The meteorologist took up the story. ‘But now, if we look at this …’ She scrolled along to another picture. ‘This was ten minutes later.’
The audience gasped. The clouds had become black and white streaks swirling in an angry vortex. It looked like a picture of a hurricane.
‘It must be some mistake,’ said the police chief. ‘It can’t be the same day.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ said the meteorologist. ‘But there’s no mistake. From nowhere we’ve got winds of up to a hundred k.p.h. When those winds blew up, that’s when the fire really took hold.’
The chief of police sighed. ‘Why didn’t the fore-casters give us any warning of this?’
The meteorologist shook her head. ‘They didn’t know it was coming.’
The mayor looked incredulous. ‘A wind can’t just spring up out of nowhere. We’ve got half a billion dollars worth of satellite equipment to track this kind of thing!’
The meteorologist replied calmly, ‘I agree with you. Something like that doesn’t just sneak up unannounced. That’s why I looked at the records myself. I looked at the exact same information the Adelaide forecasters had and I ran a computer simulation. And I came to the same conclusion as they did — that it would be a hot, still day.’
The mayor folded his arms. He looked very unhappy. ‘So it’s another spell of freak weather? We seem to be getting rather a lot of that.’
‘We normally try to think in more scientific terms than that,’ replied the chief meteorologist, ‘but there’s no explanation for this. We don’t know why the weather changed. But when it did, it meant nothing short of disaster for Adelaide.’
Someone else was also taking a keen interest in weather satellite pictures of Adelaide. In a lab far more spacious than the monitoring station in Melbourne, two military scientists were looking closely at a screen, squinting to see it in the bright sunshine that streamed in through the window. They wore faded blue uniforms; the name tag on one said GRISHKEVICH, the other’s said HIJKOOP. Around them was a bank of computer monitors and electronic equipment, all emblazoned with the insignia of the US army. On racks of machinery around the walls, red and green LEDs flashed a constant pulse like heart-beat monitors, and glowing digital displays counted up and down. Whatever was going on in that room was very complex and needed expert monitoring.
Outside the window was a stretch of reddish desert criss-crossed by tyre marks, but the skyline was dominated by a massive white dome. A military Jeep was driving around the outside of that dome. It was probably doing about 50 k.p.h. — the speed limit within the compound — but the dome was so huge that the vehicle looked like it was hardly moving at all.
Beyond the dome was a high wire fence topped with barbed wire, which marked the perimeter of the compound; and beyond that was the Great Victoria Desert — a barren plain in the middle of the outback.
‘Koop,’ said Grishkevich, ‘could you close those blinds? I can’t see the screen properly.’
Hijkoop got up and pulled the blinds shut.
‘Oh no,’ said Grishkevich.
The tone in his voice made Hijkoop hurry back to look at what was on the screen. He was horrified by what he saw there.
Adelaide was completely blotted out by black clouds of smoke. Something had gone very wrong.
‘I thought you were trying to up the rainfall, Grish,’ said Hijkoop.
‘Yeah.’ Grishkevich let out a long sigh and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. ‘No good. All we’re getting is the wind speed picking up instead.’
Hijkoop couldn’t take his eyes off the picture on the screen. ‘Grish, we have to shut it down. The wind is going to make matters worse.’
Grishkevich shook his head slowly. Eventually he spoke. ‘I already did shut it down. But I’ve got a nasty feeling it may be too late for that. Unless that wind dies down of its own accord, Adelaide’s going to turn into a fire storm.’
Chapter Thirteen
Ben kept the microlight heading north. Down below, the railway line snaked through the desert. It was a relief to get away from the terrible burning landscape of Adelaide. But what they were seeing now was eerie.
The hills and foliage had given way to barren red desert. Ben had thought it was hot enough back in Adelaide, but now it was baking. They had already drunk half the water from Ben’s remaining bottle. Kelly’s bandages had nearly dried out and they had to use some of the water to soak them again. But at least the flying was easier. Because the terrain was so flat, there were fewer thermals and variations in the air currents. Ben hadn’t had to adjust his altitude as often.
Which was just as well, as Kelly had him constantly pressing redial on the phone, trying to get her father’s number again. The response came through, same as before: ‘Lines are busy. Please try again later.’ Ben had lost count of the number of times he had heard that message. He got the same message whenever he called Bel’s number.
Kelly tried a different tactic. ‘Get me directory enquiries.’
Ben goggled at her. ‘What did your last slave die of? Get it yourself.’
Kelly let out an irritated sigh. ‘Ben, can you please dial directory enquiries. Please. Pretty please with swirly sparkly—’
‘Maybe,’ said Ben, ‘if you tell me what you want it for.’
‘I wanna get my nails done,’ snapped Kelly. ‘What does it matter what I want it for? You’ll find out in a minute anyway.’
Ben smiled. ‘Want to look nice for George?’ He keyed in the number, which he remembered seeing in the hotel information leaflet. ‘Directory enquiries coming right up for you, miss.’
Kelly scowled at him. When the call was answered, she spoke into the speaker. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Can I get the US consulate in Melbourne? … Yes, please put me through — thank you.’
Ben listened, fascinated. The US consulate now? This girl certainly liked to pull out the big guns.
‘Hello,’ said Kelly. ‘I’d like to report the kidnapping of a US citizen in Adelaide. He’s Major Brad Kurtis.’
While she talked, Ben looked out of the window. A lone truck moved across the plain below, coated in so much red dust that it looked like it was camouflaged. The only reason Ben could see it was because of the puff of red dust following behind it. Even the road was barely visible. There was no asphalt, just the dusty red earth.
The railway line was a single track too. Big square water butts stood on stilts next to the signal. The plane passed over a point where the line split into two for a while to create a passing place if one train met another coming in the opposite direction. There was no sign of any train.
Kelly nudged Ben with her elbow. ‘Watch the compass.’
‘I thought we were following the railway line. Why do I need to watch the compass too?’
‘What if it’s not the right railway line? You don’t forget about your compass or ignore any of your other instruments. Ever. You’ve got to be really careful out here because there are no landmarks and you could lose your way. That’s why you’ve got instruments. Pay attention to them!’
A female voice with an American accent said: ‘Excuse me?’ The woman at the US consulate had also received Ben’s telling-off.
‘Not you,’ said Kelly. ‘Yes, I’ve informed the police. And there’s a British woman who’s gone missing too. I don’t know if you can do anything about that.’
‘Ma’am, if the local police are dealing with it, there is nothing else we can do.’
‘Oh,’ said Kelly, taken aback. ‘OK, thanks. You have a nice day too. Bye.’
Ben cut the call. Kelly looked out of the window for a moment, thinking. Ben looked at his instruments and suddenly saw they’d dropped to nine hundred feet. He pointed the nose upwards and pulled back on the throttle. Maybe he could correct it without Kelly noticing.