Jacob didn’t answer and stared for a moment at the time machine, which was well within his grasp. Mick now trusted him enough that it didn’t cross his mind that Jacob would try to take it.
If there was ever an opportunity for Jacob to steal it and maroon Mick, this was it. He didn’t believe in Mick’s plan. He didn’t think Luger Smythe was going to change his mind about Astrals just because of an elephant prank. Mick had let his guard down.
But he decided he would give Mick a chance. Jacob looked Mick in the eye and reached out and grabbed on to the key. “All right. Let’s do this.”
Mick warped the two of them straight back into Luger Smythe’s room in the Tower of London.
“You again,” Luger spat when he saw them appear. “You have overstayed your welcome, aliens. Get out of here before I have you both impaled on the end of a spear.”
Jacob wasn’t sure how someone so evil could also seem so harmless. He didn’t think Luger would really call the guards on them, and he couldn’t even look Mick and Jacob in the eye. Jacob suspected that hating people was a lot easier when you could just pretend that they’re horrible monsters. Though he worried this prank was about to confirm it.
Mick smiled. “I don’t think you like us very much.”
Luger sneered back at him. “I would like you to never exist at all.”
“But isn’t there something we haven’t really talked about?” Mick asked.
Luger clutched his blanket tighter around his neck. “And what might that be?”
“The elephant in the room,” Mick said.
Luger blinked. “The what?”
“You know, the elephant in the room.”
“I’m sure I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re saying,” Luger said.
Jacob and Mick warped back to the zoo and grabbed on to Jumbo’s trunk. Jacob nodded, Mick nodded, and Jacob crossed his fingers that warping with a four-year-old elephant wouldn’t break the space-time continuum.
When he opened his eyes back in the Tower of London, Luger was pressed against the arrow slit, terrified. Jacob and Mick were pressed against the wall. And Jumbo, who took up nearly every bit of available space, did not seem particularly alarmed to have found himself in a strange room in a medieval castle. He plucked an apple off of Luger’s desk and threw it into his mouth. Then he ran his trunk across Luger’s desk, sending the papers flying into the air.
“Sorcery!” Luger screeched. “Evil sorcery! Get this beast out of here!”
There was absolutely no way Jumbo would be able to fit through the door. Jumbo picked up a model of a planet and rolled it around on the ground before stepping on it and smashing it to pieces.
“You beast!” Luger shouted. “Do not do that!”
Jumbo ruffled Luger’s hair. Luger shrieked.
Jacob and Mick ran out the door and stood just outside it.
“Don’t . . . don’t leave me here with this thing!” Luger shouted.
“Surrender!” Mick yelled.
Jacob took a deep breath and hoped Luger could be persuaded. “If we get rid of the elephant,” Jacob said reasonably, “will you give up your fight against the Astrals?”
“Never,” Luger said. Jacob’s heart began to sink.
Luger batted Jumbo with a book, but Jumbo seemed to think it was a fun game and batted Luger right back.
“I’m sorry about your house, but Astrals don’t mean you any harm,” Jacob said. “If you just let it go, we’ll get rid of the elephant.”
“I will never surrender to the space menace,” Luger said.
Jacob shook his head. Of course the plan wasn’t working. The survival of Astrals was on the line and all Mick could think to do was play a prank.
Although Jacob did have to admit the expression on Luger’s face was rather amusing.
“Say uncle,” Mick said to Luger.
“Uncle?” Luger asked, confused. “Why would I say that word?”
Jacob and Mick looked at each other and shrugged. Apparently that phrase hadn’t been invented yet.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jacob said.
Mick walked back in, intentionally scattered some more of Luger’s papers, and grabbed on to Jumbo.
Mick smiled. “What time is it when an elephant sits on your desk?”
Luger stared at Mick, refusing to rise to the bait.
“Time for a new desk,” Mick said.
Jacob laughed despite himself, but he saw Luger edge over to his desk and open a drawer.
“Mick . . .” Jacob said.
Luger pulled out a key.
