Day of Rebellion by Johnny O'Brien Read Free Book Online

– because it changed the climate and, well, it seems to have wiped every living thing off the earth. He’s gone back to try and find out what’s done that and to try and fix it.”
    “But in the meantime, this Fenton guy is right on his tail.”
    Jack looked at Angus, “I think it’s pretty obvious what we do now, don’t you?”
    Angus’s lip curled, “I’ve always fancied a trip East.”

Shanghai Surprise
    A shop. To be precise, a hardware shop. Jack first realised this when Angus – disorientated having been catapulted through the temporary wormhole – fell away from the landing spot and careered straight into a tall rack of wooden shelves. The shelving unit collapsed as Angus tumbled into it and there was a loud crash as boxes of nails, screws and washers sprayed everywhere. Angus groaned as he lay in a heap on top of the upended shelving with dust from the floor billowing all around.
    Jack helped him on to his feet. “You OK?”
    “I’ll survive… where are we?”
    Jack looked around anxiously. Their noisy arrival would cause consternation – in seconds they could be surrounded by irate customers and shop assistants. But as his eyes adjusted from the flash of light that signalled their arrival from the twenty-first century, he realised that the shop was strangely dark. In fact the only light seemed to come from the cracks between a series of crude wooden planks nailed across the front windows. It was dusty and gloomy and fortunately there was no one home.
    Jack had managed to grab a Revisionist undervest before they’d left – the time phone fitted snuggly inside it. He pulled out the device from its pouch and flicked it open: 
    Date: August 17th 1860
    Time: 10:35 a.m.
    Location: Shanghai, China.
    His heart gave a little jump.
    Angus dusted himself down, “What next? Fancy a Chinese?”
    “Follow our plan. Try and blend in and make our way to the harbour area so we are ready to meet Dad when the activity log says he will arrive – in three days’ time.”
    “We need to be on our guard though. Fenton arrives tomorrow.”
    “And he might not be too friendly.”
    Jack didn’t hear what Angus said because, as he looked around, something on one of the shelves in the shop distracted him. For a moment he didn’t take any notice, because it was such an everyday object. But as his eyes adjusted further to the gloom in the cluttered shop, he saw there was a whole row of them. He frowned.
    “You coming, Jack? We don’t want the shopkeeper to find we’ve trashed his store…”
    “Angus?”
    “What?”
    “I’m looking at the time phone – and it says we’re in 1860 right… I mean in Shanghai in 1860?”
    “Right.”
    “Did they really have electric kettles then?” Jack nodded to the row of kettles on the shelf in front of them.
    “Sorry?” Angus followed Jack’s gaze. “Yeah – you’re right.And look, over there… they’ve got… well they look like hair dryers .”
    Jack took a neat little torch from his slim backpack and started to flash it around the room. He spotted something on the wall near the shop doorway. A light switch. He flicked it on. There was an alarming crackling noise and then the whole shop was washed in a flickering, weak grey light. The full contents of the shop were unveiled before them – and it was an extraordinary sight. The shop was cluttered with all manner of ironmongery and hardware. But there were also electrical goods – kettles, lamps and heaters. They were electrical consumer goods – but their designs were not modern. They were crudely made and some had strange patterns and markings on them. Jack looked at Angus, who stood in the middle of the shop with a bemused expression on his face.
    “Did they even have electricity… you know, in 1860?” Angus asked, mystified.
    “Well, I think they did, er, do,” Jack said. “But I’m pretty sure they didn’t have electrification of whole cities – you know, to power shops like this one, or to power