boats, this baby looked like it could do some serious haul ass.
We all boarded and Spader cast off the lines. Yenza powered up the engines, which as usual weren’t all that loud. These water-powered engines were great! Yenza then expertly guided the boat away from the docks of Grallion and out into open water. Moments later, once we had passed the marker buoy, Yenza hit the throttle and this boat showed us why it was called a speeder. I was nearly thrown over by the sudden surge of power, in seconds we were flying over the water like a seagoing jet.
Like the skimmers, the ride was smooth and pretty quiet. The only way I could tell we were moving so fast was from the wind whipping at my face. When I stood up I had to lean forward or it would have knocked me back down.
The two agronomers kept to themselves during most of the trip. They stayed in the cabin up front and argued. What else was new? They had pads of paper where they scribbled out equations and formulas. I assumed they were trying to figure out how to undo the harm done by their mutant fertilizer.
Yenza stayed at the controls. Spader acted as navigator. He had charts and plotted a course to Panger City. Uncle Press and I had nothing to do except worry. Would it be too late to recall all the fertilizer? How far had it spread? Had it already started a chain reaction that would infect all the crops of Cloral? Stranger still was the mystery of Faar. What was so important about this mythical city that the dying wish of Spader’s father was to tell his son about it? How did this all tie in with Saint Dane? Hopefully, all of these questions would be answered on Panger City.
“This makes perfect sense,” said Uncle Press softly. He was looking out onto the water, thinking.
“What does?” I asked. I wasn’t used to hearing that things were making sense.
“The agronomers went too far,” he said thoughtfully. “Their intentions may have been noble, but they created a monster. It’s just the kind of thing that Saint Dane would take advantage of. He’ll do everything in his power to keep the poison spreading and turn Cloral upside down. This is the turning point. This is why we’re here.”
“Then what about this lost city of Faar?” I asked.
“I don’t know where it fits into this puzzle, but if Spader’s father was concerned, then I’m concerned too.”
I looked up to the wheelhouse and saw that Spader was staring at the horizon. I wanted to know what was going through his mind. He was a great guy. A friend. But I was afraid his anger over the death of his father was going to get him into some serious trouble and make things worse for all of us. Hopefully his mother was safe. But then Spader would have the tough job of telling her that his father was dead. But as rough as this would be, what I really feared was that something might have already happened to his mother, like it happened to my family. If Spader lost his mother, then I was sure he’d go off the deep end.
The trip took most of the day. I tried to get some sleep but my mind was racing with worry. I watched the sun as it traveled across the sky on its way to the ocean. Then, just as I was finally nodding off -
“There!” shouted Yenza.
I quickly climbed the ladder to the wheelhouse and looked forward to where she was pointing. I didn’t see it at first because it was only a gray speck on the horizon. But as we drew closer and the speck grew bigger, I saw it for what it was.
Panger City.
Even though we were flying over the water at an incredible speed, it must have taken us another two hours to get there. That’s how big this city habitat was. The closer we got, the larger the buildings grew. It soon became clear to me that this habitat was every bit as big as Grallion, but unlike Grallion, it was covered with buildings. It really was a city! I was staring at skyscrapers! Some of them must have been over forty stories high. This looked every bit like a big city from home, but cities at home weren’t floating on the ocean. It was incredible!
As we got closer I saw more detail in the buildings. Like I told you before, there was no steel on Cloral. Everything was made from some kind of hard plastic compound. Rather than familiar building colors of gray concrete and silver steel, these buildings were white and light blue or green. But other than that they looked very much like office buildings at home.
When we got inside the safety buoy and slowed down, I had to strain my neck back to look up at the huge buildings that towered over me. Only one thought came to mind: How can this thing possibly stay afloat?
Yenza carefully drove our speeder into the dock area, which was very much like Grallion’s. Two aquaneers to guide us in and tie us up. They immediately stood at attention and saluted Yenza as she jumped off the boat.
“We may be leaving at any time,” she said with authority.
“Yes, sir!” responded both aquaneers professionally.
Yenza then turned back to us and barked to Manoo and Nassi, “Where is the Agronomy Society?”
Manoo scrambled over the rail of the boat, nearly fell in the water, but caught himself and stood up straight as if nothing were wrong. Nassi rolled her eyes and gracefully got off the boat.
“We’ll take you there,” he said sharply.
The little man waddled past Yenza and headed up the stairs toward the surface. The rest of us got off the boat and followed. I walked with Spader and asked, “When was the last time you were home?”
He didn’t answer. He kept looking ahead and picked up the pace to get away from me. So much for small talk. Spader’s mind was somewhere else.
When we arrived on the surface, we stepped out of a building and onto a scene that looked pretty much like any busy city street. The sidewalks were full of people hurrying to wherever they were hurrying; small vehicles traveled on the streets; and vendors sold food from wheeled carts. It was like being back in New York City, except everything looked more colorful, andwaycleaner.
There was one other detail that made it very different from home. There were water canals that ran parallel to every street. They were around twenty feet across, which was about the same width as the streets, but that was plenty big enough for the many small water-powered boats that traveled quickly along, speeding people on their way. I’d never been to Venice, Italy, but from the pictures and movies I’d seen, this was kindof like that. One quick look around showed me that these canals crisscrossed the entire city habitat. Every so often there were footbridges that stood like half circles over the waterways so that boats could glide under them. At each bridge was a beautiful fountain that sent up sprays of water in various patterns. The fountains had no function except to look good.
I have to say, Panger City was a beautiful place.
But I didn’t have much time to hang out and appreciate it. When we all regrouped on the street, Spader didn’t stop. Without a word of explanation he kept walking toward one of the canals.
“Spader!” called Yenza. “Spader, get back here. That is an order.”
Spader wasn’t listening. I knew where he was going and nobody was going to stop him.
Yenza was about to run after him, but Uncle Press stepped in front of her saying, “He’s going to see his mother.”
This made Yenza soften for a moment, but just as quickly her hard look returned.
“I understand, but that’s not why we’re here,” she said angrily. “He knows that.”
“He does,” said Uncle Press calmly. “We’ll stay with him. It’s more important that you get to the Agronomy Society.”
Yenza looked at Nassi and Manoo. Nassi was getting impatient. Manoo just looked like he wanted to pee.
“We can’t waste any more time!” Manoo squealed.
Yenza looked back to Uncle Press and said, “Let him talk to his mother, then bring him back to the speeder.”
“Understood,” replied Uncle Press.
Yenza definitely had a soft spot for Spader. I think he got away with a lot of things Yenza would never allow from her other aquaneers. On top of that, Spader had saved Grallion, with our help of course. So I guess he deserved a little slack.
I saw that Spader had already jumped onto a skimmer and was powering it up.
“Uhhh, Uncle Press,” I said. “We’re going to lose him.”
“Go!” shouted Yenza.
Uncle Press and I took off on a run toward the canal. It seemed as if all the skimmers were community property because people were getting on and off randomly and just leaving them, kind of like bicycles in China.
