Invasion of the Teacher Snatchers by M Ryan by Birkenhead School

INVASION OF THE TEACHER SNATCHERS

MICHAEL LEE RYAN

MICHAEL LEE RYANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S

INVASION OF THE TEACHER SNATCHERS

MICHAEL LEE RYAN

For James, River and Pixie

INVASION OF THE TEACHER SNATCHERS

MICHAEL LEE RYAN

FRIDAY OCTOBER 31ST 0000

The creature was dead. At least, we thought it was. After all the chaos and confusion, I almost felt sorry for it. The flames in the distance danced wearily in the breeze as its scorched ship smouldered beneath them. It could have all been so different. If they had just listened to me, if they had just believed me and if they had run when I told them to, then maybe, just maybe we could have ended this sooner. I looked up at the worried moon and shuddered. ‘Maggie, you okay?’ George. My best friend in the world. In the universe. 3

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‘No, George. I’m pretty far from okay,’ I snapped. ‘What do we do now?’ George asked. The sirens were getting closer. The police would be here in a matter of minutes. Then the army. They would probably want to question us. All of us. And what would we tell them? What could we possibly say? How would we explain any of this? They would never make sense of it. I couldn’t make sense of it. ‘Pepper would know what to do,’ I sighed. ‘Maggie, he’s gone,’ whispered George. ‘We need to accept that.’ George was right. Pepper was the only one who had believed us. He was with us right from the start. Until the end. If it had not been for him, we would never have been able to stop this. ‘We need to go, Mags.’ 4

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‘Go where, George? We can’t just run away from this. From her.’ I pointed to where the creature lay on the school field. Its skin seemed to shimmer in the moonlight like ripples on a river. Its glassy eyes reflected the sea of stars blinking above. It was almost beautiful, in its own way, lying gently in the grass. Everything still. Then it spoke.

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MONDAY OCTOBER 27TH 3 5 8 13

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Chapter 1 ‘It goes without saying that we will find out who is behind this mindless act of vandalism, by any means necessary. If anyone knows anything at all about this, then I would urge you to share whatever information you have.’ It was Monday morning assembly and Mrs Mackenzie was in full flow. She had been head of Pennyfield School since the dawn of time. There was always something that she would have a moan about (shoes not trainers, hair up not down, no ear rings) but this was different. There wasn’t a sound in the hall as she spoke. She was flanked by both deputy heads who solemnly nodded along with every word that left her mouth. 7

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‘This school prides itself on being the best. The very best,’ she went on, ‘and this outrage, this monstrosity, this unforgivable crime will not diminish our reputation.’ And what was this unforgivable crime? The cricket pitch had been given the makeover of all makeovers. Overnight, someone had left a series of holes all over the school field. It was the caretaker who had discovered them first. He had almost fallen into one of the holes when he was opening up. That’s how deep the holes were. By the time we arrived, the entire area had been fenced off and Mr Mustard, our P.E. teacher, was stood with his hands on his hips glaring at the devastation in front of him. ‘I will be reviewing the school’s surveillance tapes following this assembly. It would be advisable that whoever is responsible for this presents themselves to me before I alert the police. And any mention of the term crop circle will result in a detention. I hope I have made myself clear.’ The rumours had begun flying round the school even before registration. Aliens had landed on the school field. Their ship had left the markings. The holes were too 8

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perfect to have been done by hand. The formation was too symmetrical. The younger kids were hysterical with the excitement of it all. The older ones were far more sceptical. It must have been someone who Mr Mustard had upset. It was kids from a rival school. It was the caretaker trying to scare everyone. The only thing we were sure about was that Mrs Mackenzie would make our lives a living nightmare until she got some answers. ‘There will be no outdoor play for the rest of this week until repairs have been made to the cricket pitch and the holes have been filled in. Now, I would like you to leave the hall in a silent and orderly manner.’ As we filed out into the corridor, I caught George’s eye. I knew he’d be thinking exactly what I was. I felt like I had known George my whole life. In reality we only became friends when we discovered that we were reading the exact same magazine as each other during break a few years back. I had found it hard moving into high school. I struggled to fit in. I was different. Everyone else seemed so happy and carefree but I wasn’t. I missed my old school. I missed my old teachers and my friends. I felt like an alien in this place, like I was on a different planet. That was until I met George. We started talking that day and had been inseparable ever since. 9

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‘We’re going to find out who did it, aren’t we Maggie?’ whispered George. ‘I guess we could look into it, George,’ I replied, ‘it’s our job to.’ ‘I love it when we’ve got a new case to crack!’ That was something else we had in common; our passion for solving mysteries. I had spent most of my childhood reading puzzle books, who-done-its and mystery stories. My favourites were tales of the unexplained, paranormal, supernatural, anything out of the ordinary. After George and I had discovered that we both collected Midnight Mysteries magazine, we decided to start our own agency specialising in investigating unusual events. Crop circles on the school cricket pitch was exactly the kind of case we had been waiting for. ‘Where do we start with this one, Maggie?’ asked George. ‘The same place we always start, George: Ellie Rigby.’

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Chapter 2 ‘Why would I know anything about it?’ Ellie Rigby, the school gossip. If there was a rumour going round about you, or anyone else, it’s a safe bet Ellie started the rumour first. ‘And, even if I did, why would I tell you two losers,’ she said, in between chews of gum. Ellie Rigby, the school charmer. She was in her usual spot, holding court behind the school gym. Her tie was as 11

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ludicrously short as ever, her hair pulled back so tightly that her eyes bulged in her face menacingly. With a flick of her wrist, she shooed away the handful of cronies that were forever following her around, and clicked her tongue at us. ‘Come on, Eleanor; you must know something. What’s the word on the playground?’ I asked. ‘Don’t call me Eleanor. Never call me Eleanor. It’s Ellie and you know how this works, Spooky. If you want information, you’ve got to make it worth my while.’ Ellie Rigby, the school informant. If you’ve ever been told on, it’s a safe bet Ellie did the telling. ‘What will it be this time, Ellie? Our lunch money again? We didn’t eat for a week last time,’ George moaned. ‘No, no, no. I’m not interested in your money. Not this time anyway. I’ve got a few weeks of overdue Maths homework that Chicken Head is hassling me for. Do that and I’ll tell you what you want to know,’ said Ellie with the smuggest of grins. 12

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‘Alright, Ellie. Give them here and I’ll do it tonight. Oh, and, by the way, you’ve got to stop calling him Chicken Head. It’s not nice. He knows you all call him that,’ I reasoned. ‘Ha! I’ve got more hair on my toes than he has on his head! He’s such a loser!’ Ellie rifled through her school bag before thrusting a dog eared pile of homework sheets at me. There were definitely more than a few pieces, most of which looked like they had been used as drinks coasters. ‘Er, thanks, Ellie. I’ll get these back to you as soon as I can…once I’ve dried them out and…given them an iron. Right, what do you know about the holes on the field?’ I asked. ‘I don’t know anything about the holes,’ she grinned. ‘But I do know Mackenzie ain’t going to find anything on those CCTV tapes.’ ‘What do you mean? They’ve got cameras all over the school. There must be something that the cameras picked up,’ said George. 13

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‘No. That’s where you’re wrong, Georgie Porgie. The cameras have all been fried. Every last one of them. The circuits and the tapes are all burnt out.’ ‘How do you know that?’ I whispered. ‘I overheard Mackenzie telling her minions. They checked them first thing this morning when they got in. They’ve got nothing. No leads. No evidence. Nothing. Whoever did this is no amateur.’ ‘That’s crazy,’ gasped George. ‘And that’s only the half of it. The phone lines are down too. And the WIFI. I haven’t been able to check in on my social media all morning. The world needs to see how fine I look today,’ Ellie pouted. ‘I don’t think this is the work of seniors, George,’ I spluttered. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my entire body. This was it. This was the big case I’d been waiting 14

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for my whole life. Sure, we’d had investigated a fair few bumps in the night and followed more than enough strange footprints that went nowhere, but this was different. Something big was going on. I could feel it. ‘Right, losers, I’m out of here. Make sure that homework gets done, Maggie. Don’t make me come looking for it,’ Ellie bellowed as she strode away towards the school cafeteria. I stood watching her walk away, going back over everything she had told us. Fried cameras? Dead phone lines? No WIFI? What could have caused all this? And how was it connected to the crop circles in the school field? We had to get a closer look at those holes.

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Chapter 3 We had joined the other kids at the top of the tower block that morning to try and see the full extent of the damage that had been done to the cricket pitch. From the top floor windows, you could see how perfect each hole was, how each one was identical and how symmetrical the whole array was. It was almost beautiful. Most of the kids were taking photos on their phones until Mackenzie showed up raging and confiscated every device that she could get her hands on. She roared at us to get back to our form rooms before storming back to her office. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What was that all about?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

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‘I don’t know, George, but we need to get a better look at those holes.’ We had to wait until lunch time to make our move. We filed into the dining hall with everyone else before sneaking out the fire exit, back on to the empty playground. We could eat later. This was more important. Besides, we weren’t exactly desperate for another plate of Shepherd’s Pie that actually tasted like it was made from real shepherds. ‘What if we get caught, Maggie?’ squeaked George. He was frantically looking over his shoulder in case we were being followed. ‘Relax, George. Everyone’s stuffing their faces in the dining hall. And remember; there’s no CCTV,’ I reassured. We slipped under the tape that the caretaker had put up to close off the area, and crept towards the nearest hole. It was about two meters in diameter and about a foot deep. A perfect circle. The grass around the edge looked like it had been singed. Each blade was slightly blackened and much shorter than the rest. 17

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‘What are you thinking, Maggie?’ George asked. ‘I’m thinking, what could have done this, George? There’s no way this was done by hand. It has to have been done with some kind of machinery. Something big. Something heavy. Something hot. The grass looks like it’s been burnt. Let’s take a look at another one.’ We investigated every hole on the field. The grass around each hole was as scorched as the first. Each one was exactly the same size and depth. All twenty-five of them were identical. Except for the one in the centre of the cluster. ‘Wait a minute. What’s that?’ gasped George, pointing into the middle crater. He stooped down and reached towards something glistening at the bottom of the hole, partially embedded into the earth. I watched as he dug it out using his hands like shovels. ‘What on earth is that?’ 18

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‘See for yourself, Mags. But be careful; it’s heavy.’ George passed it up to me. I took the object in both of my hands and studied it carefully. It was cylindrical in shape and was about the same size as a Pringles tube. It was almost completely metallic except for a small rectangular piece of black glass on one side. There were no seams or openings on it. There were no screws or buttons. And, George was right; it was extremely heavy. It was cold too, like it had just come out of a freezer. ‘Do you think it’s got something to do with the holes?’ asked George. ‘It must do, George. But what is it? What’s it for? What does it do?’ ‘I don’t know, Mags. But I know who might do.’ ‘Pepper!’ we both said at the same time.

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Chapter 4 We knew where to find Pepper. He was where he always was. In the science lab. He was a technician at the school which meant it was his job to set up equipment for experiments in science lessons. We werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t supposed to call him Pepper. His name badge said Mr Heart but he hated being called that. He wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like the teachers at the school. He was kind, friendly and funny too. He was also a genius. The rumour was that he used to work for NASA in Mission Control until he got fired. The story went that there had been some kind of accident involving the launch of a rocket and that it cost the organisation billions of dollars. Pepper and his team were all dismissed from their positions and he had been working at the school as a lab technician ever since. That was the word on the playground, anyway. 20

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We knocked on the lab door and waited. We knew he was in there. We could hear him humming along to the radio. Pepper loved music. There was always some song playing in the lab as he tinkered about with the equipment. ‘He probably hasn’t heard us. Try the door handle, George,’ I suggested. ‘What if he’s working on something he doesn’t want us to see? He could be up to anything in there, Mags.’ That was another rumour on the playground, that Pepper was conducting top-secret experiments in the lab. Some said he was building a monster out of stolen body parts and that at night unearthly moaning could be heard coming from the school. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, George. You know we can trust Pepper. He’s helped us before and I’m sure he won’t let us down this time,’ I said. We opened the door to the lab and walked in. The buzzing of tools filled the room. Pepper was at the end of the lab, beavering away manically with his back to us, still 21

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humming along to the radio. He clearly hadn’t heard us come in. ‘Mr Heart! I mean…Pepper!’ I shouted. George and I jumped as he sharply turned round to face us. He was a short man with an impish face. He must have been well into his fifties with thinning grey hair that protruded out from the sides of his head in chaotic clumps. He was wearing his usual white lab coat and a pair of oversized goggles. He grinned when he saw it was us. ‘Ah, children! What have you got for me this time, eh? More ghosts caught on camera for me to develop? More Bigfoot droppings for me to analyse? Hmmmm?’ he chuckled. ‘No, not this time. We’ve got something that even you might struggle to explain. Take a look at this.’ I handed him the cylinder that we had found in the crop circle. He studied it intently, turning it over and over in his hands, examining it from every angle. 22

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‘And where did you find this little beauty?’ he purred. ‘It was buried in one of the holes on the cricket pitch, Mr Heart…I mean, Pepper,’ I explained. ‘Ah, yes. The holes. Most irregular. Most peculiar. But most intriguing! And you say this was in one of these holes?’ he probed. ‘Yes. The middle one. What do you think it is?’ asked George. Pepper studied the metallic tube again, holding it up to the light before placing it on the work bench in front of him. He tapped on the black piece of glass on the object’s side. ‘If I was to hazard a guess, I would say that this should have some sort of display on it. It resembles the screen of a phone or a tablet. If there was some way of turning it on or charging it, we may be able to ascertain a little more about this unusual discovery.’ He held it up to the light again, rotating it once more, looking for clues. As the glass panel passed below the lamp’s bulb something happened. The tube began making 23

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a high pitched whirring sound and started to vibrate in Pepper’s hands. ‘What’s it doing?’ squeaked George. ‘It looks like our little friend is waking up, Master George,’ Pepper replied. He placed the pulsating cylinder on to the work bench and stood back. As it started to settle, the black window started to flicker into life. Pepper was right; it was a screen. The glass was suddenly filled with indecipherable shapes and symbols, rapidly changing form and direction. The display began to slow, the changing figures less frantic, before a series of symbols that we all recognised appeared. Numbers: 3 5 8 13 We watched as the 13 quickly turned into a 12, then an 11 and then a 10. ‘What’s it doing?’ whispered George.

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‘I think it’s counting down.’

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Chapter 5 The fourth number continued to get smaller until it got to zero. Then it changed to fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven, fifty-six…it was definitely counting down. We immediately worked out that the fourth number was counting down in seconds. ‘If I am interpreting this correctly,’ Pepper whispered, ‘then these four numbers represent days, hours, minutes and seconds.’ ‘Three days, five hours, seven minutes, twenty-one seconds,’ I said.

