The Ruby Redfort Collection: 4-6: Feed the Fear; Pick Your Poison; Blink and You Die. Lauren Child

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      ‘Look, before you begin with the grovelling, I have to tell you, I agree with Agent Gill and Doctor Selgood, and before you ask, no, I haven’t told anyone about your latest dumb-clutz behaviour. Those two Spectrum items you stole have been returned and Hal in gadgets said he’d fix them both on the quiet.’

      Ruby said nothing.

      ‘You still think you being removed from training is unfair?’

      Ruby shrugged, it was the sort of question that wasn’t a question.

      ‘Whether you do or whether you don’t it doesn’t really change my mind,’ he continued, ‘it’s just that I happen to know a few agents who caught the fearlessness bug and they all have one thing in common.’

      ‘You’re gonna tell me they’re dead, right?’

      ‘I don’t have to, you know it. Anyone with a grain of sense knows that if you keep playing Russian roulette, one day you have to run into a bullet. The odds begin to stack against you.’

      They neither of them said anything for a minute, until Hitch took a small silver case out of his top pocket.

      He slid it across the table. ‘It’s to keep you out of harm’s way,’ he said, ‘or at least so I have a way of tracking you when all else fails. You can’t rely on just one thing, the Escape Watch is not enough. And besides. . . LB might decide to recall it.’

      ‘You think she’d do that?’

      ‘I don’t know. Just take the gift, OK?’

      She opened the box. ‘A barrette?’ said Ruby. She picked it up – it was a blue barrette and attached to it, very realistically, was an enamel black and white housefly. ‘What does it do?’

      ‘It transmits a signal, helps me locate you, plus it has a tiny radio transmitter so we can communicate. I had Hal in gadgets make it up for me – it’s a prototype, he hasn’t had a whole lot of time to test-run it, but well, it’s better than nothing at all.’

      ‘I’ll wear it if it makes you happy,’ said Ruby, sliding it into her hair and checking her reflection in the dark window glass, ‘and it looks OK I guess.’

      Just then, some toast popped out of the toaster. Hitch went over, looked at it, raised an eyebrow and slid it over to Ruby. Ruby looked down.

      Redfort, Hitch, return to HQ immediately.

      ‘You think they know about. . . my recent. . . activity?’ said Ruby.

      ‘No idea,’ said Hitch. ‘Could be something else entirely.’

      ‘Maybe they saw the light, realised they’d made a big mistake and are ungrounding me,’ said Ruby.

      ‘Yeah, that’s right kid,’ said Hitch. ‘You stay hopeful.’

      There was an air of unease in the briefing room and everyone at Spectrum seemed to be sitting on the edge of their seats.

      ‘What’s going on?’ asked Ruby. One thing was for sure – it didn’t seem to have anything to do with her.

      ‘I honestly don’t know,’ said Hitch, and for once Ruby believed him.

      This time the briefing was led by Agent Dixie Deneuve, from Spectrum 9. She wore a suit and she looked serious; no time for light humour, nor even the faintest of smiles.

      ‘Is that a made-up name?’ hissed Ruby.

      Hitch gave her a look which suggested she zip it.

      The room went silent.

      ‘A highly classified prototype has gone missing from the Department of Defence development base,’ said Dixie Deneuve. ‘As yet we have not even a trace of a clue as to who could have perpetrated this act.’ She took a sip of water before continuing. ‘This item was being developed by Spectrum scientists in collaboration with the military, and was stored in a secure military location. Its disappearance is highly embarrassing for us. All Spectrum divisions have been alerted.’

      An agent put up her hand and Deneuve nodded.

      ‘Are we to know what this highly classified missing item is?’ she asked.

      ‘No,’ said Dixie Deneuve.

      A murmur travelled through the briefing theatre, no one quite understanding what the point of the briefing was if no one was authorised to know what the missing thing actually was.

      ‘I cannot tell you because I do not know,’ said Agent Deneuve. ‘I do not know because I am not authorised to know, and if I am not authorised to know then I must assume that I do not need to know.’

      ‘So,’ ventured another agent, ‘how do we know that this item has actually been taken?’

      Agent Deneuve peered at him disdainfully. ‘Take my word for it, Agent –’ she made a big deal of trying to read his name badge – ‘Dunst, that’s your job after all.’

      The agent shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

      ‘All Spectrum 8 need concern itself with is this: make sure security is kept tight and surveillance is maintained at the highest level. We need to bring these criminals in, and swiftly, without an almighty news story – simple as that.’

      ‘Given that Spectrum staff know the location of the DOD base and could potentially access the code to enter it, is it possible that the prototype has been taken by a person on the Spectrum team?’ asked Blacker.

      Dixie Deneuve blinked. ‘Anything is possible, agent. But at present we are operating on the assumption that it’s an outside job. Although the circumstances surrounding the theft are. . . troubling.’

      She paused. ‘We know of various criminals who are interested in our research with the military. It is impossible to keep secrets from everybody. But as far as it is possible, we keep tabs on them, we endeavour to know roughly where they are at any given time. For now what we need to focus on is how the intruder gained access rather than why. If we knew the answer to that first question it might help lead us in the right direction.’

      She clicked a switch and the slide projector came on. The first image appeared.

      This face was familiar to Ruby – she remembered it all too well from her first case protecting the Jade Buddha of Khotan.

      ‘Nine lives,’ announced Agent Deneuve, ‘aka Valerie Capaldi. She’s dead, we know this for a certainty, but what we are interested in knowing is the whereabouts of her sometime sidekick.’

      Click.

      ‘Fenton Oswald, a renowned jewel thief, based in Berlin and as far as we are aware, still there – we had a confirmed sighting of him just yesterday. He without doubt has the ability needed to mastermind a plan of this nature.’

      Click went the projector; more slides, more faces.

      The Count Von Viscount; last seen walking along the seafront of Nice.

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