Barbican: Book 2 in the Kings Keep Series

CHAPTER 1

In just one week at Kings Keep Academy, Alec had been injured twice and nearly been killed, explored a secret shaft hidden in his room, found a frightened child hiding in the bush, been visited and rescued by a mysterious aboriginal boy, discovered that his former bully was his room mate, and formed a secret group with six new friends. Not what you’d call a normal start to high school.

Kings Keep Academy had strange ways of educating its students. They used hi-tech equipment to accelerate learning and provide private, one-on-one teaching. There were no teachers - just the principal Mr Ritter and his assistant Ms La Garde - and students were expected to teach each other. There was a games room, but electronic entertainment was banned, and mobile phone reception was poor.

Their rooms had personally-coded keycard entry, and at night they were locked in to the main building. Alec was convinced that their rooms were bugged with surveillance equipment.

There were dozens of unanswered questions running through Alec’s mind as he began his first full weekend at the school, and dozens of secrets. Some of these he had shared with his early friends, Mitchell and Rebecca, others with his room mate Rodney. Still others, like the lost boy, the mysterious maintenance man Mr Grey, and the override card he had been secretly given, Alec kept to himself. His first week had been so turbulent, he still wasn’t sure whom he could trust, or if his long list of mysteries was real or imagined.

Yet for all his worries, Alec was happy enough at the new school. The agriculture plot was his ‘home away from home’, keeping him connected to the family farm through familiar things. The hi-tech learning and flexible timetable gave him more free time than he had ever known on the farm at home, and he had used it to develop friendships and learn new games. His new life as a boarding student helped to remove him from the daily reminder of his older brother’s tragic death.

At breakfast, Mr Ritter appeared as usual to make one of his frequent announcements, observations or suggestions.

‘Your first week at Kings Keep is already over,’ he said to a dining room full of munching students. ‘I’ve had a lot of feedback about our method of delivering your morning lessons, and I’m pleased you’re finding it so effective and helpful.

‘I need to remind some of you that it is your responsibility to study your electives and continue your main subjects in your own time, using your room’s wallset. A few of you have made no attempt to do so. If that lack of effort continues, you will fall behind very quickly, and your place here will be forfeited. The ICT room is open all weekend, so make use of the time to do your research. If you’re up to date, enjoy the games room.

‘There have been some great advances made in personal and social development for some of you, in just one week, and you should be proud of your growing maturity in dealing with challenges. This is also a good time to remind you all to share with each other what you are studying in your electives. Be active as a teacher, be open to learning from your friends, share your knowledge and skills, and remember that games and other activities are valuable learning experiences.’

‘I’m learning Spanish,’ Rebecca volunteered to her table group as Mr Ritter wandered around the dining room. ‘The Immersion system is so effective, you feel like you’ve been speaking it all your life, after just one week! It’s fantastic.’

‘I’ve started on electronics,’ replied Alec through his cornflakes. ‘It’s easier than I thought it would be, and that sort of stuff is always useful on the farm.’ He wasn’t going to tell the group that his suspicions about the school technology and his sudden friendship with Mr Grey were his real motivation.

‘What about you, Rod?’ Rebecca asked. Alec was alarmed, and wanted to cut in. There was no way Rod would admit he was on a reading program, and that was one of Alec’s sworn secrets with him.

‘Reptiles,’ replied Rod as he chewed the corners off his toast. ‘Snakes, lizards, tortoises, crocs - they’re so great!’

Alec was taken aback, not only with the topic Rod chose to hide his real elective, but how enthused he was in talking about it. He looked at Rod, who winked and smiled at him with teeth covered in Megamite spread.

‘Herpetology,’ said Minh from the adjacent table. ‘I chose that for next term. Maybe you’ll be able to help me if it gets hard.’

Rod nodded as if that was likely to ever happen, then turned to Alec and said, smiling, ‘Herpetology - that’s the study of reptiles, you know.’ Alec didn’t know, but nodded as if anyone would have known that.

‘I could help Rebecca with her Spanish,’ offered Sal. ‘I’m from Ecuador, my parents speak Spanish. We could practise conversations. And there are so many English words I’ve never heard of, and lots of Aussie words my parents don’t know. You could help me with all that.’

Rebecca was delighted with the offer. ‘I’m doing the Medieval History elective - knights and castles, and all that,’ Sal continued. ‘I don’t suppose anyone would like to share their castle with me?’

There were a few quick laughs, but Rod and Alec exchanged serious glances. Rod’s earlier joke about the school having a dungeon had reminded both of them that they were still looking for a ‘cellar door’, some sort of message coming through Alec’s wallset. And then there was Rod’s terrifying nightmare of a medieval man after him in his room. Sal wasn’t in the secret group, but he could be useful if he became their local ‘expert’ in medieval things.

‘Medieval History,’ repeated Rod. ‘That’s swords, and armour, and cellars and dungeons, right?’ Sal nodded. ‘I was going to choose that for Term Two. Maybe we can talk about it as you get into it.’ ‘Clever, Rod,’ thought Alec, ‘Sal’s our research assistant and doesn’t even know it.’

Mitchell leaned over from his table to Alec. ‘If you’re doing electronics,’ he said quietly, ‘I might be of some help. My father is boss of research and development in a phone company.’ Alec gave a ‘thumbs up’ and nodded to himself (‘So that’s why you’re so interested in the school’s hi-tech stuff, and so concerned about the school’s so-called phone black spot. Very useful’). It was coming together neatly in rapid, unexpected ways. All this infosharing could be the lines connecting the mystery dots in Alec’s mind.

‘I don’t suppose anyone else is doing Local History,’ Tara asked, looking around both tables with a hopeful expression. Heads shook.