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‘Until what?’ George asked. ‘Well, I suppose we will find at the end of the week, children. How exciting!’ Pepper’s impish grin turned into a chuckle as he jigged on the spot. He was clearly in his element, the spark in his eyes dancing behind his glasses. But something about this didn’t feel right. For the briefest of moments, I found myself wishing that we had left this thing in the crater, that we hadn’t found it at all. Whatever it was counting down to, it couldn’t have been good and I wasn’t about to spend the next three days waiting for it to happen. As I stood there lost in thought, the lab door burst open. Ellie Rigby and her entourage spilled into the room, cackling like a witches’ coven. ‘Hey, Spooky, you’ll never guess what’s happened now!’ ‘What? What’s going on?’ ‘BBC News have turned up! There’s a reporter at the school office demanding to see the crop circles. There’s a camera man and everything. They want to do a piece about it on tonight’s 6 O’clock news.’ 27

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‘That’s crazy!’ squealed George. ‘That’s not even the best bit. They want to speak to you, Maggie,’ Ellie giggled. ‘Me? What do they want to speak to me for?’ ‘I might have told them that you were the school weirdo and that you and your sidekick here were investigating it.’ ‘Hey! I am nobody’s sidekick,’ said George sternly. ‘Whatever. They’re down stairs waiting for you. Mackenzie said you are to report to her immediately. You’d best get going, Spooky; you’re going to be on T.V. It should be me, though. This face was born for the big screen. Later, Scooby Doo.’ The girls strutted out of the lab like models on a catwalk. ‘You had better make your way to Mrs Mackenzie, Maggie,’ Pepper sighed. ‘You don’t want to keep her 28

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waiting. And, if I could offer one piece of advice, I wouldn’t mention your little discovery to her. Or the reporters. You don’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention. Believe me.’ I nodded in agreement. I would need to choose my words carefully, not give too much away. I would have to think through every answer and consider every question with caution. Our investigation had only just begun and I wasn’t about to give up our only lead to just anyone.

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Chapter 6 ‘Tell them about the clock we found, Maggie!’ So much for keeping my cards close to my chest. I should have known George wouldn’t have been able to contain his excitement. The news crew had set up their equipment on the school field, their cameras pointed at the holes. The reporter, Abbey Star, was stood in front of me, jabbing her microphone into my face and nodding earnestly at everything I was saying. The story was all over the internet, apparently. All of the pictures and video clips that the pupils had taken earlier going viral. The BBC News team had wanted to get here before any other rival channels to get the exclusive on the ‘Pennyfield Potholes’ as Abbey had called them. 30

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‘A Clock? You found a clock out here?’ probed Abbey. ‘Er, yes, I mean no. It’s nothing. Is it George?’ I glared at George furiously. He stared back, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment, and nodded too obviously. ‘NO. MAGGIE’S RIGHT…WE DIDN’T FIND A STRANGE METAL TUBE WITH A CLOCK ON THE SIDE BURIED IN THE HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CROP CIRCLES.’ George smiled at me like an expectant dog looking for an approving pat on the head from his master. The boy was an idiot. ‘Come on, Maggie, don’t hold out on us. Tell us what you found. Didn’t your head teacher tell you to tell us everything that you know?’ Abbey said smugly. She did indeed. When I arrived at Mackenzie’s office, she had explained to me that I was ‘representing the school’ and that I was to be ‘polite, honest, respectful and 31

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articulate’ throughout the interview. She told me what a ‘wonderful opportunity this was to put our school on the map and achieve national recognition.’ She had certainly changed her tune from this morning’s assembly. The ‘monstrosity’ she had snarled about earlier had suddenly become a monument. Mackenzie had wanted to be interviewed herself but Abbey had delicately explained that they wanted to ‘capture the voice of the children to tell this story.’ I was sure she had been thrilled to hear that. ‘Well, we did find something,’ I said reluctantly. ‘Yes, yes, go on,’ Abbey encouraged. ‘There was an object, a cylinder, metallic, embedded in one of the holes. It’s probably nothing.’ Abbey leaned in closer, tightening her grip on her microphone. ‘And it’s some kind of clock, you say?’

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I considered my next response. Should I tell her about the countdown? Should I explain how the tube had reacted to the light in the lab? I had to keep Pepper out of this. Mackenzie gave him enough of a hard time in school as it was. ‘Mr Heart got the clock working in his lab at lunch time,’ George spluttered. Not again, George. His face flooded with shame once more. He stared at his feet to avoid the death stare that I was sending his way. ‘Is this correct, Maggie?’ Abbey questioned. ‘Yes,’ I said through gritted teeth, scowling hard at my former best friend. ‘Well at least I didn’t tell her about the countdown!’ George whined. Did I mention that the boy was an idiot?

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‘Countdown? The clock is counting down? Counting down to what?’ Abbey thrusted her microphone even closer to my face. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know where it came from and I don’t know anything else, okay?’ I said firmly. ‘Do you have the clock? Can we see it?’ ‘No. I don’t know,’ I muttered. ‘The world has a right to see it, Maggie. Let us get this on camera.’ Before I knew what was happening, Abbey had picked up my bag and started rifling through it. Within seconds, she had found what she was looking for and held it in front of the camera. The clock was still ticking, the numbers still counting down. ‘This is the unidentified object that was discovered here in one of the Pennyfield School Potholes this morning by pupil Maggie Jones. As you can see, the numbers on this 34

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cryptic clock appear to be counting down. To what, is unclear. What we do know is that the plot of the Pennyfield Potholes has certainly thickened. I’m Abbey Star reporting for BBC News and this is an exclusive!’

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Chapter 7 It was all over the news. It was all over social media. It was everywhere. There was no escaping it. Mum and Dad were overcome by it all and insisted we all sat down to watch the 6 O’clock news together. ‘Our little girl on the tele!’ Mum squealed. ‘I always knew you were going to be famous one day!’ Dad proclaimed. ‘A proper little celebrity,’ chirped Mum.

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I was sitting on the sofa, squashed in between them both, wishing I was somewhere else. Anywhere else. They were bouncing up and down like frogs at a wedding. They had been that way since I arrived home and I had told them what had happened in school. Mum must have called everyone she knew, telling them to switch on BBC News at 6. We had to wait until the end of the programme for my ordeal to be complete. The incident at school was the final story of the day or ‘in other news’, as the news reader introduced it. And suddenly there I was. On the news. On television. For all the world to see. ‘Ha! There you are! That’s you on the tele, Maggles!’ Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Dad. ‘Oh, you could have scrubbed up a little bit, Maggie. Maybe put a bit of makeup on. Or at least brushed your hair.’ Thanks for making this situation even worse, Mum. I stared at myself on the screen. The reporter was firing questions at me as the camera zoomed in on the cylinder in my hands. 37

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‘Is that it? The thing you found in the hole. The clock thingy.’ Asked Dad. ‘Yes. That’s the clock thingy I found,’ I exhaled. ‘Oooh! Have you got it here? Can I see it? I’d love to have a look at it!’ ‘Shhhh! Wait until this is finished, Robert,’ hissed Mum. The reporter on the television was wrapping the story up. I was finally off screen. Thank God. ‘Tonight, the pupils and teachers at Pennyfield High School are trying to come to terms with what has taken place here. Are these crop circles an elaborate prank that has gone too far? Is this clock simply just … a clock? Or is there something more sinister going on? Is this the work of extra-terrestrials? Is this finally proof that we are not alone in the universe? I’m Abbey Star reporting for BBC News. Try not to have nightmares.’ I grabbed the remote control and turned the T.V. off. 38

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‘Aliens!’ Dad squawked. ‘We don’t know that yet, Dad. We need more evidence,’ I sighed. ‘It has to be! A proper close encounter!’ ‘Dad!’ ‘They’ll probably be back at some point. Hey, maybe that’s what the clock thingy’s all about. Maybe that’s what it’s counting down to. THEIR RETURN!’ he boomed. ‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to my room.’ I jumped up off the couch, stormed out of the front room and stomped up the stairs. I collapsed on to my bed, my head spinning with the events of the day. I pulled the clock out of my school bag and stared hard at it. ‘What are you?’

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I put the tube down on my bed side table and lay there watching the numbers change. My own clock told me it was almost 7.00 PM. What a day. I felt my eyes growing heavy and was then completely consumed by the arms of sleep. I dreamt that I was at the bottom of one of the holes in the school field, only it was much deeper and I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach the top to pull myself out. The sky was a deep crimson colour, filled with bulbous storm clouds. Suddenly, the heavens opened and colossal drops of rain began to cascade on to my head. Rapid fire flashes of lightning ignited all that was above me. Within seconds, the hole began to fill up with water. I tried to scream but no sound came out of my mouth. As I treaded the ice cold water, my ears were filled with the sound of incessant beeping. It sounded like a siren only more shrill and was coming from inside the hole. I turned to see the clock, enormous and blinking, protruding from the wall, its numbers flashing in the darkness of the crater. I tried covering my ears with my hands but I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t block out the sound. When I looked up at the sky again, it was filled with dark discs, expanding as they got closer to the ground. The beeping was getting louder. I could feel myself going under.

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When I woke up, my clock told me it was almost two in the morning. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I could still hear the beeping. It was coming from the clock.

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TUESDAY OCTOBER 28TH 2 18 28 31

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Chapter 8 I had just stepped off the school bus when I first saw them. They were sitting in a long, sleek black car outside the school. The back windows were blacked out but I could see the driver and the front passenger clearly through the windscreen. Their eyes were hidden behind black rimmed sunglasses but I knew they were looking at me. As I walked towards the school gates, I could feel them watching my every move. It was obvious who they were and why they were here. I had read enough books and issues of Midnight Mysteries to know who these men were. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to see what they were wearing to know they were dressed in black. I hurried into school without looking back. 43

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I found George in the usual place; the library. It was our haven, our safe place. Our base of operations. I knew exactly what he would be doing. I wondered if he’d seen the men in black outside too. ‘Hey, George. Found anything useful?’ He was surrounded by a nest of books, his head buried in one the size of a tombstone. ‘Morning, Maggie. Gosh, you look like you haven’t slept in weeks,’ he gasped. ‘Thanks, George. You always know just what to say. I had a bit of a rough night, actually. Thank you for caring,’ I said sarcastically. George almost tried to climb into the book he was reading to evade my malevolent stare. I looked at some of the spines of the books he had gathered. Advanced Mathematics, The da Vinci Conundrum, Amazing Architecture, Geometry for Dummies.

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‘What are you up to, George, anyway? What’s with all of the random books?’ I asked. ‘Ah, that’s where you’re wrong, Mags. They’re not random. They’re all pieces of the same puzzle,’ he said firmly. ‘Pieces of the same puzzle? What are you going on about?’ ‘The holes, Maggie. The random holes that aren’t as random as you may think. Take a look at this.’ He handed me a print out of a picture of the crop circles, taken by one of the pupils from the tower block yesterday morning. ‘What am I supposed to be looking for, George. It’s just another photo of the holes,’ I said. ‘Look closer. What do you notice about the shape the holes make?’

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‘What do you mean? They’re all circular. They’re all symmetrical. What?’ I sighed. George picked up a pencil and started drawing on top of the image. ‘Look. Imagine this is a dot-to-dot,’ he said connecting each circle with a pencil line, ‘what do you notice?’ I stared at the photograph. ‘It’s a shape?’ I said, not fully understanding what he meant. ‘Look again, Maggie. What kind of shape? Don’t you recognise it?’ He drew over it again with thicker more exaggerated lines, emphasising the shape.

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‘Phi! The twenty first letter in the Greek alphabet. The crop circles are in the shape of phi!’ ‘Okay. So the holes are in the shape of a Greek letter. Why is that significant? How does this bring us any closer to solving this case?’ I asked wearily. ‘The Golden Ratio. The Fibonacci sequence. 3, 5, 8, 13,’ George whispered. ‘The Fibonacci sequence?’ I vaguely remembered something about it from a Maths lesson but I was too tired to take any of this in. ‘It’s in everything, Mags. Art, geometry, architecture, nature…everything. It can be found in the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Mona Lisa, sun flower seeds, DNA…EVERYTHING!’ 47

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‘Hell’s teeth, George! Keep your voice down! The whole school will hear you,’ I hissed. ‘Sorry, sorry. This can’t be a coincidence, Mags. The symbol on the cricket pitch, the numbers on the clock. It’s all connected. The Golden Ratio,’ gulped George. I was stunned. Speechless. This information overload combined with my sleep deprivation had floored me. This was bigger than we first thought. Too big for the two of us to handle. I was lost in thought when the doors to the library burst open. ‘Er, Maggie…who are they?’ I looked to where George was pointing. It was the men I’d seen sitting in the car outside school. And they were headed this way.

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Chapter 9 ‘We need to go, George. Now!’ We could see the men scanning each aisle in the library, scrutinising every child in every alcove. The room had suddenly become deathly silent, like all of the air had been sucked out. There were three of them in total, dressed in expensive looking black suits with white shirts and black ties. They were still wearing their sunglasses despite being indoors. ‘Who are they? What do they want?’ George whispered.

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‘It must be something to do with the crop circles. Just grab your bag and get ready.’ They would be on us any second. We had to move quickly. We had to get out. The fire escape was directly opposite where we were sitting. It led out on to the playground where everyone would be assembling for line up. If we could get outside, we would be safe. ‘What are we going to do, Maggie?’ ‘The fire escape, George. We’re going to make a run for it,’ I said firmly. ‘We’ll never make it. They’ll see us!’ whimpered George. ‘We haven’t got any other options, George. Now, after three, 1…2…3!’ We dashed across the aisle and surged through the fire escape door. Without turning to see if we were being followed, we rushed towards the safety of the playground. As we approached the tarmac, two more men suddenly emerged from the shadows, blocking our path. We spun 50

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on our heels to go back the way we came only to find the men from the library were right behind us. We were trapped. I gripped George’s hand as the men closed in on us. I thought about screaming for a teacher, for anyone. As if he was reading my mind, one of the men put his finger to his lips, motioning to me to be quiet. ‘Miss Jones. Mr Kite. Where are you going to in such a hurry?’ His accent was unfamiliar and unsettling. It looked like he was wearing some kind of makeup or concealer. He stepped towards us, his movements stiff and robotic. ‘Who are you?’ I stammered. ‘Now, now. You have nothing to fear, young lady. We just want to speak with you about your… investigation.’ ‘Who are you?’ I said more firmly. ‘Let’s just say we have a vested interest in recent events that have taken place on this site.’

