curiousers under way

Part 26 - Happy New Year

We almost made it. The banging from the motor got to be louder than the muffler and it finally died. We coasted as far as the school but we had to push the station wagon through the snow into the parking lot. 'That's the blooming limit,' Denny told Dr Zhang. 'Now you are going to buy a new car. I'm not going to even try fixing this one again.'

Dr Zhang's office seemed like an oasis of tranquillity. He put the kettle on for hot chocolate and soon we were perched around his desk munching fortune cookies.

Sam breathlessly told us what had happened after he had stepped through the loading dock doors and had watched the bus disappear down rue Bank street.

'Oiy didn't know what to do. An' den dis big goose landed in the snow and talked to me. 'onest it was talking. It said it was Ziff Dion's uncle Dunc an' asked me where you was.'

'I tol' it you had gorn on a big omnibus wiv big windows and funny writing all over. He said that was Chinese writing an' tol' me to go to 69 Sumac street and tell Beryl what 'ad 'appened.'

'Den 'e took orf and oiy di'n know what to do. I ran all d' way to Ziff's house and tol' Beryl what had 'appened. Den she tol' 'er frien's and we all went after yer in d' minibus.'

We were all talking about the tetrahedrons on the seat back TVs in the bus when one of Dr Zhang's monitors turned itself on and Yonnie and Treeka appeared grinning from ear to ear. The tetrahedrons were gambolling about in the back ground.

'Speak to us, Lord Ziff,' Yonnie begged.

'Now, do you believe us?' Treeka voice sang triumphantly. 'It was us. We broke the cypher on their radios and mixed up the messages and we destroyed the Bravo Whiskey guys' cars.

'The back up teams,' Treeka explained. 'I used the engine computers to retard the spark plug ignition so that the engines burned out,' she added.

'And that melted the mufflers on the cars, too,' Yonnie giggled.

'How did you know where we were?' I asked.

'We found out when Dunc the goose contacted Triple Oh Onderdonk on an asynchronous link,' Treeka explained.

'And before that we set up a time linkage and sent Murga back to 1944, again,' Yonnie giggled. 'He was really mad but we saved Lord Ziff. Hip, Pip, Hooray.'

'Is dis a computer game?' Sam asked.

'So what happened to the Bravo Whiskey guys?' Miguel asked.

'Hah! Yonnie snorted. 'We monitored their radios. They bribed the driver of the Canadian Tire truck to take them to the border crossing. They got into the USA before the Ontario Provincial Police figured out they had gone.'

'Now, you believe us, right?' Treeka said. 'Please show us our great mother board.'

'Mother board?' Licia started with surprise. 'That's the main circuit board of a computer. So, you are computer programs?' she asked Yonnie and Treeka.

'Ha! We're way better than those babies!' Yonnie said truculently.

'Programs, indeed!' Treeka snorted indignantly.

'You didn't tell us your mother's name,' Miguel pointed out.

'I thought Yonnie told you! Ow!,' Treeka said as Yonnie kicked her shins.

'You said you would tell them,' Yonnie pouted.

'You said you had it all under control!' Treeka argued.