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Time Agent Triple Oh plans to trap Murga in Hong Kong without telling me I'm the bait. When Murga's thugs kidnap me with a helicopter, Triple Oh is forced to rescue me and he does not know how to fly.Yonnie and Treeka, daughter programs of Dr Zhang's quantum computer, Mandia, annoyed that Murga is using Mandia for illegal time travel, send Murga to Han China in 208 CE.When he returns, Murga retaliates by sending Dr Zhang and his engineer, Denny, back to Han China. And Yonnie and Treeka cannot bring them back to Silverwood School unless Licia, Miguel and I find them.Unfortunately, we arrive in Xiangyang, China just as the warlord, Cho Cho, invades Jingzhou Province with a huge army.Author's note. This work is based on The Three Kingdoms, a romanticized history of the end of the Han Dynasty, attributed to Luo Guanzhou and first published in 1522 CE. Contemporary critics noted that about 70% was historically accurate. This is the 7th book in the Undercover series which begins with Undercover - On the Titanic. The second book is Undercover - White Out. You might like to read earlier books first but feel free to start with this one if you wish. I expect to complete publication of this edition in December 2022. My grateful thanks to all those dedicated readers who have read this far. I hope you have as much fun reading about the protagonists as I have writing their adventures. I appreciate stars, questions, comments and suggestions and I promise to acknowledge all feedback.…

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Murga wanted to borrow Dr Zhang's computer, which the Dark Fire Data Bunglers were trying to destroy. Yonnie and Treeka (two algorithms from the future) claimed the computer was their mother, Mandia, and were intent on protecting her. And now the Ottawa Police and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Agency were enquiring about the goings on at Silverwood School. All this involved me because I was born in the future, Murga was trying to kidnap me and Mandia was installed in my school.My problems started in 2160 CE when my scientist grandfather genetically altered my chromosomes so I could fly (but only when I was in the curvature of negative space-time). And, my father had taken me to the present time to protect me from Murga.Meanwhile, Triple Oh, an officer of the Time Agency, was trying to arrest Murga and had assigned his undercover goose, Duncan MacPhun as my bodyguard.…

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Denny, Licia, Miguel and I had been kidnapped by a press gang and forced aboard His Majesty's Ship Curious, a 20 gun sailing frigate. (Book 4 Undercover Curiousers).When the ship ran aground, we escaped, but, in 1778, the British Royal Navy hung deserters.The only way we could avoid this fate was to find work in the copper and tin mines at the far south west of England. These mines were essential to the war against the French navy and employees were exempt from military service.On the way west, we fought off some highway men and joined up with the famous British engineer James Watt. He was heading for one of the mines to repair a steam engines used to prevent the mine from flooding. Our carriage driver got lost along the way and we discovered that the locals were suspicious of all foreigners and not at all helpful.While Denny was helping Mr Watt to repair his steam engine at the Ting Tang mine, Licia, Miguel and I found out that the local mechanic had been sabotaging the engine. The local coal merchants feared the loss of sales (because Mr Watt's engine was more efficient) and were paying him to make the engine burn more coal.We tricked the saboteurs to prevent them damaging the engine and Mr Watt successfully demonstrated that the engine rapidly lowered the water level in the mine and, as a by-product, supplied more water to drive the waterwheel and trip hammers used to process the tin ore. Dr Zhang found us and we returned to Plymouth narrowly avoiding a troop of red-coats searching for highway men and . . . deserters.Back in Ottawa we discovered someone had destroyed Oppy's software and were trying to bomb the electric bookcase.…

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Author's note: Undercover Curiousers is the fourth book a series that began with Undercover on the Titanic. After surviving the Titanic sinking (despite the malfunction of Silverwood School's time machine), an attempt to rescue my parents in China and a kidnapping attempt by a gang of American security agents, Licia, Miguel and I are press-ganged onto a British 20 gun frigate in 1788 CE. Unfortunately, France has just declared war in support of the American war of independence. We quickly learn some new terminology useful on a 20 gun sailing frigate including;- lubber hole, futtock shrouds, jib halyard, bowsprit, mizzen sail, head (toilet), belaying pins, burgoo, cat 'o nine tails and grog. When a French frigate appears, we discover how to fire a ten gun broadside and how not to abandon a sinking ship as it runs aground.But leaving the ship makes us deserters . . . and the navy hangs deserters by the neck . . . from the yard arm.…

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It is the Christmas vacation. Dr Lee Zhang's Artificially Intelligent computer at Silverwood School is shut down. Then, two hackers show up on Licia's computer claiming that I am their father and demanding that I show them their Great Mother. Meanwhile, agent Triple Oh, is still trying to arrest Murga for illegal time travel.As if my life was not complicated enough already, American detectives accuse me of hacking into top secret computers in the USA. They also want to know if my missing parents are terrorists and why my un-friend Kozak appears to have a homing beacon, suitable for a missile strike, in his hat. Luckily the Guerilla Grannies are on my side. Readers comments:-'This book is full of humour and imagination, it is a good read - stick with it.''Brilliant! You are a very good story teller, I love the breadth of the writing, smells, virtual reality plausibility and the detail - 'poured himself tea from a vacuum flask'. I was there with them.'…

