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off long enough to alert Xanax’s assistants.
    She crept back to the others to explain what she’d found.
    â€˜The good news is that it’s a loading dock. Ships are flying in. They’re loaded with containers and then they fly off again.’
    â€˜That’s great, let’s go!’ KT was about to charge off.
    Zed knew better.
    â€˜And the bad news?’
    â€˜There’s a life form sensor,’ answered Dee. ‘The minute we set foot in there, lab assistants will be summoned. They’ll be able to stop all the ships leaving and we’ll be caught. And I may have already set it off.’
    They all sighed as the containers lurched forward, edging closer to the unloading area.
    â€˜We need to hide somehow,’ said Zed.
    â€˜Inside a container,’ said Emm. She was holding XL and was rather impressed with herself for coming up with a good idea. XL was impressed too because she had actually thought it before he did.
    â€˜Let’s see if there’s a way inside one of them,’ suggested Zed. He grabbed the rail and swung himself up onto the top. ‘You all check the sides, I’ll look up here.’
    The sides had no doors or hinges. Nothing that could have opened up. The top appeared to be one smooth sheet of metal with no opening. Zed felt around the edge of the container to see if there was a lock or catch.Towards the back he found a small box next to the edge. He could feel there was a slight gap between the box and the sheet. It had to be some sort of lock.
    â€˜Everyone up here!’ he said over the edge. Reaching down with his rear arm, he gave them a hand up.
    Emm placed XL down on the metal sheet.
    â€˜Aha!’ he thought and realised what had to be done.
    â€˜Dee,’ said Zed, ‘if you use your hammer hand on this small box, it might trigger the lock and we can open the top up.’
    â€˜I’ll give it a go. Keep back.’
    Dee did a few practice swings, sweeping her arm across the top of the sheet towards the box.
    As she did so XL was communicating in a new way.
    â€˜I knew I was intelligent, but this is impressive, even for me.’ By being placed on the container, he could hear the microchip which controlled the box Dee was about to hit. Not only could he hear it but he could talk to it as well. It was quite simple. All he had to do was tell it the right code and it would release. He began to exchange some numbers with the microchip.
    â€˜OK, here goes!’ Dee swung her arm for real and smashed the hammer hard on the small box.
    A spark flew up, XL said the right code and the sheet slid back so quickly they all fell straight into the container.
    Inside there were more metal boxes. Hard metal boxes which hurt when they landed on them.
    â€˜Ow! Why do I always land nose first?!’ complained Jay.
    â€˜Well done… I think,’ said Zed rubbing as many parts of his sore body with his hands as he could.
    â€˜Only problem is, we’re now going to have to shut the container again or the sensors might spot us,’ Emm said.
    They tried pulling the closing sheet back but it stuck fast. Even with all of them pulling together, it wouldn’t budge.
    The container lurched forward towards the unloading area. Zed stuck his head up to see how close they were— just two containers away from the dock.
    â€˜Come on, push harder!’ he said. ‘We’ve got to close it again.’
    They lined up and pushed with all their might.
    XL had fallen onto one of the boxes but because he wasn’t touching the container itself, he had lost contact with the chip controlling the closing sheet.
    â€˜Hold me up to the sheet!’ he shouted. But noone was touching him so noone heard him.
    â€˜Push,’ Zed strained with all his might but it still didn’t work.
    â€˜It’s no good,’ said Jay, exhausted. He sat back and felt something soft under him. It was XL. He moved quickly and picked him