Danny Danger and the Space Twister

by Adam Frost

  Less than a minute later, the hatch in the middle of the floor swung open and Roxie clambered on board. Everyone hugged each other and laughed. Then Uncle Charlie told Roxie what had happened in the last couple of hours.

  “So now he’s got the amulet,” said Roxie. “It’s funny cos Jasper said that the Space Twister might be closing in on it. Said someone had been in Thelonius Grebe’s old house before us. Oh well. We’d better get the amulet back, then.”

  “Where is Jasper?” asked Eric.

  “Mr Jasper Gibbons stayed in Hamburg,” said Roxie. “See, I spent an hour in Grebe’s old study going through his journals, but a lot of them were in Latin. Jasper speaks the lingo so he stayed behind to find out how the amulet actually works. How DID I get to Hamburg by the way?”

  Danny quickly explained how Eric had hacked the Time Tablet.

  “Well, Agent Taylor!” exclaimed Roxie, ruffling Eric’s hair. “I’m glad you’re on our side.”

  “How did you get up here?” asked Mia.

  “Well, Grebe had loads of rope hanging around,” said Roxie. “He was always building pulleys and winches and stuff. And the sight on my catapult has a range of ten miles. So I just tied a plastic arrow with a sucker on to a length of rope and then knotted lots of rope together. Then I held on to the other end – and fired.”

  She smiled at everyone.

  “So now we’re all up to date,” she said, “will someone please tell me what the plan is?”

  “You said that when Roxie got here, I could go to the Science Palace,” whined Eric.

  “Yeah, well, I’m not so sure now,” said Uncle Charlie. “It’s all starting to feel dangerous again.”

  “Uncle, if you’ve thought of a way of getting my remote back, you should say,” said Danny.

  “If you know how to end this, so I can enjoy the rest of my birthday on Planet Earth, spit it out,” said Mia.

  “All right, all right,” said Uncle Charlie. “But you all have to promise to do EXACTLY as I say, OK?”

  “OK,” said Danny and Mia.

  “Metal Gretel, here I come!” said Eric.

  The skylab rode a strong thermal current upwards and then drifted west across the North Sea.

  “We’ll be in position in about three minutes. Everyone ready?” asked Uncle Charlie.

  Danny, Eric and Mia nodded.

  “I was born ready,” said Roxie, tucking her catapult into her skirt.

  “Tacking south,” said Uncle Charlie. There was an instrument panel above his workbench. He pulled a small grey level and the balloon swerved left.

  “OK,” he continued. “Remember the plan. Me and Roxie will be out of range of the remote. So we’ll also be missing from the Time Tablet. But we’ll be there. Watching your back.”

  He pulled another grey lever and the balloon slowed to a stop.

  “You’re now above Kensington,” he said. “Just press this blue button to descend. Red button to ascend. No time to say anything but good luck. So: good luck.”

  Charlie opened the hatch in the middle of the skylab. Roxie jumped on his back. “I believe in you,” he said. “All three of you.”

  Then he dropped through the hatch. Danny, Mia and Eric ran across to the window and watched Uncle Charlie and Roxie vanish into a cloud below.

  Danny stared at the cloud for a couple of minutes. Then he heard a clunking noise behind him and saw Mia standing by the instrument panel. “Ready?” she said.

  Without waiting for a reply from Danny or Eric, she jammed her thumb down on the large blue button. The balloon started to sink directly downwards. Eric staggered sideways and knocked over a chair which hit a set of shelves which fell on a toolbox which landed on Mia’s foot.

  “Ow!” howled Mia.

  “Sorry,” said Eric, trying to stand up and knocking over another chair which hit a stack of paper which knocked over a monitor which landed on Mia’s other foot.

  “You idiot!” yelled Mia.

  Well, this is a good start, thought Danny.

  The balloon kept dropping like a lift, getting slowly faster. They passed quickly through the clouds and out the other side. Now they could see birds, and now distant hills and mountains. A few seconds later, London was sprawling out beneath them on every side.

  Danny felt his Time Tablet beep and come back to life. “Time to put the brakes on,” he shouted.

