‘Nano means a billionth,’ says Big Ben. ‘That’s a LOT smaller than Four.’
‘Thank you for the clarification.’ Nano is still smiling with his mouth but his eyes are hard. Big Ben, 1: Nano, nil! ‘Do make yourselves comfortable,’ he gestures towards the table, ‘you might be here for quite some time.’
‘Uncle,’ says Portia, ‘let’s leave. I’ll luggage you home. You can give me the briefing another time.’
Big Ben’s staring at Portia like he wants to talk cars. I stare at her too and she winks. It’s a split-second wink but unmistakable. That means she’s still on our side. Now, I’m looking at the chairs around the circle. The original marine sandglass is on the table in front of Millennia’s seat. It’s odd seeing it here, like it was freshly manufactured in 2021, not 1752. I can’t take my eyes off it. The decision is made without speaking. I sit in Millennia’s chair and Big Ben sits next to me, in The Grandfather’s.
‘Delusions of grandeur!’ says Nano, his voice trembling. ‘But sitting in those chairs will not increase your Gift. You cannot escape. As for the sandglass, it’s worth nothing. It has no history. Esteemed Millennia paid a handsome sum for a glimpse of it but it’s not even worthy of our Archive.’
He stands next to Big Ben and grabs the sandglass from the table in his right hand, his eyes slightly glazed. ‘This glass is worse than nothing.’
‘Uncle, no!’ says Portia.
Big Ben stands up abruptly.
Nano launches the Glass across the room and I gasp. This is VERY SERIOUS INDEED! If it breaks, we’ll never be able to get it back to Francis, it will never get the carvings and travel through the ages and end up in the Museum of the Past, the Present and the Future to get stolen in the first place. If it breaks, it might rupture the space–time continuum! If it breaks, it will shatter my belief that the past is fixed. It CAN’T break.
The Glass travels high as a shot put then begins its descent.
There’s no way I can get to it in time, even with my fast reflexes.
Portia is frozen to the spot so no way is she going to catch it either.
Big Ben flies into the air in what seems like slow motion and stretches out his hands.
He catches it, pulling it close to his body to stop it from breaking.
Portia punches the air. I think she’s forgotten she’s at The Vicious Circle’s headquarters, not a football match, but I’m impressed, too.
‘Good save, BB!’ I say and inspect the Glass for damage before placing it carefully back onto the table.
Nano frowns. ‘You can keep but you can’t leap. I have not been sufficiently entertained. So, here’s a Vicious Circle challenge: you have half an hour to escape from this chamber. If you fail—’
‘Uncle, I don’t think—’ says Portia.
‘—you will face the wrath of Millennia.’
A fate worse than death!
‘You understand,’ he continues, ‘it won’t be EXACTLY 30 minutes. You cannot trust the ancient timekeepers.’
Nano upturns the marine sandglass and the black sand begins to flow . . .
We send a megatext to The Infinites:
URGENT VC stole sandglass. Trapped at VC. Strong Anti-Leap. MM back 30 mins. HELP!
GMT leaps all over the timeline so maybe she’s overcome Anti-Leap before and can tell us what to do.
Kwesi’s clever and used to be a bit wild so he might think outside the box and come up with a plan.
MC2 is likely to be in his cell and his phone will be buzzing in a locker in a different part of the building. That gives me an idea.
‘What about Bonzo?’ I say, remembering the young, red-headed prison warden.
I copy the text and send it to 3442. If Bonzo gets it, at least he can tell MC2, who’s an expert on mind over matter.
Big Ben and I hold hands and squeeze our eyes tight shut to leap again but nothing happens. We’ve tried so many times, we’re exhausted. Big Ben’s attempted to hack into the system on his Chronophone. We’ve searched under the table for activation switches. Now we’re walking round the edge of the room, pushing the hidden panels in case there’s a control room behind one of the doors. Nothing has worked. Nano smiles his oily smile.
Minutes feel like hours.
If I look at the sandglass, I’m hypnotised by the flow of the sand.
If I look at my watch, time’s like a heartbeat pumping the seconds.
If I look at my Chronophone, time expands into all possible time and space and the continuum overwhelms me.
