Flashback Four #4

by Dan Gutman

  “They turned their backs just before any shots could be fired,” said Ms. Gunner.

  “What? Why?”

  “It’s a long story. I don’t have time to get into it right now.”

  “One more question,” Luke said. “I’ve never used a video camera before. I don’t think any of us have. If you want to do this right, why don’t you hire a professional filmmaker?”

  “We considered that,” Ms. Gunner said. “But professional filmmakers want their movies to be shown in theaters and seen by the public. We don’t want that. The video you’re going to shoot will be for a very limited audience of historians. It will probably be a few minutes long, tops. You’ll do fine, Luke. You did a great job in Pompeii and on the Titanic. I have confidence in you.”

  “Okay, I’m in,” said Luke, slamming his open hand against the table. “Who’s with me? This sounds like it’s gonna be cool.”

  “If Luke’s in, I’m in,” said David, slapping his hand on top of Luke’s.

  “What the heck,” said Julia, putting her hand on top of the boys’ hands. “It will be an adventure. Count me in.”

  Everyone turned to Isabel. She was hanging back, looking down, and avoiding eye contact. It appeared as though she might have had tears in her eyes.

  “What’s the matter, Isabel?” asked Ms. Gunner.

  “I want to go to college for free more than any of you,” she said. “It would mean so much to my parents. But every time we do this, something goes wrong. We went to Gettysburg, and we ended up getting arrested and thrown in jail. Remember? We went to Pompeii, and we were forced to be slaves. We almost didn’t make it back. Remember how we were all freaking out and said we’d never travel back in time again? And of course we went to the Titanic, and that was a disaster. We knew it was going to be a disaster from the start. It was the Titanic! But we did it anyway.”

  “Yeah, but we always make it back,” Julia assured her friend. “We always get home safely.”

  “We’ve been lucky so far to not get killed or stuck in the past,” Isabel agreed. “But I’m afraid to push our luck. Eventually, when you keep putting yourself in danger, the odds catch up with you. What if something goes wrong this time? What if we die? What if we get stuck in 1804 and have to start our lives over again from that point? My parents will freak out.”

  “You’re not going to die or get stuck in the past,” Ms. Gunner told Isabel. “This mission is going to be easier than those other ones. You won’t have to go on a sinking ship or be close to an active volcano. That was poor judgment on the part of Miss Zandergoth, if you ask me. I promise we’ll get you in there to shoot the video, and then get you out. That’s it. Nothing is going to go wrong this time.”

  “But what if it does?” asked Isabel. “The NOYB doesn’t care about us. Not the way Miss Z did. She rescued us when we were stuck in 1912 after the Titanic mission. Are you going to rescue us if we get in trouble in 1804?”

  “Of course,” Ms. Gunner said. “You can count on us.”

  “We’ll take care of you, Isabel,” said David.

  “We’ve got your back, sister,” said Luke.

  Isabel took a deep breath and sighed.

  “Okay,” she said without a whole lot of conviction. “I’ll do it. For you guys.” Isabel put her hand on top of the others.

  “All right!” Luke shouted. “One for all and all for one! The Flashback Four is back!”

  “So when are we going to do this mission?” Julia asked. “I’m going to be pretty busy with schoolwork the next few weeks.”

  “There’s no time like the present,” said Ms. Gunner.

  CHAPTER 7

  THE HOT HEAD

  “WE CAN DO THE MISSION RIGHT NOW,” SAID MS. Gunner as she snapped her briefcase shut. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait, what?” the Flashback Four replied as one.

  “This should take maybe an hour or so,” Ms. Gunner told them. “You should be home in time for dinner. No need to call your families.”

  Julia, Isabel, David, and Luke were stunned. Clearly, Ms. Gunner and NOYB handled things differently than Miss Z and Pasture Company.

  “On our other missions, we spent a lot of time in advance preparing,” Isabel explained. “Miss Z thought it was important for us to know how the people in the time period talked, what they ate, their customs, and stuff like that.”

