Read History Keepers 1: The Storm Begins for Free Online

listening. ‘It means that the power is purer in you than in others. Diamonds are strong, the sharp ones the strongest.’ Then she confided, ‘What Jupitus Cole wouldn’t give for diamonds!’
    ‘So tell me – what is this ability?’
    Rose looked at Jake gravely. ‘You can travel into history . You can travel to it as other people travel around the world. And with diamonds, you can visit every destination, near and far.’
    Jake looked at his aunt and burst out laughing. But it was a nervous, uncertain laugh: was she completely crazy too ? he wondered.
    ‘I’m not saying it is easy. No journey is easy. A simple journey across London can be full of complications . And a journey to another place in history is as fraught as anything you can imagine. But you can do what others cannot.’
    Jake looked up at his aunt and shook his head. He wanted to tell her that he’d had enough of this nonsense, but the look on her face remained serious.
    ‘I know you will have a lot of questions,’ she continued. ‘But soon you will see for yourself. Tonight we are going on a journey.’
    ‘To France?’
    ‘To Normandy, to be precise. Though it is not the Normandy of today. We’re going to 1820; that’s Point Zero, you see.’
    ‘Point Zero?’
    ‘The headquarters of the History Keepers’ Secret Service. That’s what all these people work for. These people and many more. The History Keepers’ Secret Service has agents from every part of the world and from every corner of history. It’s an important organization. Perhaps the most important that ever existed.’
    Even though Jake felt a tingle go down his spine and the hairs stand up on the back of his neck, he continued to protest, ‘Rose, really, as much I would like to travel to history , as you put it—’
    ‘It all sounds ludicrous, I know. And don’t ask me to explain the science of it, I’m useless at it. Jupitus could do a much better job. Or ask Charlie Chieverley – he’s the real scientist. It is all to do with our atoms. They possess this memory of history – every single moment of it.’
    Jake suddenly remembered the curious phrase he’d heard on deck. ‘When Jupitus said 1506 , what exactly did he mean?’ he asked nervously.
    ‘What’s that, darling?’ Rose said vaguely, fiddling with her bangles and avoiding his eye.
    ‘1506,’ repeated Jake. ‘Don’t say he meant the year 1506?’
    Rose gave a short laugh. ‘I think that’s what he did mean, but let’s not worry about it now. Alan and Miriam were always disappearing. That was their style – instinctive.’
    ‘1506?’ Jake shook his head. ‘You’re trying to tell me that’s where they are?’
    Rose grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. ‘We’re going to find them, Jake,’ she vowed. ‘We’ll find them – I have no doubt about that!’
    Jake knew, in that instant, that Rose was not lying. He understood nothing of why or how or who could travel to history, but he knew – he could feel it in the pit of his stomach – that it might all be true. In that moment, he also finally understood – and it was a startling revelation – that his parents were indeed missing.
    One of the cabin doors opened and the lady in the fur coat swept into the room. She stopped when she saw Jake and Rose.
    ‘Oh … isn’t it dinner?’ she asked, sounding irritated.
    ‘Any moment, I think,’ Rose told her. ‘How are you, Oceane? You haven’t changed a bit.’
    ‘And you look … essentially the same,’ was the best Oceane could come up with. ‘Perhaps a little saggier under the eyes.’
    ‘And you haven’t lost your talent to flatter,’ Rose giggled in reply. ‘This is Jake, my nephew.’
    ‘Oceane Noire,’ the lady said dismissively. ‘You don’t mind if I linger. My cabin is like an icebox, as usual.’ She installed herself on a chaise longue, then lit a cheroot and gazed with mournful theatricality through the porthole.
    Presently two crewmen arrived and