Dot looked Walpurgis straight in the eye.

It was hard to do, because he’d sat down at the Tracmapper and was poring through the data that they’d collected on the MiniTracs from the Wisp of Mr Mouse. There was loads and loads of it, running round the globe in a constant stream of numbers and letters - even little pictures.

Every so often one of them would flash green, just as the Wisps had done inside the tented world of Colony Cerulean, to show they were getting closer.

“Excellent!” murmured Walpurgis. “JUST what we needed! A Portalmatch for where Mr Mouse is! Now we can find our way out to him!”

Then he caught Dot’s eye.

“What?” he asked in that all-innocent voice you use when you know PERFECTLY well what somebody wants, but don’t want to deal with it.

“Why did you try to stop me like that when I wanted to tell them in Tzone 66 that Nascarbalone was in danger?”

All the TricTrucTrackers, who’d been dozing or reading or polishing their claws (Carmeramalita), looked up.

“Dot… ” said Wiz quietly.

“No” said Dot, her voice trembling a bit because she didn’t want to have a row with Walpurgis – who was a good net-creature really. “I TOTALLY need to know. We shouldn’t have left him in danger like that – not even someone like him!”

“Well” said Walpurgis, obviously a bit annoyed at being challenged “Why should we help him? He was doing all he could to stop us!”

“It’s not like that!” Dot burst out. She felt a bit weepy – she could still see the desperate look on Nacscarbalone’s face as he struggled to stop himself being swallowed by the horrible Zeensucker. And the brave way he’d smiled at them, and let them go.

“He needed our help! We should have gone back for him. Done something – don’t know what but something!”

Blip! went the Tracmapper, and another little green light flared on it for a second.

“Go Quadrant J-201D, Lucia” said Walpurgis quietly, reading the data off the Tracmapper globe. The Tracboat gave herself a little shake and banked to the left, high up in the warm, perfumed air of the blue and gold net-sky. Tzone 66 was far behind them now, just a speck among many others on the vast net-plain below.

Then Walpurgis turned back to Dot.

“You don’t understand” he said sadly. “ANYONE witnessing a battlegram like that in a Tzone, has to stay in the Tzone until the matter is sorted out. Not just the fight itself, but what happened – second by second through the entire story. We were just lucky with that Hold-Major – he could easily have stopped us leaving. THAT’S why I didn’t want you to say anything!”

Dot opened her mouth to speak, but Walpurgis waved her down, and went on.

“Then there is the Assembly of Requests afterwards. It takes FOREVER to get one together, because at least four Zonemasters must sit as a Bench of Requestors. They decide who’s responsible for allowing an Unwarranted Object – which really means anything that can cause harm – to come into the Tzone. When that’s finished, Apportionment starts – splitting up the blame for what happened, really.”

Fromage piped up. He was awake now. “I do not know what thees eez all about” he said. “But what a… what do you say? … what a lot of troubles!”

“It is” said Walpurgis.

Dot felt like someone trapped. She still felt so much that they should have helped. She didn’t know what to say.

“So, you see” said Walpurgis “We had to leave. Other TricTrucTrackers like us have been caught before. The crew of Tracboat Camargue are still stuck inside Tzone53 – that’s the Computer Games Tzone - after two versions of ‘Great Steal Motor IV’ fought and destroyed each other. Good riddance if you ask me – silly, violent computer games, no good for anyone – but they were Unwarranted Objects, and poor old TricTrucTracker Lintfardel and his team saw everything. That was a whole net-year ago. And if we’re to find Mr Mouse before he’s lost forever, or destroyed – we just don’t have that kind of time! Nor do you!”

“Destroyed?” said Wiz anxiously. “What do you mean?”

Walpurgis paused. Lucia gave a little shudder.

“You’ll have to tell them, Wally” said Eldenbeam.

Walpurgis took a deep breath.

“Some of the data we received from Mr Mouse’s Wisp shows that he’s on an End-of-Life card. That means, he may be too old even to be recycled.”

“Ridiculous!” said Wiz angrily. “He’s full of life!” “Not for a recycler, he isn’t” Walpurgis replied. “And because of that, he may be sent for destruction – and quite soon. So we have to hurry. And we just can’t risk being held up – not by anything!”

Carmeramalita gave Dot a little hug, and looked into her eyes with a kindly smile. “Sometimes, Dot, you know” she said gently “You have to make a choice – even between two bad things. It’s hard… ”

Dot was quiet for a bit. Then she stroked Wizard’s head and looked up.

“Will we ever know if Nascarbalone Trinth was all right?”

Walpurgis paused. Then he shook his head. “No… perhaps never… ”

Dot looked down again.

Lucia glided on towards the Portalmatch.