Omega Operation
Page 5
BEAST leant in. ‘WHAT HAPPENED TO KELLY AND TIAGO? THAT WAS VERY BRAVE OF THEM.’
Agent Omega let out a deep, strong laugh. Axel had never heard him laugh before. ‘Those guys are the talk of the base!’
‘I bet,’ Axel said.
‘Seems just about everyone who works at Grabbem has been stewin’ up a whole lot of anger about the way the boss runs things, and Kelly and Tiago showed them they didn’t have to just sit there and take it. Oh, Kelly and Tiago will be just fine. You know why?’
‘WHY?’
‘Because when they drove off that Grabbem base in their stolen trike, not a single Grabbem employee saw which way they went. Isn’t that incredible?’
‘But there were Grabbem staff all over the place!’ Axel said. ‘One of them must have seen.’
‘That’s what the boss said, too. “One of you must have seen!” But nobody did, no matter how angry he got. Crazy, huh?’ There was a twinkle in Agent Omega’s eye.
‘Crazy.’ Axel grinned.
Agent Omega glanced over his shoulder. ‘Time for me to go. Grabbem might not have caught me this time, but I can’t let my guard down. I’ll be in touch soon. We’ve got a very important mission to plan.’
‘The Neuron Institute,’ said Nedra.
Omega nodded. ‘I know what’s riding on this one. I won’t let you down. Believe it. Omega out.’
The screen went dark. Nobody said anything for a while.
‘I AM GLAD KELLY AND TIAGO MADE IT,’ said BEAST eventually. ‘THEY WERE VERY BRAVE.’
Axel leant back in his chair and thought for a while.
‘You know, BEAST, I think people are wrong about bravery. People act like it’s something you have to pull out of nowhere, all by yourself. But sometimes you can catch it from other people.’
‘LIKE PIXEL POX?’
Axel laughed. ‘Exactly! If someone else is brave, it makes it easier for you to be. Bravery is … what’s the word? Contagious.’
‘THEN BEAST WILL BE AS BRAVE AS HE CAN, ALL THE TIME. AND MAYBE LOTS OF PEOPLE WILL CATCH BRAVERY FROM HIM.’
Axel rested his head on BEAST’s controls lovingly, and closed his eyes. You’re already off to a good start, he thought.
ADRIAN C. BOTT is a gamer, writer and professional adventure-creator. He lives in Sussex, England, with his family and is allowed to play video games whenever he wants.
ANDY ISAAC lives in Melbourne, Australia. He discovered his love of illustration through comic books when he was eight years old, and has been creating his own characters ever since.
Axel & BEAST: The Omega Operation
first published in 2017 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
Text copyright © 2017 Adrian C. Bott
Illustrations copyright © 2017 Andy Isaac
Series design copyright © 2017 Hardie Grant Egmont
Series design & illustration by Andy Isaac
eISBN 9781743585054
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