Mr. Caterpillar

.9.

That voice obliterated all the awe from their minds. It reminded them the danger they were in.

"Now what are we going to do?" Shruti asked Vicky with a note of hysteria in her tone.

"We'll hunt it down," Vicky said and looked around and frowned. "Oh, no! Where is that sword?"

"What are my babies doing in the restricted room?" The towering shelves were obscuring their view.

"We are doomed!" Shruti blubbered.

"The babies are going to pay for cutting my Nathros." The source of voice seemed nearby.

"It will kill us," Shruti sobbed.

Niti felt sorry for her. She racked her mind to come up with some good idea. And then remembered how Mr. Mathews had recoiled when he had seen a bottle in her hand. She also remembered the dry atmosphere that was there in the mansion. "Water!" She abruptly cried. "It's afraid of water..."

Vicky gave her an exasperated look. "What?"

"No time to explain," Niti said, "I think we can keep it from killing us."

"How?"

"By spraying water on it," Niti said.

"Will it work?" Shruti asked dubiously.

"Yes," Niti said, "It's only our chance. But we'll need a hell lot of water."

"I can't see any water around us," Shruti grumbled.

"Wait," Vicky said, "this place is full of documents, right? So normally places like this have fire extinguishing systems to prevent important documents from burning."

They all looked up. The ceiling seemed to be miles above them. But they clearly saw little discs (smoke detectors) and gleaming pipes snaking all over the ceiling.

"Great," Niti said, "now all we need to do is to find a way to burn a fire."

"I know a way," Shruti said. Her cheeks were streaked with tears but she was now smiling. "You'll be glad that I smoke." She drew out her lighter.

"Brilliant," Vicky said, "now we need to collect many papers. Create a heap of them and burn it to a cinder."

The girls nodded. They quickly got to work and began pulling out files after files.

"Why are we not lighting a fire first?" Shruti asked as she threw a huge sheaf of papers on the growing heap.

"Because," Niti said, "it will give away our exact location. So we'll not light the fire until we are sure that it will be strong enough to create a thick smoke that will reach up to the ceiling."