The Demon Headmaster and The Prime Minister’s Brain (13 page)

But Harvey shook his head.
‘No, you’ve got it wrong, Ing.
What I said is not a reason for going back.
It’s a reason for going
on.
We’ve got to save Dinah, and we’ve got to
rescue that boy.
Come on, let’s get started.’

Picking up one of the coils of rope, he looped it over his shoulder and began to walk towards the rubbish chute.

The Headmaster strode down the room towards Dinah.
He seemed to tower taller and taller, like a nightmare.
She could not move an inch.
As if she
were
in a dream, she was paralysed by the thought of what would happen next.

But none of her terror could have showed on her face, because Camilla went on congratulating her in the same happy, relieved voice.

‘—you’re
brilliant,
Dinah, you really deserve to be the Junior Computer Brain and I know it’s silly to be worrying about Robert, because he’s sure to be all right but I’m so pleased you’ve done it and he can come back and—’

And the Headmaster can get on with his plans, whatever they are,
thought Dinah.
Fear was making her stupid.
She could see the tall figure getting nearer and nearer and she could see the precious, secret information on the screen of her S-7, but it was not until the Headmaster was almost at her desk that she realized what she ought to be doing.
A very simple, obvious thing.

Jerking forward in her seat, she tapped quickly at her S-7’s keyboard, ordering it to disconnect and to wipe everything she had just done off its screen and out of its memory, Just in time, as the Headmaster stopped beside her, the screen went blank.

‘Dinah?’
Camilla said, sounding puzzled.

Dinah sat back calmly, folding her hands together, and waited to see what the Headmaster would do.
For a second he did not speak.
He stood very very still and stared down at her through his pebbly glasses, without any expression.
She kept just as still, not watching him but gazing down at her fingers.

‘Well, well,’ he murmured at last.
‘Clever Little Dinah Glass.
How did you get in here?
The computer was programmed to keep out anyone called Glass.’

Dinah did not look up.
‘I’m called Dinah Hunter now,’ she said, in a level, matter-of-fact voice.
‘The Hunters adopted me.’

‘Extraordinary.’
The Headmaster raised his eyebrows.
‘People waste so much energy on totally pointless actions.
Well, Miss Dinah
Hunter,
what was all the noise about?
Am I to understand that you have solved my little problem?’
He glanced at her blank screen.
‘Apparently not.’

‘Oh but she has she has,’ Camilla said eagerly, ‘I saw the heading on her screen it said Prime Minister Personal Information and that’s right isn’t it that’s what we were supposed to be doing—’

The Headmaster’s eyes were suddenly alert.
‘So you
have
found the password.
I must congratulate you.
When I ran a projected feasibility study on the S-700 I worked out that the odds were that
one
of you would discover the password.
But not for three days.
You have been very quick.’
His voice sharpened.
‘So—why is your screen blank?’

‘Because I’m not going to let
you
get at the Prime Minister’s personal information.’
Dinah jumped to her feet and looked round the room.
All the Brains had stopped working.
They were staring in her direction, wondering what the disturbance was about.
Raising her voice, Dinah shouted so that they could all hear.
‘Listen, everyone, I know what’s been going on.
We’ve been trying to break into the Prime Minister’s computer.
And it’s not a game.
It’s
real
!’

There was an awed gasp and then total silence as they all waited to hear what she would say next.
Quickly, she gathered her thoughts.
It was no use beginning on a long tale about what the Headmaster had done before.
She needed to get the Brains on her side.
Quickly.

‘I have just discovered the password that the Computer Director wants,’ she shouted.
‘But that password means
power.
I don’t think we should give anyone power like that without knowing why he wants it.
I think we should ask the Director to explain what he’s up to!’

A rumble of agreement came from all over the room.
All the Brains sat back and folded their arms.
The message was clear.
They were stopping work until they discovered what was going on.

An irritated frown crossed the Headmaster’s face, but he did not get angry.
Instead, he glanced round the room and then began to make a speech, in a calm, reasonable tone.

‘All of you must often have thought how badly this country is run.
Money not shared equally among people.
Parents bringing up their children on junk food and letting them roam the streets.
Inefficiency, strikes, waste.
Doesn’t it all worry you?’

Heads nodded in every part of the room.

‘And haven’t you ever thought,’ the Headmaster went on, ‘that everything could be much better run by one man—one man who cared more about efficiency and order than about his own wealth or comfort?’

Some heads nodded again.
Not as many, but still quite a few.

‘
I
am that man.’
The Headmaster said it quite simply.
‘Ask this girl who knows me.’
He turned to Dinah.
‘Do you deny that I am extraordinarily efficient?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Dinah, ‘but—’

He swept on, not letting her add anything.
‘And am I concerned with making money for myself?’

‘No,’ Dinah said reluctantly, ‘I don’t think you are, but—’

Interrupting her again before she had finished, he turned back to face the rest of the room.
‘You have heard what sort of man I am.
Now I am glad to tell you that I have prepared a vast, efficient scheme for running this country properly.
It will be operated from this building by the S-700.
Soon, this will be the most disciplined, orderly country in the world.’

