Campion's Choice

Elvis arrived on time and met them by the low stone wall in front of the cottage.

‘I had to take a taxi. My car is having a respray because I’m taking it to a special hot rod event. It’s more like a dragster than a road car but I prefer something that’s cool. I’ve just been online, checking out stuff about the violet light in the sky. Incredible! You’re the girl I saw outside the school,’ Elvis said to Tia.

‘It’s nice to meet you,’ Tia said but, behind his back, she started to make signs to Jack. She tapped her head. She did swirly motions with a finger by the side of her temple. She rolled her eyes to make it clear that she thought Elvis was a loony.

‘Ursula’s picking us up,’ Elvis explained.

‘Who’s Ursula?’ Jack asked.

’She sort of leads the Orden. Although we’re all equal.’

‘All equally barking mad,’ Tia muttered under her breath.

‘Are you some kind of government thing? Are there loads of you? ’ Jack wanted to know.

‘No. There are six of us. We’re a private organization. I’ve been with the Orden for four years now. If something weird happens we have three rules. One, check it out. Two, write it up. Three, decide if it’s real or fake. Usually it’s fake. The supposed UFO near Duxford Airport? It was a weather balloon. The Elveden Forest Beast? Just a kid’s stuffed pink lion. The man from Peterborough who said he could put hot coals down his pants? A badly burnt faker. Ursula should be here any minute now.’

Tia stood up and dusted dirt off her skirt.

‘How did you get to be a member of Crackpots Anonymous?’ she asked.

Elvis looked confused.

A car horn hooted in the distance.

‘Wait here,’ Elvis said. He ran to the end of the corner and waved. A pink car, driven by a very old lady, turned into the street and pulled up by the garden gate.

Ursula Stanhope bent over the wheel of a very sporty, brand new Ranger Rover Evoque. She had grey hair tied back in a bun and wore a smart linen summer suit with a green silk scarf, which was fastened at the neck by a large sparkly brooch. Her eyes were a twinkling hazel colour.

‘Cool car,’ murmured Liam as they climbed aboard.

Ursula smiled.

‘It’s lovely to meet you. I’m sorry if we’re wasting your time. Elvis called us all together but he can be a little bit … excitable,’ she said.

Without the slightest sound the car began to glide out of town, along the main road, away from Redemere and off into the countryside. Jack thought it was such a quiet car that they must be in an electric vehicle.

’Who are the Orden?’ Liam asked, his voice loud in the strangely silent interior.

’Well, I don’t know what Elvis told you. He tends to exaggerate. We’re a bunch of friends with an interest in strange things. We don’t meet that often,’ Ursula answered carefully. For someone so old her voice had the crystal clear, cut glass sound of a strong, young woman.

‘Stop the car,’ Liam said.

‘I beg your pardon,’ Ursula said sweetly.

Liam opened one of the rear doors and said, ‘Stop the car or I’ll jump out.’

The Range Rover glided noiselessly to a halt at the side of the road.

Liam closed the car door and leant forward so that his head was on the back of Ursula’s seat. His lips were close to the old lady’s neck as he spoke very softly.

’I don’t buy this nice old lady thing. It doesn’t feel right. Explain the whole ’group’ stuff again, and explain it better or the three of us will get out of the car and walk home.’

Jack looked out of the window. His heart sank. They were in the middle of nowhere. They weren’t that far from Redemere but it was a quiet spot surrounded by trees. When he looked across at Tia he could see concern in her eyes.

Ursula coughed quietly and seemed to come to a conclusion. She turned to face them. Her piercing hazel eyes were lined with heavy black make up and, as she spoke, her large, white teeth seemed to sparkle.

’We are a secret organisation but we are not a threat to you or to anyone else. The Orden has been going for many years. There are six members. Each member must share an interest in events that have no immediate logical, or scientific, explanation.’

Her words were clear and precise.

‘Like our elephant?’ Tia said.

‘Seemingly so,’ Ursula nodded.

There was a silence. Ursula spoke again.

‘And, you wouldn’t have to walk home. If you don’t trust me I’ll turn back and make sure you all get home safely. Is that enough information?’

‘What do you do?’

‘I’m a Professor of History. I only deal in facts.’

Jack looked at Tia and they waited. It was Liam’s call.

‘Drive on,’ Liam said He settled back on the red leather seat. He seemed soothed by the luxury of a bumpless, soundless ride.

