14 The Factory Vent and the Tin of Soup

Chapter 14 The Factory Vent and the Tin of Soup Oh no! What happened?' said Peanut. Mrs M took a deep breath and steeled herself. 'Well, as I said, Frida was our best available agent. When it comes to covert surveillance there are few finer.' As cunning as a fox and as stealthy as a jaguar,' said Mr M, a note of pride in his voice. 'She'd been tracking White for a long, long time,' continued Mrs M. 'In fact it was Frida who reported back on many of his original visits out to Warholia. After he stole Little Tail from you, however, those trips suddenly stopped. For a while at least.

Peanut bristled at the thought of that man being in possession of the magical pencil. Her magical pencil. 'For a while?' she said. ' Yes. Until a year after you last visited, in fact.' Her voice caught in her throat and she pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve. 'Oh, Millicent,' said Mr M, 'don't upset yourself. It's not your fault.' 'But I can't help feeling responsible, Malcolm,' she replied, dabbing at her eyes. 'Listen,' he said. ' Frida knew the risks. She knew what she'd signed up for.' 'So what happened?' asked Rockwell. 'She was at her regular post overlooking the Spire,' said Mrs M, 'when she saw Mr White, a platoon of RAZERs and Alan leave and head towards Warholia, just as they'd done many times before. So Frida followed them, at a safe distance, to the same place that they always used to visit a small alleyway at the side of one of the old factories in the industrial zone. But, this time, things were different.' 'How so?' asked Peanut. swell, a couple of minutes after arriving, the RAZERS and Alan turned right around and headed back to the Spire. Without White.' 'He must have gone through a portal!' gasped Little-Bit.

Mr M nodded. 'Frida immediately radioed in to tell us what had happened, and to ask whether she should investigate further. 'I was on the other end of that radio,' sniffed Mrs M, 'and I was the one that said she should. Mr M put an arm around his wife. 'Which was the right call. We'd been tracking him for years by this point. It was our breakthrough moment, so of course she had to investigate further.' 'So did she go and have a look down the alleyway?' asked Rockwell. 'She did. And, unsurprisingly, found that it was totally empty.' Mr M glanced over at his wife. 'But Frida did notice something. A small air vent, a metre or so from the floor, with its front panel slightly ajar.' 'She went through it, didn't she?' said Little-Bit. 'Indeed she did.' And where did it lead?' 'It led,' said Mr M, 'to MoMA, the Museum of Modern

Art in New York City!' 'NO WAY!' shouted all three children. ' Way,' deadpanned Mr M. 'Via one of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can paintings.' The children looked confused. 'In the Geffen Wing at MOMA,' explained Mr M,' there are thirty-two nearly identical soup-tin artworks, painted by Warhol and hung in a grid formation on the gallery wall. After Frida had squeezed through the air vent, she turned back to see what she'd climbed through, and saw that the painting on the far left of the bottom row had opened up like a door.' 'Ooh, cool!' said Little-Bit.

'So did she then follow Mr White through New York?' asked Peanut. 'That's the thing. We don't know,' said Mrs M, her voice thick with emotion. 'The last we heard from her was when she radioed to tell us about MoMA and the painting. She said she was going to investigate further, but the connection went dead soon afterwards.' 'So she didn't come back through the portal later on?' Unfortunately not. Of course, we sent backup to Warholia immediately, but by the time the agents arrived, the vent in the factory wall was... just a vent in a factory wall. 'What do you mean?' said Peanut. 'It didn't lead anywhere,' said Mr M. 'The portal had, somehow, been... closed. Doodle, still sitting on Little-Bit's lap, whimpered quietly. Mrs M shook her head. 'Which meant that Frida DaDa couldn't get back to Chroma. And she hasn't been seen since.