by Adam Frost
“That’s because it is dangerous,” Uncle Charlie shouted back.
Danny, Mia and Eric looked down at the large field that was rushing up to meet them.
When they were about ten metres from the grass, Uncle Charlie slid the button down one notch further and they stopped dropping so quickly.
“OK, let go,” said Uncle Charlie.
They all landed gently in the field, taking a few steps to steady themselves. Then they burst into relieved laughter.
Uncle Charlie put the two white arrowheads back in his pocket.
“OK, guys, could you stand in the middle of that patch of daisies?” asked Uncle Charlie.
Danny, Mia and Eric nodded, still laughing slightly.
“Kombooshya Kombooshya Jimi Hendrix Tumble Dryer,” said Uncle Charlie. Then he clapped his hands together. There was a whirring sound underneath them. The disc of grass they were standing on started to move downwards.
“Just stand perfectly still,” said Uncle Charlie. They watched as roots and earth and rocks and clay moved past them.
Eric looked back up the narrow shaft. “What if a sheep wanders past and falls in?” he asked.
“As long as it’s not an evil robot sheep,” replied Uncle Charlie, “then we don’t mind.”
The lift continued to move down through the earth. They passed a thick slab of granite and then a cave opened out in front of them and the disc of grass came slowly to rest on the ground.
Danny, Mia and Eric gazed at the scene in front of them.
“Let’s step off before we’re crushed by falling sheep,” said Uncle Charlie.
They moved forward and the grassy lift rose back up behind them, climbing slowly towards the surface.
They found themselves in a huge cave, perhaps a hundred metres deep and fifty metres high. The ground was damp under their feet and there was a musty smell in the air. But in every other way, this was like no cave they had ever seen. Wherever they looked, they saw ridges and clusters of beautiful crystals. On the roof, the crystals seemed to be a bright red; on the far wall, they looked a dark green. The crystals beside them gave off a luminous white glow. But elsewhere the crystals were all jumbled up: purple beside yellow next to black on top of pink. In the middle of the cave, a small lake reflected all of the light and colour back at the crystals and out into the air, making the whole chamber as bright and clear as a village square at noon.
“This is EUREKA!’s new headquarters?” asked Mia, still staring at the crystals above her head.
“Since about an hour ago, yes,” said Uncle Charlie. “You know how Danny’s cosmic remote has an amber crystal in its back? That’s what gives it its power?”
Mia nodded.
“Well, the man who invented the cosmic remote originally found the amber crystal in this cave. So we thought we might as well set up camp here while we look for another one. As I said, if we can make another cosmic remote, we may be able to beat the Space Twister.”
“We’ll beat him all right,” said a voice from the back of the cave.
“He’ll have more than one scar when we’ve finished with him,” said another voice.
“Jasper! Roxie!” exclaimed Danny.
A young man with sticky-up hair and huge headphones round his neck and a young woman wearing a blue wig and a luminous green skirt appeared next to Uncle Charlie. Roxie gave Danny, Eric and Mia a big hug each. Jasper just saluted and said, “Hey.”
“You found any crystals yet?” Uncle Charlie asked them.
“Oh, yeah. About that,” said Roxie. “What colour was the crystal in the back of the remote again?”
“Amber,” said Uncle Charlie.
“Amber,” said Jasper. “That’s sort of green, isn’t it?”
“Orange,” said Uncle Charlie.
“I told you it was orange,” said Jasper.
“I told YOU it was orange,” said Roxie.
“So,” said Uncle Charlie, “which of you two ‘elite EUREKA! agents’ wants to start the briefing?”
Roxie and Jasper glanced at each other. “You do the Time Tablet,” said Roxie. “I’ll do the other two.”
Jasper nodded. “Makes sense.”
Roxie said, “Let me borrow your TS Player.” She took the headphones from around Jasper’s neck.
“Hey!” said Jasper. “Hold them by the speakers, not the wires.”
Roxie put them on and her head started to bob. “Tell me when it’s my bit, Jaspo.”
Jasper sighed, and turned to Danny, Eric and Mia. “Time to hand out some gadgets.”