  Mia pressed the red button and the balloon slowed down. At the point when it was starting to take off again, Mia pressed the blue button. When it picked up too much speed, she pressed the red button.

  Eric and Danny stared out of the window, watching West London rise to meet them. They saw the top of the Space Twister’s glass dome, then queues of people snaking away from the entrance doors.

  Mia kept pressing the red button, then the blue button, letting them down gently.

  The balloon stopped suddenly and swung Danny, Eric and Mia into each other and then on to the floor.

  “Is that it?” said Eric, scrambling to his feet. “Are we here?”

  Danny twisted his neck round and looked out of the window. “We appear to be stuck in a tree,” he said.

  “Brilliant,” said Eric. “Nice one, Mia.”

  Mia looked at the leaves and branches that were squashed up against the windows. “If you hadn’t broken both of my feet, then maybe I could have concentrated for longer,” she hissed.

  “Look, it’s fine, it’s fine,” said Danny. “We’re in the park behind the museum. Let’s just drop through the hatch and go.”

  Mia narrowed her eyes at Eric and Eric stuck his tongue out at Mia.

  Danny opened the hatch and said, “It’s only a couple of metres down. Come on.”

  Mia and Eric peered over Danny’s shoulder. “It looks a bit further than that,” she said dubiously.

  Then the balloon started to pull itself free of the tree.

  “What the—” stammered Mia.

  “Is it giving way?” said Eric.

  “No, I don’t think it’s that,” said Danny. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”

  The balloon started to rise.

  “He’s pressing Rewind,” said Danny. “He’s seen the balloon, he’s suspicious. Jump!”

  Danny dropped through the hatch.

  The balloon was now completely free of the branches. Mia looked through the hatch, gritted her teeth and jumped.

  The balloon was rising faster, going backwards, up into the sky.

  “Come on, jump!” called Danny and Mia from the ground, looking at Eric’s face in the hatch as the balloon got further and further away.

  “We’ll catch you,” said Danny. “Jump!”

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” said Eric and dropped through the air, one metre, two metres, three, four, five, and then whoomf into Danny and Mia’s arms.

  They all stood up and were about to start arguing with each other, when they were struck dumb by what they saw. The balloon was a dot in the sky now. In front of them, people were sprinting backwards across the grass. Behind them, cars and buses were reversing back down the street.

  “So this is what rewind looks like,” Mia murmured.

  “This is it,” said Danny.

  Everybody stopped and started going forward again. Buses roared past and taxis honked their horns.

  “I’m glad the crystals work,” said Eric, putting his tongue in one of his molars.

  “My teeth are tingling,” said Mia. “It’s like I’ve just eaten too much ice cream.”

  Danny also felt for the crystal in one of his back teeth.

  “OK, let’s check out your Time Tablet,” said Mia. “Remember what Uncle Charlie said before we left. The Time Tablet is our eyes and ears.”

  “Can’t we just go?” asked Eric. “Look at it! I can see the top of Metal Gretel! I can see a lunar module!”

  Danny was looking at his Time Tablet. He had typed in “Science Palace, Kensington”. When it appeared, he clicked to look inside. There were thousands of fold
ers.

  “Look at this,” Danny murmured. “Look at the names.”

  Mia looked over his shoulder and read the first twenty-eight names:

  Andrew Jenkins

  Bernard Cranham

  Eric Adams

  Eric Akabusi

  Eric Allen

  Eric Anand

  Eric Andrews

  Eric Armstrong

  Eric Atkins

  Eric Baker

  Eric Ball

  Eric Banerjee

  Eric Barker

  Eric Bell

  Eric Booth

  Eric Bose

  Eric Burns

  Eric Burton

  Eric Butler

  Eric Chapman

  Eric Chauhan

  Eric Chen

  Eric Cheng

  Eric Chiang

  Eric Chopra

  Eric Clark

  Eric Clarke

  Eric Cole

  “I thought I might be able to find the Space Twister in here and just cut and paste him,” said Danny, “but there’s no chance. And look at all these Erics – I mean – it’s too creepy—”

  “Yeah,” said Mia. “I reckon if Eric doesn’t want to go ahead with this, then – Eric? Eric?”

