Earthling Ambassador (13 page)

“What if we hypnotized her?” said Katie. “My grandma does hypnosis—I think I could work out how to do it, at least for a few minutes.Then we could get her to tie
herself
up!”

“So we get her to the party, we distract the guard, we hypnotize her—then how do we get her to Earth?” asked Greta.

“We'll have to use Georgio's spaceship,” said Nicola. “Do you think Plum would fly it for us, Shimlara? We could hide the princess so she wouldn't know we were doing anything illegal.”

“I think so,” said Shimlara. “She's pretty easygoing.”

“Okay,” said Nicola. “We've got a plan. Do you think it will work?”

She looked around the room.

They all shook their heads sadly.

“No.”

“Not really.”

“Probably not.”

“Should we try it anyway?”

“You bet!”

“Let's go for it!!”

“Too many big Nicola words, as usual,” said Greta dismissively. “Not everybody talks like a dictionary.”

She handed back the invitation. Nicola had written the words and Shimlara had done the design on her computer. It was on a thick white scroll of paper with gold engraving and a red wax seal.

“I think it's a beautiful invitation,” said Katie.

“She won't be able to resist,” said Tyler.

“Okay,” said Nicola. “So now we post the invitation—”

“Oh, NO!”

Everybody jumped as Shimlara clapped her hands over her face.

“What is it?” asked Tyler. “What's wrong?”

“I just remembered something Mom and Dad said when they sent their first petition to the princess about saving Earth.”

“Ye-es?” encouraged Nicola.

“Well, they said the princess gets so much mail, it would be weeks before she would even see it.”

“Can't we just take it ourselves and deliver it to her?” asked Tyler.

“Everybody tries that.” Shimlara slumped down on her bed, looking despondent. “There are whole wheelbarrows of mail every day. I'm so sorry I didn't think of this earlier.”

“Yes, you really should have thought of it,” said Greta.

“No worries.We just ring up the princess and ask her to the party,” said Sean.

“You can't just
ring up
the princess,” said Shimlara.“She has servants to answer her phone. She would never talk to us.”

“The best thing would be to deliver the invitation to her personally,” said Tyler.

“But you need an appointment to see her,” said Shimlara. “Dad made Nicola's appointment weeks before he'd even gone to Earth to pick the Ambassador.”

“Oh,” said Tyler.

Everybody sat silently, staring at the floor, trying to work out what to do.

Nicola glanced at her countdown watch. It said:

JUST A BIT OVER
ONE
DAY LEFT--

ALL YOUR CLEVER PLANS SHOULD BE COMING TOGETHER NICELY BY NOW!

There was a slight rustle as a handwritten note slid under Shimlara's door. It was a note from Mully saying: do you WANT SOMEHING to EAT or DRINK?

Shimlara wrote on the bottom: YES, PLEASE!!! She slid it back under the door.

“That would be a good way to get the invitation to the princess,” commented Katie. “If we could just slide it under her bedroom door.”

“Why don't we just sneak in while she's sleeping and put it on her bedside table,” said Greta in a sarcastic voice. “Be
realistic,
Katie.”

“Actually,” said Shimlara slowly, “maybe that's an option.”

“Really?” said Nicola.

“Yep.” Shimlara turned to Sean. “We might need you to do some rappeling after all.”

It was the middle of the night.The members of the Space Brigade were dressed from head to toe in black (or at least their darkest-colored clothes), with black beanies and thick black stripes of paint on their faces.

Sean was so excited, Nicola thought he might explode. Katie, on the other hand, was so nervous and pale, Nicola was worried she might faint.

Georgio and Mully had gone to bed hours earlier, leaving the Space Brigade asleep in sleep-pouches (Globagaskar's high-tech, softer, snugger version of sleeping bags—they even had their own built-in thermostats so you could adjust the temperature to suit) on Shimlara's bedroom floor. Nicola had felt bad about telling them that the Brigade wasn't taking any new action until the morning, but Shimlara had said they'd understand once Earth was saved.

Everyone reviewed multiplication tables in their heads during dinner to make sure Georgio didn't read their minds and work out what they were doing. He hadn't said anything except to remark that he'd always found the “one times” table hardly worthy of reviewing, giving Sean a pointed look, and that nine nines were not and never had been eighty-two, if anyone happened to be interested.

They had stayed awake for what seemed like ages until the house was still and quiet except for the sound of Georgio snoring.Then, they'd all crept on nervous tippytoes outside to the garage, where Shimlara apparently kept her very own helicopter
,
in the same way that most Earthling children would keep a bike.

“You've got a
helicopter
?” Tyler had said when Shimlara had mentioned this.

“Oh, yeah, I got one for my last birthday,” said Shimlara. “Everyone in my class has got one. Most kids have got their own mini spaceships.”

“And you're allowed to
fly
this helicopter?” Tyler was barely able to contain his envy.

“Of course!” Shimlara paused, then said honestly, “I'm not very good at it, though.”

This was proving to be true.

They'd all crammed into the helicopter, with Shimlara behind the controls. Now they were flying to the Rainbow Palace to personally deliver the invitation to the princess. Sean would rappel down from the roof into the princess's bedroom and leave it sitting on her bedside table. Simple—as long as they made it to the palace without crashing.

The helicopter kept swooping down dangerously close to the tops of buildings.With a cheerful “Oops-a-daisy!” Shimlara would pull on the controls and next thing they'd all be pinned to their seats as the helicopter shot straight up into the starry night sky.

