I grabbed the controls of the robot. They were simple. I swung the arm over towards where Whalley was still feverishly working. He didn’t notice anything. I brought the pincer right up behind him, then grabbed him just below the shoulders, pinning his arms to his side. I plucked him up and carried him through the air over towards where the door had been. His legs were kicking frantically. I put the pressure on a little harder, just to make sure he couldn’t escape, then left him, about four feet in the air, and ran back through the chambers to him.

His face was a picture of terror. ‘Where is the detonator?’ I yelled.

‘Individual, on each charge,’ he screamed. ‘Two minutes, they’re all going off in two minutes, you’ll never stop them, never be able to stop them in time. Get me down, get me down!’

‘You’d better stop them.’

‘I can’t, I can’t, I just finished the last one, I can’t stop anything. Please put me down, put me down quickly.’ He was screaming hysterically.

‘It’s your firework party, you get the front row seat!’

‘No, help, please, I’ll tell you anything you want!’

‘Which other power stations?’

‘None, this only!’

‘How can you stop those charges?’

‘I can’t, really can’t, we must get out, we’re all going to go up, oh please, oh please!’

I turned and left the bleating creature, and ran back to the controls. If he was telling the truth, then the only chance was if he did the defusing while I carried him to the charges. No other way would give us enough time. I started the arm moving and swung him back over to the last charge he had attached. His legs were kicking like a rabbit’s. Long before he reached it, the charge blew. Then the one on the other strut also blew. The struts disappeared and the whole core tilted crazily to one side, held from falling only by the battery of piping. Whalley’s legs were bicycling crazily. I hoped he was enjoying his seat in the Royal box. Then, in rapid succession, three charges attached to the pipes blew, the core, in a cloud of steam, crashed upside down to the ground, and part of its steel casing fell away.

The room began to get brighter and brighter, a strange, creamy-white light, that just kept on brightening, even though steam poured everywhere from a hundred directions, the light just kept getting brighter. I rushed out into the corridor, looking desperately for someone to tell. I had the choice of about five hundred different people. All hell had broken loose, and a klaxon started, wailing and stopping, wailing and stopping. I stood in the middle of it all, feeling like a prize lemon, wondering if I ought to go and take a shower.

Chapter 27

27