[Danny]

here it is.

now mainard... no telling!

CHAPTER 30

Supervisor Dran looked at the two sligs handcuffed together in the cell. Then he turned away.

“Send word to HQ. Tell then we’ve got a pair of runaways here.”

The guard who had found them ran after him. “You don’t think they’re any good to us?”

Dran turned on him, venomously. “We’re looking for whatever it was that took down our workers, I’m not interested in a pair of runaway guards. We’ll send them back to HQ, let the boss deal with them. In the meantime, we continue as we have done.”

Another slig spoke up. “We can’t send them back to HQ, because then they’d know we defied their orders and went after the creature. We’ll have to keep them here.”

“We don’t have enough cell space.”

A slig wearing the white pants of the Labs looked up from his examination of the prisoners. “They don’t seem quite normal, somehow.”

Dran sneered. He’d never had much respect for scientists. A sligs place was on duty with a rifle, not in a laboratory with a test tube. “How does that help, then?”

“If you’d allow it, I’d like to take them back to the labs for a full examination.”

Dran snorted. “Are you –”

A guard got Dran’s attention. “It would get them out of our way. Then we can simply pretend we’ve never heard of them. They wouldn’t be our responsibility any more.”

Dran scratched his chin with his feeding tentacles. “Good point. Okay then, scientist, you can take them. We never want to hear of them again, understand?”

The scientist slig nodded enthusiastically, and the other two guards opened the cell. Led by the scientist, they escorted Tillyn and Gormanul from the building.

CHAPTER 31

“So the village is up in the branches?”

Mildar nodded.

“So what do you want us to say?”

“Pretend you’re lost travellers. Gain their confidence, then tell them all about what I’ve told you, about the logging. Try and persuade them to attack. And try and find out as much as you can about their culture.”

Volt looked at him. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll be there. Maybe I’ll be a piece of furniture, or something. In fact, I have an idea.” He looked hard at Volt. “How much do you trust me?”

“I hardly know you. Why?”

“That’s good enough for me. I’m going to pose as your pants.”

“What?” Volt and Rettick hardly believed what they were hearing. “You want me to balance on top of you?”

“I’ll change to imitate a set of pants, and grip you tightly. Balance wouldn’t really be necessary. That way, I can whisper advice when you need it. If your pants start to speak with your voice, don’t be alarmed, just pretend it’s you speaking. If I speak with my own voice, pretend you can’t hear me.”

Volt and Rettick exchanged glances. The unspoken thought was: “What have we agreed to?”

“Ok, now close your eyes, I don’t like people watching me change.”

They closed their eyes. There was a groaning sound, which rose into a metallic screech. When they opened their eyes, a pair of pants identical to Rettick’s sat before them. The pants spoke.

“Ok, pull me on, then.”

Volt slid his tail into the pants, and was surprised to be gripped tightly by the sides. This was different to putting on normal pants. When normal pants are put on, electrodes are inserted at the base of the spine, to allow the wearer to control them. Volt felt nothing, although had he known it, this was as much to do with his broken spine as it was to do with the different pants. When the pants stood up, Volt found himself in his normal standing position.

“Shall we go, then?” said his pants.

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.