The Emu has Landed

By Merv Lambert

This fantastic new addition to the Colin the Librarian series contains eight exciting stories.
Read how the magic phoenix bookmark causes Colin together with his invisible emu friend to be dropped by parachute behind enemy lines, how he encounters a skeleton in a cupboard with an active mobile phone in its hand, and how the sinister British spymaster F for Frank involves him in a series of extremely dangerous missions by way of the Arctic Circle and the Russian Revolution of 1919. The actions of M the emu continue to be bold, inventive and frequently hilarious.

The Emu Has Landed
Behind enemy lines Colin and M sabotage the secret trial of a radio-controlled tank. By impersonating Adolf Hitler Colin rescues a captured Polish airman, who turns out to be the grandfather of one of his best friends.

Pond Life
Colin and his family and M the emu find themselves in Mexico with Spymaster F for Frank. They rescue Yvon yet again and capture a runaway British traitor. However, the story does not end there.

Pond Life 2
An adventure in Brazil in which Frank and Yvon literally discover a skeleton in a cupboard. It leads them to the villainous Popov, whom Colin ‘sends into space’. Olivia puts her foot down and insists the magic phoenix bookmark allows her family a proper holiday this time.

An Emu on Ice
An adventure in northern Greenland. Colin, Frank, Braine and Perkins plus M after a skidoo race foil Russian plans to claim a steep rocky island. Then, posing as Stalin, Colin boards a Russian submarine to rescue Yvon yet again. He gives orders for the submarine to return home. Mission accomplished!

The Bridge of Spies
In this adventure Colin and M thwart the plans of the evil Stasi chief Colonel Schickelgruber. First they rescue Yvon (yet again!), and then save a British scientist as she crosses the Glienicke Bridge to freedom, but the magic phoenix bookmark does not return Colin and company home yet.

The Berlin Wall Game
Colin and co. once more foil Colonel Schickelgruber. By means of an attack on one of the watchtowers of the Berlin Wall during a snowstorm they smuggle two fugitives into the safety of the American controlled zone of the city. As usual M is on his best form, though not on his best behaviour, as he cannot resist German sausages!

The Gnome of Zurich
During a teddy bear festival in the city of Zurich Colin and M together with Frank and Co. thwart a plot by the Deputy Police Commissioner to steal important information from a bank vault. Yvon disguises himself as a giant teddy bear, and M causes all sorts of fireworks.

Red Emu
In 1917 Moscow Colin and M rescue Yvon’s grandparents, and M causes chaos at the Lubyanka Prison. As Lenin, the revolutionary leader makes a speech in Red Square, he is mimicked by an emu, who eventually provides F for Frank and his agents with some unique souvenirs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AUK Kids
• Release date: Mar 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781785381362

Book preview

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The Emu Has Landed

After meeting Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London during World War 2 Colin parachutes into Germany with M, his invisible emu friend. They cause havoc at a secret trial of a radio-controlled tank. Adolf Hitler is not amused. Then Colin impersonates the Fuhrer and with M pulls off the daring rescue of a captured Polish airman, who is the grandfather of one of his best friends in the present day. They steal one of Hitler’s private planes to fly back to London under the protection of the magic phoenix bookmark.

Colin realised he was walking down a long, rather badly-lit corridor. M, the computer-generated emu, invisible to almost everyone except Colin and his family, was with him. They were following a short, stocky man in an army major’s uniform. A creature of habit, as his wife Olivia liked to call him, Colin glanced down at what he happened to be wearing in this particular adventure. Oh, some sort of cheap suit and the trousers had turn-up cuffs just above his sturdy brown shoes. What had the magic phoenix bookmark got up its sleeve for him this time? He just had time to reflect ‘Does a phoenix have sleeves?’, when the major knocked on a plain, drab wooden door.

A gruff voice rang out. Come in.

Colin gasped. He recognised that voice. Could it be...?

The next moment the major had opened the door and was ushering him into a windowless room slightly better-lit than the gloomy corridor. A certain emu slipped in unnoticed.

Colin could not help smiling in delight. There at a large desk covered in papers and telephones sat Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister during World War Two. He had a fat cigar wedged in his teeth. He removed it with his right hand and waved Colin to sit on a straight-backed chair opposite him.

Good evening, young man, he boomed. No doubt you are wondering why you have been summoned here. From what I’ve been told about you it seems that you could perform a great service for our country.

Colin nodded in agreement, already caught up in the spell of the great man’s personality, but all he said was, Of course, sir. He noticed that M was peering at all the coloured maps on the walls.

Churchill went on, Your mission will not be an easy one. It could be highly dangerous. Suddenly he thumped his fist on the table and cried, How I wish I was coming with you! At times all this... He swept a hand across his desk. All this paperwork gets me down. However, I mustn’t waste time talking about myself. I wanted to see you in person, and I see a sharp, bright, no doubt courageous young man. Will you do it?

How could Colin refuse, although he did not yet know what the mission was? He heard himself saying, Glad to be of service, Prime Minister. I will do my best.

