In The Dark (2 page)

A1 was the head of the
SHINE
agency, a secret organisation that protected the world from evil-doers. ‘We shine a light on evil', was one of their mottoes. (
SHINE
liked mottoes and they had one for most things.) They spent a lot of time shining a light on the
SHADOW
agency, uncovering and stopping their evil plans.
SHADOW
was as bad as
SHINE
was good.

What did all this have to do with Emma Jacks? Well, when she wasn't worrying about strange noises at night, or going to school or gym or playing with
her friends or being irritated by her older brother, Bob, and other normal ten-year-old girl things, Emma Jacks was EJ12. EJ12, special agent and code-cracker, under-twelve division to be exact (which Emma liked to be). In fact, she was one of
SHINE's
best agents. In the agency's Shining Stars award,
SHINE's
Spy of the Year competition, EJ12 was in the top five.

Emma had been selected to join
SHINE
when she won a maths competition.
SHINE
used maths competitions as a way of finding clever thinkers to help them crack codes, and they had found Emma. Since then, as EJ12, she had cracked codes and gone on missions all over the world. As EJ12, Emma Jacks seemed to be able to do anything.

So how could a special agent be afraid of the dark? So far EJ12 had only been sent on day missions. She didn't know it but that was about to change.

‘Emma, time to wake up,' said her mum as she pulled up the blind in Emma's bedroom.

Emma opened her eyes. The sunlight rushed into the bedroom and made her squint. She dived under her doona. ‘Mum, pull down the blind pleeeeeease, it's too light!'

‘That's a first,' said Mum as she left the room. ‘You normally want more light. Come on sleepy head, let's get moving.'

Emma was tired. The problem with staying up late worrying about dangerous dressing gowns and strange noises was that you felt sleepy the next morning. But how different things were in the daylight—dressing gowns went back to being dressing gowns, gym bags were gym bags, and Emma wouldn't even think about checking under her bed.

Emma got dressed and went down to the kitchen. Mum, Dad and Bob were already there having breakfast.

‘You'll both need to move quickly this morning,' said Mum to Emma and Bob. ‘I need to be at work
early so you will have to catch the bus. Hurry up, come on!'

Excellent,
thought Emma.
Hannah and Elle will probably be on the bus.

And to Emma's delight, Hannah and Elle
and
Isi were on the bus. Isi was in Emma's gym squad but Emma was only getting to know her more now that they were in the same class at school. Emma really liked Isi. They liked a lot of the same things, particularly chocolate, and Isi was always cheerful and seemed to bounce her way through everything. Emma wondered if Isi ever got scared of the dark. She didn't think so.

As the bus pulled up to the stop, Emma could see her friends peering out the window, waving frantically. As soon as Emma climbed on, the three girls started talking at her.

‘Hey, Em, we were hoping you'd catch the bus today. We've been talking about my slumber party,' said Hannah.

‘We're thinking we should have a theme,' said Elle.

‘Em, Em, it's going to be sooo fun,' said Isi.

‘Hi guys. A theme is a great idea,' said Emma, ‘but what theme?'

‘First we thought a dance party,' said Hannah.

‘That would be cool,' agreed Emma.

‘Then we thought a pyjama party,' said Isi.

‘But won't we be in pyjamas anyway?' asked Emma, who was very logical.

‘Exactly, that's what we thought,' said Isi, ‘so then we had a better idea—a spooky slumber party!'

‘Oh,' said Emma, trying to sound as if that was a good surprise rather than a completely bad surprise. ‘What would we do for that?'

‘It would be awesome, Em,' said Elle. ‘We can tell ghost stories, have a midnight feast...'

‘And play “murder in the dark” outside,' broke in Hannah.

‘And watch scary movies!' shrieked Isi, who was so excited she was nearly falling off her seat. ‘What do you think Em? How cool will that be?'

‘Yeah, but a dance party could be really fun too,' said Emma, looking at Hannah.

Hannah smiled back. ‘Spooky will be fun, Em, don't you think?'

