Fraud at Snowfields Read online

  He looked around the classroom to make sure they had all been listening. Then he went on to tell them the main things they needed to know about Snowfields and the school, explained their timetable and subjects, and finally released them from their first lesson. He helped them find their way back to their common room and introduced them to the door guardian there. This one was not as lofty as the one on the door to their classroom, but was quite jovial, and the introduction was rather uneventful—which was fine by Will, for this guardian did not object to his name at all. After they had all been introduced so that they could enter the rooms on their own, Contractus left them to get settled in and to explore their new home.

  As it had already got rather late, Will stored his personal belongings in his wardrobe and then just wandered around the quarters with the others, looking here and there. They were having a discussion about whether they should continue exploring other parts of the school when a deep ‘gong’ from the clock reverberated through the common room. Immediately they went over and looked at it. The sign under its face said, ‘Five minutes till supper!’ And right on cue, Mr Contractus stepped into the corridor and led them once more to the Ferum.

  There Will had another delicious meal—not as spectacular as lunch, but very tasty all the same. After supper Mr Contractus left them to find their way back to their rooms on their own, and with Wesley in the lead they got there without a wrong turn. By then they were all yawning, as it had been a long and eventful day, and so they went straight to bed. Will settled into the soft and comfortable bedding, sighed contentedly, and thought about the wonderful events of the day. Soon he fell asleep.

  Chapter 5

  Will sat on a sofa in the common room of his quarters, reading the summary Parchmentinus had handed out about the topics they would cover in his class. He looked up as he heard voices coming nearer. Bianca and Wendy entered the room.

  ‘Hi, Will,’ Bianca called. ‘We’re rounding everybody up because we want to go and explore the village. Are you interested?’

  ‘Yes, of course. I already thought of going outside earlier today.’

  ‘Well, then come with us.’

  Will put away the paper he had been reading and got up.

  ‘Could you look into your dorm to see if anyone’s there who’d like to come too? I wouldn’t want to go in there.’ Wendy smiled primly.

  ‘Yes, sure.’ Will went into his dorm. He found Wesley, who was rummaging through things in his closet.

  ‘Hi, Wesley. Bianca and Wendy are down in the common room and asked if we want to join them exploring the village.’

  ‘Yeah, great idea. I’m coming with you.’ He stuffed his things away and followed Will back to the main room.

  Bianca and Wendy had found Spencer, Annabel, and Freddy, and they were standing near the door.

  ‘Okay, that’s everybody we could find,’ said Bianca. ‘Michelle and Richard just went outside, but they didn’t want to join us.’

  ‘Has anybody got the map they gave us on our arrival?’ Will asked.

  ‘Yes, I’ve got mine here.’ Spencer held it up.

  ‘Let’s go then.’ Bianca led them from the wing.

  They went down the corridors and stairs to the entrance hall, through the magnificent door, and then out onto the street in front of the school.

  ‘Let’s see,’ said Spencer, unfolding his map. ‘This is School Lane. And the school is right on the western edge of the village. Where do we want to go? To the Plaza?’

  The others nodded their agreement.

  ‘Then we go down there.’ Spencer pointed to the east.

  As they walked down the street, they went past average-sized, two-storey buildings made out of red brick.

  Spencer looked up from his map. ‘These are living areas for teachers and other staff. And that’—he pointed to a building just two houses away, opposite the school—‘is the students’ café, called The Jolly Reindeer.’ He studied the map again. ‘It says here: “A jolly place to have a cocoa after school with your mates.”’

  Will looked at the building. It was like the ones next to it, but its front consisted of a row of windows. The door was bright green and decorated with holly. A sign above the door showed a dancing reindeer.

  ‘Look!’ Bianca giggled and nudged Annabel. Will looked where she was pointing and saw a sprig of mistletoe hanging right above the door.

  ‘Shall we have a look inside?’ asked Wendy.

  ‘Yes, let’s see what it’s like,’ answered Will, and went towards the door. He opened it and passed quickly under the mistletoe, before any of the girls could get the wrong idea. The others followed him.