“So Charlie told you about the Space Twister, right?” said Jasper. Danny and Mia nodded.
“Ahem,” said Eric. “You mentioned gadgets?”
“I did,” said Jasper. He had a rucksack over one of his shoulders. He swung it down on to the floor.
“So, you need to be able to defend yourselves against the Space Twister,” said Jasper. “He knows that EUREKA! will try to get the remote back. He’ll do anything he can to find our headquarters and he’ll do whatever it takes to neutralise any EUREKA! agents.”
“What’s neutralise?” asked Eric. “Isn’t it what happens to dogs to stop them having puppies? I could really do without that.”
“It means do you in, bump you off, take you out,” said Mia, rolling her eyes.
“But we’re not EUREKA! agents,” said Danny.
“If he finds you with us, he’ll assume you are,” said Uncle Charlie.
“So why bring us here?” asked Eric.
“Because you’re still safer here than you would be out there,” said Uncle Charlie.
“But nowhere is entirely safe,” said Jasper. “The Space Twister’s powers are immense. If he finds you, you need to be able to escape fast, before he’s had a chance to pause or rewind or fast forward.”
Jasper put his hand in the rucksack and pulled out a thin slab of glass with rounded edges.
“One Time Tablet,” he said, handing it to Danny.
Jasper pulled out a large silver key with an ornate handle.
“One Mirror Key,” he said, giving it to Mia.
Jasper removed a plastic bottle of red spray with a speech bubble printed on the side.
“One can of Truth Spray,” he said, tossing it to Eric.
Danny, Eric and Mia looked at their gadgets for a few seconds.
“Jasper,” said Mia finally, “it looks like you’ve given us a pane of glass, a key with nothing to open and a bottle of deodorant.”
Eric was sniffing one of his armpits. “I had a bath the week before last,” he muttered to himself.
“Prepare to have your minds blown,” said Jasper. “Prepare to have your heads stretched and your brains melted. Let’s start with Danny. Put your thumb in the small dent in the bottom right-hand side of the glass.”
Danny did this and a screen appeared inside the small curved pane of glass. It showed a map of the world with a magnifying glass in the top right and a search box in the top left.
Jasper said, “The Time Tablet contains a description of every human being currently living on Planet Earth. Everyone’s story is in there, from presidents to street sweepers. You can find people geographically by using the map. Or if you know people’s names, you can search for them by typing their name in that box in the top left.”
“This can’t be possible,” said Danny.
“Search for me, search for me,” said Eric.
Danny scanned the map and touched the UK. The map expanded and an outline of the UK filled the screen. Danny touched the South East, and then Surrey, and then his home town. At this point, a list of small folders appeared, showing all the streets in his home town: Abacus Street, Ardsley Road, Ash Tree Terrace and so on. Danny clicked on his street, and another list of folders appeared; this time, they had people’s faces on them and their names underneath. There were his parents, HECTOR DANGER and MURIEL DANGER.
“Where are me and Mia?” asked Danny.
“Well, you’re not there, are y
ou?” said Jasper. “Your folders will be in your current location. Which is Hawksby Caves in Humberside.”
Danny nodded and used the map to find Hawksby Caves. There were six folders inside: CHARLES BAKER, ROXANNE CLARKE, JASPER GIBBONS, ERIC TAYLOR, MIA DANGER and DANIEL DANGER.
Danny clicked on his own name.
The screen was filled with words. The first sentence read:
Daniel Danger was born at 05:19 on the 9th September 2002. He was born in St Hubert’s Hospital under the care of Dr Vikram Malik and Nurse Margery Patterson.
“Scroll further down,” said Jasper.
Danny dragged his finger down the screen. Words whizzed past. Danny lifted his finger off the screen. He had stopped at a passage that read:
The bald man stepped off the bottom stair and swivelled on his heel.
“Now, let me guess,” he drawled. “Charles Baker’s son — or nephew — or younger brother?”
Danny didn’t reply.
“Oh well, it’s of no importance,” sniffed the Night Scientist. “Just hand me the cosmic remote and I’ll leave you and your family in peace.”
