door and was speaking to Mr Greene.

  ‘Mum thought something might have happened.’

  ‘It’s all fine, mate,’ Ranga said. ‘Go back to your car.’

  Colt considered telling the unfriendly man that he knew the truck driver. That they were already running late because one of Mr Greene’s owls had hurt its wing and Colt’s mother, the circus vet, had stayed behind to tend to it while the rest of the convoy travelled on to the next town. But he decided to say nothing. Something wasn’t quite right here.

  So he just nodded and started walking back the way he’d come.

  But Ranga followed. Colt could hear his heavy footsteps behind him. He increased his pace slightly and reached the Appaloosa four or five metres ahead of the red-haired man. Jumping in, he pulled his door closed so quickly it almost slammed.

  ‘We’ve got to go, Mum. Hurry!’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked.

  ‘Just go!’

  But it was too late. Ranga had walked round to the driver’s side and was tapping on Kristin’s window.

  ‘I think they’re hijackers,’ Colt whispered.

  Kristin hit a button and all the doors locked. Then she buzzed her window down about five centimetres.

  ‘Hi!’ she said brightly. ‘Is everything all right?’

  ‘Everything’s fine,’ Ranga said, frowning. He must have heard the doors lock. His eyes darted back and forth, taking in all the clutter inside the Appaloosa and the caravan hitched to the back of it. ‘On holiday, are we?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Kristin said – even though they weren’t on holiday, it was just moving day for the circus. ‘We’re off to Sunshine Bay.’

  ‘Lovely weather for it,’ said Ranga, his face relaxing.

  Kristin glanced across at Colt with a warning look in her eyes. ‘We couldn’t ask for better, could we, guys?’

  Colt got the message. ‘Sure couldn’t,’ he said.

  Ranga leaned close to the partially opened window. ‘Listen, ma’am, you had better be on your way. It’s a long drive to Sunshine Bay and I’m sure the kids can’t wait to get into the water.’

  He gave Birdy a wink, and she smiled back uncertainly.

  ‘Yeah, Mum, let’s get a move on,’ Colt said. ‘I want to see if that Virtual Gills snorkel I got for Christmas actually works.’

  ‘Is he really a hijacker?’ Birdy whispered as Ranga checked that the road was clear in both directions, then waved Colt’s mother around the stationary truck like a policeman directing traffic.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Colt whispered back. ‘But he wouldn’t let me go and talk to Mr Greene.’

  ‘He’s got shifty eyes.’

  ‘Try not to stare,’ warned Kristin.

  But it was hard not to stare as they drove past the truck’s cabin, where both doors were now open and nobody was inside. There was nobody in the little grey van, either.

  ‘Where’s Mr Greene?’ asked Birdy.

  Kristin accelerated slowly down the lonely country road, away from the grey van and the brightly-painted circus truck with its precious cargo of birds. ‘Colt, could you put a call through to Captain Noah, please?’

  Colt used the Appaloosa’s dashboard communicator to phone the circus boss. But when Captain Noah’s voicemail came on instead of Captain Noah himself, Kristin sighed in frustration.

  ‘Why does he turn his phone off?’

  ‘He’s probably driving,’ Colt said.

  ‘Hasn’t he heard of hands-free?’

  ‘He likes to listen to relaxy music while he drives,’ Birdy explained. ‘Violins and stuff. He gets grumpy if anyone interrupts.’

  ‘I’ll give him grumpy,’ muttered Kristin, and left a very grumpy message asking him to call back urgently.

  ‘Should I give my mum a call?’ Birdy held up h
er antique iPhone where Kristin could see it in the rear-view mirror. ‘She never turns hers off.’

  ‘If you like,’ Colt’s mother said distractedly.

  They had driven around a bend and the truck and the van were no longer visible in the side mirrors. That meant the hijackers – if that’s what they really were – could no longer see them, either. Kristin braked and pulled over to the side of the road. ‘Call triple zero,’ she said to Colt.

  Kristin told the police what had happened. Then she and Colt gave brief descriptions of Ranga, the grey van and Mr Greene’s truck. Before hanging up, the female officer taking their call told them to go to the police station in the next town and make a formal statement.

  ‘The formalities can wait,’ Kristin said when they were back on the road. There was a yellow Rest Area sign ahead. She flicked the indicator switch. ‘I’m not going drive off and leave Mr Greene in the lurch.’

