Book excerpt: Finalist - Book Excellence Awards (2018) – Pre-Teen Fiction Category The third instalment of the award-winning Jaspa’s Journey series for strong middle grade readers. Having conquered most of Europe, in 1815 the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and the might of France suffered their final, crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, one of the most famous and brutal battles in history. So when Ben and Sam visit the legendary battlefield, Jaspa and his friends can’t resist tagging along. But when Ben is tricked into a loaded dare by his bullying nemesis, Gobber, all bets are off. To win, Ben must find something called a geocache – part of a worldwide scavenger hunt based on GPS technology – hidden somewhere on the famous battlefield. After nearly getting trampled during an all-too-real re-enactment of the combat, Jaspa and the others set out to scour the battlefield for the cache. They’ve hardly begun when their task is unexpectedly complicated by a sudden onslaught of unprovoked attacks by a fierce Ses stranger. Will the friends succeed in turning the tables on Gobber’s sly plan, by finding the geocache in time? Will they discover the reason for the hostility of the mysterious stranger? Or will Waterloo again be a place of defeat, as it was for Napoleon two centuries ago?