With supreme insolence, Arnie retreated, his squad with him, spearing into the moon.
“Neke neke, neke neke —”
When his squad returned to Manu Valley, Arnie reported to Chieftain Tui and the Council of War. Tui received the intelligence with a grave demeanour.
“Let’s draw up a battle plan for tomorrow,” he said. “We will need to plan it to the last detail.”
It was well into the night before Arnie was able to slip away. He was pleased to see that Skylark had waited up for him. She and Te Arikinui Kotuku had been tending to small chicks in the nurseries, trying to soothe their nightmares of bogeybird, ghosts and demons.
“You’ve only got a couple of hours sleep,” Skylark said. “How will you be able to manage?”
“I’ll be okay,” Arnie said, “though I must say I wouldn’t mind an energy boost.”
Skylark could tell Arnie was very worried.
“What I really need is a few aces up my sleeve. Something that the seabirds will be unprepared for.”
“I can get you a couple,” Kotuku said. “Leave it to me.”
Arnie smiled, not taking too much serious notice of Kotuku’s offer.
“If only I could phone home,” he said.
“What would you ask Mother Ship for?”
Arnie shrugged his wings. Then he grinned, lifted his beak and screamed out as loudly as he could: “Mother Ship, are you there, Mother Ship? Heeelllllppp!”
Chapter Thirteen
From the kitchen window, Hoki could see the hawk clan, still keeping up a first line of defence against the seabirds as they ascended into Manu Valley. “Fight hard, my friends,” she prayed.
Hoki could also make out Bella and Mitch, at work on top of the cliff where the sky had ripped. Above them the seabirds whirled like demons. Now that Kawanatanga had gone through, they were in a hurry to join him. They divebombed the rip like birds on a suicidal mission. Some were killed or wounded by the gunshots, but many were getting through. It was now or never. The battle on the other side of the sky was imminent.
Hoki and Francis were on the next shift. Francis was still in the bathroom combing his long hair and doing whatever teenage boys do in front of a mirror. “Will you hurry up in there!” Hoki yelled. As if he would meet a girl up here, for goodness sake. She twirled her thumbs as she waited for him to come out and help her carry the morning tea up to Bella and Mitch. Despite her impatience, she and Bella were enjoying male company — it prevented them from pecking at each other — and she would miss Francis when all this was over.
Over? Hoki shivered at the thought of what “over” might mean. Either the landbirds would lose their second battle. Or they would win.
She was jolted out of her reverie by the sound of the telephone.
“Hello? Is this Bella or Hoki?” The voice on the other end was unfamiliar.
“Hoki speaking, and who are you?”
“You don’t know me, but my name is Lottie and I’m ringing from Nelson. I haven’t got much time because the cops are after me. I just managed to get out of the house in time. I’m on my way to hide out on the West Coast and I’m calling from a telephone box.”
No wonder she talked so fast.
“I’m Deedee’s granddaughter,” Lottie explained. “I’m the one who’s taken over the guardianship of the Great Forest of Tane in this region.”
“Is Deedee dead?” Hoki felt a rush of tears. “Why didn’t anybody tell us?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why you weren’t informed. But perhaps we can talk about that another time.”
She was interrupted by a noise in the background. “Hurry up, Lottie,” Quentin called. “There’s an all-points alert out for us on the police network. We gotta go.”
“I thought you should know,” Lottie continued, “that Arnie went with Skylark.”
“I thought he had,” Hoki said. “He wasn’t supposed to.”
“No? He had the claw, the beak and the feather. Ah well, it’s too late to bring him back. Anyhow, just as me and Quentin were leaving the house this morning, I heard Arnie’s voice. Don’t ask me how these things happen, but I think he was trying to get a message through to somebody. He was saying something that sounded like, ‘Mother Ship, are you there, Mother Ship?’”
Hoki gave a gasp of excitement. “What was the message?”
“It sounded like —” Lottie made a guttural cry, imitating a falcon. The sound was so piercing that Hoki had to hold the phone away from her, but she recognised it immediately. It was the call falcons made whenever they needed her.
“Did you get that?” Lottie asked
“Loud and clear,” Hoki answered.
She put the telephone down. Francis appeared, spruced up enough to go to a dance.
“Kua reri koe?” Hoki asked. “So you’re finally ready.” She loaded him down with the backpack of drink and sandwiches and accidentally on purpose, while she was helping his shoulder straps on, mussed his beautifully combed hair. Before he could do a moan about it, she also gave him the shotguns and ammunition.
“What are you carrying?” Francis asked.
“Nephew,” Hoki answered, pretended to be hurt. “I’m just a little old weak lady on crutches.”
Hoki pushed Francis out of the door and followed him up the cliff path to the plateau. Francis stood guard while Hoki laid out the kai. While they were eating, Hoki told Bella about Lottie’s call and her curious claim to have heard Arnie calling for help.
“She must have been dreaming,” Bella said. “Anyhow, there’s nothing we can do for them. They’re on their own. Whatever they’re facing, they’ll have to face by themselves.”
“Yes, I know,” Hoki answered. “I feel so helpless, so frustrated about it. There must be something we can do.”
Once smoko was over, Bella and Mitch went back down to the house for a break. Bella needed to check her traps, and Mitch thought he might go into Tuapa and see some of his mates on the wharf. Hoki and Francis began their watch on the ripped sky, firing intermittently at the seabirds, but Hoki brooded over Arnie’s message. As a young boy, no matter what trouble he was in, he had always relied on her to be there for him.
It was pure frustration that did it.
The day was hot. Hoki glared at the rip in the sky. “Oh, bother, bother, bum,” she said. She walked towards the rip, took a deep breath, balanced herself on one walking stick, gave a mighty heave and threw her shotgun up and into it. The shotgun cartwheeled through the air, went through, and there was a flash as it disappeared.
“What did you do that for!” Francis looked flabbergasted. “You could brain somebody doing that.”
“If seagulls can go through it,” Hoki answered, “so can other things.”
Francis shook his head and muttered, “Well, a shotgun’s no good without ammunition. Waste of a good shotgun.”
In a temper, Hoki grabbed some bandeleros of bullets and gave them to him. “Here,” she said. “Biff these through the rip. Don’t argue, just do it. And while we’re at it —” Before Francis could stop her, Hoki had taken his favourite penknife from his pocket. He had a box of matches there too.
“These are going as well.”
Hoki chucked the penknife and matches through the rip.
“Are you nuts?” Francis yelled. “That was my best penknife. I had to send away to America for it. Stupid woman —”
“Stupid, am I?” Hoki glared. “You’d better watch it or you’ll be next.”
Francis backed away. All Hoki could feel was just the slightest satisfaction that, at the very least, she had made an effort, crazy and futile though it might be, to answer Arnie’s call.