‘So now where are they?’ Annalie asked.
‘Scattered about under the Ark in various bandicoots’ hoards.’
Annalie thought about this and started to laugh. ‘But how will you get them back?’
‘It won’t be easy, but it can be done. Sola has a way. Something to do with the Ark’s sensors and a rare element in the chips. In the meantime, they’re safely hidden away where no one will think to look.’
Annalie had felt personally, troublingly responsible for the loss of the research, and it had felt like a terrible failure to have been such a central part of its capture and destruction. It was a huge relief to know that the research had not been destroyed after all. And the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea that it had been gathered up and collected by busy little animals, living their own lives, unaware of the weightiness of the information contained inside those blue, shiny chips.
‘But what if…’ she began.
‘It’s safe,’ Spinner said. ‘Safe among the animals. And one day, when the time is right, maybe someone will come back and get it. But it won’t be Beckett.’
The warehouse still stood, more or less as they’d left it, all those months before. But someone had nailed the doors shut and boarded up the windows, and a sign on the door said ‘Private property—keep OUT’.
Spinner prised open the door and went cautiously inside. Annalie and Will, Blossom and Pod followed him. Graham flew in, shrieking with delight, and proceeded to fly around and around until he eventually landed on the workshop counter, crooning with pleasure.
‘What a mess,’ Spinner said, looking around at the fallen shelves, the litter of nuts and bolts and broken components on the floor.
‘I don’t think anyone’s been here since we left,’ Will said.
‘I thought for sure someone would claim the place for themselves,’ Spinner said.
‘Maybe someone was keeping an eye on it for you,’ Will said. ‘Somebody closed it up and put up those signs.’
Pod was looking around the space with an eager look on his face. ‘Is this stuff all yours?’ he asked.
‘There used to be a lot more of it,’ Spinner said ruefully.
‘Why do you have so much junk?’ Blossom said.
Pod shot Blossom a mortified look, but Spinner just laughed. ‘Junk is in the eye of the beholder. Let’s go out the back.’
They walked through the workshop to the living quarters at the back. This too was in a state of chaos, and it looked like mice had moved in while they were away.
‘Is this where we’re going to live?’ Blossom asked.
‘Yes,’ Spinner said.
‘Why can’t we just keep on sailing?’
‘Well, for one thing, I’m flat broke,’ Spinner said. ‘I need to get back to work so I can start making some money. And for another, you kids have to go to school.’
Will rolled his eyes. ‘What could I possibly learn at school that I can’t learn at sea?’
‘You’d be surprised,’ Spinner said dryly.
‘I want to go to school,’ Pod said shyly.
‘Why?’ Will asked.
‘You know,’ Pod said, blushing.
‘Oh yeah. The reading thing.’ Will was unrepentant. ‘You’re not going to like it, you know. School sucks. “Sit still, pay attention, do what you’re told.”’
‘I don’t want to go to school, either,’ Blossom said.
‘But don’t you want to know how to read, and be good at things?’ Pod asked.
‘Don’t need to read,’ Blossom said. ‘I’m already good at stuff.’
‘You’re all going back to school,’ Spinner said firmly. ‘No arguments. School is not negotiable.’
They all pitched in to help, setting the workshop to rights and building some new rooms on the back to accommodate Pod and Blossom. Spinner talked to Will’s high school about taking Pod, and Will and Annalie’s old primary school agreed to take Blossom.
That just left Annalie.
‘Where do you want to go to school, Annalie?’ Spinner asked.
‘I don’t have a choice, do I?’ she asked.
‘You do,’ Spinner said. ‘I’ve spoken to Triumph. They’ve already agreed to take Essie back. They’ll take you, too, if you want to go.’
Annalie was nonplussed, assailed by conflicting feelings. ‘But—but I ran away. They wouldn’t want me back after that, would they?’
‘They think you’re one of the most capable students they’ve ever seen,’ Spinner said, ‘and they’d gladly have you back.’
‘But I’ve missed so much work,’ Annalie said.
‘You’ve got a lot to make up,’ Spinner said, ‘but you’ve had more on-water experience than most of those other girls will ever dream of. They’re willing to give you credit for that. The real question, though, is do you want to go?’ Spinner waited, studying her. ‘You weren’t all that happy there, were you?’
‘No,’ Annalie confessed. ‘Some of the girls were pretty mean. But that’s not really it.’ She paused. ‘Is it true you were in the Admiralty?’
‘Yes,’ Spinner said. ‘Things were a bit different, then—the Admiralty had had to get bigger very fast and they took me on in engineering. I sailed with them for four years.’
‘And did you think they were good? Or bad?’
Spinner thought about this. ‘They were good,’ he said slowly. ‘Mostly. You have to remember, they were very bad times, and sometimes they had to do things that weren’t very nice or very popular. But mostly, they were a force for good in the world.’
‘But what about Beckett? He went round the world acting like he could do whatever he wanted and nobody could stop him: destroying things, hurting people, and the Admiralty condoned all of it.’
Spinner nodded. ‘I think the Admiralty chose not to know too much about what he was up to, because he was effective. Now it’s blown up in their faces because he went too far, and he’s ended up in a Sundian jail.’
‘I guess the thing I want to know is, which is the real Admiralty? Is it Beckett and the people like him? Or is it Lieutenant Cherry?’
‘It’s easy to think of the Admiralty as this huge, monolithic thing,’ Spinner said. ‘As if it’s a giant with one
