Einstein Dog (37 page)
E
laine shooed Professor Smith away from the barbeque.
“Take a break, Alex,” she said helpfully.
“But barbequing is man's work,” he huffed.
“Look,” she answered sternly. “You've already burned your eyebrows off.”
He'd allowed too much gas to build up under the grill, so, when he lit it, there was a fireball. Bertrand had seen him do it before.
“This hamburger looks like it came out of a volcano.”
She held up a charred patty, which might have been a nugget of lava rock.
“I'm not used to cooking patties the way you mixed them,” he objected.
“And everyone's starving, so shove off.”
Having put up the expected resistance, Professor Smith grinned and kissed Elaine on the cheek. “All right,” he grumbled cheerfully. “But I'm not giving up on Sustainable Cooking, and that means sustainable barbequing as well.”
“Good,” Elaine retorted. “You can write a book someday. In the meantime people â and dogs â have to eat!”
Hear! Hear!
Einstein seconded.
The others laughed, interrupting their game of Dog Ball to cheer Elaine on. Dog Ball was a combination of soccer and dodge ball. The human in possession of the ball had to hit a dog on the opposite team with a mini soccer ball, then the dog switched sides. The first human to have all the dogs on his or her team won the round. Because Ariel played U-14 soccer, they usually gave Bertrand the handicap of starting off with an extra canine on his squad. Einstein was his last remaining player and Ariel took advantage of the situation by striking him with a direct hit while he was distracted supporting Elaine's cause.
“No fair!” Bertrand yelled.
“He never called time-out!” Ariel shot back.
The game dissolved into the usual round of shouting, barking and laughing that was certain to draw complaints from the Smiths' more cantankerous neighbours. They weren't breaking any rules, though. Forestview owners were allowed one dog and one cat. Of the pack only Genie and Einstein lived in the complex; the others were guests.
Breeze lived with Elaine. Cap and Blizzard still considered themselves wild â although as often as not they stayed in a “doggie guest house” in the Smith's back yard.
“Things have turned out okay,” Bertrand said, flopping onto the grass under the shade of their favorite tree.
They listened contentedly to the rustle of the breeze in the leaves.
“They
have
turned out okay, haven't they?” he repeated, feeling a bit uneasy because no one had bothered to agree.
It had been almost a month since the spectacular collapse of AMOS. No mention had been made in the media of the underground arms manufacturing and distribution centre. The explosions had been portrayed as an industrial accident caused by the inappropriate use of illegal materials by an unscrupulous manufacturer. Hindquist's helicopter crash was attributed to pilot error.
It seems to be okay,
Genie said cautiously.
But you're not convinced.
No,
she answered.
Not completely.
Bertrand didn't push the conversation. She was right, of course. For one thing, they knew too much about the Global Council and its objectives to ever be completely safe; for another, the Global Council knew too much about them.
Councillor Ivan Petrovitch had been coming round to Hindquist's way of thinking about SMART dogs, Genie had explained already. She didn't have any doubts that a dossier existed somewhere in the Global Council's gargantuan computer network labeled
Top Secret: Sequenced Mental Acceleration Research Trials
.
“Burgs are ready!” Elaine announced.
Come on,
Einstein said.
Let's eat.
“Yeah!” Bertrand agreed. “I'm starved.”
Einstein Dog
is
CRAIG SPENCE'S
second novel for young readers, following
Josh and the Magic Vial
(Thistledown Press, 2006), which was nominated for both a BC Book Prize and the Chocolate Lily Award. Spence lives in Langley, BC.