The Catchers

by Stuart J. Kent

  “Wow, he really has lost it!” said Marty in disbelief. “Oh dibs on his slippers!”

  Then Colin moved to the kitchen area and waved the others over to join him.

  “Come see, come see,” he said, sitting at the table.

  “What is it?” asked Jamie as he sat next to Colin.

  “A brochure of the Ministry,” replied Trixie reading the front cover.

  “Yes, and inside…” Colin paused as he opened it up. “A map of the Ministry, now this is just a friendly touristy one, so it’s very simple, no real detail, but look there…” he said pointing to a large room beyond the reception area.

  “The library,” read Trixie aloud.

  “Yes, the Ministry library: thousands of books dating back hundreds and thousands of years, covering everything in the magical world and beyond.”

  “Right, so we’re going to borrow a book?” Marty asked confused as he stood on the table by the map.

  “How’s that going to help us?”

  “No, no, we are not going to borrow a book, what the brochure doesn’t tell you is that at the back of the library is the record room, every report and every day-to-day mundane and important decision is recorded there and kept secure, and that’s where we will find one of these,” he said pointing to the map again.

  “What, more brochures?” Trixie asked innocently.

  “No, a map,” sighed Colin. “Actually, to be precise, the big proper Ministry map, the one that happens to have a lot of very important and interesting details.”

  “I see, and it will tell us where the dark wizard is?” said Jamie, excitedly.

  “No, I’m afraid not, but it will however tell us where he has been, and that will be a step closer to catching him,” said Colin, proudly basking in his own genius again.

  “Great, we’ll go in the morning,” said Trixie.

  “No, that may be too late and it may alert the dark wizard to our pursuit; no, I’m afraid we must go, tonight!” Colin replied dramatically.

  “But the Ministry’s closed during the night,” Trixie replied, pointing out the obvious problem with the plan.

  “Yes, it is, so we will have to be very quiet, very quick and very careful not to get caught,” replied Colin with a little mischievous gleam in his eye.

  “Cool! Breaking and entering at the Ministry, I’ll get my crowbar!” grinned Marty eagerly.

  Just past the midnight hour, the dark night sky was filled with bright twinkling stars and Streak slowly came to a halt in a dimly lit, quiet road in the heart of Magictasium city.

  “We’ll leave Streak and the cart here,” whispered Colin as they all disembarked the cart.

  “Good idea for a quick getaway if the job goes south, like,” added Marty in a cockney accent.

  “No!” replied Colin abruptly, before changing his mind. “Well, yes actually, but it won’t go wrong because A: we have a good plan which we will stick to, and B: we are not really doing anything wrong, we are just going to visit the library.”

  “And breaking in,” added Marty, grinning.

  “Let’s just get on with it,” sighed Trixie.

  The little group made their way along the dark cobbled street, past several closed shops and unlit houses, until they reached the end of the road where it opened out into the pedestrian area around the Ministry building.

  “We’ll use one of the emergency exits,” whispered Colin as they stared across the open pedestrian square, checking to see if anyone was around.

  “What, the one on the roof?” said Marty excitedly, holding up a tiny grappling hook and rope.

  “No, not that one,” replied Colin.

  “Ah, phooey!” grumbled Marty throwing down the grappling hook in disappointment.

  “That one,” Colin whispered pointing to large green metal bin across the open pedestrian square. “Right follow me, quickly and quietly,” whispered Colin before leading the way towards the bin.

  They all quickly strolled as casually as they could in a hurry, across the open well-lit pedestrian area, passing several large wooden barrels full of pretty flowering plants that decorated the area nicely and split up the dull plain paving slabs, which then created a more overall pleasant and artistic open space for visitors to see, or at least that’s what the outside design and decorating department of the ministry thought, until finally they reached the corner green bin.

  Colin pulled his old crooked wand out of his pocket and tapped the top of the large green metal container.

  “Emergency exit, open!” he commanded.

  The bin began to vibrate and then with a hiss of steam it shot sideways revealing a large hole in the ground and a set of brick stairs disappearing down into the darkness below.

  “There we go,” said Colin cheerfully before he stepped forward and began to descend down the stairs.

  “What’s that smell?” asked Trixie following him down.

  “Ah, well…” replied Colin hesitating to answer.

  “That would be the sewers that we are walking into,” replied Marty from inside Colin’s top pocket.

  “Urgh!” cried Trixie holding her nose in disgust.

  “Yes it does get a little whiffy,” added Colin waving his hand in front of his face to try and shoo away the smell.

  “That really stinks!” exclaimed Jamie also holding his nose.

  “Ha, you lot have obviously never broken into anywhere important before, you should always come prepared,” said a muffled Marty, now wearing a little black rubber gas mask.

  “Anyway, let’s have some light,” said Colin, tapping the wall with his wand.

  A little blue spark jumped from the end of his wand and ran along the wall until it found a little glass bulb sticking out a few feet away, and instantly the bulb lit up and they could see their surroundings.

