The weather has gone weird. Is it a natural phenomenon or is something more sinister at work ? Hiding and seeking.
Tomorrow would be another day and another mission.
The class gathered in the school yard as Mr. Flatley checked everyone off on his list. "Excellent ! I think that's everyone," he said, ticking off the last name. "And here is the mini bus," he added. Frank drove a large minibus into the yard. "Mr. London has kindly agreed to drive us out there today," said Mr. Flatley. "Everyone get on board please."
They all climbed on board. Tom sat with Dan and Aniesha sat with Zoe. As they set off, the talk was all about weather. "Did you get any of that wind last night ?" asked Roly.
"No. I gave the beans a miss yesterday," said Byron.
"Oh, ha ha. Very funny," said Roly sarcastically. "My Nan's greenhouse took off. She found it down the end of the road. My Dad's still looking for our bike locker."
"We didn't have any wind at all," said Melissa. "It seems to depend where you live. How about you Dan ?" she asked.
"Oh, I got caught up in a bit of wind last night," said Dan cautiously. "It was pretty strong."
"What happened to your face ?" Melissa asked Zoe.
"I got scratched by some flying branches," said Zoe, sneaking a look at Dan. She noticed that he wasn't leaning too far back in his seat. That bruise on his back must really hurt.
"Oh you were out in it too !" said Melissa. Zoe could see the other girl looking from her to Dan and back again, obviously calculating the odds.
"It's totally weird !" complained Roly. "We've had every single kind of weather this week. It's like someone got a 'Make Your Own Weather' machine for their birthday and they've pressed each of the buttons one at a time to try it out !" This made everyone laugh.
Tom muttered in Dan's ear, "Might not be so far off !"
"What do you think we'll get next then Roly ?" asked Byron. "Raining frogs ? Clouds of locusts ?"
"Might be," said Roly. "Not sure about the locusts though. Don't think we get those do we Mr. Flatley ?" he asked the teacher who was sitting next to Frank.
"What was that Roly ?" asked Mr. Flatley.
"Do you get locusts in this country ?" Melissa shouted through to him as she was sitting a bit nearer.
"Oh no. Hot countries only, thank goodness," said Mr. Flatley over his shoulder.
They finally drove up to some large metal gates set into a stone gateway. Frank got out and spoke into a keypad door lock on the gatepost. Finally the gates swung slowly open and he climbed back into the minibus. They drove through trees up a long gravel path before coming out into an open meadow area which was being grazed by sheep. After what seemed ages, they drove past a huge mansion. Everyone craned to get a look at it. "Wow, that place is huge !" said Roly. "I wonder what a place like that costs ? Who buys a place like that ?" he asked.
Aneisha leaned forward to speak quietly to Dan and Tom. "That's a good question actually. Where did he get the money from ?" she pointed out. Dan and Tom nodded. At last the bus drew up outside some farm buildings some way behind the main house. There was a wooded area to one side and fields to the other side.
"Right, everyone out !" ordered Mr. Flatley. Then he turned round and realised he was the only person sitting in the bus. "Oh, my, that was rather quick !" he said, scrambling out with his back-pack. The class were milling around in a rather aimless manner. Dan, Tom, Aneisha and Zoe took the opportunity to shuffle closer to Frank. Frank took his glasses off and started polishing them on his jacket.
"OK team, there appear to be several areas of interest. I want you to stay in pairs at all times. I can have a look around these farm building. I need you to check out these woodlands as much as possible and we need to try and get a look at the house. We may have to play that by ear," he muttered to them. They nodded without comment.
"Right, gather round everybody," ordered Mr. Flatley. He glanced at his watch. "There should be a ranger joining us shortly. Now today we are going to carry out two types of ecological survey. I want you all to pair up," he instructed. Dan and Tom instantly joined at the shoulder as did Zoe and Aneisha. The rest of the class sorted themselves out rather more slowly. Melissa looked across to Dan, but didn't seem surprised to find him standing with Tom. "I want half of you to carry out a meadow based study and half a woodland based study," said Mr. Flatley. The team all looked at Frank who shrugged his shoulders. Tom and Dan joined the woodland team and Zoe and Aneisha joined the meadow team.
