Arrival (10 page)

Pryor had told us a whole lot more than she'd meant to back there. The whole point of that conversation had obviously been to convince us that Crazy Bill was not to be trusted, and to explain away every suspicious thing we'd seen last night. And as far as I could see, there was only one reason Pryor would do all that.

Everything Crazy Bill had shown us so far – the abandoned airport, the recorded message, the plot to kill everyone outside of Phoenix… It was all real. Every last stomach-churning bit.

And Ms Pryor knew it.

Chapter 14

T
UESDAY
, M
AY
12
93
DAYS

The next morning, we found out just how serious Ms Pryor was about putting a stop to our ‘reckless behaviour'.

I got to school right on the bell and ran into Peter at the bike racks.

‘C'mon,' he said as I finished chaining up my bike. ‘We're all meant to go to the hall in period one.'

‘What for?'

‘Dunno. Special assembly or something.'

‘Oh. Well, at least we get out of history,' I said. ‘Couple more days for you to rewrite that essay for Mr Hanger, right?'

‘Nope,' said Peter, gritting his teeth. ‘Ran into the Ranga about five minutes ago. Told me not to think I was getting an extension just because we were missing his class. He wants the new essay by the end of the day.'

‘Are you going to do it?' I asked as we walked off towards the hall.

‘Yeah, right,' said Peter. ‘I'll just print off another copy of the old one and hand that in again. As if he's gonna notice.'

We found Jordan in the crowd of kids pushing their way towards the theatre, and the three of us made our way inside.

‘You guys know what this is about?' she asked.

I shook my head. ‘Do you think maybe –?'

‘Hang on,' Peter interrupted as I started sidling into the back row after Jordan, ‘let's get seats in the middle.'

‘Huh?'

‘Well, if you still reckon Pryor thinks we're up to something,' Peter said, ‘wouldn't it be better to sit down there somewhere, instead of hiding up the back looking all secretive?'

‘Yeah, good thinking,' said Jordan, and we moved back into the aisle to find some seats closer to the front.

It
was
good thinking, but seeing as Peter was still convinced the two of us were just being paranoid, I didn't get why he was the one suggesting it.

But then, as Jordan stopped at three empty seats halfway down the room, Peter side-stepped in front of me and took my place next to her.

I shook my head and turned my attention to the stage. So far, there was no-one down there, and even the chairs that had been set up for our last assembly were missing.

‘I was talking to my mum last night,' said Jordan, her voice low. ‘You know how she went to the medical centre yesterday? She said that in the middle of her appointment, Calvin burst into the room, all bloody and bruised, and demanded to see the doctor.'

‘About what?' said Peter, putting his feet up on the seat in front of him.

‘Apparently, the nurses weren't letting him out,' said Jordan. ‘They wanted to keep him there for a couple of days – you know, to monitor his injuries. But Mum said Calvin was totally determined to leave. He said he didn't have time to waste lying around in hospital beds when there was a security risk on the loose.'

‘Crazy Bill,' said Peter. ‘Told you he got away.'

‘So did they let him out?' I asked.

‘Dunno,' said Jordan. ‘The doctor got up right away and asked Mum to leave. He said they'd need to reschedule her appointment.'

‘Seriously?' I said. ‘Is he even allowed to do that?'

‘Well, Mum wasn't happy, but what was she going to do about it? They've booked her in again for tomorrow,' said Jordan.

‘Weird,' said Peter. ‘But, hey, at least you two don't have all that end-of-the-world stuff to worry about anymore, right?'

‘What are you talking about?' said Jordan.

‘Well, now that Pryor's pretty much explained it all. Got to admit, she made a lot more sense than –' ‘You actually
believed
that crap?' said Jordan, almost pityingly.

Peter's eyes flashed and I could tell he had a biting response ready to roll out. But, because it was Jordan, he took a second to reword it into something gentler.

‘Look, I'm not saying I one-hundred-percent agree with everything Pryor told us back there, but what's more believable: her story about the airport getting upgraded or the crazy hobo's tale of a secret evil plan to blow up the human race?'