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The man attempted a smile that his face wouldn’t allow. It was as if he was being operated like a puppet, like he wasn’t in control of his own actions. The other men stood in silence watching us intently. ‘Do you work for the government or something?’ murmured George. ‘You could say that.’ ‘Tell us who you are?’ I demanded. The man took off his sunglasses and placed them carefully into his pocket. His eyes were completely different colours, one emerald green, the other a fiery orange. I couldn’t help but let out a gasp when I saw them. ‘I am Agent Glass,’ he said with that crooked smile again. ‘What do you want?’ I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

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‘You have become quite the little celebrity, haven’t you, Miss Jones? It must have been quite a thrill to be on the television, the whole of the planet watching you. What little girl wouldn’t enjoy that?’ As he spoke, he signalled for two of the other men to do something. They stepped forward obediently, their movements synchronised, before seizing our bags from our shoulders. ‘Hey! Give that back!’ yelled George. ‘All in good time, Mr Kite. All in good time. It seems that you have something that is of great interest to us, something of great importance. Something dangerous. You wouldn’t want anything like that to fall into the wrong hands, would you?’ Agent Glass said smoothly. The men rummaged frantically through the bags, pulling out and discarding every book and pencil case. When the bags were empty, the men tossed them onto the floor. They looked up at Agent Glass and shook their heads. ‘Where is it?’ he asked. 53

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‘Where’s what?’ I knew exactly what he was looking for. ‘The Lupus Beacon. Give it to me,’ he said coldly. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I croaked. ‘I am beginning to lose my patience, young lady,’ he growled. Agent Glass took a step closer. The other men followed his lead, closing in on us. ‘I am going to ask you one more time. After that, I will not be so courteous. Where is it?’

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Chapter 10 It, the clock, the Lupus Beacon, whatever it was called, was safely hidden at home. I had buried it under all of my dirty washing when the beeping had started earlier that morning. Miraculously, Mum and Dad had slept through it all. By the time the clock had been smothered by my laundry, it had fallen silent again. I decided to leave it where it was before heading off to school. I wasn’t going to tell them that, though. As the men advanced towards us, a familiar voice startled us all. ‘Shouldn’t you two be in class?’

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Mackenzie. I had never been so glad to hear her shrill, dissonant tones. She was stood behind us on the playground with her hands on her hips and her usual look of suspicion filling her face. I took the opportunity to push past the men and hurried towards her, dragging George along with me. The men turned towards where we had assembled. ‘And you gentlemen are?’ she asked suspiciously. Agent Glass stepped forward, offering his hand to her, that forced, awkward smile returning to his face. ‘My apologies, Mrs Mackenzie. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Mr Glass and these are my associates. If you would like to see my credentials?’ He swiftly removed a leather wallet from his inside jacket pocket like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. He opened it and held it in front of Mackenzie. Her facial expression suddenly changed from a scowl into a look of complete horror. ‘You’re from… OFSTED?’ 56

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‘We most certainly are, Mrs Mackenzie. Maggie and George here have just been telling us all about your wonderful school,’ he lied. ‘They have? Well, of course they have! Ha ha ha!’ she laughed nervously. The men began laughing too. George and I stood staring at them all, shock and bewilderment coursing through our bodies. ‘We can only apologise about the suddenness of our arrival. Ordinarily we would have liked to have given you plenty of notice, but there has been an unforeseen error on our behalf administratively,’ Agent Glass said slickly. ‘It’s not a problem, Mr Glass. Not a problem at all. We have nothing to hide here. You and your team are most welcome,’ Mackenzie squeaked. ‘You let me know what you need and we will be more than happy to accommodate it.’ She smiled thinly and weakly at the men. She was completely taken in by it all. There was no point us trying 57

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to explain their true identities. She would never have believed us. ‘Well, that’s just wonderful to hear, Mrs Mackenzie. Really it is. We don’t require much. In fact, you’ll hardly notice that we’re here at all. A little more time picking the brains of these two fine ambassadors of your school will do for now,’ said Agent Glass. I instantly froze on the spot. ‘Of course, gentlemen. I’ll make sure George and Margret meet with you again following their morning lessons. In the mean-time, perhaps you would like a guided tour of the school campus?’ ‘That would be most kind of you, Mrs Mackenzie,’ Agent Glass purred. ‘Splendid. Well, if you would like to follow me gentlemen. George, Margret, make your way to your lessons, please. We will catch up with you later.’

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The men followed her as she began wittering on about the history of the school. Agent Glass nodded enthusiastically before turning back to have one last look at us. He shot us that unearthly smile once more as he waved goodbye. I could feel my heart thundering in my chest like a juggernaut. We had until break to think of a way out of this. ‘What are we going to do, Maggie?’ George whined. I didn’t answer him because I didn’t know. These men had Mackenzie on their side now. We didn’t stand a chance of getting out of this one. Then I saw the school nurse marching towards her office. ‘Don’t worry, Georgie; I’ve just had an idea.’

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Chapter 11 ‘You’ve not got a temperature.’ ‘I feel awful.’ ‘You don’t look awful.’ ‘I feel sick.’ ‘Are you going to be sick?’ ‘I don’t think so.’ 60

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‘Have you been sick?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, let’s see how you get on.’ This wasn’t quite going as planned. Nurse Pam was taking some convincing that either of us were ill. George had gone with the ‘I’m so sick, I can’t speak’ approach. He was on the nurse’s sofa with his head tilted back staring at the ceiling and hadn’t uttered a word since we had arrived. ‘I think I need to go home,’ I moaned. ‘You’re not going home, Maggie,’ said Nurse Pam. ‘You’re going back to class.’ ‘I feel dizzy,’ I gasped. ‘You’re fine. Go to class. You can come back later if you still feel ‘awful’,’ she said sarcastically.

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‘What about George?’ She turned her head to look at George. His eyes were still tracing the constellation of stains on the room’s ceiling. ‘George? Do you think you’re well enough for class?’ she asked. He shuffled uncomfortably in his seat before nodding slowly. ‘Good boy. Right, you two; off to class.’ We stood in the corridor outside the nurse’s room in awkward silence. Dozens of children filed past, making their way to lessons. We leaned back against the lockers to avoid being swept along with the tide of blazers and bag packs. ‘Maggie, look,’ whispered George. I followed his gaze to the window opposite. The school field was directly outside, the temporary fencing still in place to keep us away. Nobody had been near the holes 62

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since the reporters had left the day before. Until now. Agent Glass stood with his back to us, motionless in the centre of the crop circle. Mackenzie was nowhere to be seen. His men were scattered at various points, staring into the holes. They all seemed to have unidentifiable devices in their hands that they were jabbing at repeatedly with their fingers. Even from this distance, I could hear the bleeps and drones of the equipment as they analysed the scene. ‘What are they doing, Mags?’ ‘I don’t know, George, but they’re clearly not here to inspect the school,’ I hissed. We looked on as the men continued to rigorously examine each hole. Once again, I couldn’t help notice how mechanical their movements seemed to be, like they weren’t used to being upright and walking on two legs. The more I watched, the more I was convinced that these men weren’t human. I rocked on my feet as a surge of panic flooded my body. I was so mesmerised by the sight that I hadn’t noticed that Agent Glass had turned 180° and was staring at the school. Even though he was still wearing his sunglasses, I knew he was looking right at us.

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‘George, we have to go,’ I muttered. ‘Go where?’ ‘Mackenzie’s office. We’ve got to tell her who those men really are.’ ‘She’ll never believe us, Mags,’ whimpered George. ‘There’s no point even trying.’ ‘What choice have we got, George?’ I snarled. I bounded down the corridor towards Mackenzie’s office with George breathlessly in pursuit. I knew that Mackenzie wouldn’t be interested in what we had to say, but we had to try. We burst through the door to the secretary’s office, panting. The secretary was behind her desk, a telephone wedged between her head and shoulder, her hands typing away furiously at her computer keyboard. She looked up at us inquisitively without stopping work. ‘Sorry to disturb you, Miss Rita, but can we see Mrs Mackenzie? It’s an emergency,’ I spluttered. 64

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She shook her head, before covering the receiver on the telephone with her hand. ‘She’s not here, children,’ she said quietly. ‘Where is she? It’s really important,’ I said. ‘We don’t know where she is. Nobody’s seen her since first thing this morning.’ I felt the blood draining from my face as the secretary’s words swam around my brain. ‘She went off with the inspectors, Miss,’ said George. The phone suddenly slipped off Miss Rita’s shoulder, crashing on to the desk, her fingers no longer typing. ‘What inspectors?’

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Chapter 12 Mackenzie had been missing for nearly eight hours by the time the police were called. It didn’t take them long to start treating it as a missing persons case. Her handbag and mobile phone were found in her office. Her car was still in its usual space in the carpark. It was like she had just disappeared. It was completely out of character, as Miss Rita had put it. The police had wanted to speak with me and George about ‘the inspectors’ straight away and we had spent the entire afternoon ‘assisting them with their enquiries.’ And we told them everything. Every little detail. About Agent Glass and his men. About how they said they worked for the government or ‘something like that’. We told them how they wanted to see the object we had found in the hole and how they had pretended to be Ofsted Inspectors when Mackenzie intervened. Constable 66

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Desmond wrote everything we said down in his notebook and nodded encouragingly, but it was obvious that he didn’t believe a word of what we were saying. He had even more reason to doubt us when he asked to see the school CCTV tapes. Miss Rita’s explanation of the cameras malfunctioning was met with raised eyebrows and shakes of the head. The officers had then carried out a thorough search of the school grounds only to find no trace of the men or Mrs Mackenzie. They left assuring us that they would continue with their enquiries and that they were sure Mrs Mackenzie would turn up with a logical explanation. They insisted that we ‘get in touch if we remembered anything else that we may have forgotten to mention’, and off they went. ‘What are we going to do, Mags?’ asked George. ‘What we are supposed to do; solve this case. It’s clear the police aren’t taking this seriously. It’s up to us to find out what’s happened to Mackenzie and who those men really were.’ We were on our way home from school, shuffling through discarded autumn leaves. Gaggles of girls and boys lined each side of the road, lost in their phones and iPods. Not one of them knew the truth about what had 67

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happened today in school. The police officers had firmly advised that we should not repeat anything we had said to the other children. They explained that it would be a mistake to start spreading rumours and wild ideas through the school without knowing the facts. Only, we did know the facts. This wasn’t a rumour or a wild idea. Our head teacher was missing. Men impersonating Ofsted inspectors had suddenly appeared in school making demands. Oh, and there was a colossal crop circle on the school field. I felt like I was losing my mind. I needed to sleep. ‘So, what’s the plan then, Mags? Go back to Pepper and see what he thinks?’ ‘No, George. I just want to go home. Right now, it’s probably the only place that’s normal and safe from all of this. Tea, T.V. and bed is what I need,’ I sighed. ‘Are you okay, Mags?’ ‘Yes,’ I huffed. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. See you tomorrow.’ We split up at the bottom of Pennyfield Lane, George following the road back to his house, me cutting through 68

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the park to mine. Walking with my hands in my pockets, I counted every cloud in the melancholic sky. My mind was a tangle of questions and theories that I couldn’t make sense of. The weight on my shoulders was becoming heavier with each step towards home. As soon as I turned into Harrison Drive, I knew something was wrong. The air suddenly felt different. The sky somehow seemed darker, the clouds heavier. I somehow found the strength to run the last one hundred metres to my house. The closer I got to home, the more the sense of foreboding grew. When I got to the front gate, I could see that the front door was wide open. Mum and Dad would still be at work. Nobody should be home yet. I cautiously stepped towards the doorway and called out their names. No reply. My head screamed at me to get out of there, to get as far away from the house as I possibly could. To call Mum or Dad. To call the police even. But I didn’t. This was my home and I wasn’t about to leave without defending it. I skulked inside with my fists clenched, ready for whatever was waiting for me. ‘Mum! Dad!’ I yelled up the hallway. Again, no answer. The house was unnervingly silent. Adrenaline flooded my body as I crossed the threshold 69

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into the front room. The whole place had been turned upside down. the drawers and cupboards in the dresser had been emptied, the coffee table lay on its side, the sofas had been slashed open and the carpet was covered with shards of glass from the television which was missing its screen. I ventured into the kitchen only to find more of the same. Every drawer lay upturned. Every unit ransacked. It didn’t look like anything had been taken, though. Mum’s iPad was still on charge. Dad’s work laptop was still on the kitchen table. This wasn’t the work of a burglar. Whoever had done this had clearly been looking for something. The clock. I raced up to my room, leaping up three stairs at a time. Before I had crossed the landing, I could see my bedroom had received the same treatment as downstairs. My desk had been cleared, my wardrobes emptied, and my bed had been tipped. In some ways it didn’t actually look any different. I rifled through my dirty washing, frantically searching for what I had concealed before school. I had almost given up hope, when I felt the icy cold handshake of the clock beneath the clothes. I rescued it from the depths of the laundry, clutching it to my chest in relief. Somehow I knew that I had to protect it, to keep it away from Agent Glass and his men. Whatever it was. It was the shout from downstairs that caused me to drop it, Dad’s voice jolting me back into the real world. 70

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‘Maggie! Maggie!’ The clock slipped from my hands and landed with a thud on the floorboards before rolling underneath what was left of my desk. As I was about to reply to my dad’s yells, the clock began emitting a high pitched whistling sound, like a kettle boiling on a stove. I dropped to my knees and crawled over towards it, craning my neck towards the sound. The whistling quickly gave way to a low rumble, causing the clock to vibrate. I reached out towards it, my hands trembling. And then I heard the voice.

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Chapter 13 ‘Maggie!’ Dad rushed into my bedroom and scooped me up into his arms. He pulled me into his chest, squeezing me so tightly that I was sure I was going to burst. ‘Thank God! Are you okay?’ he gasped. ‘I’m fine, Dad. You can let go of me now.’

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He unfolded his arms and I slumped back on to the floor. I watched as he pulled out his phone and began to jab away at the screen with his finger. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘What do you think I’m doing? I’m calling the police,’ he answered impatiently. I thought about telling him to stop, to put the phone down and listen to me first, but I could see there was no stopping him. And what would I have said to him? That it was okay? That nothing had been taken? That nobody was hurt? I thought about telling him about school, about the men and Mackenzie but he was already talking to the operator on the other end of the line. I silently cursed myself. If we hadn’t looked into those stupid holes, if we hadn’t found that stupid clock, and if I hadn’t been on the stupid news, then none of this would be happening. Mackenzie was missing and our beautiful home had been left in ruins and it was all my fault. ‘They’re on their way,’ said Dad, putting the phone back in his pocket. ‘Stay here. I’m going to check the rest of the house.’ 73

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He turned towards the landing before pausing in the doorway. ‘If anything had happened to you…,’ he said, his voice cracking, then he darted out of the room and back down the stairs. I sat there staring at the devastation that surrounded me. This would take an age to clear up. Then I heard the whistling sound again from under my desk. The clock. It must have fallen silent when Dad had arrived home, like it had sensed his presence. The last thing I had heard from it was that voice, a voice like nothing I had heard before. It sounded like whale song and insect buzzing all at the same time. The voice was intermittent and distant. It sounded like there was more than one too, like they were communicating with each other. No words. Just that sound, droning and howling, ebbing and flowing. Indecipherable. Unintelligible. Until I heard one of them say my name. My full name. Margret Jones.

