For now, it was enough to be with his dragon again.
18
Three Kids
On Monday, Ant and Rubie met at the tennis court at lunchtime. Griff was late. Ant went over everything he’d overheard Kody and his team talking about in the Parkworld. When Kody had freaked out at his guard, he’d said he stood to lose a load of money if his plan wasn’t successful, but why would he even care that much, he was already a multi-millionaire? They both agreed that he was a greedy slimeball.
‘A slimeball everyone’s congratulating right now,’ said Rubie and she started doing some weird but funny voices: ‘Isn’t he such an all-round great guy, saving all those people? Isn’t he the smartest ever techie genius you ever met?’
‘And because Griff got the blame for the rareio going wrong in the first place, the creep looks completely blameless, even though it was his game they were playing when all those players got frozen.’ Rubie was looking past Ant’s shoulder as he said this and gave a slight shake of her head. Ant glanced behind and saw a suspiciously quiet group of kids watching them.
Without a word, he and Rubie turned and began walking up the field until they were sure they wouldn’t be overheard. Ant took the cheese roll from his backpack and Rubie took a packet of sandwiches from hers. They began to eat as they walked along.
‘We can’t tell anyone, can we?’ said Rubie, through a mouthful of tuna mayonnaise.
‘I was about to say the same,’ said Ant, shaking his head. ‘People won’t believe us if we say we killed the rareio. They’d think we were trying to get attention. And if we tell them what little we know about Operation Wipeout, they won’t take us seriously.’
‘Kody would just deny it anyway,’ agreed Rubie. ‘I mean, he’s the owner of this massive games company and who are we? Three kids. By the way, where is the third kid?’
‘Should be along soon,’ said Ant.
A railway track ran parallel to the school field. Without warning, a train sped past and for two seconds Ant saw all the passengers squashed into their seats, each trusting the driver to take them where they wanted to go, to the destination written on their ticket. All of them so, so trusting, just like the gamers playing Ray-Chay.
‘If only we could hire someone, like a detective, to go undercover and find out about Operation Wipeout,’ said Ant. ‘Get some real, hard evidence. Kody couldn’t deny anything then, and everyone would find out what an A-grade slime he is. We could put a stop to it before anyone else gets hurt.’
‘I suppose, in a way, we are undercover,’ said Rubie. ‘I mean, Kody doesn’t know who we are. And if he is looking for you, he’s only looking for two kids, isn’t he? And there are three of us. That might be enough to throw him off the scent.’
It had already crossed Ant’s mind that Kody might be looking for him and Griff. What would he do if he did track them down, try and bribe them again?
‘At the moment, he doesn’t have a clue who we are,’ said Ant. ‘You don’t have to have an account to play Ray-Chay, everything’s in the suit. Griff and I didn’t use our real names in front of them. And our avatars don’t look anything like us.’
They stood in silence and thought.
‘I bet you any day now,’ Ant started up again, ‘Kody will make this big announcement, that Ray-Chay’s one hundred percent safe and it’s coming back, and before you know it, he’ll be controlling people and getting them to do whatever he wants. How can we stop him?’
‘I’d be too scared to play Ray-Chay again, even if I got another suit,’ sighed Rubie. ‘I think you’re right. If the rareio can freeze those players in real life, Kody can probably control people in real life. What are we going to do?’
They spotted Griff running up the field towards them, weighed down by his heavy backpack. Panting heavily when he got to them, he dumped the backpack on the ground and bent forwards, holding his knees, as he tried to get his breath back.
‘Griff, mate, where were you?’ said Ant.
‘Maths,’ he said. ‘Half the class … hadn’t done their homework … Mr Lloyd gave everyone an ear-bashing.’
‘That is so unfair,’ said Rubie. ‘If you’re in the half that has done their homework and you’ve got to sit there for ages being lectured like that.’
‘What? Oh, yeah…’ Griff gave a sheepish little smile. ‘It is really annoying, you’re right.’
Rubie raised her eyebrows and Ant smirked at her. Rubie’s half of the class clearly wasn’t Griff’s half.
‘How’s your mum?’ asked Ant.
‘Same as ever,’ Griff chuckled even though he was still panting. ‘Soon as she got home, she was finding things to moan about. She had a go at me for not tidying my room! It’s fantastic to have her back, though. I apologised to her for taking the rareio and I’ve promised to do loads of jobs around the house to try to make up for it. Listen, guys, I have got to tell you something and you’re not going to believe it…’
He stood up straight and Ant saw that he was bursting with news, his eyes like saucers.
‘All this time, Kody Crunch has been staying at my parents’ hotel and I never knew!’
Ant and Rubie’s jaws dropped. There were just no words.
Griff carried on. ‘They’ve all been there. They’ve been eating in their rooms and using the back entrance to come and go. Most of them have left now, except Kody and a couple of others. Only my Dad and a handful
