The Demon Headmaster and The Prime Minister’s Brain (5 page)

The two of them marched off and Mandy looked distressed.
‘We’ve got to do something, or they’ll get unbearable.
Haven’t you got any idea where to go, Dinah?
What about the instructions in your invitation?’

‘Well—’ Dinah hesitated.
‘They’re a bit peculiar.
They just say,
Turn to the north and you will see the Sentinel Tower on North Island.
That doesn’t seem much help.’

‘Ah.’
Ian shook his head wisely.
‘This isn’t a holiday camp you’re going to, remember.
It’s a special session for Brains.
I bet the rest of them could work out how to get there.
They’re probably all knocking on the door now.
Horrible little wizened fellows, with great bulging egg-heads.
And tiny little pebbly glasses.
And backs all bent from stooping over their books.
And—’

In spite of her nervousness, Dinah grinned and sloshed him.
‘Yes, but what are
we
going to do?’

‘We could try the instructions,’ Mandy said mildly.
‘It’s easy enough to work out where north is, after all.
The sun’s more or less in the south at this time of day, and there’s no missing that.
Not in this heat.’

‘Right,’ Lloyd said bossily.
‘Everyone face north.’

They turned their backs on the sun and stared.
But what they saw was just baffling.
In front of them were more and more loops of motorway, arching up towards the sky and down under the ground.
And apart from those, there was only one other thing to be seen.
In the exact centre of the intersection rose a tall, modern tower block, high and narrow.

It stuck up into the sky like a finger of light, reflecting the sunshine back blindingly into their eyes.
Its whole surface seemed to be composed of large squares of mirror, with no sign of any windows or balconies.
And it was completely isolated in the middle of the roaring traffic.
Nothing else was visible.
Only roads, roads, roads—and that single, dazzling pillar.

Then, suddenly, Dinah said, ‘Oh!
I’m stupid!’

‘She’s realized at last!’
Ian applauded.
‘Well, when you’ve finished cheering, perhaps you’ll explain things to us sub-zero morons.’

‘Look!’
Dinah pointed straight at the gleaming tower.
‘Don’t you see?
North Island isn’t an island in a river.
It’s an island in the
traffic.
And that’s the Sentinel Tower!’

Lloyd and Ian and Mandy looked amazed, but, from the bench round the corner, Ingrid laughed scornfully.

‘Call yourself clever, Dinah Hunter?
We worked that out ages ago, didn’t we, Harvey?’

‘What a naughty tarradiddle,’ murmured Ian.
‘Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to boast?’

‘But we
did
,’
insisted Harvey.
‘Look.’

He pointed away to his right.
Walking closer to the bench, the others found that they could see a flight of steps plunging down into a small pedestrian subway.
At the top of the steps was a notice.

TO NORTH ISLAND.

Mandy shook her head, gently.
‘Why didn’t you
say
?’

‘Why should we?’
Ingrid shrugged.
‘We
don’t want to go near the Computer Director.
He’s bound to turn out to be a robot or a vampire or something.’

‘Well, tough luck,’ said Lloyd.
‘Because the rest of us are going there now.
And I’ve got all the money.
So if you don’t come with us, you’ll have to sit here and stare at the traffic.
There’s nothing else to do round here.’

He led the way down into the subway.
And five pairs of feet followed him.

It was very dusty in the subway.
Dusty and dirty and dry.
And the narrow passage was lit by bright white fluorescent tubes which showed up every cobweb.

It was cold, too, and slightly musty.
For the first few seconds the cold was a relief, but by the time they had gone a yard or two it made their skin feel clammy, as though they had walked out of the sun into a deep dungeon.
And their footsteps echoed eerily ahead of them, the noise rebounding off the hard surfaces of the walls.

‘Do you think it’s far?’
whispered Mandy.
Somehow it seemed right to whisper.

Lloyd forced himself to answer in a normal voice.
‘It looked about two hundred yards.
Going straight across from the station.
But the subway isn’t quite straight, of course.’

It curved gently, first to the left and then to the right, so that they could not see anything ahead of them except the passage.
Ingrid and Harvey shuddered and walked closer to the others.

The end came quite suddenly.
The subway bent round, a little more sharply than before, and they were facing a steep flight of steps leading upwards to the open air.
At the top, they could see the blinding brightness of the sun, reflected from the walls of the tower block.

Lloyd took a deep breath and then marched up the stairs, slightly ahead of the others.
They needed to be given a lead.
He could feel them hesitating.
He would go first.

As he emerged from the subway, he found himself staring into his own eyes.

For a moment it startled him so much that he could not understand the reason.
Then he realized.
The walls of the huge tower were not just
like
mirrors.
They
were
mirrors.
The whole surface, right to the top, was made of mirror panels, and he was looking into the eyes of his reflection.

‘Wow!’
muttered Ian, behind him.
‘What a sight.’

‘I think it’s stupid,’ snapped Ingrid.
She pulled her cross-eyed face at the reflections and stuck out her tongue.

Lloyd took another deep breath, ready to give orders, and immediately found himself spluttering.
Here in the very centre of the intersection, the air was foul with exhaust fumes.
Before he could recover, Ian had turned to Dinah.

