Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath Read Free

of course, it did bug her. This Bradley Baker guy bugged the life out of her. Of course, he had long since grown up, become the most versatile agent Spectrum ever trained, loved and admired by all — the youngest, smartest agent Spectrum had ever hired, and no one was going to let her forget it. To make matters worse, Bradley Baker had tragically met his end, dying in a plane crash in the line of duty, and so had died a hero’s death. If Bradley Baker’s ghost didn’t haunt Ruby, then his legendary status certainly did.
    Of course, no one got away with speaking to Sergeant Cooper this way, and Ruby found herself scrubbing all the latrines in the camp for the following three days. Kip Holbrook, who despite all the constant metaphorical hair-pulling was actually a nice guy, was kind enough to wade in and help her out. He didn’t exactly know why but he found himself liking this kid from Twinford.
    “Can I give you some advice, Redfort?” he asked in the middle of day three’s latrine scrubbing. “You might wanna learn to keep that mouth of yours shut. It gets you in some unsanitary situations.”
    “I can’t help saying what’s on my mind,” replied Ruby. “It’s the way I am.”
    “Then buy yourself a pair of good rubber gloves, because it looks like you’re going to be scrubbing latrines for many years to come,” said Holbrook.
    Having endured a week of what she saw as drill sergeant Cooper’s poor attitude, Ruby wasn’t exactly grief-stricken when one day she swam up through the clear ocean water to see a sign.
    Well, to Ruby Redfort it was a sign: to the mere mortal it was just a donut on a plate sprinkled with candy numbers. The numbers she recognized without rearranging them: they were all digits that together and in the right order made up one long familiar number. Without any hesitation she crammed the donut into her mouth and made her way hurriedly to the bank of telephones outside the canteen.
    One of the phone booths had a half-drunk milk shake balanced on top of the phone and next to it a stack of coins. Ruby picked up the receiver and dialed the number. The phone was answered on the third ring.
    “Double Donut, Marla speaking.”
    “Hey, Marla, it’s Ruby.”
    “Hang on, I’ll get him — he’s right here.”
    One minute and twenty seconds later a man’s voice came on the line.
    “Hello.”
    “What took you?” Ruby said.
    “Kid, can’t a person eat a donut in his favorite diner without getting harassed?”
    “I believe you wanted me to contact you,” said Ruby.
    “Glad you can still read the signs,” he said. “So how are the plankton?”
    “Oh, the plankton are OK — it’s the sea cucumbers I’m having trouble with.”
    “Sergeant Cooper?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I gather he isn’t your biggest fan.”
    “I’m not too fond of him either.”
    “Well, this is your lucky day, Redfort. Dive school is done with you and Twinford Junior High would like you back Monday at eight a.m. pronto. So slip out of your fins. You’re on a plane back to Twinford in . . . oh, seventeen minutes.”
    Ruby Redfort smiled, but before she hung up, she asked, “So, Hitch, why didn’t you just leave a message with the camp coordinator, like a normal person? It’s not like you’ve gotta be covert about it; everyone knows you’re my sidekick.”
    “Kid, you can fool yourself that you have a sidekick, but you’ve got a long way to go before you’re going to fool me, LB, or anyone else in Spectrum.”
    “OK man, I’m just kidding with you. I haven’t forgotten that you are Spectrum’s number one
numero uno
action agent — I was only asking. Why all the secrecy?”
    “Just keeping you sharp, kid. Don’t want you getting sloppy.”
    Ruby smiled. Yep, that was Hitch all right — one royal pain in the behind.

THE DREAM HAD BEGUN IN THE USUAL WAY: Ruby alone, treading water in a bottomless ocean, an ethereal voice whispering to her, almost singing. She would turn this way and that, but she