Choc Shock (6 page)

EJ started to laugh and, as she did, she noticed there was flour sprinkled all over her workbench. EJ looked closer. There seemed to be something written in the flour.

CC? Is it Agent CC12?
wondered EJ. She had already been wrong once. But no, it had to be her and this time EJ would be more careful with the password. She put her phone back in her pocket and looked around the kitchen. Madame Ombre still hadn't returned.

Excellent!
thought EJ as she left her workstation and went over to the cool room, a room like a giant fridge. EJ opened the door and looked around.
She could see lots of ingredients—cream, milk, butter, boxes of fruit—but that was all. If Agent CC12 was hiding, she wouldn't give away her location unless she was sure it was another
SHINE
agent who had entered the cool room. There was only one way EJ could let her know.

She cleared her throat and facing the fruit announced, ‘I like chocolate very much, do you?'

Then EJ heard a voice from behind the bananas.

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

EJ stood in the cool room and said the next part of the secret password to a box of bananas.

‘No, I have only had it with tomato. I hope to try carrot soon.'

‘Yes,' came the voice behind the bananas, ‘you must.'

The sequence had been completed exactly.

‘Agent CC12?' whispered EJ. ‘Is that you?'

‘Affirmative, Agent EJ12.'

EJ moved a box of bananas to one side and there, sitting cross-legged in amongst the fruit, was
a girl. She seemed shorter than EJ but apart from that looked about the same age. She had reddish-blonde hair tied back in plaits, pale skin and friendly looking blue eyes.

‘You took your time; I was getting cold in here!'

‘Sorry,' replied EJ. ‘I've been a bit busy and I only just got your message in the flour. How did you manage to hide in here?'

‘I came in with the fruit delivery this morning.'

‘Cool,' smiled EJ, for a moment wishing she could be in the surveillance division. ‘CC12, what have you learned?'

‘Madame Ombre is working for
SHADOW,'
said CC, ‘and she has been baking lots more cupcakes than usual.'

‘Interesting that it's cupcakes she has been baking,' said EJ, and she filled in CC on the message she had decoded that morning.

‘Sneaky,' said CC, ‘a message on a cupcake.'

‘Yes,' continued EJ. ‘The message said the S6 cakes would be ready after the Junior Choc Chef finals but I've just overheard Madame Ombre on the
phone. I'm pretty sure that there is a change of plan and now they're going to be delivered today.'

‘That's bad,' said CC, ‘we don't know enough yet.'

‘There's another thing,' said EJ. ‘Have you seen or heard anything about flakes?'

‘Flakes?' asked CC.

‘Yes, flakes, Madame Ombre seems to be working with
SHADOW
for flakes and I am pretty sure she is not talking about cornflakes.'

CC screwed up her nose. ‘I don't know what they are but I do know that Madame Ombre has been planning what she hopes will be her best cake ever and that she is waiting on a delivery to start it. She could be waiting on the flakes.'

‘I think you're right,' said EJ. She had a feeling that the pieces were starting to come together. ‘And I am pretty sure something is going on in that storeroom near the kitchen. Madame Ombre is the only person allowed in there.'

‘Yes,' confirmed CC, ‘and she has been taking trays and trays of cupcakes in there over the last five
days. I haven't seen them come out again.'

‘We need to get in there,' said EJ.

‘There will be a break after this first baking round. Use your skeleton key charm to get in and meet me in the storeroom.'

‘Okay, but first I need to make sure I get to the next round, otherwise I won't be going anywhere except home.'

‘You don't have a charm?' asked CC.

EJ remembered her whisk charm. ‘You're right, thanks. I'd better get out there and use it.'

‘I can hear someone coming!' whispered CC. ‘Move the banana box back and I will see you in the storeroom. Quick, now!'

EJ moved the box back and as she did, Madame Ombre opened the door of the cool room.

‘What are you doing in here?' she asked, glaring at EJ.

‘
I'm just getting some more cream,' replied EJ a little nervously. ‘Ah, here it is, thank you.' EJ walked past Madame Ombre, who was still glaring, and back to her workstation.
Does Madame Ombre suspect
something?
wondered EJ. As she opened the cream, she saw that most of the other contestants were already putting their cakes into the oven.

