False Bottom (5 page)

Chapter 10

‘Transit passengers this way,' said the official who shepherded the passengers. He did look a bit like a sheepdog, thought Christopher. But with arms instead of paws. Transit meant they weren't staying

‘You'll have to wait in the Transit Lounge until your plane's ready for Singapore. If it takes a long time to fix, you'll stay in a hotel in Melbourne overnight.'

‘Ace,' said Christopher. ‘But why are we stopping?”

‘Technical difficulties.'

‘What does that mean?'

‘Anything.'

So Amy returned to people-watching.

Rainbow Wig got off quickly. She was still following, but pretending not to know The Mouth. He saw her, but didn't speak. Passengers had been told to take their hand luggage. So Mr Smith had brought his box with him. The Mouth struggled with all his bags. The old man who knew about planes came next. The came the thin-faced woman, still wearing her floppy hat.

All walked towards the transit lounge, except the fat woman with the heavy overcoat. She slipped into the women's toilets. Christopher stared at the quarantine amnesty bins . People were asked to drop fruit or other illegal food.

A sniffer dog bounded towards Mr Smith. Mr Smith went pale. ‘I hate flying and I don't like dogs,' he said.

The dog went straight past him, with the handler following. Amy noticed a wheelchair going past, pushed by a porter.

Why had Mrs Smart been on their flight? Was she going to Singapore too?

‘Excuse me, Mrs Smart.'

The woman turned around. It was not Mrs Smart!

‘Sorry,' said Amy, blushing.

‘Wheelchair mania, that's what you've got.' Christopher said, and headed for the transit lounge.

‘See you in a sec.' Amy pushed open the door of the women's toilets.

It squeaked. Suddenly something flapped past her head.

Flap! Flap! Flap!

She took a step back. Feathers brushed her face.

‘Get away!'

A frightened bird flapped its wings and caught her hair.

Amy cried out.

The bird escaped into the passageway. Something dropped on the blue carpet, but the bird kept flying. The toilet was full of flapping bird wings. Twenty. Thirty. Hundreds. Reflected in the wall mirrors , the bird numbers doubled, and tripled!

Someone had shut birds into the toilets.

Nervous birds drop mess. These birds were very nervous. Plop! Plop! Plop! White bits fell on the basins and the floor and dripped down the mirrors.

‘Yuk!' said Amy.

She turned. The door to the passageway was still open. In about two seconds, the birds would fly out there!

Quickly, to keep the birds from flying all over the airport, Amy closed the door behind her. She went to find bird-catching help.

Things happened quickly. A woman from their flight was hurrying past.

‘Are there birds in there?' she asked Amy, who nodded.

‘Bird smugglers lost their nerve again. Tried the dump the birds.'

The woman whipped out a two-way radio and spoke into it.' Gloria here. Birds in the women's toilets near the transit lounge. Smugglers gone. Check the security camera.'

Fascinated, Amy listened. ‘D'you work for customs?'

‘Undercover. Security.' Gloria winked.

Amy hadn't taken much notice of her on the flight. She looked so ordinary. But perhaps that's how an undercover person should look. Just then, a stray bird who had escaped into the passageway circled over Amy. It fluttered its wings. Amy ducked, but she was too late.

Something landed on her shoulder. ‘Yuk!'

Christopher had lent her a hanky, a black one from Aunty Viv. The birds' mess showed up on that, really well.

Soon the wildlife officers arrived to catch the birds. They had nets with them.

‘Put the net over here.'

‘Quietly, you'll frighten them,'

‘This way.'

‘Shhhh,'

‘Well done, lass. Quick thinking,' said one of the officers to Amy.

‘Good idea to shut the door.'

‘Who left the birds there?' asked Amy.

‘Smugglers,' said Gloria. ‘I had my eye on them in Sydney. When we put into Melbourne, they must have panicked. They tried to get rid of the evidence.'

Amy noticed that she said them. Was there more than one smuggler on this flight?

‘Wild,' said Christopher, who had been watching closely from the passageway. He'd even helped with the nets. Curious travellers gathered around.

‘That's right. Wild. We're from wildlife,' said one of the men as they took the birds away in large cages. ‘You've probably saved the life of some of these birds. More than eighty percent of smuggled birds die .'

‘That many?' Christopher hadn't realised so many birds died.

‘It's cruel,' agreed Amy.

Two cleaners with buckets and mops arrived to wash away the white spots and dribbles.

‘Call it bird art. Charge for looking at it,' suggested Christopher, peering in the open door. ‘Bird graffiti.'

Gloria laughed. ‘Bird art. That's good. Last week we had more trouble with the lizards. They were running all over the floor in our Sydney offices. Nervous types, frillies. Well camouflaged too.'

