65 Dad

65 Dad 'Hello, Peanut,' said the man in the dark room. She exhaled. And then she smiled. 'Hello, Dad.' DADDY!' yelled Little-Bit. She ran straight past Peanut and leaped into her father's open arms, tears streaming down her face. 'I've missed you so much!' 'I've missed you too, beanbag,' he said. ' Oh, you've got so big!' Leo stepped forward, nervously. Dad. I, I...' 'I know, son, I know,' said Dad before Leo could say any more. He gently lowered Little-Bit to the floor, then grabbed his son and pulled him in for one of his famous

bear hugs. 'I'm SO proud of you, Leo. You did it! You got them here! You're all here!' Then he looked round at Peanut, his eyes shining in the light that was streaming through the grate. She smiled, shyly. And as for you,' he said. ' My little artist. You're quite the hero, I'm told. Come here, Peanut.' She cuddled him tightly, burying herself deep in his beardy embrace. 'I always believed in you, Dad,' she said, tears pricking her eyes. 'Always.' 'Ahem,' came a voice from near the Post-it note door. 'Oh, yes,' said Peanut, turning around. 'Dad, this is my friend Rockwell Riley.' 'Pleased to meet you, sir,' said Rockwell. 'I've heard so much about you. 'Likewise, young man. Thank you for being such a good friend to my girls.' 'Oh, no problem. Being their friend is pretty easy, really.' He looked at Little-Bit, and smiled. 'Well, most of the time. Er, can I ask a question, Mr Jones? Where are we? And what happened after you escaped from the Spire?' That's two questions,' said Little-Bit.

'Yes, of course,' said Dad. 'I can see see that you guys need some answers. Well, firstly, I can assure you that we're somewhere safe. We're very close to Chroma, that's all you need to know for now. And as for my escape, I actually had quite a bit of help. Suddenly, the two glowing red lights in the corner of the room turned bright green, and a tall silver robot emerged from the shadows. 'Greetings, Jones children,' they said in a metallic voice. 'Greetings, Jones children's friend.' 'RAZER!' yelled Rockwell, before diving under the desk at the back of the room and covering his head with his hands. 'Rockwell,' said Dad. ' There's nothing to worry about. This is 67. They're on our side. Without them, I never would have got out. ' Gary! Don't forget about me!' A gruff voice, with a broad Glaswegian accent, appeared to be coming from somewhere on the floor near Rockwell. The children looked down, just in time to see

a large, brown rat saunter out from under the desk. Rockwell leaped to his feet, jumped on to the chair and started screaming. 'AARGH! IT'S A RAT!' he howled. ' Kids, this is Woodhouse,' said Dad, stifling a laugh. 'His help has been invaluable. Without him, you wouldn't be here in this room with me now. All right, wee ones? It's grand to finally catch up with you all. A pleasure to meet you too, Woodhouse,' said a smiling Little-Bit. 'And you, 67.' 'Dad, I have to ask,' said Peanut. 'Why didn't you come and help us at the Battle for the Spire?' Dad walked over to the desk. 'I know it's difficult for you to understand,' he said, and heaven knows it was very hard for me to stay away, but according to the stories, Conté's heir is the source of the kind of power White can only dream of. That is a huge threat to him.' 'So if you have this power, why not use it to help with the battle?' asked Peanut. 'I wish I could have, but the secret of how the power works has been lost for many years. Until I can uncover the secret,

I have to stay hidden from White. If he had managed to lure me out into the open, and capture me again, the Resistance would have lost its best chance to destroy White's threat to Chroma once and for all. When I was first imprisoned in the Spire, no one knew I was Conté's heir. But now White knows, he will stop at nothing to get rid of me. I won't jeopardise everything that the Resistance is working towards.' 'Working towards?' said Rockwell from his position atop the chair. 'Ah, of course! You won't have heard the news! We won the battle! The Resistance has control of the Spire! We're not working towards anything! Because we've already done it!' 'I did hear the news, actually,' replied Dad. 'I've been keeping a close eye on what's been happening from here.' He pointed at a small, primitive-looking computer on the desk. 'You've all done so much for this city already.' 'So... what did you mean by working towards?' asked Peanut. Dad stood up. A shadow seemed to pass across his face. 'I'm afraid, children, that Chroma will never be fully liberated until the day that Mr White is captured. Unless he is physically locked inside a cell, he remains a danger to us and to everything we stand for. To the very existence of creativity.' He walked over to the grates and looked outside. 'You're right, Rockwell. The Battle for the Spire is won. But I'm afraid the war is not over. The room was silent for a good thirty seconds before Peanut spoke.