An Excerpt from The 25th Hour (Book One in The Adventures of Mackenzie Mortimer):
Mackenzie looked around the room. “What’s that humming
noise?”
Zigs shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard it before.”
His eyes scanned the bedroom. “Look! The ship in a bottle you gave me is
glowing.”
“What’s strange about that? You told me it was solar-powered.”
“Yeah, it lights up, but not like that. It had little lights
coming from inside the ship, through the portholes. But now, the whole bottle
is shinning like a lamp.”
“The humming is getting louder, too. I think that’s where
it’s coming from.”
The
bottled ship glowed with a brilliant intensity, as the pitch increased to an
ear-splitting level. Zigs covered his ears and Mackenzie grew concerned,
fingering his pocket watch.
“Something’s wrong, Zigs. Let’s get out of here.”
The glow from the bottle was so bright, the ship inside was
no longer visible. Mackenzie felt his eardrums about to burst and sought relief
in the silence of Q-Time. He pushed the watch stem down and turned it
clockwise, as the pitch reached a crescendo and the bottled ship exploded.
Seeing the explosion as he entered Q-Time, Mackenzie twisted the larger stem to
the right, expanding the chronal energy field from around his body to encompass
Zigs. “Grab my hand, Zigs, and stay as close to me as you can while we run from
the room.”
The boy grasped his hand. “What’s happening, Mac?”
Mackenzie glanced up at the kaleidoscopic array of shrapnel
hanging in the air. “It’s an explosion. But I’ve slowed time, as long as you
stay close to me. I’ve never shared the chronal energy field with anyone, so I
don’t know how long I can keep it up for both of us. I should be able to do it
for the whole hour, but if you slip out of the field’s range, you’ll be trapped
in regular time with the explosion. Whatever you do, stay with me and don’t fall
behind.”
“How far do we have to run?”
“Far enough that we leave the explosion behind us. We don’t
know how powerful it was. It might take out your room like a grenade blast or,
if it’s strong enough, it could bring down the mansion.”
Time is running out… fortunately, Mackenzie Mortimer has a few more minutes than anyone else!
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