“Oh, yes, please.”

Moira looked at Florence, who was staring at her feet in embarrassment. “Speeke, Rattus Rattus.”

“Come on now, Florence,” Stanley said sternly. “Or I won’t bring you out again. You will have to stay in the office and do the filing.”

Florence gulped and took a deep breath. “First . . . I have to ask . . . er . . . is William Fox here?”

“Who? Oh, Foxy. Wait a mo, I’ll go and get him.” Moira disappeared into the Manuscriptorium and returned with Foxy.

“Is that him?” Florence whispered to Stanley.

“Now, Florence, I won’t always be here to ask, will I? You must ask him yourself.”

“So it is him?”

“Possibly. But you have to ask.”

“First . . .” squeaked Florence, “I have to ask . . . er . . . is William Fox here?”

“Yep, that’s me,” said Foxy.

There was a silence broken by Stanley. “Go on, Florence.”

Florence gulped. She stood up tall and took a deep breath. “Message begins: ‘Foxy. Please close the Manuscriptorium immediately and initiate LockDown. Keep enough scribes with you to guard all entrances and send the rest home, right now. Let no one in, even if you recognize them. If it is me, I will give the password. If I don’t, don’t let me in. Keep LockDown active until I return. This message is sent from O. Beetle Beetle. Chief Hermetic Scribe. PS: don’t worry.’ Message ends.”

“Don’t worry . . .” said Foxy. “Yikes.” And then remembering the Message Rats, he said, “Thank you. Message received and understood.”

Stanley nudged Florence again.

“Oh!” said Florence. “Um . . . I regret that we are not at liberty to take a reply. The sender’s whereabouts are confidential.”

“Okay,” said Foxy. “Thanks anyway.”

“Well done, Florence,” said Stanley. He looked at Foxy and Moira. “Thank you for your patience,” he said. The rats jumped down from the desk and Moira held the door open for them to leave.

Foxy sat down in the Front Office chair with a thump. “Jeez,” he said. “That was the most scary message I have ever heard.”

Marissa, however, was rather excited by the message. “Can I stay too?” she asked.

Foxy was not sure. “Well, I don’t know. Beetle said scribes.”

“Oh, please let me. You never know, I might be useful. I am a witch, you know.”

“I thought you’d given all that up,” said Foxy disapprovingly.

“Yeah, I have. But you know what they say, once a witch, always a witch.”

Foxy reckoned that a witch might actually come in handy. “Okay,” he said.

“Bother,” said Moira, who was looking out of the door, watching the rats run off. “Larry’s on his way.”

Marissa jumped to her feet. “I’ll get rid of Larry for you, shall I?”

“Oh, yes, please,” said Foxy and Moira in unison.

Marissa shot out of the door. Foxy and Moira didn’t know what Marissa did, but Larry never appeared. Half an hour later most of the scribes had gone home and a very nervous Foxy was starting the LockDown—a procedure that, as deputy, Foxy had had to learn. Foxy’s hands shook as he peered at the new LockDown protocol that Beetle had worked out from some faded old documents, but with the help of Romilly Badger, Partridge, Moira Mole and Marissa, Foxy managed to get through to the end.

“I think it’s called battening down the hatches,” said Moira, who came from a fishing family. “It’s what you do when a storm is coming.”

Foxy had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t like storms.

27

MYSTERY READING

Up in the Pyramid Library a crisis meeting was in progress. Although it was only early afternoon, the windows were shuttered and the Library was dark except for a single candle that burned on a large desk in the center of the room. Gathered around the desk were Marcia Overstrand and the two people—Septimus and Beetle—and the one ghost in the Castle whom she trusted implicitly. There were also two other people she trusted less implicitly but had been persuaded to include by Alther.

“We have a problem,” she said. “And it could be a big one.”

The candle flame flickered in the air currents that circulated around the Library, wafting in through tiny vents in its golden roof. Marcia’s green eyes, sparkling in the light, were worried. “Two things I don’t understand: First, how did those idiot Heaps break the Seal? Second, they were on Seal Watch at half past midnight, so what happened between then and when I discovered them? And why can’t we find them? Search and Rescue should have easily tracked them down by now. I just don’t get it.”