by Mr.
Sophie plucked the cellphone out of the air with one hand. She gave her sister a look of gratitude. “Share it?” asked Sophie. “We can both use it.”
Lisa dismissed her offer nonchalantly. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll let you know if I ever need it. I’m more interested in finding out what that is?” She pointed to the square piece of plastic lying on the desk.
“Me too,” Sophie muttered. “Me too. And by the way,” she said, a little nervously, “that book! Our book! We’re not going to give it away, right?”
Jack looked at her, confused. In his head he had already deposited the money into his bank account. “Why not?” he asked. “Thirty-one million… we’ll be stinking rich!”
“Sure,” Lisa nodded, “but then everyone will know everything, including about the planetarium and time travel. If we sell it, we’ll never get to travel through time again. There’s no way they’ll ever let us use the planetarium.”
Sophie shook her head. “I agree with Lisa. We can sell the book whenever we want, if we want to.”
“I agree,” Tom said. “What would we do with all that money anyway? We probably wouldn’t even be able to touch it until we’re eighteen… and I think all of this is just so awesome!”
Jack nodded his head. The prospect of buying a scooter didn’t really excite him anymore. Calcio, on the other hand, was something he’d remember for the rest of his life. “Yeah!” said Jack. “Deal! We’ll keep the book a secret for the time being while we explore the future!” He stood up and walked to the middle of the room where he held out his right hand. “Let’s vote. I’m for time travel and against selling the book.”
Sophie stood up and laid her hand on top of his. “Me too!”
Tom and Lisa followed suit. They stood in a circle for a few seconds with their hands stacked on top of each other.
Lisa had a huge smile on her face. “I’m game for anything, but for our next trip I want to go somewhere else…”
Three months later
Monday, October 6th, afternoon
Sophie raced up to her room.
“Wait up,” Lisa yelled. “Tell me!”
Sophie sat down at her desk. “I figured it out!” she screamed.
“You figured what out?” asked Lisa, who was standing behind her now, gasping for breath.
Sophie shook her head to tell Lisa she was too busy to answer her. She began typing furiously on her laptop.
“We couldn’t figure out what that thing was, could we? Do you remember, Lisa?” Sophie opened a drawer and took out the piece of black plastic she had found in her backpack.
“Today there was this guy at school who had a computer book with a picture of this exact same thing in it,” Sophie said as the search results flashed up on the screen. “Look! Is this it?” she suddenly asked, pointing at the screen.
Lisa leaned in closer. “Yes! That’s it!” she cried out. “Exactly the same!” She squinted her eyes. “But what is it?”
Sophie read the Wikipedia page out loud. “A floppy disk is a storage medium for computer software.”
“A floppy disk?” Lisa said perplexed. “I think I’ve heard of that before. A storage medium? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sophie continued reading. “A storage medium…” Her eyes darted across the screen. “A storage medium… a floppy disk is just some kind of USB stick, something you can store data on, only from like… way back. It says they were used up until the 1990s!”
“I bet there’s a message on that floppy disk!” Lisa said excitedly.
“We need a computer with a floppy drive,” said Sophie. “A really old computer, and I think I know where we can find one.” She transferred the information from her laptop onto her telephone and, feeling full of confidence, got up to go. “You coming? We’re off to the library. We can pick up Jack and Tom on our way.”
Jack and Tom were amazed by what the girls told them and immediately went with them to the library. They walked down through the town as fast as they could, passing terraces filled with people enjoying the autumn sun.
“Now what?” Jack asked, out of breath, as they entered the building.
“Over there,” Sophie pointed to a green door down a long corridor. “There are really old computers in the room behind that door. I remember seeing them when I was in there once.”
“What were you doing in there?” Jacked asked surprised.
“Nothing,” Sophie shrugged her shoulders. “The door happened to be open one time I was here, that’s all. And I took a peep. I was just… curious.”
“You know what she’s like,” Lisa joked.
