Jack crept slowly towards the platform and turned to look back up towards the bow of the ship. Still no sign of any pursuit. What should he do? As he considered his options, he suddenly spotted a strange red dot on his white trainer. At first he thought it might be some blood from Gordon’s wound, and he leant down to wipe it off. Then he noticed it was wobbling around, even with his foot still. Jack’s heart sank as it suddenly dawned on him what it was.

His head snapped up and he looked back along the side of the ship. A stubby black barrel was poking surreptitiously from a porthole attached to what looked like a large zoom lens. Gordon was safely hidden from view but, using the unique characteristics of the Cornershot APR, he already had Jack nicely in the cross hairs of its laser sight. Jack wasn’t going hang around to find out what would happen next. There was only one thing for it.

He raced towards the balloon crew, who were still struggling to control the huge gasbag that rocked back and forth in the draught of the Dreadnought powering through the waves, her twin funnels belching thick black smoke. Their attention focused on the balloon, the crew did not spot Jack who, with a hop, skip and jump that would have done Belstaff the games teacher proud, leapt from the deck of the Dreadnought on to the gantry that secured the balloon’s winding gear. With both hands he grabbed the rope ladder attached to the side of the balloon basket. He held on tightly but he knew that he could not cling there for long.

The basket was swirling dizzily just off the deck and it felt to be a much more unsteady place than it first seemed. Over the side of the balloon basket the observer’s head appeared. He stared down at Jack with a mixture of amusement and confusion. He was wearing a bizarre skull cap, from which wispy shocks of blond hair escaped and blew around in the breeze, together with aviator’s goggles placed over small round spectacles. He looked faintly ridiculous.

My first break

Bestselling children's authors tell how they got published

• Your chance to be a published author

• Who are Chicken House?

Background

• The Hinba Ghosts by Kate Green

• A1 Joe and the Roman Dog by Judith Low

• The Song of Sky and Evening by Charlie Scott

• Gemoc by Elizabeth Lawson

• The Beaten Road by Roberta Nichols

Background

• Reavers by Emily Diamand

• Jack Flynn and the Assassins by John M. O’Brien

• Tutankhamun: Diary of a Boy King by Laurence Rowley

• They Do Things Differently There by Ruth Furness

• The Secret Life of Jemma Jones by A. M. Conway

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