‘Oh I don't know,' said Emma, but she did know and if she couldn't tell these friends what she was thinking, who could she tell? ‘What if we get scared?'

‘That's the point, dummy,' said Elle.

‘No, I mean
really
scared,' said Emma.

‘Don't worry,' said Hannah, putting her arm around Emma. ‘We'll look after you.'

But Emma wasn't convinced. She loved her friends and wanted to join in but was fairly sure she would be really, really scared at a spooky slumber party. Perhaps she shouldn't go.

The bus pulled into school. The girls got out and as they walked into the school grounds they saw Alisha walking in as well. Isi bounded up to her and Elle shouted, ‘Alisha, Alisha, over here!'

Alisha ran over, colliding with Isi who gave her a big hug in typical Isi style.

‘Alisha, you'll never guess what we thought of for Hannah's slumber party—a spooky party.'

‘Cool,' said Alisha. ‘I could bring my glow-in-the-dark mask.'

Oh excellent,
thought Emma.
Not.
Why was everyone so keen to be scared? Was Emma the only one who got scared and
didn't
find it fun? She bet Alisha loved creeping around in the dark in her glowing mask.

At lunchtime, the girls were still talking about the slumber party, thinking of even more ways they could scare themselves. Emma had been looking forward to the slumber party but now she wasn't sure she wanted to go. She was getting scared just talking about it. What would the others think if she got scared? She knew Hannah and Elle wouldn't make fun of her but would Isi and Alisha think she was a baby? She really liked her new friends but would they still like her if they thought she was a scaredy-cat?

The sudden sound made Emma jump but she pulled her phone out of her pocket and saw the
screen flashing, a nice aqua flash. Aqua was Emma's favourite colour and an aqua flash on her phone could mean only one thing—a mission alert from
SHINE.

SHINE
used special text messages to let their agents know when they were needed for a new mission. That meant the agents needed to have a phone, which was great if you were an agent who had been having problems convincing your parents you needed one. Emma thought her phone was simply the coolest phone ever. It was a cross between a game console and a touch-screen phone with lots of applications, many of them top secret
SHINE
apps that were hidden behind the more usual ones. There were apps to identify wild animals, apps to
help you crack codes, even apps about apps, and
SHINE
was always inventing new ones to help their agents. The phone also had lots of games. Emma's current favourite was Jump Start, where the girl has to jump from jungle vine to vine to collect fruit to feed a baby monkey. But there was no time for games now. Emma needed to report in to
SHINE.

‘I'll see you later,' said Emma to her friends. ‘I've just got to check on something.'

‘Okay Em, see you later,' said Hannah and smiled. She was used to Emma suddenly leaving.

Emma hurried over to the toilet block. Once inside, she turned on the hand-dryers and checked that no one else was there. With the room clear, she headed for the last cubicle on the right and pushed the door open. She went in and locked the door. Emma put down the toilet seat, sat down and flipped open the toilet roll holder where there was, as you would expect, toilet paper. There was also, if you knew what to look for, the
SHINE
Mission Tube access socket. The
SHINE
Mission Tube was a secret tunnel transport system that carried agents to
SHINE HQ
and other top-secret
SHINE
locations. Each agent had a home tunnel, or in Emma's case a school tunnel, which meant agents could move quickly once they received a mission alert. Carefully disguised in unexpected locations, the Mission Tube's entrance points were almost impossible to detect. Emma understood that it was important for the Mission Tube to be top secret but did it really have to start in the girls' toilets? Emma thought not.

Emma pushed her phone into the socket and waited. There was a beep then Emma entered her pin code and removed her phone. Another beep and then the usual message flashed up on her phone screen.

EJ loved the next bit. Suddenly, the wall behind the toilet spun around, with the toilet and EJ still attached. EJ slipped off the toilet seat and onto a beanbag at the top of what looked like a giant tunnel
slide. This was the start of the
SHINE
Mission Tube. A protective shield came over the back of the beanbag, covering EJ. The wall then spun back and EJ heard the click as the toilet door unlocked on the other side. Everything in the cubicle would seem completely normal.

