“Hanurf-hanurf-hanurf!” Eldenbeam.

“Tiddly-tee-hee! Tiddly-tee-he!” Katzilow.

“Gigglepotty! Ga-gigglepotty!” Carmeramalita.

“Snurfkle! Snurfkle!” Hombellyton.

Dot didn’t think she’d heard so many funny laughs before. But she couldn’t help it – it was making her laugh along with them. Wiz and Fromage were chuckling too. Even Walpurgis, still recovering from the shock of nearly being caught by Nascarbalone Trinth, managed a smile.

There’d been something so funny about the way in which the mega-strict Zonemaster had dithered before shooting off to try to catch Buzby. Made him look really silly, for all his “I Am In Charge Here” stuff.

Trinth was now a distant flapping shape on the far horizon, way above the thousands of tents housing all the Wisps of lost devices. Of Buzby there was no sign.

“Well that’s the last of him for a bit” said Walpurgis, turning away. He pressed a little catch of the front straps holding on his backpack, and the courtesy carrier slid Dot and Wiz to the ground with a gentle “zeet!” “Thank goodness he’s such a meany!”

“Yes” giggled Cameramalita. “The stingiest Zonemaster in networld!”

“I do not… ‘ow you say, Eeenglish is so ‘ard… comprendre, ah yes, unnerstan’ !” said Fromage, poking his mousey little head out from his hiding place on Dot’s shoulder.

“Me neither!” said Wizard. “Oh!” He put his head on one side and took a deep breath. “Fantastic! My hics have stopped. Thank goodness you remembered about Mum’s ger - geran – Dot - AhhhhhhhhhhhhhTISHOO!”

“Hop up into Lucia and I’ll explain” said Walpurgis. “We’d better get going before Trinth comes back and tries to stop us again!”

Lucia gave herself a little shake. Now Trinth was gone she was back to her old self – ready to boat it once again.

As she rose above the tents of the Valley of Sleep, with all the TricTrucTrackers safely on board, Walpurgis turned round in his seat near the Tracmapper and began to explain. Or tried to!

“You see - ” he said -

“Hadn’t you better get Traccy reading that Wisp data?” asked Eldenbeam. “Do I have to think of everything round here?” he muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

Walpurgis opened his mouth to say something cross, caught Carmeramalita’s eye, and thought better of it.

“Yes… yes of course!” he said. “MiniTracs, please!”

He moved among the TricTrucTrackers collecting all the little pear-shaped devices. Then, very carefully, he laid the MiniTracs in a neat line on the blobby “keyboard” of the Tracmapper. As Dot watched, they disappeared – sinking into the keyboard like butter into hot toast.

“Now, we wait!” said Walpurgis. “I think each of our little friends will have absorbed about 18 terabytes of data from Mr Mouse’s Wisp, so it’ll take a minute or so before we get a First Call.”

The TricTrucTrackers all settled down into their favourite flying positions, like passengers on a long-haul jet. They looked tired – and indeed the adventure inside Colony Cerulean had drawn heavily on their energy. It didn’t take long before they were fast asleep. Katzilow was the last to nod off, just after craning round in his seat to look at the Food Mountain and mutter “Wonder what’s for supper…”

Dot felt sleepy too, but she wasn’t going to nap before she understood what Walpurgis had meant about Buzby and Nascarbalone Trinth being stingy. She was just about to ask, when the TricTrucTracker leader got there first.

“Now - about Buzby and Trinth the meany!” he said. “You see, he installed a nasty cheap controller programme for all his Buzbies. No other Zonemaster uses it, but that saved him 17 netcredits for each Buzby. But this cheapo programme only works in the Entry Plateau. If any of his Buzbies ever gets outside that and into TZ66 itself, they’re out of control. They just go anywhere! And they’re really difficult to catch! So that’s why he chased us to get Buzby back.”

“No wonder it was making Wiz hiccup!” said Dot.

“Quite!” said Walpurgis. “It was pinging about inside him like mad!”

“I am NEVER going to try and catch a bee EVER again!” said Wiz solemnly.

You will, grinned Dot to herself. You will!

“But why ees he zo despairate to get a ze little fellow back?” asked Fromage.

“Oh well that’s more of him being mean” replied Walpurgis. “He only bought the smallest number of Buzbies that he could, so he can’t afford to lose any of them, or the virus checks would take so long the Entry Plateau would just get jammed up with net-voyagers needing to get in. And he MUST grant entry to all who are allowed – it’s a Zildith rule that he must obey…”

“Whoops! “Trinth breaks the rules”! That wouldn’t make him look very good!”

“No Dot, it wouldn’t” chuckled Walpurgis. “But it was lucky for us – it meant he just HAD to chase after Buzby.”

“PLINK!”

A small disc in the centre of the Tracmapper keyboard (“blob-board?”) was glowing.

“Aha!” said Walpurgis. "First call!” He leant forward and touched it with his paw. Once again – just like when they’d found where Mr Mouse’s Wisp might be - a shaft of light shot up onto the globe above it. Walpurgis moved in closer – as close as his funny spoon-shaped beak would allow - and peered at it. Then he started back, eyebrows raised, and looked at Dot with amazement in his eyes.

“Well!” he said. “WELL! I don’t know exactly where we’re going just yet - but wherever it is seems to have some connection with Royalty!”