The truck slowed. We were approaching the centre of a town. We stopped at a set of traffic lights and I was able to see a row of bars and restaurants through the hole in my box. Crowds of people were spilling out onto the pavements, chatting and drinking.
“It’s a very busy place,” I reported. “Lots of people are enjoying themselves and partying.”
The truck pulled away from the main road then, and the revellers were lost from sight.
We drove on for another twenty minutes or so, and I continued to describe the route in the hope that either Fangs or Phlem were listening in. Eventually, we drove through an armed checkpoint and then a shuttered gateway into what looked like a cave. The ground began to dip… Perhaps we were heading underground. Then the truck stopped.
This was obviously our final destination, so I pulled the strip of metal back inside the crate, detached it from my tooth and closed the line of communication. I didn’t want to get caught with the home-made antenna, so I screwed the metal up into a ball and did my best to hide it in a corner.
Then the crate was opened. Fluorescent light flooded over me and I was forced to shield my eyes against the glare. After spending so long in the dark, I didn’t want to risk blinding myself.
A man – possibly the truck driver – barked, “Get out!” at me.
Muscles aching, I climbed shakily out of the crate. Before jumping down from the truck, I ran my paw over the outside of the box. I was right – the entire outer surface was encased in lead.
“This way!” ordered the man. He pushed me towards a huge, silver object floating on a vast pool of water at one side of the cavern. I squinted at it, because my eyes had still not quite adjusted to the bright lights. Then I froze.
No! It couldn’t be!
But it was.
In the middle of this huge stone chamber was a nuclear submarine!
Time Unknown: A Cave, Location Unknown
I stared at the submarine, trying to work out if it was real or not. It certainly looked real. During our time at MP1, Fangs and I have been trained to recognize all kinds of military vehicles, and this one looked like an old Russian Navy sub. The words “Wolf One” had been painted along its hull in bright red paint. Dozens of technicians in black jumpsuits were busy working on different areas of it. They seemed to be checking everything from the engines to the periscope.
“Move!” the truck driver grunted, giving me a shove.
He escorted me down a tunnel on the other side of the cavern. It led past room after room. Inside, dozens of white-suited men and women were making ice cream. So this was where they made the stuff. My throat was dry from the journey and I wished I could soothe it with some of the ice cream. I knew that would be a mistake, though, as it was full of werewolf fur. Yuck! Instead, I kept my head down and carried on walking.
We eventually came to a control room filled with computers and monitors. Here the workers were dressed in yellow jumpsuits. Seated in a chair on a raised platform in the centre of the room was Lucien Claw. Scarlet Canis was sat beside him.
“Miss Brown!” Claw exclaimed. “We’ve been looking forward to your arrival. Welcome to our secret dairy. A collection of natural caves we have excavated and added to over the past few months.”
“Zip it, Claw!” I snapped. “Tell me what you’ve done with Fangs.”
“Why, we’ve done nothing at all with him,” Claw said. “He was in perfectly good shape when we left him in Italy.” He turned to Scarlet. “Do you know how Agent Enigma is doing?”
“No,” said Scarlet, “although he was a little tied up the last time I saw him.”
“Of course,” said Claw, pretending to remember. “Tied up and locked inside the attic of our house in Naples, if I recall. I don’t think he’ll be bothering us any time soon. Come, join us…” He gestured to an empty chair. “Spend some time with your fellow werewolves.”
The truck driver pushed me forwards.
I didn’t want to accept Claw’s hospitality, but I was exhausted after my long journey. I reluctantly slumped into the chair and accepted the glass of orange juice offered to me. I downed it in one.
One of the computer operators approached Claw and Canis with a clipboard. Whatever the technician had to show them, it wasn’t good news. “No!” Claw barked. “I want to give free ice cream to the whole of Great Britain next!”
I quickly scanned the room. Amid the computers and control panels were the radar screens and depth monitors for the submarine. We had to find a way to stop … stop … them…
YAWN!
I suddenly realized how tired I was. In fact, I could barely keep my eyes open. I glanced at the clock on the nearest computer. It was 3.47 p.m. I’d been awake all night. I had to stay alert, no matter what. Had to stay … alert … no … matter—
Time Unknown: Location Unknown
“Nuclear reactor powering up!”
Everything around me was shaking, and there was a roaring noise that sounded like an angry dragon with bad toothache. I jolted awake, convinced that it was the end of the world. I tried to move, only to find that I was strapped down to a padded seat. I was dressed in a bright red suit. All around me were buttons and wires. Co-ordinates flickered on small screens in front of me.
I was on the bridge of the nuclear submarine!
There was a man, also in a red suit, sitting next to me. The visor of his helmet was down and I could see myself reflected in the glass. I thought back to everything I knew about submarine travel. This guy must be the helmsman – the officer who piloted the sub. It was then that I realized that we were both wearing radiation suits. That could only mean one thing – the nuclear reactor that powered this ship was not one hundred per cent safe!
How had I ended up here, dressed like this? I knew I’d been tired, but surely I would have woken up if someone had dressed me and carried me all the way on board a submarine…
Of course! The orange juice that Scarlet gave me must have been drugged.
