I know, I know. I probably shouldn't be updating so quickly after just stating that I wouldn't, but I can't sleep and so have decided to write this. It's in two parts because this is the talkytalky part of the chapter and the next one will be the action side. But this was already taking up four pages on word and so I thought that was quite enough, particularly for eleven at night.

Please, remind me on the crystal thing.

Luke returned late that night when everyone but Lizzie, who was taking first watch, had fallen asleep on the mattresses that the Trio and Jessica had brought down and placed amongst the filing cabinets on the first basement level, using them as a wall in replacement for the one that had fallen away. All had agreed that sleeping in the lower basement was creepy, particularly with the machine sitting in the shadow.

Everyone had been asleep, that is, until Luke reappeared at the bottom of the stairs. His and Lizzie's shouting match would have woken anyone up.

'Please!' Carrie shouted above the noise, 'Some people are trying to sleep!' but now they were awake, they were awake and wanted to hear what Luke had discovered.

Luke's news wasn't good. 'The plans are properly hidden,' he said, 'I didn't get a chance to search Alex's tent. Good news is several of them are still injured. Bad news is that they've called for extra agents who have been staying in nearby towns. They will arrive in the next few days. When they arrive, they plan on storming the castle and taking over by force.'

'Everything Alex does nowadays is done with force,' Jessica muttered groggily, her head resting on Luke's shoulder. Everyone was pretty sure that she was falling asleep again.

'Let's not think about that now,' Rose said, 'we need to sleep.'

'I like that idea,' Luke said yawning, but as he moved to find his sleeping bag, Lizzie grabbed his foot.

'Oh, no you don't! Since you clearly have so much energy that you can rush off with your own plans instead of talking it through with us, you can take first watch. Wake someone in four hours.'

'Four hours!' Luke said in disbelief as Lizzie crawled on her belly, still in her sleeping bag, like a little green caterpillar back to the mattress she was sharing with Carrie, Jessica and Rose. No-one offered to shorten that time period, so Luke sat with his back to one of the filing cabinets, grumbling.

Luke woke Max only when he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He knew it wasn't four hours, but he was too tired to care. Max promptly woke Oscar, told him that he had just finished his shift and that it was his turn. Oscar checked his watch and was about to point out to Max that it was only two in the morning, Luke hadn't finished his four hours and so how could Max have had a long enough shift, but Max was already asleep. Oscar struggled through until three by reading scraps of information he found in the surrounding drawers, but when he found his eyelids dropping, he crawled across to the girls' mattress.

He was about to wake Lizzie, thought better of it and woke Carrie instead. Carrie was fine about doing a shift and Oscar went back to his mattress, relieved.

Lizzie woke everyone in the morning, the girls gently and the boys by pouring rain water over their heads, carefully making sure that Oscar didn't get wet, just the occasional splash.

'What was that for?' Luke spluttered, sitting bolt upright and wiping water from his eyes.

'I've just been told by Carrie that she was woken by Oscar at three this morning after, apparently, all the boys had had their turns. I've done the maths and that means that you three did less than two hour shifts. Oscar, I believe, might have done two hours, but I gave you a four hour shift, Luke, which it appears you didn't do.'

'That's way too long to be given at eleven at night,' Luke grumbled, 'I did two and woke Max at one.'

'What time did you wake Oscar, Max?' Lizzie asked, folding her arms. Max shrugged and refused to look at them. 'I see.'

Jessica ascended the stairs leading to the lower basement. 'Breakfast,' she called. Lizzie let Oscar and Luke struggle out of their wet sleeping bags and lumber towards Jessica, but stopped Max as he passed.

Max joined them forty five minutes later, complaining, 'since when was Lizzie in charge? Who put Lizzie in charge? I think whoever put Lizzie in charge should demote her immediately.'

'Where are you been?' Carrie asked, the only person who could be called reasonably awake.

'Lizzie made me hang up all the boys' sleeping bags so they would dry and then sent me out in the rain to spy on the SKUL camp.'

'You can freeze time,' Jessica pointed out, 'doesn't that mean you don't get rained on?'

'Freezing time doesn't stop me hitting the raindrops that have already fallen to my level,' Max said in way of explanation and helped himself to bread to put into the toaster he had constructed weeks before using old wires, metal fibres and an old but still powerful battery.

Everyone nodded as if they understood him and went back to their own breakfasts. 'So what's it like in the camp?' Oscar asked during a pause between mouthfuls.

'Well, I didn't hear much, with time being frozen and all,' Max said, 'but I had a good poke around and failed to find the plans. Did find some very interesting plans belonging to Alex about the next few days, but that just seemed to confirm what Luke already heard. Oh, and he clearly knows that we're trying to infiltrate the camp, because he left this "hidden" in his tent.' Max passed round a piece of paper with a number written on it.

