Free The Four-Fingered Man by Cerberus Jones

you not only look like another person, you are physically wearing that form,
too. I mean, you could have touched Miss Ardman and felt human skin, not scales.
It’s brilliant.’
    ‘It’s dangerous,’ Tom spoke up.
    ‘Tom,’ Mum started.
    But Tom retorted angrily. ‘No. If you want them to know the truth, then they should
know the whole truth. The gateway is dangerous . Not just because it’s speeding up
or unstable. Not just because Control wants to interfere. It’s dangerous because
we are standing in the middle of an intergalactic superhighway – just standing in
the middle of the traffic, totally unprotected, and hoping that we don’t get hit
by anything.’
    ‘Tom,’ Mum said warningly. ‘Don’t frighten –’
    ‘No, I will frighten them,’ said Tom. ‘I want them frightened. Because frightened
kids might take things seriously, and stay as far away from the gateway as possible.
Frightened kids will have, maybe, a two per cent advantage, and if ever Krskn –’
    ‘Right!’ Dad said loudly, standing up and clapping his hands together. ‘Right! Good
point, Tom, thank you! OK, great meeting, everyone. Now off you go, kids!’
    ‘But –,’ said Amelia.
    ‘Ba-ba-ba!’ Dad said over the top of her, refusing to listen. ‘Out you go! Now!’
    Amelia didn’t push it. The moment Tom had said ‘Krskn’, all the hair stood up on
the back of her neck. She had no idea why, but she didn’t want to hear any more about
what went on in those caves under Tom’s cottage.
    ‘Charlie,’ Mary called after them. ‘It’s all secret, remember?’
    ‘Yes, Mum,’ Charlie groaned.
    ‘I mean it, Charlie. For the first time, I really, literally mean it when I say you
could get yourself in worlds of trouble.’
    Charlie pulled a face at Amelia, and they went out through the lobby into the bright
innocent sunshine. Over at the edge of the headland, James was throwing rocks out
at the ocean below. She decided not to walk that way.
    ‘Come on, Charlie,’ she said. ‘We never checked out whether that really is a hedge
maze.’
    ‘Yeah!’ said Charlie.
    They broke into a run, and Amelia grinned, wondering if maybe life here could be
almost normal. Maybe it wasn’t going to be all drama and mystery. Mum and Dad were
still on her side – and surely they could handle whatever else decided to drop into
Tom’s cottage. Meanwhile, Amelia had Charlie for company, and she could play at the
beach, and she was going to get that puppy soon.
    Behind her, she heard Charlie call out, ‘And when we get right into the middle of
the maze, I’m going to get back to work on this holo-emitter in my pocket!’
    Okay, so maybe ‘almost normal’ was pushing it. Maybe, in fact, life at the Gateway
Hotel was going to turn out to be pretty much the opposite of normal. Perhaps even
dangerous at times.
    Somehow, though, with Charlie beside her and the whole headland bathed in golden
afternoon light while the waves crashed endlessly below, Amelia couldn’t help feeling
excited.

Cerberus Jones
    Cerberus Jones is the three-headed writing team made up of Chris Morphew, Rowan McAuley
and David Harding.
    Chris Morphew is The Gateway’s main story architect. His job is to weave the team’s
ideas together into awesome, page-turning story outlines. Chris’s experience writing
adventures for Zac Power and heart-stopping twists for The Phoenix Files makes him the perfect man for the job!
    Rowan McAuley is the team’s chief writer. Her role is to expand Chris’s outlines
into fully-fledged novels, building the excitement and fleshing out the characters.
Before joining Cerberus Jones, Rowan wrote some of the most memorable stories and
characters in the best-selling Go Girl! series.
    David Harding’s job is editing and continuity. After Chris and Rowan have done their
part, David arrives to iron out all the kinks. With his superior knack for spotting
issues and coming up with solutions, David is the polish that makes The Gateway