Mind Games (3 page)

Then Zac had an idea.

If his mini-fighter jet was invisible, he could land wherever he wanted!

With that decided, Zac flew downwards. Skyscrapers stuck up everywhere. The streets were choked with cars and people.

The tallest skyscraper had a huge logo on the side. MindLab. They were some kind of games company. The top of the MindLab building was going to make the perfect landing strip for an invisible mini-fighter jet.

Coming in to land, Zac couldn't help switching on the PA system, even though he was alone. This piloting stuff was pretty fun.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Zac Power speaking.'

His landing was perfect. Not a single bump. Maybe, in another life, Zac could have been a pilot. But he had to shut those thoughts out. He was a spy. He always would be. Zac allowed himself the smallest of sighs.

Zac popped open the invisible cockpit door. He stuck his head out and looked around the top of the MindLab building. A beefy security guard was standing near the only staircase down from the roof into the building.

As usual, Zac had his abseiling gear in his backpack. He'd get down the quick way. Over the side of the building.

All 200 storeys!

Around floor 103, Zac's SpyPad beeped. He fished about in his pocket awkwardly – abseiling a hundred floors above a busy street wasn't the perfect time to be checking messages.

It was a cryptic message from GIB Mission Control.

MESSAGE RECEIVED
12:49AM

Go to
Electric Eel Workshop
Shop 13,
Dank Alley,
Bladesville.
Your contact is Mrs X.

Zac made it down to the street and looked around. He'd never seen such a strange place. It was the middle of the night, but it was still burning hot. Stalls selling food and fake electronic games were everywhere. Music blasted. A monorail snaked overhead.

According to his SpyPad's GPS, Dank Alley was not far.

He zigzagged down alleys smelling of fish-heads and rubbish. Finally, he found Dank Alley. Shop 13 was down the end, nearly hidden by steam rising up from a gutter.

A sign on the grimy door read, ‘We're closed, so go away'.

Zac knocked anyway.

‘Mrs X?' he called. ‘It's Zac Power.'

Six or seven deadlocks opened. The door swung aside a crack. In the dim light, Zac saw a woman about his own height. Her face was wrinkled, her hair white. A tattoo of an eel twisted up her arm. She looked 120 years old!

‘Come,' she said in a funny accent. With a crooked old finger, she directed Zac to the back of the shop. There stood something covered with a dusty old sheet. Whatever it was, Zac couldn't imagine needing it for his mission.

Mrs X pulled off the sheet. Underneath, was a brand-new motor scooter.There were millions just like it roaring down the streets of Bladesville. Only those ones were dented and rusty. This one gleamed silver.

‘One important addition,' said Mrs X. She pointed at a lever under the handlebar. ‘Pull up, you fly. Pull down, you sing karaoke.'

‘This is a karaoke hover scooter?' said Zac, disbelieving. Mrs X nodded.

‘You go. Tell GIB I send big bill, very soon.' Mrs X started to cackle to herself.

Zac was wheeling the scooter out into Dank Alley when his SpyPad beeped.

‘You have one new voice message,' the screen flashed.

Zac put the SpyPad to his ear.

‘Hello, Zac. Welcome to Bladesville,' said a boy's voice – it sounded like a teenager.

Could this be one of the hackers?
wondered Zac. The voice sounded so young. Then again, Zac and Leon were way better with technical stuff than their mum and dad. Zac's mum couldn't even work the DVD player!

The message went on. ‘We've been tracking you since you took off. Wonderful thing, WorldEye. Anyway, we found your invisible fighter jet. Pretty cocky, landing on the MindLab building. If you want to live, you better get out of here. Right now.'

The hackers were onto him! And, by the sounds of things, they'd managed to gain partial control of WorldEye even without breaching the final firewall.

Zac's mission suddenly felt a lot more dangerous.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Zac crouched in a dark doorway, hidden in shadow. He clutched his SpyPad tight. He was in a foreign city and totally alone. His hands weren't shaking, exactly. But he'd have to admit that the message from the hackers made him edgy.

He punched in the number for GIB Mission Control and asked for Tech Support.

Leon picked up the phone. A friendly voice! Relief flooded through Zac.

‘Listen to this message, Leon. I'll patch it through now,' said Zac.

Leon listened.

‘Nasty,' he said. ‘But don't worry. I'll trace the message. Could lead you straight to the hackers.'

Zac waited nervously.

Finally, Leon had something. ‘The message seems to have come from somewhere within a one-kilometre radius of your current location,' he said.

It was 2.47am already. Zac had to get a move-on!

‘Can't you tell me anything else?' asked Zac. ‘It'll take me weeks to search a square kilometre in this place.'

But Leon couldn't. ‘They've got a very effective location-scrambling device, Zac. These hackers are pretty clued in.'

Great! That was all Zac needed to hear!

Zac wasn't sure what to do next, so he replayed the message. This time, he thought he heard something in the background. Music? Yes, it was!

He listened again.

It sounded like ‘Rotten Lies' by Nemesis, one of his favourite bands. But the singing was terrible - the voice was nothing like the lead singer's.

Zac toyed with the handlebars of his new karaoke hover scooter.

Something clicked.

Karaoke! Bladesvillians
loved
karaoke. The hackers must have sent the message from a karaoke bar.

Zac flicked his SpyPad to GPS mode.

Find karaoke bars one kilometre from here, he typed.

A single name popped up on the screen. The Golden Eardrum Karaoke Cave. Zac jumped on his hover scooter and sped straight there.

It didn't take Zac long to find the Golden Eardrum – it had a bright purple front door and a giant rotating ear on the roof.

He needed to go in and look around without attracting attention. But he knew most of the other customers would be grown-ups. A 12-year-old on his own would really stand out in the crowd.

Then Zac remembered something.

A couple of months ago, Leon had given him a new gadget to road-test on a mission. Zac had stuffed it into his backpack and forgotten all about it.

Zac ducked into a nearby alley and pulled out the Protector Projector. The Protector Projector created incredibly realistic 3D holograms.

All Zac had to do was film himself with the Protector Projector. The Projector would then transmit a hologram of whatever Zac was doing in the footage. It would look absolutely real!

I've got to make it look like I'm doing
karaoke,
thought Zac.
Then, everyone will be
watching my holograph on stage while the real me can look around the Golden Eardrum.

He looked around the alley carefully. Yes, it seemed deserted. He was going to have to film himself singing in the alley.

Zac set the Protector Projector to Record mode.
They like Nemesis at the
Golden Eardrum…better do a Nemesis song,
thought Zac.

‘Drivin' down the highway, feelin' pretty cool,' Zac sang.

How embarrassing! Zac couldn't just stand there, either. To make this performance look real, he'd have to dance too.

Secretly, he'd always dreamt of being a rock star. Now he had to pretend he really was one!

‘No place to go today, not even school,' Zac wailed, getting warmed up.

This chorus bit was pretty cool, actually. Zac played a solo on the air guitar. For once, his dream of becoming a rock star and his spying missions were fitting together perfectly!

Zac hit stop on the Protector Projector and headed for the Golden Eardrum. He was going to track down those hackers if it was the last thing he did. And his hologram was going to put on one awesome show!