Free The Crystal Code by Richard Newsome Page A

and yanked it over his ears. Ox had his head down, leading Felicity, Sam, Ruby, Alisha and Gerald—a family of frozen ducklings making for safety.
    Gerald could barely see. The snow, falling thick and relentless, was halfway up to his knees. Ox ploughed onwards, and finally they gathered in the shelter of the covered bridge.
    â€˜I’m freezing,’ Felicity said, clapping her arms across her chest. ‘This snow is ridiculous.’
    Gerald glanced back at the chalet. The front was decorated with blinking coloured lights and warmth shone from the windows. On any other night, it would have been a Yuletide delight. But Gerald shivered at the thought of what was going on inside.
    â€˜We’ve got to move on,’ he said. ‘The snow will cover our tracks but those thugs will figure out we’ve made a run for it soon enough.’
    â€˜What did you see through that door, Gerald?’ Ruby asked. ‘Is Dad okay?’
    Gerald pulled his beanie lower. ‘He’s okay.’ He refused to catch Ruby’s eye. ‘But we need to get help.’
    Ruby turned to Sam. ‘Can’t we do something?’ she said.
    For a moment, Gerald thought Sam was about to dash back to the house and take on the intruders by himself. But he zipped his jacket to his chin. ‘They’ve got guns,’ Sam said. ‘We need the police.’
    They set off further into the white night. Down by the hangar the snow had banked almost up to the windows, blocking the main entry. But in the lee of the building, sheltered from the wind, they found an unlocked door and poured inside.
    It was still cold but better than trudging through the snow.
    â€˜Felicity,’ Gerald said. ‘Do you still have that torch?’
    He clamped his hand over the end and flicked it on. The light glowed red between his fingers, giving some dull illumination to the darkened hangar. There were two helicopters inside, sleek and spotless.
    â€˜The other choppers must have been flown back to San Francisco,’ Gerald said. He clambered up to the door of the closest one and pulled on the handle to the cockpit. ‘Let’s see what we can do in here.’
    Ox climbed in after him. Ruby and Felicity crowded the doorway, and Sam and Alisha kept watch through the front windows of the hangar.
    Gerald pulled on the pilot’s headgear and gazed at the dark panel of switches, dials and screens in front of him.
    â€˜Wish I’d paid more attention when Fry was flying this thing,’ Gerald said. He flicked a few switches. Nothing happened.
    â€˜Do you need to get some power going?’ Ox said. ‘What about that red button there?’ He pressed a large disk. Immediately, the control panel flickered to life, blinking red, green and yellow.
    â€˜Ox!’ Gerald said. ‘You’re a legend.’
    â€˜Yeah, I’m a bit of a natural,’ Ox said. ‘A.T.’ His knee brushed against a bank of switches, and a low whine could be heard in the cabin.
    â€˜What’s that?’ Gerald asked. The whine grew louder.
    â€˜Beats me?’ Ox said, looking left and right.
    Ruby provided the answer. ‘You’ve started the chopper, you morons!’ she yelled.
    Gerald and Ox looked up through the perspex canopy to see the huge rotors turning slow circles. They were gathering speed.
    â€˜Turn it off!’ they yelled at each other.
    â€˜I don’t know how!’ they screamed back.
    The rotors spun faster and faster. Ruby and Felicity abandoned Gerald and Ox, rushing heads down to the front of the hangar.
    â€˜Which button did you push?’ Gerald frantically flicked switches and turned dials. The chopper started to bobble up and down on its landing gear.
    â€˜Dunno!’ Ox cried. He screwed up his eyes and poked a finger at random. The whir of the rotors gained intensity. The helicopter started to move across the floor.
    â€˜Not that one!’
    The chopper tilted to one side