Text copyright © 2004 by George Edward Stanley. Illustrations copyright © 2004 by Guy Francis. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stanley, George Edward.
Code word kangaroo/by George Edward Stanley; illustrated by Guy Francis.— 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Adam Sharp; #6)
“A stepping stone book.”
SUMMARY: Eight-year-old secret agent Adam Sharp travels to Australia where, with the assistance of Alice Springs and a washed-up TV star, he tracks down the evil mastermind behind a plan to block all television stations except his own—the Happy Channel.
eISBN: 978-0-307-55519-9
[1. Television broadcasting—Fiction. 2. Actors and actresses—Fiction. 3. Spies—Fiction. 4. Australia—Fiction.] I. Francis, Guy, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Stanley, George Edward. Adam Sharp; v #6.
PZ7.S78694Cn 2004 [Fic]—dc22 2004000284
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks and A STEPPING STONE BOOK and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
v3.1
To Jennifer Arena:
Thanks for golden days past,
and here’s to future random ideas!
—G.E.S.
To Bill and Bob
—G.F.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
1. The Happy Channel
2. Alice Springs
3. The Missing Sheep
4. Wayne Wallaby, Snake Hunter
5. Balloon Fight
1
The Happy Channel
It was Saturday afternoon. Adam Sharp was at his friend Clyde’s house. They were playing a video game called Pretend You’re a Spy!
“You’re really good at this,” Clyde said. “Are you sure you never played before?”
Adam shrugged. What could he say? He’d had a lot of practice, but not with this game.
Adam was a real spy. He worked for IM-8, the world’s most secret agency. But he couldn’t tell Clyde that. Then it wouldn’t be a secret.
Adam zapped Clyde’s last spy. “I win!” he said. “Now what do you want to do?”
Clyde switched off the video game. There was nothing on the TV screen but static. “That’s weird.…”
He flipped from one station to another. Static, static, more static.
All of a sudden, a woman’s face came on. She said, “Welcome to the Happy Channel! Here is the latest happy news.”
For several minutes, Adam and Clyde watched stories about birthday parties, new toys, junk food, and pets.
“Wow!” Clyde said. “This is great!”
Adam didn’t think so. If people were too happy, they wouldn’t care about bad stuff happening around them. That meant someone could take over the world!
“I have to go,” Adam said. “See you later!” Adam ran out of Clyde’s house and jumped on his bike. He raced toward Friendly Elementary School. When he got there, he turned the rubber grips on his handlebars two times. He heard a click from the front door. It swung open.
Halfway down the hall, Adam stopped at the janitor’s closet. He stepped inside and pulled on a broom handle. A secret door opened.
Adam was in IM-8 Headquarters.
T and J were watching the Happy Channel. T was the head of IM-8. During school days, J was a janitor. But at night, he made all of IM-8’s secret gadgets.
“You’ve seen it, too!” Adam cried.
“Yeah!” J said. “I really liked the show about puppy dogs. And have you checked out Happy Radio?”
“Quite good! Quite good!” T said. “Don’t you agree, Sharp?”
“No, sir! I think it means trouble,” Adam said. “There’s only one TV and radio station. Someone must be sending up evil satellites to mess up the good satellites!”
“That can’t be true,” T said. “There’s no sign of it.” He pointed to a TV screen that covered an entire wall. It showed Earth from outer space. “IM-8 keeps track of who sends up satellites,” T told Adam.
Just then, a little blue satellite shot up from the middle of China. It began to orbit the Earth.
“The Chinese just launched one,” T said.
After that, little blue satellites shot up from England and France.
“The British and the French are busy today, too,” T said.
All of a sudden, a lot of little red circles shot up from the middle of Australia.
“What are those?” Adam asked.
“Just hot-air balloons. The Aussies started sending up a lot of them about an hour ago,” T replied. “They are probably having a balloon race.”
An hour ago? Adam thought. That’s when the radios and TVs stopped working.
“Sir! I don’t think it’s a balloon race,” Adam said. “I think it’s an evil plot to take over the world! I have to go to Australia at once!”
2
Alice Springs
The IM-8 jet flew halfway around the world to Australia. It landed at a secret airport near Lake Disappointment.
Before Adam got off the plane, he checked himself in a mirror. His tuxedo was wrinkled from the long flight.
Alice Springs was standing beside an old pickup truck. Alice was IM-8’s agent in Australia. She had on a tan shirt and green shorts. Her hat brim curled up on one side, Aussie-style.
“G’day!” Adam said. During missions, he always spoke the language of the country he was working in.
“G’day to you, Sharp!” Alice said.
Adam looked at the dry grass, the thornbushes, and the kangaroos that were hopping around. “So this is the famous Outback,” he said.
Alice nodded. “What’s left of it, mate,” she said sadly.
Adam frowned. “What do you mean?”
“See that fence over there?” Alice asked.
Adam looked. “The one that’s fifty feet tall and has razor blades, electric wire, and security cameras on top of it?”
“That’s the one,” Alice said. “Well, now the Outback only goes from here to there.”
Adam was stunned. “I thought the Outback was the size of Alaska,” he said.