Amy remembered the lizard ring on Mrs Smart. And the other jewellery.

‘I've worked out one thing about one of the bird smugglers,' she said.

‘What's that?'

‘She was female.'

‘Why?'

Amy pointed to the women's toilet sign. ‘The birds were dumped in the women's toilets. A bit hard for a man to go in there.'

‘Perhaps there was more than one smuggler,' suggested Christopher. ‘A woman AND a man.'

‘Why? Did you see birds flying around the Men's too?'

‘No. But I did see The Mouth opening his guitar case and.'

‘Never mind.' Gloria changed the subject.'Want to know how some bird smugglers work?'

The twins nodded.

‘Usually Q9 would just touch down in Melbourne, then fly onto Singapore. But the engine trouble could mean the plane stayed for hours longer. So the birds which had been drugged for the flight to Singapore might have woken up too early. That's why the smuggler released them into the toilets.'

Amy screwed up her nose and frowned as she always did when she went into heavy thinking. She pushed back her rainbow framed glasses.

‘How long's the flight from Sydney to Singapore?'

‘At least seven hours. Probably eight. Depends upon the wind.'

‘But if some of the birds had been drugged for a seven hour flight to Singapore, why would they wake up after an hour's flight from Sydney to Melbourne?'

Gloria agreed that it didn't add up. ‘Perhaps the smuggler wasn't sure how long passengers would have to wait in transit in Melbourne because of the engine. Perhaps he was scared the birds would wake up in the cabin when the plane was still flying. Imagine birds flying all around the cabin!'

A little smile grew on Christopher's mouth. ‘Imagine scared birds dropping on passengers. If you had your seat belt on, you couldn't duck! Yuk!'

‘Or maybe the smuggler got frightened and thought someone was onto him or her and tried to get rid of the evidence.' Amy's mind was working.

A security guard walked up to them.' You're the Lee twins, aren't you? The

UM s?'

‘Yes.'

‘Thanks for your help. We knew the birds would be dumped somewhere between the plane and the arrivals area.'

‘How did you know that?' Amy was curious to learn about airport sleuthing.

‘She was fingered. One of the air crew was suspicious of the uncomfortable way she was sitting. Brett notices lots of things. All those birds strapped around her middle. She must have realised she was being watched. So she went in to the toilets on the way out and released the birds.

‘Was the smuggler an old woman?' asked Amy.

‘No,' said Gloria.

‘I know,' Christopher flipped back through his sketchbook. ‘The bumpy lady with the heavy coat on her arm. I drew her. See!'

‘That's the one whose dress blew up when we were boarding,' remembered Amy. ‘Perhaps she was worried I'd see the birds underneath.'

‘They would have been strapped around her middle. Although some smugglers have strapped birds across their chests. One well muscled man actually had birds where we thought his muscles would be.' Gloria smiled. ‘Sounds funny, but it's hard on the birds. Most of them never make it.'

They crowded around Christopher's sketchbook. His black and white drawing looked lifelike.

‘Well done,' said Gloria. ‘Would you mind if we kept your sketch?'

Seeing that Christopher didn't look too happy about losing his artwork, she quickly suggested, ‘Since we can't pay you the millions which the sketch is worth, I'll give you a behind-the-scenes, personal tour of the customs, quarantine and immigration areas. How's that?'

‘Great!' Amy's eyes were shining. She loved ‘sticky beaking' around and visiting unusual places. On her last trip, she'd talked their way into a flight deck visit with the captain.

Chapter 11

‘Hey, I drew it, not you,' said Christopher.'But you can tag along if you like.'

They walked towards the transit lounge which was full of passengers waiting to go on to Singapore. Were any of them bird smugglers, too?

Amy looked for clues everywhere. Suddenly the airport seemed full of mysterious, smuggling possibilities.

‘Body language usually gives them away,' said Gloria.

‘What do you mean?' Amy's mouth was the only part of her body that usually gave her away. She talked too much. Jet Jaws they called her at home.

‘Smugglers. Couriers. People trying to take illegal things in to or out of the country.'

‘How does the body give them away?'

‘The way they move. How they pull jackets or coats across their middles. How and where they sit. How they look when we ask questions. ‘

‘But what if someone is just nervous?'

Amy remembered the first time that she and Christopher had flown alone. She'd been nervous then. Christopher hadn't noticed. Why would the customs officers?

‘We're experienced. We can tell whether someone is just nervous or if they're trying to hide something.'

‘How?' asked Christopher.

‘We look for lumps and bumps in the wrong places.'

‘Ah.' That was something Christopher understood. As an artist,he liked to draw bodies. Lumps, bumps and curves were more interesting than straight lines.

