She could feel her voice giving out, beginning to croak with the strain of speaking so loudly and for a moment she wavered. Instantly, Bess picked up the argument. Had she seen the people crawling out of the rubbish chute as well?
‘That’s right!’ she said, in a high, shrill tone. ‘We’re a democracy. The Prime Minister’s not a dictator.’
Far away, at the front of the room, Ian and Ingrid and Harvey had all clambered out of the chute and hidden behind various cabinets. Somehow, without looking directly, Dinah was aware of them. And now she saw yet another head. Robert’s! She was so pleased and relieved that she burst in as soon as Bess had finished, not waiting for the Headmaster to answer.
‘Please change your mind. It’s really not worth all the trouble, just for one measly Prime Minister and there must be lots of other ways to get power, if that’s what you want. You could—’
‘Silence!’ The Headmaster was icy with anger. ‘How dare you argue with me? You are only showing your own stupidity in failing to understand the full scope of my plans.’
‘Tell us then!’ yelled Bess.
‘Yes!’ shouted Dinah. Tell us, and then you’ll keep looking this way.
‘The Prime Minister is only a stepping stone,’ the Headmaster said scornfully. ‘Oh, I shan’t have any trouble getting my own way with the Cabinet and the government. Not once I have been appointed the Prime Minister’s valued adviser, present at all meetings.’
Present at all meetings. Dinah felt her face grow pale as she imagined it. The Headmaster looking round the Cabinet Room. Staring into the eyes of all the Cabinet Ministers and murmuring, ‘You are feeling sleepy. Very, very sleepy … ’ The Headmaster in the House of Commons itself, gazing up and down the long benches with his huge green eyes, until the clamour of MPs’ voices grew still and there was silence over the whole Chamber. Oh, he could do it, she had no doubt of that. She shuddered.
‘But that is only the beginning,’ the Headmaster said triumphantly. ‘Because the Prime Minister’s trusted adviser will travel all over the world, of course. To summit meetings and international conferences. I shall be able to meet all the major world leaders face to face. Or eyeball to eyeball, as people say now.’ He smiled thinly and Dinah realized, with a sort of horror, that he was so exultant that he had actually made a joke.
‘But you mean you’re actually going to hypnotize all the world leaders and take over everything that’s mad you can’t mean it,’ Camilla said desperately. ‘How can you think you know best about the whole world—?’
‘Of course I know best,’ the Headmaster said scornfully. ‘And soon everyone will realize that I do. Nothing will be able to stop me once I have taken control of the Prime Minister’s brain. And I shall have that within the next two hours.’
Ignoring Camilla’s moan and Bess’s white face and the gasps of the other Brains, he turned firmly away and began to stride up the room towards the main controls of the S-700. Everything at that end of the room was still now. Dinah was sure that, if she had not seen the figures creeping about and hiding behind the cabinets, she would never have guessed that they were there. Certainly the Headmaster did not guess. He was concentrating on the computer screen.
‘We’ve got to stop him,’ Camilla hissed across at Bess and Dinah. ‘It would be terrible if he succeeded but is he telling the truth can he really do it—?’
‘You saw what he did to me,’ Dinah muttered miserably. ‘He doesn’t fail with many people—and what could those few do against all the rest?’
‘—but that would be like the end of the world we’ve got to stop him somehow but I can’t see—’
‘Well,’ whispered Bess timidly, ‘why don’t we start with that security list he’s put himself on? If he leaves us here when he goes off, we could take his name off again—and add in a warning to show them their security has been broken. After all, we know how to get into the Prime Minister’s computer as well as he does.’
‘You’re right!’ Dinah hissed. She gave Bess a friendly grin. ‘We’ll try that if we get a chance.’
The Headmaster could not have heard what they were saying, but when he had finished what he was doing, he looked up and spoke to the whole room.
‘In a minute I shall leave you. But do not suppose that you will be able to interfere with my plans while I am gone. Or that you will be able to use the lift to escape from the building. To do either of those things, you would need to use the S-700—and I have set it on Automatic Booby Trap.’
