OK, here's the first case. Enjoy! (This chapter and other ones after that will be written in Saffron's POV.)

I was in the time portal for real, suspended hovering in mid air. But I wasn't scared of heights, and once I had got my bearings, I quickly caught on about where I was and what was happening. It looked like I'd just have to play along, for now.

The Chief's face appeared. "When you're here in the portal, I can talk to you, but once you're in the past, I'll be out of the contact." She looked like she was about to laugh, and I smiled at the fact that her serious demeanor had cracked. "In fact, I won't even be born yet, but don't worry. I'll send along an ACME Good Guide to help you." I momentarily wondered what Good Guides were (they were never in the cartoons, were they), but the Chief was now telling me about my first case in Ancient Egypt. "Queen Hatshepsut should have taken the throne by now, but it hasn't happened. Find out why!"

A dark-skinned young woman who looked Asian was suddenly hovering beside me. She gave me a reassuring smile. "Here's Ann Tickwitee now." the Chief said. "She's got your Chronopedia and your ACME Time Cuffs. Carmen always leaves a note, telling her crooks where to hide, so collect any note scraps you can find." The Chief again reminded me how serious this was ("If this was actually real" I thought to herself) and with that, I was standing next to a boat on the Nile.

The young Asian woman appeared beside me. "Wow, time travelling always gives me a head rush." she exclaimed with a giggle. "Cool!"

I smiled a little. "Hi."

"Hey there, Pilot...Saffron, was it?" was the answer. "I'm Ann Tickwitee, as you know, your Good Guide...for this mission, anyway. We're in Ancient Egypt, 1490 BC. That's over three thousand years backwards in time!" She gestured towards the man on the boat. "We better get investigating. Just talk to the boatman over there. We have to talk to people to work out what to do. Oh, and I'm here to help. If you get stuck, you can ask me for advice anytime."

I nodded and said "OK, right. Thanks. By the way, you don't have to call me Pilot, I'm just Saffron."

Ann smiled back. "Right. I don't use formalities much. ACME's not always like that, because everyone knows everyone. So we just use each other's first names."

I began to like Ann. "She's nice." I thought. I was only twelve, and that betrayed one reason why I liked Ann. She treated me like an equal. Like wec were friends and coworkers. Maybe that's how it was in this world – after all, ACME was united in their aim to catch thieves, so even if the agent was a pre-teen or a child, they'd be treated as an equal by older members of ACME.

First, they found out from the boatman that someone had stolen the Book Of The Dead, and Queen Hatshepsut couldn't mummify and bury her husband without it, entrusting his safety in the afterlife. I made sure to stay polite, but on the inside I was uncontrollably laughing at the superstitious people of the time. The boatman was happy to take Ann and I to Hatshepsut's temple, and even gave us one of his spare torches, due to the fact that it was sunset, and we would arrive at night.

"We don't have to leave straightaway." Ann said. "Take a look around if you want. When you're done, let the boatman know we're ready to go."

"I'm ready." I said. "What about you?"

Ann laughed. "You'll find that none of us Good Guides mind. We read up on History and Geography so much, it's like we live in these time periods!"

"OK, let's go then." I said cheerfully, beginning to feel like this could be fun, even in real life. However, I was anxious about it. I'd have to play along until I figured out how to get out of here. The boatman took us across the Nile. As he paddled with the oars, I confessed to Ann "I feel a little nervous about this. What if I screw up?" After all, now the game was reality.

"All agents make mistakes." Ann told me. "But none of them are non-fixable. If you go wrong, you start again. In the end, you'll succeed."

I felt reassured. "So how many Good Guides are there?" I asked. "What are they like?"

"Eight." answered Ann. "But only five of them deal in history and missions like these. There's me of course, then there's...Ivan Idea, Rock Solid, Renee Santz and Polly Tix. They're all pretty friendly and helpful. If the problems created are to do with inventions, then Ivan'll probably be your Good Guide for that mission. Rock works with nature and unknown realms. Renee specializes in the Arts, and even though Polly's seventeen, the youngest of us, she knows practically all there is to know about global politics."

I nodded, trying to take it all in.

We soon arrived at Queen Hatshepsut's temple. I held the torch. The boatman was right – we needed it. Then I noticed a scrap of paper on the ground.

"Didn't the Chief say Carmen gave her thieves notes?" I whispered to Ann, pointing to the scrap.

Ann smiled and nodded. "That is probably a shred of the note. Whoever it is always rips. We'll have to decode it once we've found all the pieces."

I picked the paper up and read "Dig a perfect hiding place in a pharaoh's resting space. This doesn't help."

"It'll make sense once we find the rest of the note." Ann explained. "Anyway, shouldn't we talk to the queen?"

I glanced at Hatshepsut, who was standing nearby, dressed in a beautiful white dress and wearing a fake...beard? In spite of the beard, she seemed so exotic and cool that I almost felt afraid to. "She intimidates me." I confessed. Heights and being pulled into computer games I can handle, but talking to monarchs and super-confident people throws me.

Ann shrugged and addressed her. "Excuse me, Queen Hatshepsut?"

The queen looked at us. "Good day, travellers." she said quietly. "Have you come to offer aid?"

I got up my courage, and asked her questions politely. She pretty much confirmed what we'd already heard about the Book Of The Dead being stolen, and her husband being unable to go safely to the afterlife without it. She suggested that we could help by helping the head priest to mummify the previous pharaoh, her husband. She also explained why she was wearing a beard. It wasn't a dress she was wearing – the laws were that if she ruled, she must dress and be addressed as a man.

"We would be honoured to." I told her respectfully.

Looks like the cases will be split! Whatever. Saffron has a long way to go yet. She is nervous around people who seem out of her league, but not too worried about strange happenings. REVIEW!