Base Camp (3 page)

He'd have to land the Sunraker and find the base camp on foot.

He wasn't worried about finding the captured GIB agents. That would be the easy part of this mission. The tricky part would be dealing with the mysterious BIG agent who was holding them all hostage.

Zac checked his watch.

It was getting dark. Zac didn't like the idea of finding his way through the jungle at night. But he didn't have time to wait around until the morning.

Right,
thought Zac,
it's time to find a place to set down the Sunraker, and –

TSEEEWWW!

Without warning, a huge beam of blue light exploded from out of the jungle.

Zac swerved the jet out of the way, sending the Sunraker into a barrel roll. The blue beam shot past, missing the jet by centimetres.

TSEEEWWW!

Another blue blast lit up the sky, but this time Zac was too late. The beam had struck the underside of the Sunraker, and blue sparks flashed across the jet's control panel.

Seconds later, the jet shuddered and everything flickered off. Zac pulled at the steering controls, but it was no good. His stomach lurched. He was going down.

Zac had one chance to save himself. He needed to engage the Sunraker's drag chute. It was meant to help the jet land safely in an emergency.

Zac jumped out of his seat and made his way to the tail end of the jet. He reached out and yanked hard on the metal lever marked ‘Manual Drag Chute Release'.

WHOOOMPH!

There was a massive jolt as the chute flew open behind the jet. Zac was thrown back against the cabin wall.

SMASH!

With an enormous shudder, the Sunraker crashed through the tree line. Luckily, the chute had done its job, and slowed down the jet. Still, it flew through the jungle, snapping vines and knocking down trees, before finally coming to a stop on the ground.

Zac groaned and slowly got to his feet.
Not my best landing,
he thought to himself.

Still, he wasn't going to let a little thing like a jet crash slow him down.

Time to find that base camp.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Zac grabbed his backpack and clambered out of the crashed aircraft.

As soon as he opened the jet's door, he was hit by a wave of hot, sticky jungle air.

A ray of moonlight shone down through the hole that the Sunraker had torn in the canopy. Everywhere else was dark.

Zac pulled out his SpyPad and activated its Torch function.

He waved the SpyPad around, lighting up the jungle in front of him. Nothing but tall trees and tangled vines in every direction.

All right,
Zac thought.
Time to track down this –

He froze. He could have sworn he just heard footsteps in the distance.
What was that?

Zac shone his torch in the direction of the sound. Nothing.

Don't get paranoid,
he told himself sternly.
You're just –

Then there was a rustle of leaves and suddenly someone big and heavy came crashing down on top of Zac.

Zac was knocked to the ground and his SpyPad went flying. He was being attacked!

Must be the mystery BIG agent!
Zac thought as he rolled backwards and kicked up his legs, throwing the attacker off him.

Wheeling around, Zac had only a split second to take in the BIG agent's appearance.

Boy. My age. Black clothes. Wearing a mask.

Hey, cool hair!

Then the kid came flying at him again.

Zac tried to dive out of the way, but the BIG agent was too quick. He jumped on top of Zac again, and they both fell to the ground.

Zac struggled free, and leapt back from the other boy. The BIG agent was on his feet again in less than a second. He jumped up, incredibly high, and launched himself at Zac.

Zac dropped to the ground just in time. The BIG agent sailed over him.Then he hit the ground, rolled, and sprung back up to his feet, all in one perfect motion.

Whoa,
thought Zac, despite himself.
I have to learn how to do that!

He took a run at the BIG agent, but the kid dodged left and stuck a leg out in Zac's path.

Zac tripped on the outstretched leg and went flying. He landed with a crash at the top of a steep hill, and started rolling down, head over heels.

THUD!

Zac smacked into the base of a huge tree and stopped rolling. He jumped to his feet.

Without pausing for even a second, the BIG agent raced down the hill after him.

