Here we go. Lucy had heard Fisher ramble on like this before. He couched his ambition in romantic notions of progress and discovery, but she could see through it: the man just wanted to make money. He may as well have dollar signs for eyes. When she looked over to Milo, though, he seemed more confused than ever.
Thingus cried out as Quittan approached his tank with another syringe filled with the nasty blue substance.
Milo snapped out of his bewilderment. “Stop hurting him!” he yelled.
The lights flickered, then dimmed as an alarm began to blare. WOMP! WOMP! WOMP!
“What’s this now?” muttered Fisher.
Dummer’s grip on Lucy loosened.
She seized her chance and stomped on his foot, then twisted out of his reach. The flustered goon swiped at thin air, missing her by a hair.
Before Dummer could chase her, his attention was diverted by the sound of loud voices in the hallway and an odd banging that sounded like… What is that, hoofbeats? The security duo booked it out into the hall, panicked shouting filling the room as the doors swung closed behind them.
Lucy sprinted towards Thingus. The ginger-haired scientist scrambled out of her way as she leapt in the air and threw a flying kick at the tank, hitting it with a solid THONK, but failing to break the thick glass. She slid to the ground, her knee aching. Cripesauce.
Fumbling for her glasses, which had fallen on the floor, Lucy was confronted by a pair of pointy leopard-print shoes.
“Nice try,” said Quittan, looking smug. “But the glass is fortified.”
The ceiling sprinkler system activated and a second alarm began to blare.
Lucy slipped on her glasses. “Who says I’m done trying?”
“Scotty, seize the girl,” Quittan commanded.
The red-haired scientist looked around as if unsure she was speaking to him. He half-heartedly reached for Lucy. Too fast to be caught, she darted round the tank, looking for another way to break the vessel.
Energised, Thingus squealed, flapping his albatross wings and twisting against the tubes embedded in his furry torso.
“Can somebody please get the girl away from the asset?” yelled Fisher, holding Milo in place.
CLONK! The lab doors swung inwards as Dum ran into the room, swatting at a magpie with iridescent teal wings that was pecking at his head.
Lucy recognised it as one of the birds that had invaded the animal-testing room. That’s not one of Nu Co.’s test subjects, she realised, that’s a Pretender!
“Get it off me! Get it off,” yelled Dum.
A puddle of black gelatinous goo trickled under the still swinging doors, seeming to move of its own accord. It congealed and transformed into a second larger magpie with a black head and white chest. The magpie flapped its wings and darted up to the ceiling, then dive-bombed Quittan.
The doctor grabbed an IV stand and tried to bat the bird away.
Milo broke free from his father and ran to Lucy, clinging to her side.
“What’s happening?” he said.
“I told you the Pretenders were coming to free Thingus!” she exclaimed.
PAKKKROSHH!
The double doors flew off their hinges as a massive tawny mountain goat with enormous curled horns rammed its way into the room. Head down, muscled legs pounding at full speed, the mighty ibex tilted at the glass prison.
SMASHK-K-KKSH!
The ibex hit the tank with tremendous force. The impact created a web of cracks that spread and crackled until the container shattered, foamy liquid cascading to the floor. Thingus clambered out of the broken vessel and wilted to the ground. Spluttering, he opened his albatross wings, which spanned at least three metres, then shook off the remaining tubes and electrodes from his body. Standing on shaky legs, he raised his reptilian head and howled like a coyote: “OWOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
Milo threw his arms round Thingus’s neck, while Lucy buried her face in his soggy feathers. The creature purred, nuzzling Milo’s shoulder.
Meanwhile, the ibex Pretender cornered the team of cowering scientists. It bowed its horned head and pawed the floor, snorting.
Doctor Quittan shrieked and scurried out through the busted doorway and into the hall. Scotty and the last of the white coats hustled after her, the goat thundering close behind.
The smell of smoke wafted through the lab’s open threshold. A fire had clearly broken out somewhere down the hall.
I did wonder whether using a flamethrower indoors was a good idea…
“We need to get above ground,” Fisher called, poised at the doorway.
“I’m not leaving without Thingus,” said Milo. He coughed as the smoke thickened.
“Fine.” Fisher held out his hands, as if in surrender. “If it’s the only way to get you to safety,” he said, “you can bring that Thing to the surface.”
Milo burst into a grin. “Thank you!”
Lucy led the way through the broken doors and into the hazy hallway, looking anxiously at Fisher as she passed. Thingus trotted after her, his hooves clacking as clumsily as a newborn calf, his oversized wings dragging on the ground. Milo followed close behind, while Fisher brought up the rear.
Her eyes stinging, Lucy spotted a trail of white mice racing out of the animal-testing room and towards the exit. She paused to check inside. The cages were open and empty, and the chimps were nowhere to be seen. The Pretenders must have gotten them out!
As they ran further down the hallway, flames flickered angrily inside the testing rooms they had previously passed. An explosion sent a hail of sparks surging from a door at their side.
Lucy screamed and fell back against the corridor wall.
“Keep moving!” Fisher bellowed, emerging from a thick cloud of smoke.
They ran until they reached the elevator. Lucy pressed the call button repeatedly.
“Not that way,” Fisher croaked. He gestured to the end of the hall. “There.”
Lucy raced through an open door to an emergency staircase. The last of Fisher’s scientists were several flights up, sprinting towards the top. Smoke billowed upwards through the shaft, illuminated by flashing red emergency lights. The stairway seemed endless.
Thingus bumped into Lucy as
