In The Dark Page 3

  ‘What do I need this for?’ EJ asked as she came out of the dressing rooms.

  ‘We want you to blend in with your surroundings, which you will if you are top-to-toe black. You will be as dark as the night—and the mine,’ said A1. EJ wished she hadn’t reminded her. ‘But you won’t be alone,’ said A1. ‘Remember to upload your BEST.’

  SHINE believed their agents worked better with back-up, so they had developed the BEST agent assistance system. BEST stood for Brains, Expertise, Support, Tips and every agent had a network of people she could call on to help her. The BESTies, as they were known, were screened by SHINE HQ and cleared to help the agent on missions. They were there to support the agent when the mission got tough. The BESTies could ask no questions and an agent could never discuss her work with them when a mission was over. That was okay with the BESTies—they liked being part of a top-secret mission, even if they couldn’t tell anyone about it.

  EJ opened the BEST app on her phone, flicked through her contacts and thought hard. Hannah, Elle, Mum ... Who would she need on this mission? It was hard to tell when the mission hadn’t begun, but all the talk about darkness was scaring EJ a bit, and who did she turn to when she felt scared? Mum. EJ’s mum had also been a SHINE agent so she knew how things worked. Yes, Mum would be perfect, decided EJ. EJ selected her mum on the screen and pressed ‘OK’ to activate the BEST communication system. EJ’s mum would now be alerted by text message that she had been selected as a mission BESTie. She would be advised to stay alert and be on stand-by should EJ need her. That’s funny, thought EJ, that’s sort of what mums seem to do anyway.

  ‘Ready EJ12?’ asked A1. ‘It’s time to get going. You will be taking the Mission Tube train. We use it to transport the engineers to the solar plant. The train line finishes just past the power station, a little way out in the bush. Once out of the Mission Tube, you will need to make your way north through the bush to the mine. Use your compass. Hopefully we will intercept another message which will give us some more clues to help you, but for now, good luck EJ12,’ and with that A1 pushed a button under the briefing table. The wall at the end of the briefing room slid back to reveal the Mission Tube and a small, silver bullet train.

  ‘Wow!’ exclaimed EJ, ‘has that been here the whole time?’

  ‘Yes, EJ12. The bean bags work well for short trips but if they travel too far along the mission tube, the bags begin to wear and the beans begin to fall out,’ explained A1. ‘And, of course, they can only carry one person at a time. That’s where our bullet train comes in.’

  ‘But who is going to drive it?’ asked EJ.

  ‘You are, of course,’ replied A1.

  ‘I am?’ said EJ, looking surprised but also excited.

  ‘I have checked your training reports and you did pretty well on the “Steering-with-Speed” unit so I know you will have no problems at all with the bullet train,’ said A1. ‘It is one of the easiest of all our trains to drive.’

  SHINE regularly held classes and workshops at its top-secret training base. It was like a school camp for secret agents. SHINE needed to make sure that their agents were up to date with the very latest developments in code-cracking and knew how to use the equipment they were given on missions. EJ loved these camps and the Under 12 Driving Camp had been one of the best. She had been trained on ride-on mowers (you never knew what might be needed on a mission), tractors, dirt-bikes, snow mobiles, diggers and trains. The “Steering-with-Speed” part of the camp was the best as the agents practised going as fast as they could while still keeping control of their vehicle. It was so much better than the dodgem cars at the carnival.

  ‘OK, EJ12, all aboard,' said A1.

  Excellent! thought EJ. My brother would be so jealous if he knew.

  The bullet train was easy to drive, and fun. EJ simply pushed a starter button then pulled a lever up and down to control the speed. She remembered from her training that you sped through the straights and slowed down around the bends. It was better than the big dipper at the carnival. Except it was getting darker as the Mission Tube lights grew dimmer.

  It was a text message from SHINE. Had they intercepted another SHADOW message already?

