In this excerpt, Emily, Daniel and Barry get a demonstration of a weapon from the future:

Emily knelt down, opened her bag, and drew out the odd, vaguely gun-shaped weapon that BC had entrusted to her. Daniel watched as she made some adjustments to it.

'See that buoy a few hundred yards out to sea?' she said, pointing the weapon without really aiming it.

'Yes,' replied Daniel.

'Shouldn’t ya look through the sights?' asked Barry.

Emily pressed the firing stud. There was the sharp, shrill squeak. An area of water about a hundred yards across in the general area of the buoy erupted skywards, and moments later a wall of sound like a thunderclap going off in a toilet cubicle rolled over them. When Daniel and Barry finally turned back to Emily, she had returned the weapon to her bag and was standing up. By the look on her face, Daniel decided, even she had not realised just how powerful the weapon really was. Those promenading along the beachfront who had not started running when the sea had exploded now scampered for higher ground as a wave about two yards high crashed onto the beach. Salty water began to shower down on them out of a clear sky.

'Hurry boys, the train will be returning soon,' Emily said in a breathless whisper, as the echoes of the blast reverberated around them.

As they left, Daniel glanced back out to sea. Out on the choppy maelstrom of water, the buoy was still intact. They were hurrying across the Esplanade before Daniel was able to speak again.

'What is that thing?' he asked.

'A weapon, obviously. BC asked me to demonstrate it to you. He wanted you to be convinced.'

'I’m convinced!' babbled Barry.

'Convinced about what?’'asked Daniel.

'Convinced that BC and Fox are very, very special people, and are to be taken seriously.'

'I didn’t need no convincin’ about that,' said Barry.

The latest novel from Sean McMullen ...

Before the Storm

From a nightmare British Empire of the future they came to 1901, two elite cadets from the Imperial Army. Fox and BC had betrayed their academy, their country and their empire, but they did it to save the world.

They were young, handsome, well-mannered ... and deadly. Their mission was to save the opening ceremony of Australia's first parliament from being bombed. If they failed, thousands would die, and there would be a century of total war.

At first they were alone, in a strange city, alien culture, and half-forgotten time. Their chance to change the destiny of the world was slipping away, but then they met Emily and Daniel.

The Australian teenagers had never even touched a gun, but they knew and understood their place and time. Slowly BC began to build a battle squad from a British Empire a century in the future.

"... non-stop action from first page to last."; "Before the Storm is highly readable, eminently enjoyable and thoroughly recommended." Good Reading

"... action packed adventure, with some lovely characters." ASIF

"... unlikely marriage between The Terminator and the Bronte sisters." Buzzwords

"... an enthralling and thoroughly engaging novel ... begging for a sequel." Buzzwords

"... lively characters and humour ..." Magpies.

Set against the birth of Australia as a nation, when Melbourne was the Paris of the southern hemisphere, Before the Storm combines real history with action, adventure, and teenage romance.

LINK to teachers' notes.