The Magic Factory

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The tears came instantly. Oliver fell forward against Armando’s chest, overcome with painful sobs. His whole body shook as he wept. He’d never felt grief like this.

What had he been trying to tell him with his dying breath? Something about time and destiny. It hadn’t made any sense to Oliver at all.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming from behind. He glanced over his shoulder, terrified. Through his tearstained vision he saw the formidable figure of Lucas.

“What did you do to him?” Oliver screamed. “You killed him!”

Lucas’s expression was cold. He looked almost delighted by the scene before him.

“Me?” he questioned with faux innocence. “If anyone had a hand in his death, child, it’s you. The stress you’ve put him under, with your constant questions and incessant demands. Not to mention all the extra work you’ve created for him, with that coat. No one his age and frailty could endure that. Anyway,” he said with a nonchalant sigh, “the ambulance will be here shortly to take him away.”

Oliver felt very scared. He began to tremble. But his arms were locked around Armando protectively. He didn’t want anyone to take his hero away from him. And he didn’t trust Lucas to have really called an ambulance.

“What about the secret invention…” Oliver stammered. “The future of mankind…”

Lucas barked out a laugh. “Oh, that. Armando was prone to flights of melodrama. Honestly, he did suffer somewhat from self-importance.” He shrugged. It was as if the passing of his lifelong colleague was nothing more than an inconvenience to him. “Don’t worry yourself about any of that. It was all mumbo-jumbo. The factory is mine now and so are all of Armando’s inventions. About time too. There’s plenty of things to sell but Armando always kept them secret and hidden.” He rolled his eyes.

“You can’t do this,” Oliver cried. “You can’t sell everything Armando worked on!”

“Yes, I can,” Lucas replied coldly. “And I will. Your inventions too. They all belong to me. And what I will also do is get rid of the riffraff Armando brought with him. You and that mangy dog are no longer welcome here. I’ve already called the police to report you trespassing on my property and your theft of my inventions. You’re going to jail for a long time.”

Oliver felt as if his whole world was collapsing upon him. Suddenly, he saw that Lucas was no longer alone. Two burly security guards had appeared behind him.

“Seize him!” Lucas bellowed.

Oliver had to do something, to escape somehow. In desperation, he leapt up and raced toward the guards at the door. He barreled straight through their legs, his small stature proving beneficial in eluding them just as it had that time with Chris and his cronies.

Out in the corridor, Oliver raced along, weaving through the labyrinth in hopes of losing his pursuers. But he could hear their clattering footsteps not far behind, chasing him through the network of rooms and corridors.

If he could make it to the factory floor he’d be able to escape through the mechanized wall. But that part of the factory was completely exposed and he’d give away his location. And worse, the wall rotated slow enough that they’d be able to grab him before he’d even made it ninety degrees. He had to hide. But where?

It struck Oliver then. There was one place that Lucas couldn’t chase him, one place that he didn’t have clearance to enter. And that was Armando’s secret room. The only problem was, Oliver didn’t have access to it either. But he did have something Lucas didn’t. He was a Seer. He had powers. Maybe he’d be able to open the steel doors with his mind.

As he ran for the secret room, he could hear the security staff behind him, their footsteps pounding. The steel door came into sight. Oliver knew it was locked and almost impenetrable. And he didn’t know enough about being a Seer or how to wield his powers on command. But he was going to have to try.

Concentrating very hard, he tried to switch into the mindset needed to conjure them. A feeling of immense energy flowed into him.

He concentrated his mind on the steel doors, imagining them opening, succumbing to the power of his mind. But nothing happened. As he drew closer to the steel doors they remained shut.

Oliver could hear the security guards gaining on him. Panicking, he looked behind him. He saw the guards and Lucas at the other end of the corridor. But to his surprise, the three of them were held back by Horatio. The dog was growling, gnashing his teeth, and snapping his jaws.

With Horatio distracting them, Oliver turned his focus back to the door. He gritted his teeth. His heart pounded. He channeled everything he could muster into focusing on the doors opening. Then, suddenly, he heard a squeal. Something in the metal was starting to give.

With another sound of churning, twisting metal, the doors suddenly flew open like two metal jaws inviting in their prey. Oliver didn’t even stop to wonder whether he really had done that with his mind. Instead, he hurried straight into the secret room. The doors snapped shut behind him.

Though he’d been afforded a moment of reprieve, Oliver wasn’t about to relax. There was hardly any time to take in what he was seeing. The room was dome-shaped and a series of steps led down from the door he’d entered to the lower level. Here there was a barrier, a sort of fence that encircled the strangest sight Oliver had ever seen.

It was a swirling pool of dark black and purple. The whole thing reminded him of the Bird’s Eye View invention Armando had shown him, but on a much bigger, grander scale. And the substance swirling inside it was less like clouds and more like the swirling vortex of a storm. Lightning forked across the surface.

