Time To Shine Page 4

  She was soon over to the other side, and climbing down the tree was a lot less scary than climbing up. EJ did it quickly and then took deep breaths as she started to run fast along the track.

  ‘Keep it up, EJ10,’ cried A1 through the megaphone. ‘You are half way and making good time!’

  EJ ran faster. She turned up the next straight and came to a high wooden wall with a thick rope hanging down. Taking hold of the rope and with her feet pressed against the wall, EJ pulled herself up. Just when she thought her arms couldn’t pull any more, she reached the top and hauled herself onto a narrow platform. Standing up, she saw a wire cable starting at the top of the platform and stretching out along the long straight of the oval, getting closer and closer to the ground. It was the flying fox.

  How do I get down on this? she wondered. I have no idea! I can’t fail my very first test. Aaaarrgghh! EJ’s eyes darted around. Keep calm, she thought. There has to be something here. And then she spied a helmet and a harness with a large metal clip. She understood: she needed to put on the helmet and harness, and then clip the harness to the wire of the flying fox. As EJ went to pick up the helmet, she heard a noise.

  It was coming from inside the helmet. EJ picked it up to discover a baby bird with soft downy feathers inside it.

  ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ she asked softly. She looked up into the branches of the tree overhead. She couldn’t see a nest.

  ‘Five more minutes, EJ10,’ called A1.

  EJ looked up along the course. She still had to come down the flying fox and run the rest of the oval but she couldn’t leave the baby bird here.

  ‘Are you hungry?’ she asked. She had helped her mum with injured birds that they had found in the park near their house and she knew that they needed food and water.

  ‘Four minutes, EJ10!’

  EJ grabbed the harness and, putting it on, noticed a small pouch at the front. That gave her an idea. Gently she picked up the baby bird and placed it in the pouch, then clipped the harness to the wire.

  ‘Hold on, little one!’ she cried as she took hold of the handle and jumped off the platform.

  EJ and the little bird flew down the wire and into a pit of foam blocks. EJ unclipped the harness from the wire but kept it on and, holding the pouch, climbed out of the pit and ran as fast as she could down the straight of the oval.

  ‘One minute, EJ10!’

  EJ surged down the straight. As she sprinted towards A1 she could hear her counting.

  ‘20 seconds, 19, 18, 17 …’

  EJ ran across the finish line, one hand still holding the pouch and the baby bird. She slowed down and, red-faced and panting, looked up at A1.

  ‘Well done, EJ10,’ said A1. ‘Fourteen minutes, fifty-five seconds.’

  ‘I nearly didn’t make it but I had to stop for this,’ said EJ, panting as she carefully took the bird from her pouch. ‘It must have fallen from a nest, but I couldn’t see one and I couldn’t leave it up there.’

  ‘Of course not,’ agreed A1. ‘You made the right choice and it seems you have talent for animal rescue.’

  EJ smiled and then she wondered whether rescuing the chick had been part of the test.

  ‘Test over, Agent EJ10. I’m pleased to award you your first basic training badge.’ A1 passed EJ a badge and EJ couldn’t hide her disappointment when she saw it. It had a smiley face on it and the words ‘Level 1’. It wasn’t quite the spy-badge EJ had been expecting.

  ‘This is your cover badge, EJ,’ explained A1, who seemed to sense her disappointment. ‘The one you can show your family and friends. Your official SHINE badge has been digitally uploaded onto your phone and will be ready for you when you have changed. Which you need to do quickly. School is about to finish and we need to get you back.’

  EJ and A1 returned to the Operations Room, and EJ changed back into her school uniform and returned to the Mission Tube.

  As the bell rang for the end of school, Emma was walking out of the girls’ toilets. She met Hannah at the lockers.

  ‘Hey, Em,’ said Hannah. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘I had a really bad tummy ache,’ said Emma. It wasn’t a lie, those butterflies had been flying around all afternoon. ‘But I feel a lot better now, thanks Han.’ The two friends walked out the school gates and Emma saw her mum’s car. As she jumped in, her favourite song, by a band called the Pink Shadows, was playing on the radio.

  ‘Hi, Mum!’

  ‘Hi, darling, good day at school?’

