Fraud at Snowfields Read online

  ‘There’s that,’ Wendy admitted.

  ‘Anyhow,’ Bianca interjected, ‘we want to go to the Jolly Reindeer for a break. Fancy joining us?’

  Will looked down at the treatise and compared it to the prospect of a nice, hot cocoa in the Jolly Reindeer. There was not much to decide. He pushed his papers together, stuffed them into his bag, and stood up. ‘Yes, of course! Let’s go. I can finish this later.’

  Bianca and Wendy smiled, turned around, and led the way to the door.

  ***

  Eventually they had their next lesson in production. Mr Worker had been waiting for them in their classroom. And, just as he had promised, after a short introduction he led them over to the production building which Will and the others had already discovered when they had explored the village, at which time they had also discovered one of its—rather unpleasant—peculiarities while trying to get near to it. This time, though, with Mr Worker in the lead, they had no problems when they approached the building. They were not covered in snow, and no hedge blocked their way, so they reached the door without incident. Mr Worker opened the immense steel door and led them inside. They passed through an entrance area, with a bored-looking desk clerk who belatedly snapped to attention when he saw the teacher, and they went up some stairs until Mr Worker opened another heavy door and led them onto a balcony overlooking a large hall. In the centre was a very big glass container filled with the brilliant-blue mist of Bluerin.

  ‘This is one of our production rooms—one of the most amazing rooms we have in Snowfields,’ Mr Worker told the students.

  Dozens of small glass tubes, all filled with the swirling and sparkling Bluerin, ran from the glass tank to workbenches all over the room. There they zigzagged up unto the working surfaces and ended with golden valves. Under the valves were shallow glass basins. At each bench someone clad in royal blue worked, busily forming all kinds of goods out of Bluerin. First they would open the valve and let a bit of Bluerin flow into the basin. Then they would work at it with their wands. And after a while some sort of present would appear. Right beside each bench a small white patch of cloud hovered. Every time one of the workers finished a product, he would place it on top of the cloud, and the cloud would float through the room to a door on the far side as if on invisible rails. Then the door would open, and the cloud would float out of sight.

  Above each bench was a beige-gray stone-like pyramid with the vertex pointing down directly at the glass basin. On the sides of the pyramids were complicated engravings—on some of them only one side was covered with a few rough lines, on others all sides were filled completely with very finely-etched symbols.

  Will and the others looked around wild-eyed.

  ‘Cor, look at that, look at that—that’s amazing!’ Fredorgius gabbled as he gaped at the room.

  ‘Look at those lovely tiny clouds’, Annabel said. ‘They’re beautiful, aren’t they?’

  Then all of the students were babbling simultaneously.

  ‘Look, there! He just conjured up a television. Wow!’

  ‘Blimey! Look at all that Bluerin.’

  ‘I wonder what those pyramids are for.’

  ‘Those clouds can really carry a lot!’

  ‘Look, they’re making mobile phones over there.’

  ‘See how fast he’s doing those small balls over there?’

  ‘Where do you get all that Bluerin from?’

  They all pointed this way and that, all talking at the same time, all wanting to show the others what amazing things they had discovered.

  When they had calmed down a bit, Mr Worker called, ‘Gather round me, will you? Please, boys, you too. Mr. Bagshot? Mr Bagshot... Finally. Well, I want to explain some of the things you’re seeing.’

  They gathered around him in a rough semicircle. Though Freddy could not resist throwing a glance back at the room now and then.

  ‘As you can see, and as I’ve already told you, in this room the presents are being made out of Bluerin. In the centre you see the Bluerin tank. That is, of course, not all the Bluerin we’ve got in Snowfields. This is just a smaller, temporary storage for the production units. It’s fed by a pipeline from the main Bluerin stores, which are in another building, in the Bluerin Production Palace. You can see the small pipelines that lead from the tank to the single workstations.

