The Demon Headmaster and The Prime Minister’s Brain (12 page)

Lloyd crouched uncomfortably, with his chin jammed against his knees, trying to look like a tin of tomato soup.
He had dived for that space, next to all the other tins of tomato soup, because it was the nearest one he could see.

When the strange boy had shouted ‘Help!’
Lloyd had hesitated for a second, like Ian and Mandy and Ingrid, not quite sure what to do.
But before they could dash to the rescue, the shout was choked off with a queer kind of gasp, as though a hand had been jammed against the shouter’s mouth.
From the top shelf, Harvey had pulled a wide-eyed frightened face, frantically flapping a hand to tell them all to get out of sight.
So now Lloyd was squashed in with the tins of soup.
It was not a very good hiding place, because someone walking past would have seen him instantly, but it was the best there was.
At least the alleys between the shelves would
look
clear if anyone glanced down them.

Across the way, facing Lloyd, was Ian, among a lot of packets of dried peas.
Mandy was further down, surrounded by staples and paper clips and rubber bands.
And Ingrid had vanished round the corner, to squeeze herself between huge boxes of apples.

They were all breathlessly silent, listening to the voices coming from the far side of the storeroom.

‘I can hold the boy while you request a rope,’ said one man’s voice.

It was a curious, dull, lifeless voice.
Lloyd frowned, trying to remember where he had heard something like it before, but he could not track the memory down.
It was the tone he recognized, not the actual voice.

When the second man spoke, it was in exactly the same tone.
‘Is it correct to use the rope?
Our information said that the children could be restrained by use of the octopuses.’

‘Where the octopuses do not work,’ said the first man, ‘it is correct to use rope.
We are also ordered to leave everything secure when we go off duty this evening.
To leave
this
boy secure, we must tie him up.’

‘Very well then,’ the second man replied.
‘I will order a rope.’

In among his tins of tomato soup, Lloyd shuddered.
There was something frighteningly cold and unfeeling about the men’s voices.
And yet—the boy had sounded scared all right.
What
was
going on?
And how were the men going to
order
a rope?

He should have known the answer to that last question, because he had seen the computerized trolley at work, but he did not remember until a mechanical voice sounded over the storeroom.

‘Please Remain Beside The Computer Terminal And What You Have Ordered Will Be Brought To You.’

Of course!
That must be the computer’s voice, the same voice they had all heard outside the tower.
And the trolleys were used to fetch things out of store as well as to stack them away.

Anxiously, Lloyd looked round to see if the rope was anywhere near them.
He did not like the idea of seeing another trolley bearing down on him.
But he could not see any rope and, after a moment or two, there was a faint hiss of wheels on the far side of the room.

‘I have the rope,’ said the second man.
(What
was
it about their voices?)

‘Very good,’ the first man answered.
‘Help me get the boy back into the lift and then we will take him upstairs to the Restraint Room.’

Whatever the Restraint Room was, it was obvious that the boy did not like the sound of it.
Lloyd heard scuffling noises, and the boy must have got free for a second, because there was a clatter of running feet and shouts echoed down the aisles of shelves.

‘The Computer Director is dangerous!
He is evil!
No one is free and—aargh!’

Heavier feet rattled after him and his words were interrupted by an anguished scream.
Then the scream, in its turn, was cut short.
Cautiously, Lloyd peered out from his shelf, up the alley, driven nearly mad by not being able to see anything.

At the far end of the alley, three figures were struggling.
Two men in white coats were trying to get a grip on a boy of about Lloyd’s age.
A boy with curly chestnut hair, who was fighting wildly to escape.

But before Lloyd could call the others, or decide whether they should attempt a rescue, the men got the upper hand.
Wrenching the boy’s arms unmercifully behind his back, they dragged him off up the aisle.
A moment later, Lloyd distinctly heard the smooth, sliding sound of the lift doors closing and the hiss of the lift moving away.
He gave them a second to get clear and then called softly to Harvey.

‘OK?’

‘I think so.’
Harvey looked almost green as he peeped over the edge of the top shelf.
‘It was terrible.
They
hurt
him.
They pulled his arms and jerked his head back and—’

‘And did you hear what they
said
?’
came Ingrid’s triumphant voice.
She strolled round the corner, eating an apple and looking pleased with herself.
‘Did you hear them talking about the octopuses?
It’s just like I said.
The whole place is riddled with those awful octopuses.
All the way up from the helicopter and—’

‘Ingrid.’
Lloyd only just managed to stop himself from shouting.
‘Will you please
shut up about that helicopter
!
We’ve got enough problems, without you driving us all mad.’

‘Please yourself,’ sniffed Ingrid.
She turned her back on the others and crunched loudly at her apple.

