Read Online Mort by Martin Chatterton - Free Book Online

shoulder slamming painfully into the wall of the ballroom.
    He only just made it.
    With another roar loud enough to wake the dead, Smiler pounced again but found only empty space. Mort, his shoulder throbbing from the impact with the wall, staggered back into the centre of the ballroom. He slipped on the shiny wooden floor under his boots and fell sideways – something which probably saved his life – just as Smiler flew over his head, his trailing leg catching Mort on the back and sending him flying clear across the room.
    Even as he was cartwheeling through the air, Mort was estimating the sabre-tooth’sposition. He twisted his body and sprang to his feet. The second his toes touched the floor he flexed his knees and bounced upwards as Smiler attacked again. Using all his Shaolin expertise, Mort hung in the air for as long as he could. Feeling the beast pass under him, Mort stabbed a finger down onto his wristband. If the thing was operational, that jolt should have sent Smiler to sleep.
    It didn’t.
    The power outage must be preventing the radio signal that the device needed to function.
    Mort landed once more, this time twisting and rolling sideways until he was wedged into the angle where the ballroom wall met the floor. It made him a less conspicuous target.
    Smiler paced the room, growling. Mort became aware that, like himself, the Molyneux woman was trying very hard not to breathe. And then, quite suddenly, the man with her woke up.

    â€˜Where am I?’ he said. ‘Mummy?’
    â€˜Shh!’ hissed Trish, clamping her hand over Nigel’s mouth, but it was too late.
    Mort sensed Smiler moving in thedarkness. He didn’t know exactly how sensitive Smiler’s sense of smell was, but he did know it was better than his own. There was also nothing wrong with his hearing, so Mort, with nothing he could do to disguise his smell, lay as quietly as possibly.
    Smiler moved in the direction of the sounds. He knew fear when he heard it.
    And fear meant food.
    Smiler moved in on Trish and Nigel.

As soon as the lights had gone out, Trish reached down to grab Nigel’s collar and haul him as far away from the entrance as possible. As she did so, Smiler exploded into the ballroom and flew over their heads, landing with a crash against the far wall. Then, in rapid succession came a series of blood-curdling roars.
    One of the objects Trish had found was a pair of night-vision goggles.
    Quickly, she put them on and the ballroom became visible.
    She almost wished it hadn’t.
    The gigantic sabre-tooth was only eight or nine metres away and seemed to be fighting a boy of about ten. So this was one of the children she’d been sent to find. From the look of things she’d arrived just in time to see him being eaten alive. For a split second she considered trying to do something but, in the darkened ballroom with an injured sabre-toothed tiger, she didn’t know what she could do, except try to save the unconscious Nigel.
    Trish glanced over her shoulder, towards the door.
    It was close, maybe fifteen metres, but it may as well have been fifty. Trish saw Mort roll into a corner of the room and lie still as Smiler began to pad slowly from side to side.
    Clever boy, she thought.
    She started very slowly, and as silently as possible, to drag Nigel towards the door. It was worth a shot. Nigel slid easily on the smooth surface and, keeping one eye on the sabre-tooth, Trish began to make good progress.
    Which was when Nigel had woken up and asked for his mummy.
    Smiler turned and began moving in their direction.
    Out of the corner of her eye Trish saw the boy slowly roll out of his position against the wall and start to tiptoe towards the ventilation shaft.
    Trish realised she wasn’t going to make it to the door.
    She took her hand from Nigel’s mouth and he let out a long breath. Smiler’s ears pricked up but Trish knew she needed both hands free for what she was going to do. With