The Impossible Boy (16 page)

‘We know that!’ exploded Barney. ‘Of course we have value! We don’t need some blobby know-alls from another universe to come down here and patronise us.’

‘Ouch,’ said one the hyperbeings. ‘That hit home.’

‘Yeah,’ said the other. ‘Fair enough. We’ve messed up here pretty badly. We’re sorry for the trouble Chas has caused. He’s been a pretty lousy ambassador for
us up here in four-dimensional space. Is there anything we can do to make amends? We’ll stop your reactor from exploding and free the people in this room caught in 4-D snares – that
goes without saying.’

Barney looked at Gabby. ‘I don’t think we need anything from the fourth dimension. I think we’ve had more than enough of the place, to be honest, haven’t we?’

Gabby nodded and looked down at her shoes.

‘There is something, actually,’ said Dave. He was holding on to Gill’s hand very tightly. ‘We have a request. For information . . .’

One of the hyperbeings pointed an unfinished fingerless hand at Dave. ‘Yup? What is it?’

‘We lost our daughter over thirty years ago. We suspect she was drawn into your universe. Is there any way of finding out if this is true?’

The hyperbeings listened, nodding in unison. They replied with one voice. ‘This happens from time to time. Freak gravity whirlpools can erupt when bridges between universes are created.
Tidal forces can disturb objects near the entrances to the bridge. Things can get rotated, turned inside-out, even. Or sucked inside.’

‘Can you tell if that happened to Fleur?’ asked Gill.

‘Let’s see. We’ll need to scan you for DNA matching.’

A white spark jumped from the head of one of the hyperbeings and whizzed through the air towards Dave and Gill. It buzzed rapidly around the elderly couple like a mosquito and then zipped back
to the hyperbeing’s head. The hyperbeing cocked its head on one side, as if processing some information.

‘Ah,’ it said. ‘Fleur Abbott?’

Dave and Gill gasped. Gill put a hand over her mouth. ‘Yes!’ said Dave excitedly. ‘Fleur Abbott! Do you have any information about her?’

The hyperbeings exchanged a look. ‘We do. She is indeed in the fourth dimension.’

‘Good God!’ cried Dave. ‘After all this time. Our little Fleur. I can’t believe it! Tell us more. Tell us, please.’

‘When a being from your universe enters our own,’ the hyperbeings began, ‘the 3-D being undergoes a process of change as it grows itself a 4-D body, enabling it to move freely
in hyperspace. This can take several thousand years, as you would understand it. We have detected the brain pattern of your daughter. She is living in our universe and undergoing the changes
necessary to thrive there.’

‘Is she all right?’ asked Gill. ‘She’s been all on her own in there for thirty years!’

‘Could she come back to us?’ asked Dave. ‘Appear to us like you or Chas?’

The hyperbeings considered. ‘Why don’t you ask her yourselves?’

‘
What?
What do you mean?’ Dave and Gill were clutching each other for support, their hearts pounding furiously.

‘Fleur does not yet possess the skill to penetrate into your universe from ours. This is why she has been unable to contact you since she disappeared. However, as there is a locket bridge
already open here between our dimensions, we can allow her to communicate with you through us.’

There was a
squeeeech
noise. Grey jellylike matter poured from the stomachs of the two hyperbeings, who began to shrink. The matter formed itself into a torso, arms, legs and a head and
soon there were three (somewhat smaller) hyperbeings there in the control room instead of two.

The new hyperbeing walked unsteadily towards Dave and Gill, arms outstretched. The elderly couple looked horrified, unable to reconcile this nightmarish form with the little girl they had lost
so long ago.

‘Mum! Dad! Hello.’

She sounded many years older, the lilting voice of a little girl replaced by a woman’s confident tones, but Dave and Gill knew instantly that it was her.

‘Fleur! Fleur! Our little Fleur!’

On wobbling legs they rushed to embrace the grey featureless figure, but their arms passed straight through as if it were made of steam.

‘Damn matter frequencies,’ muttered Dave.

‘Fleur, darling!’ said Gill. ‘I can’t believe it’s really you! Are you OK? How have you been? Has anyone been taking care of you?’

