34 Josephine and the RAZERs

34 Josephine and the RAZERs Rockwell waited silently in the control room until the last of the footsteps had disappeared, then he stepped back into the empty corridor. The air felt slightly cooler than it had before, and, strangely, he could hear the faint sound of wind blowing. When he got to the lift lobby, he discovered why A huge, circular hole had been cut into the wall. It was just like the one that Peanut had made when they'd surfed down to the North Draw on her spray- paint slide during their first visit to the Spire. He felt a pang of nostalgia. She must have persuaded them all to paraglide down, he

thought. The feeling of relief that he hadn't had to talk his way out of that one was very welcome! He'd already decided that he would take the stairs, even before he saw Peanut's exit of choice. After all, the last thing Rockwell wanted was to bump into someone who recognised him, and he was pretty sure no one else would be stupid enough to walk down ninety-nine storeys. Anyway, his mum was always telling him that he should do more exercise, so he'd be killing two birds with one stone. Talking of stones, Rockwell remembered something that he'd overheard 67 say in the corridor. The robot had referred to Mr White as

Mr Stone. Why? Now that Mr White had been captured and his identity revealed, surely it made more sense to call him by his real name. It was a curious detail that, for some reason, had got Rockwell's brain whirring with all sorts of theories. He decided he would return to those later, but first he needed to get down to the lake. It took him about an hour to walk down the stairs to the ground floor. When he finally got there, not only did his thighs feel like someone had driven over them with a red-hot steamroller, but he also felt dizzy and sick from all the quarter- turn staircases. He slinked over, green-faced, to a shadowy corner in the Spire's main lobby and sat on the floor to wait for his head to stop spinning. Just as he sat down, a door to his right burst open and in

came two RAZERs carrying what looked like another RAZER on a gurney. Behind them walked a tall woman with short white hair, wearing a black polo-neck jumper. It was Josephine! She was the one person who Rockwell didn't mind bumping into at this moment. He stood and walked over to her. 'Hi, Josephine,' he said. 'Ah, Rockwell,' she said. 'There you are. I was wondering why you weren't outside with the others. Did you oversleep?' 'Something like that,' replied the boy. His eyes suddenly widened as he looked at the robot on the gurney. 'Hold on, is that... RAZER 72?' 'Yes, I believe it is,' she replied. 'Really? Did you fish them out of the lake? Down by Die Brücke?' 'Well, we didn't need to do much fishing, to be honest. The lake is virtually empty now and 72 was just lying on the bottom for all the world to see. Mr and Mrs M haven't started the refilling ceremony yet. In fact, if you hurry, you'll still make it in time to watch the water go back in.

You should, you know. It really is a historic moment. ' Yes, yes, I know. But... where are you going now?' 'Well, I thought I'd take 72 down to the basement and, y' know, have a tinker. Rockwell gasped. 'You're going to try to fix them?' he said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. ' Well, I thought I'd have a go,' she said, cautiously. 'Listen, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything. They have taken on a lot of water, but I figure if anybody can get 72 up and running again, it's me. After all, I designed and built the original RAZERs.' 'Josephine,' said Rockwell, hopefully. 'Can I come with you. Oh, please! I'm really into engineering and I'd love to learn more about it from somebody as brilliant and experienced as you. Josephine smiled. 'Flattery, young man, will get you everywhere. OK, I don't see why not. But only if you promise to do exactly as I tell you.' 'I promise,' he replied. Are you sure you don't mind missing the ceremony?' 'Positive,' Rockwell replied. 'When I get back to school, Mrs Bloyce is not going to believe this!' 'OK then,' said Josephine. 'Let's see what we can do for 72, shall we? I don't know about you, but when I see that something is broken, I must at least try to fix it.