“Wo!” said Hombellyton. “Easy, Lucia!”

He was already a bit green – as the TricTrucTrackers and Dot and her friends soared in their strange boat above Samson’s server headquarters.

They’d only been in the air a moment or two – but now their friend’s big smiling sun face was far, far below them – so far that they could only faintly hear his boomy voice coming up to them. “Good luck!” he went. “Safe boating it!”

“Never mind safe – a bit steadier would do for me” muttered Hombellyton, clutching the side of the boat. “For goodness sake, Lucia!”

“OO iz Lucia?” asked Fromage, holding on tight to the shoulder of Dot’s T-shirt.

The boat gave a little quiver, as if to say “That’s me!”

Because that’s what the TricTrucTrackers’ boat is called. I wonder why?

“I thought you knew everything!” said Walpurgis (oops - that’s me he’s talking to!)

“I mean – you are writing this story aren’t you? I mean here we are at - ” he pulled an E-book out of his funny jacket with all the pockets, tapped the screen so that a bluish light lit up his face, and chuckled.

“Here we are at Page 31 – surely you of ALL people know what’s happening by now?”

Er… no actually. I just go where Dot takes me.

Which means some pretty weird places, let me tell you! The court of King Henry VIII… deep in the Book Forests with the Zildiths of Phargon… net-voyaging with that foxy adventurer the Rogue Beamer… working with Sherlock Holmes to solve a mystery in a Victorian mansion… where’s that girl going to take me next?

Not to mention chasing the Grimbles, who make everyone using a computer do typing mistykes.

MISTAKES, there they go again! Foodles!

But then… when Sharon Doughty, who found Dot, asked if I could write her stories, she said “Just trust the Dot effect!”

Yeah, well… right…

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Walpurgis, turning to Dot and throwing his arms wide.

“NO!” said Dot, Wiz and Fromage all at the same time.

“Ah, well” said Walpurgis. “This must all be a bit of a surprise to you!”

It had been! After the TricTrucTrackers’ strange dance had made the boat they were now sitting in, Dot, Wiz and Fromage had suddenly found themselves lifted up in the air and placed very gently inside it.

It was QUITE a boat!!

It had soft red chairs like the ones in cinemas in rows up and down the sides. In front of each chair was a computer screen, and each screen had a strange paddle-shaped “mouse” on a desk in front of it, with a gently blinking blue light pointing to the screen. Near the stern – the back end – of the boat was a model railway – weaving in and out of mountains and forests, and with little stations along the line.

As they looked round, Katzilow had passed them, giving Dot a wink very like the one she’d had from one of the eyes along the outside of the boat. (I should add that once inside the TricTrucTrackers’ boat, you could see that the back of each of these “eyes” had its own small screen, rather like a mobile phone’s, except these turned round in a slow, clicking circle every so often.)

Katzilow went right up to the model railway. “Ermmm… vegetable samosa please!” he said in a loud clear, voice. “And some of that nice Greek yoghurt, too!”

“Oh NO” Hombellyton had muttered. “Don’t know how you can even THINK of food!”

With a whistle and a chuff-chuff, a little green and gold train came out of one of the “mountains” on the railway. On the truck behind it was a samosa (still gently steaming) and a little silver pot. The yoghurt.

“Mmmm!” said Katzilow “Just what I need!”

“Permanently hungry!” chuckled Eldenbeam.

There was a kind of hissing sigh from the front of the boat. Dot and Wiz and Fromage all turned round to look, though the TricTrucTrackers took no notice – apart from Walpurgis.

“Mmm!” he murmured. “A bit late, Lucy old thing!”

The boat gave a little hop in the air, as if to say “Sorry!”

As they watched, brilliantly-coloured streamers came up out of a row of neat little hatches on either side of the bow, standing up and twisting and fluttering in the breeze as the boat floated along. Each streamer was lit from below, so you could clearly see its elegant curving shape, constantly fluttering, but always standing up, at least a metre and a half tall.

“Combers all deployed!" said Walpurgis, rubbing his paws together. “Now we can get to work!”

Then he turned to Dot and her friends with a big wide beaky smile.

“But first – let me tell you all about Lucia!”