For a moment, no one dared to speak. Then a nervous voice from the back of the room said, ‘What’s Automatic Booby Trap?’
The Headmaster smiled his thin, unpleasant smile. ‘It is a wise precaution that I have built into the machine. Any attempt to use the S-700 now will short a special electric circuit and start a fire.’ His smile grew even thinner and nastier. ‘The fire will be in the lift, just to make sure that your escape is cut off. As you know, there are no stairs—no other way of getting down from here.’
‘You mean,’ the nervous voice said, ‘that if we try to tamper with the S-700—we’ll all die?’
The Headmaster nodded. ‘It would be slow and very painful. And no one would be able to save you, because all my staff have now gone home and no one else will guess that you are here.’
‘That’s monstrous,’ shouted Camilla, ‘do you really mean to say that you would burn all these children to death just because—?’
‘No one will burn to death,’ said the Headmaster firmly, ‘because no one will dare to interfere with my plans. It would be senseless. You will all simply stay here until I have time to make further arrangements for you. There is a good stock of food in the storerooms and the S-700 is programmed to provide you with regular meals in this room. You will all be perfectly safe. As long as you obey my orders.’
As he was speaking, Dinah became aware of a peculiar whirring noise outside the building. It grew louder and louder, closer and closer, coming up from the ground. As the Headmaster finished talking, it was directly above them. Then the voice of the S-700 sounded.
‘Your Helicopter Is Overhead. Please Select Route Program And Open Roof Doors.’
‘Goodbye,’ said the Headmaster. ‘Next time I see you, we shall be living in a country that is being run efficiently. The beginning of a new, efficient world. All you have to do is wait. And I have given you something to help pass the time.’
He reached out and tapped at the S-700’s keyboard. Immediately, the huge panels of the ceiling slid apart, letting in a blast of warm air. For the first time, Dinah realized that they were at the very top of the building, with nothing above them except blue sky. Hundreds of feet up in the air.
In the very centre of the patch of blue sky above them, a small single-seater helicopter was hovering. It was completely empty. As they watched, a rope ladder snaked down from the helicopter and through a gap in the roof. The Headmaster began to climb it, glancing over his shoulder from time to time to make sure that none of the Brains had moved.
He’s getting away, Dinah thought unhappily. And there’s nothing we can do.
As he reached the helicopter and started to pull the rope ladder up after him, the roof panels slid together again, smoothly and quietly. Dinah had a final view of the helicopter turning in the direction of central London. Then the sky was hidden and the Brains were alone in the room.
We must do something. But before Dinah could speak the words aloud, things began to happen.
The first was up at the front of the room, As soon as the Headmaster was safely out of the way, people darted out from behind the cabinets. Lloyd and Harvey. Ian and Mandy and Ingrid. Robert. Even that other boy who had been taken away.
‘Fantastic!’ said Camilla. ‘If Robert’s OK we can stop worrying and start trying to make some kind of plan …’
But her voice died away, in the very middle of what she was saying. Her face went blank and she sat down suddenly, her eyes fixed on the screen on her desk.
All rou
nd the room, the same thing was happening. Lots of the Brains had jumped up in fear and rage as the Headmaster explained about the Automatic Booby Trap. Now they were all sitting down meekly. Watching the green lines that began to snake their way across every screen in the room.
Oct—
‘No I won’t!’ Dinah said out loud, standing stubbornly beside her chair. She couldn’t look. She had to explain everything to Lloyd and Robert and the others. Try to make some kind of plan—
Octo—
But all round her, on every side, green lines wriggled and arched and danced …
Octopus—
‘No!’ she said again. But this time she did not manage to sound so determined. After all, Lloyd and the others were already running down the room towards her. What harm could there be in just glancing at the lovely intricate curling lines that spiralled and sparkled and spun and …
Octopus - s - s - s - s!
17
The Brains Fight Back
‘No!’
Lloyd heard Dinah’s shriek when he was halfway down the room, Before he had time to wonder what she meant, there was another shriek behind him, from Ingrid.
‘Oh no! Not more octopuses!’
