by Justin D'Ath
JUSTIN D’ATH
with illustrations by HEATH McKENZIE
Puffin Books
Contents
1 REEF ISLAND
2 M.F.A.T.
3 BRAIN-XTRA
4 GOTCHA!
5 WRESTLING MATCH
6 SOMEWHERE
7 SHISHKEBAB!
8 MISSION FOX TO THE RESCUE
9 HARD CORE
10 GO MUMMA!
11 GOOD ONE, SAM!
12 WHAM!
13 GET OUT OF THE WATER!
14 HELP ME!
15 SEA BATTLE
16 A CAVE WITH TEETH
17 SHARK’S BREAKFAST
18 SWIM, AGENT J!
19 CATERPILLAR POO
20 CODE BRIGHT RED
1
REEF ISLAND
Jordan Fox gazed up at the tall coconut palms that grew around his family’s villa by the beach.
‘I can’t believe there are no gum trees!’ he said.
He and his twin brother, Harry, had searched the whole island.
‘Well, I can’t believe you brought a box of caterpillars with you on holiday!’ said their dad. He was reading a book in a deckchair further along the veranda.
‘It said you can’t bring pets,’ Harry said. ‘It didn’t say anything about caterpillars.’
‘And it didn’t say there were no gum trees,’ added Jordan.
Their mum came outside in her bathers. She had a towel wrapped around her. ‘You should have checked on the internet before we came,’ she said.
Harry shrugged. ‘Reef Island is part of Australia. We thought gum trees grew everywhere in Australia.’
‘Live and learn,’ said Mr Fox, turning a page of his book.
Jordan sat on the veranda stairs and opened the shoe box. Eight half-grown emperor gum caterpillars clung to a skeleton of chewed twigs and branches. There were no leaves left – not even one. A big teardrop ran down Jordan’s nose and landed – plop! – in the bottom of the box.
Mrs Fox sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. ‘Can they eat anything else?’ she asked gently.
Jordan shook his head. He’d looked it up on BRAIN when they rescued the caterpillars from a fallen gum tree on the last day of school.
BRAIN was a special app on the FoxPhone that had a million facts about wildlife. It only said they ate gum leaves.
‘We could ask in the restaurant if they have any spare lettuces’, Mr Fox suggested.
Harry laughed. ‘They’re caterpillars, Dad – not rabbits!’
Mr Fox got out of his deckchair and stretched. ‘I happen to know a thing or two about caterpillars,’ he said smugly. ‘When I was a boy, I used to keep silkworms. Everyone said they only ate mulberry leaves. But one year we ran out of leaves, so your grandma suggested I try a lettuce from the garden. And guess what?’
‘What?’ asked the twins.
‘They turned into the fattest, healthiest silkworms I ever had!’
Jordan wiped his eyes. ‘I guess we could try.’
He and Harry went with their dad to the restaurant, where everyone at the resort had their meals. The kitchen was closed, but there was a lady putting flowers on the tables. When Mr Fox told her about the caterpillars, she disappeared through a door and came back with a whole lettuce.
‘Don’t tell the chef!’ the lady said, giving Jordan and Harry a wink. ‘And if you’re going out today, boys, keep an eye out for Tilly the dolphin, and her new baby, Pip. They’ve been spotted close to shore.’
Back at their villa, the twins put four cut-up lettuce leaves in the shoe box with the caterpillars, then watched to see what would happen.
Nothing happened.
Jordan crouched over the box for nearly an hour, long after Harry had given up and gone snorkelling with their mum. But the caterpillars just ignored the lettuce leaves.
‘Any luck?’ said Mr Fox, bringing Jordan a glass of juice.
Jordan shook his head. ‘Dad, do you think they’d bring some gum leaves on the supply boat, if we asked?’
‘I reckon they would,’ his dad said.’ But the next supply boat isn’t due for three days.’
Three days, Jordan thought sadly. The caterpillars couldn’t go without food for three whole days.
2
M.F.A.T.
