Adam and the Arkonauts (10 page)

.

CHAPTER 16

‘I don't know why we're here.'

It was the next morning and the Doctor and Adam were standing by a bus stop on the edge of Buenos Sueños. The Doctor was carrying a white box, the contents of which he had not divulged to Adam.

‘I gave my word to the Mayor,' said the Doctor sternly. ‘We must investigate the alarm.'

‘I don't care about the Mayor and your word,' Adam complained. ‘We should be rescuing Sniffage and finding Mum.'

‘A man is only as good as his word, Adam.'

‘I'm not a man yet,' Adam replied sulkily. ‘I'm a boy. And I don't care about words and promises. They're not real. Not like a dog.'

‘Words and promises
are
real,' insisted the Doctor. ‘And you are beginning to sound worryingly like your grandfather.'

‘I'd rather sound like him than you,' Adam grumbled.

‘Don't forget that it's thanks to you that we lost Sniffage,' the Doctor snapped, for a moment losing his temper.

‘And it's thanks to you that we lost Mum!'

They both lapsed into silence.

The night before had been terrible. Sniffage's absence had taken all the life from the boat. Even Malibu, who had been moaning for years about the amount of winks he had lost due to Sniffage's unnecessary barking, had been sad. But Adam felt Sniffage's loss worst of all because he had got him into trouble in the first place. And what for? The hotel register had told them nothing about his mother's whereabouts. They were back where they started, still in search of Adam's mum
and
now they'd lost Sniffage as well. Even Gogo and Pozzo had stopped telling jokes.

‘Listen, Adam,' said the Doctor suddenly, in a softer voice, ‘I don't want you thinking it's better to be like your grandfather. He was a bad man, who left his family and used his abilities in wicked ways. I'm going to tell you something. My word is not the only reason that we're still investigating the source of the alarm.'

‘What's the other reason?'

‘Did I ever tell you about how they discovered the structure of DNA?'

‘Only about a hundred times.'

‘Then you'll remember,' said the Doctor, ‘that the scientists knew that the structure of DNA had to be simple. That, even though human beings are complex creatures, the thing that forms the core of their make-up actually had to be very simple. But they couldn't work out exactly how all the complex things they were discovering could be resolved in a simple pattern.'

Adam couldn't believe it. After everything that had gone wrong, his father was still thinking about science.

‘Then they struck upon the idea of the double helix,' said the Doctor, ‘one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. All the things needed to make a complex human being in one simple structure.'

‘What has any of this got to do with Mum or Sniffage or the alarm?'

‘Everything,' the Doctor replied. ‘Ever since we've landed here things have got more and more confusing: the alarm, the letter, the election, the Mayor, the police, notes from your mother, Sniffage and the spilled coffee. It seems as if the whole place is crazy. But science would tell us there is something simple underneath all this madness, something that explains it all and links it together. And if we can only explain one thing, then perhaps everything else will fall into place. Just like –'

‘The double helix,' said Adam.

The Doctor nodded. As he did so, a rickety old bus wheezed its way out of a narrow street and lurched towards the bus stop.

‘But what if it's not simple?' said Adam. ‘What if it's not a double helix? What if it's a great big ugly mess instead?'

The doors of the bus opened and the Doctor climbed on, without answering the question. Adam sighed and followed him.

‘Welcome aboard,' said the bus driver. ‘My name is Captain – sorry . . . Señor Torres, and I will be driving you today.'

‘Hello,' said Adam.

‘Please choose your seat and settle down in preparation for the safety demonstration.'

‘Safety demonstration?'

‘In case of emergencies.'

‘But this is a bus, not a plane.'

‘I know that,' said Torres touchily. ‘There's no need to remind me I failed my pilot's exam. Please take your seat.'

Adam went and sat by the Doctor. There were no other passengers on the bus.

Bus Pilot Torres got out of his seat and stood in the middle of the aisle.

