…how an ordinary schoolgirl became an

INTERNET VOYAGER!

Now, at last, thought Dot, we can do what we came back on the Internet for - help Dad! It seemed like YEARS ago when he'd come up to her bedroom worrying away about having to organize the Munchenmeat Dog Awards- the first ever Internet 'Best Dog' competition. AND Best Dog Food website, too! At least now she could find which companies took part in the last competition a couple of years ago.

That one had been different - it hadn't been done in the "virtual world" of the Internet, and it had ended up as just an old-fashioned dog show really. It had all been organized by Mr Elms' old secretary Mrs Cartwright, who'd left - and gone to Australia, without telling anyone at Doggydo's where she was going to live. She wasn't the only one who hadn't been able to get on with Dot's dad's boss, but no-on else had gone quite so far to get away from him.

She'd had enough of working for Mr Elms because he would keep on calling her Carrie Cartwheel. It was his idea of a jolly joke, but - well, it would get on your nerves after a while, wouldn't it? And now no-one could ask her where she'd put the list of all the dog food companies who'd gone in for the competition before, because no-one had any idea where in Australia she was living. .

"Data Zone - located. Data Zone - located" went Adrienne's computer again.

Adrienne clicked on her computer mouse and her search engine, which had been slowing down, came gently to a stop. The shiny silver wheels -which had been spinning away on the little railway "track" underneath the engine - stopped too. With a final "Whoop whoop" from the funnel, the gold and silver darts of light pouring out of it like steam also stopped.

Adrienne's search engine hovered above the Search Zone Floor, rocking gently as another engine (shaped like a pineapple!) zoomed past close by, glowing against the deep blue Search Zone sky. They all leant over the side to look at the millions of multi-coloured light points beneath them, stretching away into the distance on all sides.

All that information, thought Dot. Surely we can find out what Dad needs here - especially now we're in the right Data Zone, like that lady's voice said. An orange searchlight swept over the Search Engine - it was very bright, but somehow didn't hurt your eyes.

Dot tuned to Adrienne. "What are those for?" she asked Adrienne, fiddling with one of her bunches the way she always does when she's puzzled.

"Ah!" said the little red squirrel with a frown. "Zey are a great nuisance 'ere in ze Search Zone! I wish zey would go away, for ever!"

"But why?" said Wizzie, peering over the edge of the gently rocking search engine as another "searchlight" shone up at them - this time a brilliant gold one, which made the little spaniel look like a Christmas tree decoration as it swept over him. "They look so pretty!"

"Well, zey may be ver' pretty" said Adrienne. "But we find them a big problem. Zey are Zonal Information Transfer Systems - we just call them ZITS, though!"

Mr Mouse gave a grunt of laughter. "Not hard to spot though, are they?" he said.

Adrienne groaned. "VERY funny Monsieur Souris!" she said. "Trust a Canadian to know ze word Americans use for spots! Anyway, a ver' good name for them I think - because just like ze spots on your face, you don't want zem, zey come without warning, and it takes ages get rid of zem." Another searchlight swept by - a brilliant white one this time. Adrienne steered her engine gently away from it with a tut-tutting sound.

"But what are they for?" asked Dot. It seemed strange that there was something on the Net which was just a nuisance and got in the way.

"You tell me!" said Adrienne angrily. "It was one of zose silly ideas like... well you know like when you highlight a whole document on your computer in Microsoft Word. So easy to do by accident, if you hold down 'Ctrl' instead of the 'Shift' key when you want to type a capital A. Well if you do zat by accident, and you tap ANY KEY AT ALL after that, you delete ze whole document WITHOUT WARNING!" (It's true. You do. Did it LOADS of times before I found out about it. If you ever do it DON'T SAVE - or you will be left with maybe just the letter you typed next after doing Ctrl A. Just don't panic - do Ctrl Z or 'Undo' instead and everything will come back! Phew...!)

"Now which very silly person did that when they were programming Microsoft Word?" Adrienne went on, sounding crosser than ever. "I zink it must 'ave been ze same person who did ZITS, it is so STUPID! Because what zese ZITS do is try to GUESS what you are searching for - and offer you a package of zis information. Zat is what the searchlights you can see are doing. But their guesses are ALWAYS wrong, and even if zey are right zey you never get what you really need. Look what happens if I open up to it!"

She double right-clicked her mouse - a purple one next to the purple keyboard - and one of the searchlights, a bright green one this time, swivelled round on the Search Zone floor and shot up underneath the search engine. There was a slight bump as it locked on - and then the purple computer screen flashed and jumped, and huge lists of information started pouring down it. It made Dot feel dizzy just looking at it. Mr Mouse went "Woh!!" and covered his eyes, while Wizzie let out a lot of barks. Dot cuddled him just to calm him down - she knew what that sound meant, he'd keep on till she'd given him a good hug.

After what seemed like an age, the scrolling up stopped. Adrienne sighed and clicked again. The screen said proudly "ZITS is glad to have found you 398,762 results for the city of Munich! HAVE A NICE NET-DAY ADRIENNE!"

Adrienne snapped "Mademoiselle de Largny to you, ZITS!" The search engine rocked as another searcher in an engine shaped like a rocket from 'Star Wars' shot past.

Dot felt totally confused. "What... what's the city of Munich got to with the Munchenmeat Awards...? I mean... that's a place in... in the south of Germany isn't it?" (She knew that because her Dad had often said he'd like to go to the annual beer festival there, one day!)

"Justement!" said Adrienne (which means "Exactly!") "And ze German word for it is - MUNCHEN! You see - stupid!" She tapped irritably at her computer, then froze and stared at the screen from about an inch away.

"And so am I!" she said. "CULOTTES!"