NO ORDINARY ROOM (25 page)

When Jamie heard Soupinpota laugh, he relaxed and asked if he was joking about the demise of Geoff.

‘Yes, but what I said about time locks is true.  It just so happens that your friend’s time lock is very short and he should be reverting in a few minutes.  The snakes that you saw must have been the product of forward evolution with environmental modification just like he used when he created the Trioptica.  Those snakes normally live in and around Lake Zebron which is the biggest lake on Planet Titantula and like the Trioptica they are not normally aggressive, but they do have very poisonous venom and could kill an elephant with a single bite.’

Jamie didn’t dwell on the lethal venom. ‘You’ve lost me now, mate.  Forward, evolution and environmental modified.  What does it all mean?’

‘It would take too long to explain and you should be getting back to your friend to make sure that he doesn’t create a problem for you should he decide to break out of the shed.’

Jamie panicked at the thought of Geoff getting out of the shed and terrifying his mum and he took Soupinpota’s advice by signing off and hurrying downstairs and into the garden.  The grunting sound from inside the shed told him that Geoff hadn’t ‘returned’ yet, but when Jamie carefully opened the shed door he was just in time to see the process of Geoff’s transformation from gorilla back to normal.

Jamie was tempted to tell Geoff that he looked better as a gorilla, but had decided not to mention it unless Geoff knew what had happened to him.’

Geoff was looking really worried when he said, ‘Jamie, I think I’m going crackers.  I don’t know how I ended up in your garden shed and whether I just had a bad dream about snakes with jaws and horns and more eyes than I could count.’

Jamie felt sort of responsible for what had happened to cause his friend so much grief and he tried to help by way of an explanation. ‘When we came back from the field you stayed in the shed to do some bird watching from the shed window and you must have nodded off.  What happened on the field is all part of that government experiment I told you about and you are not going crackers.  I’ll try and explain some more details later, but we best go back inside the house.’

 Debbie looked concerned when the boys came into the kitchen and she asked, ‘Are you all right, Geoff, you look a bit pale.’

 
Geoff and Jamie exchanged glances before Geoff replied that he’d just eaten too much before playing football.  He resisted Debbie’s suggestion to go and have a lie down.  The last thing he wanted at the moment was to be left on his own.

‘Would you boys like some fruit?’ Debbie asked and when the boys muttered a ‘No thanks,’ she tried to persuade Geoff to have a banana to settle his stomach.

Jamie’s thoughts were back on the field and imagining the gorilla eating a banana and he would normally have laughed, but he was still terrified at the thought that he could have lost his friend forever if the time lock had been permanent.  

* * *

‘Have you boy’s had a falling out over football or something?’ Kevin asked as the family were having their evening meal.

‘Of course we haven’t,’ Jamie replied.

Jamie had been moving his potatoes and pie around the plate without actually eating anything.  Geoff was just as worried about things, but it hadn’t affected his appetite.

‘Well something’s up to make you so quiet and you’ll make a groove in one of your mum’s best plates if you carry on fiddling with that fork.’

‘I guess we’re both a bit bored.  I thought we could have a play on the computer after we’ve finished dinner.  What do you think, Geoff?’

Geoff had his mouth full of pie and just nodded his agreement.

 ‘So why don’t you come with us to the Blue Duck.  You could have a shandy in the beer garden.  I don’t like taking our Leanne there, so it’s a good opportunity with her having a sleepover at a friend’s house tonight.’

Jamie declined the offer intending to make good use of the time alone with Geoff to talk things over with him.  It would blow his friends mind, but he had to give him a proper explanation, especially if he was going to be in more danger
. 
He would be breaking his promise to Koolebron and Soupinpota, but he couldn’t keep this to himself any longer.

Jamie waited for his mum and dad to drive off and then he grabbed two bottles of cold drink from the fridge, handed one to Geoff  and suggested that they went up to the computer room.  Jamie was hoping that Soupinpota might have erased the details of what happened on the field from Geoff’s memory, but he was about to be disappointed when they had settled in upstairs.

Jamie what really happened out there today with those birds and snakes.  I just can’t get my head around how it could be an experiment that went wrong.’

