The Demon Headmaster and The Prime Minister’s Brain (15 page)

But all Lloyd could feel was a terrible rage, so great that his brain would not function.
The
Headmaster
!
The Headmaster had set up this whole competition and used the octopuses to keep people quiet.
And
he
had been caught by them.
Him!
Lloyd Hunter, who was immune to being hypnotized.
Who had set up SPLAT as a resistance group and used it to defeat the Headmaster once before.
He had been fooled and drugged with octopus patterns just like any—any stupid
Brain.
It was almost too humiliating to think about.

But there they were, still looking at him and waiting.
Even Robert, who hardly knew him, was listening for what he would say.
Unless he
did
organize them, they would never get down to anything—and the Headmaster would triumph.
Squashing down his black, blinding fury, Lloyd took a deep breath and began to give orders.

‘Right then.
Now we know who we’re facing—and we know how he’s been keeping everyone quiet with octopus patterns.
Whatever the Headmaster’s plotting, it
can’t
be good.
It’s our duty to defeat him and rescue the Brains.
So we’ll have to be double careful.
And not look at any octopuses!
’ He turned to look at Robert and Doug.
‘Are you two coming with us?’

‘Of course.’
Robert nodded vigorously and, after a second’s hesitation, Doug copied him, as though he were more afraid of being left on his own than of following.

It took some time to rope everyone up and to explain to Robert and Doug exactly how to climb up the chute, but in the end they set off again on the upward journey that seemed endless.
This time, with seven of them, progress was even slower than ever, but Lloyd did not have to remind anyone to be quiet.
All the SPLAT members were shaken by what they had just found out and Robert and Doug knew, only too well, what the Computer Director was like.
So they were all silent, making no sound except the slow shuffle of feet against the wall and the occasional soft grunt as people heaved their backs upward in the dark.

And that was why Lloyd was able to hear Dinah’s voice so clearly.
It came floating down from above them, sounding flat and strange.

‘Knock knock.’

Harvey gave a small squeak and Lloyd sshhed him as loudly as he dared.
The next moment he nearly squeaked himself, when he heard the voice that answered Dinah.

‘Who’s there?’

The Headmaster’s voice.
But—was it possible?
Dinah seemed to be telling him a joke.
A
joke
?
Lloyd felt as though he had gone mad.
He tugged gently at the rope, signalling to the others to stop climbing.
He wanted to think before he did anything else.
To try and make some sense out of what he was hearing.

Dinah’s voice came again.
‘Olga.’
Still in the same expressionless, mechanical tone.
Like the voices of the two men in the storeroom and the men in the Restraint Room.
Like—Lloyd was still groping in his memory for what those voices meant.

‘Olga who?’
said the Headmaster.

Then Lloyd got it.
Hypnotism!
The Headmaster had hypnotized Dinah, to make her do what he wanted.
And he had hypnotized the men in white coats.
Just as he had hypnotized almost everyone in the school when he was there.
That was why Dinah was speaking in such a dull, level voice.
She was in a trance.

But why should the Headmaster hypnotize her and then make her tell
jokes
?

Everything seemed even crazier than before.

‘You can wake up now.’
The Headmaster’s voice broke into Dinah’s sleep and she woke instantly.

As soon as her eyelids opened, she knew what had happened, even though she could not remember anything.
It was obvious from the triumph on the Headmaster’s face and from the bewildered stares of the Brains.
One moment they had been listening to Dinah defying the Headmaster and shouting about the wickedness of his plans.
The next moment, they must have heard her helping him.
Telling him the password to the Prime Minister’s computer.
No wonder they were puzzled.

She had opened the way for him to go ahead with his plans.

Dinah felt as though she wanted to stand up and shout across the room.
It wasn’t my fault.
I was hypnotized.
He’s always been able to hypnotize me.
AND THAT’S WHAT HE’S GOING TO DO TO THE PRIME MINISTER!
She longed to make the Brains understand that she was not to blame.

But there was no time for that.
Not a second to spare on her own selfish feelings.
She had to work out if there was anything she could
do.

Looking up at the Headmaster, she spoke in a small, tight voice.
‘What have you done?’

‘I have prepared the way,’ he said calmly.
‘My name and my description have been added to the list of people with security clearance for emergencies.
The people who
must
be let in to see the Prime Minister, if they give the right password for the day.
And I have learnt today’s password—
Disraeli.
All I have to do now is travel to Downing Street.
So you can stop trying to think of a way to interfere with my plans.
There is nothing you can do now.’

