Chapter 7 The Wager

"Titus, I'm in deep poo." Pandora collapsed on her brother's bed with a small wail.
Titus didn' t respond, unless a grunt counted as an expression of brotherly concern.

"Listen up, Titus, I need your help."

"I'm busy," came the reply.

Pandora unfolded herself from the bed and came to stand by her brother. Titus muttered and tapped on a keyboard, seemingly oblivious to the presence of his sister.

"I can't tell where that stupid computer ends and you begin. Titus, if you don't stop and listen to me, I'm going to see if it likes Coke as much as you do."

Titus unglued his eyeballs from the screen and looked up. Pandora was unscrewing the cap from a vast bottle of brown fizz. He sighed.

"Ah! Eyeball contact," gloated Pandora. "Is there intelligent life on Planet Titus? Yes, there appears to be large amoebathing with an open hole in the middle of its head, but we are experiencing some difficulty in establishing communication."

Titus sighed again. "What is it?" he said.

"I've lost Multitudina."

"Big deal," said Titus, "plenty more rats where she came from."

Pandora glared at her brother. "And all her babies, Titus-all thirteen of them."

"They'll turn up," said Titus philosophically. "Floating in the

soup, down the toilet, hot-wired to the back of the fridge . . ."

"Titus. I shut them in here. Before breakfast. And when I came back upstairs with their bacon rinds, they were gone."

"What did you do with the bacon rinds?" asked Titus irrelevantly.
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