by Liz Marsham
PENGUIN YOUNG READERS LICENSES
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Ebook ISBN 9780593095263
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
PROLOGUE
FRIDAY, 8 P.M.
On a beautiful Friday evening at the pier, as the sun set over the water, Tony Toretto was racing his muscle car up the roller-coaster track.
Tony screeched around the spiral leading up to the coaster’s big drop-off. He saw the thief ahead of him on the tracks. In a breathtaking move, she ramped her car off the incline just before the drop, opened her driver’s-side door, and flung herself out over the ocean.
“This is gonna be bad,” Cisco’s dismayed voice said in his ear.
Tony careened out of the spiral and toward the incline. “I can reach her,” he said. “My suit—”
Cisco cut him off. “But your suit won’t—”
“I know,” responded Tony. “Frostee, can—”
“Yeah,” said Frostee, “but it still—”
“I got you,” Echo Pearl cried. “Cisco, come on!”
Tony nodded. My crew, he thought. Best in the world.
“Toretto, what are you DOING???” screamed Ms. Nowhere.
Tony let out a low chuckle. “Respecting the rules,” he said. He thumbed the button on his steering wheel to fire his rocket boosters, and the muscle car bucked under him, shooting forward. He barreled up the incline and held his breath as his tires left the track. With his car now above the ocean, Tony hung suspended and weightless. He unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door . . . and stepped out into nothing.
CHAPTER 1
THURSDAY, 12 P.M.
32 HOURS EARLIER
“It is time to start respecting the rules!” declared Ms. Nowhere. She paced up and down the garage, scowling at Tony and his friends as they lounged around the TV.
A clank from across the warehouse-like space drew Tony’s attention, and he looked over with a grin. Ms. Nowhere’s staff had been busy all morning reinstalling the last of the team’s upgraded equipment. Before they started spying for Ms. Nowhere and her secret branch of the government, Tony and his crew—gearhead Cisco, artist Echo, and hacker Frostee—had been scrounging for car parts at the dump. Now Tony watched as Gary, Nowhere’s assistant, flipped a breaker next to a giant Yoka Spirit Water mascot head. With a whir, the Yoka head began to light up and blink as, one by one, the screens embedded in it came to life.
“Aaaaaaall right!” cheered Frostee. He dropped the video game controller he was holding and unfolded himself from his cross-legged position on the table. With a flourish, he rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. “The hub is back online. I am gonna do so much hacking!”
“And I am gonna do so much snacking!” said Cisco from the couch, staring impatiently at the nacho dispenser. “Just as soon as that cheese warms up.”
Next to Cisco, Echo chuckled. “It’s not gonna heat up any faster with you watching it, you know.”
Cisco raised one eyebrow dubiously. “You sure about that?” He leaned forward and rubbed his hands together hungrily, narrowing his eyes at the machine. “I don’t know if I wanna take that chance.”
Echo scooped the controller off the table, then settled into the cushions. “Pretty sure, bro.” She patted Cisco on his giant back. “But you do you.”
“No! Do not do you!” snapped Ms. Nowhere. She stomped over to stand by the TV. “That is entirely the problem. Gary!”
Gary fished a complicated-looking remote out of his pocket, pointed it at the TV, and pushed a button. On the screen, the fighting game disappeared, replaced with blank nothingness.
Echo opened her mouth to protest, but shut it again when Ms. Nowhere turned an icy glare on her.
“As I was saying . . .” Ms. Nowhere locked eyes with Tony, then Frostee. She looked toward Cisco and cleared her throat pointedly. “Eyes front, big guy.”
Cisco let out a small whimper. “But, nachos . . .”
“I took your cheese away once,” hissed Ms. Nowhere. “I can do it again.”
Cisco’s eyes snapped to her. “You wouldn’t,” he whispered.
“Wouldn’t I?” Ms. Nowhere held Cisco’s gaze for a long moment, until he gulped audibly. Then she nodded, satisfied. “As I was saying, it is time—past time—for you all to start respecting the rules.” Keeping her eyes locked on Cisco, she pointed at the TV screen.
Tony lifted a hand. “Uh, which rules?”
“These—” Ms. Nowhere started, then glanced at the TV. “Ugh. GARY!”
Gary winced, then pushed another button on the remote. The words THE RULES appeared across the top of the screen in stark black type.
“You managed to capture Shashi and the Skeleton Key, yes,” Ms. Nowhere said. “But that operation was entirely too sloppy. If you’re going to work for me, you need to learn some discipline. Not every problem can be solved by driving a car at it.”
“Hey, we do more than that!” Tony protested.