  ‘Come in, come in! Ther’ be drinks an’ food for all o’ yer in ’ere.’

  Will was greeted by a booming voice and looked up. Standing behind the counter was a heavily-built man, with a round face and a huge, round belly. Above a wide, brown beard that covered his upper mouth and lower face, his cheeks were red, and he wore a red, slightly-battered bowler hat. He grinned at Will and the others. ‘Please, take a seat whe’ever yer like. Not many customers ’ere at this time o’ day. Yer must be some of the new students just arrived, right? Cause I ain’t not seen yer a’fore, and’—he touched a finger to his left temple—‘I ain’t forgetting me customers.’

  Bianca nudged Will, who was standing in the front.

  ‘Er, yes,’ Will managed. ‘Yes, we’ve just arrived at Snowfields. We were just having a look around the village and found your café.’

  ‘Good, good! I ’ope I’ll be see’n’ yer most often from now on. I serve the best cocoa in al’ o’ Snowfields. I’ll prove it! Sit yerselves down and I’ll serve yer a round.’

  ‘Oh, thank you very much, sir, but…. Uhm…. We’ve just arrived in Snowfields and…well, I’m not sure what money you are using here.’ Will faltered under the almost affronted look he got from the man behind the counter.

  ‘No need t’ worry, no need t’ worry at all, me young friends.’ The man flashed them a wide grin. ‘The first round’s on meself. It won’t cost yer nothin’. An’ by th’way, of course we use the Christmas dime an’ dollar in Snowfields. Best yer arsks yer teachers about it. Teachers are there to expl’in.’

  ‘Oh, that’s great. Thank you very much, sir.’ Will smiled at the man and started to go to a table by the window.

  ‘Stop!’

  At the sharp command, Will stopped dead in his tracks and turned round.

  ‘There’s one thing yer’ll all ’ave t’do ’ere in me café! There’s no sir’in’ me! Me name’s Jolly—just Jolly.’

  ‘Oh, okay Mr J—’ Will started to answer, but the big man behind the counter immediately raised a chubby finger.

  ‘Ah?’ he said.

  ‘Oh, I mean…okay, Jolly.’ Will grinned as Jolly cracked a smile.

  ‘’Ave a seat, ’ave a seat.’ Jolly waved them towards the table.

  Will and the others sat down at the table next to the window.

  Immediately Jolly came with a heavy tray. ‘There y’are, me young frien’s.’ He deftly placed a mug of steaming cocoa with a huge mountain of cream topping in front of each of them. Then he put a plate heaped with biscuits in the middle. ‘’Ere y’are, there y’are. With no chargin’ t’day. Dig in! Tha’s an order.’ He laughed, booming deeply, and was gone again with surprising speed considering his bulk.

  The students did not need to be told twice. They started munching the biscuits.

  ‘Mmmmh, these are gooood!’ said Freddy, his mouth full and spluttering crumbs on the table. ‘Oh, sorry.’ He tried to brush them away.

  Annabel shook her head in disgust. Will smiled and tried his own biscuit. Freddy was right, though. They tasted really good—almost as good as the ones his mother made at Christmastime.

  ‘Nice place,’ said Spencer. ‘Don’t you think?’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ replied Bianca. ‘And the cocoa is really excellent. With real chocolate and not just some tasteless chemical powder.’

 
; They crunched through the biscuits and sipped from their mugs.

  Then the door of the café opened and a goblin came inside. Immediately Jolly’s behaviour changed completely.

  ‘Get out,’ he snarled. ‘Get out’f her’ quick.’

  The goblin looked up in surprise.

  Jolly growled at him: ‘I ain’t servin’ folks like you. Not now. Not wi’ all the trouble wi’ Bluerin tha’s goin’ on at the moment!’

  The goblin hung his head, nodded wearily, and walked out again.

  Jolly continued to growl something into his beard. Will had noticed this strange exchange and he wanted to mention it to the others. But they were all so absorbed in their cocoa and biscuits that they had not noticed anything. So what should he say to them? He left it, but still thought it was all rather strange. And what the heck was Bluerin? Or did Jolly miss a few syllables?

