42 The Siege Tower

42 The Siege Tower As the convoy approached the Spire, they were greeted by the intimidating sight of a Big X pointing straight towards them, surrounded by several inactive platoons of RAZERs. To the left and right, a number of equally imposing Big Xs sat in a circular formation around the edge of the lake, each one facing out towards a district of the city and flanked by more dormant RAZER platoons. Peanut noticed that there were also two robots sitting in each Big X cockpit, their eyes, thankfully, dark. The Rainbow Lake itself, resplendent in its perfectly striped, multicoloured glory, shimmered in the moonlight, and just beyond that, the enormous white Spire rose majestically into the night sky. 'Thank goodness the RAZERs have been deactivated,'

said Rockwell. 'I wouldn't fancy our chances otherwise.' 'Look. They've finished painting the crayon fence white now,' said Little-Bit sadly. 'And they've started monoing all of the districts.' She was right. The first hundred metres of each district was now entirely without colour. This made the lake look even more vibrant, although Peanut noticed that the water level was considerably lower than it had been the last time she had seen it. The Markmakers had warned her what to expect, but it was still a shock to see the beautiful Rainbow Lake only about three-quarters full. ' Yeah, but look at how many of us are here now to put a stop to all that stuff,' said Rockwell, turning towards the

impressive convoy behind them. Josephine was right, our numbers really have swollen. I don't want to tempt fate, but I think we're actually going to do this.' He turned back to Peanut, who was suddenly looking very worried. ' Er, what's wrong?' 'The drawbridge. It's raised,' she replied, her brow furrowed. And we need to get our operatives and vehicles across the lake as quickly as possible. It'll take ages for people to fly or swim over and lower the bridge by hand. That could well mean that Mr White and Alan will get back before we can get anywhere near Mission Control.' 'I bet the Markmakers will have known that this might happen,' said Little-Bit calmly. 'They'll have it covered. I know it.' 'What do you reckon they're going to do?' asked Rockwell. 'I think we're about to find out,' said Peanut. Suddenly a familiar voice sounded in their ears. ALL UNITS, THIS IS ZERO ALPHA,' said Mrs M. 'H MINUS ONE MINUTE. PREPARE TO LAUNCH OPERATION RENAISSANCE! SIEGE TOWER ENGINEERS, STAND BY TO MOVE. OUT.' A large and very pink lorry emerged from the pack, drove on to the concrete expanse that surrounded the Spire, and stopped about ten metres in front of the powered-down

Big X. Twelve Resistance operatives wearing X-shaped bandoliers holding ink bombs jumped out of the back of the vehicle and began to unload a large object, painted in blue gouache. They carefully placed the huge boxy structure in front of the truck, and then disappeared through a small door built into its side. 'ALL UNITS, THIS IS ZERO BETA. H-HOUR. SIEGE TOWER ENGINEERS, GOOD LUCK! FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE... MOVE!' said Mr M via the earpieces. Right on cue, the painted boxy structure appeared to grow vertically as a slightly smaller brushwork box shot up out of the original one. A second later, another slightly

smaller one shot up out of that. Then another, and another. This continued until the ingenious, tapering, telescopic tower had risen to a height of around thirty metres. Each level had a large opening cut into its side, through which the Resistance operatives could be seen climbing ladders as they made their way up the inside of the tower. Half of the operatives stopped at an open doorway ten metres from the top, and the other half went right to the summit. The children stared through the windows, open-mouthed at the rapidly erected tower. 'That was SO cool,' said Little-Bit. 'Classic Roman ingenuity,' said Rockwell. Amazing,' said Peanut. 'But what are they going to do now?' 'Well, they'll need some sort of gangplank to get across to the Spire. But first they'll have to breach its walls. I'm guessing they'll use some sort of trebuchet.' 'What does "breach" mean?' asked Peanut. 'Make a big hole,' he replied. ' Ah. So this is how they'll get people into the Spire without having to lower the drawbridge,' said a smiling Peanut. 'I knew they'd have a plan,' said Little-Bit. ' Er, Rocky. What's a trebuchet?' Rockwell grinned. ' Peanut, can you write today's date down please? It's a momentous occasion. I want to remember it as the day that I knew something that LB didn't.'