EJ was ready. She typed ‘go' into her phone and...

Travelling down the tube and into the
SHINE
tube network, EJ whizzed around corners at high speed. This time, however, the lights along the tube seemed dimmer than usual, making it darker and casting shadows on the usually bright steel walls. EJ normally loved the Mission Tube ride but this time it was less fun somehow. She was almost relieved when she slowed to a halt at a small platform with a keypad and screen. The protective shield over the beanbag flipped back and EJ again keyed in her pin code and waited for the security check.

The check changed each time. Sometimes it was an eye scan, sometimes voice-matching, once it was big toe recognition. You never knew what it would be—and neither would anyone attempting to break into the
SHINE
network.

‘Please place hand on pad,' requested a digital voice.

Hmmm, this is a new one,
thought Emma as she followed the instructions.

EJ put her left hand onto the pad.

‘Incorrect placement,' said the voice.

EJ frowned and jiggled her hand around.

‘Correct placement confirmed but incorrect hand. Please place writing hand on pad,' said the voice.

‘Well, why didn't you say so?' said EJ feeling a little irritated and then a little silly for talking to a computer-generated voice. EJ put her right hand on the pad.

‘Correct hand, correct placement now confirmed,' said the voice. ‘Please wait. Handprint scan in progress.'

Phew,
thought Emma

There was a short, sharp flash on the pad then a low buzzing noise. After a few seconds, there was another flash.

‘Handprint scan is now complete. Agent identity confirmed. Please drop in, EJ12!'

There was another beep as the platform beneath her opened up and EJ, still on her beanbag, dropped gently down. She had landed in the Code Room, a small chamber where there was a table, a chair and a clear plastic tube protruding from the ceiling. EJ moved to the chair and waited.

She heard the familiar whizzing noise, put her hands under the tube and caught a little capsule that popped out. EJ opened the capsule and took out a piece of paper and a pen. She could feel the butterflies starting to flutter inside her as they always did when she was getting a new code. They were good butterflies, exciting, the sort you got when you were waiting to open a present. Emma read the message on the paper.

EJ looked at the paper. There seemed to be nothing under this information.
Invisible ink again maybe,
she thought, and activated her Invisi-Visi app and a small purple light flashed on her phone. It was ultra-violet that would show up invisible ink. She scanned the paper with the ray, expecting to see a message appear. It didn't.

What now?
thought EJ.

EJ fiddled with her charm bracelet as she often did when she was thinking, and looked at the paper again. This time however she not only looked really closely at the piece of paper, she felt it carefully. She ran her fingers up and down the page. As she did, she noticed that there were little bumps all over the paper. Was that just the texture of the paper or was it something else? Could it be part of the message?

EJ felt the little bumps again and then had an idea. She took a pen out of her backpack and carefully drew a black dot on top of each bump. When she finished she looked at the piece of paper—there were dots everywhere, but they seemed to be in a pattern.

I think I recognise that,
said EJ to herself.
I wonder if it is Braille, the writing invented for blind people? Let's check.
EJ took out her phone, touched on her code app and flicked through until she found the Braille alphabet then pressed ‘OK'. The Braille alphabet flashed onto her screen, looking the same as the dot patterns on the paper.

Okay,
thought EJ,
let's get this code cracked.

Carefully, EJ began matching the code to the key. She quickly got the first two words, writing them under the code.

Looks like it is a straightforward Braille code,
thought EJ.
This should be easy.

And it was. Well, for an expert code-cracker anyway. EJ had the code out in minutes.

The message may have been decoded but what did it mean? EJ12 would have to get help to answer that question. She folded the paper with the decoded message on it and slid it back into the capsule. She then pushed the capsule back up the tube and it was sucked away. The message would shoot back to
SHINE HQ,
which was where EJ needed to go. She keyed ‘go' into her keypad. The floor under her beanbag slipped back and she dropped down into another tube, which would take her there. The tube was even darker than before. What was going on?