‘Right, what do we do now?
What do your instructions say?’

Dinah glanced down to check.
‘It says
Present yourself at the door and request admittance
.’

‘Hey!’
Mandy grinned.
‘That sounds very grand.
Do you think there’s a butler or something?’

‘More likely to be a bouncer,’ drawled Ian gloomily.
‘A huge, hairy thug hired to keep out unwanted visitors like us.’

Ingrid tossed her head.
‘
We’re
not unwanted visitors, are we, Harvey?
We’re unwant
ing
visitors.’

‘Shut up, all of you.’
Lloyd rubbed his eyes, which were starting to smart.
He had never known SPLAT be so difficult to keep in order.
‘Now listen.
We don’t know what’s going to happen, so we’ll just have to take our chance.
We’ll all go with Di when she requests admittance and if there’s any opportunity for the rest of us to get in, be ready to seize it.
If not, we’ll have to use our wits.’

‘But you
will
get in?’
Dinah asked anxiously.
‘I don’t want to be stuck in there by myself.’

‘Of course we will,’ promised Mandy.
‘Now where do you think we go?
It just says
the door
in your instructions, doesn’t it?
Do you think it could possibly mean that one?’

She pointed.
The door facing them was a very strange shape.
It was about ten feet high, but only about two feet wide, and it was made of metal.
Engraved across the middle were the words
The Sentinel Tower.
And that was all.
No opening.
No handle.
No nothing.
Only, beside the door, was a small metal panel set into the mirror wall, and, above that, a knob like a bellpush.

For a moment everyone hesitated.
Then Lloyd marched over and pressed the bellpush.

‘Let’s just see what happens,’ he said stoutly.
‘They can’t eat us, after all.’

But what did happen took him by surprise.
From somewhere above his head came a voice.
A queer, mechanical voice.

‘If You Desire Admittance, Please Punch Out Your Name.’

At the same moment, the metal panel in the wall slid aside, revealing a row of buttons lettered with the letters of the alphabet.
Lloyd stared for a moment and then began to press them.

L-L-O-Y-D-H-U-N-T-E-R.

As he finished, there was a short pause.
Then the mechanical voice sounded again.

‘I Am Not Programmed To Admit You.
Please Go Away.’

Lloyd stepped back.
‘You try, Di.
But the rest of us will be ready.
When the door opens, we may all be able to rush in.’

Dinah gulped and then pressed the bellpush.

‘If You Desire Admittance Please Punch Out Your Name.’

Again, the metal panel slid aside.
With a quick glance over her shoulder at the others, Dinah began to punch.

D-I-N-A-H-H-U-N-T-E-R

A pause.
Then—

‘Please Step Into The Half Circle In Front Of The Door.’

For the first time, they noticed that the concrete ground in front of the door was marked by a metal groove.
It ran in a perfect half circle, exactly the width of the door and a foot from front to back.

Carefully, Dinah stepped over the groove, standing with her feet neatly together and her arms in front of her, clutching the handles of her suitcase and the S-7 computer.
The others crowded close, but there was not room for anyone except Dinah in the circle.
Still, they were all prepared, holding their breath, ready to charge forward as soon as the door started to swing open.

But it did not swing open.
Instead, with bewildering speed, it turned, like a revolving stage, taking the half circle of ground with it.

Without moving a step on her own, Dinah was spun away from them, into the building.
There was a brief glimpse of a narrow corridor and then the turn was complete.
Dinah had vanished and they were staring at the opposite side of the metal door, which looked exactly the same as the first side.
Ten feet tall and two feet wide, with
The Sentinel Tower
engraved across the middle.
And there was nothing else to be seen except their own startled faces, reflected in the mirror walls.

‘Well,’ said Ian, after a moment of stunned silence, ‘what now, O Leader?’

‘We—we—’ Lloyd racked his brains frantically.
If you want to be in charge of people, there are moments when you must produce a plan.
It doesn’t matter what, but there must
be
a plan.
And Lloyd knew that this was one of those moments.
‘We’ll try to get in just like Dinah did,’ he said.

He stepped forward again and pressed the bellpush once more.
But this time, when the mechanical voice asked him to punch out his name, he winked at the others over his shoulder and punched out.

D-I-N-A-H-H-U-N-T-E-R.

A pause.
Then—

‘This Person Has Already Been Admitted.
Please Leave Otherwise The Police Will Be Summoned.’

‘Oh dear,’ Mandy said softly, ‘it’s going to be ever so hard to get in.
What can we do?’

‘I think we should just go back to the station and get a train to Lloyd’s Auntie Alice’s,’ said Ingrid.

Harvey nodded.
‘We can say we’ve been miraculously cured.’

‘But we couldn’t do
that
.’
Mandy was shocked.
‘We promised we’d get into the building and make sure Dinah was all right.
SPLAT-swear.
We can’t let her down now.’

‘Well, I’ll really enjoy seeing you get inside,’ said Ingrid.
‘Go on.
Show me how you’re going to do it without getting us all arrested.’

And she and Harvey sat down cross-legged on the pavement and folded their arms, looking up at the others with irritating smugness.

Lloyd tried to ignore them.
There
had
to be a way of getting into the building.
There just
had
to be…