‘Oh man, that’s rough,’ said Ant.
Griff visibly swallowed his anger and carried on. ‘Dad’s only told me now because they think it’s all over. Apparently, Ray-Chay is coming back and Kody’s going to hold a press conference at the hotel tomorrow to reassure everybody that it’s super-safe. Straight after that, he’s leaving.’
‘We’ve got to do something!’ said Rubie.
‘This could be our last chance to find out about Operation Wipeout,’ agreed Ant. ‘Griff, mate, this is incredible! Is there any way you can sneak us in there?’
‘Come with me after school,’ said Griff. ‘There might be some way of getting close to Kody. We could listen in on what he’s saying.’
‘Like detectives.’ Rubie nodded at Ant. ‘If we could only get close enough, I could use my phone to record him. That would be hard evidence we could take to the newspapers or the police. Kody Crunch would be exposed for what he is.’
All three stared at one another with mounting excitement.
Ant noticed the lower end of the field was beginning to clear, a sign that the bell was about to ring. Griff fumbled in his backpack for his sandwiches and ate hurriedly as they walked back to the school building.
‘I don’t think I ever said thanks,’ he said to Ant. ‘For helping get Mum back, mate. I’m sorry I behaved like such an idiot, you know, before it all happened.’
He stopped and did a very old-fashioned thing: stuck out his hand for Ant to shake. The fact he had half a sandwich hanging out of his mouth at the time didn’t spoil the moment.
‘That’s okay,’ said Ant, thinking it was amazing how people could change.
‘I’m sorry for a lot of things,’ said Griff. ‘Including getting so obsessed with Ray-Chay in the first place.’
‘Like my dad says: You’ve got to be bigger than the game,’ said Ant.
‘But are you all right, Ant,’ Rubie asked, ‘after your dragon from that other game got destroyed?’
‘Pradahl?’said Ant. ‘Well, I’ve got a bit of good news there too…’ And he told them all about it as they walked back into school.
19
Detective Work
The Oak Suite, on the first floor, was the fanciest suite in the King’s Elm Hotel-plus-Health-Spa. It was where honeymoon couples usually stayed, with an emperor-size four-poster bed, a whirlpool bath and a balcony overlooking a small lake, where they could eat breakfast while admiring the swans. To a multi-millionaire like Kody Crunch, the Oak Suite was probably slumming it. Nevertheless this is where he’d been living since his secret arrival in Westford Abbey. Griff’s dad had told him Kody had rented the whole floor. The other bedrooms were for his investigators or just kept empty, as Kody hadn’t wanted any members of the public staying there and spotting him. Most of his team had left now, as would Kody after the press conference.
The cleaning cupboard right next to the Oak Suite wasn’t nearly as glamorous, but this is where Ant and Rubie hid after school with Griff, who had sneaked the key from the main desk downstairs. There wasn’t much room, with a vacuum cleaner in there and the trolley the cleaners used, piled high with clean towels, soaps, tea bags and individually wrapped biscuits. Clean bedding was stored on shelves on one side of the cupboard, but the wall adjoining the Oak Suite was empty and right now the three kids had their ears stuck to that wall, trying to listen to the conversation on the other side.
‘Hang on,’ whispered Rubie. ‘We’re doing this wrong. There’s a trick I remember from old detective films.’ She took a drinking glass from the trolley, the sort that held the guests’ toothbrushes. She held the bottom of the glass to her ear while pressing the open end to the wall. She beamed a huge grin and gave them a thumbs up, so Ant and Griff copied her.
Suddenly it was much easier to hear what was being said and they could even make out who was speaking. In a weird echo of the Parkworld, Ant recognised not only Kody Crunch’s voice but also his deputy and the guard’s voices.
‘I can’t wait to get out of here,’ said Kody. They could hear him pacing from one end of the room to the other.
‘One more day,’ said his deputy. ‘Soon as the press conference is over tomorrow, we can get going. None of us will ever have to set foot in crummy Westford Abbey again.’
‘Can’t wait,’ agreed the guard.
‘You did real good, Kody,’ the deputy said. ‘Heck, you did great. Ray-Chay will come back more popular than ever, I know it.’
‘And just because you didn’t find out what went wrong with that rareio…’ added the guard.
‘Just button it, Norm!’ Kody rounded on him. ‘Thank you, Cheryl, that’s sweet of you to say so.’
In the cupboard, Ant, Rubie and Griff glanced at one another. Now they knew the deputy was ‘Cheryl’ and the guard was ‘Norm’. Their relationships sounded pretty similar to the Parkworld, with Norm getting picked on by Kody, even though he seemed to be the only one saying anything sensible. If Ant hadn’t felt so anti everyone to do with Crunch Hut, he might have felt sorry for Norm.
Kody was clearly in a bad mood. ‘If I could only lay hands on those stupid kids,’ he growled. ‘Showing up like that and spoiling everything.’
‘Perhaps we should put some warning out with the Ray-Chay suit. Something like: “Each player must only wear their suit with the correct headset”? It might stop little idiots like the Lansdowne boy stealing a higher-level player’s headset to wear with his own suit.’
Inside the cupboard, Griff made a face at the