  “She even researched and got us clothes from each time period,” explained Julia, “so we would fit in with the people we were likely to meet there.”

  Ms. Gunner held up her hand, as if she was a traffic cop signaling cars to stop.

  “First of all,” she said, “you’re not going to meet anybody on this mission. You shouldn’t have to talk to anybody or eat anything while you’re in 1804. I think you can survive an hour or two without food. And because you won’t be meeting anybody, nobody’s going to see what you’re wearing. The clothes you have on right now will be fine. The duel took place in a very remote area, early in the morning. You’ll be hiding behind a tree or something while you’re shooting the video.”

  Julia looked disappointed. She loved dressing up. Shopping was her favorite thing to do in the world. Nothing made her happier than trying on new clothes. The main reason she’d agreed to go on the mission was because she thought she’d get the chance to model some fancy 1804 fashions.

  “Second,” said Ms. Gunner, “that’s just not the way we do things at NOYB. We get things done quickly, cleanly, and efficiently. We don’t waste time and we don’t waste money. My plan is to send you to Weehawken, have you shoot the video, and bring you back home safely. That’s it. This should be a fast, smooth simple operation.”

  “Well, that sure makes things easier,” said Luke. He never liked doing research anyway. And he hated having to try on clothes. Most days, he wore blue jeans and one of his many Red Sox T-shirts.

  “Follow me,” said Ms. Gunner.

  She put her face against a small device mounted on the wall that scanned her retinas and sent a signal to a central computer to open the door. It slid open with a whoosh.

  The kids were ushered into another room, a larger and brighter room that looked more like a science lab. A few engineers were staring intently at their computer screens. On one side of the room, away from the window, was the Board. The Flashback Four got excited just seeing it again.

  “Don’t you think we should at least have a little background information on Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr?” suggested Isabel.

  “I could spend hours giving you a history lesson,” replied Ms. Gunner. “But how would that help you shoot the video? You can Google it when you get back, if you choose.”

  “I’m beginning to like this lady,” whispered David, who was not particularly fond of history lessons.

  “I don’t feel good about this,” muttered Isabel. “We’re going into this blind.”

  Ms. Gunner led them over to an empty desk in the corner.

  “What is important for us to discuss is the technology you’ll be needing for the mission,” said Ms. Gunner. “Jones, would you come over here, please?”

  A tall, nervous-looking engineer got up from his desk and sauntered over. He had thick-framed glasses and a lab coat. I don’t mean to stereotype, but Jones looked just like your stereotypical geeky computer expert, right down his plastic pocket protector. And like everyone else, it seemed, he had a briefcase.

  “Pleased to meet you,” Jones said as he shook each child’s hand awkwardly. “I’m very excited to be working with you. Now, the single most important piece of equipment, of course, is going to be your video camera.”

  For the Gettysburg project, Miss Z had given the Flashback Four an expensive digital camera, which was large, hard to use, and even harder to conceal. That had turned out to be a problem and the reason why they failed to bring back a photo of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address. That camera was destroyed at Gettysburg.

  For the Titanic mission, she had given them a smaller, simpler point-and
-shoot camera, which had worked out well. For the Pompeii mission, they were given a standard cell phone to use as a camera.

  “You’re going to like this,” Jones said proudly, carefully taking something out of his briefcase. It was a little thing, about the size of a golf ball, and it had a strap around it. It looked like it would fit around somebody’s head.

  “Is that a GoPro camera?” Luke asked. “I have a friend who shoots sick skate videos with a GoPro.”

  “No, I designed this myself,” Jones said. “It shoots super-high-definition digital video, and the microphone can pick up a whisper from a half mile away. I call it . . . Hot Head.”

  Jones seemed pleased with himself for coming up with the name Hot Head.

  “Cool,” said Luke. “How do you turn it on? Where’s the battery?”

  “That’s the beauty of it,” Jones replied. “You don’t have to turn it on, and it doesn’t have a battery. You just put it on your head. Your body heat provides the power, and this little sensor functions as an on/off switch. That’s why we called it Hot Head. It sees and records everything you see, and it will hold about five minutes of video. And it’s just about indestructible. Here, try it.”