Oliver hurried to the side, standing beside the barrier, awed and fearful. What could it be?

Just then, Oliver heard pounding on the door. The security guards were trying to batter it down. By the sound of it they were using some kind of battering tool. Oliver wondered how long the doors would hold and keep them out. For all he knew, his powers may have weakened them. There could only be a matter of seconds left for him to make some kind of decision.

Oliver stared down into the swirling vortex. Whatever it was, Armando had believed it would be necessary in the survival of the human species. But on the other hand, he’d been trying to protect Oliver from it, to keep him away from it as long as possible. Whatever it was, it was a thing of immense glory, an invention with shocking magical properties.

The pounding on the doors grew louder. Oliver tore his gaze from the vortex over his shoulder and saw a huge indentation in the middle of the door. They were getting through, quicker than he’d have expected.

There was no time to waste. Oliver hurried around the vortex, searching for any sign as to what the machine might be, or how it might be operated.

At last he caught sight of a large button on the wall. It was a huge red push button, the type you’d expect to operate a nuclear weapon. Pressing it seemed like the last thing Oliver should do, and yet some instinctive knowledge within him knew it was precisely what he had to.

He ran for it, just as the steel doors yielded to another blow. They were opening a crack now, enough for him to see Lucas and the security guards on the other side. The battering ram they’d been using was thrown to the side and in its place was a large jack, the type that could be used to winch a vehicle as big as a monster truck. In just a matter of moments, they’d be inside.

Without another second to deliberate, Oliver slammed his palm on the big red button.

Immediately, the purple vortex began to swirl. And from inside came the sound of ticking. Not the ticking of a bomb, but the ticking of a clock. An enormous clock. The ticking grew louder and faster, and a display screen that had been in darkness before came suddenly to life. There was a string of red numbers upon it and they were quickly counting backward. It took Oliver a matter of seconds to work out that he was staring at a date—year, month, day, hour, minute, second—and that they were reducing at an increasingly fast pace.

The pieces all clicked into piece. Armando had told him to remember the time. The vortex was a time machine! Oliver’s quest, his destiny to save mankind, meant going back in time.

Suddenly, the doors behind him sprang fully open. In bounded Lucas and his security. They ran for him, arms outstretched.

Without missing a beat, Oliver ran full pelt for the vortex, propelling himself as fast as his legs could go. The guards were right behind him, barely millimeters from grasping him. With every ounce of power he possessed, Oliver leapt. He felt fingers clasp onto his leg but it was too late, he was already airborne, the force in his leap strong enough to overpower the fingertips that had only just caught him.

Suddenly, he was over the barrier. Now there was nothing between him and the vortex. He squeezed his eyes shut and plunged inside. With an enormous flash of white light, Oliver Blue disappeared.

PART TWO

CHAPTER TWELVE

Oliver opened his eyes to discover he was standing in the same room he’d been in before. Only now the swirling purple vortex was gone. Gone, too, were Lucas and his security men. Instead, smoke was swirling from the time machine.

A second later, there was a huge explosion. Lights flashed. Black smoke billowed upward. The force sent Oliver flying backward. He hit the wall hard and his head spun from the impact.

Stars obscured his vision and the smoke blinded him. But as the smoke cleared, Oliver saw the destruction that lay ahead of him. The time machine was gone. Not just broken, but completely eradicated, as if it had never existed.

Suddenly, some debris from the machine clunked to the ground before him. They looked like the wooden numbers you’d get to keep score at a baseball game. They read: 1944.

Oliver blinked and looked around. Had he really gone back in time? Back to 1944? And had his only way home just gone up in smoke? Was he stuck here in the past?

He pulled himself to standing. Cautiously, he walked to the door of the room. It wasn’t made of steel anymore but thick, dark oak.

Unsure of what awaited him on the other side, Oliver tried the handle. It turned easily and yielded to his force. He pushed open the door, his stomach in knots of anticipation.

The sight awaiting him stole the breath from his lungs. Instead of a rabbit warren of winding corridors, the other side was a large, open-plan warehouse. It was like the main factory floor where he’d worked with Lucas, only double the size. And it was a hive of activity. People bustled all over the place, carrying scrolls of paper and planks of wood, wearing hard hats and boots.

Oliver could hear the sound of pistons turning, of steam engines and hissing hydraulics. Everything was so shiny! The rusted brass giants of Armando’s present-day factory gleamed under the bright strip lights, looking brand new and luxurious, almost as if they were made from gold rather than copper. The huge windows of the factory—boarded up in the present day—were open now, letting in vast shards of light. The floorboards were polished to perfection, a warm chestnut color instead of the dusty, dull brown of today.