  They looked up and saw Eric in the distance, heading for a big door marked:

  ENTRANCE FOR ERICS

  “That’s all we need,” said Danny. “Come on, we’ve got to stick together or Uncle Charlie can’t keep track of us.”

  Mia looked up at the sky. “You sure he can see us from up there?”

  “Roxie’s catapult has a range of ten miles,” said Danny, “and the bank of clouds they’re riding is only nine miles up.”

  They ran across the grass and caught up with Eric just as he was going through the door into the Science Palace.

  “Eric, wait for us,” said Danny.

  But Eric was already approaching the bag-checking area. One thug stood next to a conveyor belt, staring at an X-ray screen. Another thug stood next to a big black security gate that beeped every time anyone walked through it.

  Eric approached the gate. “I don’t have anything metallic on me,” he said.

  “It’s not a metal detector,” the thug grunted. “It’s an Eric detector. It sets off an alarm if your name’s not Eric. Walk through slowly, stop in the middle, then carry on.”

  “Oh, OK,” said Eric.

  “Eric, we’ve got to stick to the plan,” hissed Danny, taking a step forward.

  But Mia held him back. “Don’t draw attention to yourself,” she whispered.

  Eric walked into the gate, and a beam of red light passed down over his body then back up again. There was a high-pitched beep and a green light flashed above his head.

  “Now come over here,” said the thug on the gate. He was holding a hand stamp. “This is so you can go out and come back in again.”

  “It’s OK,” said Eric. “When I leave, I won’t come back.”

  “You still have to have it,” said the thug sternly, grabbing Eric’s hand and pushing the hand stamp down sharply.

  Eric felt a tiny pin-prick of pain. “Ow,” he said, and yanked his arm back.

  He looked down at his hand and saw that a capital E had been stamped in blue ink in the middle of his palm. Underneath it, a drop of blood was trickling on to his wrist.

  “Enjoy your day of wonder and discovery,” grunted the thug, shoving Eric through another door and into the Science Palace itself.

  Danny and Mia were still hovering on the other side of the security gate.

  “Did you see that?” said Mia.

  The thug on the gate was staring at them.

  “Are you Erics or aren’t you?” he barked.

  “Yes, I mean, no, I mean, yes,” said Danny.

  The thug narrowed his eyes and pulled a photo out of his inside pocket. “Daniel and Mia Danger,” he muttered to himself. Then he looked back up at Danny and Mia. But Danny and Mia had gone.

  They had run anti-clockwise around the glass dome and were hiding behind a small electricity generator.

  “OK, we have to get in there,” said Danny. “That hand stamp was bizarre. Eric’s in trouble.”

  “Totally, but how do we do it?” said Mia. “We can’t go through the main entrance. They’re clearly looking out for us. That thug had our photo.”

  “And I can’t cut and paste us, because we’re wearing crystals in our teeth. We’re outside of time,” said Danny.

  Mia thought for a second. “We’ll have to use my Mirror Key,” she said firmly.

  “But Uncle Charlie said we shouldn’t,” said Danny, “or he’ll lose sight of us. And he won’t know which mirror we’re coming out of.”

  “Fine. Just let me know when you have a better idea,” said Mia.

  Danny thought for a few seconds – he could edit some Erics, or cut and paste some thugs – but that would cause confusion and alarm. Sneaking in through a mirror did make sense.

  “Over here, Danny,” whispered Mia, pointing at a shiny metal plaque on the side of the Science Palace. It read:

  Mia was holding her key up to the surface. She moved it left and right until a keyhole appeared. She unlocked it and Danny and Mia crawled through.

  “Nice to see you again,” said Umberto cheerfully. “Been keeping busy?”

  Mia asked Umberto for a list of all the mirrors in the Science Palace. There were hundreds to choose from. She chose one in the projection room of the IMAX cinema.

  The mirror whirred into its new shape and Danny and Mia stepped through. They found themselves in a small dark room with a large box-shaped camera at one end. A middle-aged man was leaning on it, asleep.

