Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens Read Online Free Page A

at me like I was an idiot.
    “Come on,” I called back to her.
    “We’re not going that way.” She pointed along the road that we had been following, which led further along the quay. “We’re going this way. We can’t go on to Union Street.”
    I was beginning to really want to know what was on Union Street. Whatever it was really seemed to haveher spooked. I tried to smile reassuringly at her.
    “We’ll only be on Union Street for a short while. Trust me in this.”
    Maybe something I said earlier had stuck because she took a deep breath then dashed over to where I was standing. The street wasn’t that narrow. A giant chicken would have been able to fit in here. But it was still less dangerous than the quay had been.
    “If we get caught I’ll never forgive you,” The Ambassador hissed at me. I rolled my eyes.
    “Yes, your Ambassadorness.”
    The street wasn’t that long but it seemed to take ages to walk up it. It was only when we were getting to the end that I realised that the Ambassador was dawdling. She really didn’t want to go there.
    From a purely tactical sense I agreed with her. Union Street was the main street in Aberdeen and that meant that it was wide. A whole army of giant chickens could march up it and we wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop them. If we were spotted, we wouldn’t stand a chance.
    But King Street was almost as big. I didn’t know my way around the city as well as she did but if the Ambassador had problems with Union Street because of its size then she could probably have found a better way. There was definitely something wrong here. If something could freak out the Ambassador that badly then it couldn’t be anything good.
    Finally we reached Union Street. I took a quick look around before darting back to the Ambassador.
    “I can’t see anything,” I told her. It suddenly occurred to me that the chicken I’d seen earlier could be around here, but I decided that she didn’t need to know that right now. She was getting panicky enough as it was. “We should make it.”
    She nodded, trying to hide her emotions behind a mask of confidence. I could respect that. “Then let’s go.”
    We ran for the corner where Union Street turned into King Street. Whenever there was a chicken around I liked to move slowly. I didn’t know much about chickens, but from what I remembered from a documentary they could only see movement. Or was that dinosaurs? Anyway, moving slowly and carefully seemed like a good idea. But when there weren’t any around it was even better to move fast and get into cover, instead of being left out in the open.
    I glanced down Union Street, just to see if I could see anything that could make the Ambassador that scared. I thought I caught a glimpse of something white in the distance but we were in cover before I could get a good look.
    The Ambassador was gasping as if she’d just run a marathon, instead of the short distance. I decided that the white thing in the distance was yet another thing that she didn’t need to know about. Instead I pulled a bottle of water out of my backpack and offered it to her. “Are you all right?” I asked.
    She took a quick gulp from the bottle before straightening up and nodding. “Yes. Thanks, Jesse.”
    I think it might have been the first time she used my name.
    “No problem, Ambassador.”
    She had started walking forward again but stopped, uncertain. Then she said. “You don’t need to call me that. They just called me that because I move between the groups. My name is Rayna.”
    I smiled. Progress.

Chapter 4
    We walked in silence. I didn’t want to push the little trust that Rayna had given me and she seemed relieved by the quiet. Besides, it was usually a good idea not to make noise. You wouldn’t think it but cities without people can be eerily quiet and any noise can echo. So I spent my time looking at the shops to either side of us and memorising them. The group was still pretty well stocked for supplies,