The Dark Giants by Cerberus Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

here comes Foxy …’
    Foxy was nowhere near as quick as the giants, but he was direct. Instead of helping
the giants outflank Sophie T, he ran straight at her, yipping and growling the whole
time.
    ‘Tom’s out cold, Leaf Man’s in the Nowhere,’ Amelia thought out loud. ‘Mum and Dad
are in the hotel. So’s Lady Naomi probably, but we can’t get there without going
past them –’
    As Foxy drew closer to Sophie T, she began to shrink back from him.
    Charlie groaned. ‘Look behind you, Sophie, you dope. Haven’t you ever watched a horror
movie?’
    By stumbling away from Foxy, Sophie T was walking straight into the waiting hands
of Spike and Beard.
    Foxy yipped and waved a hand (Amelia thought he was telling off the giants, warning
them to leave Sophie T alone), but it only made Sophie T back away faster. Finally
realising that his natural form and voice were making things worse, Foxy switched
on his holo-emitter.
    The shabby corduroy man appeared and began speaking to Sophie T in English. His high
voice carried clearly in the still night air, and Amelia could hear that it was shaking.
Foxy must be freaking out, too. ‘It’s OK,’ he quavered. ‘Nothing’s going to happen.
You’re OK.’
    Beard growled. ‘In English,’ snapped Foxy. ‘The poor child is frightened enough as
it is.’
    Beard snorted, then rasped, ‘You think we care if it’s frightened? Get rid of it.
We’ve got less than an hour before our wormhole leaves, and so far you’ve achieved
nothing.’
    At the sound of a new voice behind her, Sophie T spun on the spot and reeled back
as she took in the enormous creature towering over her. She gave a cry – not so much
a scream as a choking in-breath of dismay – and then Spike pointed at her, a light
flashed, and … nothing. Sophie T didn’t move. She didn’t so much as squeak, or even
drop the hand that was lifted partway to her mouth. It was as thought she’d been
frozen, or …
    ‘Petrified,’ whispered Charlie.
    ‘At least we’ve caught something,’ said Spike. ‘It’s only a tiny little wriggler,
but better than nothing.’
    ‘We’re not taking a human child!’ Foxy yipped. ‘This has nothing to do with the contract
I signed.’
    ‘Contract?’ sneered Beard. ‘Do you see any contract lawyers around? We’re here to
turn a profit, and if you’ve got any brains in that tiny head of yours, you’ll do
what we tell you. And quickly.’
    Foxy, to his credit, did not back down. Hands on hips, he said, ‘I’m a scientist,
not some hired thug. This is a little girl – native to this planet. I agreed to help
return a feral animal to its home planet, not kidnap a person from hers. Profit has
nothing to do with my motives.’
    Beard began to tremble and heave, his breathing becoming jerky, noisy and more horrible
than anything Amelia had heard so far. She realised he was laughing. ‘Pick it up,’
he said to Spike. ‘We’ll deal with our little scientist later, once the mission is
completed.’
    Spike picked up Sophie T, tucked her under his arm like an umbrella, and laughed
in Foxy’s face.
    ‘How much less frightened is she, now that she’s heard all that in English?’ he guffawed,
and then turned and followed Beard into the bush.
    Foxy stood uselessly for a heartbeat or two in the moonlight, and then scurried after
them.

Amelia, still crouched and hiding, covered her face in her hands. ‘Oh no. Oh, we’re
dead. Sophie T’s dead!’
    ‘Not yet,’ said Charlie. ‘It doesn’t sound like they’re going to eat her, so that’s
good.’
    ‘Yeah, but –’ Amelia took a deep breath, trying to get some sense into herself. ‘But
what do we do? We can’t stop them. No-one in Forgotten Bay would be strong enough
to get in their way.’
    ‘Tom has that shotgun.’
    ‘And Tom’s unconscious – same as Sophie T, I’m guessing – and his place is in the
opposite direction to those guys.’
    ‘Who are totally getting away while we talk about it,’ Charlie