Eight by Phelan James

Author:Phelan, James [Phelan, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Adventure, Mystery, thriller, Science Fiction, Childrens
ISBN: 9781742831893
Amazon: 1742831893
Goodreads: 22043334
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Published: 2014-05-01T07:00:00+00:00

‘Try again!’ Alex called out from Tesla’s lab.

Shiva threw the switch.

Alex stood up and watched the towering Coil.

Nothing happened.

‘You sure you connected it?’ Shiva called down.

‘Sure. You sure you flicked the right switch?’

‘Yes!’

‘Try again,’ Alex said, wiping his grimy hands on a rag.

FLICK.

Nothing.

Damn.

‘And you definitely reversed the polarity?’ Shiva called.

Alex looked up and saw his friend’s head and shoulders looking down through the trapdoor that led to the big, old vaulted lab above. He pulled a face at him and Shiva laughed. Alex wiped off the sweat trickling into his eyes. It was hot and humid, and he was covered in black grease and grime.

‘Maybe Tesla wasn’t such a genius after all,’ Alex said. ‘Or maybe we need to fuel up the flux capacitor.’

‘Ha ha.’

‘Check everything and we’ll try one more time,’ Shiva said. ‘Then we’ll call it impossible and move onto the next option—a full rewire.’

‘Nothing’s impossible,’ Alex said under his breath as he crouched back down, then stopped himself from disconnecting the thick power cables.

Nothing’s impossible? Where’d that saying come from?

He closed his eyes a minute. It was a phrase seared into his psyche, a distant long-term memory stored away for some specific reason.

My mother? Did she ever say that? Maybe.

No.

Then who? My father?

No. Couldn’t be. I couldn’t remember anything about him.

Could I?

‘Alex?’

He looked up and saw Shiva looking down at him again.

‘Are you OK down there? Or have you succumbed to your own putrid fumes?’

‘What putrid fumes?’

‘Don’t think that I can’t smell what that breakfast burrito and four hot dogs has done to your digestive system.’

‘Ha, right,’ Alex said, snapping out of his reverie and double-checking the power cables and the polarity—

Which he hadn’t reversed.

Oops.

Alex switched the cables around. ‘Try again!’ he called out.

‘Stand back,’ Shiva said for the hundredth time, the warning near-redundant as nothing had happened yet.

This time there was a low but distinct whooping sound. It went on for about five seconds.

‘Did you hear that?’ Alex shouted, jumping in excitement. Shiva looked down at him, incredulous. ‘It switched on!’

‘I know!’

‘It sounded like the Millennium Falcon, trying to get to hyperspace—but failing!’

‘I know!’

‘Why’d it not stay on?’

‘We tripped the circuit breakers. We need more power.’

‘Where are we going to get that from?’ Alex asked.

Shiva looked blank and then his white teeth flashed in a blinding smile. ‘I think I know just the place!’

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