Six Days

by Philip Webb

  It would take a lifetime for me to list all the artists and writers who managed to fire my imagination into strange and wonderful places. So here are just the ones who helped inspire Six Days: George Lucas, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, William Gibson, Iain Banks, Margaret Atwood, James Cameron, Danny Boyle, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

  About the Author

  PHILIP WEBB has a masters degree in human-computer interaction and works as a “user experience consultant” to help people better understand technology. He lives in West London with his wife. This is his first novel.

  Copyright

  Text copyright © 2011 by Philip Webb

  Cover illustration © 2011 by Alun Edwards

  Cover design by Whitney Lyle

  All rights reserved. Published by Chicken House, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. CHICKEN HOUSE, SCHOLASTIC, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. www.scholastic.com

  First published in the United Kingdom by Chicken House, 2 Palmer Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1DS.

  www.doublecluck.com

  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 prior written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Webb, Philip, 1967–

  Six days / by Philip Webb. – 1st American ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Cass and her brother Wilbur scavenge in the ruins of a future London seeking an artifact for their Russian masters, but the search takes on a new urgency after the arrival of Erin and Peyto, strangers from afar who claim to hold the key to locating the mysterious object.

  ISBN 978-0-545-31767-2

  [1. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 2. Antiquities—Fiction. 3. Space and time—Fiction. 4. London (England)—Fiction. 5. England—Fiction. 6. Science fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.W3834Six 2011

  [Fic]—dc22 2010054233

  First American edition, September 2011

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  eISBN: 978-0-545-38829-0