This charm better be good,
thought EJ. She took out the whisk charm and twisted. As she did, it expanded to nearly ten times its original size and EJ noticed a little green button on the handle. She tipped the cream and chocolate into the eggs and sugar mixture and then pushed the button on the whisk and put it into the bowl. If you listened carefully, you could hear a whirring noise coming from the whisk-o-matic and every now and then, EJ could hear a little ‘puff' as the whisk added something to the mixture. Whatever it was, it was working, and EJ watched with relief as her mixture became silky smooth without a lump to be seen.

Next EJ tipped the dry ingredients into the bowl. Her face fell when she saw her beautiful mixture turn all lumpy but, with the whisk-o-matic whirring and puffing away, the mixture was soon back to its silk-like texture.

EJ carefully poured the mixture into the cake tins
and put the tray into the oven. They looked good, but would they come out okay?

With the cakes in the oven, EJ twisted the top of the whisk-o-matic and it returned, slightly stickier, to its charm form. She began to clean up and waited nervously as the cakes cooked. Finally, there was a ping as EJ's oven timer went off. She opened the door and peered nervously into the oven. To her surprise and delight, there was a tray of perfectly smooth and round cupcakes.

Madame Ombre rang a bell. ‘I am ready to judge. Choc Chefs, present your cupcakes!'

EJ looked at her cakes now cooling on the oven rack. They looked perfect—but how would they taste? Would they be good enough? She was about to find out.

‘Ugh, that is not a cupcake, that is a disgrace.
Au revoir!'
declared Madame Ombre as she tried one of the contestants' cakes. The girl began to
blush. EJ felt sorry for her.

‘That one is okay,' said Madame Ombre to the next contestant. ‘That is very nice, that is too heavy,' she said. Madame Ombre worked her way down the kitchen, making comments, some good, some bad, some quite rude. She came, at last, to EJ.

‘Well, what about you? What did you do with your extra cream I wonder?' said Madame Ombre.

EJ held her breath as Madame Ombre took a cupcake and sliced it in half before putting one half into her mouth. She looked surprised, looked at EJ and then looked at the remaining half cupcake before putting that into her mouth as well. ‘That—' she said loudly.

EJ's heart sank.
She was going home, she knew it. What would she say to A1?

‘—That is the best cupcake of the contest. I am surprised—and impressed. Welcome to the final four!'

EJ breathed out. She—and her whisk-o-matic—had made it into the finals. Now, more importantly, she had to make it into that secret room.

The six unlucky contestants had left the kitchen and Madame Ombre now addressed the final four.

‘The cakes must be completely cool before they can be decorated,' said Madame Ombre. ‘While you wait you will be lucky enough to see a special feature film,
“Chocolat et Moi;
The Story of Madame Ombre and Her Remarkable Chocolate Cakes.” This will be a treat, I am sure you agree. We will go now to my theatrette, where you will stay and watch until I come to collect you.'

EJ smiled. This would be her opportunity to
sneak to the storeroom. She went with the others to the theatrette and took a seat at the very back, close to the door. The lights dimmed and Madame Ombre left as the movie began to play. EJ waited a few moments before she too left the room. Poking her head around the door, she checked that Madame Ombre had gone, then went out into the main corridor and made her way to the storeroom. EJ took her key charm and twisted it. Once the key was fully extended, she pushed it into the keyhole and turned. The door was unlocked and, with a quick look up and down the corridor, EJ went inside. It was dark but she dared not turn on the light.

‘EJ12, over here!' A torch flashed on the other side of the room. It was CC12.

‘CC12, we have about an hour before the movie finishes and the finals commence. I'm not sure where Madame Ombre is.'

‘She is in the chocolate room, for now anyway. Look EJ,' said CC flashing her torch. ‘I think we've found something.'

CC shone her torch into the centre of the room
and over an enormous table stacked high with cupcakes in plastic packing trays. In each tray there were spaces for six cakes but there were only five cupcakes packed. Every tray was the same, five cupcakes and an empty space.

‘There's one cupcake missing in every pack, that's strange,' said EJ.

‘Too much of a coincidence for it to be accidental,' agreed CC.

‘And,' said EJ, ‘we're looking for a delivery of S6 cakes and here are delivery packs for six cakes. That can't be a coincidence either, can it?'

‘I can see why you are in the code division,' said CC.

‘Thanks,' replied EJ. ‘Let's have a closer look at these cupcakes.'

They each took a cupcake and looked at it, closely, upside down, right way up. They looked normal enough. And delicious.

