As she did so, Smiler exploded into the ballroom and flew over their heads, landing with a crash against the far wall. Then, in rapid succession came a series of blood-curdling roars. One of the objects Trish had found was a pair of night-vision goggles. Quickly, she put them on and the ballroom became visible. She almost wished it hadn’t. The gigantic sabre-tooth was only eight or nine metres away and seemed to be fighting a boy of about ten. So this was one of the children she’d been sent to find. From the look of things she’d arrived just in time to see him being eaten alive. For a split second she considered trying to do something but, in the darkened ballroom with an injured sabre-toothed tiger, she didn’t know what she could do, except try to save the unconscious Nigel. Trish glanced over her shoulder, towards the door. It was close, maybe fifteen metres, but it may as well have been fifty. Trish saw Mort roll into a corner of the room and lie still as Smiler began to pad slowly from side to side.