  “Urgh!” exclaimed Trixie again, looking down at the nasty, dirty water and filthy sludge that floated past the narrow stone pavement that they found themselves standing on. “I think I preferred it when I couldn’t see,” she shuddered.

  “Yes, it’s not a pleasant sight is it?” agreed Colin, glancing down at the river of muck.

  They then quickly followed the light along the stone and concrete sewer system until after a few hundred yards they came upon an old stone staircase rising back up away from the sewer.

  “This way!” Colin said, still leading the way as he ascended the old staircase.

  “About time!” muttered Trixie, now with a wooden peg on her nose.

  “I think I can taste it,” muttered Jamie in disgust as he tried to spit the foul-smelling air out of his mouth.

  After climbing up a lot of old worn stone stairs, in what seemed an endless upwards spiral, they finally reached a small dark passageway.

  “Quiet now, we are inside the Ministry building,” whispered Colin. “So no sudden loud noises,” at which point Marty let out a little bottom gas in a loud trumpet sound, making everyone stare in disgust and disbelief.

  “Sorry, nerves,” he sniggered.

  “Urrgh! It’s like being back down in that sewer again,” Colin grumbled waving away the nasty aroma.

  They then began to sneak along the dark, tight passage as it twisted and turned one way and then another, and for a good while it never seemed to end, then abruptly they came to a halt at a brick wall blocking their path.

  “What do we do now?” asked Trixie seeing no way out.

  “This!” replied Colin tapping the wall with his wand. “Open!” he commanded quietly, and with a gentle popping sound the bricks evaporated and a doorway then appeared in front of him and a small amount of light poured into the tiny passage. He then stepped through the doorway, before ushering the others to join him and quietly they followed him into a large, dimly-lit room.

 
“The library of the Ministry,” whispered Colin triumphantly.

  Jamie gazed around at his surroundings. He was in a large rectangular room that had bookcases running up all the walls, right up to where the ceiling should have been, but instead there was just another floor of bookcases and then another one high above that, making one very high literature tower of knowledge.

  Then looking around, Jamie could see at one end of the room was a pair of very large wooden doors leading out of the library, and in the other direction the room continued on with more bookcases and books going on into the distance. As they stood getting their bearings, the little doorway they had used to enter the library slowly closed itself shut, as the bricks reappeared in place, and to Jamie’s amazement a vending machine dispenser for sweets, fizzy drinks and potion necessities appeared in front of the wall.

  “Well, that’s unusual!” exclaimed Jamie, surprised to see such a thing in a library.

  “Well, where else would you put a secret emergency exit in a library? You couldn’t exactly hide it behind a bookcase, you would never find it!” replied Trixie sarcastically.

  “That’s true,” agreed Jamie.

  “This way,” Colin whispered strolling off through the room.

  They quickly followed him and marched past row after row of books, all of which in this section appeared to be old, slightly worn, leather-bound copies with big gold words written on them like spells, potions and card tricks. Then they passed a row of books that all had human mouths attached to them.

  “That’s really weird!” exclaimed Jamie stopping to stare at them in disbelief.

  “Don’t stare, they’re just books for the blind,” whispered Trixie giving his arm a tug. “Just politely walk past.”

  “Oh, right!” replied Jamie turning to walk away.

  “Right, the opposite to left. Right, the person who is correct…” said a book suddenly breaking the silence of the library.

  “Ssshhh! Quiet!” whispered Jamie, panicking.

  “Quiet, the opposite to loud,” replied the book.

  “No, shut up!” Jamie whispered trying to stop the book from speaking.

  “Up, the opposite to down,” continued the book.

  “What are you doing?” Trixie growled, annoyed that Jamie was messing about with a book.

  “It’s not me, it’s the book,” replied Jamie innocently.

  “Book, made of paper containing the written word,” the book replied again.

  “Just walk away!” Trixie growled pulling Jamie away from them.

  “Away, to leave, to be gone from here,” continued the book again.

  After passing several more rows of bookcases, they finally reached the end of the room where a single wooden door sat.

  “This is it, the records room,” said Colin standing in front of the ordinary-looking wooden door with a square glass window in it and the words “Records Room” written on it.

  He then turned the brass handle and slowly opened the door, and stepping inside they found the room was just a small storage room, filled from floor to ceiling with lots and lots of old wooden filing cabinets, and stacks of paper files all bound up with string that towered upwards towards the high ceiling, and there in the middle of all of this paperwork and office furniture was just enough space for an old small wooden desk and an old metal table lamp.

  “How are we going to find the map in here?” Trixie asked in despair as she gazed around at it all.

  “Not to worry, if it has all been correctly filed like it should have been, then it won’t take us long at all,” replied Colin optimistically. He then moved to the first wooden file nearest to him and pulled the top drawer open.

  “Z, well that’s not right,” he sighed closing the file drawer before opening the next drawer down. “Y, nope still not the right one.” Closing that drawer he then opened the next one below that. “X, oh this might take longer than I thought,” he sighed.

  “Spread out and start searching,” Trixie said with a similar despairing sigh as she looked at Jamie, before the two youths moved towards the next set of filing cabinets.

