The Girl of Colours (Book TWO)

My Darlings

Dread swung his gun arm around, just as Androvax hid behind me, not that it would have done him much good as I was an alien myself, but I moved aside. "Mister Dread, no!"

"Give me the activator discs." He demanded as Androvax tried to hide behind Rani now. Well, she was taller than him.

"Never!" He shouted back, the forked tongue making an appearance.

Come on, come on... "We only want to save Androvax's species." Sarah Jane shouted, moving me back. "Why won't you help us?"

He looked at her with no emotion in him eyes. "The equilibrium must be maintained." Say what?

"What does that mean?" Rani asked, and I pulled her back from Clyde's body, currently taken over by Androvax.

"The Veil ship must not be taken from the hyper-dimensional vault."

And why would that be, you overpriced can opener. "And if it is?"

"The ship's stardrive engines will disrupt the vault matrix." OK, now that was a pretty good reason behind that, yeah. "The dimensional disturbance will tear your planet apart."

"But my people will live again." Androvax shouted, running out of the house, closely followed by Mr Dread.

Then Rani ran forward, nudging the androids arm as he tried to take a shot, and he hit a potted plant instead of Clyde.  But then he grabbed her, taking her back inside, where I was ready and waiting to scream and fry everything electronic in a 100 meter radius, even him. "Did the Alliance of Shades programme you with morals at all, Mister Dread?"

The machine considered me for a moment, as though he was seeing what was a bigger threat for the time being, me, or Androvax. The Veil won. "I am a remarkable machine, Miss Smith. And one hundred percent reliable."

He threw Rani to me, and strode out, followed by Rani, Sarah and I, where we found Clyde, looking around dazed and confused. "What, what happened?"

"Don't shoot." Sarah Jane told Mr Dread firmly. "That's Clyde, not Androvax. Callie won't even think about taking you apart if you attempt it."

"Rani, he took your mum. And the discs." No, no, no, no... "He swapped bodies. He thought it would slow us down."

Mr Dread put his hand back on. "It will do him no good. My associates will be waiting at the vault."

Rani stared at him in horror. "They'll kill my mum."

"But we will save your planet." He replied stoutly, before turning and walking back towards St Judes.

Clyde shook his head, looking pained. "I'm sorry, I should've done something to stop Androvax."

"It's not your fault, Clyde." Sarah Jane told him. "It's mine. I should have kept Androvax in the containment vortex."

"But we need to find her." Rani reminded us, thinking of her mum

Oho, try and stop us. "We will."

"Before they do."

I took out the car keys, tossing them lightly up and down in my hand. "We will."

Not that we got very far before we got stuck at a traffic light, that Sarah Jane wouldn't let me run, but she was still blaming herself. "Why did I ever trust Androvax?"

"You thought it was right." Rani comforted her. "We were trying to help him." Then she lent forward between us, pointing up the traffic light queue. "Look, it's Mister Dread."

I sent Sarah Jane a grin, indicating her to hold the wheel a moment as I climbed out the window. "Oh, those old cars, they can conk out just like that." Then I whistled a high pitched green waved, before smoke started to come out from under the Humbers bonnet and I climbed back in, driving past him.