Secret Safari (2 page)

In the car going to school the next morning on the last day of school, the only topic of conversation was the Africa trip.

‘So, tell me again, Mum,' said Bob. ‘How did you win?'

‘I told you,' said his mum smiling happily. ‘I just entered a competition at the local shops and I won!'

‘What was the competition?' asked Emma.

‘It was a “Light up your Life” competition. You had to think of your dream holiday and then write a two-line advertising tag line for it.'

‘Oh, really, and where did you enter the competition, Mum?' asked Emma.

‘Oh, just one of the local shops,' replied Mum.

Emma was suspicious now. ‘Which one?'

‘Hmm, I can't remember.'

Her mum didn't forget things. Now Emma was really suspicious.

‘The local light shop, I think,' replied Mum.

‘Oh, I get it,' said Bob. ‘Light shop, “Light up your Life!”'

Bob thought he got it but he didn't really. Emma, however, did. The local light shop was no ordinary shop. It was an access point to the
SHINE
Agency HQ. If Mum had won a competition from the light shop, it would be no accident.

Emma's mum had been a
SHINE
agent but was now retired, at least semi-retired. She sometimes helped Emma on her missions, just as her mum, GM80, had helped her, but mostly she worked and looked after the family. Emma reckoned her mum had one of the best jobs in the world—she was a vet. She worked at the local vet surgery and was particularly good at working with cats. Emma's mum loved cats. It was no surprise that she would pick Africa, with all those animals, as a dream holiday. Even so, Emma was still suspicious.

‘So what was your entry, Mum?' she asked.

‘“See the light in Africa—It's as easy as
epesi
!”
Epesi
means “light” in Swahili.'

That's awful,
thought Emma.
There was no way it would win a real competition.

‘Mum, that's really bad,' said Emma.

‘Really? I was rather proud of it.
Epesi
—easy, get it?'

‘We get it, Mum, but Emma's right, for once,' said Bob. ‘It's really bad.'

‘Well, they liked it,' said her mum, looking a little hurt. ‘They said it shone out above the others.' Emma's mum looked at her.

That was it,
SHINE
was definitely involved but why were they organising it with her mum and why did
SHINE
want the whole family in Africa? Did
SHINE
not think Emma was good enough to do whatever the mission was by herself?

‘Here we are,' said Mum, pulling up outside the school. ‘Enjoy your last day and, Emma, good luck with the netball trials. Just have fun and do your best.'

Right,
thought Emma.
What if that wasn't good enough? And worse, what if Laila and Nema made the team and she didn't?

The final practice was at lunchtime. The girls had been split into teams for a practice game. Emma, Hannah, Elle and Isi were all on the same team. Laila and Nema were on the other one. Nema was goalkeeper and Emma was goal shooter. Whenever Nema thought the teachers weren't looking she gave Emma a shove. When Emma was going for goal, Nema scratched her with her nail just before she shot.

‘Hey,' said Emma. ‘You can't do that!'

‘You can if you don't get caught,' sneered Nema. ‘And it's certainly stopping you getting any goals.'

Not that Laila was getting many down the other end. Whenever she got the ball, she refused to pass to the other shooter, even if that girl was in a better position. She would try to score from nearly outside the circle and it hardly ever went in. Han was against her in goal defence and once she saw that Laila wasn't going to pass, she played brilliantly and stopped her from getting any closer.

Now the ball was back at the centre with Elle. She stepped out and passed backwards to Hannah, who threw it straight on to Isi in wing defence while Elle sprinted down towards goal. Isi passed back to Elle, who was now looking for Emma. Emma found her space and called for the ball. She caught it and then Nema pushed her over.

Ms Tenga blew her whistle. ‘Penalty pass or shot,' she shouted. ‘Stand out of play, Nema.'

Emma was pretty far from the goal. She could take the shot but the new girl, Eve, was closer. Then again, if she got the shot from so far back, she would look good. What to do?

Ms Tenga blew her whistle. ‘Play!'

Emma looked like she was going to try to score then she bounced the ball to Eve, who netted it easily.

‘Way to go, Eve, great pass, Em,' shouted Elle. ‘Let's go!'

The game went on. Emma shot some goals but Nema kept blocking, stepping on her toes, making it hard. The final whistle blew and Emma was disappointed. She didn't think she had shown what she could do; Nema hadn't let her.

Later, on the bus home from school, Emma and her friends talked about the game.

‘How about Nema,' said Isi. ‘She should have been sent off.'

