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  HIGH RISK

  BY H. I. LARRY

  ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDY HOOK

  High Risk

  published in 2007 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  85 High Street

  Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  Text copyright © 2007 H.I. Larry

  Illustration and design copyright © 2007 Hardie Grant Egmont

  Cover and illustrations by Andy Hook

  Based on original illustrations and design by Ash Oswald

  Typeset by Pauline Haas

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  5 7 9 10 8 6 4

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  What do mountain climbers do about hat-hair? Zac Power wondered, as he adjusted his woollen beanie.

  It was Book Week at Zac’s school, and everyone had to dress up as their favourite character from a book. Kids were dressed as giant peaches, robots, boy wizards – there was even a walking football!

  The costume parade was always good for a chuckle.

  Zac was dressed as a mountaineer. His favourite book was about Edmund Hillary, the first explorer to climb Mount Everest. Zac’s grandpa, Agent High Pants, had read the story to him when he was little.

  Zac’s grandpa was the Power family’s first Government Investigation Bureau (GIB) spy. Now Zac, his parents and even his brother were all GIB secret agents.

  Zac sighed, thinking about how his friends would freak if they knew the cool GIB stuff he’d done. But it was top secret!

  As Principal De Souza babbled on about her favourite book when she was a child, Zac saw a flashing red light coming from the bushes near the car park.

  No-one else seemed to notice the light blinking on and off in long and short flashes.

  Zac’s brain switched into code-breaking mode – it was Morse code! Thanks to a GIB training course he’d done, Zac quickly realised the light was spelling out ‘Z-A-C’.

  Checking that no-one was looking, Zac sneacked around the bushes into the car park.

  Zac saw that the red flashes were coming from the top of a large, grey rock buried in the grass near the edge of the car park.

  Weird! thought Zac. I’ve never seen that big rock there before . . .

  Zac bent down to touch the rock. But instead of touching a rough surface, his fingers slipped right through. The rock was a 3D hologram projection!

  Red lasers scanned Zac’s fingerprints. The rock shimmered, and winked off.

  It must be programmed to recognise my fingerprints, thought Zac.

  The 3D rock image had been hiding a low, sleek car – with a rocket engine!

  The windscreen opened with a hiss. Inside, Zac saw a leather seat, a tiny chrome steering wheel, and lots of LCD displays on the dashboard. On the seat was a disk.

  Zac knew what that meant – Book Week would have to wait!

  Zac picked up the disk and dived into the ROCKet. As the windscreen closed above him, Zac pulled out his SpyPad.

  Zac loved his SpyPad Turbo Deluxe 3000. He could play video games, text and make satellite calls, decode messages – and he was still discovering new features!

  Ahh, technology, thought Zac, as the car’s computer wirelessly received the SpyPad’s data. The modern spy’s best friend.

  CHAPTER

  TWO

  Zac needed to get out of the school car park, and quickly! He didn’t want to be seen by any kids or teachers.

  A flashing red target lit up on the car’s curved windscreen, showing the direction and distance to something called the Mobile Technology Lab (MTL).

  First though, Zac had to read his mission. He slotted the disk into his SpyPad.

  CLASSIFIED

  FOR THE EYES OF ZAC POWER ONLY

  MESSAGE INITIATED 9:00AM

  GIB has received a top-secret distress call from our GIB agent in the Hidden Kingdom. The country’s prince has been kidnapped!

  There’s only 24 hours until the Prince must be crowned king at a special ceremony.

  YOUR MISSION

  • Drive to the MTL for briefing.

  • Travel to the Hidden Kingdom,

  and meet with local GIB agent.

  • Rescue the Prince, and return him to

  the Golden Palace for the crowning ceremony.

  MISSION TIME REMAINING:

  23 HOURS 14 MINS

  END

  Zac had heard about Leon’s new laboratory, but he hadn’t seen it. The display on the windscreen showed it was 99.8 kilometres away . . . and moving!

