by Adam Frost
“Exactly,” said Eric. “Thank you.”
“So we all go,” said Mia.
“Exactly,” said Eric. “We all – hang on a minute. What did you say?”
Mia unlocked the mirror. “We’ll only be out there for thirty seconds, Eric,” she said. “He’s standing just behind the door.”
“Yes, a door with a big sign on it saying DEATH TRAP,” said Eric.
“OK, let’s leave my uncle out there to get pulled apart,” said Mia. “Do you want that on your conscience?”
“I won’t have a conscience if I’m dead, will I?” grumbled Eric.
Danny and Mia put their heads through the mirror. After a few seconds, Eric reluctantly joined them.
The lift doors were still wedged open and they could see part of the room in front of them. A thug was standing behind a chair, paused. He was staring straight ahead of him, looking confused. Two other thugs could be seen, frozen next to a window. One was halfway through a yawn and a bit of dribble had just dropped off his bottom lip.
“Flipping heck,” said Mia. “So this is what it looks like.”
“Did I mention that I think this is a bad idea?” said Eric, looking around the room in wonder.
“Every time you paused the world, this is what happened,” said Mia.
Danny nodded.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said.
He stepped out of the mirror and walked across the room. As he passed the first thug, he shivered. He didn’t think he’d feel any fear, but he did. Although he’d paused the world dozens of times, he’d always been controlling it. He’d had his remote. This was different.
Mia stopped by the first thug and prodded him in the stomach. Her finger folded back on itself. “It’s like he’s made of rock,” she said.
“Let’s keep moving,” said Danny. As he crossed the room, he gazed down at his Time Tablet. He opened the Grapeshot Hall folder and looked at the files inside. There was his uncle’s file, there were all the thugs. He was ready to strike if he needed to.
Eric had pulled out his Truth Spray. “You’ve got my back, right, Danny?” said Eric. “And, Mia, you’ve got my back too, right? Cos you look like you’ve got each other’s backs but not my back. It’s very important that someone gets my back.”
There was a tinkling noise and all three of them spun round, terrified.
“Sorry,” said Eric, nodding at the glass jar he had knocked over.
Danny opened the door of the room and saw his uncle floating about half a metre off the ground. It looked as if he had just thrown himself at the door, on the point of breaking it open.
Danny couldn’t help smiling; he was so relieved to see his uncle again, even if he was frozen stiff.
“Come on,” said Danny. He tucked his Time Tablet into the back of his trousers and grabbed one of his uncle’s legs.
Eric and Mia grabbed Charlie’s other leg.
“Right, this is how it works,” said Danny. “First we have to wrench him out of time. That’s the hardest bit. After that, it’s easier.”
They pulled Uncle Charlie down towards the ground. He moved slightly, then sprang back up to his original position.
“That one moved, I swear he moved,” said Eric, pointing at one of the thugs by the window. Because of his position, the thug happened to be staring straight at them.
“Try again,” said Danny. “I’ve managed this on my own before. One more yank should be enough.”
“OK, on three,” said Mia. “One, two, threeeee.”
They all pulled and Uncle Charlie landed with a thump and toppled forward, hitting the floor with his face.
“Good job he couldn’t feel that,” said Eric.
“Come on, let’s pick him up,” said Danny.
Mia and Eric nodded and grabbed his shoulders. “Wow, now he weighs next to nothing,” said Mia.
“Weird, isn’t it?” said Danny.
Eric was glancing at the thugs, looking for the slightest movement. They got Charlie into the lift and were about to drag him through the mirror.
“What happens now?” said Eric.
“What do you mean?” asked Danny.
“I mean, when we drag him through the mirror, does he stay frozen? How do we unfreeze him?”
At that moment, Uncle Charlie became as heavy as rock. They struggled to hold him. Eric was the first to let go, dropping one of Uncle Charlie’s legs. This caused Danny and Mia to lose their grip too. Uncle Charlie hit the floor and opened his eyes. “Did I drink too much?” he asked, slightly dazed.
