Chapter 48

By Monday, everything out of the ordinary had been removed from Mako Island. Water moving powers were very convenient, making heavy things easy to move to the boats. Zane rented a storage unit for the week and all their household belongings were placed there or smaller items in the mainland house. They stayed at the designated locations Monday night. Lewis had installed tiny cameras around the clearing, in the moon pool cavern, and the beach closest to the clearing. There were, unfortunately, a few things that could not be removed conveniently – the small cell phone tower, a small generator and a wooden hut that had been built earlier that year. The hut was used by Lewis and the other guys as a private office of sorts or workshop. Lewis built his inventions in there. Seeing as the island was privately owned, this would not raise any suspicions – it was all made from completely human materials and not suspicious in the least. These structures were further along than the clearing. Cameras were set up here too. The cameras that Lewis set up were tiny, only really visible when a person was purposely looking for them or knew where they were. He has bought the cameras off his marine institute but had engineered them to withstand the Mako interference and even worked during the full moon. These cameras would provide a live feed to his laptop where he and the rest of the Mako inhabitants (who were not working or at school) would watch them carefully at the mainland house.

OoOoO

Tuesday Morning…

Drew and Thomas sat down at one of the tables at Rikki's Café. Zane kept looking over at them. Thomas smirked; he knew that they must feel uncomfortable. Rikki entered the café. She glanced at them nonchalantly and then continued walking to the office. Zane followed her in.

"Zane, I don't feel at all well," she moaned collapsing into the couch. He sat down beside her.

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"You know how we thought I had gotten over the spell I had last week? It has come back again. I am nauseous, dizzy and tired," Rikki said.

Zane knew this was serious – very rarely did Rikki complain of having any kind of sickness. He would usually have to argue himself senseless to get her to recognise that she was not a hundred per cent. "Rikki, go back to the mainland house and relax, I can hold the fort."

"Are you sure?" she said faintly.

"Definitely," he said firmly. He kissed her gently, "Off you go," She rolled her eyes before pulling herself off the couch and leaving.

In the meantime, Drew and Thomas met Dr Sam Sertori and her colleague Harvey Calder. They were very excited to show the park rangers their discovery – more for public recognition and possible reward than anything else. Little did they know that Sam was in on the secret.

OoOoO

"Wait 'till you see this," Drew said to Sam as they ascended the hill.

"All I see is a grassy clearing," Sam remarked unimpressed. Inside however she was marvelling at how her stepdaughter and friends had covered up their village. Thomas and Drew were staring in disbelief, open-mouthed. Where had it gone? They had both seen it.

"This better not be some kind of practical joke," Sam said.

"We have better things to do with our time," Harvey said.

"No! No way. I swear to you it was right here!" Drew said. Thomas nodded.

"Damn it, we should have taken a photo," Thomas muttered.

Sam and Harvey were talking. "So shall we just take the samples we were going to Sam?" Harvey asked.

"Yeah, you start the process. I'll deal with these jokers," Sam replied. Harvey nodded and started gathering samples. Sam eyed the young men.

"How'd it just disappear," Thomas said, hands on head. Drew was squatting over where in his mind's eye he remembered the buildings to be, looking at the long grass. It wasn't this long last week. If there had been a building, there would have had to have been at least a section of dead grass or at least a dent. Looking at this, there could not have possibly been a village or building – not even a tent for more than an hour.

"Without visible evidence, we have no reason to believe your story, young man," Sam said, "Right now you seem crazy."

Disbelief crowded the boys' minds. Thomas knew he could not take this any further without becoming the subject of mockery.

"Hey Doc," Thomas began, " I'm so sorry for bringing you out here, I must have had some sort of hallucination," Harvey and Drew re-joined them. Drew opened his mouth to speak but received a light elbow to the ribs by his brother. "I would appreciate it if you did not mention this to anyone else," Thomas finished.

"That's fine by me," Harvey said with a chuckle.

"Me also," Sam said, "This gave us an excuse to retrieve samples although we could have completed something more satisfactory,"

"I'm so sorry," Thomas said.

"Thanks for admitting your doubts," Harvey said, "Shall we go Sam?"

Lewis, Cleo Anna and Rikki had watched the proceedings. They couldn't wait to hear what had conspired: the cameras were video only – no sound.

OoOoO

"…and that's it," Sam concluded.

"Great," Lewis said, "So they're not going to bother us again?"

"I hope not," she replied.

"Thanks Sam," Cleo said hugging her.

"I'm relieved for your sakes" Sam said, "I'm glad the trick worked,"

"Unfortunately, now we've got to move everything back," Rikki put in groggily. She was sprawled out on one of the couches looking very pale. She was not at all well.

A/N: Hey everyone, again sorry for the delay. Bear with me :P

Thanks so very very much to my reviewers and those who are following or have favourite my story/s. Thanks especially to BlazingLegend, Juliet Knighly, Cupcake46813, XxRaindr0pxX, BlueKirby, Lauren 111, Obwan14, belikebella, Quillox, DoubleBubble249, PeacePinkSeddie, Kat238, jeremygilbert12, Zikki, xmangal, and Sparksfly3737 for reviewing, It means a lot to know your opinions on everything :D

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