  ‘Aren’t the cops coming?’ asked Birdy, who had been on the phone to her mother while Kristin and Colt talked to the police.

  Kristin nodded. ‘But even if they send a helicopter, it won’t get here for at least thirty minutes.’

  She pulled into the rest area, parked behind some trees and jumped out. ‘Give me a hand, Colt.’

  Colt jumped out, too. ‘What are we going to do?’

  His mother marched round to the back of the car. ‘We’ll unhitch the caravan and leave it here,’ she said. ‘Then we’ll drive back to see what our friends are doing.’

  ‘Our enemies,’ Colt corrected her.

  ‘We don’t know that for sure,’ she said.

  A short time later, the Appaloosa, minus its caravan, was roaring back along the road the way it had come.

  ‘They might have guns,’ Birdy said suddenly.

  Kristin made a sucking noise through her teeth. ‘Let’s hope they haven’t.’

  The thought of guns sent a tingle through Colt’s body. His muscles started to bulge, and all at once the seatbelt felt too tight across his chest.

  He wished he’d had more to eat at breakfast.

  ‘Listen carefully, you two,’ Kristin said. They were approaching the slight bend in the road that would bring the hijack scene back into view. ‘As soon as we see them, I want both of you to duck out of sight.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I’m hoping they won’t recognise us. Last time we were towing a caravan and there were three of us in the car. This time there’ll be no caravan and just me. Colt, may I borrow your sunglasses?’

  ‘Sure.’

  He handed them over and she put them on.

  ‘How do I look?’

  ‘Like a secret agent.’

  They shared a playful grin, but they were both feeling nervous.

  Birdy asked, ‘What are you going to do, Mrs L?’

  ‘I’m going to drive casually past and check out what’s going on.’

  But her plans came to nothing. When they drove around the bend, there were no other vehicles in sight.

  Colt was puzzled. ‘Isn’t that where they were?’

  ‘It sure is,’ Birdy said. ‘I remember that line of trees. See those pretty ones with red and yellow leaves?’

  ‘They’re liquidambars,’ said Kristin, who knew the names of lots of trees. She drove slowly past the place where the hijack had occurred. ‘Our friends must have gone back the other way.’

  ‘Enemies,’ Colt said.

  This time she didn’t argue, just pushed her foot down on the accelerator pedal.

  The Appaloosa sprang forward. Colt wondered if you were allowed to speed when you were chasing hijackers.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ he said. ‘Why would they want to steal a circus truck?’

  ‘Well, duh!’ said Birdy. ‘What’s in the truck, Colt?’

  ‘Birds.’

  ‘Ding!’

  ‘But who wants birds?’ he asked. ‘Apart from Mr Greene and Captain Noah?’

  ‘Us,’ suggested his mother.

  ‘Prince Rezak,’ said Birdy.

  ‘Who’s he?’ Colt asked.

  ‘Only the third-richest person in the world.’

  That jolted his memory. ‘Was he that guy on HV last week? The one from that little country nobody has ever heard of who wants to buy the regent firebirds?’

  ‘It’s called Bintalu,’ his mother said. ‘You mightn’t have heard of it, Colt, but the bintalyte in this car’s batteries probably comes from there. Regent firebirds came from there, too.’

  ‘Even our ones?’

  She nodded. ‘If you go back several generations. Once upon a time the regent firebird was Bintalu’s national bird, but then rat flu killed them all off.’

  The rat flu pandemic twelve years earlier had not only wiped out all the world’s wild animals, it had killed all the wild birds, too. Only those in the Lost World Circus remained.

  ‘And now Prince Rezak wants them back,’ Birdy said. ‘He said he’ll pay ten million dollars each for them.’

  Colt let out a low whistle. ‘Wow!’

  Kristin looked at the speedometer and slowed down a bit. ‘You know, Birdy, I think you might be onto something. That kind of money would tempt any shady character to become a bird thief.’

  ‘But why take the whole truck?’ asked Colt.

  ‘Good question,’ said his mother.

  ‘And why didn’t we just sell that prince guy a couple of firebirds? Twenty million dollars would just about set up that animal breeding program Captain Noah’s always going on about.’

