THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 5
THE CHANNEL THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST 👁️
The pull strengthened. Water tore through the cracked conduit into the hidden shaft. The map shuddered across the wall, its open-eye symbol pulsing below.
“The third pool will be almost empty,” Sora said.
TurboTAD kept the glowing key raised. “Take Mira back. Move every Little TAD away from the draining channels. I’ll hold this passage until help comes.”
“You’re staying alone?” Mira asked.
“Not for long. Hero’s promise.”
Sora took her flipper, and they hurried up the maintenance passage.
The key rang sharply. A clang answered from above.
Marno arrived beneath the low arch, scraping his yellow helmet against it. He carried a stone brace over one shoulder, tools at his waist. Behind him, Nibble held a humming detector, bronze goggles pushed above his green eyes.
“Sora’s warning reached the workshop.” Marno stared at the fracture. “That isn’t nursery damage.”
Nibble’s detector chirped. “The signal’s not coming from the gate.”
TurboTAD pointed down the shaft. “Below.”
Marno anchored the brace across the conduit. Stone groaned, then held.
“For now,” he warned. “Seal that hole and the pressure will find another weakness. Perhaps under the nursery.”
“Then leave it open,” TurboTAD said. “We need to know where it leads.”
Nibble brought his detector beside the key. Their lights flickered together.
“It’s listening,” he murmured. “Not just showing damage.”
A stronger pulse passed between the key and the wall. Beneath the smooth Builder channels, the map revealed a crooked tunnel climbing from the deep shaft to the fracture.
Marno traced its course without touching. “Cut from below.”
“Recently?”
“Not today. And not by the First Builders.”
Nibble adjusted the detector. A low tone filled the chamber; the draining water slowed for one heartbeat.
The eye symbol closed. Everything stilled.
Nibble swallowed. “I didn’t do that.”
The eye opened again. Smaller symbols formed a ring around it and climbed the hidden channel towards the nursery system.
Marno tightened the brace. “Something has noticed the key.”
TurboTAD moved between the shaft and the way back to the Little TADs, his booster glowing green.
“Then let it notice me.”
Without his moving it, the key turned in his flipper. One point aimed down the shaft, one towards the nursery, and the third at the unbroken wall beside Nibble.
Three hollow knocks came from behind it.
“A second passage,” Nibble said as his detector flashed.
Marno raised his hammer. TurboTAD stopped him.
Water was rushing upward on the other side.