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room. ‘Choccy flavour.’

    Spud couldn’t resist; his long tongue slapped on to page six, his eyes spinning in chocolate heaven. Lara cast a warning eye. ‘Spud,’ she woofed. ‘Dogs and chocolate don’t mix.’
    Ollie had ripped out a page and was chewing it. ‘
Nom
,’ he said. ‘It smells
and
tastes of chocolate.’
    ‘Exactly,’ grinned the scientist. ‘Imagine how many children will want to read my brand-new “sensory stories”. Imagine when all books smell and taste, as well as pleasing the eye and ear.’
    Ben was licking the book. But he looked unsure. ‘So you’ve invented a book that smells and tastes of chocolate. I’m not sure I get the point.’
    ‘The point, Master Benjamin,’ said the professor, rolling his eyes in frustration, ‘is that it’s not just chocolate. All books can come alive. You can use my invention for any flavour and smell. It doesn’t have to be just chocolate.
The Secret Garden
will be roses and fresh air.
James and the Giant Peach
…’
    ‘You could make that smell of giants,’ interrupted Ollie.
    ‘Or peaches,’ corrected the professor. ‘That might work better.’
    The family were silent for a minute, brains whirring.
    Spud was wagging so hard his body was
rocking.
I hope he does a Peppa Pig one
, thought the puppy.
A spicy bacon-flavoured book. Yum!
    ‘A couple of problems spring to mind,’ snorted Sophie. ‘First of all, won’t kids just eat the books instead of reading them? I don’t think a book needs to be a snack.’
    ‘Well, yes,’ flustered the professor. ‘That is a possibility.’
    ‘And I’d avoid
Winnie the Pooh
,’ suggested Ollie. ‘That might put children off reading forever!’
    ‘Quite,’ smiled the professor. He took a deep breath and puffed out his chest, trying to hide the deflation he felt on the inside.
Maybe I’m too old
, he thought. He cast his mind back to the wonderful inventions of the past. He looked at Spud licking at the chocolate book.
And it’s come to this. A chocolate book and a Lycra catsuit
. He shook his head and exhaled, his shoulders sagging.
Rocket science it isn’t
.
    Eddie put on his extra-magnified spectacles and studied his calculations one last time. ‘Rocket science,’ he chuckled, ‘my favourite subject.’ His merry band of ancient volunteers didn’t know much about the Past Master. If they’d
been able to access the Internet, they would have found out he was a war veteran, aeroplane engineer, scientist and inventor. He was proof that age was no restriction on ideas.
    His tweezers rummaged through the small mound of diamonds, searching for the best one. He chose the largest and dropped it into place. He wasn’t just working on an invention. He was planning a revolution. Eddie had spent forty-five years as an engineer and, although his hands were a bit wobbly, his brain was in fantastic shape. He’d started out designing and
building aeroplane engines. After the Second World War he’d been part of a top-secret government project that was involved with advanced weaponry. His team had built the world’s first laser gun. It sat, unused, in an underground bunker. But the brainpower behind it had been put to very good use.

    His team watched as the Past Master checked the drawing on the table in front of him. It showed a detailed diagram of a new type of weapon, something the team knew as the time machine. Eddie chose another diamond, a small one, and fixed it into place.
    He looked up at his followers and their faces lit up in matching wrinkly grins. There was a saying: ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, and it annoyed him greatly. Project GoD was staffed entirely by ‘old dogs’ and they were going to teach the world a new trick or two.
    ‘The Internet has changed the world,’ he told them. ‘Destroyed it completely. Everything is so fast, but nobody seems happy.’ The Past Master looked out of his office window, the top floor of the Shard, the highest workplace in Europe.