  Excellent, Leon will have more briefing info and new gadgets for me, thought Zac, as he turned the ignition key. Time to ROCKet!

  Zac was thrown back into his seat as the ROCKet blasted out of the car park.

  VvvrrrrrrOOOOOOMMMM!!!

  The ground-hugging car roared out of the school and onto the road. Zac watched his school shrink rapidly in the rear vision mirror. No-one had seen him leave.

  Following the directions to the MTL, Zac was soon hurtling along the freeway. The ROCKet could really fly!

  Being a spy does have its rewards, thought Zac, passing cars as if they were standing still. The ROCKet was so low and fast, the other cars could barely see him!

  Zac hadn’t bothered to read the Braking and Emergency Stopping instructions, so he had to do some wild steering as he zig-zagged through the traffic at top speed.

  Suddenly, the MTL target moved to the left of the windscreen display.

  A moving target wasn’t easy to catch, and traffic blocked the left lane. Zac needed to take the next exit – now!

  He swerved onto the grass next to the freeway, and took the ROCKet under a wire fence and across a paddock. He tried a few skids in the long grass before cutting back onto a road.

  He floored it. The ROCKet ate up the distance to the MTL. Within half an hour, Zac was only two kilometres away.

  How will I know which vehicle is the MTL? Zac wondered, as he got closer and closer to the flashing red target on his screen.

  Then he saw the target lock on to the back of a large truck driving ahead.

  The red light on his screen turned green.The steering wheel pulled itself out of Zac’s grip and, with a click, contracted into the dashboard behind a sliding panel.

  Is that truck really the MTL? Zac thought, as he read the name painted on the truck’s doors:

  GIBRALTO’S GIBLETS & OFFAL

  A ramp lowered from the truck’s underside, and the ROCKet drove itself up the ramp. Zac opened the ROCKet’s hatch and climbed out. The truck’s walls were lined with racks of disgusting offal!

  Zac was met by a smiling young man in overalls. He had a crooked moustache.

  Zac read the moustache-man’s badge.

  Hi! I’m Gino Gibralto!

  Gino offered Zac a tray of shiny guts.

  ‘Err, maybe later, thanks,’ said Zac, studying Gino’s face.

  It didn’t take Zac long to figure out that Gino was really his nerdy big brother, in a really lame disguise – Leon loved dress-ups!

  Zac decided to play along. Leon was doing his best, after all. Thankfully Leon was now in charge of GIB technology,
and was no longer a field agent like Zac.

  But Leon couldn’t keep up his act any longer. ‘Zac,’ he said, tearing off his moustache. ‘Ouch! It’s ME, Leon!’

  ‘Wow . . . great disguise!’ Zac said, trying not to laugh.

  Leon grinned proudly, and pushed a kidney-shaped button on the wall behind him. The steel racks of organs and offal folded into the ceiling, revealing computer gear, tools and loads of spy gadgets.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Leon whispered, ‘the guts are made of tofu!’

  ‘Very, er . . . clever,’ said Zac, picking up a pair of gloves with long metal claws. They looked dangerous. ‘So what are these babies for?’ he asked.

  CHAPTER

  THREE

  Leon put his guts-platter down, squinting as he focused his geeky brain on Zac’s mission. With his hands behind his back, Leon began pacing about and clearing his throat.

  Zac groaned quietly – he recognised the warning signs. Leon was heading for an N.I.O. (Nerdy Information Overload)! Leon would try to tell Zac everything about his mission – the destination, the gadgets . . . and Zac would still be here 24 hours later. The key was to push Leon along so he couldn’t bury you in facts.

  ‘To answer your question,’ Leon began, ‘those gloves are Ice Claws – for serious mountain-climbing.’

  ‘Now,’ Leon said, clearing his throat again. ‘You already know the Prince of the Hidden Kingdom has disappeared. He was supposed to be crowned king tomorrow at 7pm – that’s 9am tomorrow our time. He has been kidnapped.’

