by H. I. Larry
Zac looked down at the Proximity Scanning Device on his wrist, checking to see how far they were from the second piece of IRIS.
A few minutes later, Zac steered the Searcher down between two mountains. A valley stretched out below them, covered in a blanket of white mist.
‘Our next target is IRIS’s power core,’ Grandpa explained. ‘It’s hidden down there in an old, broken-down castle.’
Zac looked out the window for some sign of Leon. Grandpa had asked Zac’s brother to meet them on the way here. But there wasn’t any sign of Leon’s flying MicroLab.
Zac guided the Searcher slowly downwards. They hit the mist and suddenly everything went white.
Grandpa flicked on the fog lights.
WHIRR!
Two enormous fans buzzed to life, blowing the mist out of the chopper’s path.
CLUNK!
Twin beams of bright light shot out in front of them, lighting up the Searcher’s way. Zac saw that they were hovering just above an enormous pine forest.
The old Searcher really is cool, thought Zac, impressed at how well he could see now.
He flew over the treetops, dodging any trees tall enough to block their path. Then Zac saw another vehicle up ahead.
The BIG chopper! he realised.
The Searcher had managed to catch up with Caz and Blackwood. Without fog lights, the two BIG agents were obviously having a hard time finding their way through the mist.
Zac pushed the Searcher forward. The old engine rumbled beneath his feet.
‘Look!’ said Grandpa, pointing through the windshield. Zac squinted to see what Grandpa was looking at.
POP-POP-POP-POP!
Shining silver discs were flying out of the back of the BIG chopper. They spun through the air, zooming straight towards the Searcher.
Zac looked at Grandpa. ‘Uh-oh.’
As the discs got closer, Zac saw that they were actually sharp, spinning frisbees. They were small, but looked powerful enough to rip right through the Searcher’s metal body.
Zac sent the Searcher swooping down towards the forest, almost nose-diving into the treetops. The frisbees whizzed past, straight over their heads. The Searcher groaned as Zac pulled it back up again.
‘Ha!’ he said, grinning. ‘They’ll have to do better than that!’
But then a cold shiver shot up his spine. The frisbees made a sharp U-turn in mid-air. They were coming back!
They must have movement-seeking technology, thought Zac, annoyed. But he was also a little bit impressed. He swerved the controls from side to side, trying to out-run the frisbees. But it was no good. They ripped through the mist, closer and closer.
‘I can’t shake them,’ said Zac, clenching his teeth.
‘Keep trying,’ said Grandpa, getting up from his seat. ‘Hold them off for as long as you can.’
‘What are you doing?’ Zac asked.
‘The Searcher has a last-resort Extreme Pulse Deactivator,’ Grandpa said, moving towards the back of the cockpit. ‘It’s harmless to us, but it’ll send out a strong electronic pulse to shut those frisbees down.’
SHHHIINNKK!
The cockpit shuddered. One of the frisbees sliced into the side of the Searcher, right next to Zac’s seat.
The frisbee tore along the Searcher’s side, leaving a massive gash in the chopper’s hull. Wind rushed in and the chopper creaked and groaned even more.
Zac weaved between the trees, trying to dodge the other frisbees. He looked back at Grandpa, who was using a crowbar to lever a metal panel off the floor.
SHHIINNKK! SHHIINNKK!
Zac cringed as two more frisbees sliced into the Searcher. The whole cockpit was filled with the sound of scraping metal.
Zac slammed the rusty accelerator, trying desperately to get more speed. The Searcher lurched forward. They were right behind the BIG chopper again.
Over his shoulder, Zac saw Grandpa preparing the EPD.
‘It’s armed!’ Grandpa called. ‘Hit the square button in front of you to fire it.’
SHHHIINNKK-SMASH!
One of the frisbees smashed right through the front window of the Searcher. It was inside the cockpit! The frisbee buzzed around the room, narrowly missing Zac’s arm.
It’s now or never, Zac thought. He closed his eyes and jammed his finger down on the button.
CHAPTER
THREE
BOOOOOM!