He glanced around the room, to make sure that all the Brains had heard him and understood.
Then he began to turn away, to go back up to the front of the room.

But, while he was speaking, Dinah had glimpsed a movement, over his shoulder.
A quiet, stealthy movement up at the front.
The first time she saw it, she could hardly believe her eyes, but there it was.

At the front of the room, next to the S-700’s main terminal and printer, was a rubbish chute with a flap across the opening.
As Dinah watched, the flap was pushed up and a head emerged, followed by a body and a pair of legs.
The figure crawled cautiously out, crept a little way across the room and ducked down behind the printer.

It was Lloyd.

Dinah had to use all her self-control to stop herself squealing with surprise.
I
mustn’t give him away,
she thought frantically.
But what could she do?
Already another head—Mandy’s—was sticking out from under the flap.
If the Headmaster turned round, he was sure to see the movements.
And if he captured all the other members of SPLAT, that would be the end of every thing.

Thinking quickly, Dinah reached out and grabbed at his sleeve, desperate to keep his attention on her.

‘Look,’ she said loudly, ‘I don’t just think your plans are wicked.
I think they’re stupid and inefficient.
You’ve wasted all your energy planning this competition and setting up a gigantic computer program—and it will all be for nothing.’

‘
What
?’
Outraged, the Headmaster turned back to stare at her.
‘You are talking nonsense.’

‘No I’m not!’
Dinah said.
Louder,
she thought.
I
have to talk as loudly as I can, to drown any noises from the front.
She raised her voice until she was almost shouting and forced herself not to glance over his shoulder.
‘You say you’re going to take control of the Prime Minister’s brain.
And I’m sure you can do it.
But what’s the
point
?
The Prime Minister’s not all-powerful in this country.’

She could feel her voice giving out, beginning to croak with the strain of speaking so loudly and for a moment she wavered.
Instantly, Bess picked up the argument.
Had
she
seen the people crawling out of the rubbish chute as well?

‘That’s right!’
she said, in a high, shrill tone.
‘We’re a
democracy.
The Prime Minister’s not a dictator.’

Far away, at the front of the room, Ian and Ingrid and Harvey had all clambered out of the chute and hidden behind various cabinets.
Somehow, without looking directly, Dinah was aware of them.
And now she saw yet
another
head.
Robert’s!
She was so pleased and relieved that she burst in as soon as Bess had finished, not waiting for the Headmaster to answer.

‘Please
change your mind.
It’s really not worth all the trouble, just for one measly Prime Minister and there must be lots of other ways to get power, if that’s what you want.
You could—’

‘
Silence!
’ The Headmaster was icy with anger.
‘How dare you argue with me?
You are only showing your own stupidity in failing to understand the full scope of my plans.’

‘Tell us then!’
yelled Bess.

‘Yes!’
shouted Dinah.
Tell us, and then you’ll keep looking this way.

‘The Prime Minister is only a stepping stone,’ the Headmaster said scornfully.
‘Oh, I shan’t have any trouble getting my own way with the Cabinet and the government.
Not once I have been appointed the Prime Minister’s valued adviser, present at all meetings.’

Present at all meetings.
Dinah felt her face grow pale as she imagined it.
The Headmaster looking round the Cabinet Room.
Staring into the eyes of all the Cabinet Ministers and murmuring, ‘You are feeling sleepy.
Very, very sleepy … ’ The Headmaster in the House of Commons itself, gazing up and down the long benches with his huge green eyes, until the clamour of MPs’ voices grew still and there was silence over the whole Chamber.
Oh, he could do it, she had no doubt of that.
She shuddered.

‘But that is only the beginning,’ the Headmaster said triumphantly.
‘Because the Prime Minister’s trusted adviser will travel all over the world, of course.
To summit meetings and international conferences.
I shall be able to meet all the major world leaders face to face.
Or
eyeball to eyeball,
as people say now.’
He smiled thinly and Dinah realized, with a sort of horror, that he was so exultant that he had actually made a joke.

‘But you mean you’re actually going to hypnotize all the world leaders and take over everything that’s mad you can’t mean it,’ Camilla said desperately.
‘How can you think you know best about the whole world—?’

