The new MI High team try to solve a seemingly simple case. Is the solution to the mystery, the Grand Master's secret weapon ?
Dan was sitting in another tedious class taught by Mr. Flatley. Mr. Flatley was wittering on about the origins of Morris Dancing in English history. Dan glanced around him. Roly was nodding at his desk, barely managing to fight off sleep. Aneisha seemed to be reading a book, balanced against her school bag on the desk. Zoe looked to be paying rapt attention as usual. This made Dan smile. She enjoyed every lesson and every new experience. It was part of what made her so attractive.
He glanced over at Tom, who seemed to be staring directly ahead, but not exactly focussed on Mr. Flatley. Had he learned to sleep with his eyes open ? Dan had heard of people who could do that. That would be such a useful skill for school. What was Tom doing ? His eyes were moving, but he wasn't following Mr. Flatley's movements. Dan's thoughts were interrupted by the period bell. The class gathered up their books and headed off towards the dinner hall.
Dan sidled up beside Tom. "What were you doing in class ?" Dan asked him.
"Nothing," said Tom defensively.
"Oh you so were !" accused Dan. "I could see you staring in front of you. You weren't watching Mr. Flatley and you weren't listening to him. What were you doing, playing mental chess or something ?"
"What ? No !" exclaimed Tom. He glanced around him, but there was now nobody in the corridor except himself, Dan, Aneisha and Zoe. He fiddled with his eyes, and pulled out what looked like a contact lens. "I'm just, erm, testing these," he explained.
"What are they ?" asked Zoe.
"They're 'Heads Up Contacts'," said Tom, grinning. "They're fantastic. You wear these and you can read books, surf the net or watch films. The image appears to be projected into the middle distance in front of you. I was re-reading one of the Blade Quest books. Isn't it brilliant ?"
The others groaned. "Can you see what's going on around you though ?" asked Aneisha.
"Well no, not really. That's the down side," said Tom regretfully. "You can't see anything else at all. You have to keep your ears open really if you want to avoid trouble. Actually, I'll have to take them out now. If I hadn't been following Dan, I would probably have walked into the door or something. It's kind of weird with just one in too. I'll take the other one out," he added.
"Does Frank know you have these ?" asked Aneisha.
"Well, someone had to test them," said Tom.
"Say no more," said Dan. "Let's get lunch."
Zoe stayed behind as Tom took out the last lens and put them both in their sterile solution in a box. "Can I try them ?" asked Zoe. Tom looked surprised and then smiled.
"I don't see why not," he said, handing them over. "Don't tell Frank though will you ? He probably won't like me handing them round, you know," he said, looking a bit sheepish. Zoe slipped them into her pocket.
"Thanks," she said, smiling. "I like new things."
"Where are you going ?" Tom asked surprised as Dan and Aneisha walked past him, back out of the dinner hall.
"Looked at your communicator in between reading books ?" asked Dan. Tom and Zoe looked and noticed that their pencil communicators were flashing. "Come on !" said Dan.
Frank gathered the team in the basement HQ. "Right team, we've been given an urgent mission. We've received intel that a criminal group are going to attempt a robbery at the Faslane nuclear submarine base," he explained.
"Don't the military police handle that sort of thing ?" asked Tom, puzzled.
"Well, they do normally, but this was a special request from the Defence Ministry," said Frank. "I don't know why, but they apparently want special protection. There will be armed guards there as well, but they want the criminals to be captured. Apparently they've successfully robbed a number of nuclear materials stores across Europe and the Government is desperate to make sure they are caught before their next meeting with the leaders of the other EU states."
"Do you know when they're likely to strike ?" asked Aneisha. "Only it's going to look a bit odd if we're off school for days on end waiting for these people to try to steal nuclear material."
"Well, luckily we got some really good information," said Frank looking very pleased with himself. "We have date and time of attack," he added. "It's at 8:30pm this evening."
"How did they manage to rob all these other countries if we know when they're coming to rob ours ?" asked Dan. "They sound like idiots."
"Well, I'd hardly call them idiots !" said Frank, sounding annoyed. "You could have a little more faith in MI9 Dan. We got this information from one of our regular informants. Apparently this little group of robbers have set up a few ripples amongst the criminal fraternity across Europe. They're not part of the existing gangs or groups and it's put a few noses out of joint. Hence our intel," he said, bouncing on his heels and grinning. Dan still looked doubtful, but stopped complaining and listened to Frank's briefing.
After school that day, the team gathered outside St. Heart's and climbed into the MI9 van which came to pick them up. Frank sat up front with the driver. Dan leant across to talk to the others in the back. "Is it just me, or does this seem much too easy ?" he asked.
"I must admit, it does seem kind of fishy," admitted Aneisha. "You'd think that if they had so much information to go on, the police could handle it on their own. I don't really see why they need us."
"Exactly. Look, we need to watch out for each other," said Dan so quietly that the others all had to lean in together to hear him. "I'm not happy about this. We've got to have each other's back OK ?" They all nodded and sat back. Frank looked round curiously at them, but didn't say anything.
They drove for over an hour into the mountainous countryside of the West coast of Scotland. It was dark by the time they arrived near the Faslane base. Aneisha opened up her bag and started pulling on motorbike leathers over her regular MI High uniform. Dan and Zoe pulled on black woollen hats to cover their hair and pulled on black backpacks. The van stopped in a layby on the edge of the Loch. Zoe and Dan jumped out and dashed down to the water's edge, dragging a large bundle. The van drove off. They tossed their bundle into the small waves lapping at the shingle beach and Dan pulled a cord. The bundle made a soft woofing noise and inflated itself into a small dinghy. Zoe place a couple of paddles into the boat and stepped in. Dan pushed the dinghy out a little and then jumped in himself.
The two of them paddled up towards a boat house, jutting out into the Loch. "Are you in position yet Dan ?" asked Tom's voice over their headsets.
"Nearly there," puffed Dan. "There's a bit of a head wind," he complained. Zoe continued paddling in silence.
"Aneisha's in place," said Tom. "The armed police are in position. I'm in the van with Frank." Dan rolled his eyes. It was alright for some people, he thought. His boots had got wet pushing the dinghy into the water and his feet were pretty cold now. Still, he didn't want to be sitting in a van staring at a computer screen. Even with cold feet, this was way more fun.
Finally they managed to get the dinghy through the waves to the boathouse. They paddled as quietly as they could up to the wooden structure. As they rounded the corner they could look inside the building and saw a powerful motor launch moored up beside the landing stage. The paddled their dinghy inside the building and tied it up underneath the landing stage where it would hopefully not be seen. They climbed out and ran to the back entrance door. It wasn't locked and they looked out. There was nobody in sight. "We're in position," Zoe whispered into the headset.
"OK team. Let's go !" instructed Tom. Dan and Zoe crouched down and watched as a motorbike roared up to the entrance of the large house behind the boat house. A figure wearing a crash helmet climbed off the back of the bike, picked up a box and walked up to the house entrance. They heard the distant sound of a doorbell ringing.
"Pizza delivery !" called out Aneisha's voice.
The door opened. "What is this ?" asked a voice. "We did not order pizza !" they said.
"Oh, maybe we've got the wrong address," said Aneisha, fumbling with a piece of paper she pulled out of her pocket. "Just a minute..." she said. On their cue, Dan and Zoe started running up towards the house. They saw the shadowy shapes of black-clad, armed policemen also running towards the house. Dan looked again and noticed that the policemen weren't running towards the house after all. They seemed to be running towards him and Zoe. He skidded to a stop and Zoe copied him.
"What's wrong ?" asked Zoe. She also looked at the armed men running towards them. "Oh," she said quietly.