Zac was thrown back in his chair as an enormous shockwave rocked the cockpit.
The Extreme Pulse Deactivator sent sparks racing up and down the walls of the Searcher, frying everything in its path.
Through the broken front window, Zac saw the frisbees dropping away from the Searcher. They smoked and crackled, tumbling down into the mist.
Then Zac realised the frisbees weren’t the only things falling out of the sky! The BIG chopper had been caught in the EPD’s shockwave as well. It was plummeting to the ground.
Zac saw two parachutes shoot out sideways into the sky as Caz and Blackwood abandoned the chopper.
A second later, Zac spotted something falling below from Caz’s parachute. It was small and round, and it glinted green through the fog.
Caz dropped the Data Orb, realised Zac. We might beat them to the next IRIS piece!
‘Did you see that?’ Zac laughed, as Grandpa staggered to his feet again. ‘It’ll take Caz and Blackwood ages to find that map again in this mist!’
‘Yes,’ Grandpa said, slipping back into the co-pilot seat. ‘But now we have another problem.’
Zac stared at him. ‘What kind of problem?’
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
An alarm blared in the cockpit.
‘That kind of problem,’ said Grandpa, as a warning flashed across the control panel in front of them.
DANGER:
EXTREMELY LOW POWER
‘Remember how I said the EPD was a last resort?’ Grandpa told him. ‘That’s because it drains power directly from the Searcher’s main fuel supply.’
Zac gulped. ‘Does that mean we just emptied out the tank?’
The Searcher’s fog lights began to flicker on and off. Above Zac’s head, the helicopter blades slowly spun to a stop.
‘Yup,’ said Grandpa. ‘And –’
But Grandpa was drowned out by the awful sound of creaking. The Searcher was dropping through the air. Zac heaved at the controls, trying frantically to pull the chopper out of its nose-dive. Wind screamed through the holes in the walls.
In seconds, the Searcher would crash down into the trees. And then…
WHOOMF-WHOOMF!
Zac’s eyes went wide. Suddenly, impossibly, the helicopter blades had started moving again. The Searcher swooped up out of its nose-dive and started flying shakily above the treetops.
Zac looked at Grandpa. ‘How did that happen?’
‘I told you the Searcher had special features,’ grinned Grandpa. ‘The emergency power kicked in, but we’ve only got 30 seconds, maybe less. You need to land the Searcher now.
’ Zac eased forward on the controls, looking for a place to land. But there wasn’t enough emergency power to turn the fog lights back on. He couldn’t see anything through the mist!
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
The power was winding down again.
The Searcher sped towards the forest. Zac zig-zagged between the trees, but there was nowhere safe to land.
CRASH!
The Searcher clipped the side of a tree and started spinning sideways. Zac wrestled with the controls, trying to steer the chopper to safety. But it was hopeless.
SMASH!
The Searcher lodged firmly against the branch of an enormous tree. The engine went quiet. Everything was still.
For a minute, Zac and Grandpa didn’t move. They just sat in their seats, getting their breath back. That, thought Zac, was a little TOO exciting.
But then the sound of footsteps on the ground below brought him back to reality.
He looked over at Grandpa and said, ‘Did you hea
r that?’
Grandpa put a finger to his lips. The two of them got up from their seats and moved carefully to look out the broken window.
They were up in the branches of the tree, about ten metres above the ground.
Zac could make out someone moving in the forest below them. He heard feet crunching heavily on the pine needles. He couldn’t see their face through the mist, but the figure looked too big to be Caz or Blackwood.
Then a spark of blue electricity crackled out of the figure’s hands, and Zac suddenly realised what he was looking at. He turned to whisper to Grandpa.
‘It’s an android.’
CHAPTER
FOUR
Zac stared down through the branches. He could just make out a familiar lightning-bolt logo stamped across the android’s chest. It was a BIG android.
‘Don’t make a sound,’ whispered Grandpa as the android stared around the forest. It was almost like it was looking for something.
