I wake up at 4.15 pm, and realise I’ve been asleep for over an hour. Oscar’s battery reading says he’s now 98 per cent charged - more than enough for the rest of the day. I power him up, and straight away he sits up on all four paws.
‘Okay, Oscar,’ I say, ‘let’s go back down and check out the mystery building.’
We say goodbye to Jessie and run as fast as we can to the Skyburb Down-station. We’re both relieved to see that our Skyburb is about to dock at any moment. As soon as it does, we climb into the first available aircell. The zoom tube drops down, and before we know it, we’re zooming downwards through the sky. When we step out at ground level, I ask Oscar to project his map again.
Oscar’s map shows us the building’s location in Gorf Street. A small red dot tells us where we are at this very moment.
‘That’s not too bad,’ I say to Oscar. ‘I think we could probably walk there in about ten minutes.’
Oscar doesn’t seem very happy about that idea, but it’s really just one direct line down Jagz Road. Before we know it, we’re approaching the corner with Gorf Street. There’s a very familiar-looking building on it.
The building has hardly changed in the last 400 years. There’s only one big difference — there’s no longer a chimney above the main doorway. The bricks are definitely not as clean as they once were, but everything else seems to have been left as it was.
‘Wow,’ I say to Oscar. ‘There it is! Let’s go and see what it’s being used for nowadays.’
We cross the road and slowly walk up to the main doorway. There’s a sign just above the railing on the left. It says ‘Department of Robotic Development, Bluggsville South-West Branch’.
‘How about that, Oscar!’ I say to him. ‘Maybe you were designed in there!’
Oscar doesn’t seem so sure. He sniffs around the doorway with a very serious look on his face.
‘Let’s walk all the way around it,’ I say to him, ‘so we can give Jessie a full report.’
Oscar nods and starts walking towards the left side of the building. We’re just about to turn around the first corner when I hear an unusual shuffling of feet behind us.
‘Stop right there, shadie boy,’ says a woman’s voice.
It’s the kind of thing I’d expect to hear from Captain Selby, but when I look towards the voice, I see someone else I’d really prefer to avoid.
‘Ah, hello Professor Snarkle,’ I say. ‘What a lovely surprise to see you here!’
‘It’s nice to see you too,’ she hisses. ‘Now, this can be a very pleasant chat, Max, or it could get nasty. It all depends how you want to handle it.’
‘What do you mean?’ I ask.
‘Well, dear boy, I know how keen Captain Selby is to see you again.’
I gulp.
‘Don’t worry, Max. I really don’t want to put you through anything like that. I’m sure you’re much happier roaming free than you were up there on Skyburb 7 with the other shady urchins.’
‘That’s true,’ I say, ‘but what’s that got to do with you?’
‘It means we can all go home right now if you hand over the lovely piece of film I kindly developed for you. I’m not asking much. The people of Bluggsville deserve that film to be looked after properly.’
I wish I could tell her why we’re here, and that the museum will look after the film much better than she ever could. But I can’t - if anyone knows about the work we do to help Jessie, she’ll be in big trouble. She could lose her job, and if that happened we’d definitely lose our home up there.
I look down at Oscar. He looks up at me. Each of us seems to be asking the other what to do. Neither of us has any answers, until I suddenly remember the photo — and the missing chimney. Maybe it’s still part of the building, and maybe there’s a way into it.
The front door is definitely not going to be much help. There’s a grid of laser beams crisscrossing each other in front of it. We’ll be zapped into clouds of vapour if we try to go in that way!
Luckily though, there’s an old drainage pipe running up the side of the building, right behind us.
‘It’s been a lovely chat, Professor Snarkle,’ I say, ‘but ... Oscar, follow me!’
I leap on to the pipe and start scrambling up. When I’m a few windows above the ground, I glance down and see Oscar just below me. Then, I hear a loud cackle from the ground.
‘You think you can out-climb the Bluggsville East Photographic Society?’ yells Snarkle. ‘Get them, Reginald!’
I look down again and see a skinny, bald man starting to follow us up the pipe. I climb even faster. I don’t slow down until I’m just a few metres from the top. I look down to see how Oscar is going. I can hardly believe my eyes. He’s struggling to climb up! The pipe is old and rusty, but it’s still quite slippery for his metal paws. Reginald is gaining on him, fast!
‘Hey, Oscar,’ I yell down, ‘do you have any spare oil in your tank?’
He stops still. Suddenly the panic on his face turns into a cheeky smile. Then, I see him stick out a leg and spray a spurt of oil all over the pipe. He starts climbing again, and I hear a yelp from somewhere below him.
I finish my climb onto the roof and look down. Below Oscar, the pipe is coated in sticky black oil. Reginald is struggling to get a grip on it! The next thing I know, he’s sliding back down towards the ground and looking extremely unhappy - but not nearly as unhappy as Professor Snarkle!
‘Get down from there, Max!’ she yells. ‘I want my film back!’
‘You’ll just have to come up and get it!’
