15 The Eleven Portals

Chapter 15 The Eleven Portals So she's trapped in New York?' said Peanut. 'It seems likely,' sighed Mrs M, 'I just hope she's OK. We hope to find a way to bring her back one day.' And what about Mr White? Did he come back?' 'Well, that's the curious thing,' said Mr M. 'Another Resistance operative spotted him less than an hour later back at the Spire.' 'Less than an hour?' said Rockwell. 'How is that even possible?' Well, don't forget that by this time White had Conté's pencil in his possession. And, as you know, the great power of Pencil Number One is that it can draw portals between the worlds.'

'So we think White drew a new portal that led to the Spire, and he simply walked back through,' said Mrs M. 'Gosh, Conté really knew what he was doing when he invented that thing!' 'What happened next?' asked Rockwell. 'Well, we carried on with our surveillance,' said Mr M. 'We owed it to Frida not to give up. Millicent and I even went on a few of the reconnaissance mission ourselves.' 'And did you discover anything else?' said Peanut. ' Yes.' Mrs M nodded. Quite a lot actually. Over the next few months, White and his cronies started to make more trips to the city limits. And this time, he didn't stick to Warholia. He visited pretty much every district. First it was Vincent Fields, then the Grid, then Modernia. In fact, he worked his way around the entire city. Well, almost the entire city.' 'We should mention that he visited each district twice,' chimed in Mr M. 'The first trip must have always been a recce, of sorts, because after a few hours combing the city limits, he returned to the Spire alongside the RAZERs and Alan. Then they would all head back out in a much more targeted way a day or two later. And this time, crucially, the RAZERs and Alan would return to the Spire without White. The pattern was always the same. ' So he must have discovered more portals!' gasped Little-Bit.

'That's right, little one,' said Mrs M. 'But, fortunately, we also discovered them!' added Mr M. You see, Frida isn't our only surveillance expert. As Mr White found each portal and disappeared through them, one of our agents would be watching, and they would follow him a few minutes later when the coast was clear. They were under strict instructions to simply observe their surroundings, try to get a sense of where in the world they were, and come straight back through the portal as quickly as possible. We didn't want any repeats of what happened to Frida.' And were your agents able to tell where each portal led?' asked Rockwell. 'They were. We've managed to compile a pretty comprehensive list.' She handed a piece of paper to Peanut. ' Whoa!' said Peanut. 'So the portals lead to places all over the world?' Apparently so,' said Mrs M.

'Hang on a second.' Peanut pulled the map, with her handwritten list of missing artworks on the back, from her dungarees pocket. 'MomA, the Forbidden City, the Van Gogh Museum—this tallies almost perfectly with the missing masterpieces. The ones that have been mysteriously disintegrating. Apart from the National Portrait Gallery, these are the exact places they disappeared from!' 'I wondered if they might be,' said Mrs M. 'We were sure that Mr White must be stealing the artworks! Little-Bit worked out that, somehow, he must be making fakes here in Chroma, and replacing the originals. Then he probably brings the originals back here. I bet he's got them all stored somewhere in the Spire.' 'Quite possibly,' said Mrs M, 'and we will do our best to recover them.' That's outrageous!' said Rockwell. 'I wish we could just arrest him or something. ' Well, that could be a bit tricky due to the whole army-of-robots. thing,' said Mr M. 'To be honest,' said Mrs M, 'I think that the stealing of the artworks is a bit of a red herring. I'd wager that it's just a little distraction to keep him amused while he concentrates on his masterplan.' 'His masterplan?' said Rockwell, nervousness creeping into his voice.

'Yes. You see, when we sent agents back to the location of each portal a few hours after White went through them, on every single occasion the portal no longer worked. It had been closed. Just like that vent in Warholia,' said Mr M. And you think Mr White did that?' asked Peanut. 'We do.' 'So his masterplan is... to close all of the portals?' 'Yes. No portals means no creatives. And that would mean the end of the Illustrated City,' said Mrs M. 'So do you see why we must fight back?' said Mr M. 'We have to stop him.