Time Travellers: Secrets and Spies (eBook)

The clouds gather high above us, grey and moody and promising to unleash rain. We’ll have to move quickly if we don’t want to get soaked. It was my idea to climb the steep stone steps carved into the hilly streets of Edinburgh city, and I try to encourage the others.

“Just a few more to go and we’ll be at the top,” I call over my shoulder.

I turn to see my two best friends, Mia and Ayaan, several steps below me, looking a little breathless. Mia is clutching her side as if she has a stitch.

“Come on, you’ve got this!” I call, waving my arms.

Mia and Ayaan tip their heads back to gaze up at me. Then they both plonk themselves on the steps. With a long sigh, I plod back down to where they are.

“I don’t know why we have to hurry,” Mia complains. “We’ve got plenty of time to explore.”

I shrug. “I thought it might rain and we should go somewhere indoors.”

“It’s the Easter holidays and we’re in Scotland,” Ayaan reminds me. “It always rains here at this time of year.”

“Please can we just rest a bit, Suhana?” Mia says.

I sit down on the step above them. “OK.”

Ayaan holds his hand out to me. “Let me have a go on your phone again.”

I reach beneath my raincoat to find my mobile. I hand it to Ayaan and watch as he fiddles with the time-travel app for the umpteenth time, with no results.

It’s been weeks since our first time-travel adventure, when the app made us travel back in time to 1911 to meet with British Indian suffragists. I didn’t know Ayaan and Mia before then, but we’ve become a trio of best friends, and inseparable ever since.

The secret society that sent us back in time told us its mission is to bring forgotten parts of history to life, so after we returned from 1911, I asked for the suffragists we met to be included in the history displays in the Houses of Parliament.

But I have my own plan to put into action too. I haven’t heard from my mum in three years and I really want to find her. All I need to do is work out how to activate the app. If I can ask it to send me to a specific time, maybe I’ll be able to discover what happened and we can be reunited.

“Ayaan!” Mia’s voice is sharp, bringing me back to the present. “You’re going to break Suhana’s mobile.”

Ayaan scowls down at the screen. “Why can’t I make it work?”

I lean over to grab the phone out of his hand. “I know you’re a whizz with techie stuff but maybe the app doesn’t want to open right now.”

“Yeah, it’s not like you can wish it open,” Mia says.

On impulse, I hold my phone up in the air and shout, “Open sesame!”

Mia and Ayaan give me a startled look and the three of us burst out laughing.

Our laughter soon dies down when the first raindrop plops on my head.

“Oh no, I told you it was going to rain!”

Mia jumps to her feet. “Last one to the top is a…” She doesn’t finish the sentence as she races up the stone steps. Ayaan and I follow, but Mia wins with her head start.

Luckily our destination isn’t too far, and we manage to run along the streets and through the doors of the Museum of Scotland before the pitter-patter turns into a heavy downpour.

We emerge into the main entrance hall and stare up at a giant sign.

“I’m not sure I understand what that means,” Mia says.

“I think it means Scotland got rich ruling other countries and it admits that it treated some people in those places in a horrible way,” Ayaan says.

“Yes, I think you’re right,” I say, re-reading it.

“My mum would be pleased to see that,” Ayaan says. “She says it’s important to be honest about the past.”

“Shall we bring Aunty Farnaz here later?” Mia asks.

Aunty Farnaz is Ayaan’s mum, and she’s looking after us while we’re in Edinburgh. She’s neither my aunt nor Mia’s, but we both call her Aunty because that’s what Asian ladies are called out of respect. When Mia heard me call her Aunty, she decided that she would too.

Aunty Farnaz is a big-shot lawyer. She had to take a work trip to Edinburgh, and asked Ayaan if he wanted to go with her. Ayaan said yes, but only if Mia and I could come too. Aunty Farnaz spoke to my current guardian Aunty Meena who said yes (I think she wanted me out of her hair for a few days!). Mia’s mum was harder to convince but she came round after a friendly visit from Aunty Farnaz.

“Maybe this museum will trigger the time-travel app,” I say hopefully, gazing around at the glass cases displaying hundreds of historical artefacts. “I mean, that sign we saw was to do with being honest about the past, wasn’t it? Maybe we can go back and witness something that needs to be shared.”

“What makes you think the time-travel app will be triggered?” Mia says. “We’ve been to both the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum in London, but nothing happened there. We even saw that model of a tiger attacking a soldier.” She shudders – it was pretty gruesome. “We touched every glass case and every artefact on display that we could, but did the phone alarm go off? No, it did not.”

I’m not affected by Mia’s pessimism. “Don’t you want to go on another adventure?”

“Of course I do,” Mia insists. “But adventure will call when it’s the right time. I don’t think we can force it.”

“I’m starting to agree with Mia,” Ayaan says.

“You might be right, but I’m still going to enjoy looking at old things,” I say. “Come on, let’s go this way.”

“You children look like budding historians! Would you like a tour?” A stooped old man dressed in a suit smiles at us. He’s wearing a badge to indicate that he’s a tour guide.

“Yes, please,” I reply, making the decision for the three of us.

“My name is Gordon,” he introduces himself. “And what are your names?”

“I’m Suhana, and these are my friends, Mia and Ayaan,” I say.

“What part of history would you like to learn about first?” Gordon asks. “We can keep it specific or general.”

The three of us exchange glances, and I take the lead again. “Actually, we were really interested in that poster over there and wanted to know more about it.”

Gordon smiles widely. “Well, that’s a very interesting tale. Are you ready to hear it?”

We all nod eagerly and Gordon begins. “In 1600 – a long time ago, before you or anyone that you know was born – an elderly queen sat on the throne of England. Her name was Elizabeth and she lived in a time when European explorers were making contact with other lands and people. Elizabeth wanted her Englishmen to explore these worlds and bring back new delights. One day a group of merchants asked to see the queen in her throne room. They explained that they wanted to sail to a land where the Portuguese were making money. That land was India.

“The queen, wanting a share of these riches, gave the merchants permission to sail to India to buy spices and ship them back to England to sell. The Indians welcomed these people from a cold part of the world and were happy to trade their goods for money. The merchants looked around India and saw that it had more than just spices – they wanted to rule the land and make even more money for themselves. Over the next hundred years, the merchants hired English and Scottish men as private soldiers. Then they sailed to India on their ships and started wars to take over the Indian kingdoms by force.”

“They must have been very organised to be able to do that,” Ayaan says.

“They were, and they gave their company a name,” Gordon says. “It was called the East India Company. It was greedy and ruthless and took things that...