Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall

forward, screaming wordlessly, then had to dodge a swiftly struck wing. I spun clumsily, slipping and falling, hitting my head on the floor. An awful iron pain crashed through my skull and I saw stars. By the time I was able to crawl back to my feet the chicken was long gone.
    I slumped down heavily.
    Glen had been taken.
    Three councillors captured from right under my nose. And it was three too many.
    Something finally managed to pierce the hazy fog in my head, and I looked down at my hand. It was still clenched in a fist, not having opened since Glen’s hold had been wrenched away. I uncurled my fingers and stared down, confused…
    At the scrunched-up ball of paper Glen had slipped there just before he was taken.

CHAPTER 13
    It was pretty late by the time we got home. The street lamps had come on, glowing a dull orange, making everything seem gloomy and washed out. The trolley we’d taken with us rattled along, a wheel squeaking every so often and getting on our nerves.
    I was glad we had it though. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to transport the five black boxes that housed the GPS satellite locator and all its components. The note Glen had slipped me told me which ones to take and how to set it up. He must have thought the chicken would have destroyed the devices if it had caught us with them. I wish Glen had decided to run instead.
    I brightened up slightly when we reached the hotel. Because there, waiting for us, looking battered but very much alive, was Percy. I might not get on with him all that well, but it had been unsettling not having him around.
    “The council’s waiting for you,” he told us as we trooped up. “They heard about what happened with Jeremy.”
    I nodded wearily and plodded wearily into the building. Blake followed after, directing the rest of his crew towards the hospital. Percy trudged along behind us. None of us spoke.
    The council was in mid discussion when we walked in. Noah turned and smiled at me, half rising to greet us. Then his eyes flitted from one of us to another and he noted the lack of Glen. His eyes showed his sadnessand he sat back down.
    “Rayna, Blake. Care to tell us what happened?”
    That was Cody, getting straight to business as usual. Percy walked up and stood behind him, a towering shadow, silently backing him up.
    I looked at Blake and decided to answer. “We went to get the satellite GPS that Glen wanted. As you know we’d decided to blend in with one of Jeremy’s scouting groups to be a less obvious target. We were ambushed twice by this… new type of chicken. The first time it managed to get Jeremy. The second time Glen sacrificed himself so that we could get the GPS satellite locator.”
    Hazel looked at me and frowned. “Wait, you were going to get that today? I thought you were doing that on Saturday.”
    “I thought it was Sunday,” Deborah added. “You asked me to have medical supplies ready, just in case everything went wrong.”
    Cody’s face didn’t move, though I sensed a wave of anger drifting off him. “Yes and I was told Friday. Care to say why you were lying to us all?”
    I looked at Noah desperately. He nodded quickly. “It’s because we needed to test you,” he said.
    Cody’s eyes narrowed. “Test us? How?”
    “Someone here is a spy.”
    I’d expected there to be a commotion at those words but everyone was deathly silent. I swallowed then continued. “The chickens know what we’re doing far too well for it to be a coincidence. Someone here is feeding them information. I thought if I gave each ofyou different information we’d uncover the spy.”
    “And?” Cody urged.
    I shrugged helplessly. “Jeremy was the only one who knew we were setting out today and he was the first one captured. Unless he was interrogated or something…”
    “But there wasn’t time for that.” Blake looked at me angrily. I guess he wasn’t happy that I thought he might be a spy.
    “Look, it’s obvious who the spy is.” Blake pointed