It’s looking for us, thought Zac, feeling tense. Maybe Blackwood called ahead for back-up.
B.I.G. ANDROID Centrally-controlled Robotic Agent
The android moved across the ground with big, clunking steps. One of its arms ended in a sparking, electrified claw.
It tipped its metal head upwards, looking into the trees. For one awful moment, it seemed to be staring straight at Zac. But then it turned and stomped away.
Zac breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced down at the PSU.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘at least we crashed in the right direction.’
‘Now we just need to get down from this tree,’ said Grandpa. ‘There’s some rope in the storage cupboard that we could use to…’
He trailed off. The stomping footsteps were coming back.
Zac looked back down at the forest floor, just in time to see the BIG android step out of the mist.
But this time, it wasn’t alone. There were ten more androids marching behind. They were all identical. And they were all looking straight up at the Searcher.
CLANK!
The chopper shook as one of the androids grabbed hold of the tree trunk.
We should be safe all the way up here, thought Zac. Surely –
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The tree shook again, more roughly this time. Zac leant out the broken window to see what was going on. Then he jerked his head straight back inside.
‘The androids are climbing the tree!’ he said.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
Where is Leon? Zac thought desperately. His geeky older brother would know how to get rid of a bunch of androids!
He looked out the window again. The androids were pushing their way up through the branches. The whole tree trunk was covered in clanking metal bodies. Claw arms waved in the air, sparking wildly.
Suddenly, Zac had an idea. If the androids’ claw arms were sparking, that probably meant they were electrical. And that reminded him of something his granny always said.
‘Water!’ he said urgently, looking around the cockpit. ‘We need water!’
Zac spotted an emergency fire hose mounted to the back wall. He raced over and grabbed it, dragging it across to the front of the cockpit. Grandpa jumped across to turn on the hose.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
Zac took aim with the hose, just as the first android appeared at the window. A gleaming steel head popped up, followed by a sparking, snapping claw.
The android swung itself up through the window and into the cockpit. It marched towards Zac.
Suddenly, water blasted out of the hose with so much force that it almost knocked Zac over. He aimed the spray at the android’s claw hand.
SPLOOOSH! GZZZK-POW!
Sparks flew as the water crashed into the android, sending it flying out the window. It fell, shuddering, to the ground, trailing black smoke behind it.
Zac moved to the window and aimed the hose down at the androids that were still climbing the tree.
SPLOOOSH! GZZZK-POW!
Zac sprayed the hose around wildly, knocking down androids in every direction. But other androids kept coming, racing to get aboard the Searcher.
Zac took aim with the hose again. Then he froze. The hose had suddenly stopped spraying.
Zac sent a desperate look back over his shoulder. ‘Grandpa! What’s going on?’
‘Sorry, kiddo,’ said Grandpa. ‘We just ran out of water. We need a new plan!’
CHAPTER
FIVE
Zac gritted his teeth. Their only option was to jump out. But he wasn’t looking forward to battling the androids on the ground. Especially without any android-fighting gadgets from Leon!
CLUNK!
Zac looked up at the roof. Something had just dropped down onto the Searcher.
‘Did you hear that?’ Zac asked. But his words were drowned out by the sound of clanking feet and claws.
‘Let’s jump, kiddo!’ Grandpa shouted over the noise. ‘On the count of three?’
‘OK,’ said Zac, preparing himself.
‘One… Two…’
CRRUNNNNNNCCHH!
Zac and Grandpa stared at each other. The Searcher had suddenly started moving again.
It was falling out of the tree!
Zac braced himself for the impact. But then he realised that the Searcher wasn’t falling. It was moving upwards, away from the tree.
‘What’s going on?’ Zac yelled as the Searcher slid sideways.
He could see androids dropping to the ground, unable to hold onto the Searcher.
But Grandpa looked confused too.
A second later, the Searcher lifted slowly into the air, still flying backwards. Zac and Grandpa grabbed the steel pipes above their heads, just in time to keep from falling out the window.