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Chapter 14 ‘Twice in one day, Miss Jones. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.’ Constable Desmond was stood in the front room holding his note pad in his hand once again. He had arrived just before Mum got home and had written down everything Dad had told him. And now he wanted to speak to me. Despite what he said, he didn’t look the least bit surprised to see me. Mum was slumped on the sofa staring at the ruins of the front room. Tears welled up in her bloodshot eyes before cascading down her ghost like face. I hovered in the doorway, not knowing what to do with myself. 75

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‘Why would anyone break into our home?’ Mum sobbed. ‘There has been a spate of burglaries in this area recently, Mrs Jones. We have got several lines of enquiry that we think will lead us to the culprit or culprits. We will get a scientific support unit out to you asap. For now, though, we need to treat this as a crime scene and as such we will need you to vacate the premises until we have garnered sufficient evidence to assist us with the investigation.’ ‘But we’ve got nothing worth stealing. Nothing,’ wailed Mum into a piece of soggy tissue. ‘You’d be surprised what people will stoop to during desperate times, Mrs Jones. You will need to check to see if anything is missing. Would it be possible to speak with your daughter? I believe she was first on the scene, so to speak,’ Constable Desmond said. Mum blew her nose loudly into what was left of the tissue. She sounded like a swarm of bees in the rain. ‘Yes, of course, officer,’ she spluttered. 76

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She got up off the sofa and stumbled out to Dad who was stood talking to another policeman on the driveway. Constable Desmond turned to face me. ‘Okay, young lady; tell me what you know,’ he said with his pad and pen poised. I wondered if I would have recognised him without them. ‘It’s like Dad said: I came home, saw that the front door was wide open, came inside and saw the mess and then Dad came home and called you. I mean, the police,’ I said. ‘It was very brave of you to come inside all by yourself. Why didn’t you call for help, knock on a neighbour’s door or just wait for your parents to come home?’ ‘I…don’t know,’ I stuttered. ‘I just wanted to see what had happened.’ ‘Your dad says he found you upstairs, in your bedroom. What were you doing up there?’ he asked in a tone that made me feel uncomfortable. Why did I feel like I was 77

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being interrogated when it was my house that had been broken into? ‘I was just checking that none of my things had been taken.’ ‘Anything in particular?’ ‘No. Just stuff. You know, iPod, computer…stuff,’ I said. ‘Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me everything?’ he asked, his left eyebrow arching accusingly. I shuffled on the spot. The tiredness in my legs had developed into a throbbing ache. ‘Why do I get the feeling that this break-in and whatever’s going on in your school are somehow connected?’ he whispered. The scientific support team arrived soon after and began looking for forensic evidence throughout the house. We sat on the front garden wall while they worked, eating chocolate digestive biscuits and drinking tea with far too 78

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many sugars in. We huddled together like a waddle of penguins, waiting patiently to go back into the house. They were upstairs now, working their way through the bedrooms. I was sure they wouldn’t find anything. Whoever had broken into the house had clearly been in a hurry but had left empty handed. I was sure Agent Glass and his men would have been far too careful to leave any trace of themselves behind. But I was wrong. Officer Desmond strode out of the house holding a transparent bag in his left hand. ‘Do you recognise this?’ he asked. ‘No, no. It’s not one of mine,’ said Mum. ‘Are you sure? Have a good look. We found this on the stairs. We think one of the intruders may have dropped it on their way out. You might want to check the rest of your jewellery, Mrs Jones.’ ‘It’s definitely not mine. Not my style. Maggie, do you recognise it?’ I did. Inside the bag was an earring. It was Mackenzie’s. 79

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Chapter 15 Sleep did not come easy to me that night. I had done what I could to straighten my room once we had been allowed back into the house but it still felt like whoever had broken in had only just left and could return at any moment. The house felt cold and unfamiliar. Alien. I could hear Mum and Dad downstairs. Still up. Still trying to remove the trauma of the burglary from the house. I lay in bed staring at a mournful moon floating on a sea of stars, its ghostly radiance reflected in the conservatory roof below my window. I found myself counting them, an impossible task, as I tried to empty my brain of thoughts of abductions and crop circles. It was no use. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t escape the questions that were swarming through my mind. How did Mackenzieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earring end up in the house? 80

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What if the intruders came back in the night when we were all asleep? I looked at my alarm clock: 11.59PM. I did not see it change to midnight. I was running across the school field towards the playground, desperately swerving left and right to avoid falling into the bottomless holes that seemed to be appearing out of nowhere. Each time I dodged a hole, I could hear the sound of whale song and insect buzzing erupting in a cacophony as I passed. The voices were all saying the same thing over and over again like a mantra; Margret Jones, Imprison her. Margret Jones, Imprison her. Margret Jones, Imprison her. On the playground I could see hundreds of children running on the spot, like they were stuck on invisible treadmills. As I looked on, I could see that they were all in sheer panic, their arms flailing in every direction, their heads tilted towards the sky. But not one of them had a face. Their heads were smooth and featureless, their screams of panic silent and ignored. I ran as hard as I could but couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get any closer to them, as if I too were stuck where I stood. The sky above suddenly turned a blood red, encasing everything in a crimson haze and obscuring the helpless children on the playground. Hundreds of black discs began to descend from the sky, each one becoming more swollen the closer it got to the ground. As each circular 81

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silhouette fell, a beam of neon light burst from under it before protruding towards the tarmac below. Each stream of light pointed a skeletal finger at the floundering children beneath, briefly illuminating the Pennyfield pupils before disintegrating them on the spot. I watched in horror as one by one, each child disappeared. And there was nothing I could do. When the final remaining figure had been extinguished, the death rays then all turned towards where I was standing, each light merging together to create one colossal beam. Just as it was about to reach me, I dived head first into the nearest hole, only to find myself falling into an abyss. I tried to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, my ears were filled with the chorus of chanting again: Margret Jones, Imprison her. Margret Jones, Imprison her. 1:52 AM. I sat up and coughed, my throat dry and aching. I reached for my glass of water and rubbed the back of my neck. I turned to the window. The moon brighter than ever. I dropped my glass. There was someone on the roof.

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Chapter 16 School came and went. I trundled from lesson to lesson lost in the fog of my own making. A fog made from a lack of sleep and a head full of bad dreams. It was a fog that was getting thicker all the time. We had been called to an emergency assembly straight after registration. The deputy head, Mr Shears had stood in Mackenzieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s usual position behind the lectern and had told us all about the disappearance. He looked like he had been waiting for this moment his entire life, his face unable to disguise his pride. He explained that, although Mrs Mackenzie was missing, we must not start jumping to conclusions and that we needed to let the police do their job. He informed us that a letter was being prepared to go out to our parents and guardians detailing everything. 84

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The entire school felt like it was the last day of term. Children buzzed about the place in giggling swarms. The teachers seemed far too distracted to actually do any teaching, most classes entertained with wet play activities and films from the projectors. I half expected to find Christmas Crackers and party hats waiting for us on the tables in the lunch hall. Everyone seemed to be oblivious to the horror of the previous day. Our head teacher had been abducted by a team of sinister government officials, and the school had never been happier. It felt like I was the only one who really knew the truth. Me and George anyway. ‘Are you ready to go, Mags?’ George asked. He was waiting outside the girls’ cloakroom, his eyes eager and hopeful. I had done my best to avoid him all day. I just needed time to shuffle the pack of thoughts that was cluttering my head. ‘Yeah. Let’s get out of here, Georgie. This place is starting to get to me,’ I sighed.

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‘You shouldn’t have come in today. Not after what happened at your place. The school wouldn’t have minded.’ Maybe he was right. Maybe I should have stayed at home and helped Mum and Dad with the clean-up operation. They had both taken the day off work to get the house straight. It was me who wanted to go in. They had asked if I wanted to skip school, but home was the last place I wanted to be. The house didn’t feel safe anymore. I had refused breakfast and attempted to leave before it had even turned seven o’clock, but Dad had insisted on taking me. I had sat in silence during the drive in, not knowing what to say. He told me that everything was going to be all right, that he was going to get new locks for the doors and security lights for outside. Neither of us spoke about that the fact that there was no sign of forced entry; the locks on both the front and back doors hadn’t been tampered with. It was like they had just walked in. ‘Yeah, I don’t know what I came in for,’ I sighed. ‘It’s almost like nothing’s happened here. No-one seems bothered at all.’

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We walked on towards the main entrance in awkward silence. I didn’t feel like talking. I was exhausted by it all. The last couple of days had left me completely drained. ‘What’s up, losers?’ Ellie Rigby was stood leaning against the door frame in front of us. She didn’t look up, her head buried in her phone. As usual. ‘Oh, hi, Ellie,’ I muttered. She must have detected the misery in my response, breaking her loving gaze with her mobile for the briefest of moments. ‘Why the long faces, you two?’ she asked mockingly. ‘I’d have thought you’d both be hyper after what’s gone on. This must be a dream come true! Why so serious?’ I shot her a glare that could have sank a cruise ship.

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‘Our head teacher has been abducted. Why would we be ‘hyper’ about that? We might not have liked her very much but she was a person. Is a person.’ ‘Not that, you loser. Have you not seen the news?’ She waved her phone at us wildly. ‘No. What news? What’s going on? Some of us have been trying to learn,’ I said. ‘Learning’s for idiots,’ she spat. ‘Check this out.’ Ellie thrust her phone at us, and tapped her finger on the oversized screen. It was a news feed on the BBC App. The headline read, ‘CROP CIRCLE CHAOS’. I scanned the rest of the page as quickly as I could, frantically trying to piece together what she was talking about. Before I could make sense of what I was reading, Ellie cut me off, grabbing the phone out of my hand. ‘It’s the holes, Spooky; they’ve been found all over the country.’

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‘What do you mean?’ George squeaked. ‘The crop circles on the cricket pitch; there’s hundreds of them, thousands of them even. In nearly every school in Britain,’ she giggled. I snatched the phone back out of Ellie’s hand and stared hard at the screen once more. Every word of what she had said was true. As I read through the news feed, I realised what the excitement had been about all day in school and what had been distracting the teachers. I looked up at George, shock engulfing me. ‘What is it, Mags?’ George asked. ‘It’s the head teachers at these schools,’ I said slowly. ‘What about them?’ ‘They’re all missing.’

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Chapter 17 ‘The important thing is that we do not panic.’ The country was in turmoil. The Prime Minister had declared a state of emergency and was addressing the nation in a live television broadcast. I was sitting on the patched up sofa, sandwiched between Mum and Dad, the volume on the new T.V. at a deafening level. ‘We must deal with the facts that we know, not the wild theories being bandied about in the press. Yes, we are dealing with multiple disappearances on a scale not witnessed before. Yes, we have multiple crime scenes 90

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concerning acts of vandalism. But what we certainly aren’t dealing with, and which absolutely isn’t fact, is the sensationalist notion that this is the work of aliens. The word abduction is quite premature.’ There was a babble of voices as the dozens of reporters stood in front of the Prime Minister began launching question after question in her direction. As the bulbs of the photographers’ cameras flickered like machine gun fire, she stood firm, her gaze never leaving the television camera in front of her. The confidence in her stance couldn’t disguise the look of dread in her eyes; she was as terrified as we were. ‘Mrs Prime Minister, Tony Epstein from Midnight Mysteries magazine.’ The Prime Minister was now answering some of the questions from the press. ‘Yes, Mr Epstein, go on,’ she sighed. ‘What about these elusive ‘Men in Black’?’

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She sighed again, only this time deeper. ‘Like I have already stated; we must deal only with the facts in front of us.’ ‘But there are reports that these ‘Men’ have been spotted at most of the schools right before the head teachers disappeared. Are the police looking into these sightings?’ Groups of men like Agent Glass and his team had been identified at almost every site where the disappearances had taken place. In every school, the story was the same: crop circle discovered, mysterious men spotted, head teacher missing. And with every security system in each school conveniently breaking down, not one piece of evidence had been recovered. ‘My officers, as always, are working day and night to ensure the safety of our country. Rest assured, we will continue to pursue lines of enquiry already established. We ask that the public remains vigilant during this distressing time and that they allow the police to do their job. Thank you for your time. There will be no further questions.’

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She left the stage, flanked by her burly security guards, an avalanche of questions tumbling after her. Within seconds, she was gone, the door to number 10 closing emphatically behind her. Abbey Star then appeared on screen stood outside the Downing Street gates. ‘Tonight, police forces up and down the country will continue their extensive searches of local areas in an attempt to piece together what exactly has happened to the missing head teachers. In a bid to assist officers with their investigations, all schools in the United Kingdom will be closed until further notice. I’m Abbey Star, reporting for BBC news. Back to you in the studio.’ As the camera panned back towards the Prime Minister’s front door, something caught my eye. Something that couldn’t possibly have been there. ‘Pause the television,’ I shouted, lunging at the remote control in Dad’s hand. ‘What? Why? What are you doing, Maggie,’ Dad winced as I jabbed him with my elbow. ‘It can’t be. It just can’t be,’ I whispered. 93

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I rewound the footage back by about ten seconds, before replaying the last of Abbey’s report. ‘all schools in the United Kingdom will be closed for the remainder of the week. I’m Abbey Star, reporting for BBC news. Back to you in the studio.’ Just as the camera began panning back to number 10, I hit the pause button on the remote. ‘There!’ I screamed. ‘There! Look!’ I leapt from the sofa, pointing manically at the T.V. ‘What? What are we looking at?’ Dad huffed. ‘Behind the gates, next to the black car… it’s her!’ ‘Who?’ ‘Mackenzie! 94

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THURSDAY OCTOBER 30TH 0 11 47 15

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Chapter 18 Finding Pepper would be the easy part. Getting into school would be a different matter entirely. Like the rest of the country’s schools, Pennyfield was on lockdown and was swarming with police officers. There was police tape surrounding the perimeter and constables stood guarding every entrance into the school. Luckily, we knew something that they didn’t; another way in. ‘Are you sure this is going to work, Mags?’ ‘Of course it is, George. Stop stressing,’ I replied. 96

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‘What if we get caught? There’s police everywhere.’ ‘We won’t; trust me.’ We had found the gap in the fence we had used countless times to sneak in and out of school, and were already through to the other side. You would never have known there was a break in the fence, the divide concealed by the laurel bushes that encircled the school. In no time at all, we had found what we were looking for. ‘Is that it?’ George whispered. ‘That’s it.’ ‘We’re supposed to get in there?’ ‘Yep. Unless you’d rather introduce yourself to the nice policeman at the front entrance and ask him politely can you go inside, please.’ ‘Fine then. But you’re going in first,’ he scowled. 97

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Pennyfield was over one hundred years old and was full of hidden rooms and chambers that hadn’t been used for decades. Our way in was a disused coal chute that was hidden beneath an iron cover no bigger than an A3 piece of paper. The hinges on the flap had been swallowed by so much rust that, for a moment, I was sure it wouldn’t open. I grasped the handle with both hands and heaved with all my strength. The corroded door yawned open, its joints groaning in a pathetic protest. We looked down into the dormant chute and saw nothing; it was pitch black in there. I pulled my pocket torch out and shone it into the void below. ‘What can you see, Mags?’ ‘Not much, Georgie. Dust and cobwebs mostly.’ ‘I’m not sure about this. Maybe we should just go.’ ‘Go where, George? There’s nowhere left to go. Pepper is the only one who can help us and he’s on the other side of this chute. With you or without you, I’m going in.’