A man came out of the farm buildings and walked up to them. He was carrying a set of booklets and worksheets. "Good morning everyone. I'm John Danson, one of the park rangers. We're interested in monitoring the biological diversity of the estate as part of an ongoing project to monitor climate change. What we want you to do today is carry out a species count in different areas of the park. We'll give you each a set of coordinates. When you get there we want you to mark out an area of ground five metres by five metres. Then we want you to go through that area counting the numbers of different species of plants. These booklets contain pictures and descriptions of the plants we're interested in. The worksheet is for recording what you find. Please try to be accurate because we will be using these results for our work," explained the man.
"Any questions ?" asked the ranger. Everybody looked at one another and shook their heads. "OK, woodland people ?" he asked. Tom and Dan's group raised their hands. Each pair was handed a worksheet and booklet. Then he distributed the rest amongst the meadow study group. "The coordinates are printed on the top of each worksheet," said the man. "Do you all know how to find your location ?" Most people nodded but others shook their heads. "OK, if you know where you're going, get going. I'll help the rest of you," said the ranger. Mr. Flatley laid his map out on the ground to let everyone find their coordinate locations. Tom and Dan were one of the first pairs to set off. Aneisha and Zoe left afterwards, heading off in opposite directions.
As soon as they were out of sight of the others, they each put in their earpieces and called in to Frank. "We'll take a long route through the woods Frank and see what we can find," reported Dan.
"We're heading across the fields," reported Aneisha. "We'll use our binoculars to get as good a look at the house as we can," she said. Their binoculars were special high power ones which included cameras to record what they were looking at.
"I'll have my spy-pod in the bus," said Frank. "I'll be looking at your feeds. Be careful," he added.
Dan set off at some speed through the woods, before noticing that Tom was puffing hard behind him. "Too fast ?" he asked. Tom stopped to get his breath back, leaning against a tree and nodded. "I'll slow down a bit. I just don't want to attract attention to the fact that we're covering half the woods to reach our survey point," explained Dan apologetically.
"You could just leave me and get on with it," suggested Tom.
"No way. Frank said we stick together, so we stick together alright ?" said Dan. Their circuit of the woods didn't show up anything of any interest and all too soon they reached the area they were supposed to be surveying. They marked out their square with tape and pulled out the booklet with species on it. Dan started working across the square in strips, marking down what species he could identify. Tom started fiddling with something in his bag. Finally he pulled out a small plastic box with two long metal aerials sticking out of the side which he attached by a cable to his spy-pod. "What's that ?" asked Dan.
"It's a field detector," said Tom. He looked up and saw Dan's puzzled face. "It detects electro-magnetic fields, but right across the different spectra and it can pick up really weak ones too," he explained.
"OK. Sounds good," said Dan, continuing to note down species. "Do you need me for a minute ?" he asked.
"Nope. I'm good," said Tom, running his device around himself in a circle. "Ooh, something just over there," he said, pointing his device in one direction. "I'll check it out. You stay here OK ?"
"OK. Be careful. Call in if you find anything," said Dan. "Don't go too far away OK. We're supposed to be sticking together don't forget," he warned. Tom walked off into the woods, pointing his detector in front of him.
Dan carried on noting down species. He had to concentrate because all the plants were unfamiliar to him and he had to keep cross-referencing the example diagrams in the book for leaf shapes and stem types. A twig snapped close by and he shot upright in surprise. The ranger was standing only a few feet away. "Where's your friend ?" asked the ranger.
"Tom ? Oh he, erm, went for a quick toilet break, you know," Dan laughed uncomfortably, nodding off into the trees. He hoped Tom didn't come back waving that detector around in front of him. The ranger was no longer smiley and friendly. In fact he looked quite the opposite. "Something wrong ?" Dan asked.
"Yes. We don't like people wandering about in the woods," said the ranger. "It causes damage to the habitats," he added, staring suspiciously into the trees. He walked over to Dan and glanced at his worksheet. "You're friend letting you do all the work is he ?" he asked.
"No. He's the brain box of the class," said Dan. He was feeling distinctly uncomfortable. He wished Tom would hurry and get back. He'd been gone a long time. Suddenly he heard Tom's voice in his earpiece.
"Dan you'll never guess what I just found in the woods !" Tom said excitedly. "Dan ?"
"What was that noise ?" asked the ranger suspiciously. He walked up to Dan, spotted the earpiece, grabbed Dan's arm and pulled out the earpiece. "What's this ?" he demanded.