“Dream Police, copy that.”

“Problem?”

“Little lad in the wrong place. Sending out a unit now, who’s in the volcano district?”

“Trig is, how old is he?”

“Six. Two dogs with him, possibly stuffed.”

“Oh great. I bet they’re talkers too.”

“We need to get him out of there. There’s mountings around.”

“Mountings?”

“It’s code. Hi – Trig? Are you in the vicinity of the southern slopes? Hi, yes, we’ve got a dreamwalker. Six year old in the wrong place. Signs himself Toe, could be code for Joe. Yes. Two dogs, possibly stuffed. Listen, he’s unaware of the danger. Or maybe he doesn’t realise. Thinks it’s all amaizing – we need to get him out. We believe he has a tent. Be careful Trig; you know what happened last time there was a tent. Yep. Ok, we’ll send back-up shortly. Oh, you’re kidding? When did you last have it? Well watch out for monsters eh? Keep us in the loop.”

“What loop?”

“Trig’s lost his gun, third time this month. Sometimes I think he’s living in a dream-world.”

“He’s lost his gun again? Why are we even letting him out there, with monsters and volcanoes and lost dreamwalkers?”

“No use against a volcano and you know it. And we can’t take dreamwalkers out. It’s those monsters I don’t like though. Some kids fear them and do everything to avoid them. Others, like our little man here seem to be unaware of danger. Sort of kid who falls in rivers.”

“Well, we’re watching him. Any more ideas about mountings?”

“Seems geographical. Could be location specific.”

“You’ve lost me”

“I can’t lose this lad. Get me a decoder. He’s wandering now. He’s carrying his dogs. They look stuffed to me. No one carries dogs round here.”

“On it.”

“Oh great, marvellous. You are kidding me. He’s picking something off the ground – I need a closer angle on that.”

“Trig’s gun?”

“Yep. Yep. He’s looking at it and he’s put it in his belt. That kid is too lucky, we need to get him out quick. He’s a sparky one.”

“Decoder’s unscrambled it for you: mounting is code for mountain.”

“Ah, interesting. Is Trig closing in yet? He needs to know he must have gone past the area already today. Trig? Do you read me? Behind you. Yes, copy that. He’s retracing now.”

“The lad is still moving though. And that ground looks shaky. What is that?”

“I’ll get another angle. Seems he’s spotted something else on the ground. Shiny.”

“What else has Trig dropped?”

“No, it’s something new. A metal box? He’s digging it out. He’s quite excited now.”

“There could be anything in that box.”

“Wo, what’s that bleeping?”

“The screens are blank – nope, it’s the volcano early warning system. We’ve got hot magma moving in the area. This doesn’t look good.”

“Ok, switch the alarm off, where is back-up? We need that boy out of there!”

“He’s picked up the box – look, Trig’s almost there now!”

“Nightmare over. Too close, that one.”