<link href="ebook_style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </head> <body> <div> <p class="chapnum">C<small>HAPTER</small> T<small>WENTY-</small>E<small>IGHT</small></p> <p class="chaptitle">Team Beetle</p> <p class="chap"><img alt="insects" height="313" src="images/chapimg1.jpg" width="169"/></p> <p class="noindent"><span class="dropcaps">D</span>arkus closed his eyes, but he couldn’t sleep. Images of an injured Bertolt stumbling through the forest at night, and his father’s concerned face, floated into his head. All the people that he cared about were in this Biome, but he didn’t know where they were.</p> <p class="indent">Bertolt cried out his name, and then Virginia’s. He was searching for them, but they had left him behind. ‘Darkus! Virginia! Are you there?’</p> <p class="indent">Darkus blinked open his eyes. He must have drifted off. He’d dreamt that he could hear Bertolt’s voice.</p> <p class="indent">‘Darkus? Can you hear me?’</p> <p class="indent">He sat bolt upright. His movement triggered a sensor, and the lights came up. Virginia stirred beside him on the floor.</p> <p class="indent">‘Virginia,’ he shook her, ‘wake up. I thought I heard Bertolt’s voice.’</p> <p class="indent">Virginia scrambled on to her knees, pulling the square device from her pocket. She pressed a tiny button on the top and spoke into it. ‘Bertolt, is that you?’</p> <p class="indent">‘Yes, Virginia, I’m here.’</p> <p class="indent">‘We’ve got Novak,’ Virginia said.</p> <p class="indent">‘I know, I can see you on the security cameras,’ Bertolt’s voice came out of the device.</p> <p class="indent">‘Where are you?’ Darkus asked, grabbing it.</p> <p class="indent">‘We’re in the security dome,’ Bertolt replied.</p> <p class="indent">‘Is Uncle Max there?’</p> <p class="indent">‘We’re all here.’ Uncle Max’s voice came through the device and Darkus felt so relieved that he thought for a second he might cry.</p> <p class="indent">‘We hid in a maintenance tunnel until Lucretia Cutter sent Craven and Dankish outside and then we broke in,’ Uncle Max said.</p> <p class="indent">Bertolt’s voice came back on. ‘It took me a bit longer than I thought to hack the comms device, sorry about that.’</p> <p class="indent">‘Darkus? Virginia? What’s going on?’ Novak’s voice came through the air vent. ‘Is everything OK?’</p> <p class="indent">‘Get ready, Novak,’ Virginia said into the grate. ‘We’re about to escape.’</p> <p class="indent">‘Listen to me,’ Bertolt said. ‘I can open the cell doors, but I don’t know which one is which, so I’m going to have to open all of them at once. You need to go and stand at your cell door and get ready to run. There are six cells, one is empty, but the ones to the left of Novak have an angry beetle man, Pickering, and then Humphrey in them. You don’t want to get caught by any of them.’</p> <p class="indent">‘Can you see Mawling?’</p> <p class="indent">‘Yes, he’s sleeping.’</p> <p class="indent">‘Darkus, listen.’ It was Emma Lamb’s voice. ‘Instead of heading towards Mawling, and the way you came in, you need to go right, the other way. Two metres from your cell, in the floor, is a maintenance tunnel entrance. Go down the ladder and turn right. The tunnel will meet a turning off for a mini dome – that’s the staff quarters. Don’t take that one. Keep going – the second turning is for the security dome. Your uncle will be there waiting for you.’</p> <p class="indent">‘OK, got it.’ Darkus nodded. ‘Down in to the maintenance tunnel, past the first exit, meet Uncle Max.’</p> <p class="indent">‘Good luck,’ Bertolt said.</p> <p class="indent">‘Bertolt,’ Darkus paused, ‘thanks for coming to get me.’</p> <p class="indent">‘What are friends for?’ Bertolt replied. ‘Now, I’m going to open all the doors. Are you all ready?’</p> <p class="indent">‘Novak, are you by your cell door?’ Virginia whispered through the air vent.</p> <p class="indent">‘Yes,’ replied Novak.</p> <p class="indent">Virginia nodded as she came to stand beside Darkus. He did a quick check to make sure Baxter was OK, on his shoulder, and nodded back.