‘But even supposing all that’s true,’ Dinah finally managed to say,
‘what’s it got to do with the Prime Minister’s computer?
’

There was a tiny, tense pause.
All the Brains were alert.
This was the question they all wanted answered.

‘It is difficult to make people be sensible,’ the Headmaster said at last.
‘They waste time being stubborn and arguing.
Claiming they have a right to choose what happens.
My plan will cut out all that wasteful choice.
Once I have spent an hour or so with the Prime Minister, my scheme will be the
only
choice that people have.’

Bess rubbed her forehead.
‘It all sounds rather miserable,’ she said timidly.
‘I
like
to choose.
I like to choose my clothes and my books and presents for my family and—’

‘All completely wasteful,’ the Headmaster interrupted sharply.
‘Once my scheme is in operation, you will wear the clothes you are issued and read the textbooks which will teach you what you need to learn.
Presents and other books are simply a distraction from work.’

There was a horrified gasp as people started to understand just what kind of country he was planning.
Then Camilla spoke, sounding puzzled.

‘But what I don’t see is how you’re going to persuade the Prime Minister because however good your arguments are and however much time you have to explain, Prime Ministers always have their own ideas don’t they and they can’t just swap over—’

‘He won’t be trying to persuade anyone,’ Dinah said.
Suddenly she felt very tired and afraid.
‘He doesn’t need to
persuade.
He can hypnotize people—almost everyone—and make them do exactly what he wants.
I don’t suppose the Prime Minister’s any different.’
She could see from the doubtful faces round the room that the Brains did not believe her.
Banging the desk with her fist, she spoke more fiercely.
‘Don’t you understand what we’ve been doing?
We haven’t just been finding him a way into the Prime Minister’s computer.
We haven’t just been finding him a way into Number Ten Downing Street, even.
We’ve been finding him a way into the Prime Minister’s brain!
’

‘You seem to have grown very excitable,’ the Headmaster said.
‘But now you have finished ranting, perhaps you will give me the password you have discovered.
I’m sure you can remember it, even though you may have wiped it off your computer.’

Dinah gaped.
‘You’re mad!
Do you really think I’m going to tell you?
Do you think I’m going to have anything to do with your plans for turning people into robots?’

The Headmaster’s lips pinched together impatiently.
His face was stern and motionless.
But when he spoke again he sounded surprisingly smooth.
Almost kind.

‘Wouldn’t you like to think again?’
he said softly.
‘It’s always a mistake to take important decisions in a hurry, and you have had a very exhausting day.’

Dinah had expected him to start shouting at her.
For a moment she did not understand why he was so gentle.

‘I’ve tired you all out, I’m afraid,’ crooned the Headmaster.
‘You must be feeling very weary, very sleepy …’

Dinah was nearly taken in.
She nearly relaxed, thinking that the worst of the danger was past.
Then, just in time, she noticed the Headmaster’s hand, which was moving slowly up towards his face as he spoke.
Ready to take off his glasses.
Ready to uncover his eyes.

His eyes!
In the split second before they gazed into hers, Dinah understood what the Headmaster was up to.
Once he was staring straight at her, with those huge, extraordinary sea-green eyes, he would be able to hypnotize her.
He had done it often enough before for her to know that she had no chance of resisting.
Once she looked into his eyes, she would be lost, and he would be able to get her to do anything.
Even tell him the password.

Just in time, she screwed up her eyes, shutting them so tightly that she could not see anything except the lights that danced in the blackness behind her eyelids.

The Headmaster’s voice stopped for a moment.
Then he said, ‘Open your eyes, Dinah.’

‘I
won’t
!’
Dinah said defiantly, clenching her fists and flinging her head up.
‘I know you want to hypnotize me, but I won’t open my eyes, and then you can’t.’

He drew his breath in sharply, irritated.
‘What a tiresome girl you are.’

‘You can’t make me open my eyes,’ Dinah said more quietly.
‘Can you?’

There was no answer.

That was more unnerving than any bullying.
It was torture not to be able to see what the Headmaster was doing.
But she was not going to let herself get caught by something as simple as that.
It’s only a trick,
she told herself severely.
Don’t be fooled
.

Even so, it was very dark and lonely standing there with her eyes shut.
What could she do next?
Gould she trust Camilla to tell her when the Headmaster had gone—or was Camilla too concerned about Robert?
Would Bess—?

And then Bess screamed.
A high, shrill shriek of pain and terror.
The sort of noise that cannot be faked.
Automatically, Dinah’s eyelids flew up.
There was no way that she could have stopped them.

‘Bess, are you all right—?’

But the second her eyes opened, she found herself staring into the Headmaster’s wide green ones.
He gave a satisfied smile, dropped Bess’s arm, which he had been twisting cruelly behind her back, and began to murmur at Dinah.

‘Interesting that you should be so concerned about your friend—when you’re so tired.
So tired and sleepy that you can hardly hold up your head.
Look into my eyes and feel the sleepiness washing over you …’

Dinah felt that she was sinking into the depths of the green eyes.
Deeper and deeper and deeper.
Until, gradually, her eyes clouded over and her mind blanked out.