Free Mort by Martin Chatterton

have been able to lift Smiler. He weighs too much.’
    â€˜We sort of just dragged him a bit,’ said Nigel. ‘And Trish rigged up a lever. It was enough so we could slide you out. A good job too – you were turning a funny colour under there.’
    Mort frowned. There was something in Nigel’s story he didn’t understand.
    â€˜What happened to Smiler – to the sabre-tooth?’ asked Mort.
    â€˜I shot him,’ said Trish, ‘with a tranquiliser dart gun.’
    â€˜You have dart guns?’ asked Mort, impressed despite himself. Unk Shire Education Department was better equipped than he’d imagined.
    â€˜Of course not,’ said Trish. ‘I found the rifle in that tunnel.’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Mort. ‘So you …’
    Trish nodded. ‘Yes, we saved your life,Mortimer. But you don’t have to thank us right now. You can do it when we get back to the mainland.’
    Mort blinked. ‘The mainland?’
    Trish smiled. ‘Of course. You need to be checked by a proper doctor. And where on earth are your parents? It is totally unacceptable to leave children on this island. There are wild animals running around, for heaven’s sake. And I know your babysitter means well, but quite honestly, he probably doesn’t have his certification!’
    â€˜Babysitter?’ Did she mean Khan? And speaking of Khan, where was the old devil? With Mort strapped up like a Christmas turkey, Khan would have no trouble killing him if he found him like this.
    Not to mention what Smiler would do once he woke up.
    â€˜Where are we going?’ asked Mort.
    Trish glanced over her shoulder.
    â€˜I was hoping you’d tell us that,’ she said. ‘Idon’t think we want to be around when that beast wakes up, do we?’
    Mort stayed quiet for a moment. Temporarily, he and Trish were on the same side.
    â€˜The library,’ said Mort. He nodded towards a hallway, branching off to the left. ‘There’s a phone there you can use and the door’s pretty strong.’
    Trish looked at him suspiciously but said nothing.
    Mort was telling the truth. There was a phone in the library. And it did have a strong door. But there was another, more important reason Mort wanted to go to the library.

With the power out and wearing the night-vision goggles, Khan moved through the darkened corridors of Festering easily and with two very clear ideas in his head.
    First, he was going to teach that little Mortimer snot a thing or two.
    And second, he was going to get off this damned island if it was the last thing he did.
    The beauty of Khan’s plan as he saw it was that he could do both things at the same time. There was an ancient Mongolian proverb that said that you can kill two birds with one stonebut if you have a great big rocket launcher you can kill a lot more.
    Actually, there wasn’t any such Mongolian proverb but Khan felt there should be. Once he was back in charge of the world he’d make sure that it became a proverb.
    But before that could happen he needed to get off this blasted island.
    Khan knew that he had little chance with the ferry unless he forced the sailors to take him to the mainland. One glimpse of Khan at the jetty and he knew the ferry would be off to sea before he could get near. He could, of course, hide and jump aboard, but Khan knew the effect his appearance had on some people. For all he knew, the ferry crew would drop dead with fright and then where would he be? Khan wasn’t a sailor and the seas around Unk had claimed its fair share of ships.
    Besides, even if he did take the ferry, he had no doubt that the DeVeres would have some sort of system in place to stop any of theircollection escaping in that way. An automatic missile system, maybe. Khan wouldn’t have been surprised.
    No, what Khan needed was something faster than the ferry. Something that would take him where he wanted to go instantly. Something