CHAPTER 15
We questioned the boy, but he didn’t say anything else for the duration of the flight back to New Berlin. Big Mo and Noid were insistent about squeezing him for more information, but considering the fact he was ten years old and probably terrified his parents might be dead, Smack ordered them to stand down. They reluctantly did so, although Noid grumbled loudly enough for all of us to hear that the boy better not be reading our minds.
Captain Lockhart remained secured in the cockpit and didn’t join us at any stage or blast music at us, which was at least a minor relief. As we pulled in towards New Berlin, we could see from the side windows of the transport that he wasn’t joking. Even in the thin, Martian atmosphere, the billowing black columns of smoke were visible from half a
