31 The Elevator

Chapter 31 The Elevator Rockwell carefully slipped the rather fetching drawing of a trainer on to his foot. 'Just try not to touch it with your fingers,' said Peanut. ' That's what seems to initiate the crumbling process.' Right on cue, the illustrated lightbulb in her hand flickered as the drawing started to disintegrate. 'See? Right. Time to go.' She opened the door a few centimetres and peeped through the crack. The corridor was empty. All clear,' she said, before leading the party

out of the janitor's closet. At the far end of the long hallway she could see three black doors, beautifully inlaid with a gold, art deco design. As they got closer, the children saw that above each one was a slowly rotating needle pointing to a series of numbers on a semi-circular panel. 'Lifts. Perfect!' The elevators were situated at the mid-point of another corridor, perpendicular to the one they'd just walked down. Peanut pushed the 'V' button next to the door on the left, and watched as the needle began to move from its position pointing to number 3 around to the right. 'This must be a very tall building,' said Little-Bit. 'The numbers go up to a hundred and two. ' Well don't worry about that, cos we're going down,' replied Peanut. 'Thank goodness for that,' said Rockwell, sounding relieved. 'I'm not a huge fan of heights.' 'THERE THEY ARE!' The voice came from their right. 'GET THEM, YOU IDIOT!' shouted Mr White, as Alan,

at the far end of the corridor, broke into his rather lumbering version of a sprint. Peanut glanced up at the dial. The arrow had stopped at number 24. ' Press the other buttons!' she yelled. Rockwell and Little-Bit did as they were told and, luckily, a bell rang and the middle door immediately slid open. 'GET IN!' shouted Peanut, and, for the second time in less than two minutes the three of them dived through a door. To their right was a panel covered in numbered buttons. Quick! Press 1!' Rockwell hit the one at the very top of the panel, and to their relief the doors started to close immediately. ' STOP THAT LIFT!' Mr White's voice, increasing in volume with every word, accompanied the thud-thud-thud of Alan's rapidly approaching footsteps. The doors seemed to take an eternity to shut. The children watched helplessly as the opening shrank from fifty

centimetres to thirty to ten to five. Just before the doors met in the middle, four large, freckle-covered fingers shot through and gripped the edge. Without thinking, Rockwell pulled off his new shoe and started repeatedly hitting Alan's hand with it. ' OW! THAT REALLY HURTS!' shrieked the henchman, before letting go, allowing the doors to slam shut. Peanut and Little-Bit stared at Rockwell. He looked back at them, eyes wide with shock, while the shoe crumbled to dust in his hand. 'Oh well,' he said, as the fine, silvery grey powder ran through his fingers to the floor. 'Easy come, easy go.