  Luke put the Hot Head on his forehead. Jones pulled on the strap so it was snug against Luke’s head. As soon as he did, a little red light went on to indicate the Hot Head was recording. An image appeared on the computer screen on the wall. When Luke turned his head to look at his friends, their image was on the screen.

  “That’s amazing!” said Isabel, making a funny face for the camera.

  “See? There’s no room for human error,” Jones said. “It’s idiot proof.”

  “Well, that should be perfect for you, Luke,” teased Julia.

  “The Hot Head won’t be available to the general public for years,” Ms. Gunner said. “We spent millions in R and D to build it.”

  “R and D?” asked David.

  “Research and development,” replied Ms. Gunner. “Please take very good care of this thing. If it should fall into the wrong hands—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” said Luke. Everybody was always worrying about stuff falling into the wrong hands.

  Jones helped take the Hot Head off Luke’s head, and then he took another small device out of his briefcase and held it up proudly.

  “Is that our timer?” asked David.

  For the Pompeii mission, David had held a timer, which had helped the kids know when they had to get back to their meeting spot to be picked up and brought home.

  “No,” Jones replied. “This is your new and improved TTT.”

  “You won’t need a timer,” explained Ms. Gunner. “After you’ve completed the mission, just send us a text with the TTT and we’ll bring you back to the present day. That way, it won’t be like you have to rush to a station to catch a certain train back home. It will be more like calling for an Uber.”

  “Nice!” said David. These NOYB people really had their act together.

  TTT stands for “text through time.” Miss Z had spent a good chunk of her fortune to create a little gizmo that would enable a person from one time period to communicate with a person in another time period. Imagine—in a few years you’ll be able to swap texts with your great-grandparents who died a long time ago. Or you’ll be able to send a text to yourself in the future—and receive a reply. It’s game-changing technology.

  Jones handed Isabel the new TTT. It was a small black box with a flip-up case to protect the keypad.

  “We reverse engineered Miss Z’s TTT,” said Jones.

  “What does that mean?” asked Isabel.

  “Well, basically, we took it apart to see how it worked,” said Jones. “Then we built a new one that’s faster, more sophisticated, and more durable.”

  “On your previous missions,” said Ms. Gunner, “I understand that the TTTs you were given got damaged or destroyed. But this one is made of the same material that they use to make black boxes for airplanes. So it’s indestructible. Watch.”

  Jones took the TTT from Isabel, dropped it on the floor, and stomped on it with his foot.

  “You could whack this thing with a hammer and not break it,” he said, handing it back to Isabel.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed.

  “Use it to stay in contact with me at all times,” said Ms. Gunner.

  Next, Jones took a handful of coins out of his suitcase. They were old-fashioned silver dollars with a woman’s profile and the word LIBERTY on them.

  “You’re not going to need these,” Ms. Gunner explained. “But we wanted you to have some money with you, just in case of emergency.”

  “Where did you get these old silver dollars?” asked Julia. “They must be worth a fortune now.”

  “Where do you think?” said Jones, as he put them in a little cloth bag. “We coined ’em.”

  “Which one of you can be trusted to hold the loot?” asked Ms. Gunner.

  “Me!” Julia shouted quickly. The others rolled their eyes. If anybody knew how to handle money, it was Julia.

  “Okay, I think that’s all you’re going to need,” said Ms. Gunner as she handed the bag to Julia. “Thank you, Jones.”

  “Good luck,” Jones told the kids before returning to his desk. “I’m very anxious to see that video when you get back. We started a pool around the office, and we’re placing bets to see who shot first, Burr or Hamilton. I’ve got my money on Burr.”

  “I’m betting on Hamilton,” shouted some engineer at another desk.

  “Definitely Burr,” shouted somebody else.

  “Okay, enough chitchat,” said Ms. Gunner. “Let’s get going. Do you kids have any questions?”

