H. I. Larry - Water Blaster

Water Blaster

published in 2009 by

Hardie Grant Egmont

Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

EISBN 978 1 742733 38 8

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 Damien Holder

Illustrations by Cal Bennett & Damien Holder

CONTENTS

Zac Powers stomach rumbled. He was getting really hungry! He could just imagine biting into a tasty slice of Mexicana pizza. Or maybe some steaming hot fish and chips.

But Zac pushed the thought out of his mind and kept staggering up the icy mountain slope. Night had fallen on the City of Snow and the moon was now high in the sky.

Zac and his family had come to the city on their most extreme mission ever. They had to keep BIG agents Caz and Blackwood from putting together a dangerous supergadget known as IRIS.

But Blackwood had laid a trap for Zacs family in the City of Snow. The evil White Ninjas, who lived in the mountains, had kidnapped his parents, his brother Leon and his grandpa.

Worse still, Caz had stolen three pieces of IRIS from Zacs backpack.

Now she and Blackwood had escaped in search of the fourth and final IRIS piece. If they got there before Zac did, theyd put IRIS back together and use it to send whole cities into a permanent, irreversible sleep.

Zac clenched his fists. He was not going to let that happen.

He couldnt leave his family behind, though. He needed to save them. Hed just have to be quick and hope there was still time left to stop Caz and Blackwood.

But first Zac needed some supplies.

Zac kept running until he reached the top of the slope, where the Ski-Pod was parked. The Ski-Pod was the GIB spy vehicle that hed flown into the City of Snow. Zac clambered inside.

Leons tiny flying laboratory, the MicroLab, was still parked up on the roof of the Ski-Pod. Zac pushed open a hatch in the Ski-Pods ceiling and climbed up into the MicroLab.

He stared around the tiny room. Leon was always the one who picked out Zacs gadgets for him. To Zac, the lab looked like one big mess. He had no idea what would help him rescue his family.

Then Zacs eyes fell on something that looked interesting: a black helmet with a thin body suit attached. The label said Holomet and there was a camera on the front.

Zac picked up the Holomet. There was a label with two pictures stuck on the outside. The first picture showed a boy using the Holomets camera to take a picture of an old man. In the second, the Holomet was shining a hologram down onto the boy, disguising him as the old man.

The image gave Zac an idea. Perfect, he smiled. The Holomet was just what he needed. He slipped the body suit on over his clothes and put the Holomet on.

Then he climbed back through the hatch and dropped down into the Ski-Pod.

Zacs SpyPad was still sitting on a seat in the Ski-Pod. Zac picked it up, stuck it in his pocket through a zip in the body suit, and headed back out into the snow.

An hour later, Zac was crouched down behind a rock outside the White Ninjas cave. His teeth chattered in the icy wind.

Two ninjas were standing guard at the front of the cave. Zac aimed his Holomet at one of the guards and pressed a button on the side. I hope this works, he thought.

The Holomet flashed quickly. Then it began to hum and vibrate. Zacs body suit started shimmering. Lights sparked around his face, almost blinding him.

Zac dived down behind the rock to hide the flashing. He heard footsteps crunching across the snow towards him.

A second later, Zac heard a stern voice calling from above his head. It was speaking in a language he didnt understand.

He looked up and saw the two White Ninjas standing over him.

Zac glanced down. The Holomet had worked! It was projecting a holographic White Ninja costume over Zacs body suit. He looked just like one of them!

One of the ninjas pulled Zac to his feet. The other one pointed into the cave, still talking to Zac in his White Ninja language. Zac realised they were ordering him to go inside.

Yes, sir, thought Zac, hiding a grin. Whatever you say. He nodded to the guards, then left them behind and dashed inside the cave.

Zac raced down a long stone tunnel, heading deeper into the White Ninjas cave. Crackling blue-flamed torches lined the walls on both sides, casting a creepy blue light over everything.

As he ran, Zac kept one hand on the Holomet, making sure it didnt slip off his head.

He rounded a corner and found himself in a giant snowy cavern. There were about 20 White Ninjas standing around a big blue fire, talking and laughing and eating.

In a dark corner of the cavern, Zac saw four shadowy figures his family! They were dangling upside-down from the cavern roof, their feet tied up tightly with ice-whips.

Zac gulped, and checked to make sure none of the Ninjas were watching him. Then he sneaked around behind them and tip-toed over to his family.

Aahh, no! shouted Leon, terrified, as Zac approached. Go away!

Shh! Zac hissed, hoping they could hear him through the Holomet. Its me!

There was a shout from the fire and Zac whirled around. A few of the ninjas were staring over at Zac.

Thinking quickly, Zac tugged on Grandpas arm, pretending he was just making sure the prisoners were secure. He turned to the fire and nodded, trying to look business-like.

The ninjas watched Zac for a few moments, and finally turned back to the fire. Zac breathed a sigh of relief and reached into his pocket for his SpyPad.

Electronic gadgets were outlawed in the City of Snow. If anyone saw him holding a SpyPad, they would know Zac wasnt a real White Ninja. He carefully turned his body around, shielding his SpyPad from the other ninjas eyes.

Zac set the SpyPad to Laser, and a bright red beam shot out. Are you guys OK? he whispered, pointing the laser up at the whips that were binding his familys feet.

Hanging in there, said Zacs dad, smiling upside-down.

Zac rolled his eyes. Trust Dad to make ajoke at a time like this! he thought.

Water dripped down from the ceiling as the laser started melting the ice-whips.

Grandpa was the first to come loose. He performed a backwards somersault and landed lightly on his feet. Zac glanced nervously back at the White Ninjas. They were laughing loudly at something and hadnt noticed anything. But Zac knew they could turn around at any moment and see the Powers escaping.