Read Online In Search of the Time and Space Mach by Deborah Abela - Free Book Online

now.’
    Great! Just what Max wanted, another mushy moment.
    â€˜If Linden should come to harm or get lost or be in danger in any way, I, Max Remy …’
    She forgot what came next.
    â€˜Will do everything I can …’ Linden whispered.
    â€˜Will do everything I can,’ Max repeated, then frowned, trying to remember the next bit.
    â€˜To help him and bring him to safety,’ Linden added.
    â€˜Oh yeah, to help him and bring him to safety.’
    Linden smiled.
    â€˜Good. Now we can go. All aboard. Express Transporter to London leaving in ten seconds,’ he announced.
    Max looked at her wrist.
    â€˜We should synchronise watches. We will only have about ten hours to complete the mission once we’re in London if we’re going to get home before Ben and Eleanor wake up. Did you wear your watch?’
    â€˜Yep.’
    Linden pulled up the sleeve of his jumper to reveal a large silver watch that looked like it had been around a long time.
    â€˜Are you sure that’s going to work?’ Max asked.
    â€˜It’s my grandad’s. He left it to me. I don’t use it much, but he said it never lost a second.’
    After they’d checked the time, Max held the control panel in front of her. She wiped her sweaty hands against her pants and adjusted her backpack.
    â€˜Here goes,’ she said.
    This was it! If the Matter Transporter worked, in a few minutes they would be in London. But if it didn’t, who knows where they’d end up.
    Max took a deep breath and carefully placed the rod on the transport button.
    The shed shook, the transporter capsule surrounding them started to smoke and a loud whirring sound filled their ears, just like the sound they heard when they transported the sandwich. Max and Linden held their breath as the crash of sound and light exploded around them.
    Then …
    There was quiet.
    Smoke rose from where the transporter capsule was supposed to be.
    Linden and Max were gone.
    Ralph heard the noise from the yard and crept into the shed. He whined when he saw it was empty.

When Max opened her eyes she couldn’t see a thing. She shook her head but still she couldn’t see. When she went to move her arms she found they were pasted to her sides but after wriggling them free, she held them up and saw they were covered in … rotten meat!
    Yuck!
    And the smell!
    Where was she? What had happened?
    She thought hard. The Matter Transporter. Ben’s brother. Time and Space Machine.
    She looked around and saw she was up to her neck in baked beans, mouldy fruit, scrapings of old spaghetti, fish and boiled cabbage.
    She’d landed in a giant rubbish bin!
    Great!
    She wiped what was left of a piece of custard pie from her head and felt her body to see if she was okay. Arms, back, legs. Everything seemed fine and the control panel, even though it was covered in tomato sauce and soggy spinach bits, was still with her and bleeping happily.
    She looked over the side of the bin and saw people everywhere. There were street vendors standing over hot iron barrels roasting chestnuts, shoppers in warm coats rushing across streets andjust missing being hit by beeping cars, police in funny big hats walking around and sometimes stopping to give directions, and spruikers standing outside shops calling with loud voices, trying to get people to come inside. The roads were clogged with red double-decker buses, old black taxicabs and cyclists with courier bags on their backs dodging in and out of the traffic. And on either side the footpaths were full of glass cabinets displaying slices of pizza, shops with shoes, clothes and TV screens playing the same images on each, stands with postcards, shelves of miniature towers and castles and racks of hats and T-shirts with the British flag plastered all over them.
    They’d made it! They were in London! A little soggy, but in one piece and alive! And when she checked her watch, which had also survived the gross