“Adam Sharp, no wonder you’re IM-8’s top agent!” Alice said.
Adam nodded. Sometimes it was hard to be humble. “Wayne, after we’re in the air, you go back to the motorcycle and wait for us.”
“Gotcha, mate!” Wayne said.
They ran down the stone steps. Adam and Alice climbed inside a straw basket. Wayne untied the rope, and the balloon floated toward the top of the big red rock.
All of a sudden, General Menace yelled, “HEY! STOP THAT BALLOON!”
Adam and Alice peeked over the basket and waved at General Menace.
“The Happy Channel is going off the air!” Adam shouted. “It’s history!”
“Yeah!” Alice shouted. “The Happy Channel is now the history channel!”
“Adam Sharp and Alice Springs!” General Menace cried. He shook his fist at them. “I’ll get you for this!”
General Menace ran over to a balloon and jumped into the straw basket.
“He’s following us!” Adam said.
Their balloon squeezed out of the top of the rock. Up, up, up they went. And so did General Menace.
“We have to work fast!” Adam said. “Look! There’s a satellite balloon!”
Adam untied the bottom of his balloon. He let out a burst of air. The balloon took off like a jet plane. Luckily, Adam knew how to handle it. He had trained as a jet pilot.
They flew right next to the satellite balloon. Alice stuck it with a thorn. The balloon popped and fell to the ground.
“It works, mate!” Alice shouted. She scanned the sky. “There’s another one!”
Adam flew toward it. But General Menace reached the balloon first.
“He won’t let us get close enough so you can pop it,” Adam said.
“No problem, mate!” Alice said. “Watch this!”
She pulled back one of the big rubber bands and put a thorn against it like a bow with an arrow. The thorn flew through the air and struck the balloon. POP!
“Good work, Alice!” Adam shouted. “Now let’s complete this mission!”
Adam flew toward the other balloons. General Menace was right behind them. But Adam did a couple of loop-the-loops and outsmarted him.
Alice shot thorns at the hot-air balloons. They all popped. But as the last one fell, General Menace caught up. He crashed into their balloon. “It’s over for you, Adam Sharp!” General Menace shouted. “Your show has been canceled! Heh! Heh! Heh!”
The crash knocked Adam out of the straw basket. At the last second, he grabbed the side. He was hanging on by his fingertips.
Adam and Alice’s balloon tilted crazily. Alice jumped to the other side of the basket to balance it. Adam gritted his teeth.
He pulled himself back into the basket. It was just like doing chin-ups in spy training.
“That was close!” Adam said. He looked at Alice. “There’s only one thorn and one balloon left. You know what to do!”
Alice grinned. She fired the thorn at General Menace’s balloon.
It missed and struck General Menace instead. “Ouch!” he cried.
“Oops!” Alice called. “Sorry!”
General Menace pulled out the thorn. He gave Adam and Alice an evil grin. “Heh! Heh! Heh!” he laughed loudly.
General Menace put the thorn against a rubber band, pulled it back, and shot it toward Adam and Alice’s balloon.
Adam kept his eye on the thorn as it headed toward them. At the last second, he turned the balloon so that the thorn hit one of their rubber bands. It bounced off and flew back toward General Menace’s balloon.
There was a loud pop.
General Menace and the straw basket fell to earth.
“See you on the Unhappy Channel!” Adam shouted. He checked the sky for balloons. “Our work here is done,” he said.
Adam set a course for the big red rock. Alice kept watch over the side.
“I see Wayne’s motorcycle!” Alice said.
A few seconds later, they landed. Adam looked around. The ground was covered with the balloons Alice had popped.
“Adam!” Alice said. “Look!”
General Menace and his soldiers were standing on top of the big red rock.
General Menace had on a parachute. He was shaking his fist at Adam and Alice. The soldiers looked out of breath.
Alice and Adam ran over to Wayne’s motorcycle. Adam turned on the radio.
“You’re listening to the Top Forty hits on Radio Australia,” a voice said. “We’re glad to be back on the air.”
Adam grinned at Alice. “The world is normal again,” he said.
Alice nodded. “Until General Menace thinks up something else mean to do, mate!” she said.
“Now what?” Wayne said.
“That’s easy,” Adam said. He picked up the movie camera. “Places, everyone. And … action!”
Adam Sharp #6 Page 2