He dived at Zac like a pouncing tiger, his arms reaching out. The enemy agent grabbed Zac around the waist, knocking the wind out of him. Together they tumbled towards a cliff.

Zac shot out a hand and grabbed a nearby tree root. His shoulder jolted painfully, but at least he'd stopped rolling.

His sudden stop took the BIG agent by surprise.The kid lost his grip on Zac and kept rolling. He tumbled away down the steep hill and over the cliff, into the darkness.

Zac held his breath. The BIG agent was gone. For now.

Zac slowly rolled over and got to his feet.

He staggered back up the hill, grabbed his SpyPad, and ran off into the jungle.

CHAPTER
SIX

Now Zac understood how one BIG agent could have single-handedly taken over a small GIB facility.

This kid was incredible! Zac was a karate pro, but the kid had matched him move for move, and made it all look easy. It was like he wasn't even trying.

Was this why Big Boss had been worried about sending Zac on this mission? Because he didn't think Zac could beat the BIG agent?

No,
Zac told himself.
That kid just took me by surprise, that's all.

But Zac could worry about that later. Right now he had to find the secret GIB base camp.

Zac tapped at his SpyPad, bringing up the Global Positioning System.

Zac's SpyPad screen was lit up with a map of the jungle. It was a bird's-eye view of every tree, hill and rock in the area.

All except for a small grey blur in the top-left corner of the screen.

That was strange. For some reason, the GPS couldn't make a map of that part of the jungle. Something was hiding it from the satellite.

Looks like the perfect place for a secret GIB base camp,
Zac thought to himself.

He decided to follow the hunch. Shining his SpyPad's torch out in front of him, Zac set off in the direction of the grey blur on the map.

It wasn't easy going. Branches and vines scratched at him from all sides. Enormous insects buzzed around his head.

After a while, he came to a little clearing in the jungle where a huge tree had fallen down.

Leaning against the fallen tree, Zac pulled out a water bottle and stopped for a minute to catch his breath.

He pressed a button on the side of his watch, lighting it up.

He had been running through the jungle for about 20 minutes now. But according to the GPS, he still had a long way to go before he reached the base camp.

Zac drank half his water in one go then stashed the bottle back in his bag.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Zac saw something move. He looked up.

There were two eyes in the jungle. Was it the BIG agent again?

‘Come out!' Zac demanded.

There was silence. Zac went into an attack stance, ready for anything.

‘All right,' he said. ‘If you won't come out, I'm coming in!' He stomped in the direction of the eyes, trying to look scary.

‘Whoa! Easy there, kid!' said a gruff voice from the jungle.

A bearded man stepped out of the bushes, his hands raised above his head. He looked about the same age as Zac's dad and was wearing a dirty white jumpsuit that was torn in several places.

‘I'm a GIB agent!' he said. He pointed to the logo stitched onto his top. It was a black eye with ‘GIB' underneath. ‘See?'

Zac lowered his hands.

‘Sorry if I scared you,' the man said. ‘For a minute there, I thought you were that crazy BIG agent.' He laughed nervously.

‘No worries,' said Zac. ‘Are you from the base camp?'

The man nodded. ‘Agent Cougar,' he said, extending a hand.

‘Agent Rock Star,' Zac replied, shaking Cougar's hand. ‘I'm here to rescue you.'

A strange look flickered across the man's face. ‘Rock Star, huh?'

‘What?' Zac asked.

‘Nothing,' said Cougar, a little too quickly. ‘You got the beacon?'

‘Right here,' said Zac.

He opened up his pack and showed Agent Cougar the emergency beacon.

Cougar breathed a sigh of relief.

Zac pointed to the GPS map on his SpyPad. ‘This grey bit here that the GPS won't pick up – that's where your base camp is, right?'

‘Smart kid,' Cougar smiled. ‘Yeah, that's it. Come on, let's go.'

Then he looked over his shoulder nervously. ‘And turn that torch off. He could be anywhere.'