Twenty minutes have gone by: less than ten minutes left. I take deep breaths. I refuse to let The Vicious Circle beat me. We have to escape; we have to get this sandglass back to Francis; we have to find evidence to free MC2. I look across at Portia. She winked at us; surely she’s going to help?
Nano has been briefing her about the allegiance ceremony, both of them tapping into their Chronophones, when a ring tone starts coming from Nano’s. He answers it.
‘Yes . . . No, we’re almost done . . . Does it have to be now, Anno? I’ll only be a few more . . . Very well, coming!’ He turns to us. ‘I have to take my leave. How disappointing to miss the grand finale!’ He taps rapidly into his phone.
‘I’ll transport you, Uncle,’ says Portia.
She holds both of Nano’s hands, tilts her head to the right and concentrates. ‘Back in a SECOND.’
Big Ben and I are taken by surprise at her emphasis and in the blink of an eye, Portia’s back.
‘Bother!’ she says. ‘I texted Mum to get her to text Uncle pretending she had an emergency. It worked, no questions asked. Mum trusts me more than anyone else. But you’re still here. I wanted you to leap free the second Uncle deactivated the Anti-Leap but had no way of telling you without him knowing.’ She sighs. ‘But I leapt back to check. Now I’m stuck here too. I can’t control security; sand’s almost run out; then Millennia will be back.’
I check my phone. We only have four minutes left, probably less. I look at Big Ben.
‘What do we do?’
‘We leap when Millennia appears. Anti-Leap will be off. She can’t leap to a nanosecond, she’s too old.’
Big Ben’s right. I remember how haggard she looked after leaping on summer solstice. But Portia’s frowning.
‘A bit risky. What if we mistime it? I could text Mum again, she might be able to help, she knows I’m helping you. We need a plan—’
A gush of air, the outline of a boy and my heart is pounding in my chest. A split second later, MC2 appears on top of the table.
‘Sorry, Leaps,’ he says, ‘took time to beat the Anti-Leap!’
‘You leapt out of Do-Time! That’s a criminal offence. They’ll arrest you and put you back in prison for longer!’ I say, but I smile, pleased to see him.
‘No need, I’m free! I leapt from my yard. Some anonymous Leap bailed me. I’m free to leap where an’ when I like. Till the trial anyways. Got your text on my Chronophone. They don’t call me MC2 for nothing, I bin in training. Prison focuses body an’ mind; needed both to break in here! Now we can Chrono an’ defeat the Anti-Leap.’
‘About time!’ says Portia.
‘What do you mean?’ I say.
‘I’ve been waiting all my life to meet MC2 and here he is! I’m such a fan, you wouldn’t imagine.’
MC2 shrugs but I can see he’s flattered. Then he sees the sandglass on the table and shakes his head.
‘This the Glass? Who’d thieve that?’
‘That’s what I thought,’ says Portia. ‘But I guess it’s useful on a ship. And Millennia would prefer it plain. Infinity symbols remind her of Infinity, bring her out in a cold sweat; but she loves anything from the 18th century.’
‘More importantly, it’s the original, special to Francis,’ I say.
‘Little man deserves better!’ MC2 does his thinking frown. ‘Elle, your Grandma working late again?’
I nod. Grandma’s been doing far too many shifts this week. When she gets home, she always looks exhau
sted, like she’s leapt a century.
‘Right. That’s our first stop.’
Big Ben says, ‘Don’t we leap back to 1752?’
and I say, ‘What about Francis?’
at exactly the same time.
‘We gotta leap, Leaps! The Mush-Rooms. Now! You want Millennia to join us?’
‘Can I leap with you?’ says Portia. ‘It’ll seem suspicious if Millennia gets back and finds me here without Uncle.’
‘She’s right,’ I say. ‘Portia’s helped us. We need to help her. And we need to beat the Anti-Leap – the more of us, the better!’
The four of us form a Chrono, place the sandglass in the middle and concentrate. It’s hard, like leaping through half-set concrete and I feel nauseous the whole time because I haven’t got any leap bands.
But we do it.
We land in the middle of my kitchen, narrowly missing the cooker. Portia gives us a big smile.
‘That was amazing, thanks guys.’ She pauses. ‘I’d better go, but keep up the great work!’ She disappears into thin air.