“I think I'm going to be sick,” moaned Katie.

“Are you going to be able to land the helicopter on the roof without knocking the palace down?” asked Greta.

“Who knows?!” Shimlara swung the controls violently to the left and Nicola's head knocked against the window.

“I see the palace!” said Tyler. He had a pair of binoculars pressed against the helicopter window. “Gosh. Is it made of . . . jewelry?”

“Precious stones,” explained Nicola.

The palace looked even more beautiful at night.The rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds glittered mysteriously in the turquoise moonlight shining from Globagaskar's two moons.

“Okay,” said Shimlara. “Time to go into Camouflage Mode. Can you pull that lever there, Sean?”

Sean pulled the lever and all of a sudden the noisy sounds of the helicopter blades vanished and the lights went off, plunging them into darkness and silence.

“None of the guards should be able to see or hear the helicopter now,” whispered Shimlara. “Assuming we can trust the instruction book, of course. Some of the other features of the helicopter haven't actually worked that well.”

“Oh great,” muttered Greta.

“Ah, Shim, I think now might be a good time to land,” said Sean. “That looks like a helicopter landing pad to me.”

They were hovering over the very top of the castle and Nicola could see a large flat area with a circle marked on it.

“Okey-dokey,” said Shimlara.

She did something with the pedals at her feet and the helicopter began to nosedive toward the helipad.

“Straighten up! Straighten up!” shouted Tyler.

“I don't want to die!” cried Greta. “I've got to finish my term as class captain!”

“Greta, you're really starting to bug me.” Shimlara did something else to the controls that caused the helicopter to veer crazily to the left as they hurtled down toward land.

“OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!” everybody said in unison as their heads banged against the side of the helicopter while it bounced along the helipad.

Finally it stopped bouncing and was still.

For a few seconds no one spoke as they all rubbed their heads.

Then Katie said, “Well done, Shimlara.”

“Thank you,” beamed Shimlara.

“Okay, let's get this show on the road.” Sean opened the door of the helicopter and jumped lightly to the ground.

“Remember to stick to the plan!” ordered Nicola.

“Actually, I do have some suggestions about changing the plan,” began Greta.

“Too late,” said Nicola firmly.

The plan was that Tyler, Katie, and Greta would be the lookouts.They were to station themselves at different parts of the palace roof and keep an eye out for the guards. If they thought a guard was becoming suspicious, they would make a “meow” sound.

There had been a lot of arguments over this because Greta thought it would be preferable for the warning signal to be an owl's hoot. Sean suggested laughing like a hyena, but Nicola thought he was probably just throwing out that idea because he enjoyed arguing. In the end, the cat's meow had won.

In the meantime, Shimlara and Nicola would be responsible for operating the rope system that would lower Sean into the princess's bedroom so he could drop the invitation next to her bed, where it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up.

Hopefully she would assume it had been delivered by one of her ladies-in-waiting.

“Now we just need to find the princess's bedroom,” said Shimlara. She pulled out the map she'd downloaded from the palace website and studied it carefully.

“Huh?” she said confusedly, turning it the other way around.

“Let me see,” said Sean. “Everyone knows girls can't read maps.”

He took the map from her.“Huh?” He twisted it around and brought it up close to his face and frowned.“Ummm. Okay. So right now we're ... ummmm, mmmm, let's see ...”

“Oh, for goodness sake.” Greta snatched the map from him and examined it. She immediately looked up and pointed to a triangular vent on the far side of the roof next to a ruby-encrusted turret. “That vent over there is the top of the princess's bedroom.”

“Good work!” said Nicola generously.

“Yes, well, that's why I should have been the Earthling Ambassador in the first place.” Greta flounced off to her lookout point.

Sean, Shimlara, and Nicola went over to the vent and looked down at it apprehensively. Nicola put a finger to her lips, reminding them that the princess was asleep just beneath them.

Shimlara pulled Georgio's toolbox from her backpack and they each selected a screwdriver.Working quietly and efficiently, they unscrewed the corners of the vent's covering and lifted it off.

They gave one another quick thumbs-ups and got down on their stomachs so they could peer into the opening.

At first Nicola couldn't see anything, but when her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could just make out the princess's four-poster bed and her head on a mound of pillows.

Gosh. She wore her diamond tiara even when she was sleeping.

There was a sudden loud rumbling noise and Nicola jumped back in fright.

“She snores just like Dad!” mouthed Shimlara, trying to suppress an attack of the giggles.

Sean was all businesslike. He strapped himself into his harness and tied the end of the rope firmly around a nearby emerald turret. He pushed his night-vision goggles over his eyes and whispered, “Ready.”

Nicola silently handed him the invitation. Sean took it and held it between his teeth.
Great,
thought Nicola.
Now it will be all soggy and tooth-marked!

Using both elbows for support, Sean lowered himself into the vent, while Nicola and Shimlara let out the safety rope.When he was far down enough, he flipped himself onto his stomach with his arms and legs spread out, so he was hanging above the princess's bed.

“Slowly!” whispered Nicola to Shimlara as they lowered him down. She didn't want Sean crashing onto the princess's floor.

Bit by bit they released the rope while Sean twirled in slow circles and the princess continued her rumbling snore.

Finally Sean was close enough to take the invitation from his mouth and place it on the bedside table.

“He's done it!” whispered Shimlara excitedly.

They began to haul on the rope to lift him back up, and Sean's elbow knocked against the side of the princess's chest of drawers.