The ant shook her head, then turned and dashed away. Lenora raced to keep up, but the ant was fast, its six legs clattering along like perfect clockwork. Then the insect came to an instant halt. Just ahead of them, something enormous was descending from far above. It slammed down and the floor shook under Lenora’s feet. She looked up and up and saw that it was a shoe the size of a battleship. Above the shoe, a leg stretched up like a skyscraper. The shoe lifted up and away, and Lenora’s gaze followed it.

The shoe was black leather, and above it was a dark pant cuff. Lenora felt instant dread, and she knew what she would see even before she looked higher—a black overcoat, and far above, what seemed like miles and miles and miles above, the brim of a black bowler hat.

Lenora realized with horror that, not having six legs with pinpoint maneuvering, she was certain to get squashed. Somewhere up there was the shoe, eager to slam back down on top of her. “Hey!” she panted, catching up to the ant. “You’ve got to give me a ride or something!”

The ant pondered, then lowered her head and clamped her pincers together. Feeling very brave, Lenora leapt onto the pincers, which made a rather more comfortable seat than you would think from looking at them.

The ant seemed to sense the danger, and she raced off in a zigzag pattern. The floor trembled as the shoe hit somewhere behind them. This mini-earthquake was no trouble for the nimble ant, however, and Lenora could see she was making a beeline (more of an antline, she thought) for an ant-size archway at the foot of an enormous wall.

In seconds, Lenora was ducking her head as they passed beneath the words ANT CITY, emblazoned above the arch. She slumped in relief, giving the ant a pat on her pincers. “Nice work!” she said. Looking back, she could see the tip of a shoe outside the entrance, and she grinned. “Foiled again,” she whispered, because “foiled again” seemed like exactly the sort of thing she would expect one of the bowler hat people to say.

Just inside the entrance Lenora spotted a locker. On it was a label: ANT CITY COMMUNICATION KIT—LIBRARIANS ONLY!

Intrigued, she hopped from the ant’s jaws. Entirely unsure of what she would find, she opened the locker by inserting her Tube key. Inside were several sets of what looked like earplugs. But from instructions printed on the inside of the door Lenora could see that they were meant to be inserted in the nostrils and were called Pheromone Interpreters. Lenora, naturally, slipped a pair into her nose.