By now, Oscar’s nearly reached the top. I reach a hand down, grab hold of a paw and pull him the rest of the way up.
We look around the rooftop. It’s mostly made of sloping sheets of metal, but I realise we must be close to where the chimney used to be. I slide around on my knees, tapping on the metal sheets. Oscar does the same with his front paws. It only takes him a few taps to find a sheet that makes a hollow ringing sound.
‘Nice work, Oscar!’ I yelp. ‘I think you’ve found the old chimney shaft!’
I crawl over to Oscar’s side and tap the sheet with my own knuckles. The booming echo below tells me there’s no doubt we’ve found the right one. It’s screwed on by four big, rusty bolts.
‘Quick, Oscar, we have to get these off before Reginald finds another way up here.’
It’s a good thing that Oscar has a spinning tail joint. He angles the end of his tail into the groove in each bolt and sets his tail in motion. Before I know it, the four old bolts are lying on the roof beside me. I grab the metal sheet and try to lift it up. It’s thicker and heavier than it looks, but with a helpful nudge from Oscar’s nose, I manage to slide it sideways.
A blast of warm air heaves up from the old chimney and nearly knocks us both over. Actually, it’s not the heat that does it - it’s the smell. It’s like a mixture of rotten rubbish and dead fish.
‘I know it’s disgusting,’ I say to Oscar, ‘but we have no choice - we’ve got to go down there.’
Oscar clambers to the edge, looks down with a sniff, and does a small somersault backwards. I guess his nose is even more sensitive than mine!
‘How do we get down there without jumping and breaking our necks?’ I ask him.
Oscar crawls back to the edge and takes another look down. Fortunately, the chimney isn’t too wide. He steps into it, and with all four legs sticking outwards, he walks himself downwards like a stretched-out spider.
I watch him slowly disappear from view. After a minute or so, I hear a splash coming up from the bottom of the old chimney.
‘Are you okay, Oscar?’ I call.
I hear a little electronic bark, and the next thing I know, his torch light is shining up at me.
‘I’m glad you made it,’ I yell down the echoing chimney, ‘but how am I supposed to get down there too?’
There’s no way I could climb down the same way Oscar did. It’s way too deep, and the walls are covered in layers of ancient soot. Maybe I’ll just have to jump and hope there’s something soft at the bottom ...
Suddenly, I hear a voice behind me. ‘Hey you, stop right there!’
It’s Reginald, and he’s just crawled over the back edge of the building. I look over and see the top rungs of a metal ladder behind him.
‘Oscar!’ I yell. ‘Step out of the way - I’m coming down!’
With one hand on either side of the old chimney, I lower myself into the darkness and try to copy Oscar’s spider walk. It’s difficult, but I manage to shuffle down a few metres and grab hold of a brick that’s sticking out. There’s no way I can climb down any further. I’m hanging there like a frightened fruitbat-bot when Oscar’s beam hits me again. I look down and realise I’m still more than ten metres from the bottom. If I let go now, I’ll break about 50 bones ... if I’m lucky!
‘Help me, Oscar,’ I yell. ‘I can’t hold onto this brick much longer!’
‘No, you can’t,’ says a voice above me, ‘so you may as well climb back up and give me that film.’
‘I’ll eat the film before I give it to you, Reginald!’ I yell. ‘Now go home!’
‘You smell like the rotten sardine you are,’ he replies. ‘Don’t worry — I’ll be back in a moment with a hook to reel you in.’
I look down and see Oscar scurrying around in circles. It seems not even he can get me out of this pickle. All I can do is hang there and wait for my fingers to slip off the edge of the brick. The way they’re feeling now, it’s only a matter of seconds before I drop to a smelly end.
My right hand gives way first, and then the little finger of my left hand.
‘Oscar,’ I yell, ‘it was a pleasure knowing you. If you ever find out what happened to my parents, tell them I—’
Just then, I hear another bark and glance down towards Oscar again. His light is flashing on and off. I realise he’s trying to tell me something in Morse Code. I’m pretty sure he’s saying ‘DROP!’
‘But Oscar, there’s no way I’ll survive the ...’
And that’s when my last three fingers give way. Suddenly I’m dropping through the blackness like a very big piece of soot. I can’t believe my short life is coming to an end like this.
The next thing I know, I’m sticky and wet all over, and a cold metal nose is nudging my face.
‘Hello?’ I yelp. ‘Where am I?’
Oscar switches his torch back on and turns the lights on his control panels to full brightness. I can just make out the expression on his face - he seems to be extremely happy to see me ... and rather pleased with himself too.
I sit up and look around. We seem to be in a particularly smelly section of Bluggsville’s sewage system! I’ve landed in a Max-sized pile of smelly muck, beautifully built by my wonderful beagle-bot.
‘Thank you, Oscar - you’ve saved me - once again!’
Oscar does a little bow, and nuzzles his nose against my knee.
‘Now ... let’s get out of here!’
Oscar glances around with a worried look on his face. He raises his paws as if to say, ‘Nice idea, Max, but ... how?’