“It used to be, mate,” Alice said. “Then a rich sheep rancher bought it and put up that fence.”
“Wow! It must be the biggest sheep ranch in the world!” Adam said.
“People from Australia aren’t allowed in there anymore,” Alice said. “But the sheep make a lot of noise. There must be millions and millions. Sometimes you can hear them baaing all the way to Sydney!”
“We have to get inside!” Adam told Alice what he had seen on the TV screen at IM-8 Headquarters. “The hot-air balloons are coming from the ranch. We need to find out who is flying them and why!”
“It can’t be done, mate. The security is too good,” Alice said. “We’d never make it over that fence.”
Just then, more kangaroos hopped by. One by one, they jumped over the tall fence.
“They really jump high,” Adam said.
Alice nodded.
Adam turned away from the kangaroos. “There must be some way that we can get onto that ranch,” he said. He thought hard.
Another kangaroo hopped by. It jumped over the tall fence, too.
“Of course!” Adam cried. “That’s it!”
3
The Missing Sheep
“Our mission is Code Word Kangaroo,” Adam said. “We’re going to ride kangaroos over that fence!”
&n
bsp; Alice’s eyes got wide. “Jolly jumbuck, mate! That’s a brilliant idea!” she said.
Adam agreed. “But how will we catch them?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s easy,” Alice said.
Two kangaroos were hopping toward the fence. Alice ran over and stood in front of them.
“Alice!” Adam cried. “You’ll be crushed!”
Alice didn’t move. Instead, she pointed a finger at the kangaroos. She stared deep into their eyes.
The kangaroos stopped. They stood as still as statues.
“Wow!” Adam said. “What did you do?”
“I hypnotized them,” Alice said.
“I looked at your file before I left,” Adam said. “There was nothing in it about that.”
Alice shrugged. “I didn’t think IM-8 would care,” she said.
“Alice, IM-8 needs people who can do that,” Adam said. “You never know when we’ll have to hypnotize an animal during a mission.”
“Oops,” Alice said.
Adam and Alice each climbed on a kangaroo’s back. Alice snapped her fingers. The kangaroos woke up and started hopping again.
Right before they reached the tall fence, the kangaroos leaped high into the air. They barely cleared the razor blades and the electric wire. When they landed on the other side, Adam and Alice jumped off.
For the next few hours, they hiked across the Outback.
They saw snakes.
They saw scorpions.
They saw dingoes.
But they didn’t see any sheep. Or hot-air balloons.
“We need to make camp,” Adam said. He didn’t want to tell Alice, but his feet hurt. His shiny black shoes pinched like crazy.
Just then, they heard some loud baaing.
“Sheep!” Alice said. “Behind that big thornbush!”
The thornbush had long, sharp thorns.
“Alice, maybe that’s why we didn’t see them,” Adam said. “They’re stuck!”
But when Adam and Alice got to the bush, there were no sheep anywhere.
“Where did they go?” Alice said.
“They didn’t go anywhere,” Adam said. He carefully pulled apart the branches of the thornbush. “Look—a loudspeaker! That’s where the baaing was coming from. Alice, there are no sheep on this sheep ranch!”
4
Wayne Wallaby,
Snake Hunter
Adam and Alice heard another noise.
“Someone’s coming!” Adam said.
They hid behind the thornbush.
Minutes later, an old motorcycle with a sidecar pulled up. It stopped beside another thornbush. A man got off and looked around.
“That bloke looks familiar,” Alice said.
Just then, the man said, “This place is as fine as frog’s hair!”
Alice grabbed Adam’s arm. “I know that voice!” she said.
The man took a spotlight and a movie camera out of the sidecar and set them up. Then he got down on the ground and started crawling toward the camera.
“I’m flat-out like a lizard drinkin’,” the man said. “Over behind that thornbush is one of the most dangerous snakes in Australia. A three-fanged whippersnapper! One bite from it, and I’m dead!”
Alice stood up. “It’s Wayne Wallaby, snake hunter!” she cried. She started running toward the man. “Wayne! Wayne!”
“Alice! Stop! You broke an IM-8 rule!” Adam hissed. “Never—”
Alice reached the man and said, “Wayne! Mr. Wallaby, can I have your autograph?”
“Abso-blooming-lutely!” Wayne said.
“I watched Wayne’s show all the time before it went off the air,” Alice told Adam.
“I guess the Happy Channel put a lot of people out of work,” Adam said.
“It wasn’t that, mate,” Wayne said. “I lost my touch. The snakes started biting me.”
“I read about that,” Alice said. “I hope you’re okay now.” She patted his arm.
“Ouch!” Wayne said.
“Why are you here, Wayne?” Adam asked.
“My TV days are over, mate. I’m making a movie instead,” Wayne told him. “That rancher fenced in the dangerous snakes, so I dug a tunnel under the fence and rode my motorcycle through.”
Adam was impressed. He wished he’d thought of that.
“Oh, Wayne! Can I be in your movie?” Alice said. “I’m really good with animals.”
“Alice?” Adam whispered. “What about our mission?”
Alice grabbed Adam’s arm and pulled him away. “Listen, Sharp! This is my one chance to be a star!” Alice said. “You saw me hypnotize those kangaroos! I’m good!”
