It's a perfectly normal school trip to France. The team are going to have a week off spying. They think.
"They have covered their heads," said the second man. "They could be any of those kids upstairs. We'll never find them !"
"Not quite," said the first man, pointing. He paused the image over Dan's hooded face. "There," he said, pointing at the screen. They both leaned forward and when Dan's head raised slightly to look for the door handle, they could just make out a big, darkening bruise on the middle of his forehead. "They can't all be like that !" he said, smiling grimly.
The next day they gathered at breakfast for their day's briefing from Mr. McNab and Mme. Renard. Dan was feeling much better, but had an enormous bruise on his forehead. He'd brushed his fringe over it so he wouldn't get asked too may questions. The hotel staff were in attendance that morning. One woman was serving bread rolls to each of the students. Aneisha joined the boys at their table. "They're a bit keener this morning aren't they ? They left us to it yesterday. Maybe they thought we were eating too many bread rolls," she suggested. They were all busy chatting to one another when the hotel manager came in to talk to the woman with the bread rolls. She was shaking her head. "Obviously haven't caught the phantom bread roll thief," commented Aneisha.
Tom updated the two girls about what had happened the previous evening while they were out. Aneisha couldn't believe they could just walk into the middle of some criminal activity. "It's supposed to be a week off. Did Frank say anything ?" she asked. Tom told her he was having the footage checked, but that he hadn't heard anything back from Frank yet.
Zoe hadn't said anything. She sat staring at Dan. After a minute or two, even Dan noticed. He'd been too busy stuffing bread and cheese into his mouth. "Zoe, I'm fine. Stop worrying about it," he said.
"Yeah, it didn't stop him poking his nose into the local underground," joked Tom. This raised a small smile from Zoe.
"I could have really hurt you," she said in a small voice.
"Nah, I'm fine. It was lucky you only hit me on the head," laughed Dan. "Otherwise you might have done some damage. How did it go last night anyway ?" he asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh it was very nice," said Zoe. "At the end Byron got up to sing with the band."
"Oh no ! Didn't anyone try to stop him ?" asked Tom.
"Mr. McNab looked like he was going to rugby tackle him, but he slipped past on to the stage and then it was too late," said Aneisha. "You know, it's funny, but I'd been thinking it couldn't possibly get any worse !" Tom and Dan laughed, but Zoe looked confused.
"He was really good !" she said. "I liked it."
The fun activity that day was sand yachting which they would do in the afternoon. They were all sent up to their rooms to collect the gloves they'd been told to bring. The morning's trip was to see the local limestone cave system for geography. While they were standing outside being counted by Mr. McNab Zoe turned to Dan.
"Dan, I'm really sorry," said Zoe. "I wouldn't ever try to hurt you."
"Zoe, it's OK. I know you're not like other girls. I'll just have to be more careful," said Dan quietly.
"I wish I was like other girls," said Zoe forlornly.
"Well I don't," said Dan, quite forcefully. "I like you just the way you are." He blushed and mumbled in embarrassment when he realised what he'd said. Then he smiled at her. She smiled back gratefully.
The coach first drove them out to a local park area. A park warden walked them out to view the unusual features of the local area. Even Dan had to admit it was pretty spectacular. The limestone had been eroded into all kinds of weird shapes. They were told that the whole area was riddled with underground rivers and caves. At the end of the tour the park warden took them to see a sink hole. A quite sizeable river rushed across the ground and then disappeared completely into a large crack in the ground. The teens crept up to the edge and some lay on their stomachs to try to see the bottom of the hole. Dan was one of those who strained to see over the edge. He could hear the water thundering into the rocks far below ground level, but he couldn't see anything in the darkness. It was quite spooky.
After lunch they were taken sand yachting. The sand yachting was great fun. They had to take turns in the yachts. After a long safety briefing Tom got into a yacht and got into a complete muddle. After a while, Dan ran over to him and told him to pretend it was just a game on his console and to follow the instructions without thinking about it too much. This seemed to do the trick. Soon Tom was whizzing round with the rest, turning and sweeping back and forth into the wind. Aniesha and Zoe raced one another up and down the beach. Dan spent most of his runs trying to avoid Roly who was careering all over the beach, yelling constantly.
They got back into the coach happy and windblown. "Wow, where did you get that bruise ?" Roly asked Dan. Dan's hair had blown back from his face and set with the salty sea spray.
"Oh, I tripped up and banged my head on the wardrobe last night," said Dan. "That's why I couldn't go to the concert," he added.
"I was sympathetic until you got to the bit about missing the concert," said Roly, but he grinned at Dan, who grinned back.
"I heard Byron got up to sing with the band," said Dan.
"Aw man ! You'd have to nail his shoes to the floor to stop him !" complained Roly.
"Maybe you should suggest it to Mr. McNab," said Dan. Roly looked thoughtful.
"I reckon he'd be up for it," said Roly thoughtfully.
They all trooped back into the hotel and headed for their rooms to get ready for dinner and the evening's entertainment which was billed as 'games' in the hotel garden. Tom picked up their room key and went ahead of Dan who was trying to get some more of the sand off his shoes before going upstairs. He glanced up to see the receptionist staring hard at him, so tried to get some more sand off his shoes. Finally he headed up the now deserted stairs to their floor. As he headed along the corridor the door of room 13 opened just behind him. He didn't have time to react as a hand clamped over his mouth and he was pulled forcefully into the room. The door was slammed shut in front of him and he was dragged backwards, his arms pinned behind his back. He was pulled into what looked like a lift. Doors closed and the lift descended.
Aneisha and Zoe were gathering their things when there was a knock at their door. It was Tom, looking worried. "Have you seen Dan ?" he asked them.
"No, he hasn't been in here. Why ?" asked Aneisha.
"He didn't come up to our room," said Tom. "There's no sign of him anywhere."
"Do you think he went to investigate under the hotel again ?" asked Aneisha.
"I don't think he'd go without telling me," said Tom. "Do you ?" The two girls looked at one another and shook their heads. "Do you think someone's grabbed him ?" asked Tom, sounding scared. "We kept our hoods up. They shouldn't have recognised us."
"I would have thought they would have spotted you this morning if they had seen your faces," said Aneisha.
"Oh !" said Zoe. "I think I know what it was. Dan's bruise. He has a big bruise on his forehead. They might have seen that."
"That could be it," agreed Aneisha. "He had his fringe brushed over it this morning. Of course ! The sand yachting blew his hair off his face. They would have seen the bruise when he got back this afternoon. We've got to call Frank !"
They sat down on their bed as Aneisha called Frank. "Frank we've got an emergency. Dan's disappeared. We think he might have been recognised by the people here," she told him.
"Why haven't they got Tom as well then ?" asked Frank.
"We think they recognised Dan because of the bruise on his forehead," explained Aneisha.
"OK, you're going to have to come out of there," said Frank. "It's getting much too dangerous. I've had that footage translated Tom. There's a serious operation going on under the hotel."
"No way ! We can't leave without Dan," said Aneisha hotly. The others nodded furiously with her. "And we've got to tell Mr. McNab. He's going to call the police isn't he ?" asked Aneisha.
Frank paused. "OK, you can stay there for now. I'm going to send some backup in with the police. Keep your eyes open. Do not try to rescue Dan until we have some more information. The agent I'm sending to help you is a language expert. I will send you the translation of the footage you sent. Keep me updated, and I'll let you know progress. You can tell Mr. McNab about Dan's disappearance. I'll put measures in place straight away," Frank instructed. They closed the call and looked at one another.
"I'll tell Mr. McNab," said Tom. He left the girls' room.