“Mick!” Jacob yelled.
Mick warped them back to the zoo with Jumbo, who seemed relieved to see his cage and stepped right in.
Mick high-fived Jacob and tried to give him a chest bump, but Jacob just stepped aside. Their plan hadn’t worked, and Jacob couldn’t understand why Mick had ever thought it would. Someone like Luger Smythe wouldn’t be deterred by blackmail, no matter how big an elephant was trapped in his study. If anything, it would strengthen his resolve.
And although Jacob hadn’t gotten a good look at the key, it appeared that Luger already had a time machine. They were in grave danger.
The survival of Astrals was at stake and Jacob strongly suspected Mick hadn’t the slightest idea what he was doing.
What did you do?!” Sarah shouted at Chloe.
Chloe crossed her arms and gave her sister a smug grin. “Why should I tell you?”
It took every ounce of self-control Sarah possessed to stop herself from pouncing on her little sister. It was bad enough that she had stolen the time machine from Dexter when he was already worried about his mother. Now she was standing there looking like nothing at all was wrong. She should have been apologizing and begging their forgiveness, not gloating. Sarah didn’t want to give Chloe the satisfaction of reacting to her bait, but Chloe was an expert at pushing her buttons.
“Dexter?” Sarah muttered. “Can you please ask my worm of a sister what she was doing stealing our time machine?”
“Oh, okay,” Dexter said. He turned to Chloe. “What were you doing with our time machine, Chloe?”
Chloe batted her eyelashes at Dexter for a moment before she noticed Catalina.
“Who are you?” Chloe asked with a tremor in her voice.
Catalina didn’t betray any hint of noticing Chloe’s hesitation. “You must be Sarah Daisy’s better-looking sister!” she exclaimed.
Sarah’s ears burned. It was becoming an extremely difficult day.
Catalina extended her hand. “I’m Catalina Cassandra Penelope Crackenarium, it’s so nice to meet you.”
Chloe sneered at Catalina’s hand and grunted. “I’m sure.”
Catalina put her hand down in confusion and Dexter stepped over toward Chloe, keeping an eye on Sarah as he moved closer. “Hi. Um, Chloe? So, what were you doing with the time machine? If you don’t mind me asking?”
Chloe’s doe eyes returned and she smiled sweetly at Dexter. “Helping you, of course.”
Sarah scoffed. “Sure. Tell us what you were really doing.”
Chloe turned on Sarah and met her fiery gaze. “I was! I went into the future to see what would happen with Dexy’s mom.” She took his hand and patted it gently. “So he wouldn’t have to worry.”
“What . . .” Dexter whispered. “What did you . . .”
“She’s going to be fine!” Chloe said. “It’s no big deal. She gets out of the hospital in a few days, it’s not life-threatening at all. It didn’t even have anything to do with smoking, she just had a skin thing.”
Dexter sighed in relief and held his face in his hands. “Thanks, Chlo. Thank you so much.”
Sarah stared at her sister. “I don’t believe you.”
Chloe
took the time machine out of her pocket and waved it at Sarah. “Bet you a million dollars. Take the time machine right now and go see for yourself. You never believe me about anything. Why don’t you go see how smart you are?”
Sarah didn’t reach for the time machine and instead kept staring at Chloe. She sensed that Chloe wasn’t actually bluffing, and she believed that if she did go into the future, she would see that Dexter’s mom really was safe. Sarah’s heart softened a bit. It was nice that Chloe was brave enough to go see what would happen so that Dexter didn’t have to worry.
But something still wasn’t adding up.
“But Chloe, if that’s all you wanted to do, why wouldn’t you just tell us?” Sarah asked. “Why did you have to go and steal the time machine?”
Chloe gave Sarah an evil grin. “Because now I can do this.”
Chloe whispered into the time machine, yelled “Warp!” and disappeared before Sarah could reach for it.
She was going to kill her sister if she could ever catch her again.
“She’s gone,” Dexter said. He sounded quite lost.
