Sola ran off in one direction. Will and Pod took charge of the office chair and hurried off the other way. Once they were some distance away from the control room, they entered a new section where the lights were still on.
‘How Spinner doing?’ Graham rasped. He was clinging to the back of the chair as the boys pushed, looking attentively at Spinner.
‘I’m all right,’ Spinner said, with a faint smile.
‘No, he’s not,’ Blossom said. ‘He’s leaving a trail.’
Blossom was right. They were leaving a blood trail on the floor.
‘We have to do something to stop the bleeding,’ Essie said. ‘What’s in all these rooms? Are they offices? See if you can find something we can use as a bandage.’
They searched quickly; Essie found a towel and Pod found a shirt. Blossom found a rather fascinating glass paperweight which she slipped into her pocket, but that had nothing to do with the first-aid effort. Essie wadded up the towel and they used the shirt to bind it in place, then they continued towards the exit.
A crackling noise heralded an announcement. A Sundian voice came over the public address system. ‘Hey everybody, just to let you know we’ve taken back the control room and everything’s okay. So, um, yeah. Woohoo!’
They could hear hoots of triumph in the background as the announcement ended.
‘Wow,’ Essie said. ‘They did it!’
‘Maybe,’ Will said. ‘I still reckon we should get out of here. Those guys of Beckett’s are pretty hardcore.’
They kept going. A few minutes later, all the lights went out again.
‘Uh oh,’ Annalie said.
Essie switched her shell torch back on. ‘What do you think’s happening?’
‘My guess is the marines are fighting back,’ Will said.
‘We definitely don’t want to get caught in the middle of it,’ Essie said.
They hurried on towards the side door where they’d agreed to meet Sola. There was no sign of her; worse, an armed marine was standing guard, and she’d seen the flash of Essie’s torch. ‘Halt! Who goes there?’ she shouted.
They spun the office chair around and bolted in the opposite direction.
‘Why isn’t she coming after us?’ Annalie panted, after they’d gone what seemed like a safe distance.
‘Probably ordered to guard the door and stop anyone from escaping,’ Pod said.
‘But she’s probably reported that she’s seen us,’ Will said. ‘They may be coming for us.’
‘We need to find another way out,’ Annalie said.
‘We should look for Sola,’ Essie said. ‘She knows all the ins and outs of this place.’
‘I know where we can hide,’ Blossom said. ‘Down below. They’ll never find us down there.’
Will shrugged. ‘It’s better than wandering around up here. Let’s go.’
They found a lift and went down once more into the depths of the Ark. The doors slid open onto darkness, but as they stepped out, there was a soft click, and the lights came on.
They advanced, still pushing Spinner on the office chair, and began to walk down one of the aisles filled with old-fashioned wooden drawers. As they walked, the lights switched on ahead of them and switched off again behind them, so they moved in their own little pool of illumination in the subterranean gloom.
‘We should look for a place to hide,’ Will said. ‘Are any of those drawers big enough for us to climb into?’
They were just looking around for some nice big cupboards when they heard a distant sound. Pod was the first to identify it. ‘The lifts are moving.’
‘What are we going to do?’ Essie squeaked. ‘They’ll see us!’
‘Don’t do anything,’ Blossom said. ‘Just stay absolutely still.’
Will realised what she was saying. ‘If we stay still, they switch off. Don’t. Move.’
They froze on the spot, listening in an agony of suspense to the sound of the lift descending. How long was the timer? The light blazed down upon them. Anyone who stepped out of the lift now would see them in an instant.
The lift mechanism stopped. The door went ping.
And just as they heard the clunk of the lift doors starting to open, the lights over their heads went out and they were plunged into darkness.
The only light now came from the lift area. They heard stealthy footsteps as marines deployed from the lift and fanned out into the archive, each one moving in his own little pool of light. By chance, none of the marines had chosen the aisle they were standing in; they remained as still as they possibly could, hoping that the marines would simply miss them.
They waited. Pod’s arm began to itch, the urge to scratch agonising. One pool of light drew closer and closer; they held their breath as the marine passed by so close they could hear him, just on the other side of the bank of cabinetry.
The marine passed on by and it seemed that they were safe, but then they heard something rustle and fall.
The lights above them snapped on in a sudden, blinding dazzle. Spinner had fainted and fallen off the chair.
‘There!’ shouted a voice.
Feet started running towards them.
Frantically, Pod and Will bundled Spinner back onto the office chair and they all began pushing him along the aisle as fast as they could. The office chair’s small wheels were not built for speed and the chair threatened to trip them up. The marines were pounding toward them down the long aisles.
‘Where can we go?’ Pod cried.
‘Back to the lifts?’ Essie suggested.
‘We’ll never make it,’ Annalie said.
‘This way!’ said Blossom.
She ran full tilt down the aisle until she reached the far wall of the chamber, which was made of rough concrete. She glanced up and down it, then turned left and kept running, skidding to a halt beside a small metal hatch. ‘Here,’ she said.
It was an emergency exit.
‘Where does it lead?’ Will asked.
‘It’s an exit,’ Annalie said. ‘It leads out.’ She yanked it open and they squeezed through the small door and into the tighter concrete corridor. Steps went up. They were going to have to do without
