Undercover Goose - book 6

Part 32 - Are yeh no listening out?

'To quote Miguel, No hay problema,' Licia said. 'Dr Ah-um used a combination number to start it and I memorized the number. And my uncle lets me drive his combined harvester on his farm. So, how difficult can it be? Anyway, Beryl can probably drive it.'

Miguel laughed. 'Does the harvester have seventeen on board computers and six independent wheel drives. Not to mention all wheel steering and climbing hydraulics?'

 'No,' Licia admitted, 'but we did get a demonstration and there are operating instructions.'

Two minutes later we were in the school parking lot and Licia was punching the password into a keypad on the side of the Terramax. 

 'Wow!' Beryl said, 'I haven't ridden in anything like this since my army days but this looks a tad more modern than our old Light Armoured Vehicles.'

'I got it,' Licia exulted as the door hissed open.

Beryl leaned over Licia to examined the controls. 'This is not like anything I saw in the army. I'll be co-pilot and watch Licia for awhile. Miguel, you can read the operating manual.'

Seconds later I was buckling my seat belt behind Miguel, who was thumbing through the thick operating manual, and wondering if somewhere else might be safer, but I would have to climb over Beryl to get out and Licia had already turned the computers on. We got a repeat of Dr Zhang's demonstration as Licia clicked through an instrument check list with help from Miguel.

 'Windshield wipers, lights, turn indicators, check.' Fortunately, she skipped the seat back recline button instead she pushed a button which raised all the seats until our heads were jammed against the roof. 'Get us down before we pass out,' Miguel laughed. 'It's the button below the air conditioning.' 

 Licia eventually found the button which brought us down to a normal position. 

 'What's this lever for?' she asked. 'Don't touch that,' Miguel snapped. 'That's the ejection lever.'

'I pushed the Power button but the engine didn't start up,' Licia said.

'It's a hybrid,' Miguel told her. 'It is running on the batteries. I you draw more power the engine will start.'

 'Licia, hurry up,' I urged. 

 'Don't rush me. I can't find reverse . . . never mind, I found the turn-around button.' 

 The Terramax lurched as the six wheels aligned into a circle and we slowly rotated around the vertical axis before stopping.

'Press the Realign button . . . on the left,' Miguel advised.

The Terramax did a little dance as the wheels returned to the straight ahead position but the we stayed in the same position. 

 'Licia,' Beryl said gently, 'take your foot off the brake pedal.'

Licia lifted her foot but the Terramax still didn't move. A light was flashing on the monitor in front of me. 

 Miguel said. 'You've selected two wheel drive and one of them is spinning. You found the only patch of ice in the parking lot.  Press the transmission limited slip button.'

Licia selected all wheel drive so that all wheels were driving and we moved smoothly out of the parking lot . . . and straight over the huge snow bank onto Sumac Street.

'It was the shortest route,' Licia explained as Miguel groaned his displeasure.

'Wow!' Beryl exclaimed as we slithered down the far side. 'This is so exciting. I haven't had this much fun since I drove a light armoured vehicle over a cliff. How does it work?'

Licia replied. 'We're about to find out.'

The monitors in front of us lit up so we could see Yonnie and Treeka grinning at us.

'We finally got you hooked up,' Yonnie said, 'and Treeka is linking you to Dunc's video camera.'

 'Ziff, are yeh no listening out?' Uncle Dunc said over the radio in my ear.

'Uncle Dunc, Uncle Dunc,' I replied. 'We are following in the Terramax. What's up? Over.'