by Adam Frost
“I – don’t – under—” Danny stammered.
“So you have me bound hand and foot,” growled the Night Scientist. “Now’s your chance. Strike, boy! Strike! Finish me off!”
Danny tried to speak again, but he was mesmerised by the Night Scientist’s angry eyes.
“I’ll take over, if you like, Danny,” said Mia, stepping forwards. She pulled out the torch, twirled it up into her hand and aimed it at the Night Scientist’s face.
The Night Scientist shook his head and chuckled. “Not this time, young lady. I’m covered in protective cream. And I’m wearing my blackout jacket. They’re no defence against direct sunlight, but they can certainly handle a two-watt torch bulb. Or indeed a thirty-watt light bulb.” He pointed up at the light hanging from the roof.
“You’re bluffing,” said Mia.
The Night Scientist yawned. “You know, it feels as if I’m ‘working on my tan’. But heavens above, look at the time! We must get down to business.”
He put his teeth over his bottom lip and whistled.
The barn began to creak.
The Night Scientist smiled an eerie smile. Then he whistled again.
A giant hinge seemed to squeak, and a huge crank hissed. The roof of the barn lifted off like a lid.The walls fell outwards and hit the ground with a deafening thump.The three children and the Night Scientist were now sitting underneath the night sky, surrounded by a few bales of hay. They were hit by a blast of wind from the surrounding marshland, which swept most of the hay off the barn floor and out into the countryside beyond.
The Night Scientist shouted: “Parrots, back to base!”
He looked at Danny and Mia and said: “Spring-loaded foundations. Every custom-made mechanical criminal death trap should have them.”
“Danny!” cried Eric. “Please can we leave now!”
“You should take your friend’s advice,” said the Night Scientist. “My parrots are about to peck you to pieces.”
“Stop him, Danny! Stop him!” Mia urged. “Use your remote to blast him into space or something.”
But before Danny had a chance to press his remote, he was distracted by a high-pitched shriek. He looked up and saw six parrots shooting through the air like javelins. His thumb hovered over Rewind and Pause, but all he could think about was running away.The Night Scientist was right. He couldn’t stay and fight. He wasn’t prepared to hurt the Night Scientist, even though this was the man who had tried to kill his sister, and his best friend, and his Uncle Charlie.
While he tried to work out a plan, he noticed that Eric had already run off into the darkness.
Mia hissed, “Danny, come on,” and darted off too.
Danny dashed after his sister, just as three of the parrots whistled past his ear.
Then there was nothing but panting and gasping as the three children ran through the soft mud, trying to keep together in spite of the blackness and the wind and the water everywhere.
“Danny, there’s got to be something you can do!” puffed Mia.
Eric tripped over with a wail and Mia helped him up.
“Where are we?” whimpered Eric. “How can we know where we’re going when we don’t even know where we are!”
They heard the beating of wings overhead, and started to run again.
“I can’t believe he built that barn just for tonight,” said Mia between gasps. “That’s how much he wants the remote!”
“I’m going to Rewind us out of here,” said Danny as he ran. “Get us back to town again. Are you ready?”
“At last!” exclaimed Eric.
“You’ll forget everything that just happened. Is that OK?” said Danny.
“OK? It’s brilliant!” said Eric.
“Oh, don’t press Rewind just yet,” said a voice from above them.
They all stopped running.
Two of the parrots dropped the Night Scientist gently on to the ground in front of them. He stretched his arms out and gave a little cough.
“Why shouldn’t I press Rewind?” asked Danny, in as brave a voice as he could muster.
“Because then our little fight will last for ever and ever,” said the Night Scientist, “instead of ending tonight.”
He clicked his fingers and a parrot appeared as if from nowhere, snatched the remote from Danny’s hand and dropped it at the Night Scientist’s feet.
“No!” screamed Danny.
But two other parrots had him by the shoulders and were suspending him a metre above the ground.
“No! No! No! Give it to me! Give it to me!” shouted Danny, kicking and writhing and lashing out and clawing at the air.
The other four parrots had lifted up Eric and Mia.
The Night Scientist picked up the remote with a smile of wild excitement playing across his lips.
“Let’s st-start by pr-pressing Pause,” he stammered, as if he was almost too scared to touch it.
Danny had shouted himself out and was now a limp rag in the parrots’ claws.
The Night Scientist lifted up his thumb and placed it on the Pause button.
“When you’re Paused, it will be easier for my friends to peck you into mush,” he said.
But still he didn’t press Pause. It was like he didn’t want the moment to end. His nostrils flared and his cheek twitched.
“I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it,” he whispered.
He took a deep breath and brought his thumb down on the Pause button.
The parrots still flapped. The children still panted. The wind still blew.
He pressed Pause again.
Time passed.
He pressed Pause again and again, more urgently and fiercely each time.
“Why isn’t it…?” the Night Scientist stammered. “I don’t…”
Then his expression changed and he seemed to understand. “Of course. Very clever, Charles, very clever. Andre!” he barked. “Bring me the boy’s thumb.”
The parrot that was holding Danny’s left shoulder tilted its head to one side.