Danny scrolled further down.
The parrots had swept Danny, Eric and Mia into the sky. Each of the children had one parrot clinging to their left shoulder and one parrot clinging to their right shoulder.
“This is my life,” murmured Danny.
Jasper nodded and smiled. “Have a look at the end.”
Danny stroked the screen faster. The crystals on the cave wall twinkled on the screen. Danny got to the last sentence.
The crystals on the cave wall twinkled on the screen. Danny got to the last sentence
As Danny was reading, another sentence appeared one letter at a time.
As Danny was reading, another sentence appeared one letter at a time.
“It updates every second,” said Jasper. “Pretty clever stuff, eh? There’s an entry like that for every person on the planet.”
“How is this even possible?” said Danny.
“It tunes into people’s brainwaves,” said Jasper. “Picks up all the electrical impulses and converts them into narrative using a basic CDN codec and a bespoke nano-transponder. Brilliantly simple.”
Eric had been watching over Danny’s shoulder. “So let’s just put the Space Twister’s name in there,” he said. “Find out where he is and get Danny’s remote back.”
Jasper looked up at Uncle Charlie.
“We don’t know his real name,” said Uncle Charlie. “And we don’t know where he is. So I’m afraid we can’t use the Time Tablet to find him.”
“Or we’d have done it already, right?” Jasper added.
“Hey, look up Mr Boswell,” said Eric. “We can find out where he’s put my inflatable Martian. You remember, he confiscated it before Christmas.”
“Yeah,” said Danny, “then we can look up Stephen Tweep. I’m sure he stole my MangaBoy T-shirt when we were doing PE.”
Mia looked at the Time Tablet and then down at the key in her hand. “So Danny gets a computer that reads people’s minds and I get … this.”
Uncle Charlie chuckled. “If you thought sky ropes were fun, just wait till you start using mirrors to get about.”
Jasper gave Roxie a nudge. Her eyes were closed and she was nodding her head energetically.
“Oi, crackpot, you’re on,” he said, giving her another nudge.
Roxie took the headphones off and said, “Wow, these cans are awesome, Jasp. It’s like getting new ears.”
“Give,” said Jasper, slinging them round his neck. “You have to tell Mia about her key now.”
“Sure thing,” said Roxie. “A Mirror Key is about as good as gadgets get. It lets you use any mirror in the world as a portal. You can then travel to any other mirror you like.”
Danny and Eric had stopped looking at the Time Tablet and were listening to Roxie. Mia was starting to smile.
“I’ve propped up a mirror against the far wall,” said Roxie, “and there’s a smaller one over there behind that boulder. You’re going to travel from one to the other.” Roxie grabbed Mia’s hand. “It’s OK, I’ll go with you the first time.”
Roxie and Mia trotted across to the furthest mirror with Danny and the others following close behind.
Roxie rapped on the glass. “It’s an ordinary mirror. Move your key across the surface.”
Mia held the key about a centimetre away from the mirror’s surface and moved it round in circles.
“There,” said Roxie.
“Where?” said Mia.
“There,” said Roxie. “Back a bit.”
Mia moved the key up slightly and a faint keyhole shape appeared on the mirror. She kept the key steady and the outline grew darker and harder until an actual keyhole took shape.
“It’s never more than a few centimetres away from the centre,” said Roxie. “You’ll soon be finding it with your eyes closed.”
Mia glanced at Roxie and then put the key in the keyhole, turning it one way and then the other. There was a click.
“Shall we go in?” said Roxie.
The surface of the mirror seemed to quiver.
“What’s in there?” asked Mia.
“Only one way to find out,” said Roxie.
Roxie put her leg into the mirror. A small silver wave rippled out towards the frame. Danny, Eric and Mia watched, their mouths half open. Roxie put her other leg forward and vanished. A split second later, her arm came out of the mirror and beckoned.
Uncle Charlie smiled and said, “Go for it, Mia. Take the boys with you if you like.”
Mia frowned and nodded.
“I’m coming with you, Mia,” said Danny.
“I’ll, er, stay here and look after the cave,” said Eric.
