“Go away!”
“Get out of it!”
“How DARE you!”
“Make like a tree and LEAVE!!” (that was Mr Mouse!)
“BarkbarkbarkbarkBARKBARKBARK!” (that was Wizzy…)
Dot put her hands over her ears. She’d never HEARD such a racket in all her life – not even the time all the staff at her school (apart from Cicely the school secretary) had been late for Assembly (because the security switch had gone wrong and locked them all in the staff room till Fred had broken a window to get them out) and EVERYONE had started messing about and talking at the tops of their voices… till Mrs Rudman came in and went BANG with her big metal ruler on the reading desk up on the stage.
Everyone had stopped talking then OK!
But there was no head teacher with a metal ruler to stop all this noise – and the Zildiths were so angry with Cruncher the cyber rat that it probably wouldn’t have made much difference anyway! They didn’t even pay any attention to Zamelqa the Regent, as she raised her arms in the air to try and quieten them all down.
Not that it seemed to bother Cruncher – the more the Zildiths all shouted and waved their arms in the air and pointed their fingers and shook their fists, the more he seemed to like it. The grin on his ratty face got wider and wider so you could see more and more of his long yellow pointy teeth.
Dot couldn’t help thinking that Marie the hygiene lady at her dentists would have quite a lot to say (and do) to Cruncher if he was ever sitting in her chair!
But then Cruncher decided he’d had enough. He leant forward and pushed a switch under the headlight on the front of his cyber bike.
“BARP-BARP-BARP-BARP-BAAAAAAAAAARP!!!!”
It was like the loudest horn you’d ever heard – only much, much louder. It was like a police car siren, a jet plane taking off and a road drill digging up the road all rolled into one. Even with her hands over her ears it made Dot’s head ache.
It was so strong it even sent out a blast of air into the crowd of Zildiths, making anyone who was standing up (and most of them were, to show how their anger) sit down with a bump. And all the shouting stopped, just like that.
Which was what Cruncher wanted. He switched off the sound. What a relief!
“That’s better!” he said in his rasping, whining voice. He swung his leg over the saddle of his bike and walked down to the front of the stage in front of Zamelqa, his scaly tail slithering along the floor behind him. Some of the sticky, yukky bits from the broken-up Phargon cloud he’d ruined stuck to it but he didn’t seem to notice. Yeeurgghh!
He looked round at them with his hands on his ratty hips.
“Now” he said “You lot can SHUT UP till you’ve heard what I’ve got to say – and what I’ve got to show you!”
Dot felt herself going pink with anger. She gritted her teeth though, and didn’t say anything – it was important to hear exactly what had happened to Drindel.
But she made a promise to herself, right there and then – she’d get that Cruncher, and make him pay for what he’d done!
Everything was dead quiet now. Cruncher had certainly got their attention.
He reached behind his back with his left paw – still grinning his horrible ratty grin – and with a sudden jerk, pulled out what looked like a gun from his belt – but a gun with a big square barrel and a glowing blue screen on the end of the barrel. Without turning round, he bent his arm so that the “gun” was pointing backwards, over his shoulder – and pulled the trigger.
“Don’t listen to him Zildiths! Don’t let him blackmail you! Don’t - ”
“Oh no! DRINDEL!” gasped Poolbear, jumping up from his seat.
For Cruncher’s “gun” was a projector – and it had shone some terrible pictures onto the shimmering dark blue curtain that hung down behind Zamelqa, at the back of the stage of the Extrapolation Extraordinary hall.
It was Drindel Zildith all right. He was looking straight into the camera, mouthing silently now because Cruncher, with a sneering laugh, had clicked the sound off.
He looked terrible. The moving pictures on his cloak weren’t moving - they were all blurred and black, so what had obviously been an undersea scene with dolphins and whales was a smudgy mess. His face was lined and grey too, and his eyes were staring out.
Worst of all though, he looked like he’d been wrapped in cling film – he was pushing against something that wouldn’t let him out. In the background you could just see more cyber rats. It looked like they were laughing at him, sneering and pointing.
Cruncher turned to look at the picture – and he laughed too. Dot felt the anger rising up inside her again.
Then the cyber rat clicked the horrible film off. He put the gun back in his belt with a grunt and folded his arms, staring down at the Zildiths. An angry muttering stated to swell up from them again. He shook his head and held up a greasy right paw.
“SHADDUP!” he shouted. They did. He laughed again, nyaa nyaa nyaa.
“That’s our prisoner” he sneered. “That’s the boy. Drindel Zildith. The Day of 23.”
Then he leaned forward and bared his teeth with a hiss.
“You can have him back – if you give us the Children of the Casement!”