It might have been a fair enough question if someone else had asked it. But I got the feeling Peter's disbelief was less about what was harder to explain and more about what he
wanted
to be true.

‘Think about it,' he continued when he could see that neither of us was convinced. ‘Crazy Bill comes along with this mysterious doomsday warning, but then he drags us out to the airport and we find out he doesn't even want to talk about it. He just wants us to help
him
get out of town or whatever. Don't you think it's possible that he made the whole thing up to get us to help him?'

‘Kind of a round-about way of asking for our help, isn't it?' I said, bringing my voice down to a whisper as a group of girls shuffled into the seats in front of us.

‘What about Crazy Bill's recording?' said Jordan. ‘He made that up too, did he?'

‘I've been telling you from the start that it's a fake,' said Peter. ‘Anyone with a bit of digital editing experience could have –' ‘Right,' Jordan muttered, ‘because Crazy Bill is
definitely
a massive computer nerd.'

Peter looked like he'd love to keep arguing, but I guess he could see that Jordan was starting to get fired up because he dropped it. The hall continued to fill up around us, and my mind drifted back to our meeting with Crazy Bill.

‘Here's what I don't get,' I said, after a minute. ‘Out at the airport – when we first got there – Crazy Bill was
almost
making sense. I mean, not that I had any idea what he was talking about half the time, but he was at least sort of coherent. But then security rocks up and he just loses it – launches into all that stuff about his trial and how he's going to prosecute Calvin.'

‘Yeah,' said Peter, nodding. ‘Anyone else reckon all that sounded familiar?'

Jordan and I both stared at him.

‘Okay,' said Peter. ‘I'm gonna take that as a no.'

We heard footsteps echoing down on the stage and looked over to see who it was.

‘Good morning, everyone,' Ms Pryor said warmly.

Some of the younger kids started chorusing ‘Good morning' back to her, but she steamrolled right over the top of them.

‘I don't wish to keep you from your classes any longer than necessary, so I'll be brief. We have a guest this morning who's requested a few minutes of our time to make an important announcement concerning student safety. Please welcome Officer Bruce Calvin, Chief of Phoenix Security.'

A few people clapped, but the applause was drowned out by gasps and whispers as Calvin made his way onto the stage.

He looked terrible, even worse than Officer Reeve. The whole left side of his body was being held together by a mess of stitches and bandages, and most of his face was covered in one huge bruise. His nose was bent out of shape, his right leg was in plaster, and he hobbled out from behind the curtain on a crutch.

It looked like even moving across the stage was a big effort. Calvin stopped at the lectern and swayed slightly, like he might be about to lose his balance.

‘That will do,' said Ms Pryor sternly, and the noise in the theatre died down again.

‘Thank you,' said Calvin, managing to sound strong and commanding despite his injuries. ‘It's a pleasure to be here at Phoenix High, and I only wish I were visiting under happier circumstances.'

The school was silent now, all eyes fixed on Calvin, though I assumed most of them were just hoping his announcement would include the story of how he got those injuries.

‘Phoenix is a town that prides itself on providing its citizens with the highest possible standard of safety,' Calvin went on, gripping the lectern for support. ‘And, as I'm sure you all know, my role as Chief of Security is to ensure that this standard is upheld. Unfortunately, there is one Phoenix resident who seems intent on disrupting the peaceful way of life we've been working so hard to maintain.'

Calvin tapped a button on the lectern and a giant photo of Crazy Bill appeared on the projector screen behind him. For a few seconds, everyone started whispering again, but they all stopped as soon as Calvin opened his mouth.

‘Many of you will have seen this man wandering the streets of Phoenix. Until recently, my security staff and I considered him to be perfectly harmless. However, we now know this
Crazy Bill
to be an extremely dangerous individual capable of –' Calvin's face twisted into a wince, ‘–
violent
outbursts.'

Calvin tapped at the lectern again and the image behind him disappeared.