  ‘Everybody finished?’ asked Spencer finally. ‘Then we should move on! I want to see the rest of the village.’

  ‘Everythin’ all right, was’t?’ called Jolly from behind his counter as the students started to get up. He sounded bright and friendly again.

  ‘Yes, it was excellent. Thank you very much,’ Freddy called back to him. ‘I bet I’ll become one of your best customers!’

  Jolly laughed heartily. ‘Tha’s fine, me lad. That’s how’t should be. I’ll see yer soon!’

  The students said goodbye, and trooped out.

  ‘Well, that was nice,’ said Bianca outside. ‘Where do we go now?’

  Spencer peered at his map. ‘That way!’ He pointed down the street. ‘The next buildings are all living quarters.’

  They walked down the street and passed fronts of different sizes and slightly different styles, but all basically built of red brick, if in slightly different hues, and brown, wooden beams. All had lattice windows of different sizes and forms, and some even had coloured lead glass designs, mostly Christmas motifs like green holly or golden stars.

  The students went down the street and reached a junction.

  ‘Which way, Spencer?’ asked Will.

  ‘Well.’ He pointed to the left. ‘Down there seem to be mostly production buildings and stores. In the other direction lies the centre with the Plaza.’

  ‘I’d like to have a look at the production buildings. They ought to be interesting,’ said Freddy eagerly.

  ‘Well, why not.’ Bianca started down the street to the left, and the others followed.

  ‘This street’s called Production Road.’

  ‘Funny name for a street,’ noted Wendy, ‘but easy to remember.’

  They went down the street, which was noticeably wider than School Lane, and it looked to be well-travelled. On both sides were, again, red brick buildings, apparently homes to the inhabitants of Snowfields village.

  They reached a curve to the right. In front of them loomed the brick front of a huge building, stretching away in the distance along the street. There were enormous steel doors at regular intervals.

  ‘These are production halls,’ Spencer noted rather superfluously, as if something this big could be anything else. It looked rather like a factory from the early ages of industrialisation, thought Will, remembering photographs he had seen in his schoolbooks.

  ‘Can we have a look inside?’ asked Freddy.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Bianca. ‘I don’t think we should. It seems pretty closed up. And we might get into trouble if we just stumble in there.’

  ‘Oh.’ Freddy sounded disappointed. ‘But I’d really like to see what’s inside.’ He squared his shoulders and walked determinedly towards the building.

  Annabel rolled her eyes.

  ‘Well, surely one look won’t hurt,’ Will ventured as he was also pretty eager to see what was inside.

  He got a disapproving glance from Annabel. But suddenly she broke into a smile and said, ‘All right, let’s go then.’

  Will and Annabel went after Freddy. The others followed, as they were no less curious. They approached a large window that promised a good view of what was going on inside. But when they were only a few steps in front of it, a huge load of snow dropped right on top of them.

  ‘Ugh!’ Freddy exclaimed.

  They jumped back, coughing snow and trying to wipe it off their faces and clothes.

  ‘What was that?’ Spencer yelled. ‘How could the snow just drop on us like that?’

  ‘Well,’ replied Bianca, still trying to brush it all off her coat. ‘Snow sometimes does slide down off the roof.’

  ‘But we are standing near the face of the building.’ Spencer stared up the front of it. ‘There’s no roof here where the snow can slide off!’

  Bianca shrugged her shoulders. ‘Don’t ask me. It certainly happened!’

  Meanwhile Freddy was walking towards the window again, trying to peer inside. Suddenly another load of snow dropped on him.

  ‘Will you look at that!’ Spencer said. ‘That can’t just be a coincidence.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Will. ‘Let’s try again.’ He took a few careful steps towards the window, squinting up as he went. Suddenly all went white and cold, and he was covered in snow again. He jumped back. When he could see again, the others were looking at him in confusion.

  Wendy said, ‘That can’t be simply bad luck. That looks to be on purpose.’