There was yet another rustling in the forest, and Sarah charged toward it, thinking Chloe had warped back again to trick them.
But instead she found herself face-to-face with the middle-aged Mick Cracken. His shoulders were slumped and he looked terrifically sad. His shirt was ripped and he was clutching a half-eaten box of donuts.
Old Mick sighed loudly. “I want to go home now.”
Back to business,” Mick said.
Mick and Jacob were having a regrouping session on the top of a mountain on Planet Stupendia, known for its incredible natural wonders. Jacob remembered the planet from the time when Sarah Daisy had staged a campaign rally and he had spray-painted graffiti on Mick’s spaceship. Green forests and turquoise lakes and golden valleys spread out before them, and Jacob tried to ignore the sheer thousand-foot drops that fell precipitously from their perch atop the mountain. Although they were high up in the sky, the air was pleasant and warm with only a soft breeze disturbing the calm.
Mick took a yellow piece of folded parchment out of his pocket and handed it to Jacob. “I spotted this in Luger’s room.”
Jacob unfolded the paper and his heart skipped a beat. It was an ink drawing of Chloe Daisy. An ink drawing from hundreds of years before Chloe Daisy was even born.
“This is impossible!” Jacob said.
Mick stared impassively at Jacob, as if he was waiting for him to figure out what he was seeing.
Jacob stared again at the paper. There was no mistake. It was definitely Chloe Daisy, The Brat, the ruiner of good times and one of the most annoying individuals Jacob had ever met in his life.
Jacob wasn’t as slow as Mick thought he was. There was only one explanation. “Chloe must have gotten her hands on a time machine,” Jacob said.
Jacob had no idea how Chloe even knew who Luger Smythe was, but the only way she could have possibly appeared on a drawing from the 1500s was if she had warped back to the past or if Luger had somehow warped to the future. It also explained why Luger had known who Mick was. She must have gone farther back in time than Jacob and Mick had, and given it to him then.
Mick gave Jacob an exaggerated and patronizing pat on the back, as if Jacob were a dull pupil who had finally learned to spell cat. But Jacob had realized more than that.
“And there’s absolutely no reason you should know who Chloe is.”
Mick stopped patting Jacob and sucked in his breath.
Jacob knew he had caught Mick off guard, but he didn’t take much pleasure from it. Instead he was deeply disappointed.
He had just been thinking he and Mick were on a team. That maybe Mick had changed or that he was wrong about him. That maybe, just maybe, Mick had a conscience and could be counted on in a dangerous pinch. But now he had caught him holding out on him again.
Mick had slipped up. He had never met Chloe, at least not in front of Jacob. Mick hadn’t been there when they went back to see dinosaurs, and Chloe hadn’t been there in the Palais des Tuileries when Mick had arrived out of nowhere. Jacob had no idea how Mick knew Chloe existed, but he did know Mick was still playing his own game, with his own motives and own secrets. He was only telling Jacob as much as he needed to keep Jacob doing what he wanted him to do.
And Jacob realized that he had gotten so caught up in the Strangers and Luger Smythe that he had lost track of what he should have been doing: finding his dad. Jacob trusted his mom more than anyone in the world, and she had told him he had to find his father. That was what he needed to do.
“Look,” Mick said carefully. “Maybe I know more about what’s happening than I’ve let on. It’s not diabolical that I know who Sarah’s sister is; I did some research during my planning so I would be ready for everything. But you’re right. I haven’t told you everything. You have to trust me that I have my reasons.”
“Out with it, then,” Jacob said. “Tell me everything.”
Mick stood up and stepped to the edge of the cliff. He shuffled his toes to the edge and looked down at the abyss. He turned back to face Jacob. He smiled and said, “You just have to trust me.”
Then Mick leaned back and tumbled off the cliff. Into the abyss. Jacob rushed to the edge and stared down in a panic. He couldn’t see Mick at all. Then he heard Mick laughing behind him.
He turned around and saw Mick doubled over laughing, clutching the time machine. He had warped back to safety.