‘Rest assured that my security team is working around the clock to track this criminal down and bring him to justice,' he boomed. ‘In the meantime, I have spoken to your principal and, between us, we have decided on an appropriate next step in ensuring the safety of all Phoenix High students.'

Murmurs began to fill the theatre again.

‘Beginning tonight,' Calvin pushed on over the noise, ‘Phoenix will be imposing a curfew on all persons under the age of eighteen. For as long as this curfew stands, no student will be permitted to leave their home after dark unless they are under the supervision of a parent or guardian.' Calvin's eyes swept the hall, like he was searching for someone.

‘Any student in breach of this curfew will be brought directly to the Phoenix Security Centre, where they will have
me
to answer to. And I can assure you –' his eyes froze, suddenly fixed on the three of us, ‘– the consequences of such disobedience will not be pleasant.'

Chapter 15

T
UESDAY
, M
AY
12
93
DAYS

‘Did you see the way Calvin was staring us down back there?' I said as we left the hall. The vague feeling I'd had of being watched all week suddenly had a name and a face. ‘It was almost like he was daring us to put a foot out of line, just so he could have an excuse to come after us.'

‘You reckon?' said Peter. ‘I mean, yeah, he was trying to scare us. But he was trying to scare everybody. Parading around on stage like that, showing off his injuries to the whole world – perfect way to make sure no-one goes anywhere near Crazy Bill.'

‘Right,' said Jordan. ‘He suspects us, obviously, but so far all he knows is that we've had one conversation with Crazy Bill at the airport.'

Technically, there were still about fifteen minutes left of our history period, but it didn't seem like anyone was exactly rushing off to class. We found a place to sit out on the grass. Peter opened his laptop and got to work changing the fonts in his essay for Mr Hanger to make it look like he'd rewritten it.

‘It definitely proves Bill's got them on edge, though,' said Jordan. ‘Putting a curfew on the whole school because of
one
missing person who's never even attacked a student? Not exactly standard procedure, is it?'

I'd had the exact same thought. ‘Doubt it,' I said. ‘Although I think standard procedure pretty much goes out the window when you're plotting to –' I stopped short as Cathryn, Tank and Michael came past. They were obviously in the middle of an argument, although it was hard to tell how serious any of them were about it.

‘C'mon, Mike,' said Cathryn, thrusting an open hand out in front of him. ‘Pay up.'

‘
No
,' he said, rolling his eyes and pushing the hand away. ‘Look, I told you, it doesn't count.'

‘As if it doesn't!' said Tank.

‘I said Pryor would run the assembly
this week,
' said Cathryn, flicking her blonde hair indignantly. ‘And she did. So hand over the money.'

‘There wasn't even supposed to
be
an assembly today,' Michael protested.

‘Yeah?' said Cathryn. ‘Well, turns out there was one. So are you going to give me my five bucks or do I have to –?'

‘Oi, Peter!' Michael yelled, spotting the three of us. ‘Tell Cat that didn't count as a real assembly!'

Cathryn looked over and narrowed her eyes at Peter. ‘Why are you bringing
him
into it?' she said coldly. ‘He's not even –' ‘Not even
what?'
Peter challenged her.

Cathryn stared at him, then turned away like she was going to walk off.

‘No, come on,' said Peter, moving his laptop and getting to his feet. ‘You've got a problem with me?

Let's hear it.'

‘Problem?' said Cathryn, whirling around again. ‘Just because you've randomly decided to start ditching your real friends to hang out with these two ring-ins you don't even know? No, Peter, why would I have a problem with that?'

‘Screw you,' Peter sneered. ‘You want to talk about ditching friends? How about the three of you disappearing after school every day and leaving me to –' ‘It's not like that,' said Cathryn, gritting her perfect teeth.

‘No?' said Peter angrily. ‘What's it like then?'

Cathryn opened her mouth to respond, but Michael glared at her and she closed it again.

Peter stood staring at them for a minute, then shook his head and said, ‘You know what? Forget it.'

He sat back down on the grass, fuming, and picked up his laptop.

‘What was all that about?' I asked as the three of them walked away.