…how an ordinary schoolgirl became an

INTERNET VOYAGER!

"Sorted!" Ron had said. And - thanks to him and Deirdre - they were.

The last of the thick black oily stream of useless data was going round and round inside Deirdre's Overload Reclamation Facility, a single coil looking rather like a snake chasing its tail. Dot found it hard to imagine that there'd been so much information out there about just one city. But there had been - more than enough to completely jam up Adrienne's computers, so they'd crashed.

"Sure you don't want to 'old onto just a tidgy bit of info about life in Munich, then - or Munchen, as my friend Franz the German shepherd says it's called proper?" said Ron. He gave Adrienne another big wink and wiped a cloth round inside his tea mug.

"Non merci!" said Adrienne. "I wish I 'ad never 'eard of it! Zose ZITS - why can zey not tell ze difference between a search for ze MUNCHENmeat Awards list and a city zat people in Germany call MUNCHEN? Zut!! So STUPIDE!"

Dot peered over the side of Adrienne's search engine. The bright Zonal Information Transfer System searchlights were still doing their ZITS thing, sweeping back and forth across the sky. It was strange to think that something that looked so good could do so much damage. She had a thought.

"Can't you just bar the ZITS from getting information into your computer?" she asked Adrienne. "Kind of... block them?"

Deirdre shook her head. "No dear" she said. "The 'ole point with searching is, a Searcher like Adrienne's got to 'ave her engine open to everything she wants her system to find. Now she can do a clever search and block out stuff she doesn't need from the search zone floor down there" - she waved a wing at the millions of multi-coloured lights flickering away far below them as they hovered above the Search Zone floor - "but those nasty old ZITS have got an override programme in them that gets round that. Plain daft I calls it!"

" 'S all down to the people who set up the ZITS in the first place - that lot called MacroHard" said Ron, shaking his head too. He pointed at the ORF. "We've all asked 'em again and again to change it, but will they listen to the likes of us? Not them! I think it's 'cos ZITS was a big idea their boss had - that Will Doors bloke - and no-one in MacroHard's got the bottle to say what a mess it is! Just give me five minutes wiv 'im, that's all!" He shook his head and folded up his copy of the 'Daily Net'. "Anyway - let's just sort out the leavings!"

He pointed his remote control at Deirdre's ORF and pressed the silver button again. The black oily band that had been chasing its tail suddenly caught it - as it did so, there was a flash and it turned into the kind of silver foam that had been on the end of Deirdre's mop. "Eats itself, you see" said Ron with a chuckle. " 'Course, you can't do that till you can see the start and end of it, like then!"

The sparkling foam slowly sunk to the bottom of Deirdre's bucket - sorry ORF!! - which now looked all clean and fresh again, as if it had never had any of the horrible oily ZITS in it. Then, slowly, the sides of the ORF, turned back to their blue colour and the humming noise it had been making died away.

Just as it did so, all three of Adrienne's computers flickered and came back to life. She gave a little cry of delight and hopped up onto the chair in front of her purple PC, reaching for her mouse.

With a double click, she put the Level 9 Search Box back up on her screen. Ron sucked his teeth and tut-tutted - he was still worried Adrienne might overload again by using Level 9, the biggest search system - but the little red squirrel ignored him. Then, taking a deep breath, she typed in the words 'Munchenmeat Awards' into the box - and sat back in her seat. A bright blue light started to flash next to the search box on the screen.

"Bon - so we are searching" said Adrienne quietly. "Zo far... "

There was a pause. It seemed to go on forever. Dot couldn't take her eyes off the little blue light as it flicked on, off, on, off. Wizzie let out a great big yawn - a sure sign he was nervous. Even Mr Mouse seemed worried now, hopping about on Dot's shoulder and muttering to himself. Only Ron and Deirdre didn't seem bothered - Ron had picked up his 'Daily Net' again and was on the sports page, reading a story with the headline "Pixel Players Top Clatterback League" (???); and Deirdre was carefully retying her headscarf in a neat bow.

It was just starting to feel like FOREVER, when AT LAST... Ping!

"Data Zone - located. Data Zone - located" went the calm voice of Adrienne's computer.

They were back on the search for Dad again!