Frozen Fear
FROZEN FEAR
BY
H. I. LARRY
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
ASH OSWALD
Frozen Fear
published in 2006 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia
Text copyright © 2006 H. I. Larry
Illustration and design copyright © 2006 Hardie Grant Egmont
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Illustration and design by Ash Oswald
With special thanks to the spies of years 2 and 3 (2005) of the St Michael's unit of GIB for their top-secret mission support.
Printed in Australia by McPherson's Printing Group
13 15 17 19 20 18 16 14 12
CONTENTS
First rule of surfing? Never, ever drop in. If you're about to ride an awesome wave but someone gets in the way and takes the wave instead, it's called dropping in.
Zac Power had read all about it in his favourite surf magazine,
Pipelines
.
Things had been dropping in on Zac way too much recently. Zac wanted to surf along all day as though life were one big wave. But school, his parents, his brother Leon and most of all, his job as a top-secret spy for the Government Investigation Bureau (or GIB for short), kept dropping in and getting in his way.
Not this time,
thought Zac. It was the summer holidays and the Power family was driving down to their beach house at Point Relaxation. The whole family might work for GIB, but even spies need holidays.
Zac's surfboard was strapped to the roof rack. His electric guitar was in the boot. He was going to play all night. Loudly.
Zac switched his SpyPad to games mode. Should he play
Grudge Match 3
or
Total Chaos
first? It didn't matter. He had heaps of time to play both. He wouldn't be needing his SpyPad for missions!
On missions, Zac used his SpyPad as a computer, mobile satellite telephone, laser and code-breaker â you name it!
Beside him, Leon was playing games on his SpyPad, too. Not the cool ones though. He was playing
Rockin' Calculus
.
Leon worked for GIB as well, but as a home-based Technical Support Officer and Official Gadget Expert.
In the driver's seat, Zac's dad made a left turn. âLow on petrol,' he said. âBetter stop off here.'
They pulled into a petrol station. It was full of cars towing boats and caravans. Everyone seemed to be going down to the beach.
Zac's dad whistled when he saw the price of petrol.
âIt's those petrol tankers mysteriously sinking,' Zac's dad said to his mum. âIt's created a shortage, which has driven the price of petrol sky high.'
Zac's mum nodded in agreement. She pulled her purse out of her official GIB handbag â which came with a laser-guided penknife disguised as a lipstick and Total Knock-out Tissues. These special tissues are injected with a chemical that makes you fall asleep on the spot when you blow your nose with them.
Zac shrugged. He knew it was bad petrol was so expensive. But really, what could he do about it?
Zac hopped out of the car to stretch his legs.
Suddenly, there was a sound of thunder overhead. Air swirled around the petrol station, picking up dust and lolly wrappers. It was strange, because the sky was a perfect blue. But the thunder was getting louder.
Zac shivered. It felt like the sun had gone in. Zac didn't know it, but a huge black shadow was creeping over him.
Leon, watching from the car, dropped his SpyPad.
âZac!' he yelled. âGet out of the way!'
But with the car windows rolled up, Zac couldn't hear him.
THUNKâ¦
Suddenly something thumped Zac hard on the back.
In the next second, Zac was lifting off the ground! Something was pulling him upwards!
The wind got stronger. The thunder got louder. Zac's hair blew all over the place. Underneath him, people scattered, screaming. He was 20 metres off the ground and still rising fast.
Zac looked up. He was hooked by the back of his T-shirt onto a cable. And the cable was dangling out of a helicopter!
A man appeared at the door of the helicopter. He shouted into a megaphone.
âZac Power!'
Zac squirmed in mid-air. If this person knew his name, it must be an enemy agent trying to kidnap him. Zac had to get free!
âThis is Special Secret Agent Fox, Air-borne Division.'
Zac was level with the helicopter door now. Special Secret Agent Fox took hold of Zac and dragged him into the helicopter.
Zac puffed and panted on the helicopter floor. Fox read from a memo.
âThis is an official message from GIB.'
GIB! Well, in that case,
thought Zac,
enemy agents aren't kidnapping me. Things
might be OK.
Foxed coughed importantly and read on.
âWe wish to inform you that your summer holidays have been cancelled, starting from now.'
In that case, things are definitely not OK!
Zac had been looking forward to summer holidays for ages.
âGot a jumper, Zac?' Fox was saying. âIt'll be cold on this mission.'
âWhy? Where is it?' asked Zac, crossly.
âThe Great Icy Pole. Know anything about it?'
âNo, said Zac, feeling very grumpy.
And he didn't want to, either.
In a matter of minutes, the petrol station and Zac's family were just a speck in the distance. And so were his summer holidays.
âHere,' Fox said, handing him a disc.
âYour mission.'
With a deep sigh, Zac loaded the disc into his SpyPad.
â¦loadingâ¦
CLASSIFIED
MISSION RECEIVED 2.54PM
Suspicious activity has been
recorded in the Great Icy Pole.
Our surveillance tells us that
lots of extra planes and boats
have been coming and going,
seemingly with no good reason.
YOUR MISSION
⢠Go to the Great Icy Pole.
⢠Investigate suspicious activity.
⢠Report back to GIB Mission Control within 24 hours.
END