  ‘Can’t they put off the ceremony until we find the Prince?’ Zac asked.

  ‘Ahh, no!’ Leon answered smugly. ‘You see, the Hidden Kingdom follows ancient laws. A new king can only be crowned on the second full moon in the month of the harvest. According to my calculations . . .’ Leon paused to do the complicated maths problem in his head.

  ‘Basically, it has to be tomorrow?’ Zac said quickly, wanting to get to the point.

  ‘Yes! Or else it will be a disaster! A political, economic disaster that – ’

  ‘Refresh my memory,’ Zac interrupted, as he spun Leon’s globe of the world. ‘Where exactly is this country again?’ Geography wasn’t Zac’s best subject.

  Leon sighed, stopped the globe spinning, and pointed to a ring of sharp, white peaks high in the northern hemisphere. Zac could just make out a tiny green country.

  Leon got back to his pacing and throat clearing. He loved a mission briefing!

  ‘The Hidden Kingdom is in a deep, bowl-shaped valley. It is protected by a wall of mountains. Life there has not changed for centuries. No modern technology is used in the Kingdom. No cars are allowed. No engines. In fact, no electronic devices are permitted there at all.’

  Leon turned to look at Zac, who had been flicking through his SpyPad emails. He had one from his dad, saying they were having dinner at granny’s when he got back.

  ‘Did you hear that, Zac?’ said Leon.

  ‘NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES!’

  Leon’s words set off alarms for Zac. No iPod? No SpyPad? No high-tech gadgets?

  ‘But Leon, in this emergency, we can use GIB technology, right?’ Zac was suddenly feeling less confident about the mission.

  Leon looked serious. ‘No Zac, you must respect the Kingdom’s laws. Anyway, I have been working on some HK-approved gadgets. This super-warm climbing suit is made of spider silk and –’

  Leon stopped suddenly and looked Zac up and down.‘Err, Zac, why are you already wearing climbing gear?’

  ‘Long story,’ Zac sighed, and started swapping his Book Week costume for the snow-white camouflage climbing suit.

  ‘Once you enter the Kingdom,’ Leon continued, ‘we cannot communicate with you. We’ve organised for you to connect in mid-air with our local GIB agent, code name Ringo. All the details are in your mission notes. Then, rescue the Prince!’

  Zac was just about to ask about that ‘mid-air’ part when the MTL braked.

  ‘Ah, we must be at the GIB airfield!Your jet is waiting,’ said Leon. ‘But lastly . . .’

  Leon pulled a beautiful old wristwatch from his pocket and handed it to Zac.

  ‘This belonged to Agent High Pants – grandpa. It’s his original spy chronometer. It was found near where he disappeared on that jungle mission, all those years ago. I know grandpa would have loved you to have it. It’s mechanical, not electronic, so it’s HK-approved. I’ve set it to HK local time.’

  SPY CHRONOMETER

  TIME: 8:31 PM & 15 SECONDS

  MISSION TIME LEFT:

  22 HOURS,

  28 MINUTES

  AND 45 SECONDS

  Zac examined the old watch. He turned it over and saw that some words were engraved on the back.

  Feeling scared?

  Make a plan instead!

  That was pure grandpa! Stay positive, never give up! Once again, Zac vowed that one day he would find out what happened to his grandpa.

  ‘Thanks, Leon,’ said Zac, slipping on the watch and grabbing his backpack.

  Zac jumped out of the truck and onto the runway. Up ahead he could see his ride to the Hidden Kingdom – the SuperSonic Boomerang, or SSB. It looked awesome!

  And it did look just like a giant silver boomerang.

  The jet’s mighty engines were already howling, ready for an immediate take-off.

  Zac sprinted up the stairs to the cockpit. He yelled hello to his pilot, Agent Bomber McGee. Bomber was usually third on the Spy Ladder.

  Bomber gave him the thumbs-up and started take-off procedures. Minutes later, Zac was relaxing in the luxurious cabin, high above the ocean.

