This was great! Could this be the end of their journey?

As it turned out – no!

Lucia was now drifting gently sideways towards the side of the Encorathon the Combers had picked. Once again though, it looked as if she couldn’t possibly fit into the narrow gap between the spinning “floors” of the pointed skyscraper, which seemed to be the only way into the massive structure.

Which looked like – what did it look like? Dot was sure she’d seen something quite like it before. Not on the net though… a photo… where was it…?

Oh YES! That funny pointy building in the City of London called The Gherkin!

Actually Dot… Rob your writer here… it’s really called the ‘Swiss Re’ building, which is short for Swiss Re-Insurance… that’s because it’s…

YAWWNNN! went Wizzo.

Oh, come ON! It wasn’t that boring!

It was…? Sigh… Well anyway there’s a nice picture of it at http://images.businessweek.com/mz/04/41/swissre.jpg

Back to work…

These skyscrapers were MUCH taller than ‘The Gherkin’ though, and fatter too.

And ‘The Gherkin’ building, of course, is all in one bit - not separated into lots of rotating floors. Which were all still, Dot could see, keeping perfectly in line with each other.

Lucia was a little closer now – Dot could just about make out everyone’s reflections in the side of the massive structure: Walpurgis, Hombellyton, Carmeramalita, Katzilow, and of course her own reflection too, with Wiz and Fromage a tiny speck on her shoulder.

Then suddenly, Lucia slowed right down, rocking gently to a stop in mid-air.

“What’s happening?” she asked. Walpurgis was looking at the Tracmapper globe and muttering to himself. The trace that showed where they were was blinking – green, purple, black - green, purple, black.

“We’re in sideline!” he said crossly. “Cranthocks!” *

“Oh dear!” said Carmeramalita. “How long?”

“Doesn’t say!” replied Walpurgis. He pushed his paw down onto the squidgy surface of the keyboard, and then looked up at the Tracmapper globe hanging above it again.

No good! Green, purple, black - green, purple, black.

“Well, there we are” said Hombellyton, flopping down on his seat. “That’s the trouble with the whole Encorathon thing – if you don’t come in on the right point of rotation, you just have to wait!”

Fromage let out a big sigh. “ ‘Ow you say – ‘urry up and wait?”

“Exactly!” grunted Hombellyton.

SWOOSH-swoosh, SWOOSH-swoosh went the Encorathon.

“Is Mr Mouse there, them?” asked Wizard, his paws up on the side of Lucia and his head on one side. He was doing his “Let’s get ON!” pant-pant-pant, with his long pink tongue hanging out. Dot smiled and gave her friend a little stroke.

“Well, the way him is” said Carmeramalita. Eldenbeam had apparently gone to sleep, leaning back in his seat with his beak open, snoring faintly. “That’s what Encorathons do – they sort out and organize all the routes that can take you to a recycled. Once you’re in, inside those spaces” she pointed into the gap between floors closest to them “you get a cyberpath to the computer nearest to him. But if you miss the rotation which is right for you – because he’s been moved, even just to another computer on the next desk, say – you have to wait for the Encorathon to reset and give you a new cyberpath.”

“It’s a real bore!” muttered Walpurgis.

“Toot toot!” Back at Lucia’s stern, the little train had emerged from the Food Mountain, puffs of white steam coming from its funnel.

“Ah, excellent!” said Katzilow. “Food at last! Feel like I haven’t eaten for weeks!” He rubbed his furry tummy and made smackety-smackety sounds with his funny spoon-shaped beak.

Food? At a time like this? Dot looked towards the side of the Encorathon they’d stopped by. True, they’d stopped some distance away from it (the Combers were still twisting round and round, as if to say “Yes! This is it! This is the one!”) but surely this wasn’t the moment for food?? What happened if the Encorathon suddenly completed its reset?

“Oh don’t worry about that” said Katzilow, patting her on the shoulder (luckily not Fromage’s!) His gaze was fixed on the little train, as it puffed its way round the track before disappearing back into the Food Mountain. “Loads of time before we get out of sideline! Ah! Here it comes!”

And sure enough, here came the menu train, towing its three trucks with their menu cards.

Truck No 1 said:

“Eldy!” said Katzilow. “Eldy! Wake up! You’ve got to tell our friends how we came by our Food Mountain!”

With a grunt and a snort, Eldenbeam woke up. “What whatta?” he mumbled.

“The Food Mountain! How we got it for Lucia! Come on!” Katzilow turned to Dot with a grin.

“It’s quite a story!”