Jordan couldn’t get to sleep that night. He felt too guilty. He and Harry were secret agents for Mission Fox Animal Rescue. They helped animals, pets and wildlife that got into trouble.
But this time they’d done exactly the opposite. They had brought eight hungry caterpillars to an island where there was nothing for them to eat. It was a rescue in reverse.
Mission Fox Animal Terminators!
3
BRAIN-XTRA
‘Holy torpedo!’ gasped Jordan, and sat bolt upright in bed.
He had just remembered something: moths are nocturnal! They sleep in the daytime and wake up at night.
Moth caterpillars must be nocturnal, too, Jordan thought. No wonder they hadn’t been interested in the lettuce leaves. It was daytime when he and Harry tried to feed them, and the caterpillars had just wanted to sleep. But now it was night-time.
They might be eating the lettuce leaves right now! thought Jordan.
He was so excited that he forgot where he was. For a second Jordan thought he was in his own bed back at Mission Fox Headquarters. He tried to jump out on the wrong side.
Crunch!
‘Hey, what’s going on?’ asked a sleepy voice from across the room.
Harry switched on the bedside lamp and saw his twin brother kneeling on the other bed, facing the wall.
‘I got lost’, Jordan said, rubbing his nose.
Harry looked puzzled. ‘How can you get lost when you’re …’
‘Just be quiet and listen!’ Jordan interrupted.
He told Harry his idea about the caterpillars waking up and eating at night.
‘You’re a genius!’ cried Harry, jumping out of his bed on the proper side.
But when he and Jordan lifted the lid off the shoe box, nothing had changed. The caterpillars hadn’t touched the lettuce leaves.
They were starting to look skinny.
‘I wish we hadn’t come here,’ Jordan said miserably.
‘But it’s a pretty cool island, said Harry, trying to cheer his brother up. ’Sam was crazy to stay home’.
Sam was their big brother. He’d stayed home to study. He was looking after the twins’ other animals, including Myrtle their dog, Harry’s tarantula, Max, and a baby ring-tailed possum that didn’t have a name yet. Jordan wished they had left the caterpillars there, too.
He broke off a tiny piece of lettuce leaf and waggled it in front of one of them. The caterpillar turned its head away, like a baby refusing a spoon of mashed vegetables.
‘Eat your greens, guys!’ Harry said in a stern voice, shaking a finger at the caterpillars. ‘Don’t you want to grow up to be big strong moths like your mums and dads?’
Jordan almost grinned. Harry was pretty funny. But this wasn’t something to make jokes about.
‘It’s the wrong sort of greens,’ Jordan said sadly.
‘There must be something on this island they can eat,’ his brother said.
Jordan had an idea. Crossing the room, he pulled a black and orange backpack out of his luggage. In big yellow letters on the black part were the letters MF.
‘You brought the FoxPack!’ said Harry.
‘I thought there might be an emergency while we were here,’ Jordan explained.
And now there was an emergency. Starving caterpillars.
Unzipping a hidden pocket inside the pack, Jordan slid out the FoxPhone. ‘I’ll check on BRAIN X-TRA,’ he said, hitting the power button.
BRAIN X-TRA was the latest BRAIN update. It had only been out three days. Something new about caterpillar diets might have been added since Jordan had last checked.
But then No Signal! flashed across the screen.
Reef Island was too far from the Australian mainland to pick up a phone signal.
The caterpillars were doomed.
4
GOTCHA!
Wham!
Both twins jumped.
‘What was that?’ Harry gasped.
‘I don’t know,’ whispered Jordan. ‘I think someone threw something at the window!’
The curtains were open. Jordan and Harry saw themselves reflected in the black glass.
But then they saw something else. Something with wings. It was coming straight towards them out of the darkness. It got bigger, and bigger, and …
Wham!
The flying thing hit the window, slid down the glass, then flapped away.
‘Was it a bird?’ said Harry.
‘Was it a bat?’ said Jordan.
