The Hunt for the Yeti Skull: Nepal (4 page)

As soon as it popped open, Jack rifled through his bag, checking the contents. In there was his Polar Parka, his Flyboard, and his Handy Cuffs. The GPF had recently added some Crafty Crampons, flexible spikes that were attached to the bottom of your shoes to help them grip.

Quickly, Jack zipped up his Book Bag and stood in front of the Magic Map. As soon as the light inside Nepal grew bright enough to fill the room, Jack yelled, ‘Off to Nepal!' Then the light flickered and burst, and swallowed him inside the Magic Map.

Jack was surprised when he arrived, because Nepal wasn't at all what he was expecting. He wasn't standing in its capital city, Kathmandu, or on a snow-covered mountain or an icy cliff. Instead, he found himself on dry, rocky terrain, with lots of tents and empty oxygen canisters on the ground.

Jack recognized the spot right away. It was the ‘Base Camp' of Everest in the Himalayas, where many famous mountain-climbing expeditions had started. It was where Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay started their history-making ascent of Everest in 1953.

Jack was finding it difficult to breathe. Before climbing Everest, most mountain-climbers spent days, if not weeks, at Base Camp, getting used to the lack of oxygen in the air. There was a third less oxygen at the top of Mount Everest than there was at sea level: if someone was taken straight from sea level to the top, they'd die within minutes.

By acclimatizing at Base Camp, however, climbers were able to give their bodies the chance to make more red blood cells. More red blood cells meant that more oxygen could be taken in from the air. Because Jack hadn't had a chance to acclimatize yet, he was starting to feel dizzy.

He opened his Secret Agent Book Bag and pulled out his Oxygen Exchanger. In Australia, Jack had used the Oxygen Exchanger to breathe underwater. Here in the Himalayas, he could use it to create more red blood cells. It did this with the help of a red blood cell ‘accelerator mist', which entered his mouth every time he breathed. As soon as he strapped on the Oxygen Exchanger, Jack started feeling better.

A voice came from beside him. ‘Secret Agent Courage?'

Jack turned round. There, next to a canvas tent, stood a man. He was dressed in khaki-colored trousers and a long-sleeved fleece with the GPF logo on it. He stuck out his hand towards Jack.

‘Nice to meet you,' he said. ‘I'm Alex Bell,' he added, ‘leader of this GPF expedition.' Jack shook the man's hand. ‘Where are the others?' he asked.

Almost as soon as Jack spoke, three other children materialized: two boys and a girl. When they realized how thin the air was, they too got out their Oxygen Exchangers. Mr Bell walked over to them and motioned for Jack to join him.

‘Secret Agent Courage,' he said to Jack, ‘these are Secret Agent Storm, Secret Agent Digger and Secret Agent Scarlet.' He pointed to the children one by one.

Jack shook their hands. Secret Agent Storm looked older than him. He had striking blue eyes and strong-looking arms.

Secret Agent Digger was shorter than Storm. In fact, he was smaller than Jack. But he looked tough.

Scarlet, however, was slim and seemed shy. Jack tried not to frown as he wondered why on earth the GPF had called her in for the job.

‘Right,' said Mr Bell. ‘We'll need to work together on this one. No one climbs alone. The winds can be like a hurricane,' he explained. ‘The crevasses are bottomless pits. The icefall is constantly moving. One mistake and you won't make it home for dinner tonight.'

Jack tried not to let anyone else see it, but he was more than a little nervous. After all, over the last century more than two hundred climbers had died trying to make it to the top of Everest. Jack looked at the other three. He wondered whether they realized how dangerous this mission would be.

Mr Bell pulled out a map. It was a detailed drawing of the route to the top of the mountain. An X marked the spot where they were standing.

‘This is us,' he said, pointing to where Base Camp was marked. ‘A helicopter's going to fly you over the Khumbu Icefall and touch down on the Western Cwm.' (He pronounced it ‘coom'.)

‘Where's the missing plane?' asked Digger through his Oxygen Exchanger.

‘Not sure,' said Mr Bell. ‘We lost communication north of the icefall. They could be anywhere between there and the Lhotse Face.'

Jack hoped the plane wasn't north of the Lhotse Face. It was tricky; a more than three thousand foot climb up a wall of ice.

‘The scientists discovered the skull here,' Mr Bell explained, touching a point 1,600 feet below Base Camp on the map. ‘They took it down to Kathmandu, where they boarded a plane. They were en route to a lab in China when the plane disappeared.'

Jack looked at the other agents. They were listening carefully to Mr Bell.

‘I need to stay here to wait for our Yeti experts,' the GPF man said. ‘If any of you get into trouble, call me on your Watch Phone. And another thing – we've got company.'

‘What do you mean?' asked Jack.

‘We got word that another group is tracking the skull too,' he said. ‘It could be the RSO.' The RSO, or Russian Secret Ops, was an international group of agents hired by shady Russian villains to do their dirty work.

‘Why do they want the skull?' asked Storm.

‘Who knows?' said Mr Bell. ‘But assume they're armed with gadgets, and dangerous.'

Jack looked at Scarlet. Her eyes were closed. She looked like she was sleeping.

‘What are you doing?' he asked her.

‘Meditating,' she said.