  “What map exactly are we looking for, Uncle?” asked Trixie.

  “The Ministry building survey map, or building and refurbishment map, or Ministry floor and ceiling map, I think it should be under M for map,” replied Colin.

  “Or P for plan, or L for lovely drawing,” added Marty with a snigger.

  “Yes, well you can start helping as well,” Colin grumbled as he carefully pulled Marty out of his top pocket and placed him down on the small table. “Now hurry, we may not have long,” he added before moving to the next filing cabinet.

  “Why not?” asked Trixie suspiciously.

  “Because there may just be a night patrol of security wizards, whose job it is to keep the Ministry building safe when everyone’s gone home,” replied Colin.

  “WHAT?” exclaimed Trixie in horror.

  “Sssshhhh!” whispered Colin putting his finger to his lips to indicate silence. “Just keep looking and I’m sure we’ll be gone before anyone knows we were even here.”

  “Unbelievable!” muttered Trixie in disbelief as she began to pull open the first drawer that she could reach.

  Very quickly the little group of trespassers opened and then shut one drawer after another, searching in vain for the map.

  “This is hopeless!” sighed Trixie after just a few minutes of searching. “I think we should leave now while we still can.”

  “Don’t give up, just keep going, we’ll find it soon,” replied Colin opening another wrong drawer.

  Jamie was stood looking up at a towering pile of papers in front of him, when he spotted a set of cabinets higher up at the back of the room, so clambering up onto one of the shorter wooden filing cabinets that gently wobbled underneath him, he then reached up as high as he could to open the top drawer.

  “Steady,” he whispered to himself as he took hold of the wooden handle, as he balanced on his tiptoes. Then, slowly, he pulled the drawer open, and did his best to peer inside.

  “M,” he declared excitedly, seeing the letter at the top of the first page.

  “You’ve found it!” said Colin excitedly, looking up at Jamie. “Can you see the map?”

  “Hold on,” replied Jamie reading the file labels. “Macadam, Macadamia, Macaroon, Macaw…”

  “This is taking too long,” grumbled Trixie impatiently.

  “Hang on, I have an idea,” exclaimed Jamie having a flash of genius, before he pulled out his wand, tapped the file drawer and said, “Map.”

  “No wait!” cried Colin in horror, but it was too late. Suddenly, the drawer shot out, knocking Jamie backwards off the cabinet he was perched on and sending him flying down into a stack of piled papers with a cry. He crashed in a heap on the floor as the paper pile collapsed around him and as he lay there, a rain of rolled up parchments gently showered down onto him from the M file drawer above.

  “Found it!” came a muffled voice from beneath the mound of papers.

  Colin then bent down and took hold of the old rolled up parchment from the hand that was reaching up to him from under the piles of paper, and unrolled the large piece of paper.

  “Well, bless my socks! He has found it!” said Colin happily.

  “A little help, please!” came the muffled voice again, still under the papers.

  “Return,” ordered Trixie with a wave of her wand and in seconds all of the other rolls of paper quickly leapt back up into the drawer, leaving Jamie lying on the floor surrounded by the fallen paper pile.

  “Thanks,” Jamie said, smiling up at her.

  “You’re welcome!” she replied before stepping over him to get to the desk where Colin was now studying the map.

  “See here, the map of the Ministry, every floor and
every room all inside this grand old building,” Colin said, staring down at the large old worn sheet of paper.

  “It’s just a mass of squiggly lines,” Trixie said, unimpressed, as she looked at the large amount of lines criss-crossing the sheet in all directions. “How can we tell which floor is which?” she asked.

  “Ah, watch and learn,” Colin replied with a grin. Then he pressed his finger on the key of the map, which was a big printed old-style iron key that ran along the side of the page, and said,

  “Show me all the floors and rooms in use.”

  The map then gently began to glow, and before their eyes the lines of the drawings lifted up off the page and began to move into position, building a full 3D line drawing of the entire Ministry building, floor by floor, room by room.

  “Wow!” exclaimed Jamie staring in amazement as he joined the others at the table. “That’s incredible!” he added before poking one of the lines with his finger, at which point the line wobbled just like a jelly.

  “Now this is the full layout of the Ministry, every floor, every room, everything that is in use right at this moment,” Colin said, looking it over keenly.

  “What do you mean, in use right at this moment?” asked Trixie inquisitively.

  “Ah, I’m glad you asked, watch!” replied Colin before once again he pressed his finger on the key of the map and said,

  “Show all the stored rooms.”

  Then once again the map glowed and lines that had not existed before suddenly drew themselves into position, and in seconds there was now a collection of light blue lined boxes, sitting all bunched up, in the middle of the map.

  “What are they?” asked Trixie curiously.

  “They are about a dozen or so rooms not in use, all stored away until required,” said Colin excitedly pointing to them.

  “How is that possible?” Jamie asked very confused by the idea that rooms could be stored away when not in use like an umbrella or that knitted jumper gran gave you last Christmas.