When Sasha and his mother came in a short while later, he could tell right away that she’d been crying. His stepfather was looking very serious.

‘Arthur,’ she said tenderly, sitting on the bed beside him. ‘The general has just informed us that there’s a problem with that box you found.’

‘What kind of problem? I didn’t break it or anything, if that’s what they’re thinking—honestly!’

‘No, it’s nothing like that. In fact, the problem, from what we can gather, is that you appear to be the only one who is able to open it.’

‘Me? But it’s easy, just say “open” three times. Anyone can do it.’

‘If it were that easy, I don’t suppose that they’d be here asking for your help, would they?’ said Sasha, handing him a piece of paper.

‘What’s this?’

‘Look for yourself.’

Arthur unfolded it.

TOP SECRET

To: General Hammond

From: The desk of the Minister of Defence: David James Mills

Subject: URGENT Directive T8-A89–21

General Hammond,

Due to the extreme importance now being attached to the opening of artefact A1–01 at the highest levels, you are hereby instructed on behalf of the Prime Minister of Great Britain and in full agreement with the President of the T8 council to use all means necessary to ensure that this is achieved. I am sure I don’t need to remind you that this is a matter of both national security and international importance. If this boy is indeed confirmed as being who you think he is, you are authorised to bring him to the T8 facility for further testing.

Yours sincerely,

David James Mills

Minister of Defence

‘For further testing!? What, they’re really going to make me go there?’ he asked after reading the memo several more times.

His mother laid a hand gently on his shoulder.

‘The general said you’d just be needed to help them to open the box again, thats all,’ she said.

‘But you’ll be coming too though, right?’

‘No, we can’t, Arthur. Anna is much too little to be going somewhere like that. And, in case you’ve forgotten, Sasha is finally up for promotion next week.

‘Yeah… But…’

‘The general has, however, just been speaking with your father, and after explaining everything to him, he has agreed to go with you.’

‘Papa? Really!? But… he’s on a business trip to America.’

‘Not anymore. They’re sending a plane for him as we speak.’

With his father on his way back, it had been agreed that they would leave the day after next. The general, on his way out, had taken Arthur to one side for a private word and had told him that he was confident that it wouldn’t be for long. Despite this though, Arthur couldn’t shake off the feeling that it wasn’t going to be as simple as just helping them open the box and then being able to leave again, especially when he remembered the contents of the letter.

Things at home had remained tense after the general and the others had gone. One minute his mother would be angry with him for having found the box in the first place, and the next she was hugging him, telling him it would all be OK. His stepfather, in his turn, had taken it upon himself to keep reminding everyone that because Arthur was going to a special government division, that it meant that he’d have to be on his best behaviour at all times. Even his baby sister, sensing that something was up, kept crawling past his room, popping her head in, and screaming out until she found him. Fortunately, by evening they had managed to calm down a bit. The day after tomorrow still seemed far enough away to be able to push it to the back of their minds.

Arthur, for his part, had been trying his best not to think about it at all. Ironically though, the more he’d tried not to, the more his mind kept conjuring up dark images of mad-looking scientists deciding that it was going to be a matter of national security to keep him there for the rest of his life.

‘I don’t know, Cat,’ he said, as the cat came and curled up next to him on the bed. ‘Don’t you think it’s really kind of strange that the government needs my help? I mean, it can do almost anything, right? Build nuclear missiles, space weapons, cool tanks and stuff. I don’t get why they can’t figure out how to open it themselves.’

The cat stretched out a paw and rested it on his arm.

‘I really wish we could still talk,’ he sighed, tickling him behind his ears.

The following day, Arthur decided to try and find out more about the T8 facility and what he could expect to find when he got there. Curiously however, not only did it not appear on any maps but after searching for hours, all he’d been able to come up with were a few broken links and occasional references to it being a government facility, location unknown. One link though, which he had been able to open, was to a conspiracy theory blog in which the writer had said that whilst knowledge of the existence of T8 wasn’t exactly a secret per se, it was rather strange that it couldn’t be located on any satellite photographs, especially given their general availability these days. The writer had also gone on to say that, in his opinion, it had to mean that there was more to it than it just being a UK government facility and questioned whether it was even in the UK at all.