“Hold on tight!” said Cruncher, turning round in the seat of his cyber-bike and grinning so Dot and Mr Mouse and Wiz could see all his yellow teeth – and a steel one, just round the side. They were all dirty though – and pheeaaarggh ! His BREATH!!
“Don’t want you falling off and losing those zooshy glasses of yours, do we, Dotty girl?”
When Dot remembered their net-flight with Cruncher, the thing that made her shudder the most was having to put her arms round the cyber rat to hold on, on the back of his bike. It was horrible!
And it was even more horrible for Wizzie, because he was squashed between Dot and Cruncher’s back, just to keep him safe!
Mr Mouse was all right, though (of COURSE!) He’d tucked himself away in his favourite hidey-hole, underneath the shoulder of Dot’s T-shirt. He seemed to be asleep.
TYPICAL, having got everyone into trouble AGAIN!
But there was nothing else they could do – they had to go and see if they could find out what had happened to Drindel – and maybe help him too…
It was SO yuk having to hold onto Cruncher like that though!
The funny thing was though, however dirty the cyber rat was – and he really was – his bike was totally clean. All the black paint and chrome was polished so brightly you could see your face in it – even the wheels shone.
And there’s only one way to make motorbike wheels look like that - scrub them with a toothbrush. Dot had seen her next door neighbour Picky Pringle doing just that with his car wheels, every Sunday afternoon.
The crazy thought came into her head that maybe that was why his teeth were so dirty, ‘cos he’d used his toothbrush on his bike!
No time for thinking about that though – ZaVROOOOM! They were off!
As the cyber bike curved away above the Hall of the Extrapolation Extraordinary, Dot looked back - and saw that the Zildiths were all standing up and waving. Zamelqa the Regent was holding up her two arms curved together above her head, her hands crossed over, as if she were giving a blessing.
And “Good luck!” “Good fortune!” “Good luck Dot!” – the cries came curving up in the air from the Zildiths, fast fading away hundreds of metres below them.
Among them Dot was sure she could hear Poolbear calling out – and even Cambor. Dot felt a lump in her throat, but she gritted her teeth.
She would help Drindel - AND save the Children of the Casement – AND stop the horrible cyber rats from getting their greasy hands on Phargon!
Of course, Cruncher had to say something nasty.
“Stupid old fools!” he sneered, revving his cyber bike even faster as they shot along through the net-sky, e-mails and data packets and blogs scattering in front of them as they tried to avoid the cyber rat – they were always bad news, wherever you were in cyber-space and whatever you were doing. ZaVROOMVROOMVROOOOOM went the bike engine.
Dot felt the anger inside her again, but she stopped it. She needed to know as much as she could find out, and arguing with Cruncher wouldn’t help. She could feel Wizzie growling under his breath too, but she squeezed him tight to keep him quiet.
“So… how did you catch Drindel, then?” she asked, raising her voice above the rushing noise of the air passing them as they flew on.
“Easy-peasy!” sniggered Cruncher. “He used to like to go outside Phargon – walk about looking up at the net-sky, helping data-streams that got lost, that kind of thing. He was just sorting out a patch for a fallen programme when we got him. He just wasn’t taking care – stupid git!”
“Let me bite him! Just once!” whispered Wiz. Dot squeezed him again to calm him down.
“Mmm” she said., “Bit careless, I suppose… ”
“Good for us though” said Cruncher. “We’ve got those old nerks where we want them now!”
“So… what are you going to do with him?” asked Dot.
Cruncher turned round, fixing his glittering black eyes on her. “You’ll see soon enough!” he said. “Now hold on – we’re going down a worm hole!”
With that, he suddenly pushed his bike forward and downwards. They rushed towards the Netplain, faster and faster. But there was no opening below them – not anywhere Dot could see!
“Yee-HAAA!” went Cruncher. Dot squeezed her eyes shut.
SPLIDGSH! The cyber-bike hit!
Only, it didn’t! Instead, there was a kind of horrible sucking, shlurping noise and suddenly they were roaring along a dark, sticky tunnel – so narrow that the sides of kept sticking to them as they raced along. It was totally dark, and smelt disgusting - like milk does when it’s gone off. And it made horrible noises – noises like it was trying to swallow them whole!
It wasn’t easy, even for Cruncher’s powerful cyber bike. He had to fight it to make it go forward, the engine screaming louder and louder as it struggled to move along. VROOMVROOMVROOM it went, sometimes nearly stopping, sometimes roaring ahead.
It really felt like they were going to get stuck any moment. Dot felt sick – they could be trapped forever!
But then suddenly there was a ripping, tearing noise and they were free!
Free of the wormhole – which belched them out with a final horrible noise, like it was being sick.
But NOT free of the cyber rats! No WAY!