They walked down the corridor as inconspicuously as possible. Every now and then they stopped and pretended to flip through a few books. They slowly made their way to the door and, when they were convinced no one was looking, quickly sneaked into the room.
“Ugh,” said Sophie, “it still smells really stuffy in here.”
“I don’t think anyone ever uses this room.” Jack looked around and ran his fingers over the old computer screens. “Yuck!” he said, as he flicked a ball of dust off his hand.
“That one, up there,” said Sophie. She showed them the picture on her phone.
Jack climbed up the shelving unit and carefully lifted the beige computer off the shelf.
“Hand it to me,” said Tom, who took the machine and set it down on the ground in the corner. He unraveled the cord and plugged it in.
“What about this? I think this is part of it as well,” Jack said, holding an oblong box with a slot in it.
“Great, I think that’s where the floppy disk goes!” Sophie said excitedly. “Hand it down, I’ll see if it works.” She sat on the ground next to the computer, connected the thick gray cord to the oblong box, and turned the machine on. It began to rattle.
“Hmm,” Sophie sighed. “Does that sound normal to you? It’s taking forever to boot!” She held the floppy disk impatiently next to the narrow slot.
Lisa paced restlessly back and forth. “What do you think we’ll find on it?” she asked. “I bet it’s a message from Leonardo. Maybe something about the planetarium… or about that book… or the telephone.”
Peep peeeeeeep! The computer finally burst into life.
“Wow,” said Sophie. “It actually works.” She quickly slid the disk into the opening. The computer immediately began to rattle loudly. “Oh no, not this again,” Sophie scowled, crossing her arms in frustration.
Nervous but excited, the others stood behind her joking about the computer’s speed.
“Sshh,” said Sophie when the screen began to flicker. “Something’s about to happen.”
Jack, Tom, and Lisa dropped to their knees and sat next to Sophie. Slowly but surely, the computer began to play a video.
“That’s Leonardo!” Tom yelled when a man appeared on the screen.
“Hello my friends!” he began. “As you can see, I did it!”
“We can understand him,” Sophie said. “I can hear my phone.”
Leonardo was standing in a dark room with what looked like two desks in the background. A strange man with a straggly beard and an old-fashioned haircut was standing next to him. The unknown man had a huge grin on his face. He held Sophie’s telephone in the air so they could hear the translation.
“However, I don’t want to talk about me right now,” said Leonardo. “I met someone who really wants to meet you, too.”
The man moved closer to Leonardo and seemed to be staring at them through the screen. He began talking enthusiastically. “You must be the Secret Scouts Leonardo told me about! You crazy guys!” He shouted into the camera. “You have to come visit me, really! Come as quickly as you can! Come to one, one, one, six, one…!”
The door behind Tom flew open. “What are you doing in here?” asked a grumpy-looking library assistant.
Sophie quickly turned off the computer and pulled the floppy disk out of the slot. She slid it into her pocket and stood up.
“Nothi
ng,” the four of them said in unison. They all looked at each other and then slipped by the man at the door and took off running.
Thank you
We are grateful to and extremely happy with our enthusiastic test readers from U.S. schools:
Sierra Elementary School, Rocklin, CA
Brett Shirhall, Cynthia Brown
Scott, Liam, Lauren, Alex, Jack, Kai, Sydney, Aidan, Natalie, Sophia, Jaret, Alyssa, Ana, Allie, Anna, Callie, Annie, Ashley, Adam, Yousef, Brooke, Brad, Daisy, Syrus, Wade, Andrew, Mona, Riley and Joey
British International School of New York, New York, NY
Shehla Gouse
Hailey, Taya, Ava, Lindsay, Tess, Jason, Grace, Emi and Sophie
Huntington Seacliff Elementary School, Huntington Beach, CA
Monique Huibregtse, Michelle Twogood
Isabel, Jack and Lauren
Ainsworth Elementary School, Portland, OR
Diane Goff
Lise, Jack, Ella, Henry, Annika, Indi, and Trotter
Salem Middle School, Apex, NC
Michael Manholt and his sixth grade students
More than 50 people and companies put a lot of time and energy into creating the most awesome book trailer in the world. We are honored to have had the opportunity to work with these extremely talented people.
