Polly Pippin and The Tunnel of Death (18 page)

My sincere regards, Lord
Knightly.

'This is going to be the best time ever,'
Polly said, and they settled into the new 'bedroom' quite easily.
As the girls lay on their beds, Polly on the top bunk and Alison
the bottom, there was a great deal of speculation as to what the
surprise could possibly be.

'I'm going to ask Lily if we can help her at
Brown Sugar,' Polly said.

'Yes, let's do that,' Alison said, and she
sat up. 'I'm far too excited to go to sleep. I'm going downstairs
to make a cup of hot chocolate. Coming?'

Polly was out of bed, slippers and dressing
gown on. And before you could say shazam! She was halfway down the
stairs when a heavy banging on the door surprised her. 'I'll get
it,' she said.

~

When she got to the front door, it was
freezing cold, and heavy rain was falling. She half opened the door
to see a poor, old gypsy woman. She was bent over a basket and
obviously had something she wanted to sell.

'Oh, you poor old thing. Come in out of the
rain.' Polly took the basket off the gypsy and helped her into the
hall. We are making hot chocolate I'm sure you'd like one.'

'Thankee,' said the woman in a very strange
accent. 'I wasn't so worried about meself. It's what's in me basket
that does not like getting wet.'

'Well, both you and your basket are safe
now, so come on in, and we will find you something dry you can
wear.'

The old gypsy woman shuffled in, leaving
puddles of water in the hall behind her. She did not take her eyes
off the basket as she followed Polly into the kitchen. Polly put
the basket on the table and introduced the gypsy woman to
Alison.

'Do you take sugar?' Alison asked the old
lady and nodded to Polly to get some cakes out of the cupboard.

The gypsy woman, who said her name was Zola,
was full of exciting stories, and the girls listened enthralled as
the gypsy chatted away well into the night.

Polly started to yawn and looked at the
kitchen clock, it was past twelve. 'It's very late. You should stay
the night,' Polly said. 'We have a very comfy sofa in the sunshine
room.'

'Don't be silly, Polly. Zola can't possibly
climb all those stairs.'

'Of course, yes. Silly me. Zola you can
sleep in the ambry on the bottom bunk.'

'No Polly. Thankee, but I can't stay. I have
to sell my wares,' the old gypsy woman protested.

'Don't worry about that. We will buy
whatever you have in your basket,' Polly said.

'Yes, let's have a look,' Alison added, and
she walked around to the other side of the table to the basket.

The gypsy Zola stood. 'I would rather you
looked in the basket in the morrow.'

Thinking the old woman might be ashamed or
embarrassed by what was in the basket, the girls agreed. Polly
looked in the linen cupboard, found a warm flannelette nightdress
and gave it to Zola. After asking the gypsy if she wanted anything
else, Polly closed the door and said they would call her in the
morning in time for breakfast.

~

'Come on, Polly. I'm exhausted. Hey, why
don't we sleep in the cottage?' Alison said.

'That's the best idea you've had in a long
time Ali.' And they linked arms, walked down to the crypt and out
in the garden to the cottage, the Liddles following close
behind.

The big mistake

'Where is he? Where the northern lights is
Selim?' Rhettnor was fuming. 'And don't tell me you've looked
everywhere. Rekrap is not that bright. How did he escape from our
clutches with that poor Captain Bean? And to add insult to injury,
you didn't find out where Miles is. It's unbelievable. What I want
to know is, what the bloody hell is happening?'

Sreip opened and closed his mouth several
times, but nothing came out. Please don't mention Piers and Hamish,
Sreip thought, but the Commander did.

'And where are Piers and Hamish? What did
Rekrap do with them? Didn't Selim say, quote, "And wherever Piers
is, you will probably find Miles"? He did say that, didn't he?'
Rhett shouted. 'Didn't he? And where were you when Selim captured
Rekrap? Nowhere in sight. And need I add, you arrive the very
moment after Rekrap and Bean disappear with Selim.'

'Sir. Please, Sir.' A young Freeflyer came
running in.

'Not now Jamie! Can't you see I'm in the
middle of a crisis?' He waved his hand. 'Get out Captain.' He
shouted and turned his attention back to Sreip. 'We have to find
Selim. That is your first priority, Sreip!'

