The Hunt for the Yeti Skull: Nepal Read Free

In Australia, Jack had used the Oxygen Exchanger to breathe underwater. Here in the Himalayas, he could use it to create more red blood cells. It did this with the help of a red blood cell ‘accelerator mist’, which entered his mouth every time he breathed. As soon as he strapped on the Oxygen Exchanger, Jack started feeling better.

    A voice came from beside him. ‘Secret Agent Courage?’
    Jack turned round. There, next to a canvas tent, stood a man. He was dressed in khaki-colored trousers and a long-sleeved fleece with the GPF logo on it. He stuck out his hand towards Jack.

    â€˜Nice to meet you,’ he said. ‘I’m Alex Bell,’ he added, ‘leader of this GPF expedition.’ Jack shook the man’s hand. ‘Where are the others?’ he asked.
    Almost as soon as Jack spoke, three other children materialized: two boys and a girl. When they realized how thin the air was, they too got out their Oxygen Exchangers. Mr Bell walked over to them and motioned for Jack to join him.
    â€˜Secret Agent Courage,’ he said to Jack, ‘these are Secret Agent Storm, Secret Agent Digger and Secret Agent Scarlet.’ He pointed to the children one by one.
    Jack shook their hands. Secret Agent Storm looked older than him. He had striking blue eyes and strong-looking arms.

    Secret Agent Digger was shorter than Storm. In fact, he was smaller than Jack. But he looked tough.
    Scarlet, however, was slim and seemed shy. Jack tried not to frown as he wondered why on earth the GPF had called her in for the job.
    â€˜Right,’ said Mr Bell. ‘We’ll need to work together on this one. No one climbs alone. The winds can be like a hurricane,’ he explained. ‘The crevasses are bottomless pits. The icefall is constantly moving. One mistake and you won’t make it home for dinner tonight.’
    Jack tried not to let anyone else see it, but he was more than a little nervous. After all, over the last century more than two hundred climbers had died trying to make it to the top of Everest. Jack looked at the other three. He wondered whether they realized how dangerous this mission would be.
    Mr Bell pulled out a map. It was a detailed drawing of the route to the top of the mountain. An X marked the spot where they were standing.

    â€˜This is us,’ he said, pointing to where Base Camp was marked. ‘A helicopter’s going to fly you over the Khumbu Icefall and touch down on the Western Cwm.’ (He pronounced it ‘coom’.)
    â€˜Where’s the missing plane?’ asked Digger through his Oxygen Exchanger.
    â€˜Not sure,’ said Mr Bell. ‘We lost communication north of the icefall. They could be anywhere between there and the Lhotse Face.’
    Jack hoped the plane wasn’t north of the Lhotse Face. It was tricky; a more than three thousand foot climb up a wall of ice.
    â€˜The scientists discovered the skull here,’ Mr Bell explained, touching a point 1,600 feet below Base Camp on the map. ‘They took it down to Kathmandu, where they boarded a plane. They were en route to a lab in China when the plane disappeared.’
    Jack looked at the other agents. They were listening carefully to Mr Bell.
    â€˜I need to stay here to wait for our Yeti experts,’ the GPF man said. ‘If any of you get into trouble, call me on your Watch Phone. And another thing – we’ve got company.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ asked Jack.
    â€˜We got word that another group is tracking the skull too,’ he said. ‘It could be the RSO.’ The RSO, or Russian Secret Ops, was an international group of agents hired by shady Russian villains to do their dirty work.
    â€˜Why do they want the skull?’ asked Storm.
    â€˜Who knows?’ said Mr Bell. ‘But assume they’re armed with gadgets, and dangerous.’
    Jack looked at Scarlet. Her eyes were closed. She looked like she was sleeping.
    â€˜What are you