“OK. Here's the plan,” started
Jimmy, crouching underneath the palm leaves with Tyke, Toby and
Ian. “I fashion a spear out of coconuts and pineapple
leaves. You two distract Jess… then I kill her.”
“Is this really necessary?” asked Ian.
“Oh, most definitely.” Jimmy put his ear to the ground.
“D'hear that?!” he exclaimed.
“What?” asked Toby.
“She's approaching from a north-easterly direction.” He
sniffed the air. “I'd say proximity of 3000 yards.”
“I don't want to be part of this,” Toby said, standing
up.
“GET DOWN!” Jimmy rugby-tackled Toby to the floor.
“Ow! What was that for?” Toby exclaimed.
“You want the enemy to see you?” Jimmy asked.
“You've got a lot to learn, soldier.”
“Soldier?!” Toby was now very confused.
“S*d this, Jimmy, I'm going.” He stood and walked out
from their camp under the leaves. “You coming?” he
asked Ian.
“Yes.” Ian left Tyke and Jimmy alone and he and Toby
headed for the Star Bar.
“We'll show 'em, eh, Tyke?” said Jimmy. “We'll
show 'em all!” He laughed evilly, until a coconut fell from
the tree and knocked him out.
Brandon had finished three
cups of orange juice from the Star Bar and was still sitting next
to gambling Hannah. He wavered on the stool as he almost fell
asleep. “Hannah?”
“Yu.” Hannah had resorted to using the shortest forms
of communication possible, starting with using one syllable
words.
“Are we gonna go to the beach now? It's already three o'clock
and we'll have missed the best surf.”
Hannah sighed and
turned to Patrick. “Can you handle this?”
“Sure. Just push your stool closer to mine and I'll play
both at the same time.” Hannah did as she was told and
walked out of the casino with Brandon.
“ARGH! The light!” she cowered under the bright
sunlight which she hadn't seen for several days due to walking to
and from the casino in twilight and dusk.
Suddenly the sunlight
was blocked out and Hannah looked up from the dirt where she was
crouched on her knees to see a figure in baggy trousers and a
hooded top. “Do you guys happen to know where a simple music lover could
get some music around her?”
Hannah paused… the voice
was familiar… a thick kiwi accent… the baggy
clothes… the sarcastic sense of humour… the
friendliness and the funky square glasses… it could be no
other but the presenter of Brand New… Zane Lowe. Hannah
smiled as best she could and then fainted.
When Hannah woke up she was tied to a
chair.
“Wha—?” she tried to struggle free. Suddenly a
figure appeared in the shadows ahead of her. “What the
hell?!”
“Sshh!” the figure said. “They'll hear you!”
“What's going on?” Hannah asked. Jimmy slunk out of the
shadows. “What are you doing?”
“I'm initiating you to join my secret patrol force.”
“WHAT?!” Hannah tried to get up. “Where's
Brandon? And Zane…” she almost melted out of the chair.
“I saved you. You were unconscious.”
“I had fainted in ECSTASY! I didn't need saving!”
“Well… I saved you. And now you can join my
force.”
“Who else is on this 'force'?”
Jimmy paused before replying, “Tyke.”
“And that's it?!”
“At the moment… yes.”
“Well, what's your objective?” asked Hannah, frowning.
“To kill her.” Jimmy held a pair of binoculars
to Hannah's eyes and pointed out onto the beach.
Hannah saw Jess
walking with Dylan. “Jess? Why do you want to kill her? And who's that
with her?”
“I don't
know…” Jimmy trailed off and looked through the
binoculars. “But it's bad news… we can't wipe her out
easily with him around… so we'll have to kill him too.”
“You are INSANE,” Hannah spouted. “If you
expect me to help you kill her… tough. I'm sorry, but she's
my best friend, and I'm not exactly going to kill her just
because you've got a few issues.”
Jimmy looked at her
blankly.
“Now untie me, or I'll scream.”
“Ha!” Jimmy laughed with triumph. “Even if you do
scream, it'll be of no help… you're in a secret base…
so fiendishly devilish to find that people go mad simply in the
search for it—”
At that point, Jimmy was interrupted by
the door of his thatch hut swinging open and Zane and Brandon
walking in.
“There you are,” Zane said, on seeing Hannah.
“Where'd you go?”
“I was kidnapped,” Hannah declared.
Brandon and Zane
looked at the dental floss Jimmy had used to tie Hannah to the
chair with – he couldn't find anything else.
“What's all this?” Brandon untied Hannah who stood up
and stretched.
Jimmy scowled and backed into the shadows with a
hiss.
“You're a psycho,” Hannah said, pretending to trip over
the dental floss and falling onto Brandon. “C'mon, guys,
let's go to the beach.” They walked out and slammed the
door.
There was a silence.
“Follow them,” Jimmy demanded.
Tyke, who was now
covered in black boot polish, took a running jump out of the
window and ran after them.
“Fly, my pretties, fly!”
Jimmy cackled.
Hannah, Zane and Brandon found Toby, Jess,
Ian and Dylan in the Star Bar. The atmosphere was strained –
no one had seen each other much or spoken a lot in recent days
and no one had anything to say.
“Hi, I'm
Hannah.” Hannah held out a hand and Dylan shook it.
“I'm Dylan. Watch out, I'm Irish.”
Hannah laughed and
sat down next to Zane whilst Brandon bought them drinks.
“So,
is there a music venue here?” Zane asked.
“Not yet,” Hannah replied. She clicked her
fingers and the architect magically appeared. “I want a
music venue, a chilled music room and a music shop called 'Little
Llama'…” She stopped to think. “Oh, and a theme
park called 'The Little Llama Theme Park',” she added.
“And a llama pen. I'd like a pet Siberian Tiger,
also…” The architect ran off screaming whilst Hannah
turned back to Zane and said, “We'll have a music venue by
dusk.”
“You're freaky,” Zane concluded, although he was
excited by the prospect of a theme park, music shop and music
venue… albeit a little worried about the tiger.
Tyke crouched under a palm tree and watched through the Star Bar window at the group of mad people. He looked in the other direction and saw the Casino Hut. It was in darkness, but he could still hear the machines chinking away – Patrick was still there. Tyke was about to pounce through the Star Bar window, when suddenly, to his horror, a tiger on a chain was dragged pass by an architect. Tyke backed up into the trees, and then ran.
Tyke thundered into Jimmy's hut and barked
at him.
Jimmy took this as a sign and looked out towards the Star
Bar with his binoculars. “A tiger?” he exclaimed. “So… they are trying
to heighten their security, are they?” he laughed. “The
fools… those FOOLS!”
� Jess and Hannah 2002