The grey figure put a thoughtful hand to its chin. ‘It’s funny, Mum. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been gone years and years and years and then sometimes it feels like it was
just five minutes ago that we were in the park and Dad was telling me about the Wandering Knight. Several thousand MumDads adopted me! They’ve taken good care of me. Oh, Mum, Dad –
there’s so much to see here. It’s amazing!’

‘We’ve missed you so much,’ said Gill. ‘It was like our lives ended the day we lost you.’

‘It’s OK,’ said Fleur. ‘I’m here now.’

‘Yes but for how long, darling? Won’t you have to return to the 4-D world soon?’

‘That’s true,’ said Fleur. ‘I will. But that doesn’t mean you can’t come back with me.’

‘
What?
’ said Dave. He turned to one of the other hyperbeings. ‘Is that possible? Can Gill and I go into your universe?’

‘Sure!’ said the hyperbeing, perking up. ‘We’d be delighted to assist in your passage to the fourth dimension.’

‘No problem whatsoever,’ said the other hyperbeing. ‘Be nice if something positive came out of this incident.’

‘Permanently?’ asked Gill.

‘Sure. Why not?’

‘Oh,’ said the first hyperbeing. ‘Just thought of something. I’m afraid you folks may not like it.’

‘Oh what now?’

‘Well,’ said the first hyperbeing, ‘the thing is, once a 3-D being enters four-dimensional space permanently, its 3-D body decays while its new 4-D one grows. This means the
bodies you inhabit now will be cast away and you will acquire a completely new physical manifestation.’

‘These old bodies of ours will be thrown away?’

‘Yes. I’m afraid so.’

Gill and Dave burst into laughter. ‘Can we have that in writing, please?’ said Dave and they laughed again.

‘Fleur,’ said Gill, ‘we’re coming back with you.’

‘Hooray!’ cried Fleur and waved her grey, stumplike arms.

‘Good,’ said the first hyperbeing. ‘That’s settled. Are you ready to go now?’

‘Right now?’ asked Gill.

‘This gateway won’t stay open forever. It might be now or never.’

‘It’ll be so great,’ said Fleur. ‘We can be together! There’s a whole bunch of
really
cool mysteries in the fourth dimension. You’re going to like it
there.’

The Abbott family embraced one another, ignoring the fact that one of their number existed at a different matter frequency and couldn’t actually touch the other two. This state of affairs
would soon be remedied.

Gill and Dave turned to face Gabby and Barney.

‘Thank you, Geek Inc.,’ said Dave. ‘This wouldn’t have been possible without you.’

Barney flushed. ‘Oh, you know. No big deal. Happy to help, eh, Gab?’

Gabby nodded. ‘It’s been interesting,’ she said and laughed nervously.

‘And let me tell you two something,’ said Gill, ‘there’s no shortage of mysteries in Blue Hills. Scratch the surface and there’s a whole world of weirdness
underneath. And it’s there, waiting to be investigated. Take it from us, the Society of Highly Unusual Things.’

Barney and Gabby exchanged a glance and both silently mouthed the word ‘wow’ and giggled.

The first hyperbeing looked at the second. ‘Well, no point hanging around, is there, MumDad 2961?’

‘Quite right MumDad 357,’ said the other. ‘Let’s be on our way. Avoid the traffic.’

There was a succession of white flashes. First the mouthless, gesticulating Chas vanished from the monitor. Then the three Abbotts exited the 3­D world forever in a single brilliant burst of
Harland radiation. Finally, with a wave of their crude, unfinished hands, the two hyperbeings slipped back into their own incredible realm.

The silver locket rattled to the floor, its two halves snapping shut.

Barney and Gabby stared at one another in wordless astonishment. There was much she wanted to tell him, but before she could say any of it, Orville McIntyre burst into the room with his men and
had them arrested.

The sleek, dark vehicle raced along the deserted road towards Blue Hills, powerful headlights glaring, tunnelling its way through the night. Ahead, a lone rabbit hopped softly
on to the tarmac, watching with huge brown eyes as the approaching yellow light grew steadily bigger and brighter.
The moon
, it thought in its simple way,
is behaving very strangely
tonight
. The car thundered directly over the rabbit, its two sets of roaring wheels passing either side of the quaking creature. As the vehicle’s lights receded into the distance, the
stunned rabbit bounded swiftly back to its hole, hoping that the moon would be in a better mood tomorrow night.