  Emma wanted to tell her mother everything but she knew she had to keep it a secret. ‘It was okay,’ she replied.

  ‘Anything exciting?’

  EJ thought about the Mission Tube, the obstacle course and the rope course, the flying fox and the little bird.

  ‘Not much,’ she said.

  For the next year, EJ10 attended training and collected her badges at the Illuminating Maths After-School Club. She did particularly well in animal care and spy equipment, and she worked hard on the SHINE code-cracking practice machine, learning new codes and how to crack them. EJ climbed to the top of the Shining Star trainee points ladder.

  The training exercises were exciting, exhausting and fascinating all at the same time and there was always something unexpected that happened during them. EJ was never sure if that was part of the training but she soon learnt to be ready for anything. Most of all, EJ was proud of her badges, which were stored on the secret screen of her phone, and she was desperate to get the final basic training badge. So when she was called to a special Saturday session of the Illuminating Maths After-School Club, she could hardly wait.

  ‘How fun,’ said her mum as they were driving to the Light Shop. ‘A whole day of maths club—it’s just like Brownies with sums, isn’t it?’

  Emma thought about the secret cameras, the speedboat driving, snow skiing and jet-skis. ‘Kind of,’ she replied.

  ‘Hey,’ her mum went on chattily, ‘today you’re going for your last smiley badge, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yep,’ replied EJ, taking out her phone. She swiped to her secret SHINE screen and pressed on the My Badges icon. Her screen filled with twelve badge icons. All but one of them were coloured. On the last, still shaded, badge was a picture of a parachute.

  ‘What do you think you might get up to?’ asked her mum.

  Emma thought for a moment. ‘Not sure. Maybe jumping, perhaps the high jump or trampolining.’

  ‘Wow,’ said her mum. ‘You really get to do some great stuff, don’t you darling?’

  ‘Sure do, Mum,’ said Emma with a smile. But she was feeling nervous about this last badge. She looked at all the other badges. She had done a lot of brave things as EJ10, things she never would have thought she could do, but jump out of a plane? Could she really do that?

  EJ entered the Operations Room where A1, wearing a black jumpsuit, was waiting for her.

  ‘Congratulations, EJ10, you are now on to your last badge. Are you ready for the big jump? Agent JM12 reports you did an excellent job in our indoor skydiving room and that your tandem jumps have been perfect. You must be excited to finally try it on your own.’

  Excited was one word, nervous was another. EJ had done lots of practice but as with all tests, she was afraid she might mess things up.

  ‘Remember,’ said A1, ‘tests are our times to shine. Our SHINE chopper is waiting for us, so please change quickly into your training gear and jumpsuit in the cubicle at the end of the room.’

  EJ changed and was soon back in the Operations Room.

  ‘Good, EJ,’ said A1. ‘Our chutes are built into our jumpsuits. Do you see the cord at the top here?’

  ‘Yes,’ said EJ. ‘That’s the chute release cord. I’ve used one in the skydiving room.’

  ‘Then we are good to go up to the helipad,’ said A1, walking towards the lift.

  This time A1 and EJ travelled all the way up to the top of the building and the lift opened on the roof where a helicopter was waiting, its blades turning. The noise was incred
ible and the wind the spinning blades created was so strong that EJ feared she might be blown right off the building.

  ‘Come with me,’ yelled A1 as she walked towards the chopper. She opened the side door and they both climbed in.

  ‘Welcome aboard Shine Chopper 1,’ shouted the young woman pilot above the noise of the blades. ‘Helmets on, strap in and we are go.’

  EJ put her helmet on and strapped herself to the seat. She looked out the window as Shine Chopper 1 lifted off from the roof. EJ looked anxiously out the window. This was a lot higher than the rope bridge in her first fitness test. The butterflies came back into her tummy but EJ was distracted as she saw her school below.

  ‘Hey, there’s St Cree’s Primary!’ she said to A1 through the mouthpiece attached to the helmet. ‘And there’s my house!’

  ‘And now we’re heading out to sea,’ said the pilot. ‘Jumping conditions are perfect today, A1. We will be at the drop zone in fewer than ten minutes.’

