The Portal by Andrew Norriss Read Free Book Online Page B

notch. ‘You mean he’s already here?’
    â€˜He got here about an hour ago. He’s in the sitting room having a…’ but William found he was speaking to an empty space. Still buttoning his trousers, Uncle Larry was already out the door.
    â€˜I am
so
sorry I wasn’t here to meet you, General.’ Uncle Larry pushed open the door to the sitting room. ‘And I do apologize for there being no one here to look after you, but…’ He stopped, taking in the General sitting on the sofa, his mug of tea in one hand and the last of the sandwiches in the other. ‘Is… is everything all right?’
    â€˜Everything’s fine with me,’ said the General cheerfully. ‘Have you found Jack and Lois yet?’
    â€˜Good… No… Well, I’ve been to Byroid V,’Uncle Larry sat on the sofa opposite, his eyes still darting round to check that everything was as it should be, ‘but there’s no sign of them.’
    â€˜Ah.’ The General nodded thoughtfully. ‘So where are they?’
    â€˜I’m not sure,’ said Uncle Larry, ‘but we’ll sort it out eventually… Have you got everything? I mean… is there anything you need?’
    William appeared with the box of chocolates, which he placed on the table between the sofas.
    â€˜Don’t worry about me,’ said the General. ‘I’ve been looked after very well.’

C HAPTER S IX
    â€˜So what happens next?’ William asked Uncle Larry the following morning. ‘About my parents?’
    â€˜Well, I’ve been thinking about that.’ Uncle Larry was sitting in the kitchen with a large mug of tea, some of which he had already managed to spill down the front of his suit. ‘And I think the next thing is for me to get back to Byroid V.’ He stood up and walked over to the window. ‘If your parents have gone through the Portals to another world, the sooner I catch up with them and find out why, the better.’
    â€˜You can do that, can you?’ asked William. ‘Catch up with them, I mean?’
    â€˜Oh, yes!’ Uncle Larry nodded confidently. ‘You can’t travel round the Federation without leavingsome sort of trace. I’ll go to the next worlds down the line, you see, root around a bit… I’ll find them all right!’ He turned to William. ‘The only snag is I can’t look after things here while I’m doing it. Can you manage without me a bit longer?’
    â€˜You mean… do the bricks?’
    â€˜There’ll be a couple of passengers to look after as well, but I’ll run over the routine with you before I go.’
    â€˜It’s Monday tomorrow,’ said William. ‘I’m supposed to be at school.’
    â€˜Yes…’ Uncle Larry frowned. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to miss that. But it’s only a few days. I’ll be back Wednesday. Wednesday evening at the latest.’
    â€˜Oh,’ said William. ‘OK.’
    It didn’t feel as if he had a great deal of choice.
    â€˜Good!’ Uncle Larry smiled. ‘Now, how about you have some breakfast and then join me in the station. We’ll go over the details down there.’ He marched briskly to the door, spilling tea on the floor as he went, but stopped in the doorway.
    â€˜By the way,’ he said, ‘thank you for looking after things last night. General Ghool is an important man in the Federation. I wouldn’t like him to have got the impression that the Portal Service wasn’t coping with a little crisis and… well, thank you.’
    *
    William had his breakfast, and went to make sure Daniel was all right before going down to Uncle Larry. He found his brother on the terrace outside the sitting room with Amy, busily feeding sticks into a fire he had lit in the base of the barbecue. Beside him on the ground was a ball of earth about the size of a large