‘Maybe there’s a map of the city’s sewage system on the Splinternet?’
Oscar closes his eyes and opens the panel on his back. His projector beams up a green glowing square - but there’s nothing in it.
‘Oh no - I guess the Splinternet signals are too weak to pick up down here.’
At that moment, I hear a strange noise above us. I look up the chimney and see Reginald’s face glaring down from the roof. He’s dangling a rope ladder over the edge and feeding it down towards us.
‘Uh-oh, I think it’s time to move, Oscar!’
Oscar shines his light all around us. To our left and to our right, the tunnel seems to go on endlessly. We’re standing in a smelly river of knee- high water that seems to flow to the right. There’s a chance it might flow towards the Bluggsville Bay, so we decide to go that way.
The water is much too high for Oscar - it goes right up to the tops of his legs. I cradle him in my arms and run as fast as I can through the stinky sludge. Oscar plays his part by shining his beam ahead of us. After a few minutes, it seems to hit a wall in the distance.
We run as quickly as we can towards the wall. It isn’t easy - the water’s terribly thick with muck, and Oscar seems to get heavier with each step.
When we finally reach the wall, we realise that we’ve arrived at an intersection. Again, we can go left or right, but the sludge seems to be flowing to the left, so we figure that’s the best way to go. Surely the sludge will flow outside eventually ... somewhere.
We seem to have made the right decision. As soon as we veer to the left, I see a small dot of light in the distance.
‘Look, Oscar,’ I yell. ‘The bay!’
I slosh through the slush even faster, and the dot slowly gets bigger. By the time it’s the size of a full moon, my legs are starting to get shaky. It’s very hard work pushing through such thick liquid, but finally we have hope - until Oscar starts squirming in my arms and points a paw behind us. I turn around and see a bright light shining our way. And then I hear a voice.
‘Halt right there, slime ball. I think you might have something for me.’
I hear loud sploshes as Reginald runs towards us. I run forward too and somehow find the energy to pick up speed. Reginald yells rude words behind us. I know it’s only because we’re getting so far ahead of him. Before long, we reach the opening of the drain and see the sparkling blue of Bluggsville Bay ahead of us.
‘We’ve made it, Oscar!’ I yell. ‘Everything’s going to be okay!’
Just then, as the tunnel ends, something very strange happens. A stringy tangle of rope drops out of the sky and covers both of us like a big heavy spider web. I look around and see Captain Selby smirking from the edge of the water. He’s holding a Project-a-Web gun in his hand. There’s smoke coming out of the barrel.
‘You’re not as smart as you think you are, Booth,’ he laughs. ‘If only you’d chosen a less obvious exit.’
This is not good. It looks like Selby really has outsmarted us this time. He’ll drag us back to the Skyburb 7 Home for Unclaimed Urchins, and Jessie will never even know what’s happened to us.
Selby sends two of his biggest lieutenants into the water to grab us, just as Reginald appears in the mouth of the drain.
‘Yikes,’ I say to Oscar. ‘Just for a change, we need an escape plan. Any ideas?’
Oscar’s face is as blank as mine. But I see something reflected in his eyes — a low-flying Skyburb floating towards us! It gives me a very, very bad idea - but right now it’ll just have to do!
‘Oscar,’ I whisper, ‘quick, one more burst of light from your tail. Aim it up at that Skyburb.’
Oscar looks confused, but he does as I say. The moment the beam hits the base of the Skyburb, I reach into my pocket and take out the film. I hold it in front of Oscar’s tail, and suddenly the Skyburb lights up in a blaze of colours.
‘Careful, everyone!’ I yell. ‘Look at Skyburb 5!’
Reginald, Selby and all of his squad look up at the Skyburb. Their mouths drop open.
Selby is the first to speak. ‘Look at that thing!’ he yelps. ‘It’s on fire!’
‘It’s about to crash!’ I yell. ‘Run, people!’
Before I know it, they’re all running for their lives. Oscar and I just stand there laughing.
‘Nice work, pooch,’ I say. ‘Selby’s wrong - we are as smart as we think we are!’
There’s still one big problem though. We’re still both bound up in Selby’s web.
‘Quick, Oscar,’ I say. ‘Out with that mini-saw of yours!’
Oscar reopens the panel on his back and his short metal arm pops out. On one end of it there’s a spinning razor blade. He directs it at the strands of web that surround us. They soon fall off and drift away in the water.
As Skyburb 5 floats off, I climb up the concrete banks of the drain and place Oscar down on the ground. Then, we run for our lives to the nearest Skyburb Up-station.
When we get back to the storeroom, Jessie is already packing up to go home.
‘There you are!’ she says. ‘I was about to pop on my phone goggles and ask what you were up to.’
‘We weren’t doing much - just getting chased up a pipe, flushed through a sewer and captured in a spider web. But guess what! We found out about the building in the photo!’
‘That’s incredible! Tell me everything. But ...’ she squeezes her nose with her fingers, ‘maybe you could change into some fresh clothes first?’
