There was a clattering and a rushing as everyone ran forward to where Walpurgis was standing in the bow of Lucia in front of the Tracmapper.

“TricTrucTrack!” he went again, turning to greet them as they all gathered round him at the Tracmapper, his little black eyes twinkling with excitement.

But it wasn't so much what was on the Tracmapper that caught Dot's eye at first as the Tracmapper itself. It was really weird!

In front of the TricTrucTrackers' leader, a round, glowing ball was floating in the air. It didn't seem to have anything to keep it up there - rather like one of those “executive toys” you see, with a pen floating above a pen stand, using magnetism to keep it hanging in the air.

Below it was the keyboard that Walpurgis had used to operate the tracmapper. That was even weirder!

It wasn't a keyboard at all, but a kind of square blob - of bright green stuff that looked like silly putty. It lay on a little table in front of Walpurgis - and it was moving, gently rippling and wobbling like a jelly. The funny thing was though, that it had a perfect shape, just like a keyboard - all the edges of it were completely straight - but there was nothing to keep it that way, no box or container.

What seemed to keep it together was light - every so often, a blue flash of neon, not very bright, ran all round it.

But in the jelly-like stuff, you could see pawmarks from where Walpurgis had been operating it, criss-crossing the sticky green as if he were going back and forward down a path, trying to find his way. But everywhere his pawmarks had been, there were sets of numbers and letters.

One in the bottom left-hand corner was glowing - pulsing with a bright blue light. It beamed a sliver of light up onto the globe, which was divided up into hundreds of squares. The square at the end of the shaft of light shone brightly too. It read:

“TZ-66: 7099-Cerulean optimum.”

Cerulean! thought Dot. That was the kind of mouse Mr Mouse was!!

“Have you found him?” she asked excitedly. “Is that where he is?”

“Well we know what zone many of his kind of mouse, the Ceruleans are in at this time” said Walpurgis excitedly. “TZ66. And that’s a big help!”

“But... how are we going to get to him?” asked Dot anxiously. “And anyway where is TZ66?”

“ER… next to TZ65, and not quite as far as TZ67” said Walpurgis solemnly.

Durrr…

“Which is just as well!”

“Why’s that?” asked Wiz.

“Ha!” said Eldenbeam. “Well both TZ65 and TZ67 are both locked down just now. All their ports – through which we’ve got to go to find your friend – are full. Something to do with those worms we saw, I think. But for some reason, the one in between them, TZ66, isn’t. So this is a lucky moment!”

“Not that lucky” said Carmeramalita quietly. Everyone turned round to look at her.

“Why eez zat?” asked Fromage, twirling his mousey little whiskers (he always does that when he’s worried.)

“Can’t see any big problem!” said Hombellyton. Carmeramalita sighed.

“Don’t you remember?” she said. “You boys are hopeless, really you are! They’ve got a new ZoneMaster in TZ66, haven’t they? And everything has to go through him, of course!”

“Of course!” said Katzilow. “But we can deal with that!”

“Do try and think!” said the lady TricTrucTracker.

“Oh… no… he isn’t, is he?” said Walpurgis slowly.

“Yes! He just took over! Nascarbalone Trinth! He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed! Mr Fill-Out-Your-Forms! The king of I’m-Only-Doing-My-Job-You-Know!”

Lucia the Tracboat gave a great shudder, as if having a very bad memory. The net-sky through which she was sailing seemed to darken for a moment.

“Does he wear a peaked cap?” asked Dot.

Walpurgis swung round and looked at Dot in great surprise, his head with its funny flat spoon-like beak on one side.

“Yes… ” he said. “Yes, he does! A blue one with a badge on it that looks like a castle. How did you know?”

“I just did” smiled Dot. “My Dad can’t stand people like that!”

“Neither can we!” sighed Carmeramalita, scratching her furry head with a dainty paw.

“But if we’re going to find your Mr Mouse – we’re going to have to!”