  ‘Each station is manned by a Bluerinic. They’re the trained workers who specialise in the transformation of Bluerin. They have to be able to concentrate strictly on the work at hand, or the pieces they’re working on will be flawed. In the last lesson, I demonstrated how Bluerin can be transformed. Most of you would call it magic. But, as you’ve been told before, our magic here at Snowfields is really only a special form of focussing one’s will. To focus the will, you use a wand and utter a word or clause—a magic spell, if you want. And the Bluerin in your wand is the vehicle to transport your will.

  ‘But enough talk for now. Off you go, get down there and have a good look round on your own. You can talk to the Bluerinics and ask them questions. Just don’t touch anything without asking first.’

  Freddy was the first to bound down the stairs and hurry through the rows of Bluerinics. Will followed more slowly. He stopped at the first workbench. The Bluerinic smiled briefly at him, then concentrated on his work again. Will watched closely as the Bluerinic turned the tap so that some Bluerin flowed into the basin on the bench. The Bluerinic was in deep concentration. He slowly pointed his wand at the Bluerin. Then he did something strange—he turned his head and looked up at a strange pyramid that was hanging upside down from the ceiling with its tip pointing straight down to the workbench. Then some sort of blue mist started to flow from the tip of the pyramid. The Bluerinic pointed his wand at the mist and guided it down towards the Bluerin in the basin. It started to shimmer even more brightly and suddenly a pocket calculator was lying in the basin, still with a slight blue gleam that faded slowly. The Bluerinic exhaled deeply, took the calculator and looked it over critically. Will had watched all this spellbound. Suddenly the Bluerinic held the calculator right in front of Will.

  ‘Here, for you,’ he said to Will.

  Will took the calculator carefully and looked at the Bluerinic in amazement. ‘Thank you,’ he finally managed to say.

  The Bluerinic laughed. ‘No problem at all,’ he said. ‘The minute I saw you all entering our production room I switched to making this, because you’ll need it for your accountancy lessons.’

  Will looked at the calculator, which did not shimmer blue anymore. He looked back at the Bluerinic and said once more: ‘Thank you. Er, sir,...can I ask you a question?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘This pyramid,’ Will pointed upwards. ‘What’s it for?’

  ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ the Bluerinic replied. ‘The pyramid helps me focus my will to transform the Bluerin. You see, the more complex the product you want to create is, the more you’ve got to concentrate, and the more willpower you’ve got to put into the transformation. Nobody would be able to do this the whole day. Even making simple things like wooden building bricks or rubber balls would take way too much concentration and energy.’

  Will nodded slowly. ‘I see. And what are those engravings on the sides?’ he asked.

  ‘Ah,’ the Bluerinic said. ‘Very sharp of you to notice them. These engravings contain most of the information needed for the fabrication of the products. You see, you can produce anything with Bluerin by the power of your will and with the right spell. But, as I’ve told you, it needs a lot of concentration and energy to produce even small things. So you can produce even the most complicated things with little energy if the information in the engravings is explicit enough. But the engravings have another use: if you want to turn Bluerin into a complex product like this,’ he pointed towards the calculator in Will’s hands, ‘then you need to picture every detail of the calculator in your mind. Not only the general look of it, but also everything that’s inside it. The whole technical process, the complete
electronics, every single capillary joint on the circuit board. Nobody would be able to do that. But this information is stored completely in the engravings on the pyramids. So I just have to imagine the product and assemble the general look of it in my mind. Then I channel my will through the pyramid and thus create complex products.’

  ‘So you can make all kinds of products with this pyramid?’ Will asked and pointed towards it once more.

  ‘No, unfortunately not,’ the Bluerinic replied. ‘This pyramid is just for the specific calculator model you are holding in your hands. If I want to produce something else, I’ve got to change the pyramid like this.’ And he reached up, loosened some clamps, and pulled the pyramid out of its mounting. He placed it on a carrier cloud beside him and picked up a different pyramid from the next cloud. He touched the first cloud with his wand and it slowly floated away. Then he fixed the pyramid above his workbench. ‘There,’ he said to Will. ‘Now I can produce another present. You see, the engravings just code the specifics for one special kind of product.’