I wouldn’t describe it as amazing. Torture, more like. While I’m retching, MC2 is tapping into his Chronophone. He laughs and high-fives the air!
‘Kwesi’s joining us. He’s bringing some tools an’ spit. Elle, Big Ben, take one last look at the sandglass before it gets a makeover, Infinite style.’
Chapter 19:00
MAKING HISTORY
It takes them all evening to carve the infinity symbols into the sandglass. They take it in turns. MC2 does a LOT of body blinking and the Glass looks suspiciously different each time he does, like he leapt forward or back in time to buy an extra hour or two then leapt back a split second later, his eyes wide with innocence. Kwesi doesn’t cheat though. He does less carving and more trying on and sorting black gloves of all sizes like the ones Tommie Smith and John Carlos wore to do their Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics.
‘Why are you doing that?’ I say and Kwesi twists his hands.
‘Further customisation,’ says MC2, translating. ‘Wait till we give it to Francis an’ you’ll see.’
I hear someone come through the front door downstairs and frown. Grandma shouldn’t be back yet. I open the flat door to check. If Grandma’s back, she’ll probably be OK about me having friends round. She’s always pleased to see my friends. But I always find it hard being around Grandma AND my friends at the same time. I prefer to meet them separately because we discuss different things. It’s hard having two conversations at the same time. I poke my head out of the door. Oh no! It’s the landlord coming up the stairs.
‘Hello, Elle,’ he says, ‘Is your Grandma at home?’
‘No,’ I say.
‘Do you know when she’ll be back because,’ he smiles with his mouth but not his eyes, ‘she owes me two months’ rent.’
‘I don’t know,’ I say, which is true. ‘She’s doing an extra cleaning job.’
‘I’m so pleased to hear that, Elle. Because then she’ll have the rent money.’
‘Yes,’ I say, hoping he’ll go away but he doesn’t.
‘Are you sure she’s not in? I heard voices.’
‘I’m with my friends.’
The same time I say that, MC2 calls out from the kitchen.
‘Elle. Everything OK?’
‘Sorry to disturb you, Elle,’ says the landlord. ‘Give this to your Grandma.’
He hands me a typed letter on a crumpled piece of paper. I look at the heading: EVICTION NOTICE. I shut the door, feeling sick. I didn’t know we owed TWO months’ rent. I knew Grandma was cross when the rent increased but I didn’t realise she hadn’t been paying it. How can she spend so many hours working yet we still don’t have enough money for rent? I scan the letter. It looks like we have four weeks to pay before we have to leave the flat.
I turn back to my friends. Big Ben’s eating a squashed cheese sandwich from his bag; MC2 is focusing on the Glass and Kwesi’s signing something to him. I don’t want to think about money problems; I want to think about us Leaplings making history in weird and wonderful ways because we have The Gift of time-travel. Kwesi and MC2 are customising the marine sandglass NOW, in 2021, so it becomes the Infinity-Glass and we WILL manage to deliver it back to Francis in 1752 where it belongs because how else could it exist and age through history for over 250 years and end up as the ancient, worn artefact that was stolen from the Museum of the Past, the Present and the Future?
The ANCIENT version needs to be discovered and taken back to the museum where it belongs. But first things first. This glass is freshly carved; it looks amazing with its swirly ∞ symbols. MC2 turns to Kwesi.
‘You gonna accompany us to brighten up little man Francis or leap back to ’49 an’ spray graffiti?’
It’s not really a question. This evening, Kwesi’s been back to his old self. Now MC2 is out on bail, and we’re one step closer to proving his innocence, wherever MC2 is going, Kwesi’s going too.
We decide to leap to early evening of the same day we left. That gives Mistress Anna and Francis a bit of time to calm down and make it seem more plausible we’ve had time to get the Glass back AND customise it. Francis knows we’re Leaplings but we have to assume Mistress Anna doesn’t. I don’t completely trust her. Maybe she stole the Glass and made up the story about Anon. Maybe she’s a Leapling in disguise, another one of Nano’s evil sisters!
The stench hits me again as we land. I’ll never get used to it. I fumble in my bag for a sweet. Old Meg’s sitting in the alley, huddled up in a dirty brown shawl. I think she’s asleep but when I start to move away, she clutches my skirt.