  ‘Because it might open up the floodgates,’ Kristin explained. ‘If we let Bintalu have our regent firebirds, what would we say when the Kenyans wanted our lions, the Americans wanted our bald eagles, and the New Zealanders wanted our kiwis?’

  Birdy gasped. ‘What about Lucy?’

  Kristin nodded. ‘The Indians would probably want their elephant, too.’

  ‘But she’s our elephant!’

  ‘My point exactly,’ Kristin said. ‘Or rather, Captain Noah’s point. He’d wind up with a whole pile of money, but no Lost World animals to breed from.’

  They had just come over the crest of a hill. Before them lay a wide, treeless plain. The road ran straight as an arrow all the way to the horizon. Other than an old blue station wagon coming up the slope towards them, there was no traffic in sight.

  Kristin switched her foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal. ‘How long were we away from the hijack site?’ she asked.

  ‘About five minutes,’ Birdy said.

  ‘And then some!’ said Colt. ‘We stopped to call the police, remember? That’s five minutes right there. After that we drove to the rest area and unhitched the caravan – five more minutes. Then the drive back to where we last saw the truck – two or three minutes. All up, I’d say we were gone for almost a quarter of an hour.’

  ‘All right, Einstein, I was way wrong,’ Birdy said good-naturedly. ‘But you suck at I Spy.’

  Kristin pulled over onto the gravel shoulder. ‘At any rate, they would hardly have had time to turn that big truck around and get this far ahead of us.’

  ‘Not at the speed you were driving,’ Colt commented.

  ‘Sorry about that.’

  ‘So where are they?’ asked Birdy.

  ‘They must have turned off somewhere,’ Colt said.

  His mother waited until the station wagon had gone past, then did a U-turn and followed it back up the hill.

  ‘Keep a look out for side roads.’

  Colt was tracking their progress on HoloMap. There was even a tiny 3D replica of the Appaloosa. He scrolled ahead. ‘There aren’t any side roads, Mum.’

  She flicked a sideways look at the pixellated virtual landscape that quivered in the air in front of her son. ‘Then there must be a track or a fire trail that’s too small to be marked,’ she said.

  They drove back the way they had come, scanning both sides of the road for places where the truck and van could have gone. But it was all forest and overgrown scrubland –
there was nowhere any vehicle except a four- or six-wheel drive could have left the road.

  Finally they were back at the place where the hijack had occurred. Kristin pulled over just short of the line of liquidambars Birdy had pointed out earlier.

  ‘Any ideas, guys?’

  ‘It’s like they just vanished into thin air,’ Birdy said.

  Colt watched the blue station wagon disappear around the bend about a kilometre ahead. ‘What if they didn’t turn around?’ he asked.

  His mother looked at him. ‘We would have seen them go past us when we were unhitching the caravan.’

  ‘Not if they turned off somewhere before the rest area.’

  Kristin clicked the transmission lever back into Drive. ‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ she said.

  The entrance to the abandoned farm was only fifty metres further on. It was so overgrown that they had driven past twice without noticing. But they didn’t miss it the third time. The car bumped across an ancient cattle grid matted with long grass and weeds. A long, narrow drive stretched ahead of them, half-hidden beneath a tunnel of overhanging liquidambars. No wonder it wasn’t visible on HoloMap.

  There were fresh tyre marks in a patch of mud.

  ‘Bingo!’ said Colt.

  Birdy stuck her head forward between the seats. ‘Do you think this is their hideout?’ she whispered.

  ‘It’s too close to the hijack site,’ said Kristin, inching the car forward. ‘I imagine they drove in here to hide the truck. If you’re right about them being after the firebirds, Birdy, they’ll want to get them out of the country as soon as possible.’

  ‘What about Mr Greene?’ asked Colt.

  ‘Let’s hope he’s all right,’ his mother said. ‘They’ll probably leave him with the truck.’

  ‘Will they tie him up?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘They might take him hostage,’ suggested Birdy.

  Colt laughed. ‘This isn’t a movie!’

  ‘It feels like one.’

  ‘I wish it was,’ said Kristin.

  So did Colt, but he wasn’t going to admit it. There were goosebumps running up and down both his arms, and the rat-bite scar on his right thumb was tingling. His body was in superhero mode, even if his mind wasn’t.

  What if they have got guns? he thought.