The Hollywood Mission Read Online Free

kitchen, Max’s appetite bit into her stomach like an overexcited chihuahua.
    Mealtimes at Mindawarra were usually accompanied by the clanging and clattering of plates and cutlery, mingled with a sense of urgency that came with placing Ben and Linden in front of food. When they were up to their second helpings, Max had had enough of being patient. She needed to ask the one important question. ‘How’s the Time and Space Machine?’
    Ben had a mouth full of baked lamb, pumpkin and gravy. Max watched him chew it slowly and swallow before he finally said, ‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘Want to try her out?’
    Max knocked her tea cup across the table where it somersaulted into the mashed potato. ‘Yeah! Sorry.’
    Ben wiped his napkin across his mouth. ‘Right, then. Follow me.’
    Ben led the way down the long, musty hall to the loungeroom. He threw back a tattered rug to reveal a trapdoor, then he lifted the door and made his way down a set of spiralling metal stairs.
    Max had no idea this room held anything more interesting than layers of dust. ‘What’s down there?’
    â€˜The lab,’ Ben’s voice came echoing back.
    â€˜Ben’s shed was a good lab for a while but we needed something more …’ Francis tried to find the right word as he followed Ben. ‘… sophisticated.’
    â€˜There’s a lab under your house?’ Max scowled.
    â€˜Yes. Wonderful, isn’t it?’ Eleanor made her way down the stairs.
    â€˜Why didn’t anyone tell me?’
    â€˜They did. Just now,’ Linden answered as he too disappeared below.
    Max took a deep breath. As much as she’d grown to love these people, they had an annoying habit of staying calm in the face of incredible news.
    When she stepped down into the lab she immediately forgot her bad mood. It still had the usual messiness of Ben’s old lab but underneath the books and newspapers, goggles, boxes, tubes and his miniature replica of Big Ben was a shiny, new lab. Above the polished white floor were chrome benches with beeping, humming lab equipment,but the most exciting bit was a large round platform in the centre of the lab. Sitting under a soft pool of light was a glass cabinet that contained the new Time and Space Machine.
    â€˜Sorry about the mess.’ Ben picked up a lab coat and hung it on an already overcrowded hook. ‘But I think better this way.’
    â€˜That’s what he tells us, anyway,’ said Francis, putting the cap on a tube of glue.
    Ben walked over to the platform and stood by the machine. ‘Come and look.’
    They all made their way past walls and tables covered with maps, diagrams and sketches of plans, strange devices and indecipherable ideas.
    Ben spoke as if he was a tour guide in an ancient museum. ‘After years of tireless research carried out by Eleanor, Francis and me, we created the Matter Transporter which, with the addition of the Time and Space Retractor Meter and the Aurora Stone that Francis discovered in Scotland, was developed into the device you now see before you: The Transporter Mark II, a machine that holds the dream of scientists throughout the centuries: the secret to time travel.’
    Eleanor and Linden burst into spontaneous applause as Francis blushed and again tried tofind somewhere to put his hands. Ben beamed as if he’d just won the Nobel Prize.
    â€˜After making a few adjustments to the Time and Space Retractor Meter, we believe we’ve created the most efficient machine yet, and the good news for you, Max, is that we’ve fixed the glitch with the landings. From now on, you should land exactly as you left.’
    â€˜That’s a relief.’ Linden rolled his eyes and sighed.
    â€˜What are you worried about? You always have the good landings,’ Max complained.
    â€˜Yeah, but now when we’re on missions, I won’t have a partner who smells like the back end of a sheep.’