The Curiosity Machine Read Free Page A

brushed the bits away with a flick of his fingers. ‘I think I can resist,’ he said.
    Sam took another bite. ‘You’re funny,’ he said, coating the butler in another fine spray.
    Gerald marvelled at the way the veins in Mr Fry’s neck stood out like high-tension cables.
    The helicopter was soon skimming across the patchwork of the Canterbury plains and powering towards the rippled spine of mountains that formed New Zealand’s spectacular Southern Alps. The sky was painted an autumn cornflower blue as they climbed high over craggy mountaintops dusted with early season snow before plunging into snaking ravines and shooting just above the rapids. Not even Mrs Rutherford’s snack box could drag Sam away from the window as Mr Fry jockeyed the chopper above the natural wonders beneath them.
    â€˜This is beyond beautiful!’ Felicity’s voice squeaked through the headsets of the intercom.
    The chopper broached a ridge and the blue-white expanse of a glacier materialised before them. Mr Fry’s clipped tones sounded through the headphones: ‘Behold, the Porangi Glacier!’
    The chopper passed over deep cracks in the frozen icepack: sheer drops into jagged chasms of what lookedlike broken glass. Mr Fry pointed towards the front face of the glacier, which fell to a bubbling river of ice melt that carved a path towards the coast. ‘This glacier has been retreating in recent years because of the warmer climate,’ he said. ‘You’re lucky to see it like this.’ Another helicopter was just taking off from the top of the ice. It disappeared beyond the ridgeline as Mr Fry made his approach. The downdraft from the chopper blades lifted a curtain of snowflakes as they touched down. Mr Fry turned in his seat and handed out Archer Corporation-branded beanies and gloves. ‘I will stay here to keep the rotors turning,’ he said, ‘otherwise we’ll be in for a long and cold night. Don’t wander too far. The ice can be unstable at the edge.’
    He gave a quick thumbs up, and Gerald, Felicity, Ruby and Sam rolled out of the chopper and onto the ice. Sam tugged the backpack onto his shoulders—‘Provisions,’ he said to Gerald—then dropped to his knees to scoop up a handful of snow. Ruby emitted a satisfying yelp as the resulting snowball splattered across the side of her head. She wiped a hand across her face to clear away the icy sludge. ‘Right,’ she muttered.
    The resulting snowball war spread across the glacier top. Sam teamed with Felicity and together they rained a barrage of white missiles onto Gerald and Ruby. Gerald took three quick hits to the back of his head. He didn’t need any more convincing—he and Ruby dived over a shallow rise for shelter. ‘He’s quick,’ Gerald said, pressinghis back into the ice shelf. Ruby packed in beside him. Four more snowballs whipped overhead, centimetres from their beanies.
    â€˜That’s what you get when you spend more time playing cricket than doing your homework,’ Ruby said. She waited for another ball to whizz past, and then jumped up and unleashed an icy missile of her own, dropping back beside Gerald in a single smooth action.
    â€˜Did you get him?’ Gerald asked.
    An evil grin spread across Ruby’s face. ‘In the teeth,’ she said.
    Gerald scraped together another shot and was about to spring up when he caught a sudden movement from the corner of his eye. The sun was reflecting off the ice, making it difficult to see clearly, but he swore two people in white snowsuits had stepped from the cover of an icy embankment. He shielded his eyes from the glare and looked again. Then he saw them properly: two figures were striding their way. Gerald shook Ruby’s arm and she looked up just as one of the figures pulled something from a backpack.
    Sunlight glinted across a long, metallic object. Gerald’s brain tried to process what he