Making Waves (2 page)

And Emma didn't know it yet but Nema wasn't
the only one making waves. Evil agency
SHADOW
was also up to no good somewhere in the ocean and they would have to be stopped.
SHINE
wouldn't pick an agent who was nervous about deep water for an ocean mission.

Would they?

SHINE
was a top-secret, international spy agency. Its agents worked to foil the plans of evil-doers all over the world, particularly those of
SHADOW,
a secret agency that would stop at nothing to make money—and to try to stop
SHINE
stopping them.
SHADOW
agents had tried to build satellite dishes in a beautiful and protected rainforest, they had tried to melt the Antarctic ice cap to sell bottled water and were always trying to steal the inventions of
SHINE's
scientists. There seemed little that
SHADOW
would not do to get what it wanted and
at a time when most people were trying to make the world better,
SHADOW
seemed determined to make it worse.

Luckily there was
SHINE,
But before they could stop
SHADOW's
evil plans,
SHINE
had to find out what those plans were.
SHINE
did this by intercepting the messages that
SHADOW
agents sent to each other.
SHADOW
sent messages on email, on mobile phones, on pieces of paper, carved into trees, even in the words of songs. To make things more difficult, these messages were in code. Not only did
SHINE
have to find the messages, they then needed to crack the codes. That was where agents like EJ12 came in.

At school, Emma liked maths. You knew where you were with maths—it didn't change on you. Even if you didn't understand a maths problem immediately, you knew that if you worked your way through it there would be an answer, just one answer. Maths was reliable and Emma liked reliable. Which is why she also liked codes. If you looked carefully, you could always find a pattern and once you found it, you could crack the code. Even
really hard codes always had a key, you just had to look for it. And, as EJ12, Emma was good at code-cracking. She was also pretty good at the missions that followed.
SHINE
had a motto: ‘If you crack the code, you take the load.' That meant the code-cracking agent then went on the mission and EJ had been on lots: she had swung through rainforests on vines, jumped over rope bridges, gone down caves and snowboarded as she tracked down and stopped
SHADOW
agents. EJ12 always seemed to keep her cool and overcome her fears when she was on a mission. Which, when she thought about it, was a little weird. As EJ12, she was can-do, will do but as Emma Jacks, she was more, ‘don't think I can do.' Why was that?

The bus pulled into the kerb back at school and everyone piled off noisily. It was lunchtime and the kids were starving after a morning of swimming
trials. Most of the girls, at least the ones with long hair, headed straight for the girls' toilets to dry their hair on the hand-dryers.

Piinngg!

That was Emma's phone. Even though it was turned off for school, it was ringing. That was because it was no ordinary phone, it was a
SHINE
special issue phone, a cross between a game console and a touch-screen phone. It was the best phone a girl could have, although for Emma any phone was the best phone a girl could have as her parents had said she was too young to have one. She only had it because when the phone came as part of her
SHINE
agent welcome pack, Emma's mum, herself a former
SHINE
agent, had to agree to let her keep it—after all what secret agent didn't have a phone?

The phone had lots of normal apps but there were also secret ones that agents could access with a special pin-code. There were code-cracking apps, voice-changing apps, animal-ID apps, a camera with x-ray zoom and secret listening devices.
SHINE
also used the phone to send mission alerts to their agents. They sent alerts when they needed them to access the
SHINE
Mission Tube and report to HQ for a mission briefing. That special alert was the Piinngg! Emma had just heard and her Mission Tube agent access point was the last cubicle on the right in the girls' toilet block at her school.

The girls' toilet block where she was already heading. That was good.

The girls' toilet block, where every other girl in her class seemed to be heading as well. That was bad.

As Emma pushed the door open, she could see that there were lots of girls already inside. There were girls everywhere. Girls crowding around the hand-dryers trying to dry their hair, girls in the toilets, girls at the washbasins, girls just hanging around.

Gee whizz, lemonfizz! This is hopeless,
thought Emma.
How am I going to get to the cubicle and, even if I do, how will I be able to access the Mission Tube with all these people here?