'The Grand Master,' Luke read, 'and there's a number. Do you really think that this is the Grand Master's number?'

'It isn't,' Rose said simply, 'I have a good memory for numbers. That's one of the claims companies with the weird adverts from the TV.'

'Great,' Luke said, shredding the paper.

'We could have used that for future handwriting analysis,' Lizzie commented dryly. Luke paused halfway through his seventh tear to stare at her.

'Now you tell me.'

'It's okay.'

'Can we focus?' Carrie asked. Luke and Lizzie both raised their eyebrows, but said nothing more. 'I think we need to move ahead with our plans. We need to send that message.'

'Max and I will set off as soon as possible,' Luke said firmly. Max paused in the middle of biting his dry toast to glower at his teammate. 'Whilst we're away, I suggest the rest of you set up the castle so it is impregnable from the outside.'

'How will you get back in?' Carrie pointed out.

'You've forgotten, we have a human escalator amongst us,' Luke said, gesturing at Lizzie.

'I really don't like that nickname,' Lizzie absentmindedly remarked.

'Fine,' Luke said, 'Max, hurry up. We should get going soon.'

Then, Lizzie twigged it. 'So I'm going to be left alone, against by brother and the whole of SKUL-'

'Not the whole of SKUL,' Luke interrupted, but Lizzie continued as if she hadn't heard him.

'-against the whole of SKUL, alone, whilst you two toddle off and do a simple little communications thingy that someone else could do?'

'Yeah,' Luke said causally, 'we're sure you can manage.'

'Right,' Lizzie said. There was a stony silence.

'Do you want to come?' Luke asked eventually.

'No!' Lizzie replied, horrified.

'We'll then,' Luke said.

Luke and Max set off shortly after ten. Lizzie reappeared in the lab to see Oscar showing the girls how to set trip wires. 'I thought we could spread these through the main hall with a few added dangers as the first assault,' he told Lizzie.

'Good idea,' Lizzie said, although she didn't sound enthusiastic.

Oscar oversaw the laying out of the trip wires. He had hoped to put up some swinging blocks, but Lizzie was determined to remain in the lab for some reason. Finally, Oscar grew tired of waiting for her and so asked Jessica to see whether she was alright. She returned, slightly wet, but grinning.

'Oscar,' Jessica said, playfully, in a way that reminded Oscar strongly of Carrie, 'we're not taking this seriously are we?'

'Suppose not,' Oscar said slowly. Jessica grinned and matched back around the staircase. 'Okay, Lizzie!' Oscar heard her yell, 'he's agreed.' The sisters appeared moments later with bags hanging from their arms. Attached to Lizzie's belt was the largest gun Oscar had seen in a long time.

'What is that?' he asked, pointing at it.

'Do you like it?' Lizzie asked, 'been a little pet project for the last few hours. It has an optimum range of about the length of the lab and has a force of about a small stream.'

'What?' Oscar asked. In response, Lizzie unhooked it from her belt, aimed it at him and fired. The jet of water hit Oscar like, as Lizzie had said, a small brook and drenched him in seconds.

'It's raining today,' Lizzie said casually as Oscar gasped for breath, 'so it's easy to refill.'

Carrie and Rose had joined them by now. 'Where did you get the water pistol?' Carrie asked, intrigued.

'More a water gun than a pistol,' Lizzie giggled, reattaching it to her belt, 'I made it.'

'You made it!' Carrie was suitably impressed, 'where did you learn to make a gun?'

'On my MI9 training course,' Lizzie said, 'you must remember that this was designed for people older than us so they didn't mind as much as they do now about giving us weapons. It was a section of the course in which we were locked in a room with junk and were required to make a weapon in order to fight our way out. Okay, we kind of cheated because Max showed us beforehand a sneaky way of making a gun out of anything. All it requires is a way of firing the projectile.'

'Cool!'

'I could make you one if you like.'

'Really!' Carrie seemed excited about the prospect.

'Not now though,' Jessica reminded her, 'we have something else that we want to do, right.'

'Oh! Right!' Lizzie giggled again. 'Oscar, do you have any more wire? Or do I need to get some more?'

'How much do you need?'

'A lot more than that.'

'Sorry,' Oscar said, 'I'll get you some more.'

'It's okay,' Lizzie said, placing her bags at Jessica's feet and taking a couple of steps away from her, 'I'll get them.' So saying she disappeared into the ground. There was a dull thud from the floor below followed swiftly by an 'ouch! I landed on a filing cabinet!'

'She can be quite careless at times,' Jessica grinned, 'why don't you guys set up some smaller trip wires on the higher levels?'

'Okay,' Oscar said slowly, 'what are you planning on doing?'

'You'll see,' Jessica said cheekily shooing them up the stairs, 'and hear and smell most likely.'

The next chapter will have action I promise... when I get round to writing it...