I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book!
A horrific thought occurred to me and I tore off one of my red gloves with my teeth to check if—
“Relax!” said a voice, making me jump. “You’ve still got your werewolf fur – for now.” I craned my neck to discover that Lucien Claw and Scarlet Canis were sitting in the seats behind me. They were also dressed in radiation suits, although their helmet visors were raised.
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded.
“To our secret lair, of course!” Scarlet Canis beamed. “We could have taken your fur while you slept, but we have a little toy that we’d like to introduce you to when we arrive… The Shave-O-Matic! So much quicker than a regular razor and so much more painful too…”
I shuddered from head to toe. I didn’t have time to dwell on what was waiting for me, though, as radiation symbols began to light up on the panels in front of me. The helmsman silently pointed at a red helmet on the console. I quickly put it on and then lowered the visor, so that no one would see the fear in my eyes.
A voice crackled through the intercom. “Wolf One. Prepare rig for dive.”
“The day is Friday. The time is seventeen hundred hours. Wolf One, prepared for dive,” the helmsman replied. His voice sounded distorted through the speaker inside my helmet. “Power to reactor core.”
“Power to reactor core.”
“Levels in the bilge.”
“Bilge levels at one point six and holding.”
The helmsman gripped his controls. “Dive! Dive! Dive!”
The engines roared, and slowly the submarine begin to move. Green radar images started to sweep around in their circular screens, and the metal hull of the ship began to creak ominously. This was clearly a very old submarine. I crossed my claws that it would be able to handle the journey.
A voice crackled through the earphones in my helmet. “Wolf One, we have pressure in the boat.”
“Copy that,” said the helmsman. “Programming co-ordinates into main computer.�
� He began to punch a series of commands into the control panel.
BEEP!
The pilot grabbed the controls. There was the tiniest of bumps as a message flashed up on the screen.
“Take her down,” commanded the helmsman.
Then – suddenly – everything stopped. The noise, the vibration, the pressure – everything. All I could hear was the occasional PING! from the radar system. My ears popped as pressure built up around the submarine. We were definitely diving deeper now.
My thoughts were interrupted by another message. “Wolf One, we have a message for Mr Claw and Miss Canis. Are they patched into the comms system?”
“We most certainly are.” Lucien Claw’s voice echoed in my ears. “What do you have to tell us?”
“Sir, we are getting reports that thousands of vampires are arriving in all parts of the United Kingdom.”
“Excellent!” cried Canis. “The clans must have received our messages. How useful it was to get all their home addresses from the MP1 database.”
“What messages?” I asked, hoping I had a microphone as well as a speaker inside my helmet.
“Why, to our invitation to the big fight, of course,” Claw said, proving that he could hear me. “There would be no point in creating millions of new werewolves if there were no vampires for them to hunt and slay, now, would there?”
“You’re insane!” I cried.
“And you’re ungrateful. Here we are, rescuing you from that disgusting vampire, Fangs Enigma, and giving you the opportunity to help spawn a new generation of wolves, and all you can do is complain,” said Canis.
“Fangs is not disgusting!” I growled. “No matter what you might think about vampires, he is my friend, and he’ll find a way to prevent you from starting this war.”
“You’re nothing but a vampire-loving traitor!” hissed Claw. “I shall enjoy shaving off your fur. It won’t be long now. Look!” He reached between the seats to flick a switch on the control panel in front of me.
An image appeared on one of the screens and, through the murky water, I could just make out a shape looming into view. It was some kind of underwater base. The helmsman guided us closer and closer until—
CLUNK!
We docked alongside.
“Welcome to the Wolf’s Lair,” said Lucien Claw.
Friday 1735 hours: Wolf’s Lair, Below the Sea
Lucien Claw took me by the arm and led me into the airlock that separated the submarine from the underwater lair. The door behind us closed.
HISS!
Once the air pressure had equalized, another door slid open – to reveal something I really hadn’t expected to see. Standing just inside the doorway, with a loaded crossbow aimed directly at me, was Clang!
One of Claw’s team had obviously glued him back together. Someone had clearly picked up some of the broken pieces of cookware from the bakery by accident, though, because the word “Flour” was printed along Clang’s left cheek, and his nose had been replaced with the handle of a milk jug. He looked like a patchwork doll.
“Mr Clang has only one scroll inside him this time,” said Claw. “He is under strict orders to guard you, and to kill you if necessary. In fact, it may be easier to take your fur if you aren’t struggling…”
I glanced at the sharp, wooden stake loaded into Clang’s crossbow and swallowed hard. I may not be a vampire, but that thing could do me some serious damage – especially if it was fired at close range.
Claw and Canis ushered us onto the main deck of the underwater base. There were two technicians there. I recognized them as the two werewolves I’d seen earlier – the ones who had provided their fur for Claw’s ice cream – in human form. The ones I would be replacing.
“There’s no point wasting time,” Canis said to the helmsman. “Take her straight to the Shave-O-Matic. Meanwhile, Lucien and I will prepare for tonight’s battle. Clang will join you when you’re ready for the shaving to begin.”
