yards were not brickwork, but a wire mesh; the kind that was used for fencing. It ran from floor to ceiling and there was the outline of a frame about halfway along, which looked suspiciously like a gate. Unable to restrain his curiosity, he pushed past Tristram, who appeared to be caught in two minds, and went to look inside.
‘Stay right there,’ came the voice, almost as soon as he reached the start of the fencing.
Ryan stopped in his tracks and stared into the space beyond, trying to pick out the owner of the voice. Behind the wire mesh was a sizeable alcove, within which sat the drive mechanism for the cable cars. There were several large, upright wheels connected to a shaft that, through a series of gears and a transfer box, took the power up through the ceiling and over to the huge wheel that drove the cable. Ryan wondered if all the engineering that had gone into it was strictly necessary, but before he had a chance to dwell on it he spied movement in a dark corner of the room. Slowly a creature emerged, and crept tentatively round the machinery to get a better look at him.
It was the size of a large dog, but was definitely still a rodent of some kind. Unlike the hamsters, it walked on all fours and had a long, furry tail that trailed along the floor behind it. The creature stopped at the edge of the nearest wheel and peered at Ryan through large, black eyes. Its whiskers were quivering and its nose twitched with anticipation.
‘All right?’ nodded Ryan, not quite sure of how best to greet it. The creature hadn’t pulled a gun on him, which was a start. He sensed Tristram and Daisy join him, and the creature shrank away upon seeing the other two intruders.
‘Who are you? What do you want?’ it squeaked, unwilling to reveal itself any further.
Ryan looked over his shoulder at Tristram, who was wearing a rather bemused expression.
‘Err… we want to use the cable car,’ Ryan said, thinking that they had nothing to lose by being honest. ‘Can you tell us how to turn it on?’
The question had a remarkable effect on the creature. Its meekness swiftly evaporated and was replaced by scorn.
‘Turn it on? Turn it on?’ it scoffed, coming out from behind the wheel and putting its front paws up on the fencing, so that it was almost face to face with Ryan. ‘You hear that, lads? This idiot doesn’t even have a grasp of basic mechanics.’
There came some sniggering from the far corner of the alcove and two more of the creatures emerged, shaking their heads and whispering to one another.
‘Okay, steady on,’ said Ryan, who never liked being made a fool of. ‘We just want to get the thing working.’
‘No, you said you wanted to turn it on,’ said the first creature. ‘That implies there’s some sort of power source that can be operated by the mere flick of a switch. Now, take a good hard look in here. Can you see anything even remotely like that?’
Ryan hated rhetorical questions and was struggling to work out how he had managed to cause such offence. He gave a cursory shrug and let them continue.
‘No? That’s because there isn’t any. No motors, no batteries, no engines, nothing. Zip. Just three big wheels and three gerbils to drive them.’
Ryan looked at his friends in disbelief.
‘You? You guys power this thing?’
‘Don’t look so surprised,’ said one of the other gerbils, joining the first one at the fence. ‘This is what we do; we run in wheels. Mind you, we usually do it out of choice. And so did they once.’
Ryan looked at the gate that was halfway along the fence and noticed that it was padlocked from the outside.
‘You’re captives?’ he asked.
‘Wahay! We’ve got a right genius here, haven’t we?’ sneered the first gerbil. ‘Where’d you guys get him from? The circus? Discount sale on clowns, was it?’
That was enough for Ryan.
‘At least I’m smart enough not to get myself captured by a group of dumb hamsters,’ he retorted, although it was not exactly the truth.
The three gerbils looked stunned by his outburst.
‘That’s cold, my friend, cold,’ said the third, padding over to join his companions. ‘If you only knew what those hamsters have done to us…’
Daisy, who had been staring at the creatures with a look of unbridled adoration on her face, stepped forward and knelt down in front of them, mirroring the way they were all gripping the fencing.
‘Please,’ she said. ‘We need your help. Our friend is in trouble and we have to get to the castle to help her.’
The first gerbil nudged the second, and Ryan could have sworn they winked at one another.
‘The castle, you say?’ enquired the first, shuffling along until he was face to face with her. ‘Well my dear, I trust you’ve heard the tales of Castle Meerschweinchen, because it would be a fool indeed who headed up there unprepared. Where’s the rest of your raiding party?’