‘I could hardly get a goal,' said Emma. ‘What if Ms Tenga thinks I'm hopeless?'

‘She won't. She's seen you shoot heaps of goals,' said Hannah.

‘And she must have seen what Nema was doing,' said Isi.

‘Don't worry, Em, my mum says the right people get rewarded,' said Hannah. ‘And I think it's true.'

‘I hope so, but nothing seems to be going to plan at the moment,' said Emma. ‘Anyway,' she said, brightening up, ‘you guys had a great game. You'll all be in the A-team for sure.'

‘So will you, Em,' said Isi. ‘And hey, you're off to Africa tomorrow, that should take your mind off netball—and Nema.'

Hannah sighed. ‘I can't believe you are going to Africa tomorrow. I'm so jealous.'

‘And your mum really won the trip from a light shop?' asked Isi.

‘Yes,' said Emma. ‘Weird, huh?'

‘Very,' said Isi, smiling.

‘You're so lucky,' said Elle. ‘I hope I will be, too. I'm in the finals of the athletics competition over the holidays, the Shining Stars of Track and Field. I really hope I win at least one race.'

Emma and Isi looked at each other again. ‘So do I,' they both said at the same time. And then they both laughed.

The bus arrived at Emma's stop. The girls jumped up and hugged goodbye. As she walked to her house, Emma thought about the strange things that had happened at school, about Laila and Nema. Was it all somehow connected with
SHINE
? Was this unexpected trip actually part of a plan? EJ thought she might pack her
SHINE
CHARM bracelet just in case. Emma was learning to expect the unexpected.

The Jacks family were up early the next morning. Bob had been hard to wake and grunted a lot but that wasn't really any different to most mornings. They took a taxi out to the airport and checked in their baggage. Emma's dad had insisted they get there early and they now had nearly three hours before they would board their plane. What would they do?

Piinngg!

 

It was a
SHINE
mission alert. Emma took out her phone.

 

DING DONG!

 

What's that?
wondered Emma, as she turned and saw her mum checking her own phone. They both looked around to check if the boys had noticed but they were far too busy in the duty-free shop looking at computer games.

‘Darling,' said Emma's mum to her dad. ‘Em and I are going to look at the shops over the other side. We might be a while,' she said, winking at Emma. ‘But let's go to the toilet first, Em.'

Emma knew exactly what her mum was thinking.

‘Good idea, Mum,' she said. ‘Which one?'

‘The one with the light globe sign next to it,' said her mum. ‘Over here.'

They walked into the toilets and made their way down the row of cubicles. They were nearly at the end and Emma's mum was still close behind her.

‘Please tell me we are not both going in the same toilet,' Emma mumbled to her mum.

‘Don't be ridiculous,' Mum replied quietly. ‘I always take the second from the end on the right, the one next to you.'

That's a relief,
thought Emma. It was embarrassing enough starting a mission on the toilet without your mum sitting there too!

Emma went into the last cubicle on the right and closed and locked the door behind her. She sat on the seat and looked under the toilet roll holder. Sure enough, there was a small socket, the perfect size for Emma's
SHINE
-issue phone. She connected her phone and waited.

Her phone screen flashed.

And then, as Emma gripped the seat, it spun around and she was on the other side of the wall sitting on the toilet seat at what looked like an underground train station. There was a beep and then her mum, also sitting on the toilet seat, spun around too. EJ's screen flashed again.

SBT stood for
SHINE
Bullet Train and although Emma had only ever used it before to leave
SHINE HQ
, she wasn't surprised that
SHINE
would have a station at the airport. EJ and SJ boarded the train and, as it began to move, the touch-screen in front of EJ flashed on. First the
SHINE
logo appeared and then text underneath it.

‘Mum, I mean SJ45,' said EJ. ‘I've just received a code.'

‘Okay, EJ, do your thing,' said SJ45. ‘A1 will need it cracked before we arrive at HQ.'

That didn't give EJ long. She looked back at the screen.

EJ looked at the message.
It looks like nonsense but there are spaces so they must be words,
thought EJ.
But what sort of words are they? Where do I start?
EJ knew all messages had to have a clue somewhere otherwise the person receiving it wouldn't understand it. It would be like getting a message in another language that they didn't speak.

Hold on,
thought EJ.
Another language, maybe that's it. Maybe this message isn't in code but in another language. But which one?
EJ knew there were more than six thousand languages in the world.

