Amber pursued the woman in the black robe to the end of the corridor. The woman moved like a shadow, sweeping inside a room on the first floor directly above the ballroom. Amber followed as spy-lently as she could. The room was filled with crates, boxes, and piles of trinkets.
Amber hid behind a crate as she watched the woman draw a silver attaché case from her robes. It was identical to the one they had recovered from Ego’s hideout – the McGuffin had to be inside. The woman opened the case, carefully removed a metallic black sphere and twisted it in both hands until it clicked. Amber heard an ominous TICK–TOCK-ing and saw a countdown light up on the face of the sphere.
“The McGuffin!” gasped Amber in a whisper.
The robed woman spun round. Amber slapped her hands over her mouth. After a moment, the woman returned to the task in hand.
The woman placed the sphere on one of the crates. She tilted her head slowly to one side, her eyes flashing red. It was only then that Amber caught sight of her metallic, skull-like face. She recognized it immediately.
“Oi!” Amber cried, leaping out and striking a battle-ready pose. “Step away from that super-secret weapon, Kills Witch!”
Kills Witch spun round, flinging her robe disguise to the floor to reveal a slender metallic body, with a laser cannon in place of her left arm.
“Uh-oh,” muttered Amber as Kills Witch fired.
A bolt of blue energy blasted from the barrel, and the floor beneath Amber’s feet disintegrated. She fell, plunging to the ballroom below.
“AAH!” she screamed. Then, “Huh?”
Amber had stopped falling. She’d landed on a huge chandelier, suspended high above the ballroom. Far below her was her dad, still dancing with the King of Italy.
“Dad!” Amber cried. Spynosaur looked up, mid-pirouette.
“Amber?” he said. “Hang on!”
“Dad, Kills Witch is here!” Amber yelled, clinging on to the chandelier as it swung. “And she’s set the McGuffin to go off in hardly any seconds!”
“What’s the meaning of this?” the king asked.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, I’m going to have to sit out the next dance,” said Spynosaur, nodding to the King of Italy. With that, he spun the king so fast that he was sent careering into a sculpture of himself made from gold jelly.
“Dad! It’s giving way!” Amber cried as the ceiling buckled under the chandelier’s added weight.
Spynosaur tore off his dress to reveal his sleek spy suit. From his holster he drew a large pistol with a silver grappling hook attached to the barrel.
“Spynosaur! Report!” M11 bellowed in his earpiece. “Danger Monkey said he heard gunfire! What’s happening in there?”
“Just grappling with a few issues, M11,” said Spynosaur.
With a SHOOOF the grappling hook shot upwards as the chandelier – and Amber – fell. The hook whizzed past Amber’s head, embedding itself with a THUNK in the ceiling. Spynosaur hung on as he retracted the grapple, pulling himself up into the air. He flew past the chandelier at speed, grabbing Amber in his spare hand and swinging her effortlessly on to his back.
Seconds later the chandelier smashed against the marble floor, sending the revellers running for cover as a thousand sparkling shards flew across the room.
And seconds after that, Spynosaur smashed through the hole in the ceiling, emerging in the store room above and landing in a suitably dramatic pose.
“You must be saving for another upgrade, Kills Witch … and I’ll bet Ergo Ego was the highest bidder for your cybernetic services,” said Spynosaur, flashing his sharp teeth. “May I have this dance?”