They were no more than seven or eights miles outside of Cambridge when Ursula pulled the Range Rover alongside a large sign that said ‘Asparagus For Sale’. She turned off the road and slipped along a lane between two wheat fields. That brought them out into a large flat space like a farmyard and Ursula parked next to a rickety old wooden bench. Close by there were three long, dirty green, battered caravans. Behind the caravans stood a tumble down shed and, behind that, acres of open land dotted was with the delicate fronds of Asparagus plants. A gentle summer breeze rippled over the surface of the crop.

‘This place belongs to my cousin. We’re staying here for a few days,’ Elvis explained.

You cannot be serious, Jack thought. This place looks like some kind of refugee camp. What kind of a joke organization hangs about in a place like this?

Elvis opened the door of the Range Rover and moved back to allow Tia to step onto the dusty ground.

‘So, who else is in this .. er .. group? Are all six of you here?’ Jack asked. They walked across the patch of wasteland towards the first caravan. A ramp led up to a door, which was open. From inside Jack heard the sound of a computer game being noisily played.

‘All six of us will be here. You’ve met two of us and Klaus is in here. Klaus is Scottish, from Dundee,’ Ursula said climbing nimbly up a ramp to stand in the mobile home’s doorway. Elvis began talking.

‘Klaus is into quantum science stuff. He shares my interest in UFOs. He’s also into computers big time. Klaus can do anything with a computer,’ he said proudly, ushering Liam and Tia up towards the dingy interior.

Watching as the others were waved into the caravan, Jack turned to Elvis and said, ‘I really should give you this book I have at home. It’s called ’Take the coins, take the Earth - They’re here: Aliens all around us’. It would be the perfect bedtime reading for you.’

When he looked up he saw that the colour seemed to have drained from Ursula Stanhope’s face.

‘Are you okay Mrs Stanhope?’

‘Er, yes, yes. It’s the heat.’

The old woman looked flustered. A noise from the shed behind the caravans distracted Jack’s attention. An animal bellowed in pain and the rickety wooden structure shook from side to side.

‘That’s Rashpal. You’ll meet her soon enough. Please, come in,’ Ursula said. She still looked slightly grey faced and bewildered.

Jack shrugged. Maybe that’s what happens when you get old. You get tired a lot. He climbed the ramp, turned left and nervously made his way down a narrow corridor between chintzy patterned seating.

Inside the caravan, at the far end, sat a fat, long haired man who sprawled across a pile of cushions. Klaus Klein was unshaven and badly dressed. For a moment Jack wasn’t sure if the strange smell came from the caravan or Klaus.

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ Klaus grunted. He bashed at his laptop before pushing it away in disgust. Grabbing both legs he wriggled forward and then swung himself into a sitting position. Jack bumped against a wheelchair. He thought Klaus had to be about thirty-five. It appeared that he was also disabled.

‘Hi,’ Klaus said as, like an Emperor giving an audience, he put out a pudgy little hand.

Tia stepped forward to greet the fat man.

‘I’m Tia,’ she said. Klaus’s balloon shaped face grinned like a Halloween pumpkin.

’I’ve reached Level Seven Ultima on ‘Mortuary Road’. No one on the net has managed to get that far with the game,’ Klaus boasted. He turned his laptop around to show them.

‘Thank you, Klaus. Well done,’ Ursula said. She began noisily to fill a kettle with water. Outside, there was a loud, rat-a-tat-tat cracking sound. Liam moved quickly to the door.

‘Don’t worry. It’s not gunshots. That’s just Max. He’s adding to the woodpile. He’s not good at sitting still,’ Ursula explained. She twitched a curtain to peer out through the greasy, filth smeared window.

‘Max! Come in and say hi,’ she shouted.

Moments later there was the scraping of boots at the bottom of the ramp and a tousled head filled the doorway.

‘I ran out of wood,’ the new arrival said. He pushed his way into the caravan and squeezed himself close to the tiny sink where he began to scrub dirt from his hands.

‘This is Max. He lives in London. You probably know him,’ Ursula said simply.

Jack certainly did.

He was Max Strang. The Max Strang. The star of ’Strang Survival’ and ’Strang Places’.

