Blackout Read Online Free PDF Page B

satnav. People will have to slow down. It will force people to talk to each other instead of so-called ‘social networking’
. ‘Facebook,’ he tutted. ‘In my day, we didn’t have virtual friends, we had real ones. We didn’t Tweet, we chatted.’ He checked his watch, waiting for the second hand to click to the upright position.
    ‘I hope he hurries up,’ whispered Edna. ‘I need a wee.’
    The second hand ticked into position. ‘Now!’
    He’d enlisted Barry to help him start the machine. At eighty-one, Barry was one of the younger and fitter members of the Project
GoD team. He yanked the cord and the lawnmower-powered engine spluttered into life. The Past Master adjusted the choke and the machine roared. He smiled at his audience before pressing a big red button and the glitter ball started to glow. He’d calculated that it’d take thirty-six seconds to warm to the correct temperature.
    ‘Soon the intense heat will be magnified by the diamonds at the core and the beam of light will be sufficient to take down the Scottish satellite!’
    But his yell was drowned out by the lawnmower engine. The Past Master stepped back as the machine hummed and spluttered. Exactly thirty-six seconds later a narrow beam of light shot into the sky. Precision was everything. The Past Master was confident that, somewhere in space, a satellite had exploded and Scotland had been plunged back in time. He stepped forward and pulled a lever, the machine clunked to a halt, magnifying the silence. His audience looked at him expectantly.
    ‘Is that it?’ asked Frank. ‘I mean, how do we know if it worked?’
    ‘Trust me, old fellow,’ grinned the Past
Master. ‘The satellite is down and Scotland is offline. It’s been transported back in time. Back to when the world was friendlier and slower. Back to a time when you could leave your back door unlocked. Back to a time when you knew who your neighbours were …’
    There was enthusiastic cheering from his audience. The Past Master clenched a knuckled fist and punched the air in a silent cheer.
    ‘Project GoD – the “Good old Days” – here we come!’

7. Hilda and Harold
    It was the Scottish children that noticed it first. ‘Mammy,’ yelled Alastair, ‘I cannie get my Xbox connection to work.’
    ‘OMG, Facebook’s down,’ yelled fourteen-year-old Moira from her bedroom. ‘Nightmare!’
    Dad huffed into the kitchen. ‘I can’t access my work emails,’ he complained.
    ‘Well, it’s 8 p.m. You shouldn’t be looking at work emails anyway,’ said Mum, looking up from her laptop. ‘Oh bother, I was just watchin’ a funny cat video on YouTube and it’s frozen.’
    Moira came clattering downstairs, shaking her mobile phone. ‘Rubbish phone has no signal,’ she complained, as if it was her mother’s fault.
    The family assembled in the kitchen. ‘No
Internet,’ moaned Dad. ‘What on earth are we going to do?’
    Agent Q beckoned to Professor Cortex and whispered something in his ear. The scientist looked shocked. ‘Are you certain?’
    ‘Affirmative, sir,’ he said, tapping his earpiece. ‘It happened a few moments ago. Direct from MI6.’
    ‘Good heavens above,’ said the professor. He turned to the family and dabbed his brow with a spotty hankie. ‘Things are moving faster than I thought,’ he said, his white face worrying the children.
    ‘What’s up, doc?’ asked Ollie. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
    ‘You may be aware,’ said the professor, tucking his hankie back up his sleeve, ‘that Wales went offline a few hours ago.’
    Mum, Dad and Shakespeare nodded. Everyone else had been having too much fun to watch the news.
    ‘Well, it seems that Scotland has gone too. The whole country has been blacked out. MI6 has informed me that the satellite has been
blown out of orbit. I mean, one minute it was there and the next:
kaboom
,’ he explained, reaching for his hankie again. ‘Enemy agents for sure. Sharp minds too. This is