Zac Power Extreme Missions

Home > Other > Zac Power Extreme Missions > Page 6
Zac Power Extreme Missions Page 6

by H. I. Larry


  VROOOOOOM!

  An engine roared above their heads. Zac looked up and saw a high-speed BIG jet cutting across the sky towards them.

  ‘About time,’ Blackwood hissed, watching the jet approach. ‘Come on, Caz.We’re going.’ She grabbed Caz by the wrist and started pulling her away through the ruins to where the jet was touching down.

  ‘But what about the IRIS pieces?’ Caz protested. ‘They’ve already got two –’ ‘Not now,’ Zac heard Blackwood snap as they slipped away into the mist. ‘Don’t worry – I’ve got a plan.’

  Zac shook his head, feeling dazed.Then he realised he was still holding the IRIS power core, and he turned it over in his hands.

  The glass tube looked really fragile, like it would smash into pieces if he dropped it.

  Zac was amazed that it had survived all these years inside the crumbling ruins.

  He looked up at Grandpa. ‘We should get out of here too,’ he said quietly.

  Grandpa paused, and then turned to Zac. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to use the MicroLab, though. The Searcher was too badly damaged. I called GIB to come and take it back to HQ. If we hurry, we might be able to get a head-start to our next stop.’

  Zac nodded, only half-listening. He couldn’t believe Grandpa had never said that he and Blackwood were siblings.

  Grandpa led the way back to the Micro-Lab, stepping over the broken androids that still lay scattered across the grass. Zac and Leon trailed behind.

  Zac’s head was spinning. This was too much. He and his worst enemy Caz were family.

  It felt like the whole world had been ripped out from under him. He wanted to jump back on the Bounce Board and get away from it all.

  But Zac knew he couldn’t do that. He had to keep going. There were still two pieces of IRIS out there. Two pieces of a weapon that could send a whole city into a terrible, permanent sleep.

  Unless Zac kept those pieces out of BIG hands, it wouldn’t just be his world that was turned upside down.

  It would be the end of normal life for everyone.

  TO BE CONTINUED...

  ICE PATROL

  BY H. I. LARY

  ILLUSTRATIONS BY CAL BENNETT

  & DAMIEN HOLDER

  MISSION UPDATE

  CLASSIFIED

  Zac Power is racing around the world to find the four parts of a super-weapon called IRIS.

  In SAND STORM, Zac found out that his grandpa helped build IRIS with Blackwood.

  In DARK TOWER, Zac learnt that Grandpa and Blackwood are actually brother and sister.

  Zac doesn't think it's possible, but things are about to get even more extreme . . .

  CURRENT TIME:

  SATURDAY 6.43 AM

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  ‘Got any threes?’ Zac Power asked.

  Grandpa pulled a card out of his hand and passed it to him.

  ‘Any sevens?’ Zac asked Leon with a sigh. Leon shook his head.

  The three GIB spies were crowded aboard Leon’s MicroLab. The tiny flying laboratory was running on autopilot, soaring over the ocean towards their next stop.

  Leon had wanted to play cards to pass the time. As if Zac could focus on games at a time like this!

  G.I.B. STANDARD-ISSUE PLAYING CARDS Boredom-relieving Emergency Rations

  He and Grandpa were in the middle of the biggest spy mission of their lives. They had just two days left to keep BIG’s Agent Blackwood from rebuilding IRIS, the most dangerous super-gadget ever created. IRIS was capable of sending people into a permanent sleep, and could be used on a whole city at once.

  Only hours ago, Zac had made a horrible discovery: Grandpa and Agent Blackwood were actually brother and sister. Which meant that BIG agent Caz Rewop, Zac’s worst enemy, was also his cousin.

  Actually, she was his second cousin, but it was still gross. The whole thing made Zac sick to his stomach.

  ‘Your turn, Grandpa,’ said Leon.

  Grandpa stared down at his cards, like he was thinking about his next move. Then suddenly, he put his cards down on the floor and looked up at Zac and Leon.

  ‘I suppose I owe you an explanation,’ he said with a sigh.

  Zac folded his arms, ready to listen. ‘It’s about time, Grandpa.’