‘Welcome to Aerobus!' he announced. ‘The bus which is like a plane in every way. Except it doesn't fly.'

‘That's quite a big difference,' muttered Adam.

‘Please pay attention to the following safety announcement, even if you are frequent flyers . . . I mean, passengers. The emergency exit is located at the bus door.' Torres pointed to it. ‘In fact, it
is
the bus door. If there is an emergency, just go out of it – like you got in, except the other direction. We don't have any low-level lighting to show you the way but I will shine a torch on it – if the batteries haven't run out. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure in the cabin, please put your fingers in your ears until they pop. In the event of the bus landing on water, it is probably because it has been raining and there are puddles on the road. There is no need to adopt the emergency position or shout, ‘Brace, Brace!' but you can if you want to. I wish you a pleasant journey on Aerobus.'

Torres returned to the driver's seat, turned on the engine and the Aerobus began its slow crawl up the hill towards Tibidabo.

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CHAPTER 17

Welcome to Tibidabo,' said the driver as Adam and the Doctor got off the bus. ‘The hill above the city. I hope you enjoy your stay.'

‘Thank you,' replied the Doctor.

They stepped out next to the amusement park that Vlad had described. Today it was closed. It was a forlorn sight: the rides that should have been filled with shrieking children were instead silent and stationary, emitting only the odd creak when a gust of wind blew through them. The Doctor noticed Adam looking longingly at some of them.

‘Come on,' he said brusquely. ‘We'll have to go the rest of the way on foot.'

Adam tore his gaze away from the rides and followed the Doctor. They soon left the amusement park behind them and were hiking into the dry hills. The harsh yellow sun beat down, making every step an effort. Sweating profusely, they walked for another hour until suddenly the Doctor came to an abrupt halt. He motioned to Adam to keep silent. Remembering the parrots' warning about the guards, Adam did as he was told.

A hundred metres in front of them the mountain plateaued. Adam could see the outskirts of a small wood. And at the edge of the wood stood two guards with powerful machine guns.

The Doctor indicated they should retreat. They crept quietly back for about fifty metres until they found a large rock. The Doctor ducked behind it.

‘What are we stopping for?' asked Adam.

‘To prepare our attack,' the Doctor answered.

‘Attack? Didn't you see the guns?'

‘I did,' his father replied calmly. ‘But guns have a big drawback.'

‘They tend to make holes in everything?' suggested Adam.

‘Guns can make holes in
some
things.'

‘Like us,' Adam reminded him.

‘Like us,' agreed the Doctor. ‘But they have problems with other things. Especially little things.'

The Doctor placed his white box on the floor and opened it. Out of it, in strict military formation, trooped a platoon of ants: red army ants. They were led by General Lepti, their commanding officer.

‘Attention!' he signalled. Like other insects, they communicated by movement. And mimicking these movements with their own fingers was how Adam and the Doctor communicated with them.

The ants formed into serried ranks. General Lepti saluted them and then approached the Doctor, who put his hand on the ground so the General could march on to it.

‘General Lepti and the Special Ant Service reporting for duty, sir.'

‘Thank you,' signalled the Doctor. ‘There are two guards 150 metres away on the edge of the wood. They are in our way. I would appreciate it if the SAS could remove them.'

‘Yes, sir.'

General Lepti was an ant of few signals. He immediately marched off the Doctor's hand and returned to his platoon.

‘Listen up, troops,' he signalled. ‘The Doctor has ordered us to take out two guards that are blocking his entrance to the wood. Do you understand?'

‘Yes, sir,' signalled the platoon.

‘We will divide into four groups. A, B, C and D. Groups A and C will perform a frontal assault on the guards while groups B and D will skirt round the back, cutting off their escape. Any questions?'

One army ant raised his feeler.

‘Permission to speak,' indicated the General.

‘Do they have insecticide, sir?'

‘There have been no reports of chemical weapons,' confirmed the General. The tapping of abdomens showed this was good news. ‘Any more questions? No. Then on my . . .'