‘Of
course
I know best,’ the Headmaster said scornfully.
‘And soon everyone will realize that I do.
Nothing will be able to stop me once I have taken control of the Prime Minister’s brain.
And I shall have that within the next two hours.’

Ignoring Camilla’s moan and Bess’s white face and the gasps of the other Brains, he turned firmly away and began to stride up the room towards the main controls of the S-700.
Everything at that end of the room was still now.
Dinah was sure that, if she had not seen the figures creeping about and hiding behind the cabinets, she would never have guessed that they were there.
Certainly the Headmaster did not guess.
He was concentrating on the computer screen.

‘We’ve got to stop him,’ Camilla hissed across at Bess and Dinah.
‘It would be terrible if he succeeded but is he telling the truth can he really do it—?’

‘You saw what he did to me,’ Dinah muttered miserably.
‘He doesn’t fail with many people—and what could those few do against all the rest?’

‘—but that would be like the end of the world we’ve got to stop him somehow but I can’t see—’

‘Well,’ whispered Bess timidly, ‘why don’t we start with that security list he’s put himself on?
If he leaves us here when he goes off, we could take his name
off
again—and add in a warning to show them their security has been broken.
After all,
we
know how to get into the Prime Minister’s computer as well as he does.’

‘You’re right!’
Dinah hissed.
She gave Bess a friendly grin.
‘We’ll try that if we get a chance.’

The Headmaster could not have heard what they were saying, but when he had finished what he was doing, he looked up and spoke to the whole room.

‘In a minute I shall leave you.
But do not suppose that you will be able to interfere with my plans while I am gone.
Or that you will be able to use the lift to escape from the building.
To do either of those things, you would need to use the S-700—and I have set it on Automatic Booby Trap.’

For a moment, no one dared to speak.
Then a nervous voice from the back of the room said, ‘What’s Automatic Booby Trap?’

The Headmaster smiled his thin, unpleasant smile.
‘It is a wise precaution that I have built into the machine.
Any attempt to use the S-700 now will short a special electric circuit and start a fire.’
His smile grew even thinner and nastier.
‘The fire will be in the lift, just to make sure that your escape is cut off.
As you know, there are no stairs—no other way of getting down from here.’

‘You mean,’ the nervous voice said, ‘that if we try to tamper with the S-700—we’ll all die?’

The Headmaster nodded.
‘It would be slow and very painful.
And no one would be able to save you, because all my staff have now gone home and no one else will guess that you are here.’

‘That’s monstrous,’ shouted Camilla, ‘do you really mean to say that you would burn all these children to death just because—?’

‘No one
will burn to death,’ said the Headmaster firmly, ‘because no one will dare to interfere with my plans.
It would be senseless.
You will all simply stay here until I have time to make further arrangements for you.
There is a good stock of food in the storerooms and the S-700 is programmed to provide you with regular meals in this room.
You will all be perfectly safe.
As long as you obey my orders
.’

As he was speaking, Dinah became aware of a peculiar whirring noise outside the building.
It grew louder and louder, closer and closer, coming up from the ground.
As the Headmaster finished talking, it was directly above them.
Then the voice of the S-700 sounded.

‘Your Helicopter Is Overhead.
Please Select Route Program And Open Roof Doors.’

‘Goodbye,’ said the Headmaster.
‘Next time I see you, we shall be living in a country that is being run
efficiently.
The beginning of a new, efficient world.
All you have to do is wait.
And I have given you something to help pass the time.’

He reached out and tapped at the S-700’s keyboard.
Immediately, the huge panels of the ceiling slid apart, letting in a blast of warm air.
For the first time, Dinah realized that they were at the very top of the building, with nothing above them except blue sky.
Hundreds of feet up in the air.

In the very centre of the patch of blue sky above them, a small single-seater helicopter was hovering.
It was completely empty.
As they watched, a rope ladder snaked down from the helicopter and through a gap in the roof.
The Headmaster began to climb it, glancing over his shoulder from time to time to make sure that none of the Brains had moved.

He’s getting away,
Dinah thought unhappily.
And there’s nothing we can do.

As he reached the helicopter and started to pull the rope ladder up after him, the roof panels slid together again, smoothly and quietly.
Dinah had a final view of the helicopter turning in the direction of central London.
Then the sky was hidden and the Brains were alone in the room.

We must do something.
But before Dinah could speak the words aloud, things began to happen.