‘Local history - how local?’ asked Rebecca. ‘You mean, the history of Sydney, its convict beginnings? We did that in primary school.’

‘No,’ explained Tara, ‘you pick a particular location, say my home suburb of Mosman, and you look up all the documents that relate to its origin - where the name came from, what famous people lived there, what was the area like before houses were built, who were the local aborigines, things like that.’

‘Local aborigines? This might be useful,’ thought Alec. ‘You live at Kings Keep now,’ he said, ‘one of the earliest land grants according to Mr Ritter. Why don’t you research what this place was before it was a school? I heard there was an orphanage here, and a fire, and something to do with the war. Could be really interesting.’

The entire group seemed to be keen to know more about their school’s history, so Tara agreed to check whether she could switch her local area to Kings Keep. Alec was ticking off the mysteries to be investigated. He had a whole team sitting there with him, and they had no idea what he was up to.

‘So what’s your elective, Mitch?’ Alec asked as he sculled a cup of tea.

‘Communication,’ Mitchell replied. ‘Doesn’t sound very interesting, I know, but the first unit is about sending signals in symbols, like Morse code, semaphore flags, Braille, deaf-mute sign language and stuff like that. I started doing that in scouts and I’d like to continue with it.’

‘That was probably useful once,’ commented Rod, ‘but these days, with mobile phones and skype, why would you bother with old-fashioned stuff?’

‘Remember the hike?’ chimed Minh. ‘If you look back, you know where you’ve come from, you understand the present, and you don’t repeat past mistakes.’

‘There’s another thing Mr Ritter said,’ added Mitchell. ‘We can easily become too techno-dependent. What if the entire electricity grid failed over a long period, or you were in a black spot worse than this place? You’ve got to have a back-up system for emergencies. Be prepared.’

It was an alarming scenario, but the group could now see some value in alternative ways of communicating. Alec, however, couldn’t see where it would help with his mystery-solving.

Before he left, Mr Ritter reminded everyone that a free weekend didn’t mean an idle weekend, and encouraged all students to exercise self discipline in how they spent their time. Mitchell tugged Alec’s sleeve. ‘Put this on your list,’ he whispered. ‘We’ve reported our stolen phones to him, but he makes no mention of it, no warning to be careful, and no request for information. Either he doesn’t care, or he’s somehow involved.’

Alec murmured agreement. It certainly didn’t make much sense. He leaned back towards Mitchell and hid his mouth with his hand.

‘If he’s trying to prevent us from keeping in touch with the outside world, why let us have skype and emails?’ Mitchell muttered a ‘Dunno’, and Alec filed it away for later.

CHAPTER 2

Alec and Rod had already decided where they were headed (and why) after breakfast, but Rebecca intervened.

‘Are you two going to continue to hide from us at the farm, or are you going to be sociable?’ she chided. Alec was frustrated. He was itching to get over the massive wall and investigate the graveyard, quarry and orchard that Rod had discovered behind the farm sheds. But he had just formed a pact with six others, and that needed some involvement with the group to be genuine.

‘Why don’t you all join us?’ Rod invited them. Alec flashed a look that said ‘Are you mad?’ It only made Rod smile as he continued. ‘We’re going snake hunting today - something’s eating the chook eggs and we think it’s snakes.’ Rod looked so genuine even Alec had to wonder.

‘Snakes? Are you crazy?’ exclaimed Rebecca. ‘I don’t think your reptile study was meant to be that… that… physical.’

‘Suit yourself,’ said Rod. ‘Don’t say you weren’t invited. Anyone else?’ There were no takers for Rod’s clever invitation. He shrugged and cleared his breakfast plate and cutlery. Alec caught up with him and nudged him, with a knowing smile.

‘I know,’ said Rod. ‘I’m so-o-o-o good.’

Half an hour later, the boys were walking down the drive towards the farm, when Rod stopped at the spot where they had emerged from the shed a few nights earlier.

‘Back in a minute,’ he said, running along the stony track to the shed, and returning a few minutes later with a hessian bag and some thin rope.

‘What’s that for?’ asked Alec. ‘Or am I going to regret asking?’

‘You’ll see,’ grinned Rod. ‘Let’s just say it’s our alibi.’

Once at the farm, the boys waved their familiar greeting to the farmhands, and disappeared behind the sheds.

‘We’re not on service duty today,’ said Rod, ‘so we won’t be supervised. No need for a decoy, so we both go in. It’s three hours before lunch, plenty of time to get over that wall, check it out, and get back for lunch. Ready?’

Alec nodded. This felt like a commando operation, a mission behind enemy lines, the fate of nations resting on their success.

‘Back in a minute,’ said Rod, and disappeared behind the chook sheds. Alec sighed. This toilet thing was getting to be a real mood-killer. You never see commandos take a comfy stop on a dangerous mission.

Rod returned a few minutes later, minus the sack and rope. Alec didn’t want to ask again, so they headed into the wattle grove and were soon at the wall. It was just as Rod had described it - long, tall, with a previous entrance bricked up, no obvious way to get in. Rod pointed upwards and cupped his hands, bracing himself with bent knees and leaning against the wall.

Alec put one foot in Rod’s hands, and was hoisted to within reach of the top of the wall. He dragged himself up, lying along the wall and reaching down to Rod, who grabbed his arm and used it like a climber’s rope. He reached the top as Alec moaned in pain, clutching his arm.

‘You need to lose weight! You nearly dislocated my shoulder!’

‘That’s right, yell! Tell the whole world we’re here,’ snarled Rod with an angry look. Alec got the message and stopped complaining, jumping down onto the long grass below. Rod followed, landing with a neat roll that brought him back up on his feet. Alec looked impressed.

‘Parachute roll,’ explained Rod, ‘cushions your landing.’

Alec looked around. Plenty of dead trees in rows,