  Will nodded. ‘Okay. I understand. But how do you...’ Before he could go on, he was interrupted by Mr Worker calling them back.

  Will quickly thanked the Bluerinic and hurried back to the teacher.

  When they were all gathered round him again, Mr Worker said: ‘Well, I hope you all had a good look round. Any questions so far?’

  Will felt a movement beside him. Sabrina had put her hand in the air, waving it frantically until Mr Worker finally saw it.

  ‘Miss Bluetonic?’

  ‘Can you produce really everything, every single present here? I find that a bit hard to believe.’

  Mr Worker shook his head. ‘Alas, no. As the Bluerinics should have told you, the pyramids help us tremendously. But unfortunately we can’t produce all the presents we need. We can produce all of the simpler things, or things that are not too new. But we can’t produce the newest products like the latest mobile phones or computers.

  ‘Yes, Mr Bagshot?’

  Freddy had raised his hand while Mr Worker had been explaining. ‘I don’t understand that. I was told with the pyramids you could produce everything.’

  ‘Ah, yes. We are indeed able to produce almost anything with the pyramids. But if you think about it, there is one obstacle. Maybe you can figure it out yourselves. Remember I’ve told you we especially can’t produce the newest products.’ He looked around. ‘Does anyone have an idea what the problem might be?’ He waited.

  Will thought about it, but he could not come up with a reasonable answer.

  ‘Maybe you don’t have enough Bluerinics to do it all,’ said Spencer.

  ‘Hmm, not a bad thought, but we’re constantly expanding our facilities, and are training new Bluerinics to keep up with the demand. Any other ideas?’

  ‘The Bluerinics are not good enough.’ This was muttered by Richard, but loud enough for them all to hear. As had been his intention, Will was sure.

  ‘Ah, no, Mr Loxley. We do try to keep their training up to date, you know. I can personally assure you of that.’

  Beside Will, Sabrina had raised her hand again.

  ‘Miss Bluetonic?’ Mr Worker said.

  ‘I think because you first need to produce the pyramids, and that takes much time and effort,’ she said.

  ‘Excellent.’ Mr Worker beamed. ‘That’s exactly the reason. Very good. Let me explain: when, for example, a new mobile phone is out on the market, we first have to obtain one. Then our magicians take it into their labs. There they have to work out the exact structure and composition of the phone, and transcribe it onto a pyramid. Only then can we produce this article. And this simply takes a lot of effort and also much time. That’s the reason we can’t produce the really modern things.’

  After that the lesson was nearly over, and they went back to the school, where they reached the classroom just in time for the break.

  Chapter 7

  Early in the morning, Will awoke to the dull ‘gongs’ of the clock signalling it was time to get up. He rubbed his eyes and glanced around blearily. Of course Freddy was already up and bouncing about.

  ‘Get up, everybody, time for breakfast. Boy, am I hungry,’ Freddy called brightly, and was off to the bathroom. Will suppressed a sigh and swung his legs out of bed, looking for his slippers. Then he padded after Freddy into the bathroom.

  Will was the first to arrive at their breakfast table—after Freddy, of course, who already had a heaped plate in front of him and was chewing noisily through a croissant. The table overflowed with breakfast. There was bacon still sizzling, scrambled eggs, sausages, tomatoes, baked beans, toast, jam, and all the rest. Will dug in, for he was hungry. The others arrived one by one. There was not much talk, because it was early in the morning and they would rather have enjoyed their beds for some time longer. After breakfast they got up.

  ‘What do we have now?’ asked Bianca.

  ‘Our first lesson in magic!’ replied Spencer.

  ‘Ooooh,’ cried Freddy. ‘I could hardly wait for this. Just imagine: us, being able to do real magic!’

  They were all getting rather excited at the thought.

  ‘Well, let’s go then,’ said Will. ‘Does anyone know the way?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Richard, walking past with Michelle in tow. ‘I do know my way around here. So if you’d care to follow me, I’ll enlighten you.’