Oliver caught sight of a team of workers on different-sized wooden ladders, screwdrivers in hands, working on each of the joints of a mechanical giant. They were dressed in the same blue overalls Oliver was wearing now, the ones he’d taken from the mechanic’s closet which Armando had said were left by his workers after the war.

“Get out the way, kid!” a voice cried.

Oliver turned to see two men carrying a large steel girder. He ducked just in time.

Once they’d passed, he stood, and his gaze fell upon a very familiar face.

“Armando…” Oliver said aloud.

The inventor looked exactly like he did in the photograph in Oliver’s inventors book; seventy years younger, with the fresh, unblemished face of a twenty-year-old. He was even wearing the exact same loose cotton shirt and dark corduroy trousers as in the photo, the same waistcoat and tool belt. And his walking stick was nowhere to be seen.

Oliver couldn’t believe his eyes. But there was no denying it; he really had gone back in time. Back to a time when Armando was still alive. Back to 1944.

Though the shock and confusion was profound, Oliver was so thrilled to see Armando alive again that all he could feel was joy. He waved his arms over his head, jumped up and down, and called out across the din of the factory floor, “Armando! Armando!”

But his voice was lost in the hubbub of the busy factory. The inventor didn’t see Oliver’s frantic waving either; he was too busy looking at some schematics on a table, peering at them with a microscope monocle.

Oliver, however, did not go completely unnoticed. A young boy standing beside Armando looked up and locked eyes with him.

Immediately, Oliver recoiled. He knew that face, those eyes. It was Lucas.

Oliver dropped his arms and stepped back, like Lucas was a magnet repelling him. Even as a youngster, Lucas looked sinister. His pale eyes were piercing.

Oliver watched on as the young Lucas tugged at Armando’s loose sleeve, trying to get his attention. Armando was so busy he didn’t immediately react to the boy tugging at him. But eventually he turned to look at Lucas. Oliver watched as Lucas spoke to the busy inventor, then pointed over at him.

Oliver gulped as Armando’s eyes searched the factory hall for him, his frown deepening, his expression confused. Then their eyes met. Oliver felt a spark of grief inside; there was a clear lack of recognition in Armando’s eyes. This Armando did not know him. Not even slightly. Not even a flicker. His heart sank.

Suddenly, he felt hands tighten on the tops of his arms. He looked up—left then right—and saw two guards either side of him. They’d each gotten ahold of his arms under the pits.

“This is private property,” one said.

“How’d you get in here?” the other demanded.

“It’s a long story,” Oliver said, swallowing. “In about seventy years’ time…”

The guards gave each other a look over his head. Then, without another word, they began to haul him away.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Oliver protested, trying to dig his heels in.

But it was no use. The guards were far too strong. Oliver glanced back over his shoulder at Armando, appealingly.

“Armando! Help! It’s me! It’s Oliver!”

But the inventor had already gone back to his work. Only Lucas observed the scene, his pale eyes penetrating like a hawk’s, a small smile of evil delight upon his lips.

Oliver was hauled roughly to the door of the factory. The guards heaved it open. Then, with no ceremony, he was thrown straight through it.

Oliver tumbled to the ground as the door slammed shut behind him. He lay there in a dazed heap. It was the first time he’d been outside the factory since he’d entered. Except where he’d come out wasn’t the same place he’d gone in.

Slowly, he picked himself up to sitting. As he wiped the dust from his overalls, he glanced around. He wasn’t anywhere familiar at all. He hadn’t been thrown out into the same world he knew, but somewhere else entirely.

Not somewhere, Oliver corrected himself. But somewhen.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Oliver stared mournfully back at the factory he was now barred from. It had been his home for such a short amount of time but it meant more to him than any home he’d ever lived in. He didn’t know what he would do without it.

From the outside, its differences from his version—the one that existed more than seventy years in the future—were even more startling. The faded red bricks were bright. The rainwater stains and splatters of bird poop were completely absent. Where before there had been caved in roof tiles and smashed up windows, now everything was exactly as it should be. The ivy that had overtaken the factory’s facade in Oliver’s era was little more than a manageable shrub, and the nettles that had stung him as he’d first explored the perimeter were nonexistent. There was even a factory sign, Illstrom’s Inventions, in the same retro typography style of old World War Two posters. And over the road, the rusted bus stop sign from where he’d first alighted the bus was brand new and gleaming.

“Now what?” Oliver said aloud.

He cast his mind back to the moment he’d jumped into the vortex. It hadn’t been his intention to go back in time, he’d not planned it, but in the heat of the moment and under the pursuit of Lucas and his guards, something had compelled him to run to the secret room, to jump into the swirling purple vortex. Could it be a part of his destiny? Some kind of force beyond his control guiding him? And if this was where he was supposed to be, then why? What happened next?