  Will had a thought. ‘Maybe that’s a very sophisticated burglar alarm. If you come near the building, you are covered in snow.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ said Bianca. ‘Well, another of the wonders of Snowfields. But one I could have done without.’

  ‘We could all have done without it,’ grumbled Freddy. ‘And I haven’t even seen anything inside. That’s not fair.’

  The others laughed.

  ‘Well,’ Bianca said, ‘let’s go on. I’ll bet there are other things to see. Things we’re allowed to see.’

  They went down the street, along the front of the production building.

  ‘Look!’ Will pointed ahead of them. ‘What is that?’

  They stood in the street and stared: there, high above their heads, clouds moved above the street. But not randomly. Will looked to the right. He could see a—well, a sort of pathway made out of cloud. A few inches above it, small squares of cloud slowly floated along. The pathway started at a door back in the wall of the large production building; at intervals the door would open, and a square of cloud would come floating through it. On the squares were all sorts of products. Will could see dolls, wooden trains, a rocking horse, a television, a bicycle, and lots of other stuff.

  The cloud pathway led to the street, where it turned upwards at a ninety-degree angle and rose high above the students’ heads. Up there it turned again through ninety degrees and led across the street. On the other side, it turned downwards again, and when it reached the ground it led onwards towards a set of doors in the building on this side of the road.

  Will watched the drifting squares of cloud with the products on them.

  ‘That must be a transportation system—you know, like those conveyor belts we travelled on at Cloudy’s Transportation Service,’ said Annabel finally.

  ‘Yes, looks like it,’ answered Will, still staring. ‘Fascinating, isn’t it?’

  Spencer looked at his map. ‘On this side are stores. So I guess the finished products are being transported from the production halls to the stores here.’

  They went on, passing directly underneath the cloud conveyor belt, still looking up at it, for they had never seen anything like it in their lives. They continued along the street.

  ‘Oh my, these buildings are never-ending!’ said Bianca after some time. They were still walking along the fronts of the buildings.

  ‘Reminds me of a car factory,’ replied Freddy.

  Finally they reached the end of the buildings and a junction.

  ‘Look!’ said Freddy. ‘There’s another one.’

  And indeed. Will looked where Freddy was pointing. Across the junction, along the road that ran crosswise to
the one they had just walked down, was a long strip of the cloud conveyor belt raised slightly above the ground. The single cloud units moved slowly from right to left. On them there seemed to be all kinds of raw materials. Some carried loads that looked like dirt, others seemed to be carrying ore. Will even saw one unit in the distance that looked as if it were carrying a large glass basin full of water.

  The conveyor belt ran along the side of the road and disappeared through large steel doors into another building to their left. The building was indeed immense—and beautiful. It had pristine, white walls, lots of glass windows with golden window frames, red-tiled roofs (at least those parts that were not made out of glass), and many towers and turrets. The students all stared at this magnificent building.

  ‘What on earth is that?’ Sabrina was the first to recover her voice.

  Spencer consulted his plan. ‘That’s the Bluerin Production Palace.’

  ‘Bluerin? What’s Bluerin?’ asked Will, remembering Jolly and the goblin.

  ‘No idea,’ said Spencer, ‘but it must be something important.’ He looked up at the building and added, ‘At least judging by this grandeur.’

  Freddy had been staring at it open-mouthed. ‘Wow. I’d like to have a look at that!’ And he started walking purposefully towards the building.

  ‘Oi, Freddy, you sure you want to get covered in snow again?’ Bianca called after him.

  He stopped. ‘Hmm, you’re right.’ Then he brightened up. ‘But this is a totally different building. Surely they’re not all protected like that? And I want to see what’s going on in there.’ He started towards the building again.

  The others, equally curious but more cautious, followed slowly, with lots of space between them and Freddy. He was getting near one of the enormous windows of the grand structure. When he was quite close, a huge and very thick wall of holly suddenly sprang up, making him jump backwards in surprise. Strangely, the wall of holly was in front of only him, between him and the window, and only reached a few yards to his left and right. Next to it the others could still see the wall and windows.