  The emergency lighting was very dim. It was now nearly impossible to see the twists and turns of the tunnel and EJ slowed right down. After driving very slowly for a while, she checked her map app and saw that it was now straight ahead to the end of the line. That’s better, she thought, as she pulled the lever up again and returned to full speed. Soon the console on the driving panel flashed ‘approaching line end’. EJ pulled the lever slowly down, bringing the train to a halt in front of a ladder and a sign.

  EJ pushed a large button by the train door. The door slid open and EJ stepped out of the train onto a narrow platform. She edged along the platform to the front of the train before climbing up onto the front of the train and onto the ladder. EJ then climbed up the ladder until she reached the top and a metal door above her, like a manhole. It had a bolt, two locks and a combination mechanism, the code for which SHINE had uploaded to her phone. EJ pulled back the bolt, used her skeleton key on the locks, turned the combination 5-24-9-20, smiling as she realised what letters the numbers stood for. That is the easiest number code, she thought as she pushed the door open and climbed up and onto the ground. As she shut the door, EJ could hear the train heading back to HQ. For EJ12, however, there was no turning back.

  EJ took out her binoculars and compass and looked around to get her bearings. She was in a small clearing in the bush. Tall white gum trees stood all around her. EJ could smell the eucalyptus from the leaves and wondered if she might see a koala. When she looked to the south she could just make out the SHINE solar station in the distance through the trees, with its rows and rows of metallic panels pointing up to the sky. These were the panels that collected the sunlight. To the north, where EJ needed to go, there were more gum trees, a whole forest of them covering a small hill. If SHINE was right, Black Cave Mine was on the other side of that hill and the tower would be on the next hill.

  The light of the day was fading, with the sun sinking lower and lower in the sky. Though it was still quite warm, a breeze was starting to blow gently, rustling the leaves. EJ knew from the position of the sun that it would be dark in less than thirty minutes. She began to make her way through the bush, eager to use the daylight while it lasted.

  Dusk was a funny time. It wasn’t quite day or night. When EJ was younger, she was sure that this was when fairies would come out. The last rays of sun were shining through the gum trees and in the dappled light EJ was almost sure that she saw the glisten of a fairy wing as it darted behind a tree. Or maybe that was just a butterfly. EJ never imagined scary things at this time of day, only magical, good things.

  EJ’s boots crunched as she stepped on leaves and fallen twigs. She hardly noticed the noise of her boots or of birds as they flapped and screeched around her. She pushed on, keeping her eyes on the compass to make sure she was going north. Only when her compass began to glow did EJ look up and realise it had become dark. The sun, which had been hovering just above the horizon, had suddenly dived down, throwing day into night, as if at the flick of a switch.

  Now EJ noticed the noises.

  She stepped forward and CRACK! She jumped back. What was that? She didn’t dare take another step. Standing completely still, she felt for the zip of her light pack and rummaged inside. Grabbing the longest, biggest thing in there, she pulled out an enormous torch. She turned it on and shone it at her feet.

  A stick. I stepped on a stick, she told herself. She shone the torch up at the trees. They had looked so pretty before with their speckled green-grey leaves dancing in the light. Now they were dark and shadowy, creaking and groaning as they bent in the wind. And there were noises everywhere. As well as the constant rustling of the leaves, there was a low buzzing.

  ‘Crickets,’ said EJ to herself as she walked on, ‘or frogs. I remember them from school camp. They are quite nice when...’
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  EJ stopped and stood completely still when she heard the high-pitched, whipping noise ring through the bush. That wasn’t a frog, she thought.

  That wasn’t a cricket. EJ swung her torch around but couldn’t see anything.

  The noise sounded closer. EJ’s heart was pounding. What was that noise? That noise coming towards her ... Towards her to attack? Stay calm, EJ said to herself. It’s only a bird or something ordinary like that. Remember the possum at home. This is just like that. The noise sounds scary but it actually just belongs to a cute animal. EJ shone the torch around again and this time, sitting on a high branch above her, she spotted a bird.

  Mystery solved, thought EJ. It is a bird, of course. Now stop thinking scary thoughts. Then came another sound.

