UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC (book 1)

Part 47 - Prevue of the next book

The first chapter of BOOK 2  UNDERCOVER  -  WHITE OUT  

Part - 1    Nightmare 

It was only a nightmare, but it was all too real. I was trying rescue my bound and gagged father but I couldn't untie the knots when the dark room suddenly changed into a blinding blue kaleidoscope. In the scintillating light I didn't see Murga until he snatched me up and tossed me into the air like a baby.

Somehow I landed on my feet and sprinted away in terror. Murga followed, knocking over racks of merchandise in the process. The bangs and crashes of falling cans and glass jars woke me up.

But, it was only the Victorian vintage, cast-iron radiators expanding as they filled with hot water, in the old house where I shared an apartment with my grandma.

I lay in bed trembling, my pyjamas drenched in sweat, and thought about the real nightmare where I had found my father, drugged and semi-conscious only a few weeks ago at the Galactic Deli.

He had disappeared, while prospecting for oil in western China, many months before and by pure chance I had found him bound and gagged in the Galactic Deli. Our reunion sadly lasted only a few minutes as Murga had mysteriously vanished taking Dad with him and leaving no trace except for a few overturned racks of merchandise.

And, then suddenly, I remembered! Our landlord, Mr Bragg, had been talking to Murga about me, just before I found Dad. Bragg must have know what was going on.

I jumped out of bed, sprinted up the stairs to Mr Bragg's apartment and hammered on the door. There was no answer, although I kept knocking for several minutes, so I figured he was not at home.

I looked out of a downstairs window with disbelief. Whirling snowflakes were converting trees and rooftops into surreal sculptures and obscuring the world in diminishing shades of white. I watched a city snow plow roar down rue Sumac street, pushing the snow into a windrow and blocking all the driveways with a neat barrier of packed snow. Winter had arrived in Ottawa, Ontario, and it was still only the middle of November.

Back in our apartment, I switched the TV to the weather channel and watched the forecaster cheerfully announce . . . 'the first snow storm of the season, and it is quite a surprise. Fifteen to twenty centimetres; not a Snowmaggedon but close. And it is not going to melt for several days.'

I hated snow. It looked pretty in pictures but I was sure it was harmful to the human body in large doses. Grandma had already left for work so I checked the fridge in case she had put some food in it but there was nothing edible so I checked the cupboard and found a few stale crackers for breakfast. Grandma was trying to loose weight and my need for food was not on her shopping list.I supplemented the crackers with few remaining Halloween candies and shared the crackers with my pocket sized wolf, Pacman.

He didn't look much like his remote ancestors; more like a miniature musk ox crossed with a pirana; all teeth and long black fur. He looked a little disappointed but sniffed and ate them anyway.

There was no sign of the sidewalk snowplow so I started mushing my way through knee deep snow to Silverwood School. Our neighbour, Mr Kowalchuk, savagely slid a large scoop into the snow bank blocking his driveway. (Mushing is a word derived from the French verb Marcher meaning to walk or march).

'I love this stuff,' he grouched sarcastically. 'I haven't had a single mosquito bite this morning.'

He dumped the scoopful of snow on one side and resumed his attack on the snow bank.

I gave up trudging along the sidewalk and climbed over the windrow. I was easier walking on the newly plowed road pavement.

As soon as I met Licia Hu and Miguel Griego, my friends at Silverwood School, I told them about Mr Bragg meeting Murga at the Galactic Deli. Miguel had not seen Mr Bragg at the time but remembered him talking to Murga's mysterious partner, Kozak, near Silverwood School on Halloween.

The morning was taken up with a mixture of Canadian history and English so I was glad when lunch recess arrived so we could continue discussing our terrifying escape from the Royal Mail Ship Titanic just before she sank.

And this was the result of an excursion through Dr Zhang's experimental apparatus at Silverwood School. He had insisted that it was only a virtual experience, but we were not convinced. We had been waiting for an explanation but we had seen no sign of him, or his partner Denny Vernier, for a few weeks.

Denny's machine shop was locked up and so was Dr Zhang's office, so they had not yet returned to Silverwood School.

We found a quiet corner in one of the class rooms to talk about the Titanic and inspected the contents of our lunch bags. As I was slowly finishing off the candy we had collected at Halloween, we debated the relative nutritional benefits of Fudge Eyeballs compared to Toad Kisses.

'Pepperoni gob stoppers are best,' Miguel advised. 'More protein.'

'Be serious you two,' Licia chided, 'they are mostly sugar with little nutritional value.

'Oh-ho!' Boz stuck his nose through the doorway. 'This is where Goldilocks is hiding.' Cliff Boswell had given me the nickname on account of my blond curly hair.

'How's your porridge, Doynk, not too cold, eh? What are you three bears gabbing about. What's the big secret?'

'Nothing that would interest you,' Licia snapped. 'It would require more brain neurons than you have.'

'Losing your memory, Boz?' I asked. 'That's a sign of old age . . . My name is Dion, Ziff Dion . . . Do try to remember.'

Miguel was a little more blunt. 'Boz off, Bug. No one invited you.'

Licia suppressed a giggle as Boz glowered, unwilling to back down but not ready to provoke a fight with Miguel.

I broke the standoff. 'I've finished my lunch,' I told Licia and Miguel. 'How about we chill outside where the air is . . . er . . . chillier?'

'Being kissed by toads always makes me upchuck,' Licia hissed as we passed Boz on our way to the exit.

Boz glared at her but said nothing and ambled away, probably trying to think of a sarcastic retort.

I nodded toward the shambling figure of Boz. 'Where's he going?'

Miguel grinned. 'Into the heart of dorkness.'

Licia was still giggling about Boz the Bug five minutes later. 'Buzz off Boz. I like that.'

We walked outside in the snow but we circle back through the main entrance in the hope we might find Denny's Jeep in the parking lot.