was standing outside Mrs Beesman’s house with Clancy Crew.
He was peering over the fence looking at the debris in her yard. Boy, was it ever a mess.
‘We really have to do this?’ said Clancy.
‘You got me into this Clance, telling my mom I was such a super nice kid, helping old Mrs Beesman out. Now I guess I gotta be a super nice kid.’
Clancy sighed. ‘I was only trying to cover for you Rube.’
‘I know,’ said Ruby giving him a friendly thump on the arm. ‘Just next time think before you open that big mouth of yours.’
Clancy frowned. ‘You sure she wants us to clear her yard?’
‘I had to talk her into it,’ said Ruby. ‘She took a lot of persuading.’
They were about to push open the gate when they were surprised by a bleeping sound coming from Ruby’s coat.
‘You’re bleeping,’ said Clancy.
Ruby pushed up her sleeve to reveal Bradley Baker’s watch, still fastened around her wrist. The fly was flashing blue. In all the chaos of last night Ruby had forgotten to hand it back to Hitch. With some trepidation she pushed the talk button and held the watch to her ear.
‘Where are you?’ demanded a gravelly voice.
Ruby gulped. She didn’t really feel up to talking to an irate LB. ‘Look, sorry about the watch and the whistle – I promise I’ll hand them to Hitch before he leaves.’
‘Too late for that, Redfort,’ said LB. ‘He’s back at Spectrum.’
Ruby’s heart sank. Just like old Mary Poppins, she thought, he’s taken off without so much as an adios. ‘He could at least have said goodbye,’ muttered Ruby.
‘Goodbye? What do you mean goodbye?’ said LB. ‘I just wanted him to bring in that watch so we can have one of our technicians take a look at it. A faulty rescue device is no good to any agent.’
Ruby’s mind was working overtime but she couldn’t make sense of what LB was saying.
‘You can consider this your week off, Redfort, but I want to see you at 6am in exactly seven days time, no excuses, no sick notes from your mom. Understand?’
Ruby did not. ‘My week off?’ she stammered. ‘My week off from what?’
‘You want to be an agent don’t you? Well, being an agent takes a lot of training. Hitch will be in charge of that so you had better listen to him.’ LB cleared her throat before saying, ‘The rescue watch you can keep, but look after it, it belonged to a friend of mine.’
‘You can count on me,’ said Ruby.
‘I hope so,’ said LB. She paused. ‘Oh and by the way, you did good kid.’
WHAT I KNOW AND WHAT I DON’T KNOW
OK so I bet you are wondering what happened to Froghorn? Well, he got himself in some very deep water ‘a good agent should never take his eye of the ball’ that what LB said [sic]. I believe he’s on he coffee and donut detail for the next six months. That’s Spectrum-speak for stakeout duty.
Why Buzz is called Buzz? It’s simple:
[redacted text]
What I can’t tell you is what the Count was looking at with that little laser light thing – who knows if we’ll ever find out, but I’ll bet he wasn’t trying to discover the secret to world peace.
Clancy’s got a hunch I haven’t seen the last of that fellow. I think he could be right.
Ruby Redfort
The Spectrum Agency Test SOLUTIONS
(1) Solution:
First take Trunch across the river. Asimov and Carlucci are safe together. Then take Asimov across but since you can’t leave Asimov and Trunch together you must bring Trunch back. Then take Carlucci across the river. Finally come back for Trunch. Everyone is safely on the other side.
(2) Solution: Put three bars on each side of the scales. If they balance then the gold bar you didn’t put on the scales is the counterfeit. Otherwise put the three bars that are lightest on the scales. Take two of these bars and put them on either side of the scales. If they balance, then the bar you didn’t put on the scales is the counterfeit. Otherwise, the lighter of the two bars is the counterfeit.
(3) Solution: 42
Special thanks to my publisher and editor, Ann-Janine Murtagh, for all her help and support during the many years of thinking about writing and actually writing this book. Few editors can be tougher than her and I am grateful for it. I am also very grateful to Adrian Darbishire and Rachel Folder for reading and rereading the text and talking through countless plot options and coming up with some really good ideas along the way. Thanks to Pete Lambert, Lucy Mackay and John Perella for discussing Ruby Redfort ad nauseam. Thank you to David Mackintosh for his beautiful and clever design work and to Nick Lake for his thorough and thoughtful editing. Last of all, thanks a whole heap to Trisha Krauss and Lucy Vanderbilt for advice on American-speak.
Contents
Coming up for air
An Ordinary Kid
Chapter 1. Don’t back away or they will see you as prey
Chapter 2. One drop could save your life
Chapter 3. Plankton and sea cucumbers
Chapter 4. The recurring dream
Chapter 5. The shape of a condor
Chapter 6. An ocean of fear