  None of the kids had any questions.

  “You’ll need to warm up the Board,” Isabel pointed out.

  “Of course,” said Ms. Gunner as she went over to the Board to turn it on. “Do any of you have to use the bathroom while the Board is warming up?”

  “Didn’t they have bathrooms in 1804?” asked David.

  “They had outhouses,” Ms. Gunner told him, “and they had lots of trees.”

  CHAPTER 8

  AND AWAY WE GO

  THE BOARD BUZZED GENTLY AS IT CLICKED ON and flashed some random letters and numbers to indicate it was still warming up. It takes a lot of power to transport people hundreds of years into the past.

  Meanwhile, Ms. Gunner and Jones went over to a computer and opened a file titled “FB4 Project.” He sat down at the desk, and she stood behind him.

  “Okay,” Ms. Gunner said, “let’s make sure everything is a hundred percent accurate. First, set the date, Jones. July 11, 1804.”

  “Check,” said Jones after typing that in. “Date is set.”

  “Set the time of day,” said Ms. Gunner. “The duel took place at approximately seven o’clock in the morning. We want to give the kids time to get there before Hamilton and Burr arrive. They’ll need to set up and find a good spot to shoot the video. Shall we say six o’clock?”

  “Maybe we should send them earlier,” said Jones, “just to be on the safe side.”

  “Good idea,” said Ms. Gunner. “Okay, five o’clock, then.”

  “We have to be there at five o’clock in the morning?” complained Luke. “I don’t usually wake up until seven.”

  “You don’t have to wake up at all, dope!” Julia told him. “You’re already awake! It’ll be five o’clock in the morning when we get there.”

  “Oh, yeah,” said Luke.

  “Check,” said Jones after typing in the time. “Time of day is set.”

  “Set the latitude and longitude,” said Ms. Gunner. “Weehawken, New Jersey.”

  The coordinates for Weehawken are 40.7664° N, 74.0254° W. That means that Weehawken is exactly 40.7664 degrees north of the equator. That’s the latitude. It is 74.0254 degrees west of the prime meridian. That’s the longitude. The prime meridian is an imaginary line that goes through Greenwich, England, and marks zero longitude. Every spot on earth has its own
specific latitude and longitude coordinates.

  “Check,” said Jones after typing in all the numbers. “Latitude and longitude are set.”

  The screen on the Board flashed three times, and then five bands of color appeared. It was fully warmed up and ready to go.

  “Okay, this is exciting!” Ms. Gunner said, clapping her hands together. “Are you as psyched as I am? Let’s make some history!”

  She collected the kids’ cell phones, which they would have no use for in 1804. Luke and Isabel patted the pockets of their jeans. He wanted to make sure he had the Hot Head video camera, and she wanted to make sure she had the TTT. The Flashback Four went over and took their places in front of the Board.

  It looked pretty much like the smartboards you have in your school, but the Board was far more sophisticated. It was packed full of highly advanced microprocessors, software, and technology way beyond anything that is available on the market today.

  “Are you ready, Jones?” asked Ms. Gunner.

  She looked nervous, and who could blame her? She wasn’t sending these kids down the street to pick up a carton of milk at the grocery store. She was sending them two centuries into the past to shoot a video of one of the most famous events in history.

  “Ready,” replied Jones.

  “A few last-minute instructions,” said Ms. Gunner. “I expect you kids to stick together as a group at all times. Work together as a team. Help each other out.”

  “We always stick together as a group,” Luke replied. He glanced over at Julia, who had a tendency to wander off at odd moments.

  David, Isabel, Luke, and Julia jammed themselves together in front of the Board. It was a tight squeeze.

  “Ow, you’re standing on my foot!” Isabel complained. “Get off!”

  “Sorry!” replied Luke.

  “Get tighter,” Julia said. “If one of us has an arm or leg outside the boundary of the Board, it might get chopped off. It would be like a shark attacked us.”

  “We’re gonna need a bigger Board,” cracked David.