10 The library

CHAPTER TEN The library

The moles tunnelled through the night, being careful not to hit the Twinklenuts electric fence. Ingrid glanced at her extremely hi-tech satellite navigation system, which she had borrowed from Pamela. It seemed to be held together with rubber bands and old chewing gum but Pamela insisted that it worked 'just fine'. 'We are in Twinklenuts,' Ingrid announced grandly. 'So now we must dig upwards. Dig, I tell you!' She thumped a mole with her handbag to hurry them up. Emo Omar was the first to emerge, and he immediately put on his sunglasses as his sensitive mole eyes adjusted to the bright light. They were in a huge, musty room. The wooden floor was covered in tatty rugs and there were rows and rows of small tables. In front of every table were a lamp and a brown leather chair. And surrounding the tables were oodles of bookshelves, totally crammed with books. 'There's a special word for this kind of place,' gasped Willow. 'Yes. It's called a library,' said Nancy. 'Something like… the bookyplace,' said Willow, ignoring Nancy entirely. 'The lonkywonk… the wordybank…' 'I said it's called a library,' said Nancy. 'The fustyroom… the bonkenhause… the wonkywang…' 'LIBRARY,' said Nancy, shoving Willow to one side and marching into the room. Emo Omar scurried straight for the poetry section. The other moles scattered, keen to explore.

There was a huge door leading off from the main library room. Nancy pushed it open and was faced with a maze of corridors. She gave a low whistle. 'How big is this place?' she wondered aloud as she stepped through the door and continued on. Every now and then she would pass a large, locked door. She tried every single one, but none of them opened. Nancy grunted in frustration. They needed to find a way out of the library if they were ever going to spy on the Twinklenuts treebonk team. Nancy was about to turn back when she spotted what looked like a trapdoor. She bent down and pressed her ear to it. Could she hear voices? She couldn't be sure. Meanwhile, Ted was roaming around between the bookshelves, pulling out books here and there. There was a whole section dedicated to a newsletter called The Twinklenuts Telegraph. He took one out at random and gasped at the headline: The Twinklenuts Telegraph. NEW MAYOR FOR TWINKLENUTS

In a shock result, mysterious newcomer Sebastian Silver has been elected as Mayor of Twinklenuts by 154 votes! The old mayor, Crusty McTavish, has left office with immediate effect. Most residents of Twinklenuts are 'stunned' and 'surprised' as Crusty McTavish had been a popular and kind mayor for many years. 'I've got BIG plans for Twinklenuts,' said Sebastian Silver. 'Crusty McTavish allowed the townsfolk of Twinklenuts to get smelly, lazy and ugly. But things are going to change around here. I'm going to clean this place up. Hotels! Roads! Funfairs! Shopping malls! A space station! Trust me, soon the money's going to start rollin' in and we're all going to be RICH, RICH beyond our wildest dreams!' Crusty McTavish was not available for comment, and a nearby worm advised that he has 'gone on a very long cruise in Antarctica to look at penguins'. 'Cor,' said Ted. 'Sebastian must be SO clever to become mayor just like that,' he said. 'And he looks so cool. I wonder if all grown-up foxes dress so well.' Willow had hopped over and rolled her eyes. 'Sebastian this, Sebastian that,' she snapped. 'Have you forgotten that rotter wants to take Grimwood away from us?' 'Of course not,' said Ted. 'But to be fair, according to that map, Grimwood is already in Twinklenuts.'

Willow narrowed her eyes. 'Hmph! I think it's a stupid map. And what about Titus? I don't trust this Sebastian Silver as far as I could throw him,' said the cute little bunny-wunny. 'And I bet I could throw him really far.' Ingrid the duck had hopped up to the very top of the bookshelves and was tapping the ceiling. 'What are you doing?' shouted Willow. 'If we are to complete our mission, we must find a way out of this godforsaken book room!' she quacked. 'Aha!' Ted and Willow ran over to look. Ingrid had found an air vent and was trying to yank the grill off with her beak. 'Go and fetch your ferocious sister,' she said to Ted. 'I could use a bit of her furry muscle.' Nancy was still sniffing around the trapdoor when she heard Ted calling for her. She dashed back to find him pointing up at Ingrid. 'She's found a way out, sis!' said Ted. Oh, thank goodness they've found a way out! I was getting awfully claustrophobic. But

then I am currently trapped inside a matchbox. Um, could somebody let me out please? Hellooooo? Everyone blinked a few times as their eyes adjusted to the light and fresh air. Fairy lights were strewn between the tree trunks and wind chimes tinkled in the breeze. They were in Twinklenuts all right. 'So how do we find the treebonkers, then?' Nancy asked. 'Aha!' said Ingrid, shaking a flimsy-looking plastic box. 'We'll use my foolproof top-secret satellite navigation system.' Then a spring went boing and a screw came loose and part of the box fell off. 'Oh,' said Ingrid. And then Willow pointed to a sign that said 'Treebonk practice, this way', which was very useful indeed. Some minutes later, Willow, Ted, Ingrid and Nancy were hiding in a prickly, thorny bush, spying on the Twinklenuts