chapter 7

Finding the Control room.

When school was finished that day, Rose and Cai went to Martin’s house as plain usual, but this time, Rose had an extremely important question to ask.

“You know, I really think we should start trying to get Martin back to Charon, all me and Cai are doing is coming to your house and cleaning, even though it’s clean enough, and no offence, but it’s boring!” Rose blurted out.

“Come off it, Rose, it’s not like we only have twenty minutes ‘till the planet blows up. Just give it a rest, will you?” said Cai.

“Well, er, actually, I think Rose is right, we’re really just mucking around here, but I do know some info to get us on the job.” Said Martin awkwardly.

Cai, looking slightly putout, said “Why didn’t you tell us this ‘info’ before then?”

Martin, blushing, said shyly, “I was having too much fun with you guys, and I, I forgot.”

“Just spit it out, then!” said Rose eagerly.

Martin took a deep breath, and then blurted, “Well, I do know that there is a secret control room somewhere in the house, we just have to look, I’ve never tried to look, the house was too much of a mess!”

“What are we waiting for? Start looking!” Rose exclaimed.

So that’s what they did, they searched until 7:30, looking behind furniture, behind bed heads, inside drawers and in showers.

But they didn’t make a break-through until the next day.

“HEY, GUYS, I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!” was the yell that rung through the house, calling from the bathroom on the third floor.

Rose came running from the top floor, while Martin came sprinting from the second floor.

Rose asked triumphantly, “What did you find, Cai?”

Cai, in fact, was looking down a rather large toilet. “Oh, Cai, you’ve found nothing, that’s been out of order for as long as I can remember.” Said Martin, sounding rather disappointed.

But Rose, seeming to have read Cai’s mind, said excitedly “It looks big enough for a person to slide down!”

And then, as though she was waiting for someone to object, she paused for a few moments, and then asked, “I think Cai should go down first, because he found it. Cai, you will go down to see if everything’s OK, and call up to us if it’s safe, right?” she looked quite pleased with herself, as though she had thought up a fool-proof plan, that was bound to work.

Cai was standing over the edge of the empty toilet, and started to protest “But I-“ Cai didn’t get to finish his argument, as Rose had pushed him down the ‘out of order’ toilet.

Martin and Rose heard the pipes rattling, and bumping under Cai’s weight for at least two minutes before they stopped abruptly.

“Come down, come down, guy’s, there’s a huge metal door, oh, I think it needs a code. You two go look around the house for a significant number, or something, we just have to find that code!” came a quite pleased voice echoing through the toilet.

“I think I know a significant number, wait here!” Martin said excitedly to Rose. So Martin ran to the top floor, no, the attic.

Rose wondered what was behind the large door that Cai had found for a few minutes, before Martin came back with an old number plate for a car, reading: vt7bcx5n.

“Well, it’s worth a shot. Come on, Cai’s waiting for us, I’ll go first, you come down straight after, right?” Rose said bravely, and with that, she quickly said “See you down there!” and jumped down the toilet, and Martin copied.

It was a very funny sensation, sliding down the toilet.

It was as though a very slimy monster was squishing them into the hard, cement pipe.

Martin was holding the number plate as though it was a big chunk of gold, while Rose was being careful not to tumble forwards.

At last, Rose landed in a heap at Cai’s feet, and Martin followed.

All of them were in a small, (about five steps from one side to the other) dim, claustrophobic room, with a miniature oak door at the end, big enough for the three to crawl through. “Quick, give me the- a number plate?” said Cai, clearly disbelieving that a number plate would be the correct code. But, he took the plate from Martin’s hands, and darted a few steps to the oak door to try and break the code.

It took Cai about fifteen minutes to type in the code, when finally Cai tried to turn the shiny, brass handle and said, “See, I knew it wouldn’t work.”

And no sooner had he said those words; they heard a strange clicking noise.

Rose, looking very curious, turned the door handle.