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I stared at him for a moment longer before biting the torch between my teeth and lowering myself in. ‘No, Mags, wait. I’m coming too.’ ‘See you on the other side then,’ I garbled, the torch chattering against my teeth. And then I was gone, sliding through sticky spider webs and ancient coal dust. I hit the floor with a thud, landing painfully on my bottom. I pulled the torch out from my mouth and shone it across the cavernous space in front of me. The basement. The torch beam drifted from corner to corner illuminating dilapidated shelves and filthy sacks of forgotten coal. An endless stream of pipes lined the crumbling brick walls leading to a ramshackle wooden staircase. I wondered how long it had been since anyone had been down here. My reverie was broken by a yelp and the sound of George tumbling down the coal chute behind me. He landed awkwardly, rolling to a stop at my feet. ‘Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.’ ‘You okay, Georgie?’ 99

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‘Yep. Never better.’ I reached out a hand and helped him to his feet. He stood dusting himself down, anxiously pulling cobweb remnants out of his hair. ‘What now then?’ he gasped. ‘Up and out, Georgie. Up and out.’ We climbed the rickety staircase to the basement door, clinging on to what was left of the handrail. It looked like most of the bannisters had been eaten by a century’s worth of woodlice. I turned the handle expecting the door to be locked, but it opened easily. We emerged into the corridor that ran alongside the Junior classrooms. Outside on the school field, we could see what must have been forensic investigators, examining the crop circles. There were dozens of them, all wearing identical white plastic overalls, their faces hidden behind surgical masks. A white tent had been erected at one end of the field with a translucent tunnel attached to it that led back into the main school building. Keeping our heads down, we crept

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towards the stairs that led to the science labs, terrified that our trespassing would be discovered. ‘How do you even know he’s going to be here?’ George moaned. ‘I just know, alright. The lab is his home. He wouldn’t leave his projects unattended.’ We turned the handle on the laboratory door and silently entered. Immediately I knew something was wrong. The floor was littered with broken test tubes, glass covering the lab floor. Broken pieces of equipment lay strewn in between every work bench. And then we saw him. Lying face down on the floor. His familiar white lab coat stained blood red. Pepper.

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Chapter 19 He was alive. He winced as the light hit his flickering eyes. He looked up into our faces and tried a faltering smile. ‘Children,’ he spluttered, trying to sit up. ‘Take it easy, Mr Heart. Let me help you up,’ I said gently. George and I took an arm each and gradually lifted him. He teetered slightly and then found his feet. I dragged a stool over to him while George held on to him. We lowered him on to it while he let out an agonising groan.

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‘Are you okay?’ George asked. ‘I think it’s pretty obvious he’s not okay, George,’ I scolded. ‘Give him a minute, will you?’ ‘I’m fine, really I am. No need to squabble, children. Now, where are my glasses?’ wheezed Pepper. I stooped to pick them up off the floor. They were bent crooked and the left lens had a huge crack in it. I handed them to Pepper and watched as he attempted to manipulate them back into their normal shape. ‘Ah, that will have to do. I can’t see a thing without them,’ he said. ‘What happened in here?’ I asked. ‘Were you attacked?’ ‘The truth is, I don’t know, children. I was quietly going about my business, trying to preserve what was left of my numerous experiments before the school was placed on lockdown. I have been working on some of these for several years and wasn’t about to let the police spoil my work once the school had become a crime scene. I had 103

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almost finished transferring the last of the conical flasks into the incubator when I suddenly became aware that I wasn’t alone in the room. To my surprise, I realised that there was someone behind me, their likeness reflected in the glass door of the incubator. The next thing I knew; I had been struck on the head by something. Following that, I remember nothing until seeing the both of you.’ ‘Did you get a good look at them?’ I asked. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t. Before I had a chance to turn around, they had delivered their knockout blow, so to speak. The strangest thing is, I am certain I locked the laboratory door behind me, and yet, whoever they were, they got in without making a sound.’ George and I looked at each other knowingly. ‘It’s just like what happened at my house, Mr Heart, I mean, Pepper. I think your attacker is the same person who broke into my place. I think it might have been the agents who came to school a couple of days ago. I think they’re looking for the clock.’

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Pepper straightened on his stool abruptly and leaned forward. ‘What do you mean… agents?’ ‘You mean you don’t know?’ George exclaimed. ‘A group of strange men in black suits came to the school a couple of days back. They said they were working for the government. They asked about the clock. Called it the loopy bacon or something.’ ‘The Lupus Beacon?’ Pepper gasped, climbing down off his stool. ‘So that’s what it is. I knew I’d seen it before somewhere.’ ‘You’ve heard of it, then? You know what it is?’ I asked hopefully. ‘Oh, I know what it is, Margret,’ he said gravely. ‘I’m such a fool for not recognising it sooner.’ ‘What? What is it? What’s going on?’ George squeaked.

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Pepper took the remains of his glasses off his face and rubbed the bridge of his nose firmly. He had never looked so old and worn out, his face slate grey, his eyes troubled and shot with blood. ‘Children, I’m afraid I haven’t been completely honest with you. You both know that in a former life, I once worked for NASA, yes?’ We both nodded. ‘And you are probably aware from the school tittle-tattle that I was relieved of my position there.’ We nodded again, eager for Pepper to go on. ‘Well, the details of that sorry episode are irrelevant at this point in time. But what is relevant is what my role at NASA was. I was part of the Planet Earth Extension Programme, or PEEP. Our job was to design and build probes that would be launched into space in search of signs of life. We unsuccessfully launched sixteen probes. But the seventeenth found something.’

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‘What? What did it find?’ I demanded, edging closer to where Pepper stood. ‘We don’t know, not for sure, but it began transmitting back a series of code that we struggled to decipher,’ Pepper went on. ‘It wasn’t until we translated the figures that we realised what we were looking at.’ ‘What was it?’ whispered George. ‘The probe ceased all transmissions shortly after our discovery. It began to attack itself from the inside, infecting itself with the antivirus that we had built in to protect it. Its immune system had literally turned on itself. We managed to decode the communication just before the probe shut down completely and went off line. We named the discovery the Lupus Beacon.’ ‘What discovery? What did you find?’ I was stood right in front of him now, not realising I had crossed the room. ‘It was a countdown. Like the one on your clock,’ he sighed dejectedly.

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‘A countdown to what?’ ‘To an invasion.’

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Chapter 20 ‘Play it again,’ Pepper said. I dragged the cursor back on the screen, starting the video once more. We had watched the clip half a dozen times already and were still at a loss to explain what we were seeing. ‘Now. Pause, there,’ he instructed, tapping his finger on the computer monitor. ‘Yes. It’s her alright. But what’s she doing there outside Downing Street?’ 109

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‘It doesn’t make sense. If Agent Glass and his men took her, then how did she escape? And how did she end up there?’ said George. ‘I don’t know, but there’s something not right about this. Something that doesn’t add up. There’s something staring us in the face and we’re just not seeing it,’ I said, beginning to pace the lab. ‘What do we know so far?’ ‘That all of the head teachers in the country are missing?’ George offered, without looking away from the screen. ‘Yes. They’re all missing,’ I confirmed. ‘That there are crop circles on every school field?’ ‘Right. All of them matching the same pattern on the school cricket pitch.’ There was a long silence while we all considered the other thing that we knew but didn’t want to talk about. Something that we didn’t even want to think about. 110

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‘That there’s going to be…an…invasion?’ ‘Now, now, George; we don’t know that, do we?’ Pepper chimed. ‘Let’s not get too carried away with all of this.’ ‘You said it yourself, Mr Heart; that clock is counting down to an invasion. Something’s coming. It might even already be here. It’s probably what took all of the head teachers. And it’s probably on its way back for the rest of us,’ George bawled. He buried his head in his arms on top of the computer keyboard. His elbow knocked the mouse off the desk causing the news clip to flicker briefly before freezing once more. ‘Stop!’ George continued his sobbing. ‘I can’t help it, Mags! It’s over, we’re done for.’ ‘No. Stop! Don’t move. Don’t press anything,’ I hissed, marching over to where he was sitting. 111

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‘What? What’s going on?’ I prodded the screen with my finger. ‘There, look. Can’t you see it?’ ‘What on Earth?’ Pepper gasped, readjusting his glasses on his face. George raised his head from his arms and looked up to where I was pointing. He recoiled from the screen, leaning backwards on his chair so much, that he tumbled to the floor. The chair slid out from underneath him, spinning wildly on its back, scattering the broken glass from the flasks in every direction. ‘Turn it off, Mags! I can’t look at those eyes!’ he squealed. The eyes glowed florescent green. They appeared to be staring right at us, protruding from the screen. Even though the clip was frozen, they seemed to flicker like the flames on a match stick, each iris pulsating hypnotically. I 112

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didn’t know what I was looking at, but I knew it wasn’t human. ‘Turn it off!’ For a moment, I completely lost myself. The walls around me began to dissolve into nothingness. I found myself fading from the reality of the room and George and Pepper. It was just me and the thing on the screen. I couldn’t look away. It was reeling me in. The flaming eyes appeared to swell in size, engulfing the display, seeping from the monitor’s frame. My ears were filled with the sound of shrill hissing and I felt myself being dragged backwards. Back to the real world. ‘GET AWAY FROM IT, MARGRET!’ Pepper aimed the fire extinguisher at the smouldering computer, smothering the spellbinding sparks. I staggered from my seat, and backed away from the smoking remains of the monitor and watched as he battled the blaze. I exhaled deeply, relief washing over me. Relief that was instantly cut short when the school’s fire alarms began screaming their warning cries.

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Chapter 21 It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take long for the police to find us. Armed officers stormed the laboratory within minutes of the smoke alarms going off. Before we knew what was happening, the three of us were being ordered to lie face down on the ground with our hands on our heads. There seemed to be dozens of officers surrounding us, each of them with a gun trained at our quivering bodies. Once they realised that we were pupils, George and I were hauled to our feet and escorted out of the lab. Pepper was told to stay exactly where he was and to not make any sudden movements. As we were firmly directed along the corridor, I heard one of the officers bellowing something that turned my stomach.

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‘Pepper Heart, I am arresting you on suspicion of the kidnapping of Julia Mackenzie. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’ I stopped and dug my heels into the floor, forcing my chaperon to crash into me. I struggled from his grip and turned to face him. It was Constable Desmond. ‘You can’t do this! He’s innocent! He was actually trying to help find Mrs Mackenzie!’ ‘Young lady, I would strongly advise you to stop shouting at me and to allow me to do my job in removing you from this crime scene.’ George was still being firmly held by the other constable. He looked like a frightened rabbit being carried away in the talons of a hungry owl. He shook his head at me, his eyes wide with terror, but I wasn’t about to go quietly. ‘But he’s done nothing wrong! Pepper’s a good man!’

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‘A good man? Well what’s he doing interfering with a crime scene? Why did he set that computer on fire?’ ‘It was an accident! He was trying to put the fire out!’ ‘Trying to destroy evidence, more like,’ Desmond snorted. ‘Now, come back here, this instant.’ Without realising it, I had been edging further and further along the corridor, taking backwards steps as I protested Pepper’s innocence. I was now only a few feet away from the stairs leading to the ground floor and the front entrance. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Desmond warned, reading my mind. But it was too late; I had already made my mind up. I turned on my heels and darted towards the stairs. I bounded down them, taking three at a time, not knowing where I was going but sure that I had to get out of there. Even if it meant leaving George behind.

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‘CALLING ALL UNITS. WE HAVE A RUNNER. I REPEAT. WE HAVE A RUNNER. OFFICER IN PURSUIT. REQUESTING BACK UP. OVER.’ I dropped down into the corridor below and began sprinting towards the double doors at the other end. Miss Rita’s office lay on the other side. Beyond that, the main entrance. I was sure that once I got outside, I would be able to evade the policemen guarding the door. I pumped my arms like pistons and bolted along the passageway as the sound of Constable Desmond’s heavy footsteps echoed behind me on the stairs. All of a sudden the double doors in front of me burst open and a horde of officers began hurtling my way. I halted abruptly, briefly losing my footing on the linoleum floor. I was trapped. ‘Right, that’s…quite enough… of that, young lady,’ Constable Desmond panted. ‘You stay… where you are.’ I rapidly turned my head from left to right, desperately trying to keep one eye on each end of the corridor as the officers skulked towards me. ‘You’ve reached the end of the line, Miss Jones. You’ve got nowhere left to go.’ 117

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He was wrong. The opening to the plastic tunnel that had been erected on the school field was just ahead of me. I knew it wouldn’t lead me out but it I had no other option. I lurched forwards, narrowly evading the out stretched arms of one of the constables, and slid through the fire exit and into the tunnel. I ran through the translucent tube, the sinister shapes of the forensic team working outside flashing past the corners of my eyes. And then I was out in the open, the kiss of fresh air heightening my senses. I stormed past several surprised white suits, my goal to reach the fence at the perimeter of the school and the gap we had crawled in through. ‘Maggie, look out!’ I craned my neck back towards the school building without breaking stride to see George thumping vigorously on a first floor window. And then I was down. The force of the tackle forced every ounce of breath from my lungs and I fell crashing into the turf, coming to a sudden stop in one of the shallow holes that had started all of this madness. ‘Owwww,’ I moaned, rolling on to my back. 118

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‘Stay down, if you know what’s good for you,’ the man in the white overalls instructed. I had no intention of getting up; I was done running. I rubbed the small of my back where I had landed, the pain of the fall pulsing along my spine. I let out a long sigh and looked up at the sky above me. What I saw made me instantly forget about the aching in my bones. It was silent and still and it was hovering directly above the school. A ship.

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Chapter 22 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What on earth is that?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; One by one, all of the men working in the field began looking up towards the monolithic ship above them. Shrouded in its shadow, it was as if day had suddenly turned to night beneath it. The men craned their necks in a desperate attempt to observe the magnitude of the craft, each one arching their backs as if they had been struck by lightning. More and more men in white suits began to appear from inside the forensic tents. Constable Desmond and the other officers emerged from the tunnel leading into school, George and Pepper with them. Every head tilted towards the nightmare in grey in the sky. Every face filled with the same expression of disbelief. 120

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‘We need to call this in,’ one of them said. ‘To who?’ said another. I warily pulled myself from the hole and got to my feet, never taking my eyes off the impossible thing that had stolen the day from the sky. It was circular in shape and appeared to be made from some kind of dull metal. At opposite ends of the disc, there was an extended section in the shape of a giant ‘T’. I closed one eye and traced its outline with my finger; it was exactly the same shape as the Greek letter Phi, just like George had said. Its surface was perfectly smooth with no sign of any openings. I wondered how it had made the holes in the school field. The size of the thing overwhelmed the entire cricket pitch, cloaking the grass in an unnatural darkness. And it was absolutely silent, as if it wasn’t there at all. ‘Margret Jones.’ I froze, every hair on the back of my neck standing to attention. That voice. That same shrill, metallic whisper that I had heard back in my room that night. I dropped the bag-pack from my throbbing shoulders and unzipped 121

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it. The haunting chorus of whale song and insect buzzing drifted from the bottom. I pulled out the beacon and held it tentatively to my ear. As I did so, the noise escaping from it got louder. ‘Margret Jones,’ it hissed. I snatched it away from my face and stared at it. The numbers on it were gone, the glass window completely blank. I rolled it over and over in my hands, desperately trying to find a button or switch that I knew wasn’t there, but it was no use: the countdown was over. ‘Maggie?’ I looked over to George, just in time to see Pepper disappear down the tunnel and back into school.