‘Mark my words. Your gentlewoman friend is an odd ’n!’
‘She’s autistic, not odd,’ I say. But Old Meg wouldn’t understand autism. It wasn’t recognised in 1752.
‘Yesterday you witnessed she gave me shillings. This morning, not even a how do you do, Old Meg? And it’s not the first time, neither.’
‘Was she in a hurry?’
‘Hurry is not the word. A hurly-burly. Her stick barely touched the ground and I wager if I had greeted her, she would have struck me with it! Warning: she is not to be trusted!’
‘Thank you for telling us. My name’s Elle. Please tell us if you remember anything else. We don’t have money, but would you like a sweet?’
‘Thank you, kind miss. God reward you!’
I like Old Meg. I hope she’s telling the truth and has just given us another clue.
When we get to the house, Francis opens the door. Mistress Anna has gone upstairs to lie down in her room and GMT’s sitting exactly where she was before.
‘Hi guys,’ she says, ‘you sure took your time.’
‘Lots has happened,’ I say. ‘We found the hourglass and heard about Millennia’s grand plan and got captured but MC2 helped us escape and the rest is a secret soon to be revealed!’
Francis looks happy to see me and Big Ben but when he sees Kwesi and MC2 appear behind us, he leaps out of his seat, runs over and hugs them like he’s a small child. He hasn’t even noticed the sandglass. It’s like he’s forgotten all about the theft.
‘You came back!’ he says. ‘Now I have my big brothers, everything is perfect.’
‘We got you a present,’ says MC2. ‘Well, we customised it so you remember us. Not just me an’ Kwesi but Elle an’ Big Ben an’ GMT. We all swore allegiance last year.’
He means we did The Infinite ceremony but that’s top secret. Only The Infinites and Infinity know we exist. MC2 carefully puts the decorated sandglass on the table and Francis’s eyes go bigger than Jupiter.
‘You rescued it from the thief. And engraved it! How did you make these carvings so quickly? Is it magic?’
‘Not exactly,’ MC2 sits on one of the chairs and looks left and right like he’s making sure no one else is in the room.
‘How did you do it, then?’
‘You know we can trek through time, bro? The thief did too so we hunted down your glass in 2021 and Kwesi an�
� me spent some hours working on it before we came back to now.’
‘So you really ARE from the future?’
‘Yeah! Your present is our past. But Leaps forget that spit most o’ the time. We can’t break history but we CAN make it.
Anyways, we got you somethin’ extra as an honorary Leap. Give him the glove, Kwesi.’
Kwesi dips into his pocket and produces one of his black gloves. Francis puts it on his right hand. Then Kwesi guides Francis’s hand flat over the top of the Glass and something amazing happens.
Gradually, grain by grain, the sand starts flowing upwards!
Kwesi’s futuristic gloves are acting like a powerful magnet, making the sand do the opposite to normal. Now the Infinity-Glass is even more special: like my name, Elle, that reads the same both ways; like Leaplings leaping to the past or the future. Francis shrieks with excitement and MC2 high-fives his left hand. Kwesi does the same. I’ve never seen a ten-year-old boy look so happy. After a minute or two of being mesmerised, Francis looks up at us.
‘I am overwhelmed with your kindness and talent. How can I repay you?’
‘You don’t need to,’ I say. ‘We don’t want money!’
‘Very well,’ says Francis, ‘since I value your company above everything.’
He clears his throat like he’s a grown-up about to make a speech.
‘You must ALL come to my gathering here on September the 2nd.’ He pauses. ‘This sandglass will be the centrepiece. When the Master bestowed the gift upon me this morning, he said it would remind me of the sea and the forthcoming leap. But now it will additionally remind me that I have friends who can travel backwards and forwards in time.
‘This is the best present in HISTORY!’
Chapter 20:00
THE 2ND OF SEPTEMBER 1752
It’s the night of the 11-day leap!
We leapt from Friday the 25th of June after school when it was scorching hot but Wednesday the 2nd of September 1752 is much much cooler. As soon as we land in the alley, church bells strike 8 o’clock and Old Meg has something to say to us.
The Time-Thief Page 13