The helmsman nodded, and Claw and Canis left us.
“What’s the matter?” I asked the helmsman. “Not got the guts to put me in that instrument of torture?”
He pushed me towards the large, silver box with doors standing at the far end of the deck. The word “Shave-o-Matic” was etched on its front. As we approached, a sensor beeped and the doors whooshed open to reveal a dozen whirring, metal arms inside, each one tipped with spinning blades.
WHOOSH! WHIRR!
SNAP! WHIRR!
WHOOSH! WHIRR!
“Look,” I said, trying to pull away. “You don’t have to do this, just because Lucien Claw told you to.”
“I know,” said the helmsman. “I won’t.”
I stared up at him in confusion. Hang on, he had to be tricking me.
“Really?” I asked out loud.
The helmsman raised his visor, and a familiar face smiled back at me. “Really,” he said.
“Oh, Fangs!” I cried. “It’s you!”
My boss hushed me as he glanced over his shoulder to check that Claw and Canis were still busy with their battle arrangements. “Don’t let on who I am. Just take off your radiation suit and look unhappy.”
I nodded, and he pretended to check settings on a keypad of the shaving machine.
“How did you find me?” I whispered, stepping out of my suit.
“Cube was able to pinpoint your location by tracking your blue tooth. We’re beneath the lighthouse on the west pier at Dun Laoghaire in Ireland.”
“Dun Laoghaire?”
Fangs nodded. “Claw and Canis are mixing their ice cream in the caves below one of Ireland’s favourite holiday resorts. This undersea place must be their little hideaway. They wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the ice-cream factory and its hairy treats, in case it’s discovered.”
“But I still don’t understand,” I said. “How did you get past Claw’s guards? And how did you learn to pilot a nuclear sub?”
“With a little help from Cube and this…” Fangs beamed as he slid the AnyBook from inside his radiation suit. He opened its cover.
“Nuclear Submarines for Dummies?” I read.
“Don’t knock it!” said Fangs. “It got us here, didn’t it?”
Before I could comment further, Lucien Claw came stomping over. “I can’t hear any shaving!” he bellowed. “Where’s that werewolf fur?”
In one swift movement, Fangs had removed his helmet and slid on his sunglasses. “Puppy’s fur is staying where it belongs,” he said, turning to face the angry villain.
“Fangs Enigma!” Claw roared. “How did you get here?”
“I hitched a lift on a passing shark. How do you think?” Fangs climbed out of his red radiation suit.
“Clang!” Claw shouted. “Stop them!”
Clang came bounding over, his crossbow levelled at my boss.
“I like the new look,” Fangs said to him. “Who’s your designer?”
Clang snarled and pressed the tip of the stake against my boss’s chest. “I’ve been looking forward to this, Enigma. It’s your turn to get smashed!”
Fangs glanced down at the stake with a wry smile. “I do like a henchman who gets to the point,” he quipped.
“Relax, Clang,” said Lucien Claw. “You’ll get your chance for revenge just as soon as tonight’s festivities are complete.”
Clang stepped back, but kept his weapon trained on Fangs’s heart.
“Nice place you have here, Claw,” said Fangs, peering out of the nearest window at a passing shoal of fish, “although I find the recycled air a little stale for my tastes. It dries the throat. Do you think I might have a drink?”
“Why not?’ said Claw. He went to a drinks cabinet and poured Fangs a drink. “We could both do with a little refreshment while we watch the entertainment.”
“There’s going to be a show?” Fangs smiled.
“Indeed there is,” said Claw, running his fingers over the Shave-o-Matic. “One with a hair-raising finale, especially for Miss Brown!” He handed Fan
gs a glass of milk. “I’m afraid we don’t have any human blood.”
My boss sniffed at the white liquid. “That’s OK. I wasn’t planning to drink it, anyway.” And he threw the milk over the control panel of the Shave-o-Matic.
HISS! BOOM!
There was a shower of sparks, and the whirring blades ground to a halt.
“Our machine!” Claw howled.
Fangs winked at me. “I thought you’d prefer to be saved than shaved!”
I sighed with relief. “Thanks, boss.”
“You fool, Enigma,” yelled Canis, rushing over. “Do you know how long it will take to get replacement parts sent down here?”
“Long enough for MP1 to get the rogue vampire clans out of Britain, I should imagine. Your war is over before it even began.”
“We will not be defeated!” Claw said. He turned to his technicians. “You two! Do we still have your fur loaded into one of the sub’s missiles as a back-up?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then that will have to do for the first battle. Launch it now.”
“At once, sir.”
“The time for slow contamination by ice cream is over,” Claw cried. “I will fire a fur-filled missile into the sky above Britain, where it will explode and shower the population with DNA-loaded dust. Once people breathe it in, they’ll be howling before you can say ‘lycanthrope’!”
“Perhaps,” said Fangs. “But it won’t be Puppy’s unique DNA, and they’ll still need a full moon in order to transform.”
“You should already know that making a moon full is not a problem for us.” Claw went over to one of the large control panels.
Project: Wolf World Page 4