The General stopped. One ant had moved out of formation and was approaching him.

‘What do you think you're doing, soldier?'

The army ant signalled something.

‘Nobody told you to fall out,' signed the General. ‘Get yourself back in formation at the double.'

But the army ant did not get back into formation. Instead he signalled once more to the General, who did an abrupt about turn and marched back towards the Doctor.

‘Permission to march up leg, Doctor?'

Intrigued, the Doctor nodded, and General Lepti climbed up the Doctor's leg and into his hand. Adam was not an expert at observing the moods of insects (they were much more difficult to read than mammals), but he could have sworn that the General, normally so confident, seemed ill at ease.

‘It is with great regret, Doctor,' he signalled, ‘that I am forced to report my platoon has been shamed.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Can't say I've never heard of it before, but I never expected to find it in my swarm.'

‘What is it?'

‘Private Mandible over there,' Lepti indicated the army ant who was out of formation, ‘has informed me that he's . . .' The General made a sign with his legs that neither the Doctor nor Adam had seen before.

‘Could you repeat that more slowly?'

General Lepti complied.

‘Oh,' said the Doctor. ‘I can see how that could be quite awkward.'

‘What is it?' demanded Adam, who had still not been able to decipher General Lepti's communication.

‘I believe,' the Doctor said, ‘that Private Mandible has announced he is a conscientious objector.'

‘What's one of those?'

‘It's someone who doesn't believe in using violence,' his father explained. ‘I've never heard of it happening to an army ant before, because . . . er . . . well, they use violence to get pretty much everything. How interesting.'

‘Permission to convene a court martial, sir, find Private Mandible guilty of cowardice in the face of the enemy and sentence him to death?' General Lepti requested bluntly.

The Doctor shook his head.

‘I'm sorry, General, but when I allowed the SAS to come aboard the
Ark of the Parabola
I made it clear I believed in freedom of signal. The
Ark
was to be a place where animals could express themselves as they choose and there was only one rule.'

‘Don't eat each other!' said Adam.

‘Can't have him amongst the troops,' insisted General Lepti. ‘Bad for morale.'

‘Yes, I see that,' said the Doctor. ‘Perhaps . . .'

‘He can stay with me,' Adam suggested. Something about Private Mandible standing apart from the identical ranks attracted his sympathy.

‘That would be helpful, Adam,' said the Doctor.

‘Yes, sir,' said General Lepti.

The Doctor lowered him to the ground and he marched over to the solitary army ant.

‘Private Mandible, you are a coward and a disgrace,' the General informed him curtly. ‘You have dishonoured your species. Report to the Doctor's son and count yourself lucky that you're not subject to the extremes of military discipline.'

Private Mandible sheepishly saluted the General and marched as quickly as he could towards Adam, fearing that at any moment the General would change his mind.

Adam crouched down and held his hand out so Private Mandible could march on to it.

‘All I'm saying,' he signalled to Adam, ‘is give peace a chance.'

Peace, however, was not to be given a chance. The last thing General Lepti wanted was for other troops to ponder this anti-war message. No sooner had Private Mandible departed, than he ordered his troops to divide into the four assault groups and advance. The army ants marched out from behind the rock and headed towards the wood.

Adam put Private Mandible carefully in his pocket and, along with Doctor, waited to see what would happen. At first nothing did. The two guards patrolled the perimeter of wood, their machine guns slung menacingly in front of them.

‘Aiiee!' Suddenly, one guard grabbed at his leg.

‘What is it?' The other gripped his weapon tightly and scanned the area nervously. ‘Ouch!'

Now he knew. Army ants were swarming all over the guards.

‘They're on my leg!'

‘My arm!'

‘In my pants!'

‘In my eyes!'

Frantically the guards tried to brush the ants off their hands, legs and faces. But the army ants were used to creatures trying to repel them, and for every ant that was brushed off, another two attacked.

