55 Captured

55 Captured The rest of the afternoon passed without incident, something that they were all thankful for. After a couple of hours, they arrived at a long, white wooden fence that ran in a perfectly straight line towards the centre of the city. The rolling hills, brimming with flowers, trees and crops, all stopped suddenly and with precision at the boundary. On the other side of the fence was water. A lot of water. A huge expanse, perfectly still, like a horizontal mirror. A few metres from them was a tall signpost, similar to the one that Peanut had seen back in the North Draw. Die Bruk?' shouted Little-Bit looking up at the sign. 'What's a Die Bruk?'

'You pronounce it "'Dee Brooker",' said Rockwell. 'It's German for "The bridge".' 'Great! Let's swim to the bridge then ,' said Little-Bit gleefully. Rockwell groaned. 'I hate swimming. 'We won't have to swim,' said Peanut. ' Look. To their left were several small, woodblock-print rowing boats tied to a jetty. They jumped over the fence and climbed into the first boat. Leave this to me. I did canoeing in the Cubs once,' said Rockwell proudly. 'Peanut, please would you unhitch the rope.' After several failed attempts at launching (it took him a while to remember that the rower shouldn't be facing forwards), Rockwell eventually started pulling the boat through the water. The lake was huge, extending out past the city limits to their left, and almost as far as the Spire to their right. Peanut lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the bright red glow of the swirling, angry-looking sky. She noticed that

she was shaking. She felt nervous, but wasn't sure why. They could see the bridge more clearly now: a simple structure interrupted by windowless double-height towers every hundred metres or so. At its left-hand end, a wide set of stairs led down to a small, grassy island, attached to which was another jetty. It's the beginning,' said Peanut while scanning the area for their Resistance contact. 'The beginning of the bridge that

leads directly to the Spire.' A couple of minutes later they arrived at the island and hitched the boat to a post. It was only when they walked up the stairs and were standing at the end of the bridge that they noticed that the towers weren't, in fact, entirely windowless. Each one had a small opening near the top, and a door at the bottom, facing back along the length of the bridge. And at each window stood a RAZER. The RAZER in the nearest tower was looking straight at the four new arrivals on the bridge. Its eyes instantly

changed from green to red. Then, with alarming speed, it disappeared from the top window, reappeared at the door and zoomed silently towards them. Instinctively Peanut scooped up Little-Bit, and Rockwell grabbed Doodle, but before they had a chance to formulate a plan, the robot was upon them. ' CODE RED! CODE RED! I HAVE LOCATED THE CONSPIRATORS!' it bellowed. As quick as a flash, two metal arms extended around either side of the group, forming a loop, which then rapidly contracted, pulling the foursome tight against the robot's body and lifting their feet off the floor. Then a little door opened up on its side and four thin cables shot out and attached themselves to the prisoners' ankles. They were well and truly captured. ' RAZER 72 CALLING ALL UNITS. I HAVE THE

CONSPIRATORS. TRANSPORTING THEM TO SECTOR 1 IMMEDIATELY!' The robot then spun 180 degrees on the spot, and started to glide, at speed, along the bridge towards the Spire. ' Er, what just happened?' said Rockwell, trying not to sound scared. 'We blew it, that's what' Peanut sighed, glancing nervously up at the Spire. ' After everything we've been through, we blew it. Little-Bit looked up at RAZER 72. ' Hello, Mr Robot. Where are you taking us?' It didn't reply. It just kept hurtling along the bridge, past tower after tower. Peanut noticed two green lights in every window turn to red as they approached, and all of a sudden, her head started to ache. She put her hands to her temples and wondered how she'd got into this mess. This is it, she thought. I've let everybody down. She felt like screaming.