  CHAPTER

  FOUR

  As the massive jet accelerated, Zac’s SpyPad beeped. It was an email from Leon.

  MISSION UPDATE: Reports just in claim the Prince disappeared while trekking on Yeti Mountain.

  His royal guards were knocked out, so cannot report on what happened. A few of them claim they saw a yeti, but GIB scientists cannot confirm yetis even exist, so this seems unlikely.

  Be careful!

  -Agent Tech Head

  The Hidden Kingdom was a few hours away. I’d better enjoy GIB technology while I can! thought Zac. Snack time!

  He pressed a button on his seat console. A minute later, a sizzling hamburger with no tomato and extra sauce slid onto his seat tray.

  Once Zac had finished his burger, he selected his SpyPad’s new Sleep Learning function. Apparently, your brain can absorb facts while you snooze! Zac only wished he could use it for his school work.

  Zac tilted his seat back, plugged in the HK info disc, and drifted off to sleep.

  ‘Wakey, wakey, Agent Rock Star!’

  Zac woke with a start to see Agent Bomber’s grinning face.

  ‘It’s ten minutes to launch, Zac.’

  Ten minutes? thought Zac, trying to clear his head. But good spies never looked flustered – especially not with spies below them on the Spy Ladder!

  He glanced at his watch.

  SPY CHRONOMETER

  TIME: 3:59 AM & 52 SECONDS

  MISSION TIME LEFT:

  15 IIOl'RS,

  0 MINUTES

  AND 8 SECONDS

  ‘Ah, cool,’ Zac said calmly. ‘I’ll just check my launch gear.’

  Zac casually got up and walked out of the cabin, pulling on his backpack. Then he turned and sprinted towards the cargo bay.

  Zac lifted a trapdoor and jumped down the stairs. Inside the hold was a massive hang-glider. A note taped to one of the wings read, This craft has no landing gear. It’s designed for mid-air connections.

  Zac strapped on the huge, transparent wings. Flying over the mountains like a giant bug, Zac grinned to himself. Sounds fun!

  He slid into the bag hanging beneath the wings, and pulled on the helmet and oxygen mask.

  Agent Bomber came down the stairs. Zac asked if he knew the connection details.

  ‘Didn’t read your notes?’ Agent Bomber grinned, and pressed a red button. The floor do
ors opened, and icy winds howled in.

  Zac stared through the dawn sky, down at the mountains way below. He felt a cold thrill of fear. He loved sky-diving!

  Agent Bomber pointed to the highest peaks. ‘Those are the Ice Fangs. The HK is behind them. Head east for that low point in the mountains. Once you’re in the HK, head north. You’re meeting our local agent above the Royal Forest. Good luck!’

  ‘Thanks!’ Zac called over his shoulder.

  He tucked the wings close to his body, and dived out of the plane into the freezing air. It felt like he was caught in a tornado. Zac was spiralling downwards, dangerously out of control!

  Now, he thought to himself, how do I fly this thing? Then he remembered some GIB training he’d done in a similar flying suit.

  Rules for flying

  human-powered

  gliders at 8000 metres

  1. Flap hard

  2. Stay high

  3. Don’t look down!

  He forced his wings away from his body and with a whoosh he stopped spinning and started flying.

  Soon he had the Dragonfly sailing toward the direction of the Ice Fangs. As he flapped his wings he felt like a big, awkward bird.

  After an hour of flying, Zac’s oxygen was running low. He was pleased to see the Ice Fangs towering before him.

  Not far now! he thought. His arms and shoulders burned.

  But Zac could feel the Dragonfly losing altitude. As he looked around, he realised ice was coating the wings. It was making the Dragonfly too heavy!

  The mountains loomed up ahead as Zac continued to lose altitude. He forced his aching arms to keep flapping – he had to get over those mountains. But he was still heading straight for the wall of icy rock.

  I’m going to crash into the mountain, thought Zac, gasping for air. I need a plan!