So! By emptying his mind (by going off to sleep!) Fromage has managed to bring the TricTrucTrackers to their help - in the search for the missing Mr Mouse. So everything'll be OK now, then? Er, well... it won't be that easy...!
Dot opened her eyes. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.
In the corner of Samson's Server Headquarters were some of the strangest looking creatures she'd ever seen.
There were five of them. They had big chubby bodies covered with smooth, stripy brown and golden fur. What Dot could see of their fur, that is - because each one wore a long sleeveless jacket, with loads of pockets and zips and velcro strap things. Each jacket was a different, brilliant colour: purple, bright high-visibility yellow, scarlet, turquoise and sparkly silver.
Their feet were stranger still - they were webbed, like flippers! They made a little kind of flip-flopping noise as they walked.
But it was their faces that were the strangest part of them. They were round and furry and a little bit like an otter's - and slicked sleekly back in brown and golden fur. Their eyes were a glittering black, darting here and there. Two of them wore VERY fashionable glasses - the kind you pay a LOT for at the optician's.
But the WEIRDEST bit of their faces was, they all had beaks! Big broad ones, kind of rounded off at the edges - Dot found herself crazily thinking how good they would be for serving soup!
With a start, she realized she was staring - something her Mum always told her not to do.
But the TricTrucTrackers hadn't seen her yet - they were still too busy arguing!
“Well, I say we have been called to the right place! Just because it was in a French-Canadian accent doesn't mean it wasn't a Summons Bearing Merit!”
“No no no - we're lost! We must be! Never been here before in me life!”
They were so busy having - actually, enjoying - their big argument that they hadn't noticed where they were, even though Samson's big sun face was beaming out as
usual from the screen high up in the far corner of the server space, with its long rows of routers and databanks clicking and whirring away beneath him.
They were about to HEAR him though!
“REALLY Walpurgis” roared Samson. “SURELY you remember me!”
Everything shook and trembled just as it always did when Samson spoke. Fromage and Wiz (yes, he'd gone off too!) woke up with a start. About 600 DVD's, carefully stacked up in JUST the right order on a trolley, fell to the floor with a crash. And some laptop software, defragmenting on one of the benches in the server maintenance area, let out a HUGE hiccup, said “Pardon ME!” and had to start getting sorted out all over again.
“Oh - ah - Samson - my dear old friend - of COURSE we remember you!” said one of the strange TricTrucTrackers, bowing almost down to the floor, so that his snazzy glasses nearly fell off. “Make respect” he hissed, turning round to his four
companions. “Make respect, TricTrucTrackers!”
All together, like those amazing dancers you see in the Royal Ballet, the four other TricTrucTrackers bowed low - their funny spoon-shaped beaks sweeping the floor.
Samson turned a rather pretty pink colour.
“No, really” he rumbled, making Fromage grab at one of the disc drives next to him in order not to fall over, as the floor shook once more with the rumbling power of his voice. “No need for all that. It's just that young Dot here needs your help. She's lost her mouse - someone sent him out for recycling. And she needs to get him back - and you are the only people who can make it happen!”