'Please, sir. This is another important
crisis, sir.' The Freeflyer was literally jumping up and down. He
was quite aware that if he interrupted the Commander again, he
could lose his side wings.

'Leave me!' he yelled at Jamie. 'No
wait.'

As Sreip was sidling out of the room, the
Commander yelled at him. 'Go and find Selim! And while you're at
it, find the rest of our missing Uninitiated Flying
Omniscients.'

Sreip did not answer. He backed out from the
great hall of the First Universe and was outside Byzantine
Crescent's garden within two scannuls. There must be some evidence
here where Piers, Miles and Hamish are, he thought. Rekrap was here
when they were making the movie. And Selim was here with him when
they all disappeared. He felt in his pocket and pulled out
Pendragon.

'Where are the girls, Penny?' Sreip asked.
Pendragon flew straight to the main house and hovered outside the
kitchen window. Sreip miniaturised and flew silently behind her.
They both landed on the sill and peeped in. The kitchen was empty,
except sitting on the kitchen table was a black basket. Sreip had
never seen it before and wondered what it was doing there and who
owned it. Where have the girls got? He should have been here
protecting them. Instead, he was being pulled over the coals
because he wasn't with Selim. He should have gone with him to find
Piers instead of eating cakes with Miles. And where was he when
Miles disappeared? Then he did the worst thing a Freeflyer could
do, he lost faith in himself. Almost immediately, he lost most of
his energy and powers. I can't do this on my own, he thought and
sent out an SOS to headquarters.

Slowly he walked to the cottage. 'What else
can possibly go wrong?' he said.

'Sir!' A young voice came from behind a
bush.

~

Sreip jumped about four feet into the air,
as junior Freeflyer Jamie Brummell stepped out onto the path,
pulling twigs and leaves out of his hair. 'You frightened the life
out of me.' Sreip was not impressed, the boy had made him look
stupid.

'I think Commander Rhettnor sent me here by
mistake, Sir.'

'What do you mean the Commander sent you
here by mistake? Your name, Captain?'

'Jamie Brummell sir. The Commander had a
message saying you had no news of Selim, and you needed help. He
said no way would he send anyone to assist you, sir. He said you
had lost the plot, sir, and he wouldn't risk another Freeflyer till
you find Selim, sir.'

'So why are you here?' Sreip asked
impatiently.

'Well, I was standing right by him sir. I
was so nervous Sir, I dropped my communicator. It made quite a
noise, and the Commander jumped out of his skin. He yelled at me,
sir. He said I was as useless as you, sir, and that I should be
your partner. Then everything went black, Sir. Next thing I found
myself flat on my back behind that bush, sir.'

Sreip stood to his full height, his
confidence regained. 'Right, youngster, there's not much more you
can learn after you have worked with me, so let's get to it.'

'Yes, sir.' Captain Brummell saluted. 'I'm
ready, sir.' And they made plans for the immediate future. Their
first job - find Selim.

The tables are turned

Commander Rekrap was the hero of the day. He
had sent Piers, Hamish and Steve to the shack in the snow, where a
horrible fate awaited them. He had made friends with Polly. Well,
they had been good friends till the movie crashed and burned. He
had sent Miles, even though accidentally to… well he wasn't too
sure where, in fact, he had no idea where. But he still had Selim,
and without him, Sreip would be utterly useless. They worked as a
pair and alone were hopeless like Batman without his Robin or
Tarzan without his Jane. Next, he was going to capture Sreip and
all the girls. He would start up the movie, and Polly would be the
star, with him as the leading man, of course. Yes, he was a winner.
He was lounging on the outskirts of the Middle Universe, eating his
favourite cake, when he called out to Bean.

'When did Old Nitty say he would be here,
Bean?'

'He didn't, sir. He said we were to take
Selim to the Dark Universe so he could be tortured and
questioned.'

'Go and get Selim, Bean. I want to question
him myself. Why should Old Nitty get any of the credit?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Well, get moving. I can't wait all
day.'

~

Captain Bean left, and raced to the rickshaw
where Selim was imprisoned. 'Selim, it's me - Captain Bean.
Commander Rekrap wants to talk to you.'

'Bean, why do you allow Krappy to treat you
so badly?' Selim's sympathetic voice came from behind the circle of
restraint, where he was lolling comfortably in the rickshaw.

'Quiet, you! He is my commanding officer,
and you can't talk you don't even know where your son Miles
is.'

