In the bathroom, Freddie jiggled his toothbrush around in his mouth a couple of times and spat – very quietly. He slipped the brush back gently into the mug on the glass shelf and let out a long sigh.
He was thinking about his first failure.
Did the fact that he wasn’t able to ‘register’ the hurricane mean that his power was finally running out? Was it like a battery, growing weaker over time? One day, perhaps, he’d wake up and it wouldn’t be there …
Or was normal service to be resumed soon?
Maybe the lesson to be learned was never to take such a special gift for granted.
If it did disappear, he wasn’t sure how he would adapt. It would be as if a little bit of him had died … like having a leg cut off or something.
He sighed. What was going to happen? Only time would tell.
He crept back across the landing to his room, avoiding the floorboards that squeaked. If Lizzie found out that he’d been up all night, she’d go ballistic.
Freddie looked at his watch. 6 a.m. He’d just be in time to catch the live weather bulletin from Florida. He wanted to see what the latest news on the killer was out there.
He grabbed his laptop and clambered into bed. The little computer was an Apple G3 i-Book which he’d saved up long and hard for. It had a silver metallic keyboard and a lid made of white plastic – a way-cool design. It looked just like a thin slab of ice.
It was indispensable whenever Freddie was on the move. He’d modified it substantially. Upped the RAM, installed the latest Operating System and an AirPort Card – which meant that he could run Sentinel wherever he happened to be.
He could even watch satellite TV direct from the States.
Freddie clicked on the KLTV icon and waited for the page to download. It only took a few seconds.
And then Eddie Schenker’s grinning mug popped up on the screen.
Schenker was a popular weatherman for Florida’s KLTV, an American weather channel. Freddie tried never to miss his bulletins. They were always good for a laugh.
Schenker was famous because he always got his forecasts so spectacularly wrong. Freddie, in fact, couldn’t remember one single accurate prediction in all the time he’d been watching him. His most notable blooper had been his enthusiastic announcement a couple of years ago that there was going to be a tropical heat wave. In Alaska. It didn’t put anyone off him though. In fact, after that, he became more famous than ever. Freddie could only assume that his popularity was due to the fact that he confirmed what people thought about weathermen everywhere. That they simply didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.
Schenker stood a few hundred yards away from the sea and was shouting to camera to make himself heard above the deafening noise of torrential rain and wind.
Behind him, a clump of palm trees swayed to and fro. The sea was grey and choppy. Waves rose to huge white crests. Tongues of foaming spume broke high in the air and crashed down on a car speeding past. But, amazingly, Schenker was sporting a garish multi-coloured Hawaiian shirt and white Bermuda shorts. Like it was a hot summer’s day. His year-round fake tan glowed. It was the same colour as a Jaffa orange. As he bared his perfect white teeth and put on his trademark cheesy smile, Freddie was reminded of a shark about to attack:
Well, folks, I been tracking this new hurricane for the past few days. And, tell you the truth, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Heck, this big ole’ boy ain’t nuthin but a heap of hot air. Anyways, seems he’s veering off down the coast now. Maybe he saw my ugly mug and got scared! So don’t you go having too many sleepless night, y’hear? We’ll be back on the beach by Monday, take it from me. Am I ever wrong? Hey, don’t answer that, folks!
Freddie could hardly believe what he was hearing.
“You muppet! That’s exactly what you said about Katrina and look what happened then. This is no joke, Schenker! They should have sacked you long ago!”
But now Schenker was holding up a small, green plastic bottle towards the camera.
And, folks, don’t forget that Mr MintyFresh will make your smile as bright as the Sunshine State! Also fights bacteria and bad breath. Use twice a day and you’ll be guaranteed a smile just like mine! This is Eddie Schenker for KLTV 24-hour Weather, Tampa, Florida.
The thought passed through Freddie’s mind that he should phone KLTV straightaway and tell them what an idiot Schenker was. That Mr MintyFresh had got it all wrong – again. That there could be serious consequences. People’s lives were at stake here. But what would they say?
“Hey, we got this kid from … where? … Essex, UK? … thinks we should issue Major Hurricane warnings
before it’s too late? Sure, kid, well thanks for the advice. Now get off the line, huh, we’re pretty busy. Hey, Eddie, we got another crackpot… some kid, says you’re a moron … well, he’s right there!”
Instead, Freddie clicked off Schenker’s broadcast in disgust and went straight onto the NOAA website for a more reliable report. Sure enough, the situation was getting worse. In the past hour, the killer’s speed had increased to almost 90 miles per hour and he was continuing to move westward along the Gulf Coast towards Louisiana. His course was erratic but he had moved several miles closer to land.
He could make landfall at any time.
Freddie didn’t like the look of it. He had an idea. What did Sentinel think?
He clicked on a small shield icon on the desktop – the symbol he’d invented to represent the program, punched in the data.
The screen exploded.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Either he had a major systems failure on his hands. Or Sentinel was badly spooked.