Harvey did not even seem to have heard her.
He was still talking about the men, babbling on and on in a nervous, shocked voice.
‘And the worst part about it was that they weren’t angry.
They just hurt him mechanically, like robots.
That’s what this whole building is, you know.
A giant robot, all controlled by a computer.
And the computer’s controlled by the Computer Director.
And you heard what that boy said about the Computer Director—’

His voice rose higher and higher as he spoke, and Ian nudged Lloyd.
‘What are we going to
do
?’
he murmured anxiously.
‘We’ve got to get him down fast.
And he’s not in any state to climb.’

Lloyd thought for a moment.
‘Ropes,’ he said briskly.
‘If those men could get ropes out of the store, so can we.
They’ll help Harvey get down safely.
If we
can find them.
I don’t think we ought to risk trying to use the computer.’

‘I don’t think we
need
to use the computer,’ said Mandy.
She took a step backwards, so that she could see the top shelf better, and called gently upwards.
‘Harvey!
Did you see where the trolley went, to get the rope for the men?’

Harvey nodded nervously.
‘It was a great long rope and they’re going to tie him up with it and—’

‘And we’re going to help him,’ Mandy said soothingly.
‘We’ll get him free, don’t you worry.
But we’ve got to get you down first.
If Ian and I go off to look for ropes, do you think you can watch us and tell us which way to go?’

The unhurried steadiness of her voice seemed to have an effect on Harvey.
He knelt up on the top shelf, ready to watch, and when he spoke again, he sounded calmer.

‘Go up here to start with.
That’s right … now turn left … go along past about three alleys … turn right … should be somewhere round about that corner.’

A couple of minutes later, Ian and Mandy were back.
They had not simply brought a rope.
They had garlanded themselves with ropes, looping the coils on both arms and round their necks.

‘This one’s to help get Harvey down,’ Ian said, ‘and the others are for us to take.
One each.
They should come in useful if we have to go up and down that chute any more.’

‘I know it’s like stealing,’ Mandy said earnestly, ‘but we’re only borrowing them.
And—it’s an awful long drop down to that car park.’

‘I think we should take everything we can!’
Ingrid said fiercely, turning round at last.
‘It all belongs to the Computer Director, doesn’t it?
And he’s just as bad as I said he was.
I warned you—’

Lloyd gritted his teeth.
‘Ingrid, will you
shut up
!’
He wished he could gag her.
‘Stop wasting time and let’s start by getting Harvey down.’

Reaching for the neat coil of nylon rope that Ian was holding out to him, he stepped back, ready to throw it up to the top shelf.
‘Watch out, Harvey!
It’s coming!’

It was the sort of thing that always looked very easy on television.
When people threw ropes in plays, they landed exactly in the right place, in reach of the person who was waiting.
But it took Lloyd seven attempts.
Twice Harvey nearly fell off the shelf and once the rope sailed right over the top and landed in the next alley.

But at last it was done.
Harvey held the coil of rope in his hand.
For a moment he stared stupidly at it, as though he could not guess what he should be doing with it.
Then he got the idea.
Wriggling his way along the shelf until he reached one of the upright supports, he began to knot one end of the rope round it.

‘Mind you tie it tightly,’ called Mandy in an anxious voice.

Harvey nodded, and tested his knot carefully by tugging at the rope before he started to climb down.
It did not take long.
In a few seconds, he was standing on the ground beside the others.

‘Petrified pancakes!’
he whistled.
‘That was really awful.
I feel like a jelly in a jungle.’

‘Don’t be
so feeble
,’ Ingrid said scornfully.
‘You ought to be pleased.
Now we’ve got the ropes, we’ll soon be out of this place and—’

‘What did you say?’
Lloyd stared at her.

‘Well—we must get out of here, mustn’t we?’
Ingrid gave a defiant toss of her head.
‘You heard what sort of thing was going on.
With those men around, we’re in
danger
.’

‘Oh,
Ing
!’
Mandy said.
‘What about Dinah?’

Ian walked slowly round Ingrid, looking her up and down.
‘You really are a prize specimen, aren’t you?
You ought to be in a museum.
Labelled
Selfish Little Creep
.’

Ingrid tossed her head again.
‘I’m not a creep.
And I
do
care about Dinah.
But what’s the use of staying in this horrible, dangerous building, climbing up and down the rubbish chute.
We haven’t found Dinah yet.
We haven’t done anything useful at all.
I think we should get out and call the police.’

‘But what would we tell the police?’
Mandy said gently.
‘We saw that boy being taken off, but we don’t know why.
And that’s all we’ve seen.
If we start telling the police, they’ll probably arrest
us.
For illegal entry and trespassing and stealing ropes and—’

‘I think it’s
stupid
to go on,’ said Ingrid, pulling a stubborn face.
‘Ask Harvey.
He
knows.
He watched the men knocking that boy around.’

They all turned to look at Harvey.
He was still very white and shaken.
Mandy put a hand on his arm,

‘What do you think?
Could
you bear to go on?’

‘It was
foul
,’ Harvey said softly.
‘It scared me silly watching the way that boy was treated.
There’s something really
bad
going on in here.’

‘You see?’
Ingrid put her hands on her hips and looked triumphantly round at them all.
‘Harvey agrees with me.’