“His thumb, Andre, his thumb. Just peck it off!” ordered the Night Scientist.
Danny was dropped on to the ground. He landed like a sack of potatoes and slumped on to his side.
One of the parrots perched on his wrist.
This was too much for Mia. She kicked off her boots, aiming one squarely at the Night Scientist’s head. It hit him just above the eyebrow and knocked him on to his back. This seemed to panic the parrots, who dropped her and Eric and flew round in confused circles. The parrot on Danny’s wrist hopped across the mud towards its master.
“Danny, get up! Get up!” shouted Mia.
Danny seemed to stir. “My remote,” he whispered.
“We don’t have time for that,” hissed Mia. She could see that the Night Scientist was coming round.
“Come on!” she snapped. “Eric, you too!”
“No! My remote!” bawled Danny.
“This way! Now!” shouted Mia.
She grabbed her brother by the collar and dragged him across the mud, shooing Eric along with her other hand.
She heard the Night Scientist barking angrily in the darkness and Danny moaning about going back and getting his remote and how this was the end of everything. She realised she would have to take charge, because Danny was too devastated to say or do anything.
The next fifteen minutes were a blur. All Mia could think about was how cold and wet her feet were getting. She hadn’t had time to retrieve her boots after kicking them off, so she was squelching through the soft, damp marsh in her socks. Within a few minutes the socks were black and heavy with mud, the ends flopping about and constantly threatening to trip her over. She could feel mud oozing between her toes and seeping under her toenails. For a split second she thought about home and her mother’s reaction if she came anywhere near the house looking like this.
She kept tearing forwards, urging the boys on.
A bird shrieked overhead. She didn’t think it
was one of the parrots, but she couldn’t be sure. So she steered the boys away from it.
At last the ground grew firmer. She slowed down very slightly.
Then she heard the Night Scientist’s voice. In the darkness, it sounded like he was next to her, whispering in her ear, but she knew her mind was playing tricks with her. He was issuing orders, at least a hundred metres away.
“The footprints are heading north! Fly north!”
Eric seemed to whimper. Mia shushed him.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a light.
“This way!” she hissed.
The light grew larger and soon revealed itself to be one end of an old farmhouse. Another two lights flickered on: the headlights of a truck parked outside.
Mia wasn’t sure whether to cry out. It could be one of the Night Scientist’s friends in the truck, or the Night Scientist himself.
As the children grew closer, Mia watched the driver climb out of the truck and disappear into the house. However, the headlights were still on and the engine was still running. Mia didn’t think twice. Dragging the boys behind her, she sprinted round to the back of the truck.
Perfect, she thought. It was open to the sky, with no roof or sides, loaded up with bales of hay.
“Come on,” she whispered.
She got herself on board and pulled Danny and Eric up.
“Cover yourselves,” she hissed.
The boys mechanically pulled straw over themselves.
“Heads down,” she ordered.
The boys lay flat.
They lay there in the darkness, while the engine rumbled on. Finally the door of the house slammed, then the door of the truck squeaked open and banged shut. They were moving.
After ten minutes, Mia began to breathe more steadily.
“He won’t find us now,” she whispered.
A split second later there was a rushing noise and the frantic flapping of wings. Instinctively the three children dived deeper under the straw.
The parrot swept over their heads, then banked left, preparing for another attack. It circled twice clockwise, then it seemed to turn round and circle twice anticlockwise. It flew upside down for a couple of seconds. Finally its wings went stiff and it dropped like a stone.
“Look out!” Eric exclaimed.
The parrot landed with a whoomph on one of the hay bales.The truck driver seemed not to hear, because he kept driving.
“Be careful, be careful,” said Mia.
But Eric was already inspecting it.
“There’s a dent in its head,” said Eric. “When you kicked off your boot it must have rebounded off the Night Scientist and hit this parrot. It kept functioning for a while, but now it’s finally short circuited.”
“You’re sure?” asked Mia.
Eric opened a panel in its breast and yanked a tangle of wires out.
“I am now,” said Eric.
Mia sat down and breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is so cool,” said Eric. “When I get home, I’ll rewire it. It will be my new robot.To make up for the one they broke.”
“Now hang on—” said Mia.
“I thought this was the worst night of my life, but not any more,” added Eric.
Mia was going to argue, but Eric was already poking about inside the parrot’s metal ribcage. It was as if he had completely forgotten the past five hours.
“Your friend is a fully paid-up, dyed-in-the-wool, cast-iron supernerd, you know that,” she said to Danny.
Danny was lying on his back, staring at the sky, his eyes brimming with tears.
“Come on Danny,” said Mia softly. “We’re alive.”
“He’s got it,” murmured Danny.
“But he can’t use it, didn’t you see?” answered Mia. “That’s why I had to get you out of there.”
“He’s won,” said Danny.
“He hasn’t, not yet,” said Mia. “The remote’s linked to you in some way. He wanted your hand, your thumb. It’s like only your thumb can make it work.”
This made Danny think for a few seconds. But then he looked miserable again.
“It’s gone,” he whispered.