  The drop zone. The butterflies in EJ’s tummy began to flutter again. The chopper turned and ahead EJ could see the beach and the pier. It was funny to think that just yesterday she was down there buying ice creams with Han and Elle and now she was all the way up here about to jump out of a helicopter. She wished she were eating ice cream now but instead the butterflies now zoomed around EJ’s tummy and her mouth was dry with nerves.

  ‘We are at the drop zone,’ said the pilot.

  Now EJ thought she was going to be sick.

  ‘Okay, EJ10, we need to get ready,’ said A1.

  ‘Remember your visor can be switched to zoom-vision. You will jump first. Remember to jump as far out as you can with your arms outstretched. Now move to the jump rope.’

  ‘As far as I can, outstretched,’ repeated EJ, taking hold of the jump rope by the chopper door. The butterflies in her stomach were enormous now, banging around in her tummy.

  ‘And remember,’ said A1, ‘butterflies are meant to fly.’

  EJ smiled nervously as the door slid open. The noise was incredible.

  ‘Okay EJ10,’ cried A1. ‘Time to let go.’

  EJ took a deep breath and looked out across the sky, her fingers still gripping the jump rope at the side of the chopper.

  ‘Now, EJ10,’ shouted A1. ‘Jump!’

  EJ closed her eyes for a split second, swallowed and then let go of the rope and jumped, leaping as far out from the chopper as she could, out into the big blue nothing of the sky.

  For a moment, EJ couldn’t hear anything but the rush of wind whistling all around her. Then she heard a crackle in her earpiece followed by A1’s voice.

  ‘Well done!’ said A1. ‘You did it! If you look up, I’m right behind you.’

  EJ looked up and there was A1, her arms and legs spread out as she seemed to fly down towards EJ.

  I did it! she thought. I jumped out of the chopper! EJ smiled. Maybe she could do more than she thought she could.

  ‘Stretch out your arms and legs and look down!’ A1 instructed EJ.

  EJ stretched out her limbs but she wasn’t sure she wanted to look down.

  ‘It’s okay, EJ10,’ said A1. ‘It is scary at first but focus on what you see and you will find it quite beautiful. Here, I’ll help you. Take my hand.’

  A1 swooped down and, as she took EJ’s left hand, EJ immediately felt better. She looked down. ‘It’s like I’m flying!’ she cried. ‘This must be how birds feel!’

  ‘And you have a bird’s-eye view!’ said A1. ‘Now, get ready, we are going to pull our chutes. I am going to let go now. On the count of five, pull your parachute cord.’

  EJ gave A1 the thumbs up. A1 let go of her hand and floated away from EJ.

  ‘On your count, EJ!’ she cried.

  ‘Five,’ began EJ. ‘Four, three, two, one …’

  EJ took the cord on the right side of her suit and pulled sharply, releasing the parachute. She felt a jolt as the chute opened and for a moment stopped her free-fall, pulling her upwards. Then she began falling again but this time it was slower as the chute billowed out, and she was floating towards the ocean below.

  ‘Excellent release,’ said A1. ‘Now look down, we need to find our jump target.’

  EJ looked down and saw ships that looked like little dots on the water and seagulls flying below her.

  Below me! she thought. This is awesome! I am above the birds!

  As they floated lower, EJ noticed how dark the blue ocean was and she knew that if the water was dark, it was deep. Suddenly, EJ wasn’t afraid of jumping anymore, she was afraid of landing. She was afraid of deep water but she didn’t want A1 to know. What if that meant she could no longer be a SHINE agent? Those butterflies started fluttering up in her tummy all over again.

  ‘We won’t be landing in the water, EJ,’ said A1. ‘Our jump target is a red ship.’

  Did she know I was thinking about the water? EJ wondered. A1 seemed to have a knack of knowing what she was thinking.

  EJ looked down and saw a red shape on the water. She flicked her visor to binocular mode. There was a large, red-hulled ship with a SHINE logo on the front end of the deck.

  ‘Jump target identified,’ said EJ into the mouthpiece.

  ‘Rosie that,’ confirmed A1. ‘That’s Shining Light 2, one of our sea research ships. Once we receive clearance, we are going to land on her deck. Remember your training, EJ. By pulling the directional cords on either side of your chute, you are able to steer the parachute to where you want to go.’

