this to me!’
We had to lift together to get the head onto a chair.
‘You’ll never get away with this!’ it screamed.
I rinsed my tongue in the sink and reattached it. I patted the shiny noggin on the chair and smiled. ‘You’re probably right, but there’s no harm in trying.’
Ravi drew a chair to the computer desk. ‘Hmmm. What a lovely set-up you have here. Do you mind if I have a play?’
‘Yes! Keep your hands off my computer!’
‘Oh, it seems we’re already logged in. We don’t even need a password! Now, do we have any games installed?’
‘Not games, Ravi,’ I said. ‘We need a distraction. We need confusion. We need total mayhem while I find Crystal.’
Ravi was winking furiously with both eyes. ‘Oh, I wasn’t thinking of Age of Mythology, best buddy, I was thinking more like “Let’s push buttons until something really funny happens.”’
CHAPTER 25
I RAN LOW and hard along the corridor. I had to find Crystal. Had to find Titania before it was too late. It was somewhere near the bottom of the Hive. My mind raced as I tried to remember what Argus had told me about Titania. Both a place and a person. And a smell, a really bad smell. The rats knew about Titania but there were no rats to be seen. There were no cells here either, only doors with names on them, perhaps the living quarters of the men in vinyl. I slowed at each corner only long enough to check that the coast was clear. I ran until I found the transparent doors of a lift and pressed the button. I backed against the wall and prayed that the lift would arrive empty. It seemed to take forever but my prayers were eventually answered. I was on the fifty-third floor. I stabbed the button marked ‘100’ and the lift doors closed. As the lift descended into the bowels of the Hive, I detached my foot and joined my legs together – stilt style – so I could reach the manhole in the roof. The lid was unlocked – it must have been the same lift I’d travelled in earlier. I pushed through into the shaft and put myself back together again as the lift whistled down towards the hundredth floor. The air rushing past tugged at my hair. About twenty-five floors from the bottom of the shaft, the lift began to slow. It was stopping. Someone was about to get on and see me crouched on the roof.
My little foot had the right idea. It bailed out in a panic and flipped between the lift and the wall. It spun down through the gloom towards the concrete, twenty-five storeys below.
‘Not again!’ I cursed.
At least it was heading in the direction I was planning to go. I finally decided to join my little foot when I spotted shiny shoes and legs clad in black vinyl through the clear lift doors. I tucked into dive position and plunged through the space between the lift and the wall.
My body bounced and crumpled, sending limbs wheeling off in every direction. I rained down onto the rats’ nest at the base of the lift shaft.
The smell was worse than I remembered. The rottencabbage pong of a too-well-used public convenience. My head could taste it. My body came together at breakneck speed but when my head was home on top of my shoulders, I realised one of my hands was missing.
‘Righty?’ I called. ‘Where are you, Righty?’
A squealing sound was the only reply. I turned to see my hand galloping across the nest. It was riding on the back of a remarkably fat rat. The rat was bucking and twisting but Righty hung on like a miniature rodeo rider.
I pounced on my hand and lifted the squealing rat off the floor. I brought my hand to my head, as if the rat was some sort of telephone and I was about to make a call.
In a sense, I was.
‘Hello? Ratty?’ I thought.
‘Oh my goodness, this is it, I’m surely going to die. The thing has me. It’s going to eat me! It’s going to eat me. Sorry, Auntie Floss, for eating all your jewellery.’
‘It’s okay. I’m not going to eat you. My religion bans the eating of rat guts on certain days of the
We had to lift together to get the head onto a chair.
‘You’ll never get away with this!’ it screamed.
I rinsed my tongue in the sink and reattached it. I patted the shiny noggin on the chair and smiled. ‘You’re probably right, but there’s no harm in trying.’
Ravi drew a chair to the computer desk. ‘Hmmm. What a lovely set-up you have here. Do you mind if I have a play?’
‘Yes! Keep your hands off my computer!’
‘Oh, it seems we’re already logged in. We don’t even need a password! Now, do we have any games installed?’
‘Not games, Ravi,’ I said. ‘We need a distraction. We need confusion. We need total mayhem while I find Crystal.’
Ravi was winking furiously with both eyes. ‘Oh, I wasn’t thinking of Age of Mythology, best buddy, I was thinking more like “Let’s push buttons until something really funny happens.”’
CHAPTER 25
I RAN LOW and hard along the corridor. I had to find Crystal. Had to find Titania before it was too late. It was somewhere near the bottom of the Hive. My mind raced as I tried to remember what Argus had told me about Titania. Both a place and a person. And a smell, a really bad smell. The rats knew about Titania but there were no rats to be seen. There were no cells here either, only doors with names on them, perhaps the living quarters of the men in vinyl. I slowed at each corner only long enough to check that the coast was clear. I ran until I found the transparent doors of a lift and pressed the button. I backed against the wall and prayed that the lift would arrive empty. It seemed to take forever but my prayers were eventually answered. I was on the fifty-third floor. I stabbed the button marked ‘100’ and the lift doors closed. As the lift descended into the bowels of the Hive, I detached my foot and joined my legs together – stilt style – so I could reach the manhole in the roof. The lid was unlocked – it must have been the same lift I’d travelled in earlier. I pushed through into the shaft and put myself back together again as the lift whistled down towards the hundredth floor. The air rushing past tugged at my hair. About twenty-five floors from the bottom of the shaft, the lift began to slow. It was stopping. Someone was about to get on and see me crouched on the roof.
My little foot had the right idea. It bailed out in a panic and flipped between the lift and the wall. It spun down through the gloom towards the concrete, twenty-five storeys below.
‘Not again!’ I cursed.
At least it was heading in the direction I was planning to go. I finally decided to join my little foot when I spotted shiny shoes and legs clad in black vinyl through the clear lift doors. I tucked into dive position and plunged through the space between the lift and the wall.
My body bounced and crumpled, sending limbs wheeling off in every direction. I rained down onto the rats’ nest at the base of the lift shaft.
The smell was worse than I remembered. The rottencabbage pong of a too-well-used public convenience. My head could taste it. My body came together at breakneck speed but when my head was home on top of my shoulders, I realised one of my hands was missing.
‘Righty?’ I called. ‘Where are you, Righty?’
A squealing sound was the only reply. I turned to see my hand galloping across the nest. It was riding on the back of a remarkably fat rat. The rat was bucking and twisting but Righty hung on like a miniature rodeo rider.
I pounced on my hand and lifted the squealing rat off the floor. I brought my hand to my head, as if the rat was some sort of telephone and I was about to make a call.
In a sense, I was.
‘Hello? Ratty?’ I thought.
‘Oh my goodness, this is it, I’m surely going to die. The thing has me. It’s going to eat me! It’s going to eat me. Sorry, Auntie Floss, for eating all your jewellery.’
‘It’s okay. I’m not going to eat you. My religion bans the eating of rat guts on certain days of the
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