18: An Unlikely Ally
‘I knew he'd be trouble,’ said John, starting to get to his feet, ready to fight.
‘Stay,’ hissed Giles urgently. ‘There are more police arriving and they're all looking for you.’
‘What?’ said John, crouching back down.
‘Just stay there,’ said Giles. ‘They're not after me, so I can keep a look out.’
John and Tina looked at each other. Tina shrugged.
‘Okay,’ said Giles after an extended pause. ‘They're gone. But you've still got to be careful. Follow me and stay low.’
Giles walked back into the car park.
‘Now's our chance,’ whispered John, ready to run in the opposite direction.
‘Wait,’ said Tina.
‘What?’
‘I think we should go with him.’
‘You've got to be kidding,’ said John, incredulously. ‘He's probably behind all of this!’
‘I don't think so,’ answered Tina. ‘I think he's trying to help.’
John looked at her uncertainly.
‘Trust me,’ said Tina. ‘Please?’
John looked down at the asphalt, then back into Tina's eyes. He nodded.
Giles was now several cars away, walking casually without looking back. John and Tina dashed uncertainly from car to car, trying to keep up. Finally Giles stopped at a black SUV with dark-tinted windows. After looking around to make sure that no one was watching, he pulled a sturdy piece of wire from his pocket and expertly picked the lock.
‘Get in!’
John and Tina opened the back door and climbed into the vehicle. Giles got in behind the wheel. He ducked down, yanked some wires from under the dashboard, reconnected a couple of them and the SUV rumbled into life.
‘Stay down back there,’ he instructed, as he drove the car out of the car park and down the road.
‘Where are you taking us?’ asked John.
‘Away from the police,’ answered Giles.
‘He could be taking us anywhere,’ John whispered to Tina. Her hand tightened around his. She stared straight ahead without answering.
They drove in silence for about ten minutes before Giles pulled over.
‘Okay,’ he said, twisting around in the seat to look back. ‘We should be safe for the moment.’
‘Wots are ya up to?’ demanded John, sitting up properly.
‘You're sounding more like Tark than John,’ said Giles.
‘What?’
‘Never mind.’
‘Wots … what are you up to?’ asked John again.
‘I'm trying to help you.’
‘Why would you want to help us?’
‘Because things are going wrong,’ explained Giles. ‘This is supposed to be a happy experience for me. That's why I come to Designers Paradise. But it's not any more. The headmaster has turned nasty. My mum and dad are acting weird. And I can't exit the game.’
‘So it's not just us,’ Tina thought aloud.
‘There was an announcement at school saying that you guys are wanted by the police. They said there was a reward for your capture. I figured that you must be behind all this somehow.’
‘Well, we're not,’ said John.
‘You might not be causing it, but you're somehow involved. The whole suburb is out hunting for you. Now I'm risking my neck to help you, so that we can get this place back to normal.’
‘Yeah well, I have no idea what's going on,’ said John. ‘One minute everything's fine, then things start going wrong. And they're getting worse.’
‘It's the Fat Man!’ yelped Tina suddenly.
‘What?’ said Giles.
‘Look!’ Tina pointed through the window.
‘Look at what?’ asked John.
‘That cloud there! It looks like the Fat Man.’
‘It's just an ordinary cloud,’ said Giles.
‘It's the Fat Man,’ insisted Tina.
‘Well, I guess it looks a bit like his face,’ said John, looking intently at the cloud as it began to change shape. ‘But he's dead. Remember? We blew him up.’
‘You blew him up?’ asked Giles, incredulous.
‘Yeah,’ said John. ‘He forced us into a weird game. And we won!’
‘No! I've been seeing him,’ insisted Tina. ‘On the TV. On a newspaper's front page. He's behind all this. He's
‘But if it was a game, he might not have died,’ reasoned Giles.
‘He said that in his game, if you died, you really died,’ said John. ‘And we couldn't get out of the game until after he got blown up.’
‘You never know.’ Giles looked thoughtfully up at the sky. The cloud had separated into two smaller clouds, now looking nothing like the Fat Man. ‘Maybe he's still around.’
‘Anyway,’ said John. ‘What do we do now? We can't just sit in a stolen car.’
‘Where did you learn to steal vehicles?’ asked Tina.
‘What?’
‘Well, you come here to have an ordinary, quiet life. So how come you know how to break into a SUV and hotwire it?’
‘Oh that. I went to the library and learnt it.’
‘The library has a book on stealing cars?’ asked John.
‘Don't be ridiculous. I paid to use the information portal.’
‘The what?’
‘The information portal,’ explained Giles. ‘You can use it to have any information you want implanted directly into your brain. Or at least, I can. I doubt you have enough money for it.’
‘Could we use it to find out what's going on here?’ asked Tina.
‘I don't know,’ admitted Giles. ‘That's not what it's meant for. But maybe. If you have enough money.’
‘If we don't have enough money,’ said John, clapping Giles on the shoulder, ‘we'll use yours. Now take us to the library.’
19: The Library
The suburban public library was situated in a quiet street on the edge of the old shopping district. Parkland straddled either side of it. Trees, bushes and a little duck pond to the right and a small playground backing onto an area of overgrown grass to the left provided cover. On the opposite side of the street was a collection of small shops and cafes. The library was a large, windowless, redbrick structure, with a vaguely gothic copper-domed roof. It looked like it belonged in a larger city.
Giles drove straight into the deserted park, bringing the SUV to a stop beside the pond behind the trees, out of view of the street.
