So did Tess, but if she had been a dragon at that moment, she would have burned his nose again. 'Don't be an idiot, Kevin,' she said. 'We've only survived so far because we can Switch! If you couldn't dodge those missiles and disappear at night you wouldn't stand a chance!'

Kevin sighed. 'I suppose you're right,' he said.

'But this way you still have a chance. With the speed we can travel as dragons, we could be in Ireland before morning. We might even have time for some bit of a party. At Lizzie's, maybe?'

'It's a bit risky, isn't it?' asked Kevin. 'They'll be able to follow us on radar, won't they?'

'So what?' said Tess. 'We've been dodging planes and missiles for two days, now. What could they possibly throw at us that we couldn't handle?'

Kevin said nothing. Tess rubbed her gloved hands together and blew on them. 'Come on, Kevin,' she said. 'It's too cold to stand around and think about it.'

'I suppose it is,' said Kevin. 'The only problem is, I still don't really know what I want to be. There was something nice about not having to choose, you know?'

'But you don't have to choose right now. You'll have all today and tonight to think about it. And in any case, you'll probably know when the time comes, won't you? The same way as you knew it was right to come up here?'

Kevin brightened. 'You know something?' he said.

'What?'

'For once in your life, you might be right.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

GENERAL WOLFE WAS ON the edge of his seat. 'Come on, my tricky little friends,' he said to the moving blips on the monitor in front of him. 'You just keep right on going the way you are.'

The two UFOs were heading south, right out in the open above the Norwegian Sea. He had been following their progress for some time, watching the satellite pictures with growing antic.i.p.ation. If they carried on in their present direction, they would soon be crossing the north-west tip of Scotland. And when they did, he would have a little surprise waiting for them.

At an air base in North Wales, Scud Morgan and his team were getting ready for take-off. They were in a line of planes similar to their own, crawling towards the runway, waiting their turn. The snow was still thick on the fields all around, but the skies were clear.

Scud was champing at the bit. 'Know something?' he said.

'Not a thing,' said Hadders, who was carefully checking over the instruments on the panel in front of him.

'I got a feeling we're going to see some action tonight.'

'I guess that's why they're sending us up there, Scud.'

'Yeah, course, I know that. But this feeling is more than that. It's in my bones, you know? like, we were the first guys to spot those two aliens out there, weren't we?'

'I never saw any aliens.'

'What were they, then? They weren't planes. Everyone knows those two things weren't planes. You must be some kind of a nut-head if you think those two things are planes.'

'n.o.body knows what they are,' said Hadders, 'and n.o.body knows how to stop 'em. But it seems to me that there's no sense in talking flying saucers here and getting ourselves into a stew.'

'A stew?' said Scud. He jammed on the brakes as he came up on to the tail of the plane in front, and the three of them lurched forward into their seat-belts. 'Who's getting into a stew? I'm not getting into a stew. Are you getting into a stew? n.o.body gets into a stew in this bird, not as long as I'm in command, anyhow.'

Hadders sighed and continued with his last-minute checklist. 'All I'm saying,' Scud went on, 'is that I got this feeling. We were the first to see those two aliens, and I got an idea we're going to be the last.'

'Did you see any aliens, Jake?' said Hadders.

'Couple of planes,' said Jake.

There were no missiles aboard the bombers which lifted off, one after another into the star-lit sky. They were fully loaded though, but this time with another kind of weapon.

When Scud and his crew took off, Tess and Kevin were still well out over the Norwegian Sea. They were flying low, skimming close to the waves, enjoying their flight. The night air was clear and fresh, and they were beginning to believe that they had finally left the battlefield behind.

Once they had pa.s.sed over the line of new ice that the krools had made, they got the occasional glimpse of a whale breaking the surface of the sea, and they knew that they were heading away from the cold, towards life again. Tess looked across at Kevin flying beside her, and it seemed that it was the first time she had been able to relax for days. What they had done was ridiculous, impossible. It made no sense at all, and yet it was true, and they had done it. The starlight shimmered from the metallic scales of Kevin's back as he turned to her and winked. She was a dragon, flying with another dragon across the sea beneath the stars, and she took time to drink it in and fix the images and sensations into her mind. Because she knew that whatever else happened, she would never feel like this again.

Within an hour, the thirty-five planes had reached their positions and were set in a holding pattern, waiting.

