Before he had a chance to think what he should do, Ant felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he came face to face with the dolphin he’d met during Ray-Chay in the Park. It was a weird echo of their first meeting, when she’d captured the first chaser in the same golden bandstand.
‘What are you doing here?’ whispered Ant.
‘I could ask you the same question!’ whispered the dolphin. ‘I’m level 25 in Ray-Chay. I could take on the rareio. At least I’m willing to try…’
‘That’s great,’ whispered Ant, ‘but there’s something you need to know.’
It was obvious that the dolphin hadn’t heard what he’d just heard. It was just as obvious that she wasn’t remotely interested in listening to Ant.
‘The other day you asked me how I got to be level 25?’ the dolphin whispered. ‘Okay, I have done plenty of level-grinding, slogging away to build up points, but basically, I just love the game. I want to see everything return to normal so we can play Ray-Chay again. Oh, and of course I want to help those frozen gamers. I’m ready to put my skills to the test and defeat that thing. I just know I can do it!’
‘Wait. Hold on a moment. I’ve got to tell you something,’ whispered Ant, but the dolphin was too pumped up to listen. Its eyes were shining and it was wiggling from side to side, getting ready to jump out and surprise the investigators. Ant persisted, ‘Those guys don’t want to destroy it. That’s what they’ve told everyone but really they’re just studying it to find out what went wrong. Do you see the boss, the guy in the middle? Can you guess who that actually is?’
The dolphin still wasn’t listening. Nothing was going to stop it from doing what it had come to do. Without saying another word, it leaped from the bushes, catching the guard by surprise.
‘Who are you?’ The guard aimed his lightning-rod weapon at the dolphin, who raised its fins as though surrendering.
‘I’m here to help,’ said the dolphin. ‘I’m a level-25 player in Ray-Chay. I could take on the rareio. I know it’s dangerous but I want to have a go.’
‘Sorry, buddy, you just got yourself banned.’ The guard turned a dial on his lightning rod and zapped the dolphin. It disappeared immediately.
More anger bubbled up inside Ant, but he had to keep a lid on it. You’ve got to be bigger than the game, that’s what Ant had to hang on to now. He had to concentrate. Banning a level-25 player for nothing was just the tip of this Titanic-wrecking iceberg.
Dealing with the rareio was going to be a lot harder than he’d imagined. It also meant taking on Kody Crunch, a total hypocrite who wasn’t the slightest bit interested in saving the frozen gamers. And overshadowing all this was something called Operation Wipeout.
Ant crept back to Pradahl and Griff and told them what he’d just heard. Griff was furious and just managed to stop himself rushing up the hill to confront Kody Crunch. How could Kody do this? How could he leave Griff’s mum lying there in hospital for a single second longer than he had to?
‘We daren’t show ourselves yet.’ Ant held Griff back. ‘We’d get banned straight away, just like the dolphin. That’d be it.’
‘What can we do?’ Griff looked tearful. ‘I’ve got to save my mum and the others. How are we going to destroy the rareio when Kody Crunch is actually protecting it? It’s unbelievable!’
‘We need to get it out of the bandstand somehow,’ Ant decided. ‘Then Pradahl can attack it from the sky. She can use all her special moves when she’s in the air. One thing’s for sure, Griff: whatever we try, we’re only going to get one shot at it. We have to stay cool!’
Griff nodded reluctantly. ‘What about coming back at night when Kody and the others have gone home?’
‘No good.’ Ant shook his head. ‘Lance told me there are Crunch Hut investigators here all the time. When one team finishes, another takes over. Maybe he’s not here the whole time, but they’ll all be following his plan.’
‘Then what about waiting till they transfer the rareio to Kismet Cosmos?’ pleaded Griff. ‘It might be easier to attack it there.’
Ant took a deep breath. He was trying not to blurt out that he didn’t want his favourite game wrecked, because that wasn’t the most important issue. ‘If they did transfer the rareio to Kismet Cosmos,’ he said, ‘Kismet’s a big place. How would you fancy searching ninety-nine-plus planets? It could take months to find the rareio and by that time…’
He didn’t finish the sentence but Griff nodded. By that time, the frozen gamers could be in a worse state than they were now. Whatever they were going to do, they had to do it soon. If they came back tomorrow, the rareio might be gone.
‘Plus I really want to find out what this mysterious Operation Wipeout is, and the sooner we do that the better,’ Ant carried on. ‘There could be something very big going down here. It’s clearly something Kody doesn’t want anyone knowing about. There’s no point us running to the police or the newspapers because he’ll only deny it. It’s down to us, Griff. Like I say, first things first: we must get the rareio out into the open.’
They stood and thought. Suddenly, Griff looked excited. ‘I know I’m a low-level player, so the rareio isn’t likely to want to jump into me and freeze me,’ he said. ‘But it hates the sight of me. Anger seems to give it strength. It absolutely detests me. If it saw me right now, it would flip out completely.’
‘And break out of the
