27

What Next?

Using her pin hooks and fishing line, Gafferty clambered up the side of the conveyor belt. Dad followed, and then they both hauled the less nimble Quigg after them. Will and Abel kept the Burrow Smidgens distracted by swooping low and throwing fudge at them, making sure their arrows were pointed away from the helpless climbers.

‘We could have sent your flying friends to get the aniseed,’ said Quigg, who clearly wasn’t used to this kind of exertion.

‘They’re more useful to us in the air,’ said Dad. ‘And it’s safer for them too. No reason why more people should get hurt than necessary.’ He ran to the control box next to the belt and sat on top of it, placing his hands on the start button. ‘Are you ready?’

They nodded. He slammed his fists into the button. An alarm buzzed and a red light warned the belt was about to move. With a shudder it came to life, the sudden motion knocking the girls off their feet. They found themselves being carried on a winding rubber road, heading for the other side of the factory. Worryingly, machinery up ahead also began to whirr into action.

The noise and lights drew the attention of the rat riders below. A couple of riders pointed up at them, recognising Quigg. They spurred their rats towards the conveyor, and the animals bounded up the side, spanning the distance in a single jump. The two girls saw the danger and began to run along the wobbling conveyor belt as the rats chased after them.

‘Gafferty!’ called Dad. ‘Hook yourself into the belt and hold on tight!’

‘Why?’ She looked around at him. The rats were gaining and would be upon them in seconds.

‘Don’t ask questions, you bother-brain – just do it!’

Gafferty knelt down on the belt, then took her pin hooks and sunk them into the soft rubber. She held one while Quigg hung on to the other. The rats had almost reached them, their beady eyes glaring, the shouts of the riders urging them on. She wanted to shut her eyes but found she couldn’t, unable to resist the terrifying sight.

‘Get ready!’ yelled Dad.

The conveyor trundled towards a pillar, where it would make a sharp bend to the left. Dad waited for the right moment, then hit the stop button as hard as he could, just as they reached the turn. The sudden halt threw them forward, but the hooks kept them secure and stopped them from flying off the conveyor. The rat riders weren’t so lucky. They were flung right off the belt, the squealing animals plummeting into piled sacks of sugar that lay below.

Dad restarted the conveyor with a laugh, but there were still dangers ahead.

‘Chocolate coating coming up!’ he warned.

The conveyor belt plunged through the dark opening of a machine. It was very warm inside. A cascade of melted chocolate poured down from above, glistening, rich and sickeningly sweet. They were swept through it, Quigg screaming with horror as she was drenched in the hot, sticky liquid.

‘That wasn’t so bad!’ said Gafferty after she had spat out a mouthful of chocolate. ‘But it’s going to take ages to wash this off!’

Quigg was about to speak when they were bombarded by a shower of hard, sharp rocks.

‘Ow!’ Quigg cried. ‘What’s this?’

‘Hazelnut chips!’ said Gafferty, trying to shield herself as the nut fragments rained down on them. ‘Hang on – we’ll soon be out of it!’

They emerged from the other side of the machine, bruised and hot. Quigg pulled bits of hazelnut from her hair.

‘I should have known this would be a ridiculous idea!’ she moaned.

‘We’re almost through,’ said Gafferty. ‘The aniseed store is just beyond this machine. But it’s the trickiest one yet.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s the Giant Slicer. Get ready to move and move fast. If you get it wrong by a Smidgenmetre you’ll only be needing one shoe or half a coat when you come out the other side.’

Quigg gulped, but it was too late to do anything else. The Great Slicer swallowed them up. Gafferty grabbed Quigg’s hand as huge whirring steel blades swept down into their path. She’d have to do the thinking for both of them. This was all about reflexes and reaction times, skills she had been taught by Mum and Dad. Quigg didn’t have this kind of experience. Escaping from tricky situations was what the Sprouts were good at. It was Rule Four, Gafferty’s favourite rule, she realised. If in doubt, make it up. Sometimes it didn’t work – but mostly it did, and that was enough.

‘Go left! Now right! Right again!’ Gafferty commanded, dragging Quigg from side to side as the cutters sliced past them, dodging their razor-sharp edges, and guiding them through on a clear, safe course.

Then, as soon as it had started it was over. They were out of the machine. Quigg could barely speak. She was shaking and whimpering.

‘I lost my tail,’ she said. The string mousetail from her coat had been sliced clean off.

