…how an ordinary schoolgirl became an

INTERNET VOYAGER!

Closer... closer... CLOSER!

It looked like Adrienne was CERTAIN to hit them! What was she doing, thought Dot. Wizzie gave his warning bark again. "Look out Dot!" he shouted.

But then just at the last minute the little red steam train - which was really close to them now - swung round and stopped, right next to them, its shiny wheels still on its special track that went on and on underneath it, its brass fittings gleaming in the lights of the Search Zone.

"Yay-hay!" came a familiar Canadian voice over the loudspeaker in the Mopple van. "How about THAT, then!"

"Ver' good, Meestair Mouse" came Adrienne's voice. "But I zink... I will take over again now, if you don't mind. Going so fast is something for a little later, I zink!"

Dot gulped. Had Mr Mouse really been driving Adrienne's search engine? Oh no! Suddenly she felt just a bit sick. He wasn't someone she'd like to have driving her!

"That stupid mouse!" muttered Wiz. "Trust him to make a show of it!"

"Oh I think he's a dear" said Deirdre. "Just likes a bit of fun that's all!"

Ron did one of his favourite grunts again and flipped up a switch to talk. "Come on then!" he said. "Let's get back to these 'orrible Open Ports, then!"

"Allons-y!" came Adrienne's voice. (That means "Let's go!") "We still 'ave much to do, for sure!" She waved from the cockpit of her search engine and Mr Mouse gave a big thumbs-up sign.

As the Mopple van and the search engine turned back, Dot could see that her little red squirrel friend the Searcher was right. The Full Muster was still going on, with Mopple vans of all shapes and sizes chasing the viruses all over the Search Zone sky. Which was still changing colour, just like before. That reminded Dot.

"Why does the sky keep changing like that?" she asked as they zoomed along - they'd gone a long way away from where everyone else was hunting down the yellowy-green darts.

"Oh" said Ron "That's 'cos of the Open Port, see. Lets everything in everywhere, messes everything up - including the Search Zone sky. If we left 'em they'd change the colour of our dear old sky for good. Wouldn't like that!"

"It's rather pretty, though" Dot said, watching the greeny-blue go dark blue, then pale blue, then turquoise again. (It's quite hard to look at actually. Makes your eyes hurt after a while.)

"Yeah, well, I'd as soon not be seein' it" said Ron grimly. "It's bad news, that!"

Now the friends were close to the Full Muster, with Mopple vans of all shapes and sizes zooming about chasing the viruses. There seemed so many of the little darts - how were they ever going to catch them all, Dot thought. And if they didn't... if just ONE got away... then it could get back again into another search engine computer and all the damage would start again as it re-made itself a hundred, then a thousand, then a hundred thousand times.

Adrienne and Ron shot straight into the middle of the Full Muster. The funny thing was that no-one seemed to be crashing into anybody else, even though there were hundreds of vans and search engines all chasing the viruses. It reminded Dot of how starlings can all fly together, thousands of them, without ever even touching each other once. She peered over at Ron's screens - one of them had 'Auto-Miss-Me - ON ON ON' flashing away on it. So that's how we're not hitting each other, she thought. Clev-er!

And though it had looked impossible to catch all the viruses, Dot started to notice that there somehow there seemed to be fewer and fewer of them as every minute passed - though there were still lots more to be caught and destroyed.

Everywhere she looked, Mopple vans were dashing about - every colour you could think of, red, purple, yellow, brown, green, silver - there was even one in a Scottish tartan, and another painted in blue, pink and purple stripes; and there was one which was transparent, like it was made out of clear plastic and you could see right through it!

And almost every kind of animal you can think was driving the Mopple vans: there was a badger and an otter and a lot of dogs - including a French poodle with scarlet bows in her hair, three West Highland White terriers in one van, and a German shepherd wearing an eye patch in another; and there were black cats and tabby cats and Persian cats and ginger cats and even a fluffy white cat with a tiara on and a very snooty expression on her face.

"Ooh look there's Corinne!" said Deirdre in a pleased voice. "I can get my earrings back!"

"All in good time!" said Ron. "Work to do first!"

Which didn't sound quite fair to Dot, because Deirdre had been working. Every time Ron got behind one of the Open Port viruses, her little screen lit up and a red circle started to move across towards a flashing black dot - which was the virus. What Deirdre had to do then - using her little pointer again - was touch the red circle on the screen and drag it across till it was right on top of the black dot. Then - tap! And a "tongue" just like the one she'd seen on Yushio Sakamada's Mopple van, would come rolling out of the front of Ron's van and catch the virus and roll back with it into the van, till it disappeared underneath where you couldn't see it any more. A moment later - FZZZT!

"What's that noise?" asked Wizzie.

"Oh that" said Ron "That's goodnight virus, is that! Goes into a cleaning tank under the van and that's the end of it. There's another Deirdre!" Off they went again, zooming to the right, just missing a shiny golden Mopple van driven by a fox in a bike helmet.

"Old Foxy Freddo!" chuckled Ron. "He always wears that when he's a busy boy on chase-search!"

But suddenly it looked like Foxy Freddo - and everyone else - wasn't going to be busy much longer. Dot could never understand it, but suddenly there were only two viruses left, up away to the left of where they were - and Foxy Freddo was after one, with Adrienne chasing the other.

And then FZZZT! And FZZZT! And it was all over. The open Port viruses had all been destroyed!

All the zooming and rushing about suddenly stopped. The hundreds of Mopple vans - with a few search engines among them - hung in the Search Zone sky, gently bobbing up and down like boats on a river. The sky stopped changing and slowly went back to its velvety dark blue colour, dark but light at the same time (HOW can it do that, thought Dot for the umpteenth time.)

Some soft, quiet music came over the loudspeakers. "Ah ha!" went Deirdre. " 'Ere 'e comes, bless his heart!"

Then a warm voice spoke - it was gentle and calm, but somehow strong too.

"Thank you everyone!" it said. "A job well done indeed! And thank you too to our searcher friends, who came to help us in our hour of need. You are friends indeed, and very welcome."

The music came quietly to an end. Then the voice spoke again, warm and friendly as before.

"Let the gathering begin!"