“Alice,” Adam said, “calm down.”
Adam needed Alice so he could get over the fence when the mission was done. Or he needed Wayne’s tunnel. Either way, he had to stick with these two.
“Okay,” Adam said. “I’ll help you make your movie.”
“You can run the camera,” Wayne told him. “Just aim it at me and Alice.”
Adam nodded. He knew about cameras. But this one was much bigger than the one in his bow tie.
Adam held up the camera. “Ready … Action!” he cried.
Wayne and Alice started crawling on their stomachs toward the thornbush.
“I know you’re in there, mate!” Wayne said. He turned to the camera and grinned. “If this three-fanged whippersnapper snake bites me, it’s curtains for Wayne Wallaby.”
Just then, a snake stuck its head out from behind the thornbush.
Alice pointed her finger and stared at it.
In seconds, the snake was hypnotized.
Wayne grabbed the snake and held it up to the camera. “Take a look at this little beauty!” he said.
Suddenly, there was a loud whooshing noise above them.
Adam shined the spotlight into the night sky. It lit up a big red hot-air balloon.
“Alice!” Adam said. “The evil satellite balloon launch site must be somewhere around here!”
“Adam! We’re making a movie!” Alice said. “You just ruined that shot!”
“Evil satellite balloon launch site?” Wayne repeated curiously.
Adam shined the spotlight back on Alice and Wayne. Uh-oh. Now he’d done it. He’d blown his cover.
“Wallaby, here’s the deal. Alice and I work for IM-8. We’re secret agents,” he said. “If you help us with our mission, I’ll help you with your movie. I’ll also ask IM-8 to free Alice from spying so she can be a star!”
Alice ran to Adam and hugged him.
“It’s a deal, mate!” Wayne said. “If Alice can hypnotize dangerous snakes, I’ll never get bitten again!”
They grabbed the spotlight and camera and jumped onto Wayne’s motorcycle.
For the rest of the night, they ate trail mix and rode all over the Outback. But they didn’t see any more hot-air balloons.
As the sun came up, they came to a big red rock. “Wow!” Adam said. “I’ve never seen a rock that big before … or that red!”
“It was part of Big Red Rock National Park. Now it’s just a big red rock,” Alice said. “We played on it all the time before the rancher put up the fence.”
“I used to get bitten here a lot,” Wayne said. “Hey, do you want to climb it, mate?”
Adam knew they really should look for the evil satellite balloon launch site. But he loved to climb. Especially big rocks.
“Okay,” Adam said. “After all, we need to check out every inch of this ranch. The balloon launch site might be here.”
Wayne stopped the motorcycle. Alice and Adam and Wayne got off. They started climbing. It was just as fun as Adam knew it would be.
All of a sudden, there was another loud whooshing noise. A big red hot-air balloon floated out of the top of the big red rock.
“Adam, you were right!” Alice looked at him admiringly. “The big red rock is the secret evil satellite balloon launch site!”
“It is?” Adam said. He was surprised. He hadn’t really thought they’d fin
d anything on the rock. “Oh, yes, right, um, yes! It is!” Adam recovered quickly.
Then they heard a voice yelling, “NO! NO! NO! They all have to go up at once! People will think it’s a hot-air balloon race!”
“That voice came from inside the big red rock,” Adam said.
Quickly, they climbed toward the top. But before they reached it, they had to stop. A big thornbush blocked their way.
Adam pulled apart the bush’s branches. “There’s a tunnel behind it!” he said.
5
Balloon Fight
Adam led the way. Stone steps went down and down and around and around. At the bottom, the tunnel opened into a huge room. Hundreds of soldiers were sitting on the floor blowing up big red hot-air balloons.
A neon sign hung from the ceiling. In red letters, it said: MENACE RADIO AND TV STATION. HAVE A HAPPY DAY!
“It’s General Menace! My archenemy!” Adam clenched his fists. “I should have known he was behind the Happy Channel!”
“Let me at that little ripper!” Wayne said. “Grrr!”
Alice held him back. “No, Wayne!” she said. “This is a job for secret agents!”
Alice turned to Adam. “Blowing up big balloons is really hard work, mate,” she said. “Why doesn’t General Menace just send up regular rockets?”
“Simple, Alice,” Adam said. “He knows that secret agencies don’t worry about hot-air balloons.”
Adam, Alice, and Wayne watched the soldiers. After they finished blowing up a balloon, they tied a straw basket to the bottom with four big rubber bands.
“That must be where they put the evil satellites,” Adam whispered. “The balloons carry them up into the sky, and they mess up the good satellites.”
“Oh, that is so mean!” Alice said.
“We need to stop them. Otherwise the world will only see and hear what General Menace wants,” Adam said. “I have an idea. Come on!”
They ran back up the stone steps. Adam pulled a lot of thorns off the thornbush.
“Here’s the plan,” he said. “Alice and I will get into one of the straw baskets. Wayne, you untie the balloon, so that we will float up through the hole in the big red rock. We’ll find all of General Menace’s evil red satellite balloons and pop them out of the sky.”
Adam Sharp #6 Page 1