Send Simon Savage #1 by Stephen Measday

forty-eight hours?’
    Cutler nodded. ‘Yes, that’s the mission schedule.’
    Harry looked at the timeline and grimaced. ‘We could have delivered them closer to Old City.’
    ‘Not worth the risk,’ Cutler replied. ‘The Chieftain would be more likely to pick up their timeline if we opened it too near his cave.’
    ‘That’s if he’s got the sort of equipment that will detect these things, sir.’
    ‘Well, there are things we know about him, and there are things we don’t know,’ the captain said. ‘It’s up to Simon and Danice to find out what it is we don’t know.’

    In the tree house, Simon was surrounded by Danice’s family.
    ‘And what did you do to Danice?’ Damien asked. ‘Where did she go? Where’s she been all this time?’
    ‘Damien, ease off!’ Danice said. ‘I just got back. I’m safe! I’m here! Stop asking all these stupid questions.’
    Damien scowled at Simon’s suit. ‘And that gear you’re wearing. You’re dressed like those guys who took Danice in the first place. Where are you from? What are you up to?’
    ‘I’m just doing my job,’ Simon said. ‘I was told to bring Danice back, and that’s what I’ve done.’ It was a pretty lame explanation, Simon thought, but that was his official excuse. He would have to stick with it.
    Damien shot an accusing glance at Danice. ‘What have they got you involved in?’
    ‘They don’t mean us any harm,’ Danice said. ‘Believe me, they’re better organised than the Chieftain and they’ve promised to help us.’
    ‘Help, how? And who are they ?’ Damien said.
    This was also news to Simon. ‘No one told me about any help,’ he said.
    ‘Sorry, Simon,’ Danice replied. ‘I wasn’t allowed to say until I got here. I had my own special briefing, you see.’ She glanced at Hanna and Alli. ‘They promised me that if I helped them, then they’d try to get Bigdad out of Old City and get us all back together again. Even relocate us. Somewhere safer.’
    ‘That explains a lot,’ Simon said. ‘I wondered why you were so helpful after being as good as kidnapped by the Bureau. Is this why you agreed to become a temponaut for them?’
    Danice smiled with a brief shrug of her shoulders.
    ‘Your father?’ Hanna’s eyes lit up as she struggled up from her wooden chair. ‘Back with us. And you, too, Danice!’
    Simon stepped forward to give Hanna a hand.
    ‘It’s okay, let me do it,’ Alli said, quickly taking Hanna’s arm. ‘Mama doesn’t like people to fuss. A year ago, she broke both her legs. The planks of the walkways rot easily and sometimes they snap.’
    ‘A lot of people fall,’ Hanna said, shrugging it off. ‘I’m not to be singled out for it.’
    ‘I can help all of us,’ Danice said to Damien. ‘Maybe make our life a bit easier. Let Simon and me complete our mission.’
    ‘What mission?’ Damien glared at Simon again. ‘A moment ago he said he was just here to see you home. Now you’re talking about a mission! I don’t trust him. I’m not letting you go——’
    Suddenly there was the rapid thrum of drums in the distance.
    Damien sprang to the open window and looked into the sky.
    ‘What is it?’ Hanna asked anxiously.
    A series of blasts from a ram horn echoed through the forest.
    ‘Four short—four long!’ Damien turned back into the room. ‘It’s a raid! We have to get out!’
    Simon looked at Danice. ‘What do we do?’
    ‘We’ve got two choices,’ Danice said, pushing him towards the door. ‘Get away—or get caught!’

17

    T he woodland, which an hour earlier had seemed quiet and empty, was now a riot of chaos and noise.
    Three giant cigar-shaped airships hung in the sky. Scores of shouting, black-clad soldiers abseiled commando-style down ropes onto the walkways connecting the tree houses. In the surrounding groves, ram horns spread news of the raid. Hundreds of forest-dwellers poured down ladders and ropes to escape in a terrified stampede.
    ‘Go!’ Danice shouted down to