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Chapter 23 They were everywhere. Above every school in the country. Every one identical. Every one motionless. Every one positioned directly above each schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s playing field. Complete pandemonium had broken out in every town and city. Whole families were packing up their belongings and fleeing for safety, as far away from the schools as they could get. The motorways were jammed for miles, filled with cars desperately trying to make their escape. The panic and the chaos was everywhere. I sat on the sofa in the front room in a trance. The news channel had been on since I had got back from school. Constable Desmond had delivered me back himself. He 123

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was still shaking when Dad answered the door to us. He told Dad to turn the news on and that I would tell him the rest. I asked him about Pepper but he didn’t seem interested in any of that anymore. He said that he was still ‘a person of interest’ but that nobody would be in any rush to find him. Not now. He said he was going home to be with his family, and then he was gone. ‘Has the Prime Minister been on yet?’ Dad called from upstairs. ‘No,’ I shouted. ‘Not yet. It’s still the same thing on a loop.’ They had been showing the same clips and images for the last hour and a half. Grainy phone footage of the ships suspended above the schools. Shots of people shoving suitcases into car boots and traffic jams on the roads. And one image worse than them all that made me feel sick every time they showed it: a satellite image of Britain revealing the entire fleet of ships. The news feed estimated that there were over 30,000 of them in the country’s air space. ‘Shout me when she decides to make an appearance,’ Dad yelled for the hundredth time. 124

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He and Mum had been packing since I had gotten home. Once they realised what was going on, they made the decision to leave immediately. Dad had paused the live feed on the television when the satellite image of the country was displayed, and had begun studying it intently. He had identified a point on the map where there were no ships positioned in the sky. Wales. He said we had family out there and that we would be safe. Mum said nothing. She had just stood in the front room window, staring up at the pock marked sky. Dad had told me to stay put and to wait for the Prime Minister’s address. The news channel had been promising it for the last half an hour. ‘What you are seeing is real. The images on your screens have not been altered or enhanced in any way. This is not a hoax. We are not scare mongering. This is really happening.’ Abbey Star’s voice, now devoid of her usual confidence and charisma, commentated as each film of the UFOs filled the television screen. ‘The public are being advised to stay indoors and are being urged not to travel unless absolutely necessary. I have been informed that we are only moments away from 125

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hearing from the Prime Minister. In fact, we are going across to Downing Street right now.’ ‘Dad!’ I roared. ‘It’s the Prime Minister!’ As Dad bounded down the stairs, the T.V. screen went blank before revealing the familiar front door with the number ten on it. Standing in front was the Prime Minister, her face grey, her eyes cold. ‘People of Britain, we are witnessing history here today. This is a day that you will remember for the rest of your short lives. A day of celebration. A day of salvation. A day that will change the lives of every living thing on this planet.’ ‘What on Earth is she going on about?’ Dad growled. ‘The woman’s gone mad.’ ‘Your fear is palpable but understandable. But mark my words; you are not scared nearly enough. This is not a declaration of war nor is it a promise of peace. It is the dawn of a new era. For all who welcome it.’

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‘Something’s wrong,’ I said. ‘Of course there’s something wrong. She’s spouting utter nonsense,’ Dad snorted. ‘No, Dad. Listen to what she’s saying; it doesn’t sound like her.’ The mob of reporters in front of the podium began launching question after question at her. I wondered why there were no photographers. She appeared completely unfazed by it all, ignoring the squawking journalists, until one question caught her attention. ‘Yes, you, you there; what was that you just said?’ she demanded. ‘I asked, what you were going to do to protect our country from this potential invasion?’ the voice came again. The Prime Minister tipped her head back towards the stolen sky and let out a guttural, rasping laugh.

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‘I can assure you, there is nothing potential about this invasion. And there will be no protection offered to any of you. This is happening. We have been preparing for this day for over a century and nothing will stand in our way.’ ‘I told you; the Prime Minister’s completely lost the plot!’ screeched Dad. ‘I don’t think that’s the Prime Minister, Dad.’ She went on. ‘We have made plans under which it will be possible to carry on the work of the nation in the days of stress and strain that may be ahead. In the days to come, you will be required to report for duty in accordance with the instructions you will receive. It is of vital importance that you should comply with these directives or risk suffering the consequences of your insolence.’ She hesitated and then looked up, directly at the camera ahead of her. ‘Now may your Gods bless you all.’ 128

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A sickly smile emerged on her face and, for the briefest of moments, her eyes flashed green.

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Chapter 24 ‘Hang on, Maggie, slow down! Give yourself a minute to catch your breath!’ It took all of my strength to not roll my eyes again at them. I had tried to explain three times already what was going on. It was obvious. All of the signs were there. If I had only worked it out sooner, I could have done more to stop it. ‘The Prime Minister,’ I began again. ‘Yes.’ 130

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‘Is an alien.’ ‘What?’ ‘The Prime Minister is an alien, Dad! Did you not hear what she was saying? Look,’ I tapped the paused image on the television screen. ‘Look at her eyes!’ Mum and Dad both stared hard at the stilled picture for the millionth time. ‘No,’ Mum shook her head. ‘It’s just a trick of the light or one of those light furs that you get in all those sci-fi films.’ ‘Lens flares, Mum,’ I corrected. ‘They’re called lens flares. And anyway, it’s not a trick of the light; there’s something definitely wrong with her eyes. They’re…not human.’ ‘So, what are you saying, Maggie?’

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‘Ughh! I’m saying that somehow, there are over 30,000 UFOs hovering above our heads this very minute, full of aliens, and that one of them is impersonating the Prime Minister.’ I stood in front of them, exasperated by their lack of belief. They sat on the sofa blinking at me. ‘But, why?’ Mum asked. ‘Why? Why? I don’t know why! To take over the planet, probably! To enslave the entire human race! I don’t think they’ve come all this way for a cup of tea and a biscuit!’ I stormed over to the television and turned it off, pressing the standby button so firmly it almost fell off the stand. ‘I’m not leaving.’ ‘What do you mean you’re not leaving? Of course you’re leaving. We all are. We’re going to get in the car and get away from all this madness.’ ‘No, Dad. I’m not.’ 132

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Dad stood up from the couch and loomed over me, his usual gentle face flushed with a mixture of fear and anger. ‘We are going to Wales. All of us. First thing tomorrow morning. And that’s final.’

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 31ST 0 00 00 00

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Chapter 25 It was impossible to sleep. The curtains on my bedroom window couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t keep out the darkness of the dormant things that waited in the sky. I lay on my back, staring at the cracks in my ceiling. I wondered what would happen if the cracks kept on getting bigger. Would the ceiling fall in bringing everything in the attic crashing down on my head? Was this what was happening outside? Had the cracks in the universe become so wide that these ships had fallen down to Earth? I got up and walked to the window. I pulled the curtain back slightly and peered out. The street below was nothing but shadows and silence. Most of the neighbours 135

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were gone, their houses vacant, their possessions abandoned. Rows of deserted driveways faced each other in an empty stare. This wasn’t Harrison Drive. This wasn’t the road where I had grown up, where I had learned to ride my bike and had gone trick or treating. The sky was the neighbourhood now. The static ships looked like black holes in the sky. Gateways to the void beyond. I began pacing the room, replaying the Prime Minister’s speech over and over again in my head. What did she mean by ‘reporting for duty’? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was just a trick of the light. I knew that wasn’t true, though, no matter how much I tried to convince myself. Something was coming. The only question was, how was I going to stop it? I climbed into bed. Tomorrow had already begun and I needed to sleep. As the sun started to filter into my room, I finally gave in to sleep, the whirlpool in my mind slowly beginning to calm. The last thing I saw was the Beacon on my bedside table. ‘What are you?’ I whispered as the nightmare engulfed me once more.

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I was back on the school field, the sky crimson and expectant. But the ships were no longer silent and still. Each one was pulsing, an unearthly hum resonating from every hull. Brilliant beams of white light started to project down on to the earth, bathing everything in its ghostly glow. Like searchlights, they surveyed the landscape, each craft’s unblinking eye watching the weary world below. I stood rooted to the spot, my feet encased in the turf of the cricket pitch. I tried to pull my legs out from the ground’s grip, but it was no use. ‘Margret Jones,’ the familiar hiss came again. I turned to face the sound that was coming from behind me. Terrified at what I might see, I gazed into the blackness of the nightmare and saw a figure standing at the edge of the field. I could only make out its shape, its body nothing but a silhouette in the gloom. It lifted its arm and pointed to the sky. I tilted my head and saw that its hand was aimed at the worried moon above us. It was brighter than it had ever been before, proudly reflecting the rays of the sleeping sun. The light seemed to suddenly intensify, drowning the swarm of ships below. There was a sudden flash as the moon blinked, and a deafening click rolled across the field like a thunder clap. The sound of a billion ear piercing screams cut through the air around me, as the pulsing of the ships was replaced by agonising 137

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cries. One by one, the ships retracted their light beams and started to retreat through the sky until only one ship remained. ‘Margret Jones.’ I looked back to where the phantom figure had stood, but it was gone.

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Chapter 26 I woke suddenly to the sound of something hitting my window. I rolled over and looked at my clock. 5.28 AM. I rubbed my eyes and tried to shake off the claws of the nightmare. As I sat up, the sound came again, rattling the glass in its frame. I jumped up, threw open my curtains and glowered into the garden just as another stone came hurtling towards the house. I ducked instinctively as it rebounded off the gutter above me. I opened the window and scanned the lawn. ‘Psst! Maggie! It’s me!’

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A head poked out from behind the compost heap at the bottom of the garden. It was George. ‘Hell’s teeth, George! What are you doing down there?’ I hissed. ‘Come down and I’ll explain.’ I pulled on my jeans and a hoody and lowered myself down on to the conservatory roof underneath my window. The curtains to Mum and Dad’s room were still closed. I was amazed that they had slept at all. As I lowered myself down into the garden, I looked up at the sky hopefully. They were still there. Every single one of them. I jogged over to where George was hiding and dropped down next to him. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you’d be gone. I thought you and your family had left like everybody else,’ I whispered. ‘No. My Dad didn’t want to go. He said that this was his house and that he wasn’t about to give up everything he’s worked for his whole life just because some aliens have 140

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turned up looking for a rumble. You know how stubborn he is.’ ‘Unfortunately, I do.’ We both laughed. It felt good to laugh again. ‘What are we going to do, George?’ I sighed. ‘That’s why I’m here, Mags. We’ve got a plan.’ ‘We? Who’s we?’ I gripped George’s arm as a rustling sound came from behind our hiding place. George gently held me by my shoulders and turned me around. ‘Hello, Margret.’

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Chapter 27 The padlock on the door had been broken for as long as I could remember. The only time Dad ever went in there was to retrieve the lawn mower from amongst the mountains of clutter that had swallowed up every available surface. The whole place had just become a dumping ground for things that were no longer wanted in the house. Forgotten things that we had fallen out of love with or that had no use anymore. There was grimy garden furniture and a barbeque that had been overwhelmed with rust. There were dusty shelves filled with empty paint cans and broken plant pots. There were pipes and offcuts of wood that had been kept ‘just in case’. There was a stack of old yellowed news-papers that hadn’t made it into the recycling bin. There was an old fridge that hadn’t 142

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hummed in decades and my old bike, the spokes on its wheels bent out of shape beneath the junk that dozed upon it. Systems of spider webs sprawled from every corner. Woodlice scuttled in and out of the gaps in the brickwork. A pocket of light battled through a broken window, allowing us to navigate our way around the ruins. The smell of dirt and damp attacked my nostrils as I pulled out three old camping chairs, their seats speckled with mould. ‘Sorry about the mess,’ I said as I offered the worn out seats. ‘Not at all. These will do fine.’ ‘You can’t be here, Mr Heart; the police are looking for you,’ I said. ‘Pepper, please,’ he smiled. ‘You need to go. It’s not safe here. My mum and dad will be up soon. They’re taking me to Wales. They think we’ll be safe there.’

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Pepper let out a laugh devoid of joy and stood up from his chair. He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin. ‘Children, nowhere is safe. These ships have been set up in a formation ready to attack. It’s only a matter of time before they strike and I don’t think they are open to negotiations.’ ‘What about the army? There must be something they can do,’ I squeaked. ‘The radio this morning said that the military had been mobilised at key locations across the country. Places where there is a greater number of these ships in the sky. But it will ultimately be for nothing. If whatever is in those crafts is hostile, the country is doomed.’ We sat in awkward silence as Pepper’s words sank in. I felt sick. I wanted to just disappear completely. I put my head in my hands to hide the tears that were beginning to consume my eyes. ‘But all is not lost, young Margret.’

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I looked up from behind my hands, wiping away the tears on to my sleeve. ‘Tell her, Pepper. Tell her what you told me,’ George grinned. ‘What? What’s going on?’ I mumbled. ‘I think I might know a way to stop this.’