  Danny and Mia sneaked past the man and opened a soundproof door that led to a flight of stairs. They went down the stairs and emerged into the foyer of the IMAX cinema.

  They were people everywhere, most of them boys between seven and eleven.

  “Look at their hands,” whispered Mia. Most of the boys had a big blue E stamped on their right palms.

  But Danny was staring past the cinema foyer and looking at everything else that had been squashed into the dome. He had a dreamy expression on his face. There were rockets and rides and slides and trains and giant TV screens and enormous telescopes and huge computers. Dominating it all was a massive steel robot with GRETEL spelled out on its back in flashing red lights and four rows of buttons on its chest.

  Suddenly he felt a sharp elbow in his ribs. “This is no time to be a geek,” said Mia. “We’ve got to find Eric.”

  Danny blinked and looked at his sister. “Oh, yeah. Yeah.”

  “Let’s stick to the edge of the dome,” said Mia. “Out of sight when we can.”

  Danny was still half looking at all of the machines and gadgets and, above all, Metel Gretel. Mia yanked him behind a glass cabinet full of computers from the 1970s.

  “Hello,” said a deep voice and both Danny and Mia spun round.

  “Hello,” said another deep voice.

  Two thugs had appeared, as if from nowhere.

  “Hello,” said a third thug and, “Look who it is,” said a fourth.

  Danny and Mia had their backs against the glass cabinet. Danny, terrified, managed to pull out his Time Tablet, but who should he search for? What should he type?

  One of the thugs snatched the Time Tablet out of Danny’s hands.

  “This is no time to surf the bleedin’ Internet, sunshine,” said the thug. Danny recognised him as Barry, one of the bodyguards from Grapeshot Hall.

  “What did the boss say?” said a second thug. “Kill the girl but not the boy.”

  “Kill the girl and hurt the boy,” said Barry. “We are allowed to hurt him.”

  “Can I do the killing? Please?” asked the second thug.

  “That’s not fair,” said the third thug. “He always does the killing.”

  A tear was trickling out of Mia’s eye. Danny was rigid with fear, unable to look at anything but the ground.

  “T
ough,” said the second thug, lifting up his huge hand and holding it above Mia’s head.

  At that moment, the glass above them tinkled and a pellet whipped through the air and hit the second thug on the back of the head.

  “Ow,” he said. “That really hurt.” Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the floor.

  The thugs twisted round and looked up at the roof of the glass dome. Another pellet whipped through the air and hit Barry on the forehead. He went cross-eyed and then slumped to the floor next to the second thug.

  Danny grabbed his Time Tablet from Barry. Then both Danny and Mia ran away as fast as they could, more pellets raining down behind them.

  Danny and Mia sprinted towards the centre of the dome, where people were gathering around a spacewalk suit and a moon buggy.

  “Thank goodness for Roxie,” said Mia, still sniffling slightly. “She must have spotted us.”

  “No more using mirrors,” said Danny. “We have to stay where Uncle Charlie and Roxie can see us.”

  Danny looked up. He imagined Roxie holding up her catapult and peering down the sight on the left prong. She and Uncle Charlie would be swinging backwards and forwards on the clouds, directly above their heads.

  “Trouble is,” said Danny, “the Space Twister must know we’re here now.”

  “Yeah,” said Mia, “and he might have realised that Roxie and Uncle Charlie are up there, ready to knock him out with a pellet.”

  “So maybe he won’t show his face, after all,” said Danny.

  Then everyone in the Science Palace stopped moving. All of the rides went dead, all of the gadgets stopped flashing, the images on all of the screens froze. The world had been paused.

  The crystals in Danny and Mia’s teeth started to tingle again. The Space Twister walked calmly through the crowd, holding the remote in one hand and a gun in the other. When he reached the spot where Danny and Mia were standing, he said, “Wherever did you learn that trick with the amber crystals?”

  The Space Twister was wearing a cape with a heavy hood. His face was hidden.

  “Now don’t move, or talk, or hit me with a pellet,” said the Space Twister, “or this gun might accidentally go off.”