Free False Bottom by Hazel Edwards Page A

wouldn’t be using the same wheelchair she had in Sydney?’
    â€˜No. Unless she was very disabled or it was a very special chair. Anyway mystery flight passengers don’t know where they’re going until the last minutes. They fill up the empty seats.’
    Christopher interrupted. ‘She seemed to move quite easily.’
    â€˜Her chair in Sydney had a squeak.’
    â€˜Probably the wheels needed oiling,’ said the porter.
    â€˜I thought she might have been a bird smuggler.’
    â€˜You’ve got birds on the brain!’ muttered Christopher.
    The porter laughed. ‘Customs and immigration catch a few of them. Cruel ,really, the way they drug those birds. They’ve just caught a couple more today.’
    â€˜We know. We were there. We’ve been learning about what happens.’ said Christopher.
    The porter looked interested. ‘Oh, were you the UMs that helped? I heard about that. News gets around the airport fast.’
    The twins nodded.
    â€˜They don’t smuggle only birds, you know. Sometimes it’s snakes, or eggs or lizards. Quarantine look after them because they’ve broken the laws by trying to move birds illegally out of the country.’
    â€˜What about other sorts of animals?’
    â€˜What kind?’ The porter finished drinking his chocolate.
    â€˜Suppose you had a pet dog. Could you take that on the plane, if you told the people in charge?’
    Amy didn’t mention the name Bozo. That was a famous dog.
    The porter shook his head. ‘Pets have to go into quarantine for a few months so they don’t spread disease in Australia or to another country. That’s for overseas flights. Domestic, flights between cities in Australia is okay. Pets go in special containers. Fragile freight.’
    â€˜Fair enough,’ said Christopher. ‘Our Aunty Viv has lots of animals working as actors in her Animal Actors business.’
    â€˜Does she fly overseas?’ asked the porter.
    â€˜Aunty Viv doesn’t fly anywhere if she can help it.’
    â€˜Do her animals need to go overseas?’
    Amy shook her head.
    â€˜With racehorses, often they have a special plane,’ said the porter. ‘Does she have any racehorses?’
    Laughing, the twins said, ‘No. She’d never fit them in the van.
    And they wouldn’t sit at the No Standing zone. Too nervous.’
    Gloria re-appeared. It was time to go back to the transit lounge.
    â€˜What about mobile phones?’ Christopher asked as they walked past a business man using his phone.
    â€˜Not allowed in the arrival hall. Otherwise drug couriers warn their mates about baggage searches. Can’t use them on board,’ explained Gloria. ‘Sometimes they interfere with the plane’s sensitive instruments. The pilot and navigator might not realise because most of the instruments are computerised.’
    â€˜Are battery-powered wheelchairs allowed?’
    â€˜ Yes. Security wands them down. We move them very quickly through customs. And the people assisting them. They’re called assists’.
    Perhaps that’s how Mrs Smart got the navy security uniform past customs for her son, the bank robber, thought Amy. But she didn’t say it aloud. Christopher would say she had mysteritus again.
    Gloria left them in the transit lounge.
    â€˜Listen for any announcements,’ she said.
    Christopher started sketching the banned goods on display. Amy people-watched.
    A few minutes later, Mrs Smart rolled past in her wheelchair, pushed by her bearded son.
    Amy looked up in astonishment. ‘It’s her! Let’s follow them!’
    â€˜Go on the walkway,’ yelled Christopher.
    Amy ran along the moving belt. Her legs felt funny. The belt was moving and so was she. She started to jog. She touched the moving handrail to keep her balance. On either side of the walkway, people were moving, in slow motion. She was on fast-forward. Her legs went