Production company - JUNGLE (junglecreate.com) / Executive producers - Dennis Kind and Wendel Kind / Producer - Dennis Arnoldus & Ronald Bavelaar / Director - Erik Eijgenstein / Director of Photography - Goof de Koning / Focus Puller - Tom Duiker / 2nd ass. & drone operator - Mark Modder / Editor - Marc Mookhoek / Sound Design - Morrison Bramervaer & Christoph Mühl / ‘Sophie’ - Isabel van de Meent / ‘Lisa’ - Jolijn Coerts / ‘Jack’ - Olivier Guffens / ‘Tom’ - Sebastiaan de Boer / ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ - Mark van Eeuwen / Gaffer - Glenn Bruintjes / Best Boy - Aaron Homma / Light ass. - Manouk Moreau & Ruben Soekhan / Sound - René Wolf / Photography - Shannon Cornelis & Gail Meijer / Set Dressing - Eva van de Ven & Hugo Braat / Set Dressing ass. - Romee Nederhand & Annick Nieuwenhuis / Styling - Christina Isadora Sofia & Elle Raangs / Hair & Make-up - Madelon Prinsen / Acting coach - Laurie Reijs / VFX producer - Stefan Beekhuijzen / VFX artist - Matthijs Slijkhuis & René Berendsen & Danny Torrelli / VFX Art Director - Jesse Hovestreijdt / Colorist - Fernando Rodrigues / DI Producer - Fleur Stikkelorum / Crane Operator - Ruben Ordeman / Equestrian - Debbie & Wendy van Weert / Horse - Deux / Voice over studio - Jordy Stokvis / Male voice over - Andrew Steingold / Production - Vicky Simons & Robert Bulthuis & Esther de Jong.
And special thanks to Tim Koldenhof Producties (Casting), Simon John & International School Hilversum (Casting), Teylers Museum (Filming location), Het Licht (Lighting), Vintage, Art & Design (Furniture), Collezione Apocrifa da Vinci (Codex), Remco Mastwijk (MD Filmmore), and Hans Jonker (Support).
Watch the official
Secret Scouts book trailer
www.SecretScouts.com
Credits
ISBN: 9789082875607 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 9789082875614 (ePub)
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Translated by: John Weich
Edited by: Danny Guinan
Cover design: Dennis Kind and Wendel Kind and Teo van Gerwen
Design Logo Secret Scouts: Smel, www.smel.net
Cover photo: Shannon Cornelis
Layout: Coco Bookmedia
Secretscouts.com: Remco Borsato
www.secretscouts.com
www.facebook.com/secretscouts
www.instagram.com/secretscoutsofficial
www.twitter.com/secretscouts
© 2018 Dennis Kind and Wendel Kind
Published by Mokum Media, The Netherlands
The moral right of Dennis Kind and Wendel Kind to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Part 2: in stores fall 2019
Secret Scouts and The Missing President
After narrowly surviving their adventure with Leonardo da Vinci, Tom, Lisa, Sophie and Jack receive a mysterious message from a world-famous genius. Spurred on by his enthusiasm, they decide to visit him in his garage in 1976, where he tells them about 2217, a machine from the future.
When they return to their own time they are shocked to learn that the past has changed. President Obama has been completely erased from history! In a frantic search for answers they find a mind-blowing clue in a five-hundred-year-old painting in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum!
Determined to set history straight and find the president, the friends travel to the German city of Aachen in the 16th century, where they are witness to the event of the decade: the coronation of Charles V. Making their way through the crowded city they experience at first hand how danger can lurk around every corner.
Finding the young Obama in the Middle Ages is one thing, getting out alive is another thing altogether. Not to mention their search for the 2217 that compels them to fly a hot air balloon all by themselves to the dangerous islands off the coast of California known as ‘The Devil’s Teeth’.