</p> <p class="indent">‘We’re ready,’ Darkus said.</p> <p class="indent">‘Go, go, go,’ Bertolt said and there was a click as the cell door lifted up.</p> <p class="indent">Darkus ran out and grabbed Novak’s hand, following Virginia to the right. She fell on her knees, searching the floor for the maintenance tunnel entrance.</p> <p class="indent">‘Got it,’ she whispered, lifting the floor tile up. Darkus grabbed it, indicating that Virginia and Novak should climb down first.</p> <p class="indent">Virginia’s feet were on the ladder when they all heard a blood-curdling roar.</p> <p class="indent">‘It’s Dr Lenka!’ Novak’s eyes were wide. ‘Run!’</p> <p class="indent">Virginia bolted down the ladder and Novak raced down after her.</p> <p class="indent">Darkus heard Mawling shout, and then a horrible crunch was followed by a scream of pain.</p> <p class="indent">Darkus froze, hypnotized by the sounds coming round the corner.</p> <p class="indent">Pickering squealed. ‘You monster!’</p> <p class="indent">‘Aaaarrrrrrgghhhhhhh!’ Mawling cried. ‘My hand!’</p> <p class="indent">‘Spit his hand out,’ Humphrey bellowed.</p> <p class="indent"><i>‘Get down here now!’</i> Novak called up. Darkus jumped on to the ladder, clambering down. He heard a clatter and the sound of fists flying, and as he yanked the floor tile down over his head he heard Humphrey shout.</p> <p class="indent">‘Run! Pickering, run, <i>RUN</i>!’</p> <p class="indent">‘He will have known we were there, and where we went,’ Novak said between breaths, as they ran down the tunnel away from Dr Lenka. ‘He has beetle senses. We have to hope he doesn’t decide to come after us.’</p> <p class="indent">They passed the turning to the first dome and slowed down to a gentle jog, so they could catch their breath.</p> <p class="indent">Novak tipped her head. ‘I don’t think he’s following us,’ she said, listening.</p> <p class="indent">‘How did Bertolt and Uncle Max get into the Biome?’ Darkus asked Virginia.</p> <p class="indent">‘We let them in.’</p> <p class="indent">‘We did?’</p> <p class="indent">‘Do you remember that sneeze, when we were at the edge of the forest, and I told you to run, just as the trapdoor opened? That was them. They were following us the whole time. I was worried that the tapir might have separated them from us.’</p> <p class="indent">‘But, but . . . how?’</p> <p class="indent">‘Emma knew about these tunnels. She has a map of them.’ Virginia smiled. ‘I got you down the ladder, and blocked your view as quickly as possible, so you didn’t see them run into the Biome behind us. They went down a different ladder, to a tunnel that led straight to the security dome. Then they waited for us to get caught.’</p> <p class="indent">‘You could have told me.’ Darkus felt a spark of anger, but knew it was his pride that was hurting.</p> <p class="indent">‘Darkus, you weren’t listening to anyone,’ Virginia pointed out. ‘We’re a team, but you were planning on going solo. We didn’t know what to do, so we decided to support you all the way, until you needed us, which now you do, because Lucretia Cutter caught you.’ She grinned. ‘You can’t be mad that we guessed this would happen. We let you go it alone anyway, turned it to our advantage and then rescued you.’</p> <p class="indent">Darkus blushed. ‘I guess not,’ he admitted.</p> <p class="indent">‘We started this as a team and we will finish it as a team.’ Virginia put out her hand. ‘Team Beetle.’</p> <p class="indent">‘Team Beetle.’ Novak laid her hand on top of Virginia’s.</p> <p class="indent">Darkus put his hand on top of Novak’s. Baxter fluttered down from Darkus’s shoulder, landing clumsily on the back of his hand, lifting his horn high, as Hepburn scrambled out of her bracelet, and Marvin dropped from Virginia’s braid, tumbling down her arm, landing beside Baxter.</p> <p class="indent">‘Team Beetle,’ Darkus said.</p> <p class="image"><img alt="Advertisement" height="578" src="images/f229-01.jpg" width="590"/></p> </div> </body> </html>