Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“Oh, Granny Two-two knows that, dearie,” the old woman interrupted.
“Knows it! Knows it!” the second head sang out.
“Hush, you!” Granny Two-two batted gently at her “twin” before continuing. “He’s the one as has been sending those nasty orange people to kidnap decent folks from the station,” she said to Penny.
“Well, if you knew all that, why did you help him escape?” Penny demanded.
“Oh, I didn’t.” Granny Two-two shook her head. “Look, dearie.”
She finally stepped to one side and let Penny read the lettering over the hatch which the Glorious Leader had dived into.
“Main Waste Chute,” Penny read aloud, her translation bacterial allowing her to make sense of the alien lettering. “Oh my!” She turned to Granny Two-two. “What does that mean?”
“Just what it says, dearie. Have a look.”
Granny Two-two pushed up the metal flap again, allowing a rank odor to seep out of the tunnel.
Holding her nose, Penny leaned forward and saw that the “ventilation tunnel” was actually a hatch. Instead of a straight path forward, there was a slippery silver ramp that tilted sharply down. It was like an old-fashioned laundry chute, Penny thought. One that led down to the room with the washer and dryer. Only in this case, it led…
“Where does it lead?” Drace demanded. “And shut it, will you? It stinks!”
“Come along, and I’ll show you, dearie,” Granny Two-two told him and then she winked at Penny. “You’ll like it, I’m sure.”
“Like it! Like it!” shrieked her second head.
Bemused and still prying at the silver button on her left temple, Penny followed the old woman down the corridor to a door marked, Station Surveillance.
The room was empty, but inside there was a bank of monitors that seemed to be showing the outside of Hell’s Gate Station from all angles.
“Look—see here?” Granny Two-two pointed to one of the monitors in the far corner, which looked mainly black to Penny.
“See what?” Drace demanded. He was staring over Penny’s shoulder—not hard to do since he was as tall as V’rex. “I don’t see anything but blackness,” he told Granny Two-two.
“Ah, that’s because it’s always in the shadow of the station,” she told him. “Never a bit of sun ever reaches the waste field. But we can turn on the lights, yes we can, dearie.”
“Turn them on! Turn them on!” shouted the second head.
“Hush, you!” Granny Two-two said, frowning. Then she reached over and pressed a button under the black monitor.
Immediately, the scene on the monitor was illuminated and Penny realized it was because a light located somewhere on the outside of the station had been turned on.
At first, all she could see was what looked like a big blob of brown and black things floating in a cloud of yellow liquid. Then, after a moment, she was able to make out a white shape in the middle of it all.
“There—that’s him.” Granny Two-two said, pointing at the white shape. “Magnify!” she shouted at the monitor and at once the view zoomed in.
Penny was able to see more easily now what was going on. The white object floating in the field of black and brown things and the yellow liquid cloud was actually the Glorious Leader. He still had the Eye of Ten’gu around his neck and his lips were wide open in a scream—which had allowed one of the brown lumps in the cloud to float into his open mouth.
“What’s he eating?” Drace asked, frowning. “I mean, what in the Seven Hells…”
“Look, boy!” Granny Two-two sounded impatient. She pointed at the lettering above the monitor which said, Waste Field. “That’s where all the business of the whole station goes,” she explained. “All the turds, see?”
“All the turds! All the turds!” screeched her second head gleefully.
“And now that bad man is floating in the middle of it.” Granny Two-two had a triumphant sparkle in her faded eyes. “Which is just right, seeing as he’s the biggest turd of all!”
“Oh my!” Penny stared in a disgusted kind of fascination at the brown object that was halfway inside the Glorious Leader’s mouth. Now that she knew what it was, she wasn’t sure if she ought to laugh or be sick!
“Well,” Drace said at last, shaking his head. “Guess he got what he deserved.”
“Yes,” Penny said. “But what about the Eye of Ten’gu?”
It was still just floating there, the chain around the GL’s neck, but the pendant was flying free and the gold and lapis eye was clearly visible on the zoomed-up image. Somehow, none of the excrement in the cloud around it had touched it—it was as though it had some kind of force field keeping it free of contamination, Penny thought.
“The what now, dearie?” Granny Two-two asked.
“That pendant he has around his neck.” Penny pointed to the monitor. “I need it back—he stole it and it’s very important I get it back.”