'You got a reading on them yet, Jake?' said Scud.

'Just what the satellite's sending.'

'They far off?'

'About fifteen minutes, I guess.'

'What's that on the radar, then?'

'Let's see. FT6R. That's Pete and Jeremy coming round again. Hi, guys.'

'Jeremy!' Scud spat. 'That's what you get for working with this British crowd. Whoever heard of a serviceman called Jeremy, for G.o.d's sake? Wouldn't you think he'd change his name or something? How can anybody fight a war when there's people called Jeremy flying around all over the place? How's a man supposed to think straight?'

'I'm not sure this is a war, Scud.'

'Read your book, Hadders. That's what some people do. Some people are born to read books and some are born to fight wars. I don't care what anyone else says, but when I'm in a plane, I'm fighting a war.'

Hadders broke one of the last spines from his comb and picked his teeth with it. 'You can say that again,' he said.

As the north tip of Scotland came into view, the two dragons did a quick loop-the-loop of delight. Wolfe, along with fifteen a.s.sembled advisers and a.s.sistants, held his breath. When the two UFOs resumed their course the print-outs on his table fluttered in the breeze.

They were over the land now, with the ragged western coast of Scotland to their right. Beneath them, the trees of huge forestry plantations poked their dark heads above the snow, and occasionally the sharp eyes of the dragons could make out the roofs of abandoned villages and isolated farmhouses. Tess was surprised to find that now and then she got a whiff of wood-smoke. There were people still surviving somehow, despite the depth of the snow. She was looking down, trying to get a glimpse of the heat of hearth-fires, and Kevin must have been as well, otherwise they would have not been taken so utterly by surprise by finding themselves flying straight into the path of an oncoming plane.

'They're going to pa.s.s right under us!' yelled Jake.

'And we're going to get 'em,' said Scud.

'OK,' said Hadders. 'Just take it easy, now. We all clear of other planes, Jake?'

'All clear. And we're on computer count-down, seven, six ...'

'h.e.l.l, where are they? They got no lights or nothing.'

'Four, three ...'

They were practically beneath the plane before they had time to blink.

'Two ...'

Tess acted Goat, swung wildly to her left and upwards, Switching as she did so.

'One ...'

But Kevin was just that little bit slower. He carried straight on, and he Switched, too.

'Zero!'

But he was too late. The napalm bomb dropped from the undercarriage of the plane and exploded in the air, scattering its flaming contents of sticky jelly through the sky and down on to the forest below.

'We got 'em!' yelled Scud. 'Did we get 'em, Jake, did we?'

'Get what?' said Hadders. 'I didn't see anything. Did you see anything?'

'I didn't see anything, but we sure as h.e.l.l got 'em, whatever they were. Did we get 'em, Jake?'

'How should I know? I couldn't see anything.'

'But you got the machines. What do the machines say?'

'The machines say there's a big fire behind us, that's all.'

'Anything flying away from it?'

'Yeah. We are.'

'I knew it,' said Scud. 'I could feel it in my bones. We got 'em.'

Jake was still watching the satellite monitor in the back of the plane. 'I wonder,' he said.

'You bet we did,' said Scud. 'And you know something else?'

'What?' said Hadders.

'This is going to be cause for a celebration, pal. I'm going to buy you a brand new comb.'

By the time Tess had got control of her flight and swung round to see what was happening, the plane was gone and the forest was blazing. Above it, she could just make out a speck of flame which twisted as it tumbled down and was lost in the thick smoke and sparks which rose from the inferno beneath. Her bird mind was utterly calm and detached, but her human mind was screaming. 'Switch, Kevin, Switch!'

But it would have been no use. Nothing, not even the dragon, could have survived those flames. Kevin was done for.

Nonetheless she waited, an eagle hovering high above the forest as the fire reduced it to a skeleton of charred tree-trunks and melted the snow around its edges. She stayed long after the planes had stopped circling and gone away. She stayed until the dawn arrived, the dawn of Kevin's fifteenth birthday, but all it brought with it was military helicopters coming to examine the aftermath of the fire. They would find nothing. With a heavy heart, Tess wheeled and flew away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

TIRED AND DISPIRITED, TESS made her way back to Dublin. It was a difficult journey, and she tried several different birds before she finally settled on the Arctic tern. It was a tough little bird, she discovered, and coped well with the cold and the long hours on the wing, but even so, she was ready to drop by the time she spotted the Phoenix Park and came in to land.

