and gripped the metal and swung herself monkey-like along the crane’s arm.
She could see the cylinder hanging from the end on a sturdy rope. Fall from here and she might cause herself some damage – or certainly end up with more than a few bruises. But she wouldn’t fall. Reaching the crane’s end she pulled on the rope, then grabbing the cylinder she used the penknife to slice through its tether. The cylinder was a good deal heavier than she had predicted and also awkward to carry, her solution was to push it up her T-shirt which worked just fine.
From there she used what was left of the rope and swung herself back and forth until she felt able to let go, flinging herself towards the scaffolding platform at the far end of the urban jungle.
To reach the end zone meant jumping across a gap wider than she had ever jumped, the drop beneath looked to be approximately thirty feet – it didn’t look possible but everything was possible, wasn’t it? She took fifteen paces back and then ran as fast as she could before leaping into the air, propelling her body forward, touching her toes on the far side, falling forward and gripping what she could grip.
She had made it.
Just.
She leaned against the wall and dropped her head to her knees; she was out of breath but she had proved what she needed to prove – she could get a perfect score. A guy in a white short-sleeve shirt and brown tie came out from behind the building she had been resting against, and stretched out his hand.
‘Thank you Agent Redfort, you made great time and a pretty good score.’
Ruby looked at him, stunned. ‘What? Did I wobble or something?’
RUBY WAS REQUIRED TO WAIT ON THE HARD METAL BENCH until someone told her otherwise. ‘About ten minutes or so.’ They didn’t even give her a towel. Or return her shoes.
No doubt she would be debriefed by some brainiac uber-nerd who would yack on to her about her skills, ego, motivation, blah, blah. To be honest, Ruby was not looking forward to this. The way she saw it, it was all so much hot air. Could she do it or not was the point – clearly she could, so why talk it over?
After what seemed like a long ten minutes, someone came to fetch Ruby and she was led to a grey door down a monochrome spiralling passage. On the other side of the door was another agent, also wearing a white short-sleeve shirt and brown tie. He was sitting at a grey desk shuffling pieces of paper around.
‘Hello Ms Redfort,’ he said getting to his feet. ‘I’m Agent—’
‘Gill,’ finished Ruby.
He looked surprised.
‘I recognise your voice from the phone,’ said Ruby.
‘You have a good ear,’ said Agent Gill. ‘Do sit down.’
Ruby sat and waited for Gill to speak.
He did some more shuffling and clearing of his throat before he eventually came to the point.
‘You took a lot of risks out there,’ he said. ‘I have to be honest, a couple of those objects I didn’t expect you to reach, given how high they were.’
‘Are you saying I’m short sir?’ said Ruby, her face in no way making it clear that she was kidding around.
‘I’m saying that you obviously took my advice and worked on your fitness; you made some very big stretches considering, well, considering. . . no insult intended Ms Redfort.’
‘Forgiven,’ said Ruby.
Gill looked a little perturbed but took a sip of his water and continued.
‘The thing is, there’s a problem.’
‘What? I made it without falling, didn’t I?’
‘Yes,’ said Agent Gill.
‘I was fast, right?’
‘You were.’
‘I got all five objects, that’s what the puzzle was telling me, five things?’
‘Five things, yes,’ agreed Agent Gill.
‘So?’
‘You missed something.’
‘You lost me.’
‘You needed to collect the correct five things.’ Agent Gill picked up the final item, the silver cylinder – it shone as the light from the desk lamp hit it.
Ruby was puzzled until her eyes took in what was written down one side of the silver item. BOMB it said.
‘How could I have missed that?’ said Ruby, more to herself than the test invigilator.
‘Plenty of people do,’ said Gill.
‘You’re talking about change blindness? Focusing too much on the main task – missing the detail?’
‘Yes, that’s why some people fail,’ said Agent Gill. ‘But in your case, I think it was because you were being reckless; you lost focus altogether. You got carried away.’
Ruby frowned at him. ‘But I—’
‘You also missed this.’ He pushed a photo over the desk. It showed the water tower Ruby had climbed up and swum through. On its side were large letters spelling the word TOXIC, a skull and crossbones painted beneath.
How could she not have seen that?
‘If you’d noticed the warning,’ he said, ‘you could have used the ladder leaning against the tank, hauled it up, then slid it over the water to create a bridge. I must say, it’s what I expected you to do, given your reputation.’
‘Um. . .’ Ruby was all out of words.
But Agent Gill wasn’t. ‘In addition, had you simply walked around the building where you spotted the flashlight you would have discovered a door. The bunch of keys you picked up would have allowed you access to that door and you could have simply climbed a staircase to the roof instead of bringing the whole roof crashing to the floor and thus blocking your route to the trap door and object three.’
‘Oh,’ said Ruby.
Gill peered at her. ‘Oh indeed,’ he said. ‘From observation, I would have to conclude that you have a curious lack of regard for your own life. A certain fearless approach, causing you to be impulsive rather than considered. You are reacting rather than making decisions – your actions are gambles – and it’s a dangerous way to be when you are in the field. I have to be frank, this is not how I expected you to fail.’
‘You expected me to fail?’ said Ruby.
‘Yes. But in quite a different