Octopuses! At the mere sound of the word, Lloyd felt himself filling with dark, speechless rage. So the Headmaster was doing it again, was he? Thinking he could treat people just like machines. Press the right button and they’ll do what you want. Show them a few octopus patterns and they won’t be any trouble. Well, he wasn’t going to be treated like that! He screwed his eyes up so tightly that he could not see anything except prickles of light against the blackness of his eyelids.
‘Ian!’ he shouted. ‘Mandy! Robert and Doug! Shut your eyes quickly and don’t open them!’ Then he thought fast. ‘Ing, are you and Harvey all right?’
‘We’re OK,’ Ingrid said scornfully. ‘But we seem to be the only ones. The whole room’s full of people gawping at octopuses. Pathetic!’
‘Well, is there some way we can switch off the screens?’ Lloyd turned towards Robert. ‘Could you tell Ingrid how to turn the computer off?’
‘Not safe,’ Robert said firmly. ‘You heard what the Computer Director said before he left. Any interference with the computer will start a fire.’
‘But there must be something we can do.’ Lloyd thought even harder. ‘Can we cover up the main screen? Is there any paper?’
‘Gallons.’ All of a sudden, Robert sounded much brisker and more cheerful. ‘There’s loads of paper in the printer up the front. If Ingrid and Harvey stuck that all over the main screen, to hide the octopuses, then they could unplug all the monitors on the desks. That ought to be safe. It’s not really interfering with the main computer.’
‘Right,’ said Lloyd. ‘Hear that, Ingrid and Harvey? That’s what you’ll have to do. Cover the main screen first and then turn off the monitors. Got that? Ingrid! Harvey! What are you doing?’
‘Don’t be thick!’ Ingrid’s voice came from far up at the front. ‘We didn’t wait for you to tell us. We started as soon as Robert had the idea. We’ve nearly finished the main screen already.’
Lloyd bit back the cross answer that came to his lips. After all, if he annoyed Ingrid, they were all in trouble. Next to him he heard Ian chuckle.
‘Horrible being dependent on those two, isn’t it?’ he drawled. ‘Ingrid will really enjoy having us under her thumb.’
‘Oh, Ian, don’t be mean!’ Mandy said, on Lloyd’s other side. ‘We’re jolly lucky that Ingrid and Harvey aren’t addicted to the octopus patterns. If they had sat and watched them, like everyone else at the Computer Club, we’d all be fumbling around with our eyes shut now.’
‘No we wouldn’t,’ Lloyd said bitterly. ‘We’d all be standing like dummies in the Restraint Room. Like we were until Ingrid switched off that screen.’
As he finished speaking, Ingrid called from the front of the room. ‘That’s done! Now we’ll do the monitors. Won’t be long. Come on, Harvey.’
There was a sound of feet pattering down the room, stopping at every desk and then pattering on again at top speed. Mandy sighed anxiously.
‘It’s so awful not being able to see. Do you think I should take a peep? Just so we know how they’re getting on?’
‘No!’ Lloyd’s answer was fierce. But he knew what she meant. He was aching to open his own eyes. Just to get one more sight of those lovely swirling octopus patterns that he was missing. Those beautiful, twining …
No!
They had to defeat the Headmaster. Somehow. Otherwise he would take over the country and then the world. Nothing else mattered beside stopping that. Gritting his teeth, Lloyd screwed his eyes up even tighter and growled at the others. ‘Don’t you dare look until Ingrid and Harvey say we can.’
It seemed like another six or seven hours, but it could only have been a couple of minutes before Harvey called, ‘It’s all safe now. You can open your eyes.’
Lloyd unscrewed his, blinking in the brightness of the room. There was not an octopus to be seen. All round him, the monitors were blank and when he glanced over his shoulder he saw the thick cover of paper that Ingrid and Harvey had sellotaped over the main screen. They had made a good job of it.
On every side, Brains were rubbing their eyes and glancing round. Lloyd could tell from their horrified faces that they were just beginning to remember the frightful trap they were in. Some of the little ones had started to cry softly and the older ones were pale and tense. For a second, no one spoke and then a tall girl with long hair launched herself at Robert from the middle of the room.
