How It All Goes Down
Deep Water
- Alex struggles to get free—unfortunately, though, his steel-melting zit cream is in his back pocket. It's been thirty minutes and still no sign of Mr. Grin
- Suddenly, Nadia Vole bursts through the door looking "flushed" (14.3), and to Alex's surprise, she frees him and reveals that she worked with his uncle. Plot twist.
- Although he's (understandably) confused, Alex follows Mrs. Vole out of the room and up the stairs; she stops to catch her breath, but motions for Alex to continue ahead.
- Suddenly the floor gives way—Mrs. Vole triggered a trapdoor. That's a double plot twist, with a cherry on top.
- Alex lands in a tank of water with "Sayle's Portuguese man-of-war" (14.19) swimming nearby as Mr. Grin and Mrs. Vole watch from the other side of the glass.
- After Mr. Grin leaves, Mrs. Vole tells Alex that resistance is futile and she activates an automatic current system that sends the gigantic jellyfish straight towards him.
- First, Alex swims to the bottom and tries to grab a rock, but they're all stuck to the ground. Then he remembers the zit cream. Oh man, will it even work underwater?
- Alex places a dab of the cream on each of the steel supports. The tank explodes, launching Alex down into the room. The jellyfish, on the other hand, lands squarely on the face of Nadia Vole. Ouch.
- Alex can hear that "an alarm had gone off" (14.41). He needs to get moving because there's just one hour left until the prime minister presses that button.
- He grabs a harpoon gun (convenient, huh?) and gets on his way.