The Demon Headmaster and The Prime Minister’s Brain (16 page)

The first was up at the front of the room, As soon as the Headmaster was safely out of the way, people darted out from behind the cabinets.
Lloyd and Harvey.
Ian and Mandy and Ingrid.
Robert.
Even that other boy who had been taken away.

‘Fantastic!’
said Camilla.
‘If Robert’s OK we can stop worrying and start trying to make some kind of plan …’

But her voice died away, in the very middle of what she was saying.
Her face went blank and she sat down suddenly, her eyes fixed on the screen on her desk.

All round the room, the same thing was happening.
Lots of the Brains had jumped up in fear and rage as the Headmaster explained about the Automatic Booby Trap.
Now they were all sitting down meekly.
Watching the green lines that began to snake their way across every screen in the room.

Oct—

‘No I won’t!’
Dinah said out loud, standing stubbornly beside her chair.
She couldn’t look.
She had to explain everything to Lloyd and Robert and the others.
Try to make some kind of plan—

Octo—

But all round her, on every side, green lines wriggled and arched and danced …

Octopus—

‘No!’
she said again.
But this time she did not manage to sound so determined.
After all, Lloyd and the others were already running down the room towards her.
What harm could there be in just glancing at the lovely intricate curling lines that spiralled and sparkled and spun and …

Octopus - s - s - s - s!

‘
No!
’

Lloyd heard Dinah’s shriek when he was halfway down the room, Before he had time to wonder what she meant, there was another shriek behind him, from Ingrid.

‘Oh no!
Not more octopuses!’

Octopuses!
At the mere sound of the word, Lloyd felt himself filling with dark, speechless rage.
So the Headmaster was doing it again, was he?
Thinking he could treat people just like machines.
Press the right button and they’ll do what you want.
Show them a few octopus patterns and they won’t be any trouble.
Well, he wasn’t going to be treated like that!
He screwed his eyes up so tightly that he could not see anything except prickles of light against the blackness of his eyelids.

‘Ian!’
he shouted.
‘Mandy!
Robert and Doug!
Shut your eyes quickly and
don’t open them
!’
Then he thought fast.
‘Ing, are you and Harvey all right?’

‘We’re
OK,’ Ingrid said scornfully.
‘But we seem to be the only ones.
The whole room’s full of people gawping at octopuses.
Pathetic!’

‘Well, is there some way we can switch off the screens?’
Lloyd turned towards Robert.
‘Could you tell Ingrid how to turn the computer off?’

‘Not safe,’ Robert said firmly.
‘You heard what the Computer Director said before he left.
Any interference with the computer will start a fire.’

‘But there must be
something
we can do.’
Lloyd thought even harder.
‘Can we cover up the main screen?
Is there any paper?’

‘Gallons.’
All of a sudden, Robert sounded much brisker and more cheerful.
‘There’s loads of paper in the printer up the front.
If Ingrid and Harvey stuck that all over the main screen, to hide the octopuses, then they could unplug all the monitors on the desks.
That ought to be safe.
It’s not really interfering with the main computer.’

‘Right,’ said Lloyd.
‘Hear that, Ingrid and Harvey?
That’s what you’ll have to do.
Cover the main screen first and then turn off the monitors.
Got that?
Ingrid!
Harvey!
What are you doing?’

‘Don’t be thick!’
Ingrid’s voice came from far up at the front.
‘We didn’t wait for you to tell us.
We started as soon as Robert had the idea.
We’ve nearly finished the main screen already.’

Lloyd bit back the cross answer that came to his lips.
After all, if he annoyed Ingrid, they were all in trouble.
Next to him he heard Ian chuckle.

‘Horrible being dependent on those two, isn’t it?’
he drawled.
‘Ingrid will really enjoy having us under her thumb.’

‘Oh, Ian, don’t be
mean
!’
Mandy said, on Lloyd’s other side.
‘We’re jolly lucky that Ingrid and Harvey
aren’t
addicted to the octopus patterns.
If they had sat and watched them, like everyone else at the Computer Club, we’d all be fumbling around with our eyes shut now.’

‘No we wouldn’t,’ Lloyd said bitterly.
‘We’d all be standing like dummies in the Restraint Room.
Like we were until Ingrid switched off
that
screen.’

As he finished speaking, Ingrid called from the front of the room.
‘That’s done!
Now we’ll do the monitors.
Won’t be long.
Come on, Harvey.’

There was a sound of feet pattering down the room, stopping at every desk and then pattering on again at top speed.
Mandy sighed anxiously.

‘It’s so awful not being able to
see.
Do you think I should take a peep?
Just so we know how they’re getting on?’

‘No!’
Lloyd’s answer was fierce.
But he knew what she meant.
He was aching to open his own eyes.
Just to get one more sight of those lovely swirling octopus patterns that he was missing.
Those beautiful, twining …

No!

They had to defeat the Headmaster.
Somehow.
Otherwise he would take over the country and then the world.
Nothing else mattered beside stopping that.
Gritting his teeth, Lloyd screwed his eyes up even tighter and growled at the others.
‘Don’t you
dare
look until Ingrid and Harvey say we can.’

It seemed like another six or seven hours, but it could only have been a couple of minutes before Harvey called, ‘It’s all safe now.
You can open your eyes.’

Lloyd unscrewed his, blinking in the brightness of the room.
There was not an octopus to be seen.
All round him, the monitors were blank and when he glanced over his shoulder he saw the thick cover of paper that Ingrid and Harvey had sellotaped over the main screen.
They had made a good job of it.

