Santa and the Cyberspace Plot , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Eric Scott

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63 pages

English

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It is close to Christmas and Natalie has discovered that her big brother Jake claims he has proof that Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are not real. he intend to launch this proof worldwide on the web on Christmas Eve and ruin Christmas for ever. Oberon Moody, a man who makes Halloween masks dreams of making Halloween the only holiday on the calendar and, with his strange helper, the pointy-eared Dobbin, promises to help Jake in his task. Santa calls in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to help foil Jake's plot with some pretty funny tricks.

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	11 juin 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781783333844
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Title Page
SANTA AND THE CYBERSPACE PLOT

Eric Scott

Publisher Information
This edition published in 2013 by
Acorn Books
www.acornbooks.co.uk
Converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2013 by Eric Scott
The right of by Eric Scott to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1
It was close to Christmas when nine-year old Natalie Williams realised that her brother Jake was up to no good.
Jake always behaved in the same way when he was creating trouble. He sneaked around the house quietly; avoided people and tried to look innocent. When anyone asked what he was doing he said “nothing”.
So Natalie was more than suspicious when, with only two long but exciting weeks to Christmas, her 13-year-old brother’s face developed a shifty look and he began to creep quietly round the house.
And as far as Natalie was concerned her suspicions were confirmed when he locked his bedroom door and kept it locked whenever she was around.
She had tried listening at the keyhole, but heard nothing except the clicking and burping of his computer. She had also tried peeking through his window, but Jake caught her and closed the curtains with a smug smile on his face.
Once she heard him laughing and thought she heard him mutter “so bye-bye Santa”. Now that really worried her.
As the days went slowly by, Jake became more and more annoying and her mother and father were so engrossed in the upcoming holiday that Natalie was almost forgotten. They were too busy to listen to anything she had to say.
So, the week before Christmas she decided to tell someone who really would care. She wrote a letter to Santa Claus.

Chapter 2
In Santa’s complex at the North Pole it was business as usual when Natalie’s letter arrived. The air outside was crisp and cold, and breath from the outside elves turned into steam as they went cheerily and happily about their business.
Everyone in Santa’s workforce, from the elves who looked after the reindeer to the research and development elves who worked on projects for future children, loved the week before Christmas.
Outside, the reindeer had been groomed until they shone like fairy lights. When their buckets of super flying oats were put into their pens they snorted and eagerly tucked into the delicious magic mixture. They were more than ready for their annual, whirlwind round-the-world trip. They nuzzled and snickered, snorted and stamped their feet, eager to set off.
In Santa’s workshop the elves, who worked hard to fill last minute requests for toys, laughed, and joked among themselves
Even Santa was humming happy songs like “Jingle Bells” and “Oh Come all ye Faithful” as he sat in his cosy office checking out letters, lists and computer printouts. Most children didn’t send letters through the mail any more. There were still a few though, and Santa enjoyed reading them, but more and more requests for toys and presents arrived through the Internet and the World Wide Web.
It was more efficient, Santa had to admit, but the E-mails were brief and impersonal - and not very good for his stamp collection. He had accepted the computers grudgingly, but drew the line at mobile phones. “I will not have children sending text messages,” he said. “Half of them don’t make any sense anyway.”
On this particular day Santa sat in his office, which was warmed by the latest climate control system, studying a printout of the last minute toy requests. He sat behind an antique wooden desk that was built to accommodate his large tummy and looked up when his assistant Jill, the Odd Job Elf, came in carrying a wire tray which held a few handwritten letters.
“Mail’s a bit light, Santa,” she said, putting the tray on his desk.
“Not to worry, Jill,” he replied , handing her the print out “There are thousands of E-mails, so many the hard drives can hardly cope.”
Jill wiggled her pointed ears and smiled as she took a piece of paper from the tray. It was Natalie’s letter. “Then you’ll enjoy this one,” she said. “It came through snail mail.
‘Dear Santa,’” it read. ‘I hate writing like this, but I must tell you about my brother Jake. He’s been really naughty this past few weeks and I have a horrible feeling it has something to do with you.
“I’ve been trying to find out what he’s up to, but he is keeping his secret too well. Anyway, I know you can see everything, so I thought I’d warn you to keep an eye on him. By the way I’ve been a good girl all the year, well for the past two months anyway, so you don’t need to check up on me. This year I really would like a new bike and a new house for my dolls. As for the rest, well I’ll leave it entirely up to you.
With love from your friend Natalie.’
“Isn’t that nice? So - old fashioned.”
Santa sighed and tugged at his beard. “Old fashioned indeed, but also a bit of a worry. It’s a bit too late to start checking up on children. The good and bad lists were decided on weeks ago. But surely this boy Jake isn’t going to do anything really wicked.” he said. “Not this close to Christmas.”

