Choc Shock (5 page)

The competition was about to begin. Madame Ombre had led the junior choc chefs into the huge bakery kitchen where there was a workbench for each contestant. EJ's was at the front of the room. Each bench was laid out with ingredients, had a store cupboard underneath holding pots and pans and held a stove and oven.

Madame Ombre stood at the front of the kitchen, close to EJ, to address the girls. ‘So you think you can cook? We will see. In front of you are the ingredients for a simple cupcake. But do not be fooled, often
the simplest thing is the hardest to perfect, and I want perfection. If I don't get it, you will go home. Now, enough chitty chatty, commence!'

EJ was nervous. She must not lose. She must not be sent home. She hadn't even begun her mission. She looked at the ingredients: flour, eggs, sugar, cream, chocolate, pretty much the same as at Isi's house. She looked at the recipe. Simple enough. Certainly the other contestants seemed to think so for they were all well underway with their mixing.

First she needed to melt some chocolate and cream.
How hard can that be?
she thought. She followed the instructions, putting some water in a saucepan and bringing it to the boil. She then tipped the cream and chocolate into a bowl and put the bowl into the saucepan, being careful that the water did not touch the sides. Soon, the boiling water began melting the chocolate. So far, so good.

A phone rang in Madame Ombre's office, at the front of the kitchen.

‘Keep cooking and no chitty chatty, I can see you all,' cried Madame Ombre as she strode into the office. Through the glass, EJ could see Madame Ombre talking animatedly, angrily.

Hmm, something has really whipped her into an even worse temper,
thought EJ.
I need to find out what.
EJ took her chocolate charm from her bracelet and twisted. Seconds later she was holding what looked like a little chocolate bar. Remembering her briefing, EJ separated the first two rows. But how was she going to get the transmitter into Madame Ombre's office?

Suddenly, and luckily, for EJ at least, there was a crash as one of the contestants dropped a glass bowl. Madame Ombre had slammed the phone down and was out of her office in a flash.

‘Who is making such a noise in my kitchen?' she fumed as she stormed to the back of the kitchen where the poor girl was desperately trying to pick up pieces of glass.

EJ took her chance. She had only seconds. While Madame Ombre, with her back turned, began
to berate the girl in front of the other shocked contestants, EJ slipped in to the office. She left the choc charm on Madam Ombre's desk. She placed it next to some other chocolates already lying there—the choc charm would go unnoticed. She hoped.

EJ left the office and quickly returned to her bench. Madame Ombre was still yelling at the poor girl. It was then that EJ saw her saucepan. She had left it on the stove and the water had boiled over and into the chocolate and cream mixture. EJ was dismayed as she looked at the watery slop that was supposed to be her creamy chocolate. It was ruined. She looked back at Madame Ombre who was now almost exploding with rage.

‘No, you butter fingers, this will not do. You cannot break things in my kitchen. You will have to leave the Choc Chef competition. Now. Someone will show you out.
Au revoir.
And the rest of you, you are warned, no mistakes!'

The other contestants watched in shocked silence as the now teary girl was escorted out of the competition. EJ looked back at her own mistake in
the saucepan. She needed to hide it before Madame Ombre saw it and threw her out of the competition as well. Madame Ombre was now storming back towards the front of the kitchen, towards EJ and her chocolate water. EJ held her breath.

The phone was ringing again. Madame Ombre let out an exasperated
‘Ou la la la!'
as she stomped back into her office. ‘The things I must put up with!'

EJ let out a sigh of relief. She was saved again, but she couldn't keep counting on phones ringing to save her. She would have to do better. She quickly opened up the store cupboard under the workbench and took out a new bowl, stuffing the bowl with the ruined mixture in the cupboard, right up the back.

EJ needed to start her mixture again but she also needed to listen in to Madame Ombre's phone call. She took out the choc charm listening blocks and, as she put a new batch of chocolate into the
new bowl, she held the choc charm close to her ear. She could hear Madame Ombre talking.

‘Non,
it cannot be sent out today ...
Non,
it is not possible, it is not safe. The cakes are not finished. I have children everywhere and the TV cameras will be here later. We cannot change the cake delivery day.'

Cake delivery?
thought EJ.
The S6 cakes?

Madame Ombre was talking again.
‘Oui, oui,
but I do not like these little shadow people changing things; if I must send out today, you must give me more flakes. If they are not in my office in one hour I will not send out today.'

EJ smiled to herself.
Shadow people, flakes. Are these the same flakes as in the coded message? Was Madame Ombre talking about sending out S6?
she thought.

‘Oui,'
continued Madame Ombre. ‘What do I care? You get me my flakes, I send you your cakes.
Au revoir.'
Madame Ombre hung up the phone and hurried out of the office and into the kitchen, calling out to the contestants as she did.

‘You have used up half your time. If your cupcakes are not soon in the oven, I think you will be going home. I shall return shortly. No chitty chatty!'

I bet I know where she is going,
thought EJ.
The storeroom. That's where I need to be, but I have to cook these cakes.

Now, more than a little flustered, EJ put the choc charm in her pocket and turned the stove back on to melt the second batch of cream and chocolate. She looked around at the other contestants. They were already lining their baking trays. While EJ had discovered important information, she was now running behind in the competition.

All around her was the clanging of saucepans and oven trays as the contestants were preparing their cupcakes for baking. EJ, however, was preparing to worry: she was way behind. She may have finally gotten the chocolate and cream ready, but that was only part of the mixture. She thought now was a
reasonable time to panic.

Then the girl cooking on the bench next to EJ smiled at her. It was the same girl who had smiled at her in the sculpting room. EJ smiled back.

‘That was really mean, what Madame Ombre did,' whispered the girl.

‘I know,' said EJ. ‘Scary.'

‘I'm Chloe,' said the girl, still smiling as she rather expertly cracked an egg with one hand.

Chloe,
thought EJ.
Might this be CC12?

Chloe cracked another egg as she whispered again. ‘I really like chocolate, don't you?'

It was CC12! EJ was excited and she rushed to the next line of the exchange.

‘Oh yes, especially white chocolate—have you tried it with grated carrot?'

‘With what?' exclaimed Chloe. ‘That's funny.' She giggled as she turned back to her cupcakes.

‘Oh well, it's kind of nice,' muttered EJ, not sounding very convincing but feeling very embarrassed. Chloe was obviously not CC12. Then EJ realised that Chloe had not given the password
exactly—she hadn't said, ‘I like chocolate very much, do you?' EJ felt bad. She might have blown her cover. At the moment she was being both a bad chef and a bad special agent. Now was a really good time to panic.

EJ quickly broke her eggs into a bowl, added the sugar and plugged in the electric beater. As the beater whirred away, mixing the eggs and sugar, EJ began to worry about the next stage, the real mixing stage, the potentially lumpy stage.

Trying not to stress, EJ started to measure out the dry ingredients, first the flour, then the baking powder, sugar and cocoa powder. Her cakes needed to be light and fluffy but EJ was feeling anything but light. Her heart was thumping and her tummy was tightening. EJ was starting to worry that she was going to mess everything up.
Pull yourself together,
she told herself,
lighten up.
‘Lighten up', that made EJ think of Isi. Maybe she could help EJ calm down? Checking that no one was looking, EJ took out her phone. Under the bench, she switched it to vibrate and sent Isi a text message.

Within seconds, Isi, being on mission alert, had sent a text back.

This was not the kind of mission assist EJ was expecting, but then she knew to expect the unexpected with Isi. She smiled and already felt herself growing calmer. Having a nutty friend could be useful. She sent a text back.