ZAPPETTA-CRASHETTA!

“Ow!” said Walpurgis. “That was a bit rough Lucia!”

They were inside TZ66 all right - but their entry hadn't gone as smoothly as they hoped.

As Lucia rushed straight towards the door into the Tzone, it had opened OK.

But what they met the other side was completely unexpected by the TricTrucTrackers, despite their long experience of working their searches throughout the Net, and especially inside Tzones, where there was often a “concentration” of lost and founds to be hunted - with plenty of chances of success.

As Walpurgis was to explain to Dot later, normally a Tzone Entry Plateau was like a cross between an airport arrival lounge and a sky full of clouds - except the clouds were lined up in a row, ready to take you inside the Tzone. You just floated onto one after crossing the portal (the big gate Dot had seen on the outside) with the permission of your Tzonecard.

Everyone did the same: whether they were in a Tracboat like Lucia, or free-flying visitors like the BeamChasers - little bird-like creatures with folding helicopter rotors instead of wings - or even Server Servants, the maintenance men and women of the Net, dark brown squirrels wearing backpacks full of net tools to fix Tzone breakdowns.

The Server Servants would arrive inside little circular flying pods called Picboats - which look very like coracles, the round boats made out of wood and animal hides that ancient peoples used to paddle about on rivers.

But Lucia the Tracboat wasn't sitting on a cloud. She had landed with that zapetta-crashetta inside something much harder and less bouncy - a sort of huge cradle, a net made out of steel and strong plastic, held at each corner by a curved mast.

Looking to left and right, they could see similar cradles, of all different sizes, laid out in a long line as far as they could see. In front of each one was a shiny steel egg-shaped cabin, marked TZ66 Entrybox. All along behind the Entryboxes stretched a shiny, shimmering wall - like as mirror, only moving as if it were water - which curved up over their heads to become the ceiling too.

It was strange though. Although it looked just like a mirror, you couldn't see yourself in it!

“For pretty portal's sake!” grumbled Katzilow, giving himself a brushing down. They were all still inside their safety sets, so they hadn't been hurt - just shaken up. Lucia the Tracboat was still trembling slightly at the shock she'd had. “What in rascally routerville has that chump Trinth been getting up to now?”

It was a pity he said that really. Got them off to a bad start.

“TRACBOAT LUCIA!” boomed a voice out of nowhere. “Entry not suitable!”

Lucia quivered from bow to stern, making Dot and Wiz jump.

“Oh NO” groaned Walpurgis. “I’d hoped he just might be on holiday!”

Suddenly in front of them a bulge appeared in the mirror-wall, as if someone was trying to blow a balloon shape through it. Then with a “pop!”, like that sound you make when you put a finger inside your cheek and “pop” it out, a strange creature appeared.

He was riding in a very shiny Picboat, all decorated round the side with stickers – which all seemed to be about saying no or telling net-people off. Like:

As soon as Dot saw the strange creature in the Picboat, though, she knew who it had to be.

The peaked cap… the piercing eyes… the shiny boots… the sharp, hooked beak…

It could only be Nascarbalone Trinth, Zonemaster of TZ66!