“You’re awake!” said Danny. “But that means if you’re awake—”
Time had started again in the cluttered room. The four thugs were looking at Eric, Mia and Danny with startled expressions. Then they pelted across the room.
“In the mirror, quick! Quick!” yelled Danny.
Uncle Charlie seemed to realise what was going on, picking up Eric and chucking him through the mirror. Danny and Mia leapt through and Uncle Charlie followed.
“Phew, that was cl—” said Uncle Charlie, as they landed in the small grey room. But he was being dragged back through the mirror: first his legs, then his waist.
Danny, Eric and Mia grabbed Uncle Charlie’s arms and pulled as hard as they could.
“Keep pulling, don’t let go,” said Danny to Eric and Mia, whipping out his Time Tablet. There was no time to cut and paste them all individually. So he clicked on one of the thugs’ files and typed: “The thugs all started to do chicken impressions.”
Eric and Mia pulled Uncle Charlie back into the small, grey room.
“Ruddy hell, what just happened there?” Uncle Charlie looked down at his left leg. “I think one of them was trying to peck me.”
“Uncle,” said Mia, “we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
Danny, Eric and Mia told Uncle Charlie exactly what had happened over the past few hours.
Danny explained how they had gone to see Grace Bingley and how she could slow down time.
“Blimey,” said Uncle Charlie.
Eric told Uncle Charlie that the Space Twister couldn’t actually twist space, he just wore a crystal in his teeth to fool the remote.
“Crikey,” said Uncle Charlie.
Danny explained that the Space Twister had used the remote to pause time for years and he was now incredibly old. He was looking for an amulet to make him young again.
“Flipping ’eck,” said Uncle Charlie.
Then Mia said that they had hacked into Danny’s Time Tablet and they could edit reality and change people’s lives. “That’s how we got this,” she concluded, holding up the amber crystal.
Uncle Charlie stared at it in disbelief. “Incredible,” he murmured and took it out of Mia’s hand. “It’s genuine too,” he added, holding it up to the light.
“I know,” said Mia. “Danny got one of the thugs to pull it straight out of the Space Twister’s teeth.”
At that moment, Danny was hit by a wave of self-pity. He said, “We’d have pasted the Space Twister into prison too if I hadn’t got confused and messed everything up.”
“Hany on, hang on,” said Uncle Charlie. “Nobody’s messed anything up. You’ve all done amazing things. And now we’ve got this crystal, we can make our own remote and fight back.”
Danny smiled at his uncle and felt much better.
“OK, we’ve got to get this to the skylab straightaway,” said Uncle Charlie.
“The what lab?” asked Eric.
“EUREKA! owns a hot air balloon that floats above the clouds,” said Uncle Charlie. “We only ever use it in emergencies. We might need to make a detour, though.”
“What do you mean?” asked Mia.
“Well, you mentioned that the Space Twister is looking for an amulet,” said Uncle Charlie. “I’m pretty sure that’ll be Grebe’s amulet.”
“It is!” exclaimed Mia. “That’s what Roxie called it!”
“Well, there’s no way on earth we can let him get that. He’ll be
immortal. Free to do anything, anywhere, forever and ever. We’ll need to pick that up first.”
“You mean you know where it is?” asked Danny.
“Roughly,” said Uncle Charlie.
“But Roxie’s gone looking for it,” said Danny.
“That’s why she’s not here with us. I pasted her to Hamburg. She said she wanted to look for the amulet there.”
“OK, makes sense,” said Uncle Charlie. “Jasper thought Roxie had called him from Germany. But Grebe’s amulet ain’t in Hamburg. Still, it’s OK. Jasper’s gone to fetch Roxie. We’ll all meet up in the skylab.”
Uncle Charlie looked again at the crystal in his palm. “Pulled it out of his teeth,” he said with a chuckle, shaking his head.
Then he looked up at the children again.
“OK, let’s think about how we do this,” said Uncle Charlie. “It’s still dangerous out there. I can’t risk any of you getting paused. If what you said is true, the Space Twister will murder you on sight.”
“Well, we’re safe in here,” Eric told him.
“What do you mean?” asked Uncle Charlie.
