‘I don’t like it … It’s coming towards us … It’s coming in …’

‘Get ready … we’ll barge it out of the way …’

‘No … I can’t …’

‘Now …!’

Godzilla stuck his furry face round the door and cocked his head to one side. He barked. In his relief Jibber-jabber relaxed his bowels and unclenched his buttocks and did what he had been unable to do for the last five minutes.

Chapter 29

29

This is the official report of day one of the expedition to the Promithios warehouse and supply depot near Heathrow Airport. Written by the scribe Lettis Slingsbury.

SECond ENTRY: Evening.

After the repairs were mended, and Jackson had fixed the trolley, we carried on. People were nicer about Achilleus now and didn’t moan about him so much behind his back, as they had seen how well he could fight. It was the same with all the new children. My friends understood now that it was going to be dangerous, and without the new children we were going to be in trouble, so they had better just accept it and be grateful for the help. Of course it wasn’t a surprise to Jackson and some others who had seen the new children in action when they had arrived at the museum and fought off the sickos from the lower level. I was also in a fight at the museum when some sickos got into the library, but Chris Marker is writing down that story so I won’t write it down here as well, except I will say that it was frightening and made me more scared of sickos than I was before.

Sorry, this is getting long. The important thing that happened on the road was that everyone understood that without the people from Holloway we wouldn’t have been able to make this journey at all. Jackson is a good fighter, and some of the other museum people, but we don’t have enough good fighters who are experienced in fighting out on the streets. We all feel safer having Achilleus and Blue and Ollie and Big Mick and the others with us. And more than that. I have seen the way Jackson looks at Achilleus. It is my job to watch and notice things (which is why I am sorry I didn’t watch the battle). Jackson is jealous of him and wants to be able to fight as well as him. Maybe she fancies him a bit as well. She might have a chance. He is ugly and probably doesn’t have many girlfriends, and Jackson is not very pretty. I don’t mean to be mean, but it is the truth and I have to write the truth.