Read Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series) for Free Online Page B

entrance. Martin looked at Darcy. He decided
to try to forget what had happened on Pyridos—for now, at least. He smiled.
    “Looks like it’s
just the two of us, Darcy.”
     
    *
     
    Martin and Darcy were standing
outside the gate of a grand house. Martin pressed the intercom. They had called
in advance, so Harvey was expecting them.
    “Oh, hello!”
said an American voice. “I’ll let you in!”
    The gate swung
open automatically, and Martin and Darcy walked along the gravel path towards
Harvey’s house. Harvey greeted them at the door and led them inside. They
descended the steps and followed him into his underground museum.
    Harvey led them
to a glass case, and pointed at the exhibit.
    “So that’s it,
right?”
    Darcy nodded.
The blue triangular prism was inside the glass case.
    “And you said
it’s a… recall whatsit?”
    “A recall
device,” said Martin, nodding. “There’s a fleet of ships heading to Earth,
which means trouble. We need the recall device to summon an ancient warrior to
defend the planet.”
    Harvey laughed.
“Fair enough.”
    “So, can we
have it?” said Darcy.
    The American
businessman laughed again.
    “It’s not as
simple as that, Darcy. That little thing cost me over a million dollars.”
    “But the world
is in danger!” said Darcy.
    “Not my
problem,” said Harvey. He smiled. “I am grateful to you, Martin, for fixing my
telescope last year. But you must understand that I can’t just give away
something so valuable.”
    Martin paused.
He had known all along what he would have to do. But it still seemed a great
shame. He held out a hand to Darcy.
    “Darcy. Your
bag please.”
    She passed her
bag to Martin, and he took out the Coincidence Machine. Harvey’s eyes lit up.
    “What’s that
contraption?” he said.
    “This is a
Coincidence Machine,” said Martin. “It was given to us by an Axis Lord called
Dr Ackerman.”
    Harvey took the
cube and held it with both hands.
    “Interesting,”
said Harvey. “What does it do?”
    “It gives you
good luck. But it’s pretty random. It doesn’t work all the time.”
    Harvey looked like
an excited little boy in a sweet shop. The man took a coin from his pocket and
tossed it into the air. The machine made a clicking sound. Harvey tried to
catch the coin but it dropped to the floor. The businessman crouched to pick it
up. The coin had landed on its edge, right next to another shiny object.
    “It’s my
cufflink!” said Harvey, picking up the coin along with his gold cufflink. “I
lost that stupid thing weeks ago… guess this thing really is what you
say. It’s incredible.”
    “So you’ll
swap?” said Tommy.
    Harvey smiled.
    “You’ve got
yourselves a deal. Let me get the key for this case…”

CHAPTER 5: THE JUNGLE OF
WORMWOOD
     
    “The British and American
governments are stockpiling arms. Russia has apparently cut off all diplomatic
channels to Britain and the USA. There are widespread fears of an outbreak of
war…”
    Martin watched
the TV report. If only the governments knew about the real enemy—the fleet of
ships heading towards Earth. He picked up the recall device and held it up to
his eye. He needed to activate the device… but how? Why couldn’t alien
technology ever come with an instruction manual? Martin took the Truthful Eye
from his pocket and looked at the recall device through it. It looked exactly
the same. He sighed.
    “What’s that?”
said his dad.
    Martin hadn’t
seen him come into the living room. He hid the recall device under a cushion.
    “Nothing,” said
Martin, unconvincingly.
    His dad smiled
slightly. “Well, you’re entitled to have secrets. Everybody has them. I’ll give
you a couple of minutes.”
    Martin’s dad
walked back out of the room and Martin stuffed the recall device into his
trouser pocket. There had to be some way to make it work—they had to
summon Abaddon before the ships arrived on Earth.
    Martin glanced
at the news report again and shook his head. Whoever