On every side, Brains were rubbing their eyes and glancing round.
Lloyd could tell from their horrified faces that they were just beginning to remember the frightful trap they were in.
Some of the little ones had started to cry softly and the older ones were pale and tense.
For a second, no one spoke and then a tall girl with long hair launched herself at Robert from the middle of the room.

‘Oh Robert Robert thank goodness you’re safe I’ve been so worried about you but did you hear the terrible things the Computer Director said how are we going to stop him—
what are we going to do
?’

As if she had pressed a switch, every head in the room turned in their direction.
Big and small, old and young, all the Brains were staring at Robert and Lloyd as though they expected them to produce some marvellous plan.
And the girl’s question hung in the air, ringing in everyone’s ear.

What are we going to do?

They had been freed from the octopuses, but the Headmaster was still flying across London in his helicopter, on his way to take over the Prime Minister’s brain.
And any attempt to use the computer to stop him or to escape from the building would start a fire.
For a moment, Lloyd wondered whether they wouldn’t all have been better off looking at the octopuses.

Then Dinah appeared beside him, so quietly that he did not notice her coming.
She did not waste time saying how surprised she was to see him or asking how he got there.
She just gave him a small, grateful smile and then turned to face the rest of the Brains, looking as calm as ever.

‘Listen, everyone,’ she said, in a steady, controlled voice, ‘you don’t need me to tell you what the choice is.
You’re all clever enough to work it out for yourselves.
We can’t escape from the building because we would need to use the computer to work the lift.
So—we’ve got to decide.
Are we going to sit back and wait for the country to be taken over?
Or are we going to try and use the computer to warn the Downing Street security staff—even if it means burning to death?’

For a moment there was silence.
Then a small girl, who was clutching a teddy bear, said timidly, ‘I think we’ve
got
to do something.
We can’t just let him get away with it.
It would be like the world coming to an end for everyone.’
She stopped and swallowed hard before she added, ‘Instead of just for us.’

‘Right then, everyone,’ Dinah said, in her inexpressive voice.
‘We’d better vote.
Who agrees with Bess that we should stop this evil plan—whatever happens to us afterwards?’

As she finished speaking, she put up her own hand, her thin arm looking very straight and steady.
And one by one, all over the room, the other hands went up as the Brains voted with her.
Some of them were crying and some of them looked frightened and sick, but they all voted to fight back against the Headmaster.

‘What about you?’
Dinah turned to the members of SPLAT.
‘You ought to have a vote too.’

Lloyd had actually put his hand halfway up before his mind began to work properly.
He had been so full of admiration for the Brains’ bravery that he had not been
thinking.
Now he suddenly exploded.

‘But we’re
stupid
!
I’m stupid.
No one needs to burn to death!’
He could see them all staring at him, and he hurried to explain, the words tumbling over themselves.
‘Listen—the fire will start in the lift.
Right?
At the back of the room.
Well, we can all escape down the rubbish chute, the way the five of us came up.
We’ve got ropes and most of us can get away before anyone
touches
the computer if we’re quick.
You don’t need many people to stay and work it, do you?’

Dinah shook her head.
‘I could do it.
With one other person to watch me in case I made a mistake.’
Her eyes were suddenly very bright.

‘Well, I think you could escape as well,’ Lloyd said.
‘The rubbish chute will be on the opposite side of the building to the fire.
If you’re quick and you climb down fast you should have time.’

‘Fantastic brilliant oh how marvellous to have something we can
do
I’ll help to organize everyone to climb down where are the ropes—’

That was Robert’s sister.
But she was not just babbling.
Even while she was talking, she had begun to organize the front rows of Brains to march towards the rubbish chute.
And she had got Ian and Mandy knotting the ropes together to form a long string that would stretch all the way down the chute.
Robert grinned at Lloyd.

‘Don’t let Camilla put you off.
She only
sounds
thick.
She’ll get everyone out of here faster than anyone else could.
And I’ll stay and help Dinah change the information on the computer if she explains what she’s doing.
The rest of you can leave us here.’

‘Not me,’ Lloyd said.
‘I can’t go until I know we’ve stopped the Headmaster.
But the others can.’

Ingrid tossed her head.
‘Me and Harvey are staying.
You might
need
us.
Suppose you come across some more octopuses.’

Lloyd hesitated for a moment.
Then he nodded.
She was being sensible for once.
‘OK.
But that makes five of us left up here.
We can’t risk any more.
Harvey, go and tell Ian and Mandy to go down with the others and leave the ropes for us.’

The room was already starting to look empty.
A lot of the Brains were on their way down the rubbish chute and those who were left were crowded round the entrance, waiting for their turn to squeeze under the flap.
Dinah and Robert were huddled together at one of the desks, bent over a piece of paper, working out what they were going to do with the computer.
Everyone was moving at a feverish pace.
Lloyd shuddered slightly and hoped that it was not too late already.
He did not know how long it would take a small helicopter to fly to the centre of London—but it could not be long.

Dinah glanced up as the last Brain wriggled under the flap.
‘OK.
I think we ought to start now.
I’ll do the first bit without switching on the screen, until I’ve got rid of the octopuses.’

Stretching out a finger, she pressed a key on the keyboard in front of her.

Immediately, the mechanical robot-voice rang through the empty room, startling them all.

‘This Computer Is Booby-Trapped.
Any Further Tampering Will Set Fire To The Building.’

‘I think he meant it,’ Robert murmured softly.
‘Let’s just hope it doesn’t take too long.’

Without bothering to speak, Dinah nodded again and pressed another key and another.
Lloyd looked nervously towards the lift doors.
But nothing dramatic happened.
There was no explosion, no instant burst of flame.
What was it that the Headmaster had said?
That it would be
slow and very painful.
Lloyd shuddered.
Then his attention was drawn back to the computer.
Dinah switched on the monitor.