Smoking Power

Chapter 12

I carefully place the first piece of the lavapick in a padded container amongst our equipment. We've found one, four more to go.

I walk out of the storage room and go to the lounge. Declan's asleep in his cabin and Amber is flying the plane, which leaves me to be the one to call Gareth. In the mansion we all swapped phone numbers due to it being easier to call in emergencies. I get my phone out of my pocket and call Gareth.

On the fourth ring he finally picks up, "Hello?" I guess he didn't bother checking the caller ID.

"Hey Gareth, it's me, Mckayla." I tell him while lying down on the couch.

"Mckayla, mission update I'm guessing?"

"Yeah. We found the first piece."

"Well I must say that I am pleased to hear that. May I ask where it was? Any problems getting it?"

"Oh yeah, you only know what the clue was don't you? Well it was on the Big Banana. As for the problems, we bumped into a Hogmer."

"The big banana, I should've known." Yeah you should've, I think to myself, "Now about this Hogmer." He continues on, "Are you guys ok? Do you know why it was there?"

"Actually I have a lot to ask you about Hogmers," I begin, thinking of how I'm going to say this to him. "First up, the Hogmer was there because some guy called Magister Dux had sent orders out to kill us. Do you know who or why that is?"

"Magister Dux, Magister Dux." I can hear Gareth speaking quietly on the other end, as if thinking it over. "I've never heard of it before. I don't know. A Hogmers name perhaps?" Gareth seems as unsure as I feel.

"Ok, thanks. Um there is one more thing though." I nervously pick at my nails. How do say that someone forgot to tell you some very important information that could of saved your life? Not that this information saved my life or anything. "Did you know that Hogmers could transform from their normal Hogmerish self into a human? Because that's what the Hogmer that we bumped into did and, let me tell you, it was quite a shock."

I wait patiently for Gareths answer, I can hear a scratching noise in the background, like one of those old fashioned feather pens scratching on paper. What the? "Uh no, no I didn't. What an unnerving piece of insight there. You'll have to be careful then. Who knows, what the difference between the two species is then."

"I take it, you didn't know that they could create invisibility pockets, then either?" I sigh.

"No, I didn't. Be careful when you look for the other four."

"Will do. I'll call again when we find the second piece." With those final words, I hang up.

I sigh and rub my temples. Gareth has such good high-tech, I really thought that he would know. Oh well, at least Declan can shut up about Gareth having memory loss. Or maybe he does have memory loss and forgot that he knew about Hogmers powers? Argh, I'm going insane, just like Declan.

"How'd it go?" Amber asks, coming to sit next to me.

"Well, he's happy we found the first piece. Concerned about our little run in with the Hogmer. Had no clue who Magister Dux is, although he did suggest that it might be a Hogmers name. And he never knew about Hogmers being able to transform of create invisibility pockets." I sum up all that Gareth said.

I hear a snort behind me. Declan walks in the room with his baby blue pyjamas on and a case of very messy bed head. "Of course he knew about it. He's just forgotten about it due to memory loss." He says.

Gee thanks Declan you just proved that I am going as insane as you are to even think that.

"I for one think that we should just forget about this whole thin' with Gareth not knowin' 'bout Hogmers abilities. He's a nice guy and as far as I know hasn't been in any fights with 'em. How would he know? Let's just focus on findin' out where the next piece is."

"Mount Everests shadow and fan. I'm guessing that it's got something to do with Mount Everest?" I suggest more than ask them.

"Something that follows Mount Everest?" Declan asks while trying but failing to cover a yawn.

"I guess we'll see when we get there." Amber says. She gets up and sets the co-ordinates in.

"Hey Micky," Declan sleepily asks.

"Yeah?" I answer him.

"How do you think that British guy knew what we were looking for? Why would he help us?" Declan asks, genuinely curious.

I pause before answering him. How did the guy know? "Well Gareth said that there'd be someone there to tell us the next clue."

"Yeah, but what specie do you think he was? I mean I'm pretty sure he isn't human." Declan persists.

"Maybe he's one of us, living outside the homestead? Who knows how many more of us are out in the big wide world." I try to sound like I have some idea of what I'm talking about.

Declan still doesn't look convinced. "Ok, if you say so." He eventually mumbles around another yawn. "I'm gonna go back to bed."

I start to yawn myself after seeing Declan yawn so much. I once read somewhere that yawns were contagious. I guess it must be true because I'm feeling really tired. I look out of the window of the plane. After the whole drama of going through customs and figuring out what to do with the first piece of the lava pick, the rest of the day passed really quickly.

Tomorrow, instead of tramping around banana land we'll be freezing ourselves, wondering around Mount Everest, trying to find wherever the next piece is.

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(Mr Anonymous POV)

I walk in Gareths office to see him writing on an empty letter. "What's happened?" I ask him, sitting down on one of the black plastic chairs across from him. He really needs new chairs for his office, I reckon these came from Vinnies or somewhere.

"They found the first piece." He says, not bothering to look up.

I chew on my bottom lip. I still don't think that they should be doing this. It's to dangerous, for us especially, to give a bunch of teens the ultimate weapon against Hogmers. "Relax would you? It's perfectly fine." Gareth still hasn't looked up but he must sense my anxiety.

I sigh, Gareths right, maybe I am just paranoid. This is the twenty first century, not the nineteenth, it's perfectly fine, just as Gareth said. "What are you writing anyway?" I ask him.

"They know about the powers. They got in a little fight with one. Apparently Magister Dux sent orders out to kill them."

I silently curse under my breath, "maybe we should just tell them?"

"Are you kidding? No way. They're from the Homestead. We can't tell them." Gareth finally looks up from his letter.

I sigh and run my hands over my face, "I hope you know what you're doing, that's all I can say."

"I do." He says, smiling slightly in a way that is slightly creeping me out, "Oh, I do."

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A/N:

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