This might take a while,
she thought.
The message was traced to a phone in Africa so maybe it's an African language. How many languages can there be in Africa? I'll have this done in no time.

EJ swiped to the
SHINE
Internet app on her phone and keyed in the question. When she saw the answer she was a little deflated.

‘Great,' said EJ.

‘Everything okay?' asked SJ45.

‘Not yet,' said EJ.

She looked back at the screen and touched on the icon of the small light globe in the bottom corner that was for agents to send messages back to
SHINE HQ
. It was a high-level security email system. EJ quickly keyed her email.

She touched SEND and waited. After only seconds, the globe icon flashed. EJ touched it and saw her reply.

Okay,
thought EJ.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Again she went on the Internet and searched languages spoken in Tanzania. There was a number of different languages spoken but there was one major language, Swahili.

‘I wonder,' said EJ as she then cut and pasted the message into her translator app and pressed the TRANSLATE button.

‘Now that's better,' she said, looking at her screen.

EJ read her mum the message.

‘That poem is even worse than mine,' said SJ.

‘Yes,' agreed EJ. ‘There is someone at
SHADOW
who loves to write in poems, and they're always bad: Adriana X.'

‘A1's sister?' said SJ. ‘But she's in
SHINE
detention.'

‘I know,' said EJ. ‘But I'm sure it is Adriana. Maybe A1 knows something.'

‘We're about to find out,' said SJ. ‘The train is stopping. We must be at HQ. Watch the step as you get off, EJ.'

‘SJ45,' said EJ, ‘I am Spy of the Year. I think I can get off a train by myself.'

‘Welcome back, EJ12 and SJ45,' said A1, the head of
SHINE
. ‘It's nice to have you here together.'

‘But why are we both here?' said EJ. ‘And why is the whole family going to Africa? I assume the competition is just a cover.'

‘It is indeed,' replied A1. ‘And you don't need your mother on a mission but we do. Since we need you both at the same time, the cover of a family holiday is perfect. We didn't want the boys to get suspicious and a competition seemed the easiest way to do it.'

Only A1 would think creating a whole competition would be the easiest way to do anything,
thought EJ.
But what does A1 need Mum for?

‘SJ45 has been doing some important work in her vet surgery, developing a new animal micro-chipping method, one that will be easier to use with wild animals. Plus our animal division has been developing a surgical spray cream that heals wounds quickly. It's just what SWR needs.'

‘What's SWR?'

‘
SHINE
Wildlife Refuge', replied A1. ‘We have them all over the world as part of our animal protection program but it is in Africa, in the battle against poachers, that we are most active. If poachers don't kill animals outright, the awful wounds they inflict kill them anyway. If we can get the animals a fast-acting healing cream, it could mean the difference between life and death. SJ45, please report to the animal division for your African vet kit. Come back here as soon as possible.'

‘Will do, A1,' said SJ and she left the Operations Room via a metal door.

‘SWR was also in the message I just decoded,' said EJ, looking confused.

‘Yes, quite, EJ,' said A1. ‘Let's take a look at the message now. Light Screen, lower.'

On A1's command, a huge voice-activated screen descended from the ceiling of the Operations Room. ‘Show message,' instructed A1. The decoded message appeared in the centre of the screen.

‘Quick work on the decode,' A1 congratulated EJ. ‘Any thoughts on what it means?'

‘It must be from Adriana,' replied EJ. ‘The way the message is a bad poem is her all over and, there's another thing …'

‘Go on,' said A1.

‘It uses the words “hunting black”,' said EJ. ‘Adriana likes black things. She was hunting for black coral in the reef, remember? Well, wildebeest are animals, so maybe the black thing she's hunting this time is an animal too. The only problem is that Adriana is in
SHINE
detention.'

A1 sighed. ‘I wish that was the problem, EJ. Adriana escaped from
SHINE
detention yesterday afternoon. She seemed to have suddenly become ill and so she was being taken to hospital.
SHADOW
intercepted the ambulance and Adriana escaped. She must have planned the whole thing. And now we have reports of increased poaching activity in East Africa and this message. It is just all too much of a coincidence.'

‘But what does the rest of the message mean?' asked EJ. ‘What is the “path of wildebeest” and “the shopping list”?'

‘That's what you need to find out, EJ12. While SJ45 is working at SWR, you need to find Adriana. Now, you will need safari clothes.' A1 passed EJ a duty-free shopping bag. ‘Obviously you can't change here but put them in your hand luggage. You will also need some more spy charms.'