'Oh, thank goodness,' said Katie. 'I was starting to feel really sorry for him.'
Shimlara leaned over from her ShobGobble and hugged Nicola. 'Looks like another successful mission for the Space Brigade!'
'Wait just a minute!'
It was Topaz. She was speaking into her macrophone and looked fierce and determined.
'Enrico, I don't want to just bully you into resigning!'
'Why not?' said Sean.
'Yeah, I don't see the problem,' said Joshua.
Enrico, who had flipped back over on his stomach, sat up again, shuddering when his hand came in contact with the buttons that were scattered all around him. He looked up at Topaz. His eyes narrowed. 'So you don't want me to resign?'
'I want to do it legally,' said Topaz. 'We have a petition here calling for your resignation. According to the Constitution if we present you with a petition as long as a rainbow, then you must resign.'
'Fine. Just get it over with,' said Enrico sulkily.
'Serena,' said Topaz. 'Let's see if that petition is the length of a rainbow.'
Serena lowered her voice. 'But, Topaz, what if it's not?'
'I don't care. I want this done properly,' said Topaz. 'You understand, don't you, Nicola?'
'Sort of,' said Nicola. She guessed it made sense to force Enrico's resignation legally, rather than just by exploiting his phobias.
'This is ridiculous,' huffed Greta.
'That rainbow there might be a good one,' said Tyler, pointing to one that began at the Honey Sea Wharf and curved across the crowd of Shobblings. Nicola knew that Tyler would have quickly picked out the shortest rainbow he could see.
Serena took the huge roll of rose-pink parchment from her backpack and handed it to Topaz.
'Will you do the honours, Nicola?' asked Topaz.
'Sure,' said Nicola nervously. She took a firm hold of the scroll of paper, while Topaz took the other end . . .
'You ready?'
'Yes.'
'Let's go.'
They flew off in opposite directions to the ends of the rainbow. Nicola looked over her shoulder and saw the rose-pink parchment unfurling between herself and Topaz like an endless party streamer.
She could see where the rainbow curved to the ground just in front of the Honey Sea Wharf. She urged Quicksilver on with a gentle touch of her feather.
They flew towards the ground and Nicola felt the petition pulling in her hand.
She glanced back and saw that Topaz had already reached the other end of the rainbow.
Nicola's heart stopped as she looked down at the scroll of pink parchment.
It couldn't be true.
There were no more names on the petition. There was only blank parchment in front of her. They needed about a dozen more signatures. If only everyone had written their names in big capital letters they would have been fine!
She tugged gently on the parchment and felt Topaz tugging it back at the other end. They couldn't stretch it any further. The petition wasn't long enough. They were very, very close - but not close enough.