That hurt, but Selim was on a mission.
'Neither do you,' Selim was smarting but had no intention of
letting it show.

'It just so happens no one knows where he
is. He could have slipped between the two universes into the void,'
Bean said.

That hit home and pushed Selim's anger to
the very edge. But he still stayed in control. With the greatest
amount of restraint he could gather, he spoke, 'Bean why don't you
stand up for yourself, you dishrag?'

'Shut up, Selim. It's your head that's on
the chopping block, and I will happily swing the axe, and then
swing it at Piers and Hamish.' Bean smirked. 'Wouldn't you like to
know where they are?'

'Not interested where they are, Beany old
man. Do what you like with them.'

'Bloody liar!' Bean screamed.

'Bean, what sewer did your little mouth
crawl out of?'

Bean was getting angry, and Selim knew when
he got angry, he totally lost control, and that was what he was
waiting for.

'What are you, Bean - a hero or a coward? If
Sreip treated me the way you are treated, I would shove a stick up
his you know what. Everyone laughs at you Bean - your lot and us.
You are the laughing stock of the two universes.'

And finally that did it. 'You'll be sorry
when you find Piers and Hamish frozen to death in the Iceland death
shack!' Bean screamed.

'Bean you couldn't organise a -' and before
Selim could say anything ruder, Bean rushed at Selim, he was going
to strangle him with his bare hands. Selim sat well back in the
rickshaw and waited. Forgetting what was between him and Selim,
Captain Bean ran full tilt into the circle of restraint. The energy
of the circle wound round him and spun him twenty feet up in the
air. Before Bean landed, Selim was out of the rickshaw and off. He
had to find Commander Rhettnor and using his direction finder, he
knew Rhettnor was in the great hall.

Exploring the unknown

The bear cub was clamouring all over Steve,
after his food. 'Piers, take control of this animal. It's just
about grabbing the food out of my mouth. Ouch! The little bastard
just bit me on the nose.'

Piers laughed as he got up and picked up
little Daphne, tempting her with bits of food from his plate, and
Hamish was doubled over, laughing.

'That wasn't funny Hamish,' Steve said as he
rubbed his nose.

'Oh, but it was,' Piers said. 'It was
hilarious Steve.' He was still trying to control the laughter
bubbling out of his mouth.

'It may well have looked funny,' Steve said,
'but it still hurt.'

'You have to think about it Piers. What are
we going to do with little Daphne, the eating machine?' Hamish
said. 'And we have to get going soon, or we will run out of food. I
know we have to care for the cub, but what the hell are we going to
do with it now?'

'Yeah,' Piers said. 'We have to make a
decision to get out of this place.'

'You're right,' Steve said. 'And as I've
said many times, we still have to decide which tunnel to go down.
We can't risk it out there.' He pointed out of the window. 'If one
bear was out there, there is sure to be more, and if they are all
as hungry as that little thing…'

'Shall we toss for it?' Hamish laughed, and
the cub, loving the noise of the laughter, pounced on him. 'We'll
have to take him with us. We can't leave him to fend for himself,
he's not old enough.'

'You're a good man Hamish,' Piers said and
patted him on the back. 'So now that's decided, which tunnel?'

No one wanted to make that decision and all
of a sudden Piers jumped up. 'I know! Let the cub decide,' he said.
'He will have the natural instinct of the safest way to go, all
animals do.'

'Bloody good idea Piers,' Hamish said.
'Let's finish packing what we need and get going. I've got a bad
feeling about this place.'

'You and your bad feelings,' Steve said.
'But this time I think we all have those feelings, and I can't wait
to explore those tunnels.'

While they were talking and laughing, they
were working hard, tying everything up in neat bundles and making a
sling carry it on their backs. Piers made a harness for Daphne, who
was very obliging and would do anything, provided someone rubbed
her tummy. Eventually, everything was ready. It was about midday as
the boys and Daphne dropped down into the cavern, for the last time
they hoped.

'Okay, give Daphne a little slack and see
where she goes,' Hamish said. Piers loosened the harness, and they
stood back to see where the cub would go. The little bear sniffed
at the first tunnel, it seemed to like the smell of the water, but
did not go in. Piers pulled it away and led it to the last tunnel.
The little bear did not like that one at all and backed off
quickly.