On The Ball Read Free Page B

that could be pushed to make the item decompose to nothing.
    â€˜Do you have this one?’ asked CC holding a little torch charm. ‘It looks small but is a really powerful torch.’
    EJ, who wasn’t that keen on night missions, would have loved that charm. ‘I haven’t got that one but I have got glow rope—it is really long and glows in the dark. You can use it to leave a trail at night.’
    â€˜I have a rope charm,’ said KM, ‘but it doesn’t glow.’
    â€˜My rope charm doesn’t glow either,’ said CC, ‘Iwonder if we can upgrade?’
    The girls compared spy charms, then apps on their phones and then swapped music from their spy-pods. It was fun. KM12 reminded EJ a lot of Isi. KM was also enthusiastic about everything and talked excitedly at a hundred miles an hour—no wonder she was in the fast-transport division.
    The girls were talking so much that they didn’t notice that the SHINE bullet train had left the Mission Tube tunnel and was now speeding through bushland and up into the mountains.

    The girls only stopped talking when the train pulled in at a small railway siding. They had arrived. But where were they? There was no railway station and no sign, just a narrow timber platform by the tracks in the middle of the bush.
    The doors of the train opened and the agents stepped out. The air was fresh and EJ breathed in the sweet smell of the eucalyptus trees as shelistened to the chatter of birds and rustle of leaves in the light wind.
    â€˜Alright SHINE agents, everyone follow me,’ cried A1. ‘Single file, please and as quick as you can.’
    â€˜Where do you think we are EJ?’ asked KM.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ replied EJ, ‘but we were in the train for a long time and look across there, there is nothing but trees and hills.’
    â€˜It’s beautiful,’ said CC. ‘Don’t you feel like we are the only people for miles?’
    â€˜I guess that’s the point,’ said EJ. ‘We can train with noone knowing we are here.’
    EJ, KM and CC followed the other agents and pushed through the bushes and stepped on to a dirt walking track that sloped down the mountain. The agents walked along, with tall straight trees towering over them on either side. After a while, there were fewer trees and the track levelled out as they came to a large natural clearing. In the middle of the clearing, the grass had been cut so it was like a sports field. At the edge of the field was along wooden cabin with wooden benches and tables outside. Six smaller cabins were next to the long cabin and on the other side of the field, close to all the trees, there was a run of enclosures. EJ wondered what was kept in there.
    A high wire fence surrounded the whole area and there was a double-gate that opened automatically as the group walked towards it. As the agents walked in, some older agents came out of the large cabin. EJ smiled as she recognised C2C, the sea captain, REV1, the SHINE driving ace, CO45, the code scientist and IQ400, SHINE’ s chief inventor. There was also a woman coming from the enclosures at the far end. EJ didn’t recognise her but she knew the beautiful husky dog she had on a lead—it was one of the huskies that EJ had rescued on her Antarctica mission. A1 had said that they would be re-trained at a SHINE camp.
    All the senior agents joined A1 as she stood at the front of the group. EJ hoped that she would be able to spend some time with them.
    â€˜Welcome everyone,’ cried A1.
    There were some barks and yelps coming from the pens.
    â€˜Welcome to both dog and human agents,’ laughed A1. ‘And, of course, we must not forget our puppies.’
    EJ, KM and CC all looked at each other and then squealed in a very non-secret agent way.
    Puppies!



‘Welcome to the Mount Globe SHINE training camp,’ repeated A1, ‘SHINE’ s top-secret training facility. No one knows