  Grandpa nodded. ‘I’ve already told you that I used to be part of a spy agency called GADGET,’ he began, ‘back before GIB and BIG existed.What I didn’t tell you was that Blackwood and I were the ones who started GADGET in the first place.’

  ‘Why?’ said Zac, disgusted. ‘She’s the most evil woman in the world!’

  ‘She might be now,’ said Grandpa, shaking his head.‘But back then, I had no idea that my sister would turn into a monster. I thought she was one of the good guys.’

  ‘Then why were you and Blackwood building a weapon?’ Leon asked.

  ‘IRIS was never supposed to be a weapon,’ said Grandpa. ‘It was supposed to be a low-powered sleep-ray for hospitals.’

  Zac could see the logic in that. IRIS would have been more effective than medicine to put a patient to sleep. ‘But Blackwood had other ideas,’ he guessed.

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ said Grandpa sadly. ‘I had no idea at the time, but the power of being a secret agent went to her head. She thought being a GADGET agent made her better than other people. It wasn’t long before she started setting her sights on world domination.’

  ‘She wanted to use IRIS to take over the world?’ asked Leon.

  Grandpa sighed. ‘I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen. In the end, I had no choice but to tear IRIS apart. That was the end of GADGET. Blackwood went off and started her own agency: the Blackwood Intelligence Guild.’

  ‘That’s what BIG stands for!’ realised Zac with a shout. He’d always wondered.

  ‘Right,’ said Grandpa. ‘And after everything that had gone wrong with GADGET, I had to shut it down. I took a few of the other GADGET agents with me and founded GIB.’

  ‘You started GIB?’ said Leon, raising an eyebrow. ‘Then why is Agent Big Boss in charge? Shouldn’t you have that job?’

  ‘And sit in an office at HQ all day?’ said Grandpa. ‘Not a chance. I want to be where the action is!’

  BEEP!

  An alert from the MicroLab interrupted their conversation.

  Zac stood up and stared out the window. There was another vehicle flying towards them. It looked like a giant ball with wings.

  ‘Ah,’ said Grandpa, joining Zac at the window. ‘I forgot to mention: I’ve asked some other GIB agents to join us on the next leg of our journey.’

  ‘Who?’ asked Zac.

  ‘Oh, just a couple of old friends,’ said Grandpa with a twinkle in his eye.

  Leon moved to the pilot’s seat and steered the MicroLab down to dock on the giant ball.

  CLUNK!

  The MicroLab landed gently on the other vehicle’s roof. Zac reached for the trapdoor at his feet. It hissed open, revealing a narrow tunnel down to the other vehicle.

  Zac stared down through the tunnel. Two agents in GIB uniforms were waving back up at him.

  Zac rolled his eyes as he realised who they were. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’

  CHAPTER

  TWO

  ‘Go on,’ said Grandpa, grinning at Zac. ‘Get down there and say hi!’

  Zac shot Grandpa a you-can’t-be-serious look. He climbed down through the Micro-Lab’s tunnel, into the other vehicle. The two agents stepped back as he dropped to the floor. Zac looked at them and sighed.

  ‘Hey, Mum,’ he said. ‘Hey, Dad.’

  ‘Zac!’ his mum beamed, pulling him into a lung-crushing hug. ‘Are you having a good mission? And isn’t this exci
ting? It’s been so long since we all went on a mission together!’

  ‘Yeah,’ Zac said, pulling himself free. ‘I guess it’s exciting.’

  Of course Zac loved his parents, but he’d been going on dangerous solo missions for years. This was supposed to be serious spy work, not a Power family holiday!

  Grandpa climbed down. ‘Good to see you,’ he said, putting an arm around Zac’s dad, and grinning at his mum.

  ‘You too,’ Zac’s dad smiled. ‘Welcome aboard the Ski-Pod!’

  Leon popped his head down through the tunnel. ‘Hi, Mum and Dad!’ he called. ‘Be there in a second!’

  Zac looked around. They were in a round, white room, and in the centre was a control station filled with buttons and view screens.

  ‘Setting a course for the City of Snow,’ said Zac’s mum, crossing to the control station and tapping a few buttons.

  Zac felt a jolt as the Ski-Pod changed directions.

  The tunnel between the MicroLab and the Ski-Pod hissed open again. Zac stepped aside to let Leon down. Leon was carrying a big plastic tub filled with coloured robes.

