Suddenly, he was over the barrier. Now there was nothing between him and the vortex. He squeezed his eyes shut and plunged inside. With an enormous flash of white light, Oliver Blue disappeared.

PART TWO

CHAPTER TWELVE

Oliver opened his eyes to discover he was standing in the same room hed been in before. Only now the swirling purple vortex was gone. Gone, too, were Lucas and his security men. Instead, smoke was swirling from the time machine.

A second later, there was a huge explosion. Lights flashed. Black smoke billowed upward. The force sent Oliver flying backward. He hit the wall hard and his head spun from the impact.

Stars obscured his vision and the smoke blinded him. But as the smoke cleared, Oliver saw the destruction that lay ahead of him. The time machine was gone. Not just broken, but completely eradicated, as if it had never existed.

Suddenly, some debris from the machine clunked to the ground before him. They looked like the wooden numbers youd get to keep score at a baseball game. They read: 1944.

Oliver blinked and looked around. Had he really gone back in time? Back to 1944? And had his only way home just gone up in smoke? Was he stuck here in the past?

He pulled himself to standing. Cautiously, he walked to the door of the room. It wasnt made of steel anymore but thick, dark oak.

Unsure of what awaited him on the other side, Oliver tried the handle. It turned easily and yielded to his force. He pushed open the door, his stomach in knots of anticipation.

The sight awaiting him stole the breath from his lungs. Instead of a rabbit warren of winding corridors, the other side was a large, open-plan warehouse. It was like the main factory floor where hed worked with Lucas, only double the size. And it was a hive of activity. People bustled all over the place, carrying scrolls of paper and planks of wood, wearing hard hats and boots.

Oliver could hear the sound of pistons turning, of steam engines and hissing hydraulics. Everything was so shiny! The rusted brass giants of Armandos present-day factory gleamed under the bright strip lights, looking brand new and luxurious, almost as if they were made from gold rather than copper. The huge windows of the factoryboarded up in the present daywere open now, letting in vast shards of light. The floorboards were polished to perfection, a warm chestnut color instead of the dusty, dull brown of today.

Oliver caught sight of a team of workers on different-sized wooden ladders, screwdrivers in hands, working on each of the joints of a mechanical giant. They were dressed in the same blue overalls Oliver was wearing now, the ones hed taken from the mechanics closet which Armando had said were left by his workers after the war.

Get out the way, kid! a voice cried.