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Chapter 28 Getting back into school couldn’t have been easier this time. The entire campus was deserted. We had walked right through reception using Pepper’s door pass and hadn’t seen a single police officer. An uncomfortable silence followed us with every step. The beautiful chaos of school life had been replaced by an emptiness that seemed to be oozing out of every pore in the brickwork. The forensic tents were still up on the cricket pitch and the temporary tunnel still protruded from the main building. Clipboards and expensive looking equipment littered the field, signs that everyone had left in a hurry once the ships showed up. I jumped as the school bell began to chime the hour. It was seven O’clock already. Mum and Dad would probably already know I was missing. I didn’t like to think of them worrying but this 146

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was too important. I wondered what they would do when they noticed I had gone. I shuddered as we passed beneath the ship, its immense shadow casting darkness upon us all. I looked up at the metallic exterior. It hadn’t moved an inch. It was in exactly the same position as when it arrived. Its surface was still perfectly smooth, with no patterns or markings on it at all. There didn’t seem to be any way in or out. No doors. No windows. Just cold, hard metal. I quickened my pace, anxious to be back under the sky and in the light of the day. It felt like the thing could come crashing down and land on top of us at any moment. ‘It doesn’t look real. It’s like all of this is a dream,’ I said. ‘A nightmare more like,’ muttered George. We came to the edge of the field and stopped. I looked back at the school. I remembered on my first day thinking it was massive. It seemed to go on forever. It had never looked so small. ‘Do you really think this will work?’ George asked. 147

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‘I think so. It has to. But we won’t be able to do it on our own.’ ‘What if she doesn’t come through?’ ‘She will. She promised.’ I reached into my backpack and pulled it out, the thing that started all of this: the clock. The Lupus Beacon. I turned it over in my hands. The metallic casing was still ice cold to the touch. The glass screen was still blank. I dropped to my knees and lowered it back into the hole I had found it in. I dug my fingers into the soil and sprinkled handfuls of it on to the clock’s surface. I wanted it to look exactly the same as when I had found it. I stood back up, wiping my hands clean against my hoody. ‘Now what?’ ‘Now for phase two,’ I said, sliding my phone out of my pocket. I pulled out the post-it note that I had scribbled the number down on, and began typing it into the phone. I 148

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didn’t have to wait long for her to answer; the phone was never out of her hands. ‘What’s up, Spooky?’ Ellie Rigby, the school’s agony aunt. ‘Ellie, we need your help,’ I began. ‘Erm, you need to put your phone up to your face on a video chat, loser. All I can see is your ear.’ ‘Yes. Sorry. There we go.’ I moved the phone until I could see my face in the square at the bottom of the screen. George squeezed in beside me until his head was visible too. ‘We need your help.’ ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got your message. What do you need me for? I don’t see how I can be much help. We’re half way to the coast. My dad reckons we’ll be safe on his boat 149

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for some reason. I’d better be able to get a phone signal out there,’ she shouted. ‘We think we know a way of getting rid of the…erm,’ ‘Aliens?’ ‘Yes. But we need you and your…social media expertise to make it work.’ ‘Okay. But it’s going to cost you. You know my going rate.’ Ellie Rigby, the centre of the universe. Even when the fate of the world hung in the balance, she could only think of herself. ‘Yes. Of course. Anything you want.’ I then proceeded to tell her the plan. She listened whilst simultaneously touching up her make-up, using her reflected image as a mirror. I explained what her part in the operation would be, ignoring the exaggerated yawns coming from her mouth. 150

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‘Is that it?’ she asked, sounding less interested than ever. ‘Yes. Do you think you can do it?’ ‘Of course I can do it. It’s what I do.’ ‘Great. Thanks, Ellie. Right, we’d better go.’ ‘Yeah, later Scooby…’ Ellie’s face suddenly changed. ‘Maggie; there’s someone behind you.’

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Chapter 29 It was as if she had never been away. She was wearing the exact same outfit as when she had gone missing. Not a hair was out of place on her head. She stood in front of us on the opposite side of the hole I had buried the Lupus Beacon in. A thin, nauseating smile spread across her face. She seemed to hiss at the phone as I ended the call to Ellie. That was when I knew Pepper’s plan had a chance. ‘Hello, children,’ she cackled. ‘Mrs Mackenzie. Where have you been? We’ve been so worried.’ 152

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‘Don’t play games with me child. I’m not in the mood. You know perfectly well where I’ve been. You’ve known all along, haven’t you?’ She began to slowly circle around the edge of the hole towards us, her fingers stretching out at her sides like claws. I gripped George’s hand even tighter and started to back away from her. ‘What are you going to do with us?’ George squeaked. ‘What am I going to do? Ha ha ha!’ Her laugh, wild and shrill. It didn’t sound like it was coming from her throat, but somewhere much lower down. Somewhere hollow. ‘Child, it’s already been done. Now…GIVE ME THAT PHONE!’ She leapt over the hole like a tiger, knocking us both on to our backs. The phone flew out of my hand and landed with a crack on the tarmacked path that ran alongside the school field. I closed my eyes waiting for the attack to continue but Mackenzie clearly had other ideas. She bounded to where the phone had landed and began 153

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stamping the heel of her shoe down on to the screen repeatedly. ‘George,’ I whispered. He was curled up into a ball, his eyes screwed tightly shut. ‘George,’ I hissed. He opened one eye and looked at me. ‘What?’ ‘Run!’ I jumped to my feet and sprinted back towards school, dragging George up off the floor in the same movement. We had to get back into the lab; it was our only chance. I stole a glance over my shoulder as we ran, expecting to see Mackenzie right on our heels. Instead I saw something that made me stop in my tracks: Mackenzie was rooted to the spot, her head tilted back aimed at the ship. She let out a sound that chilled me to my bones. That mixture of whale song and insect buzzing that I first 154

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heard coming from the Lupus Beacon in my bedroom. It rose from her gullet in great waves, echoing across the cricket pitch to where we were stood on the playground. She held the note for what seemed like an age before stopping abruptly. Her head lowered, her eyes glowing green, and smiled that same sickening smile. ‘What’s she doing?’ George whispered. ‘I think she’s calling to them.’ ‘Calling to who?’ ‘The others.’ In the distance we could hear the same awful sound calling back to her from every direction.

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Chapter 30 ‘Pepper! She’s here!’ ‘Who?’ Pepper’s head emerged from the store room at the back of his lab. His glasses were covered in dust and there were cobwebs in his hair. ‘Mackenzie!’ I screamed. ‘And she’s coming this way!’ Pepper ran to the door, slammed it shut and turned the lock. 156

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‘That’s not going to keep her out,’ said George. ‘I know. But it might just buy us enough time,’ Pepper replied. Mackenzie’s howl reverberated along the corridor outside. She was already in the building. ‘What are we going to do?’ moaned George. ‘We are going to stick to the plan,’ said Pepper. He dived back into the storeroom before returning with what looked like a wooden box. It had a leather coating and metal clasps on two of its sides. He blew the top layer of dust off it and held it out to us triumphantly. ‘What’s that?’ ‘This, Master George, is my camera,’ he purred.

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George gave the box a hard stare. He looked like he was trying to work out a particularly difficult maths problem. ‘That’s your camera?’ ‘Indeed it is.’ We watched as he undid the two clasps on either side of the box, revealing a camera lens on the end of a concertina. He pulled out the lens, extending it fully, and lifted it up to his eye. ‘Beautiful, isn’t she? It hasn’t got any film in it but the flash should still work all the same.’ ‘What’s film?’ asked George. There was a sudden thump on the lab door causing Pepper to almost drop the camera. The entire door frame rattled as another thump followed. We watched, terrified as the door handle began rapidly moving up and down. ‘Children, step away from the door,’ Pepper whispered. 158

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We moved to the back of the lab and took cover behind a row of work benches. Pepper stood firm, pointing his camera at the entrance into the lab. Another series of blows shook the door. For a moment, I thought the whole thing was going to come crashing down. But then it stopped. I looked at the door handle but it was still. An unnerving silence filled the room. ‘What’s she do…’ The door burst open sending splinters of wood flying through the laboratory like arrows. Mackenzie sprang into the room with a howl, landing on all fours in the middle of the floor. Her eyes scanned the room, green and icy, until she spotted George and I behind the benches. ‘There you are,’ she snarled. She set herself, ready to leap to where we were cowering, her limbs like pistons waiting to erupt into life. ‘Not so fast, Mackenzie,’ said Pepper, aiming his camera at her. 159

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‘Mr Heart. I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance,’ she hissed. ‘Say cheese!’ His finger slammed down on the button. The lab was filled with a flash of blinding light as the antique camera clicked. Mackenzie recoiled and began writhing in agony on the lab floor. ‘Stop!’ she wailed, shielding her eyes with her arms. ‘Do it again, Pepper,’ I yelled. Pepper lifted the camera once more and sent another wave of light her way. She arched her back as if she had been electrocuted, her howls of pain turning into a whimper. ‘AGAIN!’ I roared.

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He aimed the camera at her and pushed the button again. The camera clicked but nothing happened. No flash. Nothing. ‘Pepper?’ We watched as he pressed the button a fourth time. Again, no flash. ‘I don’t understand. It’s never done this before,’ he stammered. Mackenzie had stopped moaning and was now on her hands and knees. A revolting wheezing sound was coming from her mouth that slowly grew into a rasping laugh. ‘You’re… going… to regret that, old man,’ she barked. Pepper started to back away from her, clicking the camera at her desperately. Mackenzie stood up slowly and stretched, the bones in her neck cracking a dreadful rhythm. She lunged at him, swiping the camera out of his hands in one fluid motion. It hit the floor, shattering into pieces. Her terrible eyes sparkled with contempt. 161

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‘Now; what am I going to do with you three?’

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Chapter 31 The throbbing in the back of my head intensified as I struggled to open my eyes. I didn’t know how long I had been out for, but every bone in my body was crying out in pain. I tried to move my arms and legs but couldn’t. I was upright but bound by something cold and wet. My limbs felt numb, like half my body was asleep. I blinked hard trying to clear my blurred vision. Ahead of me, I could just make out the outline of a large door way, the light from the other side of it bleeding through. I craned my neck to my left and saw George. His eyes were closed, his body still. His arms and legs were encased in a substance that I couldn’t identify. Its surface was greasy and glowing and holding him firmly in place against the wall. I looked down at my own legs and realised I was smothered in the 163

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same oily globules. I looked to my right expecting to see Pepper in the same half mummified state, but he wasn’t there. ‘George,’ I whispered. He didn’t answer. He didn’t even stir. ‘George!’ His eyes flickered for a moment before closing again. I looked around the room, my eyes finally free of the sleep clouds. The walls either side of us were bare brick and sandstone. There were shelves built in to the walls at head height filled with rows of lit candles. Above the tiny, dancing flames, were windows, the glass stained and illustrated with saints and apostles. I knew where we were; the school chapel. We were still on the school campus. I began scanning the floor frantically, hoping I would find something that might help us break free of our revolting restraints but found nothing. I tried again to pull my hands free, but it was no use. We were stuck.

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‘George!’ I whispered. ‘Wake up!’ This time he did respond, his body twitching violently in a desperate attempt to break out. ‘Mags?’ he said weakly. ‘I’m here, George. Wake up slow.’ ‘Where are we?’ ‘I think we’re in the chapel.’ ‘What happened?’ ‘I don’t know. The last thing I remember is being in the lab. How about you? ‘Same,’ he muttered. ‘No, wait…Pepper! She attacked Pepper! She went berserk! We tried to stop her, Mags. I think. And then…nothing. That’s all I can remember. What are we going to do?’ 165

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‘We need to get ou…’ ‘I’m afraid that’s quite impossible.’ I froze. Mackenzie was stood at the entrance. She looked more feral, more dangerous than ever. Her suit was in tatters and her hair was bedraggled. She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling in quick, short bursts. It was then that I realised we had hurt her. She limped towards us, her left leg trailing behind her along the dusty floor. In her right hand was the Lupus Beacon. She brandished it at us like a weapon, waving it up and down. ‘For such an intelligent girl, you have made some very silly mistakes, haven’t you? Margret Jones.’ That voice. Gone was Mackenzie’s usual nasal tone, replaced by the same metallic whispering I had heard coming through the beacon. She took another step forwards. ‘Get away from us!’ I roared.

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‘Careful now,’ she teased. ‘You wouldn’t want to end up like them, would you?’ Her clawed finger pointed up at the ceiling. Above us was a stomach-turning sight. Agent Glass and his men were cocooned in the same vile substance that we were trapped in, only it covered them entirely. Their faces were twisted and contorted, set solid in agonising expressions beneath the translucent larva. As I looked closer, I recognised another face entombed in the grisly nest: Mackenzie’s. The real Mackenzie. ‘What have you done to her?’ I screamed. ‘What I needed to. Once I had absorbed her likeness, I had no further use for her.’ ‘You’re a monster!’ ‘No, child; I’m the next step in your evolution.’ ‘You’ll pay for this!’

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Tears were streaming down my face now, the anger bubbling inside me too much to bare. The thing masquerading as Mackenzie slithered towards me, stopping within an inch of my face. I turned away from her, spluttering. Her breath was fire and disease. ‘Right now, as we speak, your pitiful little island is finally going to understand what the true meaning of Great is. We have waited patiently for this day to come, lying dormant in your hideous little schools, camouflaged as your head teachers, but no more. We are waking up from our hibernation and our rebirth is about to begin.’ She prowled the space in front of us like a caged lion waiting to be fed. The skin on her face hung loose and lifeless as if she was wearing a mask. Ripples of distortion rolled across her body, her features struggling to stay in their current form. For the briefest of moments, her guise seemed to slip and I caught a glimpse of the creature that was lying beneath. ‘What are you?’ I shuddered. ‘I am Mormo and I am the future,’ she cackled.

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‘What do you want?’ George squeaked. ‘To feed. My Mormolyce are starving. And a mother wouldn’t let her children go without now, would she?’ I started to laugh. A deep, almost hysterical laugh. It rose from the bottom of my stomach, spilling out into the room in uncontrollable bursts. I looked at George. He stared at me, fear and confusion shining in his eyes until he began laughing too. We howled in unison, my eyes welling up with maniacal tears. It felt good to laugh. Mormo’s face became twisted and gnarled. She stopped patrolling the floor. ‘And just what are you laughing at?’ she growled. ‘You,’ I giggled. ‘You won’t be laughing when my ship opens up and my children are unleashed.’ She held the Lupus Beacon up to her left eye as if she was looking through a telescope. The cylinder buzzed and a slim beam of light, electric blue, shot out. It buzzed again 169

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in recognition and the light was retracted. There was a hiss as a panel opened up on the tube’s side, revealing a hidden control pad of buttons and dials. ‘Once I press this button, our feast will begin. My children are so very, very hungry.’ She ran a hideous snake-like tongue over her lips. ‘I think I’ll save you two for myself. In fact, I might have a taste right now…’ She stopped abruptly, turning her head towards the doors. She seemed to sniff the air, like an animal detecting its prey. She dropped down to her knees and placed her ear to the chapel’s tiled floor. There was a rumbling in the distance. The more we listened the louder it became. It sounded like a stampede. Then there were voices. Not voices, but chanting. And it was coming closer. She turned back to face me, her eyes suddenly filled with uncertainty. I smiled. ‘What have you done?’ she croaked.

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‘Don’t worry,’ I smirked. ‘It’s just the children.’

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Chapter 32 Mormo stood on the chapel steps staring out on to the school field. Her ship still hung low in the sky, its static shadow casting an unceasing darkness over the ground below. But in that half-light was a glorious sight that banished the anger and fear that had taken root in my mind. There was a sea of children marching across the cricket pitch, their footfalls and voices getting louder every second. There must have been hundreds of them, all dressed in the Pennyfield School uniform. As they got closer, I could see that there were pupils from every year group, boys and girls, big and small. And ahead of the heaving throng was one person, steering them all the way; Ellie Rigby. She led them to the edge of the field, directing their chanting with a call and response. 172

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‘What do we want?’ she roared. ‘No more aliens!’ came the masses’ reply. ‘When do we want it?’ ‘Now!’ The marching stopped, but the chanting went on, each child stamping their feet in time with Now! Mormo turned her head back in our direction and smiled menacingly. ‘Is that it? My dear, all you have done is brought my Lyce their supper right to them. But they do so enjoy the hunt,’ she sighed. ‘Oh well; you can’t have it all.’ She turned back to face the Pennyfield hordes and stepped out into the fading light. She began clapping her hands together slowly in sarcastic applause, pointing her arms left and right at every child on the front line.

