curiousers under way

Part 6 - Interfacing Verbally

We talked intermittently about returning to the Titanic and when school ended Licia went home to get her yellow floater coat just in case we ended up on the Titanic. Miguel and I waited for her outside the school near Dr Zhang's battered station wagon. It had stopped snowing but the thick clouds had turned the day into an eery twilight. It was silent except for the distant blatting of an Harley Davidson. In the gloom I was so nervous that I was almost ready to walk away. There was something really scary about the electric bookcase.

'What's that funny looking tent for?' Licia asked as soon as she arrived. She pointed to a vivid orange and yellow shelter down the street, almost buried in the snow. 'It wasn't there last night.'

'That's set up around the telephone connection box,' Miguel said. 'Someone must be working on the cables.'

'The Bunglers!' I exclaimed. 'Let's take a look.'

The snow in front of the tent was trodden down but there was no one inside and no sign of a Bunglers' van.

'Maybe real technicians have been working on Oppy's fibre optic cables,' Licia suggested. 'Now, how are we going to get into the school? The door is locked.'

'Aha!' Miguel said. 'With fiendish skill. The lock on the window over the Dumpster is broken. I'll just give Ziff a boost while you keep a look out.'

'Um,' I said apprehensively. 'Do you really want to do this? I mean, we don't have to go.'

'You want a motion to verbally re-interface?' Miguel asked. 'I must caution you, the risk/reward ratio is probably negativo.'

'If you can translate what Miguel is talking about,' Licia remarked sarcastically, 'I'll go along with whatever you decide.'

'Okay, let's talk to Dr . . .'

The rest of my sentence was rendered inaudible by the noise of the approaching Harley. We ducked behind the Dumpster container as it stopped. Its huge headlamp cast surreal shadows on the school walls. The driver killed the engine as the passenger swung his massive boot over the pillion, tugged his helmet off and sipped at a Tim Horton's coffee cup. 'Witness this,' he told the driver. 'The stench of Murga doth offend the air.'

I might have guessed. It was Shakespeare's bodyguard, Triple Oh, with his assistant, the Darth Vader biker, Theo.

'Ziff!' he hissed. 'I know thou art about this place. Thou hast the wristband.'

Licia, Miguel and I stepped out from behind the container sheepishly.

'Master Ziff, well met.' He gave us an infectious grin. 'Methink Fortune doth favour us. Thou art well?'

'Yeah, thanks Triple Oh. Did you find my parents yet?'

'Alas and alack, no. We picked up Murga's trail whence you left him in the Tian mountains but he is a man of unnatural guile. He has nexus transponders in every time phase. We traced an unauthorized signal from Toktakunov but his code scrambled the time and we had to play hazard.'

'Toktakunov?' Licia asked. 'Who is he?'

'Methinks it, or he, is Murga's controller.'

'Why are you here?' I asked.

Double Oh struck a theatrical pose. 'I am sent with broom before, to sweep the dust behind the door.'

Licia laughed. 'Is that from Shakespeare?'

Onderdonk eyes twinkled. 'Well discerned fair maid. It is Robin's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream.' He sipped his coffee and chuckled.