no longer; try not to touch anything – sit on your hands if you have to.’
LB left the room. Ruby sat completely still for two minutes and fifteen seconds – not a twitch until she spotted a small brightly coloured object which had fallen under LB’s desk. She couldn’t help herself; she reached out and picked it up. It was a keyring, with a sort of puzzle attached. It had letter tiles you could slide around to form words, or perhaps a word.
The door opened – Ruby quickly palmed the keyring and tried to act normal.
LB sat down. ‘I’ll cut to the chase. We need you to go through some files – we recently lost our code breaker, and we find ourselves one very valuable brain down.’
‘How did you lose him?’
‘Her, actually – she died. She was on vacation, mountain climbing.’
‘She fell?’ asked Ruby
‘Avalanche; by the time they dug her out it was too late – they never did find her climbing partner.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Ruby, popping some bubblegum into her mouth.
‘Could you lose the gum,’ said LB. It wasn’t a question – Ruby lost it.
‘She was unlucky, there was no warning, it took everyone by surprise.’ LB paused as if collecting herself. ‘Anyway, Lopez was working on a case, code name Fool’s Gold – they uncovered a plot to rob the Twinford City Bank, though we still have no idea who is involved.’
‘The Twinford City Bank? The unrobbable bank?’ said Ruby, astonished. ‘When is it planned for?’
‘The evening the gold bullion arrives from Switzerland – it will be deposited in the Twinford Bank on April 22nd and the robbery is set to take place twelve hours later.’
‘So if you know all this why do you need me?’
LB didn’t say anything for a long moment; perhaps she was wondering if she could trust this green-eyed short kid from Twinford. Then, taking a slow breath she said, ‘We got a call from Lopez. She was three days into her vacation when she left a message with Buzz. She said, “Tell the boss, I missed something first time around. Tell her, I saw it in the mirror and it all made sense”.’
‘That’s it?’ said Ruby, ‘Kinda cryptic isn’t it? Who’s the boss?’
‘That would be me,’ said LB coolly. ‘Naturally she wouldn’t have wanted to say anything obvious over an unsecured line. She said she would be in touch that evening when she got back from her climb. She had booked herself on the very next flight home – she was cutting her vacation short by ten days.’
‘Do you have any idea what she was talking about?’ asked Ruby
‘We can be sure she was talking about a code – one she had missed. She must have figured it out while she was away.’
‘Did she have it with her?’ said Ruby.
‘Of course not – it is strictly forbidden to take classified information out of the Spectrum building. So we know that whatever she missed has to be in the Fool’s Gold files. Which is why we want you to go through them in the same way she would have gone through them – see if you can’t find what she didn’t see first time around.’
Ruby frowned. ‘What do you think she meant when she said she “saw it in the mirror”?’
‘She’s referring to the local newspaper, the Twinford Mirror – that’s where all the codes where hidden.’
Ruby looked perplexed.
LB waved her hand impatiently; she needed to get on. ‘It will all be explained to you tomorrow. You will return here. Agent Blacker will take you to the file room where you can read through all Agent Lopez’s papers and try and get a grip on this case. Understood?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘OK, so get out of here.’
Don’t erase me
ON THE WAY BACK TO CEDARWOOD DRIVE Ruby tried to work her Ruby Redfort powers of persuasion on Hitch.
‘Don’t you think it might be a good idea for me to have some kind of little radio device so I can radio in?’
‘Radio in to where?’
‘To HQ,’ said Ruby
‘No kid, you don’t radio in to HQ, you always go via me.’
‘OK, so I should be able to radio in to you.’
‘And why would you need to do that?’ said Hitch
‘Well you know, in case I need to get hold of you super quick,’ said Ruby
‘And you can, by using that incredible gadget known as the telephone.’
‘But what if there is no telephone, or say someone was on it and I had to run all over looking for another one?’
‘I imagine you are a pretty good runner.’ It was clear Hitch was unmoved by Ruby’s argument.
‘Oh man, can’t I have some little radio walkie-talkie gadget?’ pleaded Ruby. ‘What’s the big problem?’
‘The “big problem”,’ said Hitch, ‘is you getting in over your head. Look kid, this is a desk job, OK? You are being hired to go through files and decipher information – it is not a matter of life and death and let’s not make it one.’
‘But what if it was? What if I find something out – something kinda vital… to everything! And I need to follow it up on the double – get on someone’s tail before they disappear; you know, step in before something bad happens.’
‘Kid, you do any “stepping in” and you will be stepping out of Spectrum for good – you find something out, you sit tight. No drama, no heroics. Sitting tight is a rule – you got that?’
‘Oh man!’ sighed Ruby, ‘did anyone ever tell you, you can be a royal pain in the derriere?’
‘All the time kid, so you’d be wise to remember this – you never act alone. That’s another rule.’ Hitch looked her in the eye. ‘You hearing me kid?’
Ruby nodded. She was hearing, but it was hard to be sure if she was listening, and listening and hearing are two very different things.
Back at the house, Ruby went straight to the living room and played the messages on the family answerphone. She just wanted to be sure that the school hadn’t called and said something that would lead her parents to find out about her class skipping.
Maybe Mrs Digby will have phoned from Miami or wherever in tarnation she has gotten off to.
There were several messages for her