The Max Strang who climbed mountains, jumped off cliffs, caught twenty foot snakes by the tail, forded leech filled rivers, surfed down white water rapids and lived for a month on a desert island with only an old paper clip for fishing. The Max Strang who, half naked and dripping with sweat, in a jungle, looked like the golden statue of a World Federation wrestler.

Jack’s eyes nearly jumped out of his head. Tia stumbled from one end of the caravan to the other and looked like she would grab the man’s hand and touch him to make sure he was real. She remembered at the last minute to be polite and said, ‘Mister Strang, I presume?’

‘The pleasure’s all mine,’ the golden man said before coughing as if embarrassed and doing the buttons up on the front of his shirt. He dried his hands on a tea towel, grabbed a can of beer and slumped behind the caravan’s tiny, hinged dining table.

Jack noticed that Liam stayed cool, calm and collected.

‘Four down and two to go,’ Liam said quietly.

Ursula Stanhope took off her green silk scarf, tied it around her wrist and bustled over to the small gas cooking range.

‘Scones and strawberry jam for everyone?’ she said grabbing a tea caddy.

After a loud murmur of assent she spooned out cream and topped up a bowl with sugar before neatly laying the table with plates. Jack looked at her face and thought, she looks like she’s at least seventy years old but she moves more like my mother.

‘Whilst we’re waiting for the others perhaps you could begin to tell us your story?’ Ursula said as she busily laid out doilies, a flowery teapot and a cut glass dish filled with home made strawberry jam.

Tia started the tale.

‘Well, it all began when Jack and Gidean had to clean out the air raid shelter. They came out, before the elephant appeared, arguing about some coins.’

‘Ban liangs. They’re called ban liangs,’ Jack muttered. He was sitting near enough to see Klaus’ laptop and was staring enviously at the screen. His mum wouldn’t let him have ‘Mortuary Road’. It was too expensive and she said, anyway, that it was too violent. Jack’s fingers came alive and wandered across to the keyboard. Tia continued the tale.

‘Yes. Our teacher called them ban liangs. This is mine,’ Tia said and held up her arm. She had strung her coin on a thin silver chain and wore it around her wrist.

Jack stopped. Ursula seemed fascinated by the coin as it slithered against Tia’s bare skin. He could have sworn that the old woman held her breath. When Tia lifted her arm and the bracelet fell, hidden beneath the white school shirt, the old lady shuddered, smiled uncomfortably and then nodded for Tia to continue.

‘Well, our teacher gave one coin to Gidean, one to Jack, one to me and then he kept the other one. Then Jack and Gidean went back into the shelter…’

‘I didn’t go in. Just Gidean,’ Jack corrected.

Jack’s right hand wandered off again and began to silently dance over the keys on Klaus’ laptop. Tia took a mouthful of scone before getting back to her tale.

‘Where was I? Oh yeah. Well Gidean came out and …. and that was it. Gidean was hysterical. He said he had seen an elephant. And this banging started. It felt like we were being bombed. Anyway, our teacher took one look inside the air raid shelter and then he set off the school Fire Alarm. They evacuated the school. I don’t ..’

Klaus’ sudden screech of pain interrupted Tia’s story.

‘What are you doing!’ he yelled and snatched his laptop away from Jack.

‘Oh… er .. sorry. I just sort of, got into it … er ..’ Jack mumbled and was about to apologise when Klaus shouted, ‘You finished it!’

‘What?’ Jack was confused.

’You finished the game! Just like that. It has taken me three days to get to this level. Normally it would take another twenty-four hours to finish but you just took … one minute! No one else in the world has finished this game. I know that for a fact. No one! I thought I would be the first,’ shouted Klaus. His voice was a strange mixture of rage and admiration.

‘Sorry,’ Jack apologised again.

‘How did you do that?’ Klaus demanded.

‘Just … luck ….’ he said modestly and he would have said more but he realised that another person had managed to quietly glide into the cramped space of the caravan.

‘Rashpal, this is Tia and Jack and Liam. They were there when the elephant appeared out of nowhere. Rashpal is from Birmingham,’ Ursula said, introducing the young woman by the doorway and handing her a plate of hot, buttered scones.

‘Hi, Please to meet you,’ Rashpal nodded.

She leant back against the plastic covered wall and nibbled at the edge of a scone. Jack stared at her. She was covered in blood and she had some kind of a net over her face. She was possibly the scariest woman he had ever seen.