Chapter 3
Mr. Oberon Moody, the world famous maker of Halloween masks, had clients that included Her Majesty the Fairy Queen and most of the witch’s covens throughout the world, was studying letters too.
He sat at his ornate black desk, his long spidery legs stretched in front of him. His tall black hat sat uncomfortably on top of his elongated, mournful face. His arms were long and thin, just like his fingers. In fact, if anyone met him in the dark, they might well think he was a skeleton.
He held his letters in his bony fingers as he studied them. Like Santa’s they were requests, but unlike Santa’s they were not requests for toys.
Mr Moody’s requests were for payment of bills. There was electricity to keep his machinery working, the council rates on his dark and scary offices and workshops, fluorescent paint and spider web spinners maintenance.
They all cost money, and he was a bit short at the moment.
In fact he was a lot short. Halloween masks were no longer the moneymaking lines they used to be.
He sat in the cobwebbed gloom of the office in his mansion and sighed. He wracked his brains to find a way to make Halloween more popular. But he soon gave up. Oberon Moody didn’t like to think too much. He wasn’t fond of work either. He left that to Dobbin, his weird, pointy-eared, pointy-headed and lowly paid assistant.
“What I need is a miracle,” he sighed and he twisted his face up into a frown.

Chapter 4
By Christmas Eve Natalie could stand it no longer. She had to find out what Jake was up to. So she made a plan. She shouted, very loudly, that she was going out on her bike. Then she slammed the door as she left the house. She hoped this would give Jake a false sense of security.
She waited for a few minutes then walked to the back of the house and in through the rear door. Then she crept silently down the corridor to Jake’s room.
Her heart leapt into her mouth for his door was open and she could hear Jake muttering and chuckling. She inched closer until she was standing in the doorway where she could see over his shoulder onto the computer screen.
Her mouth fell open when she saw what Jake was up to. She could hardly believe what she saw.
And it wasn’t just the state of his room. She was used to seeing mess everywhere. Nor was it his clothes, strange as they were, with his T-shirts that had odd messages written on them like “life is cool unless you’re a fool”, and “surf lives”. No, it was the awful words she saw on the screen.
Jake was hunched over his computer, logged in to the Internet. He was humming in his extremely unmusical voice and had a wicked smile on his face.
Natalie couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
“Jake,” she gasped. “You can’t do that.”
Jake nearly jumped out of his freckled skin. “What the ...” He whirled round in his student’s swivel chair until he faced the doorway. “What are you doing, spying on me!” he snapped.
Natalie stepped back to give herself running space, for Jake was much bigger than she was.
“I’m not spying,” she said. She pointed to the computer screen. “You can’t say that. It’s a lie.”
Jake turned his chair back to the computer like the captain of a space ship and his finger hovered over the “enter” button.
“I can do what I like,” he said. “And it is true. I can prove it - and I intend to let everybody know.”
He pressed the button and smiled again as the words on screen were saved to his USB stick. Then he started to whistle, which was even worse than his humming.
“You can’t say there’s no such person as Santa Claus, especially on Christmas Eve,” said a horrified Natalie.
Jake looked pitying at her and shook his head sadly. “It’s already done,” he said. “I’ve sent a message round the world telling kids to log on to my home page at midnight. Then they’ll to find out the truth about Santa. There is no such person,” he said. “And I can prove it. I have the evidence - and it’s ready to go.”
“You’re silly,” said Natalie, her deep b