‘Oh Robert Robert thank goodness you’re safe I’ve been so worried about you but did you hear the terrible things the Computer Director said how are we going to stop him—what are we going to do?’
As if she had pressed a switch, every head in the room turned in their direction. Big and small, old and young, all the Brains were staring at Robert and Lloyd as though they expected them to produce some marvellous plan. And the girl’s question hung in the air, ringing in everyone’s ear.
What are we going to do?
They had been freed from the octopuses, but the Headmaster was still flying across London in his helicopter, on his way to take over the Prime Minister’s brain. And any attempt to use the computer to stop him or to escape from the building would start a fire. For a moment, Lloyd wondered whether they wouldn’t all have been better off looking at the octopuses.
Then Dinah appeared beside him, so quietly that he did not notice her coming. She did not waste time saying how surprised she was to see him or asking how he got there. She just gave him a small, grateful smile and then turned to face the rest of the Brains, looking as calm as ever.
‘Listen, everyone,’ she said, in a steady, controlled voice, ‘you don’t need me to tell you what the choice is. You’re all clever enough to work it out for yourselves. We can’t escape from the building because we would need to use the computer to work the lift. So—we’ve got to decide. Are we going to sit back and wait for the country to be taken over? Or are we going to try and use the computer to warn the Downing Street security staff—even if it means burning to death?’
For a moment there was silence. Then a small girl, who was clutching a teddy bear, said timidly, ‘I think we’ve got to do something. We can’t just let him get away with it. It would be like the world coming to an end for everyone.’ She stopped and swallowed hard before she added, ‘Instead of just for us.’
‘Right then, everyone,’ Dinah said, in her inexpressive voice. ‘We’d better vote. Who agrees with Bess that we should stop this evil plan—whatever happens to us afterwards?’
As she finished speaking, she put up her own hand, her thin arm looking very straight and steady. And one by one, all over the room, the other hands went up as the Brains voted with her. Some of them were crying and some of them looked frightened and sick, but they all voted to fight back against the Headmaster.
‘What about you?’ Dinah turne
d to the members of SPLAT. ‘You ought to have a vote too.’
Lloyd had actually put his hand halfway up before his mind began to work properly. He had been so full of admiration for the Brains’ bravery that he had not been thinking. Now he suddenly exploded.
‘But we’re stupid! I’m stupid. No one needs to burn to death!’ He could see them all staring at him, and he hurried to explain, the words tumbling over themselves. ‘Listen—the fire will start in the lift. Right? At the back of the room. Well, we can all escape down the rubbish chute, the way the five of us came up. We’ve got ropes and most of us can get away before anyone touches the computer if we’re quick. You don’t need many people to stay and work it, do you?’
Dinah shook her head. ‘I could do it. With one other person to watch me in case I made a mistake.’ Her eyes were suddenly very bright.
‘Well, I think you could escape as well,’ Lloyd said. ‘The rubbish chute will be on the opposite side of the building to the fire. If you’re quick and you climb down fast you should have time.’
‘Fantastic brilliant oh how marvellous to have something we can do I’ll help to organize everyone to climb down where are the ropes—’
That was Robert’s sister. But she was not just babbling. Even while she was talking, she had begun to organize the front rows of Brains to march towards the rubbish chute. And she had got Ian and Mandy knotting the ropes together to form a long string that would stretch all the way down the chute. Robert grinned at Lloyd.
‘Don’t let Camilla put you off. She only sounds thick. She’ll get everyone out of here faster than anyone else could. And I’ll stay and help Dinah change the information on the computer if she explains what she’s doing. The rest of you can leave us here.’
‘Not me,’ Lloyd said. ‘I can’t go until I know we’ve stopped the Headmaster. But the others can.’
Ingrid tossed her head. ‘Me and Harvey are staying. You might need us. Suppose you come across some more octopuses.’
Lloyd hesitated for a moment. Then he nodded. She was being sensible for once. ‘OK. But that makes five of us left up here. We can’t risk any more. Harvey, go and tell Ian and Mandy to go down with the others and leave the ropes for us.’
The Demon Headmaster and The Prime Minister’s Brain Page 11