  ‘That’s an owl,’ said EJ out aloud. ‘You are a cute owl aren’t you?’

  ‘Thanks,’ said EJ. ‘I knew you were.’ And so it went on as she walked through the bush. There would be a noise and EJ would tell herself what was making the noise, sensible things not crazy, scary, spooky slumber-party things. But there were noises everywhere and they seemed so close. EJ couldn’t work out what they all were. She felt her heart start to beat fast again and she felt a warm flush run up her neck. She was starting to panic. EJ felt alone, she felt small and, most of all, she felt scared.

  She wanted her mum.

  Now EJ’s heart was beating so hard she thought it was going to burst. What is that? I need Mum! EJ pressed the BEST app and her mum answered immediately.

  ‘Hey Em, I mean Agent EJ12. You’ll do anything to get out of eating fish pie, won’t you? I must say I’m not sure what I think about SHINE giving you a mission on a school night. I might email A1 about that.’

  ‘Mum, don’t you dare!’ said Emma, who was thinking her mum may not have been the right BESTie to choose after all. But the sound of her mum’s voice made EJ feel calmer, safer. ‘Mum, there are some pretty scary noises here.’

  ‘Remember our possum at home,’ said her mum. ‘She made a pretty horrible noise but was actually very cute and not dangerous at all.’

  ‘I tried to remember that,’ said EJ, ‘but now there are so many weird noises, I’m not sure.’

  ‘Why don’t you put me on loudspeaker so I can hear too?’ suggested Mum.

  EJ was slightly surprised her mum knew phones had loudspeakers but didn’t say anything as she switched it on.

  ‘Okay,’ said her mum, ‘let’s keep walking.’

  And so EJ walked through the night bush chatting with her mum, who would sometimes say, ‘Oh that might be a sooty owl, EJ. Lucky you, they are very rare. Now that, I think, is a tawny frogmouth and that is definitely a barn owl.’

  And so it went on as EJ walked through the bush and up the hill. She wasn’t sure that her mum really knew the names of all the birds or whether she was making them up but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t afraid any more, she was even kind of enjoying it, and before long she had reached the top of the hill.

  ‘Okay Mum, thanks, I can do it myself now,’ said EJ.

  ‘Of course you can. Good girl and good luck, EJ,’ said Mum, ‘and I’ll save some fish pie for you.’

  EJ groaned but smiled as she put her phone back in her pocket. She must be getting close now. She needed to go down this hill and then the mine was on the next hill. And somewhere would be an entrance. As she headed down the other side of the hill, she could still hear noises but EJ stayed calm. She knew they were just the bush animals and birds calling to each other. The ground had levelled out and then started to go up again. EJ checked her compass. She was still heading north so she must be nearly at the mine. EJ checked her sun charm. It had turned to a dark orange. That was not good, it meant that the SHINE energy supplies were getting dangerously low. She needed to hurry.

  As EJ walked, she shone the giant torch ahead of her, swinging it from side to side and up and down, looking for something that might be a mine entrance. Just as she was starting to think she would never find it, EJ felt her boots hit something. She shone the torch on the ground and saw a metal track, the mine cart track. She must be on the right track! Then EJ’s torch shone on an old sign, nailed to a tree.

  EJ had found an entrance to Black Cave Mine. She took a deep breath, held her torch out straight in front of her, and headed slowly down the track into the mine. EJ took one, small, tentative step at a time, along the rusty, dusty track. Shining her torch around, EJ could see the tunnel’s walls. They were made of deep red rock, with some smooth patches, some rough. EJ ran her hands along the wall and was surprised at how cold they felt.

  EJ saw that the top of the tunnel wasn’t much higher than her head and the tunnel floor was scattered with loose rocks between the cart tracks. She would have to watch her step.

  Gee whizz, lemonfizz, it is dark in here, thought EJ. Dark and cold. Maybe there is another way to find Operation Lights Out...

  Saved by the Ping! It was another message from SHINE. EJ stopped and took out her phone. She looked at her screen.

  SHADOW must have sent another message in Braille, thought EJ. They can’t send that to my phone.