At a loss, Oliver wandered the streets. The previously dilapidated neighborhood looked brand new. Houses that in the present day were graffitied and falling into disrepair, were clean and well cared for. The overgrown gardens filled with trash in Oliver’s modern memory were neatly trimmed and full of flowers.

The other warehouses, dotted between the houses, were also alive with activity. Oliver read their signs as he passed, and noted how each one was constructing something for the war effort; everything from thermoplastic glass to pistols, boots to bullets. It was astonishing to see the whole neighborhood alive with people, buzzing with activity.

But Oliver had no idea what to do now. Where to turn. In trying to save Armando, he had accidentally gone back in time. And yes, Armando was alive in this era, as a fresh-faced young man, but that was hardly a solution to the problem! What was Oliver to do now? He couldn’t just live his entire life in the 1940s.

Just as his racing mind began to panic, Oliver noticed someone partially concealed by shadows, leaning against the wall watching him. Oliver was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger, and watched cautiously as the figure kicked off the wall and emerged into the daylight.

He was a tall, gangly boy, who looked older than Oliver. Thirteen, he guessed. There seemed to be a kindness about him. He had warm green eyes and a splatter of freckles on a crooked nose. Curly dark hair and dimples only added to his friendly demeanor.

“You look lost,” he said as he idled over to Oliver. “Can I help you?”

Oliver wanted to tell the boy that he was indeed lost, but in actual fact that wasn’t the truth. He knew exactly where he was. The problem was when he was.

Tongue-tied, Oliver looked up into his face. The boy frowned. He seemed perplexed by Oliver’s hesitation.

“How about we tell each other our names first?” the boy said, kindly. He held out a hand to Oliver. “I’m Ralph Black.”

Oliver looked at the hand, the extension of friendship. Though somewhat wary of this stranger who’d appeared out of nowhere, Oliver had never needed a friend so much in his life as he did right now. And Ralph certainly seemed trustworthy.

After some deliberation, Oliver took the boy’s bony-fingered hand in his own and shook.

“I’m Oliver,” he said. “Oliver Blue.”

Ralph’s expression suddenly changed, from one of open friendliness to one of complete shock. His green eyes widened.

“You’re Oliver?” he exclaimed. “Are you really? What a stroke of luck! I thought you’d be older! Taller, too.”

The news seemed to be very welcome to Ralph but Oliver had no idea why. Ralph started circling him, suddenly enthused, commenting aloud on how Oliver just wasn’t what he’d been expecting. Oliver wanted to know exactly how Ralph had been expecting anything in the first place! How could there be a boy in 1944 who was waiting to meet him?

“I really thought I was going to have to be waiting much longer to find you,” Ralph said.

He pulled Oliver in for a hug, then let go and held Oliver by the shoulders at arm’s length.

“What’s with the outfit?” he asked, frowning curiously. “You trying to go incognito? Good thing I spoke to you because I’d never have realized it was you in that garb. Could’ve completely missed you. I was expecting you to be in jeans and a shirt. That’s what kids from the third millennium wear, isn’t it?”

Oliver looked down at his 1940s overalls. It was true that he blended right in with the era.

“It’s a long story,” Oliver said, not really sure what was going on. “Wait. The third millennium? What do you mean by that?”

The whole exchange was utterly baffling to Oliver. But at the same time he couldn’t help but get caught up in Ralph’s excitement. Even though he didn’t understand how or why, it was very evident to him now that he was supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in 1944, standing outside Illstrom’s Inventions with this boy, Ralph Black. It made him feel a lot less lost to know he was no longer floundering around helplessly in the past on his own.

“Come on then,” Ralph said brightly, ignoring his question. “No point hanging around here. We’d better go.”

“Go?” Oliver asked. “Go where?”

Ralph stopped and looked at him, frowning. “School,” he stated. “Obviously.” When all Oliver did was raise his eyebrows in confusion, Ralph added, “I mean, that’s why you came here, isn’t it? Why you came back to 1944?”

Oliver shook his head. “I… no, not really. I didn’t mean to come back in time. It was sort of an accident.”

Ralph looked puzzled. But it lasted only briefly before he gave a nonchalant shrug. “Well, it’s not like history is fixed. And I guess I wouldn’t have been sent here to wait for you if there was no chance of you turning up early. This must be a timeline where you come back in time accidentally rather than after being told that you’re supposed to.” He shrugged again. “Anyway, we’d better go. We don’t want to miss dinner.”

He went to walk away but Oliver wasn’t about to just follow. He stood his ground.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” he said to Ralph’s back.

Ralph stopped and turned to face him, blinking as if perplexed. “Don’t understand what?”

“That I came back in time to go to school,” Oliver stammered. “It doesn’t make any sense!”

“Of course it does,” Ralph said, pacing back to where Oliver was standing. “How else are you supposed to learn?”