‘I need to try and explain what’s been happening, Geoff and I don’t expect you to believe me, but I’ve got to try. Just remember what happened to us in the woods and on the field today before you think I’m mad.’

‘Whatever you’re going to tell me, mate, don’t get too technical.  I’m not into computers and stuff like you are or anything to do with physics if that’s what the experiment is all about.’

Despite Geoff’s promise to give Jamie a fair hearing he was soon nodding his head and laughing as Jamie tried to explain.

‘Let me get this straight.  You have been in touch with someone in outer space.  Now, someone else in outer space, who goes by the weird name of Devilmortex might be trying to kill you or frighten the life out of you and probably me as well.  But when you and Leanne were attacked by sharks they weren’t real sharks, just images, but those snakes on the field were real and so were the giant birds.  Do me a favour!’

    ‘I said you wouldn’t believe me, but how do you explain those birds.  You’re the expert perhaps you have the answer.’

‘How would I know? But it’s all, what do you call it, fantasy and so farfetched.’

‘Geoff it’s the truth.  I’m not kidding about any of this.  I’m really scared and that’s why I’m telling you when I shouldn’t because I am breaking a promise.’     

‘If you are serious about this stuff, Jamie, then your mate, Soupinpotty, or whatever he calls himself  is going to help you, isn’t he?’

Jamie was a bit sheepish before he said, ‘There’s something I haven’t told you about Soupinpota.’

Geoff sighed, ‘Something tells me this is going to be more mind blowing stuff.’

‘Just a bit,’ replied Jamie and then continued. ‘In the beginning Soupinpota pretended to be in outer space and then he told me that he came from near Scarborough, but he really does come from outer space.

‘You’ve told me this, Jamie,’ Geoff said, thinking that his friend was feeling a bit stressed by events.    

‘So, what do you think he looks like?’

Geoff shrugged his shoulders and the said, ‘I don’t know.  A little green feller with a big head, I suppose.’

Jamie nodded his head. ‘He probably looks more like that.’

‘Like what?’ Geoff asked.

‘Like that,’ Jamie replied, nodding his head once again in the direction of his computer. ‘Soupinpota is a computer, Geoff.  He’s a blinkin computer that acts and talks just like an ordinary kid even if a super intelligent one.’

‘You mean he’s a robot that’s been programmed to be human?’

‘Sort of and he even has a sense of humour.  Not exactly a Liverpool sense of humour, but he’s good fun, or at least he was until all the troubles started.  He can speak any language on earth and I expect quite a few galactic ones.’

‘So how is he going to protect you from the nutter who sent the bird and snakes after us and why is this Devilmortex after you anyway?  I suppose he’s a computer as well.’

Jamie explained that Devilmortex was a computer who had effectively turned nasty and to make matters worse his powers were increasing all the time. 

Geoff was looking really worried. ‘Jamie, if this is for real then you’ve got to tell someone.  You should tell the police, the army or anyone who can stop him, or should we say, it!’

‘The authorities would be powerless and the only hope is that he will be traced then he will be ‘closed down’ and that will be the end of it.  Anyway, if I told anyone else I really would be breaking my promise to keep it a secret.  I only told you because you have got caught up in it.’

‘Could old Devilmortex somehow nobble your mate, Soupinpotty and the super computer, Koolebron that you mentioned?’

‘I suppose so,’ Jamie replied.  He had been so preoccupied with his own problems that he hadn’t considered that perhaps Soupinpota could be destroyed and not just lose some of his powers.  What would happen if Devilmortex was joined by an army of rogue computers and decided not just to attack him, but others who were not connected to the Koolebron communication project? Perhaps the Americans could launch an attack on Titantula.

‘Jamie, Jamie, Anybody in there,’ Geoff said, clicking his fingers in front of Jamie’s face.

  Jamie flinched.  ‘I was in a bit of a dream world there for a minute.’ 

‘Perhaps you should at least tell your dad about all of this.  He might have an idea what to do and he’ll be on his guard.’

Jamie explained that his dad would laugh his socks off and have Jamie grounded.  There was no point in trying to warn him because according to Soupinpota there wasn’t much they could do to evade Devilmortex.  Hopefully, Soupinpota would thwart any attacks by Devilmortex while Koolebron led the search to root him out and destroy him. Jamie had decided not to tell Geoff that his brain was actually in outer space, because that really would have blown his mind.