  EJ was right. Because SHADOW had sent the first message in Braille, SHINE had been on the look-out—or should that be feel-out—for a second message using the same alphabet. So, when they intercepted what looked like a blank piece of paper, they checked for the little raised dots. They found them and then simply reproduced them digitally to send on to EJ.

  The message came through.

  They could have then converted it to the normal alphabet, couldn’t they? thought EJ. But then again, that is my job I suppose.

  EJ checked her code app and found the Braille alphabet again. In no time at all, she had converted the Braille to normal letters but this time the message made no sense at all.

  ‘It’s obviously a code within a code,’ murmured EJ. ‘If I were a SHADOW agent hatching evil plans, what code would I use? That’s hard, it’s like the opposite of what I am, the complete opposite. The opposite, thought EJ. Could that be it? SHINE— SHADOW; dark—light; good—bad; back—front ... Hmm, could it be a backwards code?

  EJ loved cracking codes. She loved taking something that looked liked nonsense and working with it until it made sense. Now, looking at the letters she had a feeling that she was about to crack this code.

  Let’s test it, thought EJ. A backwards code means A=Z and Z=A, B=Y and Y=B and it goes on like that, all the way through the alphabet. If the same SHADOW agent has signed off with her initials, AX, the last two letters of this code will be ZC. EJ quickly checked. Yes, they are. Backwards code confirmed. EJ flipped to the code app on her phone and found the decoder for the rest of the alphabet.

  It took her no time at all to decode the rest of the message.

  EJ keyed in the decoded message and sent it back to SHINE. Within seconds A1 was on the phone.

  ‘Good work EJ. Now we know that you have just two hours to stop AX.’

  ‘Do we know who AX is yet?’ asked EJ.

  ‘I think we do,’ replied A1. ‘There were thirteen SHADOW agents with the initials AX but we have narrowed it down to two people, Adriana X or Alexandra X. Both are SHADOW agents, both have the skills to be behind something like this. We are sending you visuals of each now. There are, however, a few things that make us fairly sure that it is Adriana.’

  ‘What are they?’ asked EJ.

  ‘Well, the first thing is her name,’ said A1. ‘One of the meanings of the name Adriana is darkness. Someone with a name that means darkness being behind a plan to put SHINE in the dark, is that a coincidence, I wonder? I do not think so, I really don’t.’

  ‘And the other thing?’ asked EJ.

  ‘The code,’ said A1, ‘the use of the Braille alphabet and the poetry. We know Adriana has very bad eyesight, she can hardly see a thing. That might explain the Braille. And the poetry, if you can call those bad rhymes poetry, well, Adriana always fancied herself as a poet. No one else did, I might add, but she often sends me
ssages in rhymes. It is almost like her trademark. It’s been a while since we have heard from Adriana but this kind of scheme is just the sort of thing she might get up to.’

  ‘How do we know so much about her?’ asked EJ.

  ‘Adriana has caused quite a few problems for SHINE over the years,’ sighed A1.

  ‘But how would she know where the solar station is?’ asked EJ. ‘Isn’t that top-secret? How could Adriana have found that out?’

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, EJ,’ said A1. ‘It’s classified information with the highest security clearance required on a strictly need-to-know basis. I can tell you however that if it is Adriana who is behind Operation Lights Out, she does know where the solar station is and how it works. Now, you need to get down that mine, and you need to hurry. And remember, EJ, make sure you can’t be seen.’

  EJ looked down the mine tunnel. She could see only blackness. She gulped.

  ‘That shouldn’t be hard,’ she said.

  EJ sat down in the tunnel and took out her tub of face concealer. She put her torch on the ground, opened the tub and smeared the black cream on her face, then did a quick check in the mirror under the lid of the tub. She could hardly see herself. It was perfect.

  As she got up she accidentally kicked the torch and sent it crashing into the tunnel’s rock wall. There was a cracking noise and EJ was in complete darkness—she had broken her torch. She sat on the ground, trying to think her way out of feeling really, really scared.