‘You’re lucky that’s all you lost,’ said Gafferty. She waved at Dad, on the other side of the factory. She couldn’t see the expression on his face but could imagine him trying to hide the fear. He waved back, then slammed his hands on the stop button. The conveyor belt bumped to a halt. Gafferty ran to its edge.

‘There’s the store,’ she said. ‘But I can see something that might be more useful.’

Quigg joined her. Gafferty pointed to a pile of plastic bags containing thousands of objects that looked like marbles.

‘Aniseed gobstoppers,’ she said. ‘One of those bags could be the answer to our problem.’ The bags were a short distance from the conveyor belt, but it was a long climb down to them. Will buzzed past.

‘Are you OK?’ he called. ‘Uncle Abel says he can see the Roost flyers in the distance. But there’s a swarm of riders heading towards you – you need to move!’

Gafferty could hear the noise of the army, moving like a river across the factory floor. It was now or never.

‘I’m going to jump,’ she said.

‘What?’ Quigg looked at her like she was mad. ‘We’re too high up! You’ll never make it.’

‘Yes, I will, with a run-up.’ Gafferty took her knife out of her bag.

‘I can’t,’ said Quigg, stepping away from the edge. ‘I can’t do it. I’m scared. I’m not like you. You’re too daft … that is, I mean, too brave. I’m not as brave as you.’

Gafferty smiled kindly.

‘It’s fine. Stay here. The riders won’t hurt you. You’ll be safe.’

She took a few steps back, then with a huge effort ran with as much speed as she could to the edge of the belt and launched herself into the air. She flew across the gap, buffeted by the roar of the Burrow Smidgens below, their arrows flying around her. She flung out her arm and stabbed at the bag as she landed against it. The knife sliced through the plastic as she plummeted downwards, splitting open the bag and slowing her fall at the same time. Hundreds of gobstoppers poured through the opening, their pungent scent almost choking her as they went by. They tumbled down on to the riders like cannonballs, sending the rats squealing in all directions, knocking or tripping over others. Riders were thrown to the ground and found themselves chased through the maze of machinery by the bouncing, rolling sweets.

Then the Roost Smidgens appeared through a skylight in the factory roof. Gafferty gasped at the sight as she finally stepped on to the ground, the gobstopper bag now empty. Like hundreds of birds, the flock of gliders flew in a formation led by Wyn, sweeping down from the ceiling and through the building, chasing the fleeing riders, who were terrified by the spectacle of the strange flying Smidgens, Smidgens with sticks and clubs. They herded the Burrow Smidgens back toward the Tangle entrance, where they were swallowed up by the dark mouth of the tunnel. The army was in retreat!

Gafferty looked back up at Quigg, who waved but suddenly started running. She was in a panic. What was she doing? Then Gafferty saw him: a lone rider, whose rat had clambered on to the conveyor belt. She watched in horror as the creature bore down on Quigg, the rider grabbing her by her chocolate-covered coat and dragging her off with him. Gafferty could do nothing as the rat jumped back on to the floor and followed the others, taking Quigg with it.

‘Gafferty, love!’ She was still staring after the escaping rats when Dad’s arms wrapped around her, ignoring the mess of chocolate and hazelnuts. ‘You were amazing! We did it, girl! We saw off those Burrow botherers all by ourselves. I’m so proud of you!’

Gafferty smiled, but she was smiling through tears.

‘We’re safe,’ she said, sobbing into his chest. ‘But what about Quigg? And what about Crumpeck and the Mirror? What do we do next? Smidgens fighting Smidgens. It’s not all right. It’s all a mess, Dad. A mess. And I caused it.’

Dad squeezed her tight.

‘As for mess,’ he said gently, looking around at the scattered sweets, ‘there’s one right here we need to clean up before the Big Folk come back to work. And then we’ll talk. Then we’ll sort all this out, you’ll see. You’re not alone, Gafferty. You’ve brought the Smidgens together, at least some of them, and we’re going to need them all working together if we’re to face whatever’s coming next. Quigg knows we’re on her side. Maybe she can spread the word to her clan. Maybe one day we will all be united. And when Smidgens are united, they can achieve great things. The greatest things, you’ll see.’

Gafferty gave him a hug as chocolate dripped from her nose.

‘Little people, big heart,’ she whispered, and there was hope in her voice.