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that.’ She eyeballed Simon. ‘Not allowed to use nails on the hotel walls are you? Perhaps you could stick me up using a combination of Blu-Tack and pin boards?’
    Simon glared at her. ‘We do have a rule, don’t we Vanity, the one about hissy fits at conventions…?’
    ‘Not this time, Simon!’ She levelled a finger at him and jutted her jaw defiantly. ‘Not now my autobiography is out! Not this time and not any more!’
    She turned abruptly, the coat draped on her shoulder swirling around her like a cloak, and left.

    CONVIX 15 / EARTH ORBIT ONE / 10.00am
    EVENT: VANITY MYCROFT, Katherine Warner INTERVIEW
    LOCATION: Vixos Central Nerve Centre (main stage, ballroom)
    EVENT: ‘ASSASSINS OF DESTINY’ PART ONE, EPISODE SCREENING
    LOCATION: The Catacombs of Herath (video lounge—room 1024)
    EVENT: PHOTOS, PAUL CHESTER-ALLEN
    LOCATION: Transpodule Chamber (room 1030)
    EVENT: AUTOGRAPH PANEL—NICHOLAS EVERETT, WILLIAM SMURFETT, ANDREW JAMIESON LOCATION: Arkadia’s Boudoir (room 1013)
    EVENT: WHAT IS ‘CANON’? VIXENS EXPERTS PANEL with Graham Goldingay, Fay Lawless,Craig Jones, Darren Cardew
    LOCATION: The Seventh Moon of Groolia (room 1002)

CHAPTER FIVE
    The convention was getting under way.
    Mervyn remembered the routine. All around the hotel, confused convention attendees who didn’t know when anything was happening were talking to other confused attendees who didn’t know where anything was happening, and seeking out stewards who didn’t know when or where or how anything was happening, if indeed anything was going to happen at all.
    There were one or two elusive people who did know when, where and how everything was going to happen, but they were hiding in the green rooms with the guests who didn’t need to know what, when or how everything was going to happen as they were shepherded everywhere by attentive staff for the whole weekend.
    Even further down the evolutionary scale from those getting their bearings in the foyer was the sad collection of people who had just got to the hotel, and were milling around reception, carrying coats, lugging holdalls and dragging suitcases on wheels.
    Mervyn did know where he was going. He didn’t trust anyone to show him anywhere, so for his journey to the autograph room, he’d marked it very clearly on his little map with felt pen. He didn’t like nasty surprises. But he got one anyway.
    The moment he left the hospitality room, someone leapt out and grabbed his arm. He screamed with sheer brain-addled terror.
    ‘Roddy! You nearly gave me a heart attack!’
    ‘Is he about?’ Roddy blurted.
    ‘Is who about?’
    ‘You know very well, old chap. Him. The Quisling.’
    He must have meant Simon. ‘He’s just left.’
    Roddy stared at him with wide, poached-egg eyes. ‘He keeps us here against our will you know… We can’t leave.’
    ‘Roddy. It’s a hotel. You can leave whenever you want.’
    ‘Nonono… He won’t let us… Because his masters won’t let him.’ He nodded his head downstairs. ‘The ones…down there. His robot masters.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘It’s like the Japs all over again. The war’s over, but they won’t admit it… There’s only one way out of here and that’s in a wooden box.’ A thought seemed to strike him. ‘Unless…well, there is a way out, isn’t there?’
    ‘What’s that?’
    A sly look flickered in the old man’s eyes. ‘I’m not going to dig a tunnel, am I, old boy?’
    Not for the first time, Mervyn wondered how much of Roddy’s bewildered bluster was an act, and how much was a whisky-induced plunge into fantasy.
    ‘Really, Roddy… That’s very… Interesting.’
    Mervyn retrieved his sleeve from Roddy—not without some difficulty—and stumbled to the lifts.

    CONVIX 15 / EARTH ORBIT ONE / 11.00am
    EVENT: THE DVD TEAM INTERVIEW: ROBERT MULBERRY, TREVOR SIMPSON, IVOR QUIGLEY LOCATION: Vixos Central Nerve Centre (main stage,ballroom)
    EVENT: ‘PRISON PLANET’ EPISODE SCREENING
    LOCATION: The Catacombs of