our new leader,” replied Jack, nodding towards the fourth chair at the table, where a few tufts of artificial hair on top of the squirrel-bot’s head could just be seen. “Wouldn’t it be easier to talk face to face?” he added addressing the small robot directly this time.
To the children’s amazement the squirrel actually shook its little head, as if it really was New Bob herself. “Operational security,” said New Bob tersely. “It is best that you do not see my face.”
“Are you really ugly or something then?”
“Oscar!” chorused Jack and Ruby in embarrassment.
Oscar shrugged. “What? I only asked,” he insisted.
“It’s a matter of safety,” explained New Bob, through the squirrel’s tiny mouth.
“Yours and mine. Now let’s get on with the debrief. I need to know what happened the last time you caught an alien.”
The children all began to speak at once and then stopped and tried to take turns. Together they recalled their adventures in the sewers, where they had captured the Slurrisnoat. Bob had used the alien technology at his disposal in the GUNGE headquarters to teleport the three of them and the bulging Snivel Trap directly to him. Bob had then secured the alien in one of the cells and turned his attention to the mysterious Blower device, which the aliens had been intending to use to contact the rest of the GUNK Aliens.
Each of the four aliens that had come to Earth looking for snot (a valuable source of energy for the aliens’ technology) had carried with them part of a special communications device which, when connected together, would enable them to relay details of Earth’s position to the waiting invasion fleet. With the children’s help, Bob had collected all four parts of the Blower. He told the kids that it was a real puzzle trying to work out how to connect the parts and challenged them to have a go. Everyone knew Jack was a genius, even Bob, and he was unable to resist the chance to prove his superiority.
“So Jack fell for it hook, line and sinker,” explained Ruby to New Bob. “He actually put the thing together and handed it back to Bob.”
Jack flushed red. “Not exactly,” he muttered, embarrassed.
“Of course you did,” added Oscar, “I saw you. You slotted each bit into the other, made that weird horn thing, and then Bob turned traitor and blew into it. So now the aliens are on their way. Bob – One, Jack – Nil. And it was an own goal too!”
“You actually constructed the Blower for Bad Bob?” said New Bob.
“I didn’t know he was Bad Bob then, did I?” replied Jack defensively.
“But you knew what the Blower was for!”
Jack nodded. “Of course I did. Which is why I sabotaged it.”
Ruby and Oscar looked at him with their mouths hanging open. “Sabotaged!?” they both spluttered.
Jack allowed himself a small grin. “I was suspicious of Bad Bob, but I didn’t want him to get angry and hurt any of us either, so I thought it best to play along. I managed to create a short circuit in the power grid when I connected the bits …”
‘Brilliant,” announced New Bob, clearly relieved. “So the Blower doesn’t work?”
Jack shook his head. “Well … yes. It will work, but at a reduced power level.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Oh, well, that’s better than nothing I suppose,” said New Bob, eventually.
“Also, in all the confusion as we left the base, I managed to use another piece of alien tech that Bob had lying around to generate an interference wave that should cancel out the signal,” added Jack. “I reckon the Blower signal will have been active for no more than five minutes.”
“Long enough to get a message through to the GUNK Aliens,” mused New Bob.
“But perhaps not long enough for them to get a solid fix on our location,” suggested Jack.
“You mentioned confusion,” said New Bob. “How exactly did you escape?”
“Team effort,” answered Oscar, proudly.
Ruby picked up the story. “As soon as Bob used the Blower we knew he was a baddy. So we sort of … bundled him. Snivel started it – he bit his leg.”
“Bob dropped the Blower and grabbed his leg,” added Oscar.
“Making him rather off balance,” continued Jack. “So when we rushed him …”
“We knocked him to the ground,” Ruby said. “And when he fell, his remote control thing dropped out of his pocket and I picked it up.”
The children explained that they had run off down the corridor and used the remote control to first open a door and then lock it behind them. They found themselves in a storeroom full of alien technology.
“Including a sub-space instant communicator which I used to set up the interference wave signal to block the Blower,” explained Jack.
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