On the car’s back seat, their hands bound by plastic ties, sat Barney Watkins and Gabrielle Grayling, talking in low voices so as not to be heard by the car’s driver. Gabby’s
face was streaked with tears.

‘I can’t believe how stupid I was to be taken in by Chas,’ she murmured. ‘I can’t believe how stupid I was to want to leave everything and everyone I know to go to
some stupid fourth dimension. But most of all I can’t believe how stupid I was to
call you stupid
.’

‘I believe the phrase you used was “you moron”,’ whispered Barney with a grin.

‘Oh mate! I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s OK. Really. I
was
a moron.
Am
a moron. Fancy not knowing Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. I had to find out sometime, I suppose. It’s the
Easter Bunny all over again.’ He chuckled quietly.

‘But you were clever to get help from Dave and Gill. And brave to come and try to rescue me. You’re better than Sherlock Holmes, Barney. You’re real.’

Barney felt his face glow. ‘Yeah, well. You’d’ve done the same, Gab.’ He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and tapped on the tinted window screening them from the driver.
With a motorised whir, the screen retracted a few inches, revealing the red cap of the military policeman in the driving seat.

‘What is it?’ asked the driver gruffly.

‘When are we going to get home?’ asked Barney. ‘Assuming you’re going to let us go and not lock us up in a dungeon somewhere.’

The driver snorted. ‘Think you’ve been reading too many thrillers, son. We’ll be stopping off at the police station at Philpotton soon. Mr McIntyre has commandeered an
interview room. He wants to have a little word with you about tonight’s shenanigans.’

The two kids groaned. Orville McIntyre had subjected them to a similar interrogation after the Gloria Pickles incident. It had not been enjoyable.

‘And then?’

‘Then we’ll take you straight home. Your parents have been informed that you’re helping out on official government business so they’re expecting you to be late. That
all?’

‘Yup.’

The motorised window whirred shut.

‘Great,’ muttered Gabby. ‘That means we won’t be home for hours.’ She bit her lower lip and stared out of the window at the bleak moonlit moors.

‘You can be sure McIntyre will want to know all about the fourth dimension so he can try to exploit it for the government,’ said Barney grimly. ‘But we can’t risk another
inter-dimensional incident like tonight’s. We ought to tell him to steer well clear of it. It’s far too dangerous.’

Gabby did not reply. Her eyes were still transfixed on the dark and desolate landscape sweeping past them.

‘Gab?’

‘Mmm?’

‘You OK?’

‘Mmm? Oh. Yeah.’ She didn’t look at him and chewed thoughtfully at her thumbnail.

‘What’s wrong? You’ve gone all silent and mysterious.’

‘I was just thinking. It’s probably nothing. When you and Gill arrived in the control room you said something.’

‘I said several things, I’m sure. Most of them either pointless or obvious, if the past is anything to go by.’

‘No, I’m serious.’ She turned to face him. She was wearing an odd, puzzled expression. ‘You said, “It’s OK, Gab. We’re here now”.’

‘OK. So what if I did?’

‘And you had all that yucky raspberry stuff on the front of your shirt.’

‘Most of it’s still there. My favourite school shirt, too. All my others are dead scratchy. What about it?’

‘You looked a bit like a robin redbreast.’

Barney guffawed. ‘A very large, confused one, I’m sure.’

‘No, listen!’ She touched his arm. ‘I had a dream the previous night. Well, that morning, really. About a robin redbreast. You remember the one with the robot? Like in the
kid’s telly programme that Fiona Cress was telling us about?’

‘Like the statue?’

‘Yeah. And in the dream the robin redbreast said, “It’s OK, Gab. We’re here now,” just like you did.
Exactly
like you did. Isn’t that
weird?’

Barney shrugged. ‘Weird, yeah. But it’s a weird
coincidence
, innit?’

Gabby chewed her thumbnail again. ‘Mmm. You’re probably right.’ She paused. ‘Probably.’