CHAPTER 20 [PLESKIT] SNOOPING

“He’s coming!” I whispered to Tim.

“Who?”

“Barvgis!”

Tim did that trick of changing color again, only this time he turned almost pure white. “How do you know?” he hissed.

“Can’t you smell him?”

“Of course not!”

This was no time to discuss the inadequacies of an Earthling’s nasal equipment. “Come on,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of here.” I pulled him toward a door on the other side of the hall.

“It’s locked!” said Tim. His voice was low, desperate.

I cracked my knuckles at the door, then pushed it open.

“How did you do that?”

“It’s a combination lock. Come on. And be quiet!”

We slipped inside and closed the door carefully behind us. Once we were inside, I felt better. “That was a close one,” I said, leaning against the door.

The room was dark, almost cavelike. A warm, woody smell filled the air. The far wall, about ten feet away from us, had three doors.

“Where… where are we?” asked Tim.

“These are the rooms of Mikta-makta-mookta. We should be safe here—unless she comes in, of course. Her people are quite ferocious about their privacy.”

Tim groaned. “How will we know when Barvgis is gone?”

“We’ll just give him time to get into his room. We’ll have to come back later, but—”

I stopped speaking.

“What?” said Tim. “What is it?”

“That should not be here!”

“What? What shouldn’t be here?”

“That,” I said, moving toward one of the three doors. On the far side of it was a glassy tube, capped with green metal beautifully shaped into the form of a kibooble vine. The tube was about three feet wide and stood nearly as tall as the ceiling.

“What is it?” asked Tim, following closely at my heels.

“A transporter.”

“You mean like ‘Beam me up, Scottie’? You guys really have those things?”

I turned toward him. “Sometimes I feel as if we are not speaking the same language. Aren’t Scotties something you use to wipe your nose?”

Tim shook his head. “Never mind that. Can this take a person from one place to another?”

“Precisely!” I said, pleased that he had figured it out so quickly. “It’s an elevator, and it transports people.”

“An elevator?” He sounded disappointed.

“Yes. You know, for going up and down in. Only there should not be a private one in this room. It is against—”

I stopped, struck silent by terror, as a light began to glow on the top of the tube.

“What’s the matter?” asked Tim.

“Someone is coming! Hide. Hide!”

“Where?” squeaked Tim.

I spun around, looking for somewhere, anywhere, that we could get out of sight. In the far corner I saw a large brown sphere with a small opening in the front. “In there!” I hissed, grabbing Tim’s arm and pulling him toward it.

He followed me through the opening. It was dark and cozy inside.

“What is this place?” he whispered.

“Mikta-makta-mookta’s bed. Now be quiet!”

Cautiously I moved my head so that one eye could just barely see out of the bed’s entrance hole. Tim positioned himself at the other side of the hole.

So we both saw the figure that arrived in the elevator.

It was Senator Hargis.

“Holy Moses!” whispered Tim. “What’s he doing here?”

“I do not have the slightest idea.” I was trying to decide whether we should step out and challenge him. But in that same instant I heard the outer door slide open.

I expected Senator Hargis to look frightened, maybe even try to hide. I half expected him to dive into the bed where Tim and I were!

But he just stood there, smiling.

I considered jumping out to warn Mikta-makta-mookta, even though doing so would reveal our hiding place. Tim must have sensed that, because he grabbed my arm and shook his head. I realized he was right. That private elevator wasn’t supposed to be here to begin with. So the odds were good that anyone who came up in it had been invited by Mikta-makta-mookta herself.

“Harr-giss!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

Before he could answer, she ran to him and threw her arms around him. They began to kiss, which surprised me so much that I let out a gasp.

“What was that?” cried Mikta-makta-mookta.

Senator Hargis started to sniff. He turned his head from side to side, very slowly. When he stopped, he was staring at the bed in which Tim and I were hiding.

“Whatever it was came from in there!” he said.

He began walking toward us.