…how an ordinary schoolgirl became an

INTERNET VOYAGER!

Whirl whirl whirl went the bracelet round Dot's wrist. It meant she was very near the Searcher she had come to rescue - the Borzoi dog Luis de la Zapana. But there wasn't a sign of him - though the bracelet was going faster and faster, giving her a funny tickling feeling as it turned round and round.

Yes, there were lots of funny shapes - but nothing like the long sleek back of a Borzoi, the famous Russian hunting dog.

Dot looked down again at the bracelet, which was now just a blur on her wrist. It was going so fast it was hardly touching her skin at all now. She wondered if it would still show her friends and put it up to see if it would shine the little TV picture onto the back of her hand.

It did, but the image was a bit shaky and blurred - she could just see Cursor the Cat, but the others were really hard to make out. And the sound was all crackly too - Dot could see Adrienne was trying to tell her something, but only a few of her words came through.

"Go... paces... left... don't think... "

Dot looked around again. Off to her left there was nothing to see, apart from thousands more CD's and a huge jumble of what looked like ribbon - so high it went up above Dot's head, A floppy disc fell from the grey sky above and brushed against it as it landed, shaking loose the dust of Void. For a moment, before more of the grey powder that fell softly all the time could cover the "ribbon" again, a gleaming brown colour showed, shining slightly in the grey light of Void. Where had she seen that kind of colour before?

Oh yes thought Dot - tape! It was magnetic tape, like the stuff that comes out of an audio cassette if you pull it - but don't, because then you can't play the cassette ever again! Dot remembered doing just that once when she was smaller, with a 'Times Table' cassette her mum had been using to try and get her to learn her multiplication tables. She'd never liked it anyway, but she could still remember how cross mum had been!

But this tape was different - it was much wider, and jumbled up in the middle of it were big round things with some of the tape still wound round it. Another shower of CD's clattered down onto the pile of tape in the same slow, soft way that everything happened in Void, and as the dust rose up, she could see the words '3M - 10 INCH TAPE SPOOL' on one of the round metal things, which gleamed for a moment before the endless dust covered it again.

"Dorothee... very close... must try... time... not long..." came Adrienne's voice out of the bracelet again. It made Dot jump - she'd got so used to the bracelet whizzing round her wrist she'd almost forgotten about it. She sighed and started to move away from the pile of tape - nothing there, surely.

But just as she did, her trainer caught in a loop of tape lying on the ground, stretched out on the ground about a metre and a half away from the huge pile. It wouldn't come off, so she wriggled her foot and tried to get it free. The dust that had been falling on her drifted off, but her foot was still stuck - and the tape seemed to be kind of bunching round it now, as if it were a living thing like a plant in the jungle!

FOODLES! thought Dot, getting cross. This was too much! She gave a big tug with her foot - and wished she hadn't, because suddenly the mountain of old tape started sliding down, right towards where she was standing!

Dot turned to run, but found she couldn't - the coil of tape was too tight round her foot. There was a kind of soft roaring noise as all the tape tumbled down around her like a wave crashing on the beach - but strangely it glided past her without touching her. A huge cloud of Void dust came up in the air though - and then, once again, started to settle down again, brushing softly past her with it soft, musty smell stronger than ever. But the coil of tape round her foot seemed to have vanished.

"Dorothee! Are you OK?" came Adrienne's worried voice out of the bracelet.

"Yes!" said Dot. "But I can't see anything!"

And she couldn't - even the dim grey light of Void was gone now, there was just dust, everywhere. But in the distance something looked just a little brighter. I'm not going to get scared, thought Dot. I'll just go over there and see if...

She took two steps - and her trainer touched something. Very slowly, Dot reached down and felt what she had touched - it was furry, soft and warm.

And then she noticed something else. The bracelet had stopped going round and round her wrist...