Misha Pisha and the Phantom of Cyber

Seven days. Seven moves. One boy who has to tell the truth.

On Christmas morning, every screen in Belgrade lights up with the same message: CHECKMATE IN 7 DAYS.

Two of Misha Brillantmont’s friends have vanished from a locked tower at the old fortress: the Prince’s son and the President’s son. The hacker who took them has left nine-year-old Misha one rule. Tell a grown-up, and I take another piece.

Misha is very good at chess. He turns out to be frighteningly good at keeping secrets, too, and the secrets get bigger every day: gongs that strike thirteen, a brass coin that only makes sense upside down, and rows of fireworks barges below the fortress that can be aimed anywhere.

With Hana and Edo beside him, Misha has until midnight on New Year’s Eve to work out what the Phantom of Cyber really wants, to find two friends under a hill, and to learn that the bravest move on the board is to tell the truth.

Belgrade is real, and so is almost everything Misha runs through: the Kalemegdan fortress and its Clock Tower, the Victor above the two rivers, Knez Mihailova, Skadarlija, and the tower on the far bank that counts down to midnight. Eighteen of them are listed at the back of the book, with what is true about each one.