Chapters (47)
‘Watch it,’ said Greta automatically, but she, like the rest of the Space Brigade, was frowning up at the huge banks of heavy grey cloud rolling rapidly across the sky like ocean waves. There was a deep rumble of thunder and a sudden spatter of icy rain against the fabric of the balloon.
‘This doesn’t look good,’ said Tyler. There were specks of water on his glasses. He brushed them away impatiently.
‘It’s turned extra cold.’ Shimlara shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
Directly above them was a patch of bright blue sky like the leftover piece of a completely different day.
‘How are we going to fly this thing through a hurricane? We shouldn’t have left Philippe behind,’ said Greta crossly, as if she hadn’t been bashing his knuckles with her shoe just five minutes before.
‘All we’ve got to do is stay in the eye of the hurricane,’ said Sean. ‘I saw it in a movie. That’s where you’re safe.’
‘Oh, is that all? Well then, we shouldn’t have a problem!’ Tyler didn’t normally sound irritable and sarcastic. He must be frightened, thought Nicola.
They were in a hot-air balloon with a hurricane sweeping towards them. It really couldn’t get much worse than this. For some reason, instead of crying, Nicola started to laugh.
‘What’s so funny?’ snapped Greta. ‘This isn’t funny! There is nothing funny about this at all!’
That only made Nicola laugh harder.
‘Is she hysterical?’ asked Shimlara ‘Nicola, are you hysterical?’
Nicola decided to pull herself together before everyone started enthusiastically slapping her across the face.
‘I’m not hysterical,’ she said, and tried to think of something leaderish and sensible to say. A notice stuck to the inside of the basket caught her eye.
‘Now will you all just calm down and take a look at this notice,’ she said bossily, as if everyone else had been the ones falling about laughing. They all crouched down to read.