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‘Well done!’ she cawed. ‘You are a credit to your species. You will be a worthy meal for the children of Mormo.’ ‘We’re not afraid of you, you loser!’ Ellie shouted. ‘You will be, child. You will be.’ Mormo turned once more, waving the Lupus Beacon above her head at us. ‘You have led your lambs to the slaughter, child. Now meet my wolves.’ She pressed a button on the cylinder’s hidden control panel. We watched as Mormo hobbled forwards until she was directly below the centre of the ship. There was a sudden crunch of machinery and the sound of ancient cogs turning for the first time in an age. The hull of the ship began to transform, as a circular opening emerged at the heart of the vessel. Blasts of gas burst out from the seams in great gusts around the rim. I could see now that it was a platform and it was being lowered down. As the opening grew bigger, shafts of red light rained down covering all of the children in a crimson glow. The ship pulsed and hummed in a steady rhythm like a car engine 174

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waiting for the breaks to be released. Some of the children started to back away, unnerved by what they were seeing. Some had covered their mouths with their blazers to avoid breathing in the leaking fumes. ‘Oh, it’s too late to run, children,’ Mormo cackled. She opened her arms wide, tilting her head back towards the ship. The circular gateway was almost at ground level now. Through the blood red fog, I could just make out a staircase protruding from the bowels of the ship connecting to the platform. At the top of the stairs was an enormous, twitching shadow that seemed to be writhing and shifting in shape rapidly. A choir of tormented howls and snarls echoed through the opening, wild and hungry, just like Mormo had warned. With a flick of her wrist, she beckoned them down the metallic steps like she was conducting an orchestra. The howling intensified as the convulsing shadow bounded out of the ship. When it reached the bottom of the staircase, the shadow separated revealing a horde of hideous creatures. The Mormolyce. They were not much more than shadows, their skin dark and smooth like a seal’s. Their arms reached further than ours, hanging low and heavy below their knees. At the end of these arms were spade like hands with webbing between five gnarled claws that were curled into fists. Their heads were small and perfectly round and were 175

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completely featureless apart from two headlamp eyes that burned with green fire. I wondered where their mouths were. I didn’t have to wait long to find out. As they lumbered forward, they began howling again, cavernous mouths opening up on their shrunken heads full of crooked, razor sharp teeth. Their pace quickened as they reached the end of the runway, their eyes even brighter as they inched closer to the children. A hideous tongue dropped out of one of their mouths bringing stagnant saliva falling from its jaws. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Mags,’ George moaned. ‘It’s okay.’ But suddenly I wasn’t so sure. There were too many of them and they were still emptying out of the ship by the dozen, driving the Pennyfield pupils further and further back towards school. When there was no more ground to retreat on, and when I was convinced that I had made a terrible mistake, the conveyor belt of monsters seemed to stop. The final cluster of creatures staggered out of the ship to assemble with the rest of Mormo’s chilling children. They stood, twisted and famished, waiting for their invitation to feed. Mormo looked them over, cooing

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and fussing at the few nearest to her like an overindulgent mother. ‘Not long now, my beauties,’ she sang. ‘Mother’s got you all a nice treat. Lots of nice treats.’ One of them lurched forward, unable to contain its hunger any longer, and made a dash towards the children. ‘Ah, ah, ah; I didn’t say go.’ Mormo pressed another button on the Lupus Beacon’s keypad sending some kind of shockwave through the starving creature’s body. It recoiled in pain, aiming a shrill yelp at the sky, and dropped back into the pack with its head bowed. ‘Now, on my command,’ Mormo said, tapping a claw on the button she had just pressed. ‘ON MY COMMAND!’ Mormo spun on her heels to face Ellie, her face a mixture of disbelief and amusement. 177

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‘PRESENT ARMS!’ Ellie roared. ‘Well, well, well; maybe we will be making a game of this, after all,’ she hissed as Ellie’s army all began pulling mobile phones out of their blazer pockets. ‘READY!’ bellowed Ellie. ‘On my signal,’ snarled Mormo. ‘AIM!’ The children thrusted their phones in front of them. ‘GO!’ ‘FIRE!’ Mormo’s monsters hurtled towards the pupils only to be met by an avalanche of flashing lights as the children took photograph after photograph on their phones. As each creature advanced forward, it was sent reeling backwards 178

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as the lightning storm hit it. Wave after wave, the hideous beasts came, thrashing and slashing their deadly claws at the clusters of children. Each time another platoon of Mormolyce attacked, they were sent tumbling backwards by another torrent of light. I watched as one of the Lyce leapt through the air, clearing the first few rows of pupils. It landed in the centre of Ellie’s army, sending at least a dozen children sprawling. It launched itself at one of the stunned soldiers, pinning them to the ground by their shoulders. Rancid spittle dripped from its impossible mouth, seeping between its gums and on to its victim’s horrified face. It let out a blood curdling roar and aimed a savage bite at the fallen child. Before it managed to sink its teeth in, it was hit with a flurry of flares from the phones. The brute recoiled in agony, covering its swollen eyes with its talons. Behind it, the Mormolyce had started to retreat. The air was filled with their wounded howls, some fleeing back into the ship in fear. The stronger ones battled on, taking drunken swipes at the enemy ahead of them, but they could not get close enough. ‘KEEP GOING! Ellie rallied. The onslaught of flashes continued as more and more creatures retreated back up the ship’s steps, beaten and terrified, until only a handful remained. One by one they dragged themselves away from the battlefield, their 179

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emaciated bodies broken and scarred. When the last of the Lyce had crawled back into the belly of the ship, the children turned their attention to Mormo, concentrating their cameras on her. With each shot, I felt our squalid shackles loosen, Mormo’s powers waning as she succumbed to the attack. ‘NO!’ she shrieked, covering her face with her contorted claws. She twisted and turned in every direction, frantically searching for an escape route, but Ellie’s army was closing in on all sides. A deluge of flashes rained down upon her, each spark of light weakening her more and more until she collapsed on to the field in a swirl of smoke. ‘CEASE FIRE!’ Ellie ordered. The blizzard of light gradually came to a halt, the last remaining flashes fizzling out like spent sparklers. The children stood still, waiting for their next command, their phones still aimed at the monster on the floor. A single flash went off from somewhere in the middle of the ranks of pupils, someone not convinced that Mormo was done. They needn’t have worried. She was down and out. She lay in the grass, her charred remains jerking violently with 180

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each desperate breath. For a second, I almost felt sorry for her. Then I looked up at the rafters on the chapel’s ceiling and was reminded of what she had done. I managed to crawl out of the wilting restraints and started to pull George free too. When we were finally free of our putrid prison, we watched through the chapel’s doorway as the children began backing away from her. I saw her chest rise and fall one last time before she breathed no more. ‘I think she might be dead,’ I whispered to George. ‘I think it might be over.’ But I was wrong.

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Chapter 33 The sky was a deep crimson, like a million sunsets. But there was a darkness too. Creeping over everything it could find, smothering and suffocating all that it touched. The flames in the distance danced wearily in the breeze as the scorched ship smouldered beneath them. The children had all scattered as soon as the countdown had begun. Mormo’s final movement launching a self-destruct sequence that nobody saw coming. It was Ellie who had heard the beeping, picking up the Lupus Beacon after it had fallen out of Mormo’s talons. The numbers on the clock’s screen had returned and the countdown had resumed. It could have all been so different. If they had just listened to me, if they had just believed me and if they had run when I told them to, then maybe we could have 182

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ended this sooner. I looked up at the desolate moon and shuddered. ‘Maggie, you okay?’ George. My best friend in the world. In the universe. ‘No, George. I’m pretty far from okay,’ I snapped. ‘What do we do now?’ George asked. The sirens were getting closer. The police would be here in a matter of minutes. Then the army. They would probably want to question us. All of us. And what would we tell them? What could we possibly say? How would we explain any of this? They would never make sense of it. I couldn’t make sense of it. ‘Pepper would know what to do,’ I sighed. ‘Maggie, he’s gone,’ whispered George. ‘We need to accept that.’

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George was right. Pepper was the only one who had believed us. He was with us right from the start. Until the end. If it had not been for him, we would never have been able to end this. ‘We need to go, Mags.’ ‘Go where, George? We can’t just run away from this. From her.’ I pointed to where the creature lay on the school field. Its skin seemed to shimmer in the moonlight like ripples on a river. Its glassy eyes reflected the sea of stars blinking above. It was almost beautiful, in its own way, lying gently in the grass. Everything still. Then it spoke. ‘You don’t know what you’ve done,’ it croaked. No longer Mackenzie. Mormo. George gripped my arm, digging his finger nails into my skin in terror. But I wasn’t afraid. Not anymore.

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‘You could have been great again. We were going to rebuild you. Regenerate you. Your DNA and ours. We could have been one. A beautiful hybrid. You could have been perfect.’ ‘We already are,’ I snarled. ‘You could have had power beyond your wildest dreams. No limits. All of your human imperfections gone.’ ‘Our imperfections are what make us human.’ ‘But you could be so much more,’ it spluttered, wincing in pain. Its eyes flickered, the green beginning to fade to grey. Its skin seemed paler now. The rattling of its breath becoming more and more distant. ‘What have you done with Pepper?’ I hissed. ‘He’s a child of Mormo now.’

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It raised its head one last time and nodded at the chapel, the ghost of a smile gliding across its face. Then it was gone. ‘What did she mean?’ George squeaked. ‘I don’t Know, but I think we’d better head back inside. If there’s a chance that he’s still alive…’ We raced back across the cricket pitch, leaping over the crop circles that had started all of this. The police sirens were growing louder. Time was running out. When we were within a few metres of the chapel, I slowed to a walk, grabbing George’s hand in the darkness. ‘Mags?’ ‘I’m fine. Just don’t let go, okay?’ We crept over the threshold, eyes fixed on the beams of the chapel roof. Mackenzie’s chrysalis was no longer on the ceiling. Instead, it lay in a festering pool of plasma between the pews below, drippings still falling from where it had once been. I looked into the pod. Agent 186

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Glass, his men and Mackenzie were still embalmed within, in indefinite stasis. But there was no sign of anyone else. Of Pepper. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Maggie; look!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; George pointed. I followed his gaze. In the light of the waxing moon I saw something that made me grip his hand even tighter. Leading away from the grisly nest and out into the night was a set of footprints.

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Chapter 34 It was all over the news. It was all over social media. It was everywhere. There was no escaping it. Mum and Dad were overcome by it all and insisted that we all sat down to watch the news channel together. ‘Our little girl on the tele!’ Mum squealed. ‘Again!’ ‘I always knew you were going to be famous one day!’ Dad proclaimed. I was curled up on the sofa, snugly in between them both, thankful that I was back safe at home. They held on to 188

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me like they were scared they were going to lose me all over again. They had been that way since I arrived home and I had told them what had happened in school. I told them about the attack in the lab and being trapped in the chapel. I told them about Mormo and the Lyce. I told them about Ellie and how she had single-handedly assembled an army of children using nothing but her phone and social media. I told them about the battle between the Pennyfield pupils and the monsters and how they had driven them back inside the ship. I told them about the ship self-destructing and Mormo’s final words. I let the news explain the rest. ‘Tomorrow, the extensive clean-up operation will begin, but tonight it is a time of celebration for the people of Great Britain. It is also a time for thanks. Thanks to the children of Pennyfield School for their heroics in preventing the alien invasion that would surely have ended life on this planet as we know it. These fearless pupils demonstrated a courage and ingenuity that showed the rest of the country how to defend themselves and their liberty.’ Abbey Star was stood outside the gates of the school, the top of the still flaming ship just visible behind her. As she spoke, aerial shots of the field showed firefighters trying to tame the blaze while hordes of soldiers went about 189

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containing the area. In the middle of it all, a white square could be seen stretched out on the floor concealing the creature that lay beneath it. The news said that most of the ships had been destroyed in similar acts of selfdestruction, but some had fled from our skies, disappearing from our atmosphere as silently as they had appeared. ‘So the head teachers were aliens all this time?’ Mum asked. ‘No, Mum; just Mackenzie. The others had just been possessed, I guess. Brain washed. They were like puppets. Look,’ I said, nodding at the television. Footage of some of the head teachers being reunited with their families filled the screen, tears of relief streaming down their faces, their ordeal finally over. Shots of people dancing in the street and children laughing and hugging each other played in a loop as Abbey continued her broadcast. ‘We have received reports that the Prime Minister is in a stable condition as she recovers from the injuries she sustained in an attack earlier this week. It is believed that 190

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she has regained full consciousness and that her injuries are not thought to be life threatening.’ ‘I still think she’s an alien,’ Dad muttered. ‘She was just another puppet, Dad. Nothing but a dummy.’ ‘You can say that again.’ There was a knock at the door, startling us all. Dad got up to answer it, shimmying along the carpet in his slippers. As he got up, Mum pulled me even more tightly against her. She kissed the top of my head firmly. ‘Maggie,’ Dad shouted. ‘It’s for you.’ I slid out of Mum’s clutches and made my way into the hallway. At the front door was Constable Desmond. He was dressed in plain clothes. I almost didn’t recognise him without his pad and pen in his hand. ‘Are you sure you won’t come in?’ Dad asked him. 191

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‘No. Thanks. I can’t stay long,’ he replied. ‘I’ll leave you two to it then.’ I stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. ‘Maggie, I owe you an apology. You were right all along. If we had listened to you then…’ ‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘It’s not. I let you and your family down. I let the country down. I shouldn’t have left you to fight this thing alone.’ ‘I wasn’t alone. I had my best friend alongside me every step of the way.’ ‘You’re a good kid. You both are. I was wrong about you and your teacher. I’m sorry for your loss.’ He turned around and began walking towards the end of the driveway. 192

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‘Have they found him yet?’ He paused for a moment, then looked back over his shoulder. ‘No, not yet. But they’re still looking.’ He hesitated, stealing a quick look behind him. ‘They think he’s still out there,’ he whispered. ‘They just don’t know where. It’s like he’s disappeared. It’s a mystery.’ He turned away again and made his way back on to the street. ‘Another one for you and your friend to solve,’ he smiled and then he was gone. So many unanswered questions were swirling around my mind. Would the Mormolyce return? Who were Agent Glass and his men working for? Where was Pepper? 193

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I looked up at the empty sky and breathed in the morning. The air tasted sweeter somehow, the sun warmer. My heart swooned as a chattering of starlings pirouetted above me. The blue was theirs once more. The land was ours. And I had another mystery waiting for me.

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