‘It’s just us, I’m afraid,’ said Daisy.
‘What? You’re crazy, the lot of you. With the Elite Guard up there?’
‘What’s the Elite Guard?’
‘It’s the most bloodthirsty platoon of guinea pigs you’ll ever have the misfortune to run into.’
Ryan snorted and the gerbil threw him an angry glare.
‘You may laugh, but you’ve no idea what you’re in for. You think these hamsters are bad, but you ain’t seen nothing yet. Those guinea pigs are evil. They’ll tear you limb from limb just for the hell of it.’
‘And laugh while they’re doing it,’ added the second.
‘But we’ve got to try,’ said Daisy. ‘She’s our friend.’
The third gerbil pushed between the other two and put his furry muzzle right up to the cage.
‘I can see you’re sincere,’ he said softly. ‘We’d like to help you, but understand that to get you up there requires a tremendous amount of toil on our part. We need something in return.’
‘We’ll set you free,’ said Daisy immediately, with a look at Tristram. He nodded.
‘That’s a noble gesture, and one we would gratefully accept, but it would be a hollow one if we could not keep our end of the bargain. We are tired and weak and may not be able to get you all the way to your destination.’
Daisy thought for a moment, then headed to the end of the building and rolled herself a snowball from the ground outside. By the time she turned to come back it had miraculously transformed into the biggest sunflower seed that Ryan had ever seen.
‘Sweet mother…’ murmured one of the gerbils.
‘Will this do?’ asked Daisy sweetly, kneeling back down in front of them again.
The first gerbil looked at Tristram.
‘Well, you may have got him from the circus,’ he said, nodding at Ryan. ‘But this one must have come from heaven. Of course we’ll help you. Just make sure you give them hell when you get there.’
‘We plan to, my furry friend,’ replied Tristram, walking over to the gate and ripping the padlock off with his bare hands. The gerbils stared at him in wonder. ‘So, we have a deal then?’
‘Absolutely,’ said the third gerbil. ‘It is the least we can do.’
‘Great!’ said Daisy. She walked into the alcove and handed them the giant sunflower seed. ‘It was lovely to meet you all.’
The gerbils bowed low to her and she giggled.
‘Just one thing,’ said the third as she turned to go.
‘Yes?’
‘If you… err… if you see any of our kin up there, please, do what you can for them.’
‘Of course we will,’ said Daisy cheerily, and she headed out to join the others, who were climbing into the cable car.
‘God bless you miss.’
Ryan had never ridden in a cable car before and was rightly nervous about the experience. There was not much to the tin box the three of them were now sitting in, and it was pretty disconcerting. He had already ridden in a golf buggy and a side car, both of which had been fairly flimsy and both of which had ended up crashing. Why couldn’t he have had a tank instead?
He sat with his hands
clenched around the lip of the wooden bench he was seated on, as the car lurched into motion. Daisy was sitting next to him and was waving goodbye to the gerbils, while Tristram sat opposite, looking so relaxed that Ryan expected him to drop off to sleep at any moment.
Was it possible to fall asleep in a dream? Ryan didn’t know, but the thought stayed with him for a few minutes as the car began to ascend the mountainside and did a good job of keeping his mind off the drop below.
They were about to pass through the cleft they had seen from down in the valley, when suddenly the car was filled with dazzling sunlight and their eyes were drawn to the spectacular panorama below them. In the distance, to the south-east, lay the smoking remains of the village they had passed through, and they could now see that the river they had crossed passed very close to it. Tristram pulled the map out of his pocket and put it upside-down against the glass behind him. All the main features were there: the forests, the roads, the river; everything.
Then, all of a sudden, they were swallowed up by the towering peaks of the mountains and the view vanished. A huge pylon loomed up ahead, and as they clattered over the cable supports Ryan gripped his seat hard and pressed his back against the side of the cabin, breathing heavily. It was a while before he had the bottle to look out of the window again. When he did so, he saw below them a road, twisting back and forth in its attempt to keep up with them through the rugged terrain. The way ahead was shrouded in a thick blanket of cloud, and as they entered it he felt a distinct chill run down his spine. There was something sinister in the air that