The Case of the Wayward Professor Read Online Free Page B

swimming through the liquid fire and blinding light to the earth’s Inner Core. No dragon had ever returned.
    â€˜What makes you think Karnataka’s heading down to join his brother?’
    â€˜The Dragnet always catch their dragons eventually, don’t they? I don’t know what they’ve got on him but I’d bet my right claw that it’s more than gold tax evasion. I was thinking of swapping the door knocker for a bell. What do yow think?’
    â€˜I think you shouldn’t go changing things that don’t belong to you, Shade-Hugger,’ said Dirk.
    He left Grendel considering interior decoration and walked thoughtfully back into the small stone room, wondering if Karnataka really could have been responsible for his bruised head. Of course he could. Karny would have bashed his own mother over the head witha plank of wood if there was a chance she might get in the way of one of his deals. At least Dirk had something on him now.
Cuddlums
, he thought, smiling to himself.
    It was late by the time Dirk jumped through his office window. He landed softly in front of his desk. He shut the window, lowered the blinds, poured himself a large neat orange squash and flicked on the TV.
    A smarmy presenter was grilling a dull-looking politician, wearing a fixed smile.
    â€˜How can you justify the amount spent on defence when you can’t tell me what that money is being spent on?’ asked the presenter, leaning forward eagerly.
    The politician gave a false laugh and said, ‘My dear Jonathan, issues of defence are necessarily secret. Surely even you must understand that.’
    â€˜What about this leaked document on the AOG project? Can you tell me about that?’
    Dirk noticed a twinge of irritation cross the minister’s face. ‘There is no such thing as the AOG project. That document was a fake, probably put around by one of your journalist lot in order to damage our election campaign.’
    â€˜What does AOG stand for?’
    â€˜I have no idea. I have already told you, to the best of my knowledge there is no such project.’
    â€˜Well, we’ve run out of time. Thank you, minister,’ said the presenter, moving on to the next topic.
    Dirk switched off the TV and threw the remote at what he thought was a cushion, but turned out to be Willow, who screeched and ran under the desk.
    The professor had mentioned the AOG project. Knocking back the contents of the glass of orange squash, Dirk wondered what the professor did all day at that computer on the sixth floor of his Moorgate office. With this thought, he cleared away the baked-bean cans and old newspapers and settled down to sleep on his mattress.

Chapter Five

    Holly struggled to get free. ‘Who are you?’ she demanded.
    â€˜I’ll tell you on the way back to the dorm, Holly.’ The girl pulled off Holly’s makeshift balaclava, keeping a firm grip of her shoulder.
    â€˜I’m not going back. I’m leaving.’
    â€˜Well, go ahead, then,’ said the girl, letting go and handing her the wire cutters, ‘But I should warn you that as soon as you cut this wire you’ll have the whole of security down on you faster than a tobogganing tadpole.’
    Holly faltered. ‘But …why?’
    â€˜This is no ordinary fence. It’s made from SM2,intelligent metal. Stuff they use in proper defence bases. Cutting it, climbing it or tunnelling under it triggers the alarm. And say you do get past it, you’re tagged. The wristbands all have short-range tracking devices. They were introduced last year after one of the oh-so-famous students was kidnapped. That’s why you can’t take them off.’
    â€˜I was going to cut it off with the wire cutters.’
    â€˜Try it. You can’t cut through them, you can’t bite through them. It’s easier to chop off your own hand than remove these babies.’
    â€˜But I thought all this security was to stop people