‘There has to be something about these cakes,' said EJ, ‘but what?'

‘Maybe ... shush! What was that?' CC whispered.

EJ couldn't hear anything. ‘What did you hear?' EJ whispered back.

‘That,' said CC.

Now EJ could hear it. There was a noise coming from the corner of the room, a rustling, shuffling kind of noise.

CC shone her torch into the corner. ‘Boxes, piles of boxes,' she said.

‘But boxes don't rustle,' said EJ. ‘There has to be something else there.'

The two girls walked up to the boxes with CC shining her torch on them. The rustling seemed louder. EJ reached up and lifted one of the surprisingly light boxes and put it on the floor. CC took the next one and both girls gasped when they saw what was behind the boxes.

‘Rabbits,' said CC.

Along the back wall was a cage holding six rabbits. The lovely brown rabbits EJ had seen in the sculpting room.

‘Madame Ombre's chocolate models,' said EJ. ‘How cruel to keep them locked up in here in the
dark behind all these boxes.'

It was when EJ looked down at the boxes that she noticed a label.

‘What a strange combination of contents,' said EJ. ‘Too strange, I think.'

‘What do you mean?' asked CC.

‘I think it's a code,' replied EJ. ‘But what sort of code is it? Let me see, there is always a clue to the code somewhere. Maybe here:
“Bottom Up First”.
Maybe it's something about the first letter.' EJ took out her phone and pressed the notes app. She
keyed in the first letter of each line:

‘Maybe not,' said EJ a little glumly.

‘But 6S, is that something?' asked CC.

‘Yes!' cried EJ, as she remembered back to the first cupcake code where she got 6S wrong. ‘It is S6 and I didn't use the whole clue: “Bottom Up First”. We need to take the first letters from the bottom. Look.' EJ keyed in another set of letters.

‘The contents of this box are the final part of S6. Maybe that's why the last cake isn't in the tray? I wonder. Let's open the box.'

The girls took down a box and opened it. Inside were lots of little plastic bags, each with what looked like a single chocolate chip in them.

‘S6 is a chocolate chip? Maybe we have got this all wrong,' said CC.

‘We can't have.' EJ looked closely at the chip. ‘It has to be something else as well. Something hidden maybe.'

‘We need to be hidden as well,' said CC quickly. ‘I can hear something else, and it's not rabbits.'

‘I can't hear anything,' said EJ, wondering if agents in the surveillance division had to have really good hearing.

‘Trust me, EJ!' whispered CC. ‘Quick, up here.'

EJ followed CC as the nimble girl climbed up over the boxes and down over the other side next to the rabbits. Just before EJ jumped down she took her cupcake charm and twisted it. ‘This should help us,' she whispered as she removed the cherry camera and placed it on the top of the highest box, looking down over the large table. Now she could hear something too. Footsteps. And the door opening.

The light went on. Both girls held their breath.

Behind the boxes, both girls took out their phones and pressed the
SHINE
Chat app. Using
SHINE
Chat they could text each other. EJ activated cupcake-cam and they watched the screen showing Madame Ombre come into the room. She was carrying a baking tray of cakes and what looked like a paint tin and brush. She put both on the large table. Carefully Madame Ombre took one of the cupcakes on her tray and sliced off the peaked top of the cake. The girls watched as she then took a small scoop out of the middle of the cake and looked around.

‘Now, where are my chips?' she wondered aloud.

EJ froze and quickly wrote a message:

A second later a message from CC appeared on EJ's screen.

‘Ah, there they are.' Madame Ombre saw the opened box on the end of the table. ‘Yes, let me check. Final S6, the choc-chip microchip.' Madame Ombre dropped the chip into the centre of the cake, placed the top of the cake back on and then seemed to paint something brown over the top.

‘The icing on the cake, chocolate icing,' Madame Ombre said chuckling to herself. ‘A little icing seals the cake and the chip inside. Madame, you are indeed a master chef!'

CC sent EJ another text.

EJ smiled. It was fun having a mission partner for a change.

The two agents continued to watch on cupcake-cam as Madame Ombre inserted a chip into each cake on her baking tray, replacing the top and icing them over. She put one into each of the packing trays and, with the pack complete, she sealed the packs.

‘One more batch of cakes and all the packs will be completed.
SHADOW
will have their cakes and I have my flakes. I will soon have enough to begin my ultimate creation.'