H.I. Larry - Zac Power Special Files #1: The Fear Files

The Fear Files
published in 2011 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

EISBN 978 1 742735 69 6

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 2009 H.I. Larry
Illustration and design copyright 2009 Hardie Grant Egmont

Cover design by Stephanie Spartels
Cover illustration by Andy Hook
Illustrations by Ron Monnier and Andy Hook

CONTENTS

Zac Power rolled his eyes. His brother Leon was standing in the middle of the GIB hardware store, admiring a pair of standard-issue pliers.

Look at these beauties! exclaimed Leon.

Sometimes, Zac found it hard to believe that Leon was his brother. It was even harder to believe that Leon was a spy, working for a top-secret spy organisation called the Government Investigation Bureau, or GIB for short.

In fact, everyone in Zacs family was a spy including Zac himself. Hed been around spies all his life. And hed never seen one get excited about pliers before.

Still, Leon is more of a GIB inventor than a spy, Zac reminded himself. Leon was an expert in designing new spy gadgets. To him, a hardware store was better than a lolly shop. Especially an exclusive GIB hardware store like this one.

OK, lets check out the energy-saving light bulbs, said Leon, reluctantly putting the pliers down. Did you know that we can reduce our total annual carbon emissions by a huge amount once weve changed over all the light bulbs in our

Yes, I know, Zac interrupted. Youve told me about a thousand times today, Leon.

Zac glanced down at his watch.

Normally, Zac would have refused to spend his Saturday afternoon with Leon in a hardware store. But today he didnt have much choice. Tomorrow afternoon, Zacs school friends were going to see a movie called Ghost Fighters. Zac really wanted to go. He almost never did normal stuff with his friends because he was always going on GIB missions. But his parents had said that he could only go if he helped Leon with his latest geeky project swapping all the light bulbs in their house for special energy-saving ones.

Trust Leon to be so boring, Zac groaned to himself. He pulled out his SpyPad, the hand-held mini-computer that all GIB spies used. Wasnt there an important mission or something that GIB could send him on?

When Zac went to check his messages, though, there was no signal. He gave his SpyPad a shake, but nothing happened.

Zac frowned at the screen. I dont think my SpyPads connected to Headquarters, he told Leon.

Maybe your battery is flat, suggested Leon, studying a very large screwdriver. That sometimes kills the signal. Theres a recharge station in the store. One of the auto-drive electric buggies will take you straight there.

Zac shrugged. He didnt think the battery was flat as hed only charged it yesterday. But it was a good excuse to get away from Leon and his energy-saving light bulbs!

Back soon, Leon! he said, throwing his backpack into the front seat of a nearby GIB buggy. He hopped in and selected Recharge Station on the destination panel as the buggy zoomed off.

Recharge Station selected, an electronic voice said. It looked like the buggy was set to Chat Mode. Due to unknown causes, the whole city is experiencing power surges. Please note that your SpyPad might be affected.

ZZZZZT!

Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise and the entire store was plunged into total darkness. Even worse, the buggy had gone out of control!

BRRRM!

It raced around the pitch-black hardware store, screeching around corners and bouncing off shelves. Zac wrestled with the controls, trying to find the manual steering wheel. He had no idea why a black-out would make the buggy go crazy. And he had to figure out how to get it to stop!

SCREEEK!

The buggy screeched wildly and pushed through what felt like heavy plastic doors.

Theres got to be a handbrake somewhere on this thing, Zac thought. Holding tightly to his seat with one hand, he felt beneath the seat with the other.

When he found the brake, he gripped it hard and wrenched it upwards. The buggy immediately braked, but instead of stopping, it started spinning wildly.

Oh, no, Zac groaned to himself, trying not to fall out of his seat. Braking with a handbrake always causes burn-outs!

He held onto his seat as hard as he could, but he could feel his fingers slipping. He tensed up, preparing to go flying out of the spinning buggy.

Just as he was about to lose his grip completely, the store lights crackled back to life. The buggy did one last donut on the concrete floor and then pulled smoothly to a stop. Zac could smell burning rubber in the air.

He carefully climbed out of the buggy and looked around. It seemed that he was in a storage area out the back of the hardware store.

I wonder if my SpyPads working yet? Zac thought, reaching into his pocket and taking it out.

The SpyPad screen flickered to life. He still didnt have a signal. But there was something very strange on the screen. Very strange indeed.

Zac had received a mission on his SpyPad. But it wasnt from GIB!

Zac knew that GIB usually sent out their missions on special coded disks. It was very risky to send a mission directly to a SpyPad because it could be hacked into.

But Zac also knew that other spy agencies werent so careful. He quickly scanned the message on his SpyPad.

Zacs mouth dropped open. This message was meant for a BIG agent! But how did it get on his SpyPad? And why did BIG think that GIB were controlling the weather? It didnt seem like a very GIB thing to do.

I guess the power surges must have made my SpyPad pick up a transmission, he thought.

But his SpyPad still didnt have a signal, and Zacs spy senses were tingling. Something wasnt right.

He decided to go straight to 13 Grande Street and check it out. When his SpyPad had a stronger signal, he would call HQ for back-up.

Zac wondered briefly if he should tell Leon where he was going. No, he thought, rolling his eyes. Leon is happy looking at light bulbs. Ill call him later.

First of all, Zac had to figure out how to get to 13 Grande Street. I suppose I could take that crazy GIB hardware store buggy, but

Then he had a brainwave. He could take a GIB Commuter-Scooter! These were small, zippy scooters that GIB parked at various handy points around the city. They were for emergency spy travel.