“You should have seen the look on your face!” Mick said, barely able to get the words out. “You were so worried! Wonderbar, I didn’t know you cared.”
Jacob didn’t think it was funny. “Take me back to the present,” he said through clenched teeth.
He needed to get back to his friends. Sarah would know what to do. And if Chloe had a time machine, it meant that she had somehow gotten ahold of Sarah’s. Sarah could be in danger, and Jacob needed to join forces with her.
Mick held out the time machine. “Definitely, Wonderbar. I’ll take you back to the present.”
Mick smiled wide. “You can trust me.”
Jacob glared at Mick. He knew that wasn’t true. But he grabbed on to the time machine and they warped.
No one moved at first when Jacob and Mick warped back into the clearing. Sarah looked happy to see Jacob, but sensed that something was wrong. Old Mick dropped his box of donuts. Dexter looked very confused.
Catalina broke the silence. “Jakey!” she shouted as she ran over to envelop him in a hug. “I’ve been looking all over for you! We need to talk.”
“Wow, hi,” Jacob said. “When did you get here?”
But he broke the hug quickly and rushed over to hug Sarah. She buried her face in his shoulder and said, “I’m glad you’re okay, but you’re a jerk for leaving me behind.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded and bumped fists with Dexter, shook his head with dismay at Old Mick, then turned his attention back to Young Mick. Jacob pointed at him warily.
“I don’t trust this guy,” he said.
Sarah cackled. “You don’t say . . .”
“But listen,” Jacob said. “I learned a lot about what’s going on. Those bizarre anti-Astral people are called the Strangers. They want to completely stop Astrals from even existing. If they succeed, I would just disappear, like I never lived in the first place. And here’s the worst part: Chloe is mixed up with them somehow.”
He handed the parchment drawing to Sarah. “Mick found this in the 1500s, with this creepy kid called Luger Smythe. He started the Strangers.”
“Why, Chloe, why?” Sarah sighed. “Jake, she got hold of our time machine.”
“I figured,” Jacob said. He rested his hand on her shoulder. “How does Chloe know about the Strangers?”
Sara
h shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Jacob felt responsible for Chloe ending up with the time machine. He should have stayed focused on his plan. He should have convinced Mick to warp straight to the present. He should have listened to his mom. But now they could start setting things right.
“We need to find my dad,” Jacob said.
“No!” Mick shouted with such force that even Old Mick jumped in surprise. “We have to stop the Strangers. I have a plan.”
“I want to go home,” Old Mick said.
“Not yet!” Young Mick said.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Old Mick said, stepping over to Young Mick and putting his hands on his hips. “I’m bigger than you are.”
“Maybe that’s because you need to go on a diet,” Young Mick said.
“Maybe you need to have a better attitude,” Old Mick said.
“Um. You’re the same person,” Dexter said.
Old Mick shook his head. “No way. I’m older. Smarter. Wiser.”
“Let’s not fight, darlings,” Catalina said.
For a moment everyone stood still in the clearing. There was a slight rustle and Nelly came running past in a green blur, barely pausing when he saw the children, and kept right on running. Dexter smacked his head.
Then, one by one, everyone turned their attention to Young Mick, possessor of the sole time machine, the one thing that could change everything.
There was an ominous pause. And all at once they attacked him.
“Get him!” Old Mick said.
“No! No!” Young Mick shouted.
They all grappled for the time machine. Mick held on tightly. He grunted as Old Mick stepped on his foot and Sarah pulled on his ear and Jacob tried to twist his wrist.
Then Old Mick shouted, “Planet Cocoa Chocolate Factory, August eighth, 1872, warp!”
Jacob, Sarah, Dexter, Catalina, Young Mick, and Old Mick were warped directly into a factory with an overpowering and thoroughly delectable aroma of pure chocolate. It looked more like a laboratory than a food-processing center, with teams of Astrals hovering over small pieces of chocolates and meticulously tending to them as if they were fine jewels.
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp Page 9