  He walked onwards without looking back. Michelle looked back and made a face at the others, then hurried after her idol. Freddy was doing a fairly good pantomime of Richard and of the superior air he radiated, and they all had to laugh. They followed Richard and Michelle at a moderate distance. Finally they reached the classroom and settled down inside. They did not have to wait for long before a small lady, clad in a glittering black robe, swept into the classroom and went to the front.

  ‘Good morning, class. My name is Adora Star Dustfall. Please call me Miss Dustfall.’

  ‘Good morning, Miss Dustfall,’ Will and the others chorused, more or less in tune and simultaneously.

  ‘It’s nice to meet you all. I’m sure you all know I have the pleasure of teaching you the basics of magic.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘It’s actually the best subject to teach, because everybody is most eager to learn it.’ She looked around the classroom: ‘I expect you are no different, are you?’

  This was met by a few embarrassed grins. Some students nodded eagerly. Will noticed—rather by chance, because he just happened to look that way—that Richard seemed much more interested and eager than Will had ever seen him be in other subjects. Richard had always acted supremely bored and disinterested. But this seemed to fascinate him. Will smirked. This was probably because real magic was one thing his father—who was, according to Richard, the greatest manager ever in the automobile industry—could not do.

  ‘So, first of all, why do we, and especially you, need magic at all?’ Miss Dustfall asked them.

  ‘Because it’s cool?’ exclaimed Freddy.

  They all laughed, and Sabrina nudged Freddy in the side with her elbow. ‘Ouch, what was that for?’ he asked her, looking surprised. Sabrina just rolled her eyes.

  ‘Ah, yes,’ said Miss Dustfall, who was also laughing. ‘That may be one reason. Would anybody know a second, maybe more practical reason?’

  She looked around, but nobody put their hand up or ventured an opinion. Will could not think of any real reason either; he tended to agree with Freddy that it was rather cool being able to do magic.

  ‘Well,’ said Miss Dustfall, ‘As you all know, the purpose of the White Christmas Organisation is the production and delivery of Christmas presents for Father Christmas. You may also be aware of the fact that Cloudy’s Transportation Service is the main means of delivering the presents. But they cannot do it all, and, most important, sometimes presents go to the wrong places. To correct these errors, you must have the equipment and the ability needed to get into the houses unseen, to get through locked doors, closed windows, or smoky chimneys and move th
e presents around inside. You need to be able to disappear instantly if somebody threatens to discover you. And of course sometimes presents get damaged on their way under the Christmas trees, so you need to have the means to repair them on the spot.

  ‘There are lots of other areas in our business where magic is essential. Just think about Snowfields: it is right in the middle of Britain, but nobody outside the organisation knows about its existence or has ever been here. Even you never knew about it until you got your letters of invitation. Therefore Snowfields must be protected heavily by magic, so nobody can see it from the outside and nobody can accidentally walk in here. And we have to hide it from modern techniques like radar, satellites, or any other detection devices without giving even the slightest hint of any irregularity in this area. This, of course, needs rather strong and complicated magic, and we will not deal with these issues here in your basic training. But if you should decide later on to work in such a specialised field, then you will study these aspects in great detail.

  ‘In this class we will also deal with the basics of the creation of Bluerin and the magic connected with the exploitation of the raw materials needed for it. Of course the transformation of Bluerin into presents also needs magic. Part of this will have overlapping aspects with what Mr Worker is going to teach you. But in my lesson we will deal mainly with the magical aspects, and he will deal mainly with the physical aspects of Bluerin. So that is roughly what we will be doing in this class.’ She looked around. ‘Any questions so far?’

  Nobody seemed to have any at the moment. Or rather nobody knew which question to ask first—they had so many.

  Miss Dustfall went on. ‘Now then, magic! It is such a legendary word. In Snowfields it is basically the strong and concentrated will for something to happen, used in combination with Bluerin. You need to concentrate, you need the will, and you need the strength—for the stronger and let us call it bigger the magic is, the more strength it will take from you. And you need a device to channel the will. For the latter you will need…this!’