‘Retreat to base!' shouted one of the guards.

They turned and fled – right into General Lepti's trap. For waiting behind them were the two other attack groups. They swarmed up the legs of the disoriented guards, who had no chance. Everywhere they turned there seemed to be more ants.

‘Aiiee!'

‘Ouch!'

‘They're everywhere!'

‘I can't see!'

‘Water! Find some water!'

And desperate to escape the biting attentions of the army ants, the guards stumbled down the mountain.

‘Come on,' said the Doctor.

‘Aren't we going to wait for General Lepti's platoon?'

‘They'll reform and return to base when their job is done,' said the Doctor. ‘One of the creatures you need to worry about least is the army ant. We should be more worried about ourselves – we're far more vulnerable. Remember that and keep your eyes peeled for more guards.'

The Doctor led the way into the wood. Adam scampered after him. The sudden disappearance of the sun forced him to blink a few times to allow his eyes to become accustomed to the murkiness. His ears, however, were immediately sensitive to eerie noises. Branches creaked and twigs snapped underfoot. The very air he breathed was heavy and menacing. And looking round, all Adam could see were dark green bushes perfect for an ambusher or a guard to hide behind.

‘Are you sure about this?' he whispered.

‘I have seen or heard nothing threatening,' the Doctor replied.

‘But it feels wrong,' Adam said, looking left and right and back and forth, trying to keep all the potential points of attack under surveillance.

‘I hope you're not giving into fear,' said the Doctor disapprovingly. ‘Fear is a most unhelpful emotion that prevents human beings from acting logically and effectively by allowing the imagination to run riot. You will never see an animal imagining things.'

‘But what if the imagination is right and there is something to be scared of?' said Adam.

‘That is different,' the Doctor answered. ‘For example, if we were to come across something in these woods that menaced our lives – let us say, for the sake of argument, ten men armed to the teeth with orders to kill us on sight –'

‘Couldn't we say two?' asked Adam nervously.

‘If you insist,' said the Doctor. ‘In that case, then of course we would give way to terror. Now, I strongly approve of terror. The body shoots itself full of adrenalin and acts at peak performance in an attempt to escape. A real triumph of evolution.'

Adam wasn't so sure that he would give terror the same ringing endorsement. He might instead speak in favour of sitting on the deck of the
Ark of the Parabola
with nothing much to worry about. But that didn't appear to be an option. The Doctor forged ahead. ‘If there are ten men armed to the teeth with orders to kill us on sight,' muttered Adam to himself, ‘then he's bound to find them.'

Deeper and deeper into the wood they went. Adam's eyes grew more accustomed to the dark and his ears were less spooked by the strange sounds. Suddenly the Doctor stopped. There was sunlight in front of them, seeming extra bright after the murk of the wood. They were on the edge of a clearing. Adam craned his neck round the Doctor and saw that in the very centre of that clearing there was a hatch. He tugged the Doctor's arm.

‘I think we've found it,' he whispered.

‘It's possible,' conceded the Doctor.

‘Let's go back to the city and tell Mayor Puig.'

‘We need some evidence,' said the Doctor. ‘I'm going to examine it more closely. Wait here!'

Firmly motioning Adam to remain behind, the Doctor cautiously poked his head out of the cover of the trees and into the bright light of the clearing. The noises in the wood seemed to have all quietened. To Adam this felt wrong. But he knew how the Doctor would scoff if he told him that it was too quiet. He watched as his father strode confidently over to the hatch and bent down to examine it. He told himself what the Doctor had told him before, that being frightened when there is nothing to be frightened of is silly and irrational and that he should try to –

What was that?

A black figure on a rope swung out of the trees to his left, another one to his right. Another two emerged from directly opposite. And all four had one thing in common: they were carrying guns.

Each gun was pointed directly at Doctor Forest. He stood up. Though he must have been terrified, he appeared perfectly calm. Adam marvelled at his father's ability to control his emotions.