* * *

During the next two days the two friends confined their activities to a kick about in the garden and lots of sessions on the computer.  There was no news from Soupinpota, but thankfully no sign of Devilmortex.

‘Do you think they could have fried each other’s chips?’ Geoff asked Jamie when they discussed it during a break from the computer.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Jamie.

‘I thought all computers had chips in them.’

‘Very funny, Geoff.  You’ll soon be a computer freak like the rest of us and talking of chips, did you phone Alice last night?’

Geoff’s face had that hound dog look when he replied, ‘I did, but she was out at her keep-fit class according to her mum.’

‘Well that’s good news, isn’t it.’

‘Not really.  If she gets too, erm, you know, attractive, she might pack me in.  I know that, Clive Moseley, whose dad owns a chippy on Rosamund Street, fancies her.’

‘That’s bad news Geoff.  Perhaps she’ll end up in an arranged marriage so that they can create a chippy empire.’

Geoff’s frown deepened when he asked, ‘Do you think so?’

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Jamie was looking forward to another day of computer games and watching some films after the horror of recent events.  So far, Devilmortex had only attacked them out in the open, so perhaps if he and Geoff stayed indoors for a few days they would be safe and Devilmortex might lose interest in them. 

Jamie had just shot down Geoff’s last plane and Geoff was threatening to get even in the next game of
Air Combat
when Jamie heard the shout from his dad summoning him to come downstairs.  His dad wasn’t usually home this time of day so he wondered what was up and told Geoff that they he had better go and see if anything was wrong.

Kevin greeted the boys with his usual smile and had a surprise question for them. ‘How would you two like to earn a bit of cash by working at the farm for the rest of the day?’

Jamie pulled a face. ‘You mean mucking out the pigs?’

‘It’s got nothing to do with pigs,’ Kevin replied.

‘And it’s definitively not with the pigs,’ Jamie asked, seeking fresh reassurance.

‘I wouldn’t mind working with the pigs.’

‘Good on you, Geoff, but our Jamie needn’t worry.  Mr Rosser planted some young trees in the small woods at the back of the farm last year and they need staking.  I’ll bring you home with me when I finish at three and you’ll have some extra cash for the holidays.’

Jamie was thinking that it would help him buy those new trainers he wanted and he couldn’t hide away from Devilmortex forever, but he still gave a reluctant, ‘All right.’

‘Don’t worry about your clothes there’s plenty at the farm,’ Kevin advised.

* * *

When the boys arrived at the farm Kevin insisted on showing Geoff the pigs while Jamie did some pig impersonations behind his dad’s back.

‘He’s a beauty, Mr Tranter,’ Geoff said admiring one of the pigs.

‘You’re a good judge, Geoff, but Miranda is actually a she and she’s a champion.’

Once the boys were kitted out in their bright blue overalls and oversized boots Pat Rosser took them across to the small woods and pointed out the young trees he wanted staking.  The tools, wooden stakes and rubber strips to tie them with were all there and he handed them some gloves which he told them to wear to stop them from getting blisters.

‘I’m just going to run over to Blake’s farm with your dad, Jamie.  We should only be gone about an hour and your dad will bring you some more drinks and biscuits when we get back.’

 A few minutes later Jamie watched the red pickup truck driven by his dad trundle out of the farm yard.

‘Come on then, Farmer Geoff, let’s get these trees a tied up,’ joked Jamie in his best attempt at a local accent.

They worked as a team and soon got into a rhythm, taking turns to hammer the pointed stake into the ground while the other one held it in position.  Jamie had to shout at Geoff a couple of times when he feared that the hammer would strike his hand as Geoff was distracted by a bird flying near them.

‘At this rate we’ll run out of stakes before they get back,’ Jamie figured as he noted the diminishing pile of wooden stakes and then added,  ‘We’ll do one more then have a drink in the woods out of the hot sun before we start doing some tying.’

‘Aye, aye, captain,’ Geoff joked and then playfully hit his bossy friend with one of his gloves as they walked towards the woods a few yards away. 

As Geoff straightened up after retrieving his glove from the ground, he looked towards Jamie.  ‘What was that sound?’