The Searcher flew through the mist for a few minutes, until Zac felt it beginning to slow. It glided smoothly towards the ground. Finally, it came to a stop, touching down gently on the forest floor.
Zac glanced down at the PSU.
Zac heard footsteps on the roof above them. Then a smiling face poked down through the Searcher’s front window.
‘Leon!’ cried Zac. ‘How did you –?’
Leon laughed. ‘Come up here and I’ll show you.’
Zac and Grandpa climbed up onto the roof of the Searcher. Zac realised right away how his brother had managed to carry them to safety. Leon’s flying MicroLab was parked on the roof. He must have used the MicroLab’s docking magnets to grab onto the Searcher and pull it out of the tree.
‘I was flying in to meet you when I saw you getting attacked by the androids,’ Leon explained. ‘Good timing, hey?’
‘Definitely,’ said Grandpa, patting Leon on the back. He pulled out his SpyPad to scan the mist around them. ‘Come on, it’s time to get moving.’
It took Zac a second to remember what Grandpa was talking about. After everything that had happened, he’d almost forgotten they still had to find the next piece of IRIS.
‘Right,’ said Leon. ‘Wait here while I get your stuff.’
Leon disappeared into his MicroLab and came out with a big plastic tub. He dropped it at their feet and pulled out what looked like a skateboard with no wheels.
‘This is a Bounce Board,’ said Leon. He flipped the board onto its back, where there were rows of tiny rubber springs.
‘These springs will carry you up to ten metres into the air, once you get going.
Then just lean left or right to steer.’ Leon handed each of them a Bounce Board.
‘Cool,’ said Zac. He tried to stick his board into his backpack, but half of it still poked out the top. He wished he had a bigger bag.
‘I’ve also got these,’ said Leon, pulling out two pairs of big red gloves. ‘Jam Gloves.
In case you run into the androids again.’
Zac glanced at Leon. ‘We’re going to challenge the androids to a boxing match?’
Leon rolled his eyes. ‘I scanned those androids with the MicroLab’s sensors,’ he explained.‘It’s in
teresting, actually, because they don’t have internal control systems.
They’re all linked together in some kind of wireless network, organised by one central computer.’
‘Which means what?’ Zac prompted. Leon could go on forever about gadgets if you didn’t keep him on track.
‘Which means,’ said Leon, ‘that if you can stop an android from receiving those wireless signals, it will completely power down. These gloves send out a high-frequency energy burst. Point them at an android and you’ll knock out their wireless receiver.’
‘So I point the gloves and the androids shut down,’ said Zac.
‘Exactly,’ said Leon.
Zac groaned. ‘Well, why didn’t you just say so?’
Leon grinned and handed Zac a pair of Jam Gloves. Then he turned to give Grandpa the other pair.
‘You’d better hold onto those,’ said Grandpa, pushing the gloves back towards Leon.
‘Huh?’ said Leon. ‘Why would I need them?’
‘Because I’m not going on this next bit of the mission,’ Grandpa told Leon.
‘You are.’
CHAPTER
SIX
‘What?’ said Leon.
‘WHAT?’ repeated Zac.
Leon wasn’t a field agent like Zac. He worked in GIB’s tech labs, inventing new gadgets and vehicles.
He’s a great nerd, thought Zac. But he’s not trained to go on missions!
‘I need to stay back and repair the Searcher,’ said Grandpa. ‘I’m the only one who knows how to fix it.’
‘I can help you!’ said Leon, his eyes wide. ‘We’ll fix the Searcher together. Right here, where it’s safe. Seriously, Grandpa, I don’t do fieldwork!’
‘Yeah, Grandpa,’ said Zac.‘The last time Leon came on a mission with me, he got himself tangled in a parachute, caught in a booby trap, frozen in a block of ice…’ ‘And kidnapped,’ said Leon, nodding.
‘Sorry, boys, no time to argue.’ Grandpa turned to Leon. ‘Besides, I think it would be good for Zac to have an android expert with him, don’t you?’
Leon gulped.‘Why don’t I upload all my android research to his SpyPad instead?’