H. I. Larry - River Rampage

RIVER RAMPAGE
BYH. I. LARY

ILLUSTRATIONS BYCAL BENNETT

River Rampage
published in 2009 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 2009 H.I. Larry
Illustration and design copyright 2009 Hardie Grant Egmont

Cover design by Cal Bennett
Illustrations by Cal Bennett
Laptop illustration on page 56 by Ash Oswald
Typeset by Ektavo
Printed in Australia by McPhersons Printing Group
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

CONTENTS

For the first time in his life, Zac Power was scared. Really scared.

Where are you, Zac? his mum called up the stairs. I know theres no hot water but you need to have a shower.

Zac Power was a top-secret spy for the Government Investigation Bureau, or GIB for short. Hed been on heaps of dangerous missions all by himself. But today was the first time Zac had ever felt true fear. The water heater in his house had broken two days ago, and the plumber still hadnt been around to fix it.

Zac heard his mum coming upstairs. You havent showered in two days! she called.

Theres no way Im taking a freezing coldshower, thought Zac. Besides, my hair looksgood when its messy like this!

Zac had to find a hiding spot quickly. He slipped into his older brothers room and closed the door quietly.

Zacs whole family worked for GIB. Even his geeky brother Leon worked on gadgets and vehicles in the Tech Division.

Zac knew Leon would be clever enough to get the hot water working again, but hed been away for the past two days. GIB had sent him to the World Techno Convention and he had only just come home.

Zac looked around his brothers bedroom. It was neat and nerdy, but Leon wasnt there.

He must be working in his secret lab underthe house, thought Zac.

He opened Leons sock drawer and pulled out the Secret Mobile Phone Sock. The SMPS was one of Leons latest prototype inventions. It looked just like a normal white sock, but it was woven with telecom fibres so that it worked like a walkie-talkie. The socks pair was hidden down in the secret lab.

G.I.B. SECRET MOBILE PHONE SOCK (SMPS)
Covert Communication Device

Zac held the sock toe to his mouth and the opening to his ear. Leon, he hissed. Can you fix the water heater? Mum wants me to have a shower and the water is freezing!

Leons voice came crackling back through the SMPS. Sorry, Zac, he said. Something more important has happened. Wait there, Im coming up.

Zac chucked the sock back into Leons drawer. A moment later, there was a loud rush of air and then the wardrobe door slid open. It was the hidden entrance to the secret lab. Leon walked out, looking worried.

Hey, Zac, said Leon. I was just about to come and get you. GIB have a mission for you.

Awesome! Zac exclaimed.

Missions were sometimes dangerous, but he smiled to himself. Hed managed to get out of the cold shower!

Come on, Leon said, opening the bedroom door. We have to get going. Our ride is parked across the street.

Zac and Leon walked quickly down the stairs.

Dont worry about mum, said Leon. Ill handle her.

OK, cool, said Zac as they headed out the front door. What are we driving this time?

GIB usually gave their agents super cool, high-speed vehicles to get them to their missions. Zac had driven everything from Formula One race-cars to deep-sea submarines.

Leon pointed to an ice-cream van parked towards the van.

Leon, were not seriously stopping for an ice-cream? Zac asked.

Leon grinned at him as they made their way towards the van. Not quite. Hop in, Zac this is our ride!

Zac climbed into the ice-cream van, with Leon right behind him. Zac realised straight away that this was Leons Mobile Technology Lab, outfitted with a new disguise.

The ice-cream vans dashboard was crammed with controls and blinking lights. Leon turned the ignition and set the MTL to autopilot. A moment later, the speakers on the roof started playing loud tinkly music, and the van took off slowly down the road. Zac guessed that the annoying music was to cover the sound of their talking, in case an enemy was listening in.

BEEP-BEEP!

Just then, the screen on the dashboard flashed brightly.

Hold on, Im getting a video email, said Leon, pressing a few buttons.

The video started playing. There was a teenager about Leons age on the screen. He was wearing sunglasses and looked very pleased with himself.

Hello, Agent Tech Head or should I say, Leon Power, said the boy with a big smirk. Im Noel. Remember me? You might want to check a few of GIBs firewalls.

Then Noel took out a white packet of breath mints and popped one in his mouth. When you find out what Ive done, dont try to stop me, he added. Your tiny brain is no match for mine!

The video cut out. Zac glanced at his brother. Leon looked absolutely furious.

Leon, said Zac, who was that?

Leon picked up a silver mission disk from the dashboard. He handed it to Zac and began to type on his computer, banging the keys angrily.

Zac shrugged and took out his SpyPad to slip the disk inside. A SpyPad was the hand-held mini-computer that every GIB spy used to stay in touch with HQ.

CLASSIFIED - FOR THE EYES
OF AGENT ROCK STAR ONLY

MESSAGE INITIATED 6:00PM
CURRENT TIME 6:31PM

A spy called Noel has hacked into the GIB WorldEye satellite. Noel plans to download the real identity of every GIB spy in the world and then sell the information to enemy agencies.

It will take Noel approximately 24 hours to download all the information he needs. You must stop him before that happens.

NOTE: Noel's location is currently UNKNOWN.

MISSION TIME REMAINING:
23 HOURS 29 MINUTES

RIVER RAMPAGE

Zac felt slightly sick as he read. This could mean the end not only of his career, but of the whole of GIB!

GIBs WorldEye was the most powerful spy satellite in orbit. It could zoom in close enough to read a newspaper from space, or take a video of an insect buzzing anywhere in the world.

Zac glanced at his brother. Leon seemed to be calming down a little bit.

So, who is Noel, anyway? Zac asked. Ive never heard of him before.

Noel is the most irritating person I have ever met, said Leon. He was at the World Techno Convention yesterday when I gave a presentation on nano-technology. He was obsessed with me, and kept trying to prove that hes smarter than I am. Which hes not, obviously.

Zac grinned to himself. Nerds were so competitive sometimes. So how am I supposed to find Noel if we dont even know where he is? Zac asked.