It came zooming towards them again.
‘Shishkebab!’ Jordan cried, and raced across the room.
He dragged the window open in the nick of time. Instead of hitting the glass, the flying thing came flapping into the room and started circling the lamp.
Jordan slammed the window shut, then pulled an old net from the FoxPack and quickly put it together. It was the FoxNet.
It was meant for catching butterflies. The flying thing looked a lot like a butterfly.
Swish!
‘Gotcha!’ Jordan cried.
Harry came over to look. ‘Is that what I think it is?’ he asked excitedly.
Jordan was even more excited. Too excited to speak. He just nodded.
Caught in the FoxNet was the biggest moth the twins had ever seen.
5
WRESTLING MATCH
‘What on earth’s going on?’ cried Mr Fox, bursting into the room in his pyjamas.
Mrs Fox was hot on his heels. ‘Do you boys have any idea what time it is?’ she asked crossly.
Harry glanced at his watch. ‘Twelve-thirty-two.’
‘Twelve-thirty-two in the morning!’ Mrs Fox said, in case nobody understood.
‘You woke us up,’ growled Mr Fox. ‘It sounded like a World Series wrestling match in here!’
Jordan held up the FoxNet. ‘We were chasing this’.
Both parents peered at the enormous moth that dangled in the net.
‘My goodness!’ the twins’ mum said.
‘What is it?’ asked their dad.
‘An emperor gum moth,’ said Jordan.
Mr Fox frowned. ‘I didn’t know moths grew that big!’
‘They’re nearly the biggest moths in Australia,’ Harry said.
‘It really is very beautiful,’ Mrs Fox said, in a softer voice than before.
The moth was reddish-brown, with two pink spots and two orange spots on its wings, and it had whiskers like tiny orange feathers.
‘Where did it come from?’ asked Mr Fox, turning to the window.
Jordan looked at the window, too.
‘That’s what I want to know,’ he said, thinking very hard …
6
SOMEWHERE
Here’s what Jordan was thinking:
Reef Island was a hundred kilometres from the Australian mainland. Too far for a mobile phone signal to travel. And too far for a moth to fly.
Yet here was an adult emperor gum moth, which must have started its life as a caterpillar, just like the ones in the shoe box.
So there must be a gum tree somewhere on Reef Island! Jordan thought.
He and Harry just hadn’t looked hard enough around the island yet.
Tomorrow they would do another search. They had to find the gum tree, wherever it was.
The lives of eight hungry caterpillars depended on it.
7
SHISHKEBAB!
Early the next morning. Jordan and Harry walked off through the swaying coconut palms with their backpacks. Jordan’s was the FoxPack, with their rescue equipment inside. Harry’s was a small green day-pack filled with snacks, drinks and sunscreen.
‘Have fun, boys!’ Mr and Mrs Fox called from the veranda.
Both twins rolled their eyes.
Their mum and dad thought Mission Fox was a game. They thought the twins just pretended to be animal rescuers.
The twins didn’t mind. If their parents knew about some of the scary and dangerous things that really happened when they went on rescue missions, they would never allow Harry and Jordan out of their sight! Especially on a tropical island surrounded by deep blue ocean and dangerous coral reefs.
‘Where will we start?’ asked Harry.
‘Let’s start at the top’, Jordan said, heading up the hill. ‘At the lighthouse’.
The lighthouse was built on the highest point of the island. You could see everything from there, especially with the FoxScope. It had a digital zoom lens, which needed batteries. If there was a gum tree on the island, they’d see it with the FoxScope.
Why didn’t I think of that yesterday? Jordan thought.
The lighthouse door was locked, so Jordan and Harry couldn’t go up the spiral staircase inside and look out the windows at the top. But there was a big old pepper tree growing next to it. It was nearly as tall as the lighthouse, and looked easy to climb.
Easy for Harry, that is. Jordan was scared of heights.
‘You go up, Agent H, he said. ‘I’ll be backup.’