  ‘Come on,’ Grandpa smiled, moving across to take the tub. ‘Time to get dressed.’

  ‘Uh…Grandpa?’ said Zac, as Grandpa handed him a set of robes. ‘Aren’t we getting a bit old for dress-ups?’

  ‘They’re for your mission, Zac,’ said Leon, rolling his eyes.

  ‘For our mission,’ said Grandpa. He threw some robes to Leon. ‘You’re coming too.’

  ‘Again?’ said Leon, dropping the robes. ‘Grandpa, no! I’ve already –’

  ‘Sorry, Leon,’ said Grandpa. ‘We need the whole family for this one.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Zac, tying a cloak around his shoulders. ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘The next piece of IRIS is hidden in a tiny kingdom called the City of Snow,’ said Grandpa.‘The city has completely outlawed all forms of modern technology.’

  ‘The City of Snow?’ Zac interrupted. ‘Don’t you mean the Hidden Kingdom?’

  Zac had visited the Hidden Kingdom before, on a previous mission. The total technology ban had meant that Zac couldn’t take any of his usual high-tech gadgets.

  ‘Actually,’ said Grandpa, ‘there are five different kingdoms in that area. They’re known as the Five Frozen Fortresses.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Zac, going back to his robe-tying. ‘As I was saying,’ Grandpa went on, tying a belt around his own robe, ‘modern gadgets are banned in all five kingdoms. I’m afraid this mission will be strictly low-tech.’ ‘There are still some things we can use, though,’ said Leon, climbing back up into the MicroLab.

  ‘The next piece of IRIS is the most important one so far,’ Grandpa said. ‘It’s the IRIS computer chip and it’s hidden in the throne room of the Frozen Palace, right in the middle of the city.’

  ‘And where do these weird clothes fit into all of this?’ Zac asked, rolling up the sleeves of his robe.

  ‘These weird clothes are our ticket into the palace,’ said Grandpa. ‘I sent the king a letter to say that a royal family would be visiting from another kingdom. We’re going undercover as royalty!’

  ‘Cool,’ Zac grinned. But then he looked at his parents and Grandpa. They were all wearing sparkling red-and-gold robes. Zac’s robe, on the other hand, was a dull blue. ‘Hey Grandpa, how come I don’t get a cool robe?’

  ‘Because you’re not part of the royal family,’ said Grandpa. ‘You’re my royal jeweller.’

  Zac was just about to ask what on earth Grandpa was talking about, when –

  CRASH!

  A heap of heavy metal objects fell from the tunnel in the roof. Zac dived out of the way just in time.

  ‘Oops!’ said Leon, poking his head down through the tunnel. ‘Good thing they’re not fragile.’

  ‘Good thing I’m not fragile,’ muttered Zac, getting to his feet again.

  He picked up one of the metal things that had almost flattened him. It looked like a snowboard, but it had a long, T-shaped handlebar that stretched up from the front end.

  ‘They’re Snow Scooters,’ Leon called down through the tunnel. ‘Or Snooters, as I like to call them. Just push off with your feet, then use the handles to steer your way down the mountain.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Zac. He loved snowboarding and this looked pretty similar.

  Leon dropped back down into the Ski-Pod, carrying an old wooden chest. Zac went over and lifted the lid. There were five identical square backpacks inside, all stamped with the word GADGET.

  ‘My goodness,’ said Grandpa, picking one up. ‘I haven’t seen these in years.

  ’ ‘Wind-up ejector packs,’ Leon explained to the others. ‘GADGET standard issue. I pulled them out of storage. Just turn that crank to activate,’ he added, pointing to a handle sticking out of the back.

  ‘What are we going to be ejecting from? ’ asked Zac’s mum.

  ‘Hopefully nothing,’ said Grandpa, handing her a pack. ‘But it never hurts to be prepared, especially in a place where the local people might not be too friendly.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t they be friendly?’ asked Zac. ‘It’s not as if we’re going to do anything bad to them.’

  ‘The problem isn’t what we’re going to do,’ said Grandpa mysteriously. ‘It’s what’s already been done. Let’s just say the people of the Five Frozen Fortresses don’t like spies very much.’

  CHAPTER

  THREE

  After flying for several hours, Zac and his family were finally coming up to the City of Snow.