  EJ tested her cords, pulling one and then the other, seeing what happened and judging the wind. She then heard a crackle in her earpiece and a voice that definitely wasn’t A1’s.

  ‘A1 and EJ10, this is Shining Light 2. You are clear to land on front deck.’

  ‘Rosie that, Shining Light 2,’ said A1. ‘Agent-in-Training EJ10 will land first.’

  EJ was now low enough to see the ship clearly and the large yellow globe that marked the landing pad. She pulled the left cord sharply and swung to the left, taking her away from the ship.

  ‘Oh no,’ said EJ. ‘How will I land now?’

  ‘That’s a little too far to the left,’ cautioned A1. ‘Don’t pull so hard, EJ.’

  EJ tried again. She pulled the right cord more gently and straightened up. She adjusted slightly to the right and was now directly over the globe.

  ‘Much better, EJ,’ said A1. ‘You are in position.’

  A few more seconds and EJ landed in the centre of the globe. Remembering her training, she stood up and pressed the parachute-return button on her suit. The chute was sucked into the pack at the back of her suit and EJ moved quickly to the side of the landing pad. Looking up, she saw A1 dropping down onto the pad.

  ‘Good work, EJ,’ cried A1 also pressing her chute-return. ‘I’m impressed. Your work in the simulator has really paid off! I knew you could do it.’

  I wasn’t so sure, EJ thought. But maybe I’m braver than I thought.

  ‘Welcome aboard Shining Light 2, A1,’ said a tall woman wearing a peaked captain’s hat and dressed in a dark blazer with a gold braid on her shoulders. She turned to EJ and introduced herself. ‘I’m Captain C. Was that really your first jump, Agent EJ10? That was perfect.’

  EJ blushed proudly. She looked up at the sky. Had she really jumped from there?

  ‘We have a lot to show you on board. Shining Light 2 is a research and rescue ship with a big focus on protecting and studying the local marine life. We have a team of SHINE agents from both the Science and Invention Division and Animal Training working on-board twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.’

  EJ noticed an agent standing in large white gumboots in a small pool to the side of the deck. As they moved closer, EJ could see the agent was feeding fish to a grey bottlenose dolphin.

  ‘The poor thing got caught up in a fishing net,’ explained Captain C. ‘Her flipper was lacerated by the steel nets and she was barely alive when we found her. Agent F1N has been nursing her back to healt
h and she should be able to be released soon. At any time, SHINE is monitoring marine activity in a number of regions. Our sister ship Shining Light 1 is in Antarctica where SHINE agents are investigating some unexplained migration movements in the penguins there.’

  ‘Yes,’ said A1, ‘that’s been going on for a while now. Is there any news?’

  ‘Not yet,’ replied Captain C, ‘but there are strange changes in temperature we can’t yet explain and the two events might be linked.’

  ‘And what has been happening around here?’ A1 enquired.

  ‘Mostly it’s been quiet, but we’ve noticed oil levels in the pipeline have begun to drop for no apparent reason over the last twenty-four hours. We’re looking into it now.’ She turned to EJ. ‘As well as helping with agent training and conducting our marine research, we carry out routine surveillance,’ Captain C explained. ‘I’m sure you know the motto, EJ: “Keep alert, keep a look out”.’

  EJ hadn’t heard that one but she got the feeling she was going to hear a lot of SHINE mottoes.

  ‘So,’ said EJ, who wanted to know more about the animal rescue. ‘What do you …’

  Triiinnng!

  A1 reached for her phone.

  Sirens began to sound and a voice came over the ship’s public address system. ‘Captain C to the bridge please, we have a Code Red. Repeat, a Code Red!’

  Is this a drill? wondered EJ. Another part of my badge training?

  But as she looked up at the worried faces of A1 and Captain C, EJ realised this was definitely not a practice drill.

  ‘I don’t like the look of this, A1,’ said Captain C, who had moved with A1 and EJ to the bridge of Shining Light 2. They were all gathered around a small Light Screen. The screen flashed. ‘We are receiving reports of an oil spill in the bay. The SHINE chopper has been deployed and we are trying to locate the spill and its source now. We should see something on our screen any moment.’