The Tesla Legacy (31 page)
‘I will do that now, Captain.’ Gregor rose and exited the cabin.
‘It would not surprise me if the Americans were the cause of this,’ complained co-pilot Stumpfegger. ‘They’ve probably jammed everything so Air Force One can land safely.’
‘Of course,’ agreed Captain Dorpmuller, bringing the big jet slowly around. ‘Nothing else matters when it comes to the glorious President of the United States.’
‘Stupid bloody Americans,’ said co-pilot Stumpfegger. ‘They’re no better than the Russians.’
Mick and Jesse dropped their backpacks and leant tiredly against the old Commodore. Despite being stained with sweat and covered in dust, and Jesse smeared with blood, they still managed to raise a smile.
‘Well, thank Christ that’s over,’ said Mick. ‘I’m not in any hurry to go back there again.’
‘Yes. You can include me out too,’ said Jesse. She reached into her backpack and took out her mobile phone. ‘I’m going to ring Mum and tell her we’ll be home tonight.’
‘Yeah. I might call my sister and say hello.’
They both dialled and while Mick was waiting, he unlocked the car and wound down the front windows to let the heat out. He looked up and noticed Jesse shaking her head.
‘What’s up?’ he asked her.
Jesse held up her phone. ‘No signal.’
‘Yeah. Mine’s the same,’ said Mick. ‘Must be a bad reception area.’ He dropped his phone back in his shredded backpack. ‘Oh well. Doesn’t matter. We can ring up from the motel.’
‘Yes. That’ll do,’ said Jesse.
Jesse put her phone back in her bag. Mick took her backpack from her and placed both bags on
the back seat, then they climbed in the front. Mick started the car and while the engine was warming up he switched on the radio.
‘May as well listen to the news,’ said Mick. ‘We might even be on it,’ he chuckled. Mick waited a few moments then started twiddling the dial. All he got was light static. ‘Hello. Looks like the radio’s decided to go on the blink. Oh well, I didn’t want to listen to the news anyway.’
‘Wait till we get back to the Buick,’ said Jesse. ‘Then we can listen to some nice music.’
‘Right on,’ replied Mick, switching off the radio. ‘And you know what the man said, Oz.’
‘No,’ replied Jesse, buckling up her seatbelt. ‘What did the man say, Mick?’
‘Music makes the world go round.’
‘I thought it was love.’
‘No. It was definitely music. Though it could have been money. But,’ smiled Mick, ‘if you say it was love, let’s leave it at that.’
Jesse returned Mick’s smile. ‘Good thinking, Ninety-Nine.’
Mick buckled up his seatbelt, slipped the old Commodore into drive, then nosed it out of the parking area and headed for Scone.
Robert G. Barrett was raised in Sydney’s Bondi where he worked mainly as a butcher. After thirty years he moved to Terrigal on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Robert has appeared in a number of films and TV commercials but prefers to concentrate on a career as a writer. He is the author of twenty-one books, including
Goodoo Goodoo, Leaving Bondi, The Ultimate Aphrodisiac, Mystery Bay Blues, Rosa-Marie’s Baby
and
Crime Scene Cessnock
.
To find out more about Bob and his books
visit this website:
www.robertgbarrett.com.au
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So What Do You Reckon?
Mud Crab Boogie
Goodoo Goodoo
The Wind and the Monkey
Leaving Bondi
The Ultimate Aphrodisiac
Mystery Bay Blues
Rosa-Marie’s Baby
Crime Scene Cessnock
.
Les Norton and the Case of the Talking Pie Crust
HarperCollins
Publishers
First published in Australia in 2006
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Psycho Possum Productions Pty Ltd 2006
The right of Robert G. Barrett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollins
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Barrett, Robert G.
The Tesla legacy.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 8368 1 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 0047 9 (ePub)
1. End of the world – Fiction. I.Title.
A823.3
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