So Eric explained how when they were behind a mirror, they were immune from the remote.
“Of course, you’re outside of time,” said Uncle Charlie.
“We drop out of the Time Tablet too,” said Danny.
“Of course you do,” said Uncle Charlie, nodding. “The remote can only control people in the Time Tablet. So maybe you three should stop here where he can’t touch you.”
“Cool!” exclaimed Eric.
But Danny remembered something else.
“The Space Twister wasn’t in the Time Tablet when he was wearing the crystal,” said Danny.
“Yep, makes sense,” said Uncle Charlie.
“And you weren’t in the Time Tablet either, when you swung really high. The words just became gibberish.”
“Of course!” exclaimed Uncle Charlie.
“Or your file vanished,” said Danny.
“Brilliant!” said Uncle Charlie.
“At first, I thought the Time Tablet was broken,” said Danny, “but maybe—”
“There’s no maybe about it,” said Uncle Charlie. “When me and Jasper were above the clouds, we were out of range. The remote and the Time Tablet are only designed to work on Earth. And when we’re above the clouds, it thinks we’ve left Earth. This keeps getting better. When we reach the skylab, we’ll be immune from the remote.”
Uncle Charlie’s face shone with satisfaction.
“OK,” said Eric, “but didn’t you say we had to pick up the amulet too?”
“That’ll almost certainly be at a high altitude as well,” said Uncle Charlie. “It won’t count as Earth either.”
“Er … where is it, then?” asked Mia.
“Best if I explain on the journey,” said Uncle Charlie. “Let’s get going. Mia, use your Mirror Key to find us somewhere with lots of clouds. Somewhere I can use my sky rope to swing us up very high very fast.”
Mia nodded and started to talk to Umberto.
“I could try cutting and pasting you, Uncle,” suggested Danny, pulling out his Time Tablet. “I can put you anywhere you like.”
“Some other time,” said Uncle Charlie. “Much as I love the sound of it, it would mean leaving you behind, right? Who would cut and paste you? Also, nothing above the clouds will be in your Time Tablet. Not on Earth, remember. So you couldn’t paste me to the skylab.”
Uncle Charlie joined Mia over by the mirror. They kept peering out and inspecting the sky in different countries.
Danny looked down at his Time Tablet. It was strange to think that the Space Twister was in here now, if only he could find him, if only he knew his name. Then Danny began to think about how all of these amazing gadgets had drawbacks or flaws. None of them had been able to stop the Space Twister yet.
This led him to think about Grace Bingley again. She had natural power, natural ability. If he could twist space like her, he wouldn’t need any gadgets. The Space Twister could have remotes and amulets and Mirror Keys, but Danny could twist away from all of them.
He opened Grace’s file and began to skim through it. One passage near the beginning jumped out immediately:
Grace first realised she could slow down time one day at school.
It was playtime and the bell rang. Grace didn’t want playtime to end so she found herself listening to the bell. She focused on the ringing noise, making it slower and slower in her head. The sound of the bell got lower and lower until it was just a slow rasp, then a sludgy rumble. Then the noise stopped and life stopped and Grace walked slowly through a playground full of mysterious statues.
Danny murmured, “How do you slow down a sound?”
Then his uncle called out, “Danny, we’re all set!”
Danny was back in the present. He joined Mia and Eric and Uncle Charlie by the mirror on the wall.
“OK,” said Uncle Charlie. “We’re at the Derwent Water Visitor Centre. Loads of cumulonimbus clouds. We should be able to leave Earth fast. Stick close together and tell me if you see anything – ANYTHING – weird.”
“What about Eric’s face?” suggested Mia.
“What about Mia’s brain?” retorted Eric.
“Come on, you love each other really,” said Uncle Charlie, and Mia blushed and Eric mumbled something inaudible.
Then Uncle Charlie said, “Right, we’re moving out.”
Eric, Mia and Uncle Charlie walked through the mirror. Danny tucked his Time Tablet into the back of his trousers and followed them.
They were standing outside the Derwent Water Visitor Centre. The mirror was propped up against the side of the building, ready to be moved to its new home in the disabled toilet.