She wouldn't be able to. There was nothing for it, Emma would have to wait, she just hoped she wouldn't have to wait all lunchtime.
SHINE
liked their agents to report promptly and they timed them. Just as Emma was starting to think the girls were going to stay in the toilets forever, Ms Tenga came in. That was unusual because the teachers hardly ever came in to the girls' toilets.

‘Come on, girls,' she cried. ‘I am sure we don't need everyone in here and I am also sure everyone's hair is dry now. Now, quick as you can, finish what you are doing and out, everyone out.'

Girls started to shuffle out to the playground.

‘Not you, Emma Jacks,' said Ms Tenga.

Did Ms Tenga just wink at me?
thought Emma.
I think she did.

‘Emma, please stay and make sure there is no rubbish left anywhere and that everything is shiny and clean. That would be a great help, thank you. Right, everyone else, out!'

Did Ms Tenga just say ‘shiny and clean'?
wondered Emma.
Was that a coincidence?
Emma thought back to other times where Ms Tenga seemed
to be in the right place at the right time to help her. Hmmm. Emma didn't have time to think about that now though. Even if it was just a coincidence, Emma was grateful: she now had the girls' toilets to herself and she needed to work fast.

Quickly, before anyone else came in, Emma ran to the last cubicle on the right, pushed the door open and locked it behind her. She put down the toilet seat, sat down and opened the toilet roll holder. Hidden on the side, where no one would ever notice, was an electronic socket. Emma took out her phone and inserted it into the socket, just like a phone charger, and waited. There was a beep. Emma entered her pin code and took her phone out of the socket. There was another beep and then a familiar message flashed up on her phone screen.

EJ clutched the sides of the toilet and held tight as the wall behind the toilet started to move. It spun around, with toilet and EJ attached. Once it had spun right around, EJ slid off the toilet and on to a beanbag (
SHINE
liked their agents to be comfortable) at the top of what looked like a giant fun-slide. This was the
SHINE
Mission Tube, a system of underground tunnels that whizzed agents into and around the
SHINE
network. The wall then spun back and EJ could hear the click as the toilet door unlocked on the other side. That would ensure no one became suspicious about a locked toilet door and an empty cubicle.
SHINE
thought about these details. EJ waited while a protective shield clicked into place over the beanbag and then took her phone and keyed in ‘GO'. And go she did.

EJ loved lots of things about being a
SHINE
agent. She loved the places she travelled to, she loved the gadgets she used, she loved the animals she encountered on missions and she loved going
down the Mission Tube. Whizzing around corners at high speed, it was like a carnival ride that just went on and on, more than making up for having to start the mission in the toilet.

Finally the tube straightened and levelled out as EJ came to a stop at a small platform with a keypad. She had arrived outside the Code Room. Again she keyed in her pin code and waited, this time for the security check to commence. To ensure that there was no unauthorised access to the code rooms,
SHINE
changed their checks daily—there had been head scans and singing tests, eye scans and signature checks. EJ wondered what today's check would be. A tray with a small glass of water and a bowl came out from under the keypad and EJ heard a digital voice.

‘Gargle water and spit into the bowl. Please be accurate,' said the voice.

‘Ew! That's gross!' said EJ but she did as she was instructed.

She took the glass of water and drank it. Rather
than swallowing, EJ swirled the water around and around in her mouth and then tipped her head back and gargled.

EJ then took the small bowl and held it up to her mouth. Carefully she spat the water out again, into the bowl and put the bowl back on the tray.

The bowl slid back under the keypad. For a moment nothing happened.

Did I not spit enough back in?
wondered EJ. But then she heard a beep.

‘A little messy but agent DNA and identity confirmed. Please drop in, Agent EJ12!'

There was then one final beep, the floor under the beanbag fell away and EJ dropped down, beanbag and all, into a chamber underneath the Mission Tube. EJ had entered the
SHINE
Code Room. It was sparsely furnished, just a chair and a table and a clear plastic tube sticking out from the ceiling above the table.

EJ heard a whizzing sound. She put her phone
on the desk and put her hands out under the tube, catching the capsule that then popped out. Inside the tube were a piece of paper and a pen. EJ read the message on the paper.