The lights were on in her house. Tess stood among the trees across the street and looked around carefully. There was no one about. The snow was melting fast, but there were still deep drifts around the trunks of the trees and against hedges and walls. The prospect of warmth and rest was almost irresistible, but even as she made the Switch, Tess realised that something was wrong. Much as she loved her parents and longed for the comfort of home, what she needed above all else at this moment was understanding. The shock and grief she felt at Kevin's death struck her with full force now that she was human again, and it was something she would never be able to share with her parents. There was only one person in the world that she could tell, and that was Lizzie.

Reluctantly, Tess turned her back on the bright lights of her parents' house and returned to the shape of the brave little seabird. On tired wings she crossed the city and searched among the snowy fields and trees for the ruin of the big house and the little cottage beside it. When, after some time, she found it, she was relieved to see smoke rising from the chimney and paths cleared to the sheds. She landed on the roof of the hen-house and looked around for a while before she decided on the best way of getting into Lizzie's house without alarming her.

The other cats arched their backs and hissed when they heard the stranger come in through the cat-flap and scratch at the kitchen door, but Lizzie knew straight away.

'You's back!' she said as she opened the door. 'That was quick!'

Tess Switched, and the cats scattered into the corners of the room. Lizzie looked at her in concern. 'You's worn out, girl. What's happened?'

Tess flopped, exhausted, into a chair. The seat had been warmed by the cats, and for a long time Tess sat in silence, letting the warmth sink into her and waiting for her strength to return. Lizzie went over to the sink and set about making tea, but she did it quietly, and Tess forgot that she was there until the cup was pressed gently into her hand. She sat up and sipped the sweet tea, but still she could not speak.

'Rat-boy, huh?'

Tess looked up. Above the hob in the fireplace, a twitching brown nose was poking out of the hole. An unusually long nose. Tears began to pour down Tess's cheeks. Lizzie took off her slipper and threw it at the hole. Long Nose squeaked and disappeared, but a moment later he was back.

'Nanananana,' he said. 'Tail Short Seven Toes curled up with Long Nose and Nose Broken by a Mousetrap. Us guys sleeping. Sun rising, us guys bright eyes, hungry and strong.'

Tess nodded through her tears. 'He's right, Lizzie,' she said. 'You and I can talk in the morning.'

'Off you go, then,' said Lizzie. 'But don't forget to come back to me, will you?'

'Of course not.' Tess gulped down the last of the tea, then put down the cup and Switched. As soon as she was a rat again, she felt better. Rats live together closely, but without attachment or sentiment, and although Kevin's death was still an absence, it was no longer a loss or a cause for grief. She shook herself and began to groom, to put herself back in order, but Lizzie picked her up and lifted her to the hole in the chimney breast before the cats could catch sight of her. There she touched noses with the other two, and quite dispa.s.sionately told them her adventures as she followed them through a twisting network of pa.s.sages and underground tunnels. Long Nose loved the story, and made her tell the bit about the meeting with the first krool again and again, until eventually they arrived at their destination, a snug nest beneath the cowshed. Tess curled up close against Nose Broken by a Mousetrap, and the last thing she heard before she fell asleep was the sound of Nancy above her head, drowzily chewing the cud.

The next morning, Tess made her way back to the cottage, and, in human form again, told Lizzie everything that had happened. The old woman listened carefully, slapping her knees with delight at each new development in the story. When Tess had finished, they both sat quietly for a few minutes, then Lizzie said, 'If I remembers right, you likes pancakes for breakfast.'

Tess looked over at her in astonishment. 'How can you think about pancakes, Lizzie? Aren't you upset about Kevin?'

'No,' said Lizzie. 'I isn't. There are those who say there's life after death and those who say there isn't. But until I gets there myself, I isn't in any position to say one thing or another.'

'But that isn't the point,' said Tess. 'I'm sad because I won't see him any more.'

'Then you's sad for yourself, girl, not for Kevin.'

Tess looked into the fire. The flames were just taking hold of the wood, leaping up towards the kettle, sending sparks up to disappear into the darkness of the chimney. Lizzie got up and began to crack eggs into a bowl.

'Maybe you're right,' said Tess. 'I don't know. But the thing I can't understand is why it should have been us. I mean, why was I born a Switcher, and Kevin. And you, why you?'