“Quick as you can,” said Uncle Charlie, and led the children down a slope into open ground.
They had only been outside thirty seconds, when Danny felt the bottom dropping out of his stomach. He felt his feet sinking into the ground and his arms going limp. He knew what was happening: the Space Twister was pressing Pause. He had felt it when he had fought the Night Scientist, he had felt it earlier this morning at Grapeshot Hall. If he could feel it, then surely he could pull himself free of it? The words of Grace Bingley were still echoing in his head. He tried to focus on a sound, tried to slow it down, tried to make the sound deeper and longer. For a split second, he saw Mia turning round in slow motion.
Then a bolt of pain shot through the middle of his body, so intense that he opened his mouth in a silent scream, then he relaxed, the pain went away, and life started again.
“Uncle Charlie,” Danny gasped. “Uncle Charlie!”
Uncle Charlie had pulled out his sky rope handles.
“The Space Twister just pressed Pause,” said Danny.
“What do you mean?” Uncle Charlie replied, spinning round. “How do you know?”
So Danny explained how he could feel it when time was being paused.
“Danny,” said Mia. “There’s blood on your head.”
Danny put his hand up to his forehead and looked at his finger. There was a splotch of blood on it.
“What have you been doing?” she asked, narrowing her eyes angrily. “If you’ve been trying to twist space after what I—”
“No,” lied Danny immediately. “I haven’t, I haven’t. I knocked my head on the mirror frame.” He put his hand to his head again and felt a thin dent in the skin above his eyes.
“There’s no time to argue with each other,” said Uncle Charlie. “If the Space Twister pressed Pause, he could have killed us all. We can’t risk that happening again.”
Uncle Charlie aimed his sky rope at a nearby cloud. At the same moment, a spot of rain landed on his head. Uncle Charlie scowled at the sky. He ignored the rain and shot his sky rope directly upwards.
The sky rope travelled a few metres, then made a loud fizzing noise, gave off hundreds of bright red sparks, and then flopped on to the floor.
As Uncle Ch
arlie retracted it, he said quickly, “Sky ropes aren’t great when it rains. They’re designed to lock on to water vapour.”
More spots of rain were falling.
“The rain confuses its hydrotropic sensors,” said Uncle Charlie. “We’ll have to find clouds somewhere else. Come on, back to the mirror.”
Danny felt his limbs locking and his stomach tightening. The world was being paused again. This time, he didn’t try to fight it. He was still shaking slightly from his last attempt to twist out of time. The sensation quickly passed.
“Uncle,” he gasped. “He pressed Pause again.”
“Dammit,” growled Uncle Charlie. “We can’t stay out here.” He looked wildly left and right. He couldn’t decide whether to run back to the mirror or try his sky rope one more time.
Eric was staring at something in the sky. “Charlie,” he said. “Did you say that your sky ropes lock on to any water-based moisture in the atmosphere?”
“Yep,” said Uncle Charlie distractedly.
“Then that might be the quickest way out of here,” said Eric, pointing up at the sky.
Uncle Charlie, Danny and Mia looked up and saw an aeroplane moving slowly into the clouds.
“Great idea!” exclaimed Uncle Charlie.
“Eric, what have you just suggested?” groaned Mia.
“I’ll aim at one of the planes taking off from Manchester airport!” said Uncle Charlie. “Come on. Up here.” He bounded back up the slope, followed by Danny, Eric and Mia. The rain was falling more steadily now.
“From this vantage point, I’ll be able to fire at a thirty – or forty – degree angle,” said Uncle Charlie. “That should cut sideways through the rain. Plus a plane’s vapour trail is so dense that it will be an easy target.”
He pointed his sky rope diagonally upwards.
“Climb on, kids,” said Uncle Charlie, “and hold on tight. I mean, seriously tight.”
A plane was nosing its way into the sky.
“Ahem, Charlie,” said Eric, clearly having second thoughts. “Maybe we should have a test run first. Let’s start by getting towed behind a milkfloat or a golf cart. Then work up.”