Vienna, Austria
With the puzzle solved and the sleigh back in action, they were preparing for take off when Sparky heard Santa say, “Blast this stupid compass. Why isn’t the needle moving? It’s brand new!”
“Those power lines we flew over a while back must have demagnetised the needle!” said Sparky.
Santa put his hand in his rucksack and pulled out a gadget, switched it on and plonked it on the sleigh’s dashboard. The gadget slowly came to life.
“What’s that?” asked Sparky doubtfully.
“It’s a first-generation GPS system. It’s a wonder it still works, even if only just. However, it’s all we’ve got right now until we can get this compass needle remagnetised,” said Santa. “It’ll just have to do.”
He entered the destination into the GPS system, checked that the sleigh was ready for take off and then called, “Ho, ho, ho! It’s time to go,” to the waiting reindeer.
Santa and Sparky chatted easily during the flight, exchanging news and updating each other about their lives. But then the GPS suddenly piped up and said, “Please land at the next convenient spot. You have reached your destination.”
They landed the sleigh on a small square without mishap. But they quickly realised they weren’t where they wanted to be. Far from having flown to Berlin, they were in the Austrian capital of Vienna!
“First-generation GPS systems are not all they’re cracked up to be,” said Santa with a long and exasperated sigh. Whatever next?
There was nothing for it but for them to take to the air again and try to make their way to Berlin, somehow.
But a magical snowstorm suddenly blew up and their sleigh was soon utterly snowed under. Santa shook his head in disbelief. Not another thing to hold them up, surely?
It was then that Sparky caught sight of a wooden sign with a message that told them they’d have to find a certain word to get the snowstorm to stop and to clear their sleigh of snow.