‘How do you know?'

‘Out of fashion or odd clothes. A big fur coat on a hot day. Those things show that a person is trying to cover up something.'

Christopher was interested in the fate of the smuggled birds.

‘Where will the birds go now?'

‘The wildlife people look after them. Customs and quarantine security officers are trained to spot smugglers. We do a special training course.

We learn the correct method of body search too. We don't like doing body searches. But sometimes smugglers put things in funny places. It's up to us to find smuggled goods.'

‘How do you tell they're smugglers?' Amy remembered her suspicions about Mr Smith.

‘I look for perspiration.'

‘Sweating? I do that sometimes after footy.' Christopher was very interested.

‘Sweating for no reason. And people who fidget,' continued Gloria.

‘Like The Mouth with his luggage at the security scanner. Or the thin-faced woman with the floppy hat and sun glasses. We're always suspicious of sunglasses worn inside.'

Amy's rainbow frames were special but she decided never to wear her other sunglasses in a plane again. Even if her eyes were tired, from broken sleep and a long flight.

Gloria continued.

‘I had my eye on him. Some pop stars want VIP treatment. They think they're special. One guy wrote his stage name on the form instead of his real one. But everybody must be checked through customs, immigration and quarantine at the first or last port of call when they leave or enter the country.'

‘The Mouth is his stage name' said Amy.

‘Must be. Can you imagine anyone calling a baby that?'

‘Not unless they were Mr and Mrs Mouth,' giggled Amy. ‘The is a funny first name. Anyway, he said his name was Cyril. Remember?

‘At our last school, we knew Skye, Storm and Charity.' said Christopher.

‘Worse names than Amy.' Amy thought first names should be traded at thirteen. Swapped for a better one.

‘What else do you look for in smugglers?'

‘Nervousness. Or those who show off unnecessarily. Or those who try to hide.'

‘Like the girl with the rainbow hair. She's wearing a wig,' said Christopher.

‘I saw bits of brown curl sticking underneath.'

‘Disguise?' suggested Amy.

‘Too obvious,' said Gloria,' But'

The loud speaker system interrupted her.

‘This is an announcement for passengers en route to Singapore. We have information that illegal goods could be on this flight. And other passengers are joining the flight.So hand luggage must be searched again. Normally you would not be required to go through security again while in transit. But this is an extra-ordinary event. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Please go to the arrivals hall.'

‘You must go too,' said Gloria. ‘I'll see you later.'

She hurried away, reaching for her two-way radio.

A wall display showed some of the things you weren't supposed to bring into the country.

‘Mice in wine. ‘ said Christopher. ‘Great shapes.'

‘Yuk!' said Amy staring at snakes in bottles, seeds and salami.

Did most illegal imports start with S?

Birds didn't. Neither did lizards.

Another plane had landed and the arrivals hall was busy. A folk dance troupe was moving past. Amy admired their light, fast movements. They whirled the cases and threw the bags from dancer to dancer . Their colourful props boxes were covered with World Dance Tour stickers. Their teamwork was great until the problem of illegal food arose.

Customs and quarantine officers had laid out the forbidden food on the table. Oranges. Apples. Sausages. Bread rolls. Bottles of sauce.

‘Looks like the Last Supper,' said one security officer.

The dance troupe's interpreter tried to explain.'We were told.There is no food we like in Melbourne. We did not want to starve. We brought our own fruit, bread and sausage.'

‘Will they be fined?' the twins asked Gloria, who was checking something nearby.

‘No. They told us what they had. That's different from hiding things. Every traveller must fill out a customs declaration.' Gloria said. ‘You went through customs when you left Sydney because you were on an international flight to Singapore. Officially you're in transit here. You're under customs control. But if other people join the flight, or something unusual happens like now that means going through again.'

‘What if someone just flew to Melbourne on a domestic flight like one of those mystery flights? What if she joined the Singapore plane in Melbourne? Would she have to go through international customs and quarantine in Melbourne?'

‘Yes,' said Gloria.'Why do you ask?'

‘'Because I just saw someone roll past. In the wheelchair with the lizard stickers.'

‘Why didn't she come on our plane?' asked Christopher.

‘It might have been booked out. Or she might have been late,' suggested Gloria.'She could have been given a mystery flight on one of the internationals but at the last minute.'

‘D'you see the stickers?' Christopher said. ‘On her wheelchair.'

‘Yes.'

‘So that wheelchair belongs to her.'

‘So?

‘That must be her own. Those stickers have been on for ages. And that's the wheelchair with the squeak.'

‘I'm going to find out what she's doing here.'

Sleuth Amy was on the job again.