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Oppy, the Artificially Intelligent computer at Silverwood School, may have invented time travel but Dr Lee Zhang claims it is merely Virtual Reality. While Time Agent Triple Oh, is trying to arrest him for illegal time travel, Murga has stolen Strontium-90 for a radio-active contamination bomb.Murga's third attempt to kidnap me gets as far as Hong Kong but fails when my break-dancing, Canada goose, uncle Dunc, shows up with Triple Oh. Dunc explains that Murga is trying to kidnap me so he can learn the secret of my ability to distort gravity.Miguel and I are sailing ice yachts when Murga tries to kidnap me yet again and I discover that I can control gravity. Beryl (the beaver terminator) persuades Murga's ambivalent archivist sidekick, Kozak, to confess. When he admits Murga is holding Mom and Dad captive, we follow Murga hoping to rescue them and recover the stolen strontium.Readers comments:-'This book is full of humour and imagination, it is a good read - stick with it.''So, so good, the humour is great! The smoke trailing out of the bag, lovely detail - the story gets better and better.''Brilliant! You are a very good story teller, I love the breadth of the writing, smells, virtual reality plausibility and the detail - 'poured himself tea from a vacuum flask.' I was there with them'.…

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Mom and Dad have disappeared in China and my Uncle Dunc is a talking, break-dancing Canada goose. Time Agent Triple Oh has been assigned to protect me from Murga and I am stuck with my grumpy Grandma. What else could go wrong? Well, my new school has a quantum computer with really, real virtual reality and I am stuck on the Royal Mail Ship Titanic which is about to collide with an iceberg. Readers comments:-'This book is full of humour and imagination, it is a good read - stick with it.''I laughed out loud! You really are a writer of funny material, good plot lines too. Loved the image of the green bubbles.''So, so good, the humour is great! The smoke trailing out of the bag, lovely detail - the story gets better and better.''Brilliant! You are a very good story teller, I love the breadth of the writing, smells, virtual reality plausibility and the detail - 'poured himself tea from a vacuum flask.' I was there with them'.…

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American security agents, suspecting Dr Zhang is hacking into U.S. computers, try to abduct him. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is also interested. And Murga is back in town with a proposition. I agree to tests of my super normal flying ability and he will release my parents.There are minor conditions. I have to help steal the secret of the atom bomb and survive the final battle of the second world war. Cover quotation: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds," is from the Bhagavad Gita made famous by Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, after the successful detonation of the world's first atomic bomb in New Mexico 1945 July 16.Author's note. I plan on writing book five later in 2019. In the meantime I am publishing two non fiction books with Dunc MacPhun on Wattpad. 'Who the Hell are We,' is a history of everything and more exciting than most works of fiction. 'Sad or Happy - Choose,' is a self help work intended to help people survive in this difficult, complex and wonderful civilization.…

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Book 3. Murga's thugs kidnap me yet again but this time Triple Oh and Kozak plan to trap Murga without telling me I'm the bait. When Murga doesn't show up, the thugs handcuff me inside a helicopter which the pilots abandon over Hong Kong leaving Triple Oh to rescue me as he learns to fly. And he thinks helicopters can't be more difficult to drive than horses. Murga retaliates by sending Dr Zhang and Denny to Han Dynasty China before destroying the software in Dr Zhang's time machine (the amazing quantum computer called Oppy) so they can't return. Luckily, Oppy's daughter programs, Yonnie and Treeka, reconstruct their mother but they cannot contact Dr Zhang and Denny. Licia, Miguel and I have to go find them and bring them back to Silverwood School.Unfortunately, we arrive in Xiangyang just as the warlord, Cho Cho, invades Jingzhou Province with a huge army.Author's note. This is the third book in the series which begins with Under Cover Goose. The second book is Curiousers Under Way. You might like to read these before Under Estimating Kongming but feel free to start with this one if you wish. Under Estimating Kongming is based on the Three Kingdoms era at the end of the Han Dynasty but I have greatly condensed the historical facts to fit the narrative. The cover shows the Chinese Dragon King Lóng Wáng (see https://thetempletrail.com/chinese-gods-101/ for details).The sub-title (too long for the cover) is from the Art of War by Sun Tzu. 'Be so subtle that you are invisible. Be so mysterious that you are intangible. Then you will control your rivals's fate.'My grateful thanks to all those dedicated readers who have read this far. I hope you have as much fun reading about the protagonists as I have writing their adventures. I appreciate questions, comments and suggestions. I promise to acknowledge all feedback.…

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Author's note: An updated edition of this book has been republished in three books UNDERCOVER - DARK FIRE DATA, CURIOUSERS and STEAM POWER. It's Christmas and the school's time machine malfunctions, sending us to 1778 CE where we are press-ganged onto a 20 gun frigate. After it runs aground, we escape and meet the famous James Watt. However, we are still deserters from the Royal Navy and subject to the death penalty.Back in the present, I am suspected of hacking into CIA computers and Murga is still trying to kidnap me despite Triple Oh's efforts to arrest him. My uncle Dunc (Triple Oh's talking, moon-walking goose) is also on the case. Author's note: This is the second book in the series so you might like to read Under Cover Goose first. Ziff.Cover photo - This is the frigate Surprise a replica of the HMS Rose which was nearly identical to HMS Curious.Cover quotation attributed to Mathew Bolton, James Watt's business partner at the start of the Industrial revolution.…

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An updated edition of this book is available on UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC. It includes new material including several videos from the movie Titanic.Book 1, UNDERCOVER - ON THE TITANIC, is now available on Wattpad. https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/279994510-undercover-on-the-titanic-book-1Later chapters of this book have been published in UNDERCOVER - WHITE OUT .Book 1. Murga is trying to kidnap me, Mom and Dad have disappeared in China and I am stuck with my grumpy Grandma. What else could go wrong? Well, my new school has a time machine. Luckily, I have help from Triple Oh and Duncan - a talking, moon-walking Canada goose. Cover photo - the Royal Mail Ship Titanic just before it sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912.Readers comments:-'This book is full of humour and imagination, it is a good read - stick with it.''I laughed out loud! You really are a writer of funny material, good plot lines too. Loved the image of the green bubbles.''So, so good, the humour is great! Love the detail of the smoke trailing out of the bag, lovely detail - the story gets better and better.'…