Mia put one foot into the mirror. “This feels deeply weird,” she said.
She seemed to take a deep breath and then stepped through the glass. A large ripple passed over the surface of the mirror and died away.
“OK, let’s go,” said Danny. He put down the Time Tablet and grabbed Eric’s arm.
“No, seriously, Danny,” Eric protested. “I’ll talk to your uncle about chaos theory or something.”
Danny gave Eric a gentle shove into the mirror. Then he picked up his Time Tablet and jumped through after him.
He felt as if he’d been dipped in a lake of ice. Then the sensation passed and he found himself in a small grey room with no doors or windows. Behind him, he saw the full-length mirror that had been hanging on the wall of the cave. Mia, Eric and Roxie were standing next to him.
“Where are we?” asked Eric.
“The control room,” replied Roxie. “Like what they’ve done with it? Now, Mia, to activate the lightning drive, you’ve got to lock the mirror.”
“Lock it?” asked Mia.
“Yeah, that mirror’s still open until you do,” said Roxie. “Anyone can get through.”
“OK,” said Mia, and she held the key up to the mirror. She located the keyhole again, slotted the key in, and turned it the other way. There was a thunk as the lock slid into place.
“Well done,” said Roxie. “Now, to sign in as the Mirror Key’s owner, you say this: ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Come to life whenever I call’.”
Mia repeated the rhyme.
A middle-aged woman’s face appeared in the centre of the mirror. She had round glasses, curly grey hair and large hoops in her ears.
“Hello, darlings,” she said. “Where are we off to?”
“You give your instructions to this woman,” said Roxie. “She’s a computer simulation. Understands most ordinary words and phrases.”
“And look, you can change her settings!” exclaimed Eric, pointing to a set of touchscreen buttons and sliders that had appeared at the bottom of the mirror.
“Cool!” said Danny and Mia.
“Friendliness is on its maximum setting,” said Eric. “Let’s make her UNfriendly.”
“You can change her into a man, too,” sa
id Mia, “and make her really old or really young.”
Roxie sighed and said, “This mirror can beam you across the world, you know.”
Danny, Mia and Eric weren’t listening.
“Make her talk in Norwegian!” said Eric.
“Make her skin-colour blue!” added Danny.
They settled on a young man with green skin, one Cyclops eye and dreadlocks. They gave him the name Umberto. His personality was set to Moderately Friendly.
“Finished?” asked Roxie. “Now tell it where you want to go.”
“Er, OK,” said Mia. “The other side of the cave, please.”
“Piece of cake,” said Umberto, closing his eye.
The mirror gave off a burst of white light, like a camera flash. Then the frame started to move inwards, whirring and crunching, shrinking the mirror’s surface. The mirror ended up about a metre wide and a metre tall. It was hanging halfway up the wall.
“That’s the other mirror,” said Roxie. “Mia, want to do the honours?”
Mia smiled and unlocked the mirror.
“How does all of this work?” asked Eric. “Did we teleport? Did we move at all?”
“Sorry, Eric,” said Roxie, “you’ll have to ask Jasper. He understands all that boring stuff. I’ve just come along for the ride.”
She ducked down and put her head through the mirror. Quick as a flash, she pulled it back out again. She whipped a catapult out of her pocket, loaded a pellet into it and stretched the rubber band back. Danny remembered that catapult from the last time he had met Roxie. It had blasted robot animals to pieces.
“No one say a word,” whispered Roxie.
She continued to aim the catapult at the mirror. Mia, Eric and Danny stood silently in the grey room, listening to each other’s breathing.
“OK, look,” said Roxie. “There were two heavies in the cave. Shaved heads, dark glasses, cheap suits. I think one of them saw me.”
“That sounds like the men who came to our house!” whispered Danny.
“OK, that confirms it,” said Roxie. “The Space Twister sent them. Thing is, there’s no sign of Charlie or Jasper. So listen. I’m going in there to take them out. You stay here. Lock this mirror. If I don’t knock on it in ten minutes, leave. Get as far away as you can. Somewhere the Space Twister will never find you.”