‘Look,’ said Leon. ‘It’s Blackwood and Caz!’
‘I know,’ said Zac. ‘Quick, let’s go!’ He took off towards the old castle, sprinting as fast as he could.
‘More running,’ grumbled Leon from behind him. ‘Great.’
Zac raced towards the tower, winding his way through piles of grey rubble. He kept one eye on the PSU as he ran.
Caz and Blackwood were running from the other direction. Zac spotted the Data Orb glowing in Caz’s hands.
I can’t believe they found the Orb so quickly, he thought as he ran. I thought it was gone for good!
Zac came to a rotting wooden door and charged straight through it. It flew off its hinges and crashed to the ground. Zac looked back and saw Leon staggering along behind him, holding his side and gasping.
Zac and Leon ran down a narrow path between two collapsed walls. The roof had caved in long ago, and Zac could see straight up to the sky.
Zac reached the tower only a few steps ahead of Caz and Blackwood.
At the foot of the tower was a stone archway. Inside, Zac saw a long spiral staircase snaking up to the top. He raced for the stairs, Caz right behind him.
Leon had stopped at the bottom of the stairs, wheezing for breath. Zac considered stopping to see if Leon was OK, but he didn’t really have a choice.
I’ve got to get that IRIS piece before Caz does, Zac thought as he raced up the stairs.
He was still exhausted from dealing with the androids, and his legs ached with every step. Just a bit further, he told himself.
As they got closer to the top, Zac was sure he could feel the whole tower swaying. He could hear Caz coming up behind him, only a step or two away.
Finally, they reached a tiny round room at the top of the tower.
Zac knew the IRIS piece was in this room somewhere. He scanned the room. There was a large open window on the opposite wall. Underneath, he saw a pile of old rubble. There were some shrivelled weeds in the dirt.
Zac kept looking. Spaced around the walls of the room were ten wooden treasure chests. They all looked like they might be filled with gold and jewels.
Zac went straight for the nearest chest and tried it heave it open. It was locked.
‘Get out of my way, Power,’ snapped Caz, shoving past him. She pulled out something that looked like a remote control with a short metal stick at the end. She went to a chest and poked the gadget into the keyhole.
CLICK!
The chest unlocked and Caz lifted the lid. But instead of one gadget piece, there were hundreds inside. The whole chest was filled with little bits of metal in all different shapes and sizes.
‘Good luck with that,’ Zac snorted, as Caz clawed through the pile of fake IRIS parts. He knew she had no hope of finding the real gadget piece in that mess.
Caz glared at him, but seemed to agree. She gave up and moved onto the next chest. But the second chest was exactly the same – an enormous pile of jumbled gadget parts.
Zac turned around, feeling like he must be missing something. His eyes swept past the window again and Grandpa’s words echoed in his head. Look in the flowerpot.
Of course, thought Zac. That wasn’t just a pile of rubble under the window. It was a smashed flowerpot! That had to be where the IRIS piece was hiding. Those treasure chests were decoys!
CRACK!
Suddenly, the ground under Zac’s feet shifted. He stumbled sideways. The old tower was moving. It felt like any second now, the whole thing would collapse with them inside.
The shifting settled for a moment, and Zac ran to the window. When he reached the shattered flowerpot, he began clawing through the dirt. Caz ignored him and kept going through the treasure chests.
At first it didn’t seem like there was anything in the pile of dirt, and Zac wondered whether he’d made a mistake.
But then his hand brushed something cold and hard. Zac grabbed at it, pulling it out of the dirt. It was a fat glass tube with a spiral of wire inside.
It had to be the IRIS power core!
CRACK!
The tower moved again, more roughly this time. Caz whirled around and saw Zac holding the piece of IRIS.
She ran towards him. But then the tower swayed back in the other direction, and she tripped over.
CRACK!
Zac went staggering backwards. Oh, no! he thought, as his legs slipped out from under him – and he went flying out the window!