Mia decided to leave her brother alone. They’d talk again later, when the shock of losing his remote had worn off.
They bumped along through the darkness. The silence was occasionally broken by Danny’s tearful murmurs and Eric’s growls of concentration as he pored over the parrot’s complicated circuitry.
The truck slowed, and stopped.
“Down,” whispered Mia.
Eric hid under a hay bale, taking the parrot with him.
The truck driver opened the door and crunched through gravel.
Mia waited till his steps had receded, and then slipped out of the truck. She looked at her surroundings, the driveway of a large house, lit by bright lamps.
“I know this place,” she murmured to herself. “Get out, get out!” she shouted at the boys. “It’s Buxton Park Hotel. My friend Selina’s dad works here. It’s only a few miles from home.”
Eric leapt out of the truck; Danny crawled out reluctantly.
The night was nearly over. Mia guided them across a series of fields and through a maze of deserted roads.Within an hour they were on the high street.
There was a police car outside Eric’s house. Eric knocked on the door and disappeared into his mother’s arms.
Mia said to Danny, “I wonder if ours even noticed we were gone.”
Danny grunted, still lost in his own thoughts.
Mia got out her front door key. She ushered Danny in before her.The house was the same as ever: silent, lifeless, spotlessly clean.
“Stay in my room tonight,” she said to Danny. “It’s safer that way.”
Mia realised that she wanted to look after Danny now. She had never really enjoyed picking on him, but felt that it was what her parents wanted. She wasn’t interested in her parents any more.
“OK,” said Danny with a shrug.
So, just as dawn broke, Danny and Mia went to sleep, Danny lying like a starfish on Mia’s bed and Mia curled up like a cat on her beanbag. Their dreams were full of killer birds and a man with eyes like a snake and arms reaching out of swamps, pulling them under.
But they slept on, too tired to run any more that night. It was as if their bodies knew they would need all their energy and strength for the following day when the challenges they would face would make the events of yesterday feel like a pleasant childhood memory, something to play over and over again in your head, as if no time had passed between that day and this.
9
HELP
Danny was the first to wake up. He felt for the remote on his chest, panicked, and then remembered.
However he did not wallow in self-pity as he had the day before. A few hours’ sleep had worked wonders. Now he was determined to get the remote back.
He swung his legs out of bed and crossed the room. A floorboard squeaked and Mia woke up.
“Danny, what’s going on?’ she murmured.
“Hi Mia,” said Danny, looking guilty.
“What are you up to? Where are you going?” she asked, more fully awake now.
“I’m just, er, going out…” stammered Danny.
Mia clambered up and stood in front of the door, her arms folded. She shook her head.
“You’re staying here until I can work out somewhere safer for you to hide out.”
“But, Mia, listen…”
“He’s coming after you, Danny,” said Mia sternly.
“Good!” Danny blurted out.
“He’ll send one of his robots and it’ll tear your hand off!” cried Mia.
“I need it back, Mia, I need it back!” shouted Danny. “I can’t – I can’t – face – life without it.”
There was a knock on the door and Mr and Mrs Danger appeared.
“For heaven’s sake,” their mother huffed. “What’s all this noise?”
“Noise,” said their father, waggi
ng his finger slowly.
“And you were both so good yesterday,” added their mother. “We hardly heard a peep out of you.”
“Peep,” said their father, nodding in agreement.
“And since when were you allowed to play in your sister’s room?” said his mother, looking at Danny.
“Mmm,” said Danny. Out of habit, he was reaching for his remote, preparing to rewind the whole conversation.
“Back to your room!” screeched their mother.
“It’s OK, Mum, I asked him in,” said Mia softly.
It was as if their mother had been slapped round the face with a wet flannel. She froze and stared at the opposite wall.
“Muriel?” said their father.
“Mmm?” asked their mother blankly. She seemed to realise where she was and blinked twice.
“What did you say, Mia?” she asked.
“I said I invited Danny in,” said Mia. “He’s going to clean my windows and then he’s going to polish my wardrobe,” she added.
“Oh, oh, I see,” said their mother. “Well, if you think he’ll do an acceptable job. Which I very much doubt.”
“He’s no good,” said their father, “and never has been.”
“When you’re done here,” said their mother to Danny, “you’ll help your father unblock the drains.”
The bedroom door was closed.
“This is exactly why I need my remote,” said Danny.
“Danny, at least you’re alive,” said Mia. “If the Night Scientist gets you…”
There was another knock on the bedroom door. Danny and Mia looked at each other quizzically. The door opened and they saw Jasper and Roxie, the two young people who had been beamed out of Danny’s remote the day before. Roxie’s hair was green today and Jasper had even bigger headphones round his neck.
“Hey Danny,” said Roxie. “We’ve been waiting in your room all morning.”
“Bit bare in there, mate,” said Jasper. “A poster or two wouldn’t go amiss.”
“As you know, Danny,” said Roxie, “the Night Scientist has got the remote.Your uncle told us that, if this ever happened, we should come and get you.”
“My – my uncle?” asked Danny hesitantly. “You spoke to my uncle? He’s OK?”