Backup was the person who stayed back in case anything happened or someone had to go for help. It was a big responsibility.
‘Roger that, Agent J,’ said Harry, taking off his day-pack and looping the FoxScope’s strap around his neck.
Harry was a good climber. In no time at all he was hidden by the maze of branches high above Jordan’s head. Bits of bark and little leaves shaped like spears came tumbling down.
‘Can you see anything?’ Jordan called.
‘I’m not at the top yet.’ Harry’s voice came out of the tree above him.
There were crunching sounds. More bark and leaves tumbled down.
‘Now I can see!’ Harry cried.
Jordan waited for several minutes at the foot of the tree. Harry was taking his time.
‘Any gum trees, Agent H?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said his brother. ‘Hey, there’s our villa! Dad and Mum are on the veranda having a cup of tea.’
‘You’re meant to be looking for gum trees,’ Jordan reminded him.
‘Sorry,’ said Harry.
There was another silence. Jordan got bored and sat down. There were little black things all over the ground. They looked a bit like something Jordan had seen before, but he couldn’t remember what.
‘Shishkebab!’ Harry yelped from the tree above him.
Jordan jumped to his feet and looked up into the branches. ‘What is it? Have you found a gum tree?’ he asked.
‘No,’ cried Harry, sounding excited. ‘But I can see some sharks!’
‘You’re kidding!’
‘I’m not Harry said. ‘They’re in the little bay right below us. They’re after something!’
Jordan wished he was up in the tree with Harry and the FoxScope so he could see the sharks, too.
‘What are they after?’ he asked.
‘It looks like a …’
Harry’s voice trailed off.
‘HARRY!’ Jordan yelled. ‘TELL ME WHAT THE SHARKS ARE CHASING!’
‘It’s a dolphin!’ cried Harry. ‘No, hang on a minute …’
There was another silence. Jordan could hardly stand it.
‘HARRY! TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON!’ he shouted.
‘There are two dolphins!’ Harry said. ‘A big one and a little one. It must be Tilly and Pip!’
‘Are they OK?’ Jordan’s voice had gone quiet. He could hear his own heartbeat.
‘No!’ said Harry. ‘There are too many sharks …’
8
If anyone had seen Jordan climb the tree, they wouldn’t have believed he was scared of heights. In a flash, he was up in the top branches.
Harry passed him the FoxScope and pointed down at the little bay just below the lighthouse.
‘Holy torpedo!’ Jordan gasped.
The sea water was crystal clear. It was like looking into an aquarium – an aquarium with sharks and dolphins, instead of goldfish. There were ten or twelve sharks swimming in a circle. In the middle were Tilly and Pip. Each time a shark came into the circle, Tilly would chase it away from her baby. She was bigger than the sharks, but there were so many of them.
‘I think there’s something wrong with Pip’, Harry said.
Jordan turned the FoxScope to full power. Harry was right. The baby dolphin was floating on his side. There was a dark, twisting shadow underneath him. It looked like tangled ropes.
‘He’s caught in a fishing net!’ Jordan cried.
‘We’d better go and help him,’ said Harry.
Jordan wondered if he’d heard correctly. ‘What about the sharks?’ he asked.
‘Doesn’t matter. We’re Mission Fox,’ Harry said. ‘Remember our oath?’
Jordan did. It was taped to the back of the door at Mission Fox Headquarters.
Pip was in danger. He looked scared. He was a baby. Those were three of the promises on the Mission Fox Official Oath. And once you make a promise, you have to keep it.
Jordan took a deep breath.
‘OK,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘Mission Fox to the rescue!’
If they hadn’t been clinging to the branches of a very tall tree, Jordan and Harry would have given each other the Mission Fox secret handshake.
9
HARD CORE
The little bay had steep, rocky cliffs all around it. To get there, Harry and Jordan had to use a rope from the FoxPack. They tied it to the trunk of a small tree and went down like mountain climbers. Their parents would have heart attacks if they knew what kind of ‘fun’ their boys were having.