Colin stood and Churchill rose to shake him by the hand, saying, The major will fill you in on the details of your mission. Goodbye and good luck.

The major closed the door behind him, as he and Colin made their way back down the corridor.

Perhaps I should not ask, major, but where exactly are we? enquired Colin. It was such a rush to get here in the black-out.

In fact Colin had just been gazing at page 500 of his special book, when the magic phoenix bookmark had emitted a red flash thereby transporting both him and M here into yet another adventure.

The major smiled, as he replied to Colin’s question. In the underground war-rooms at Storey’s Gate. Do you know London?

Not as well as I should, said Colin.

The major opened another door. Come in, he said. This is my office. Now I will tell you about your mission. You understand that since you will not be in uniform, if you are captured, you may well be shot as a spy. The army officer did not notice M shaking his head as if to say Oh no he won’t.

Thus it was that several days later, after some special training with the recently formed S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) Colin found himself drifting down under the canopy of a black parachute on a very dark night over enemy territory - the very heart of Germany. His destination was Berlin. The magic phoenix bookmark, which was safely enclosed in his top pocket, had enabled him quickly to pick up the skills of what was later to be known as a H.A.L.O. drop, i.e. high altitude low opening. Colin himself had suggested this, as in the 21st century he had read about it, and it meant that at a very high altitude the aircraft carrying him was unlikely to be picked up by enemy radar or be intercepted by enemy fighter planes, such as the deadly Messerschmidt 109s. The first part of his descent he had done in free-fall with M. Now the emu was floating down to earth with him clinging confidently with his strong beak to the harness of the single parachute. All seemed very quiet and peaceful in the countryside. As the ground came up to meet them, M landed neatly first and steadied Colin as his feet touched German soil.

Colin had been instructed to bury the parachute and to change out of his outfit specially designed for his descent through the very cold air. However, he didn’t need to do anything, for the magic phoenix bookmark gave a subdued green flash, and the whole parachute vanished without even a puff of smoke. Colin saw that he was now wearing the overalls and boots of an ordinary workman. M seemed to be wearing a wide grin. He had thoroughly enjoyed this parachuting lark.

Although it was extremely dark and still the middle of the night, Colin could make out that they were in a rather muddy ploughed field. He patted his pockets to check that he had the necessary travel documents, shrugged his arms into the small rucksack he had been issued with, and set off with M towards the nearest town, which the bookmark had told him was just a mile or so to the north. When he came to a small road, Colin carefully wiped all the mud off his boots, so that it would not seem obvious that he had come across the fields. You should never take unnecessary risks in war-time. They walked on, and soon they were mingling with working men making their way towards the railway station. The bookmark pulsed once in Colin’s pocket to remind him that it would enable him to speak and understand the German language perfectly.

A quarter of an hour later, having duly bought his ticket, Colin was standing in a shabby train making its slow but steady way into the capital city of Germany, Berlin. He noticed the people around him did pong a bit, but he knew that at this time soap was in short supply. It didn’t bother M, who was gazing happily out of the window, as the buildings of the huge city came into view. Many of them were bomb-damaged amid piles of bricks and rubble.

When they alighted from the train, Colin found that the checking of documents and travel papers was much stricter than it had been at the station of the small town where they had got on the train. It did not take long though. For some reason no one asked for M’s papers. Colin smiled to himself. Was it perhaps because the emu was invisible even to the efficient, ever-vigilant Germans? There was no time to waste though. The next part of the mission was to get inside the Chancellery, the main government building. First Colin was to be an electrician. Fortunately, when he was a teenager Colin had been taught some basic electrician’s craft by his Uncle George, so he could at least tell one wire from the next. Once he and M were inside the building the phoenix would again take over. Colin only had to think about where they needed to be and indeed the bookmark did the rest. He and M were now walking along a corridor in the Chancellery, and he had taken a screwdriver out of his rucksack to make it look as if he were purposely making his way to a particular job. He concentrated hard, as the phoenix revealed to him the next part of his task. Ah, it was telling him to make his way to a door standing slightly open and facing him at the end of the corridor. He knocked politely. A voice told him to come in. Acting on the phoenix’s directions, he closed the door behind him. A short, stocky, arrogant-looking man dressed in the elegant uniform of a colonel in the S.S., the dreaded security branch of the Gestapo or state secret police, was standing in front of a desk, looking at some papers he had just taken out of the open top drawer of a filing-cabinet. He just managed to snap, Yes, what do you want? when at a gesture from Colin M had him pinned down with his face pressed hard onto the desk. The bookmark gave off two green flashes this time, and suddenly the scene was transformed. Now Colin wore the uniform of an S.S. colonel, whereas the unfortunate German officer was dressed in the overalls of a humble electrician. His appearance was also altered by the dark glasses perched on his nose and the scruffy cap perched on his head. He lay temporarily unconscious on the floor. Colin had the impression that the phoenix was laughing, as it let him know that for the rest of the day this man would think that he really was an electrician, and in fact shortly he would cause a black-out in the whole building