  ‘We’d better land somewhere near here,’ said Grandpa as the Ski-Pod flew over the top of an enormous mountain. ‘They won’t want us bringing our technology any closer to the city than this.’

  Zac’s mum nodded at Grandpa and moved across to the Ski-Pod’s control station. Zac checked the Proximity Scanning Unit on his wrist to see how close they were to the third piece of IRIS.

  The Ski-Pod whizzed down toward the icy mountain-top. Zac wondered what would happen when they hit the slope. Wouldn’t this giant ball just keep on rolling down the mountain?

  A moment later, Zac got an answer to his question.

  SHUNK! SHUNK!

  The floor shook as something shot out from underneath the Ski-Pod.

  ‘Landing skis activated,’ said Zac’s mum calmly. ‘Preparing to touch down.’

  THUMP!

  The Ski-Pod hit the snowy slope and started gliding smoothly down the mountain. Zac and the others stood up and started strapping their Ejector Packs on over their robes.

  ‘Make sure you leave all your gadgets behind,’ said Grandpa, as the Ski-Pod slid to a stop. ‘SpyPads, iPods, watches … anything with a battery in it.’

  ‘What about the PSUs?’ Zac asked. ‘We’ll need them to track down the next piece of IRIS, won’t we?’

  ‘We’ll put them in our pockets,’ said Grandpa, after thinking about it for a minute. ‘Keep them hidden. I don’t like bending the rules like this, but you’re right – we might need them.’

  Zac slipped his PSU into his pocket. Then he grabbed the first two pieces of IRIS and slipped them in his backpack. He knew it was breaking the rules even more, but he couldn’t let the IRIS pieces out of his sight. Then he took one of the Snooters and led the way out into the freezing snow.

  Far below them, at the foot of the mountain, Zac could see the City of Snow sparkling in the early morning sun. He stood with one foot on his Snooter and used the other foot to push off down the mountain.

  The rest of his family did the same, their robes flying behind them.

  The five Powers zoomed down the steep slopes, winding their way towards the city below.

  WHOOOOOSH!

  Icy wind whipped through Zac’s hair as he sped down the mountain. Finally, he thought, grinning, a bit of fun!

  He twisted his Snooter around to get some air off a jump. Then he slid smoothly to a stop and turned to make sure he wasn’t leaving the others behind.

  Uh-oh. With a sick jolt, h
e saw that two more family members had dropped in to join them.

  Caz and Blackwood were standing further up the slope, looking down at them. They were in front of a blue snow cave in the side of the mountain.

  Zac had seen caves like that before on his last mission in the Hidden Kingdom. He knew they were home to the highly dangerous White Ninjas, who lived in the mountains.

  But there was no time to worry about ninjas now. Zac had Caz and Blackwood to deal with. ‘We’ve got company!’ he called to the others.

  Zac saw Caz pull a tube-shaped gadget out of her backpack. It had a shiny black nozzle at one end and a little round scope at the other. Caz grabbed the two rubber handles at the base of the gadget and pointed it straight down at Zac.

  GZZZZZZZZK!

  Zac could hear a buzzing as the gadget powered up.

  Looks like some people aren’t even TRYING to obey the No Technology law, thought Zac.

  SHOOMP!

  A snowball blasted out of the end of Caz’s gadget. Zac got ready to duck out of the way. But the snowball hit the ground only a metre or two down the slope from Caz, and then started rolling.

  SHOOMP! SHOOMP!

  Caz fired again, sending more snowballs flying. But again, the snowballs shot out just in front of her.

  What IS that? Zac wondered. It didn’t seem like a very powerful gadget.

  He turned his Snooter around to keep heading down the mountain, and sped off.

  SHOOMP!

  But when he glanced back, he realised what Caz was really doing. She wasn’t trying to shoot snowballs at them. She was shooting snowballs along the ground on purpose.

  The snowballs hadn’t stopped when they’d hit the ground. They’d kept on rolling down the mountain, picking up more and more snow, getting bigger and bigger.

  And now the Power family had four massive snow boulders heading straight for them.

  CHAPTER

  FOUR

  ‘Look out!’ Zac shouted as the first snowball came tumbling down the mountain towards them. It was headed straight for Zac, getting bigger all the time.

 

‹ Prev