H.I. Larry - Volcanic Panic

CONTENTS

It just isnt fair, thought Zac Power as he stared at the page in front of him. Im a secretagent! Why am I stuck here learning fractions?

It was almost the end of a long school day, and Zac was counting down the minutes to the bell.

He may have been a highly trained member of the Government Investigation Bureau, but that was all top secret. As far as his school was concerned, he was just an ordinary kid.

Zacs teacher, Mrs Tran, was away that day. They had a substitute teacher taking their class. Usually that was great because it meant the class got to do lots of fun stuff like art and PE.

But not this time. This new teacher had made them sit at their desks all day doing maths worksheets until Zac thought his brain would melt.

The new teachers name was Ms Sharpe. She was tall and thin, and her jet-black hair was streaked with blue.

Zac didnt like her. There was something about her smile that made Zac feel like he was in trouble, even though he was sure he hadnt done anything wrong. Not today, anyway.

Finally, the bell rang. Zac stuffed the worksheets into his maths book and got up to leave with the rest of the class.

Just a minute please, Zac, called Ms Sharpe. I need to rush off to an important meeting. Could you please close the blinds before you go?

Zac sighed and walked back across the classroom towards the windows. He was about to pull the blinds down when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something red and gleaming.

Sitting outside on the windowsill was a rock. It was about as big as Zacs hand, and it was glowing like it had just shot out of a volcano.

Zac looked around cautiously, but Ms Sharpe had disappeared.

His spy senses tingled. He opened the window and reached a hand out towards the rock.

For a moment, the rock burned red hot under his fingers. But then it grew cool and turned black.

A second later, the rock made a loud hissing sound and cracked open in Zacs hand, revealing a little silver disk. Zacs eyes lit up. Excellent!

A disk like this could mean only one thing a new mission from GIB!

Zac smiled. His boring school day was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Zac raced to his schoolbag, and pulled out a small electronic tablet.

This was Zacs new SpyPad, the Pulsetronic V-66. It played video games, and it was also a phone, a code breaker, a laser, and just about everything else a spy could need.

Zac slipped the disk into his SpyPad.

Zac pulled the disk out of the SpyPad and pocketed it. Leaving his schoolbag under his chair, he dashed down the hall and raced outside.

The playground was crawling with kids and their parents. Zac knew hed have to be careful not to let anyone see what he was doing.

He slowed down and walked the rest of the way to the cubby house at the far end of the playground.

Hang on, thought Zac as he neared the cubby house. If the jet Im looking for iscloaked, that means its going to be invisible.

How am I supposed to climb aboard a jetthat I cant even see?

But Zacs question was answered a moment later when he slammed into something cold and hard. Ouch!

The invisible jet was right there in front of him.

Well, Zac thought as he rubbed his throbbing head, at least I found it.

Now came the hard part. He had to find a way inside.

Zac stared at the empty space in front of him. He was suddenly reminded of something hed learnt in science last term about bats using echolocation to find their way in the dark.

This gave Zac an idea. Peering around to make sure that no-one was watching, he set the laser on his SpyPad to Multi-Beam, and pointed it in the direction of the cloaked jet.

Several sharp green beams shot out of the SpyPad. The laser beam bounced off the jet in front of him, lighting it up around the edges.

Zac moved the laser across the body of the jet until he found the cockpit door. He turned off the laser, pulled on the door handle, and climbed aboard.

The cockpit of the jet was small and cramped, not at all up to GIBs usual standard. Everything inside was black, except for the gleaming blue control panel.

Before Zac had even had a chance to run a pre-flight check, the door hissed closed and the jet slowly rose into the air above the school.

Autopilot, Zac thought to himself. Sweet!

Zac sat back in the hard plastic seat and breathed a sigh of relief. He was finally on his way!

Even though his jet was speeding through the air, Zac knew that the trip to the Isle of Magma would probably take several hours. It wasnt long before he started getting bored.

At first, it had been kind of cool to watch the city down below. But Zac had been on heaps of jet flights before, and he got tired of sightseeing pretty quickly. Anyway, he was out over the open ocean now, and it was getting dark, so there wasnt a whole lot to see. For a while Zac passed the time playing games on his SpyPad, but after his tenth round of Ninja Nightmare even that got boring.

Zac glanced at his watch again, feeling impatient.

9.24 P.M

He wished that something would happen, just to break the boredom.

And at that moment, something did.

A face appeared on the screen of his SpyPad. It was Zacs older brother, Leon.

Like the rest of the Power family, Leon worked for GIB. But Leon wasnt a field agent like Zac.

He worked on GIB technology, and was in charge of some of the cool spy gadgets that Zac and the other GIB agents used to complete their missions.

Zac, where are you? Leon demanded. Youre in big trouble with Mum for not having swept the leaves up from the driveway. And its already past your bedtime!

Where do you think I am? said Zac, surprised. Im on a mission!

On the screen of the SpyPad, Zac noticed Leons raised eyebrow. Mission? What mission?

The mission to rescue Agent Hot Shot from the Isle of Magma! said Zac. He was starting to get annoyed. The mission you sent me on with the cloaked jet!

Zac, what are you talking about? Leon asked. You havent been sent on a mission. Nothings come through from HQ all day.

But I found a disk at school and Zac trailed off as he realised what must have happened.

The mission disk! Zac cried, pulling the little silver disk out of his pocket. Its a fake!

Now Leon looked worried. Zac, youve got to turn that jet around right now and come home.

Right, said Zac quickly. He reached out and started tapping at the sea of blue buttons in front of him.

Nothing happened.

Im locked out, Zac said, trying not to panic. Nothings working! The whole control panel is locked.

OK, calm down, said Leon. He didnt sound very calm himself. Just, um, sit tight for a minute. Ill see what I can do.

On the SpyPads screen, Zac could see his older brother tapping frantically at his keyboard. Leon was trying to over-ride the jets computer.