“Do you?” challenged Ms. Nowhere. “Do you really?”
“Yeah,” said Echo. “Sometimes we drive cars away from things.”
“Or off them,” said Frostee with a laugh.
“Or through them!” Cisco put in.
“You are making my point for me,” Ms. Nowhere said with a sigh. “I understand, you’re seventeen—well, except for you, kid.” She nodded toward Frostee, who crossed his arms grumpily and muttered under his breath. Tony made out the words almost and fourteen.
“Most teenagers aren’t known for their discipline,” continued Ms. Nowhere. “But most teenagers don’t have secret government jobs where they risk their lives, and most teenagers don’t answer to me. So for this next mission, you are going to learn to focus more on the ‘spy’ and less on the ‘racer.’ Gary!”
Gary gestured with the remote, and Rule #1: Stick to the plan appeared on the TV.
“No more wild, last-minute ideas, people,” Ms. Nowhere said. “I will give you a plan, and you will carry out that plan. Got it?” Before any of them could respond, she snapped, “Next!”
Another line of text popped up. Rule #2: Trust your resources.
“Along with the cars and the video games and the nacho cheese, I have provided you with top-of-the-line spycraft here,” Ms. Nowhere said, waving her arms to indicate
everything in the garage. “You obviously enjoy it. Tony, if I’m not mistaken, you’re wearing your new wingsuit under your clothes right now, even though we are nowhere near an airplane.”
Tony blushed. “It’s comfy.”
“It is,” agreed Ms. Nowhere. “So when you are tempted to go off plan and improvise at the first sign of trouble, instead, think: how can I use what I have to follow rule number one?”
“But what if—?” Tony started.
Ms. Nowhere cut him off with a “Next!” She stabbed a finger at a new, bright red line of text on the TV: Rule #3: Follow orders. “If there is any question about what you should be doing, you will ask me, I will tell you what to do, and you will do it. Now let’s put the rules into practice. Next!”
The rules disappeared, replaced by a list of company names that Tony only vaguely recognized.
“For the last three nights,” Ms. Nowhere went on, “security firms downtown have been hacked and their data stolen. One firm each night. These firms have an extensive client roster—next!”
The company names disappeared, replaced by a much longer list. Tony scanned it quickly, seeing banks, tech companies, even some government departments. He heard Echo draw in a breath.
Ms. Nowhere nodded solemnly. “With the information the hacker has stolen, they could be planning on breaking into any—or all—of these computer networks. Millions of people’s private information is at risk. But here’s the good part: each of the hacks has begun on the firm’s local network. In other words, the thief is actually in the building at the time. And here’s the best part.” She leaned toward the team. “I already know who she is.” She waited a beat, then two. Nothing happened. “Oh, for the love of— Gary, take a cue! NEXT!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Gary murmured, and the text on the TV was replaced with a CCTV still of an older woman. Her light gray hair framed her face, contrasting with her dark-brown skin and black clothes. She stared directly into the camera, as if daring it to take her picture.
“This is Alecto,” announced Ms. Nowhere. “We’ve been after her for a long time. Together, she and her two partners were known as the Furies, after the Greek goddesses of vengeance. They made their hacking careers targeting companies that behaved badly but managed to dodge criminal charges. In their own eyes, the Furies were vigilante heroes. They were meticulous and they were careful, but not careful enough. We caught Megaera and Tisiphone a few years ago, and since then Alecto has gotten sloppier.” Nowhere shook her head at the picture on-screen. “She never would have let herself be filmed like this in the old days. She’s bolder now that she’s on her own . . . and possibly more dangerous. Gary, the binder!”
Ms. Nowhere planted one hand on her hip and pointed at the TV with the other. “That is your target, team. And this”—she swiveled her finger to point at Gary, who dumped a thick binder on the table with a thunk—“is your plan. And what is rule number one? Toretto?”
Tony rubbed a hand across his face. There were a lot of pages in that binder. “Stick to the plan,” he answered grimly. He flipped open the cover and saw schematics for an office building downtown. At least I’ll get to drive my sweet spy car over there, he thought.
CHAPTER 2
THURSDAY, 11:30 P.M.
“Come on,” Tony complained from the bed of Cisco’s truck, “can you drive this thing any faster?”
“Nah, Tony,” replied Cisco. “Ms. Nowhere said speed limit all the way this time.” He turned a corner, being careful to signal first, and pointed at the building ahead of them. “Besides, we’re there.”
As Cisco drove past, Tony and Echo raised their heads cautiously from where they were hunkered down in the truck bed. What they saw was . . . well, if Tony was being completely honest, what they saw was boring. The square, glass-enclosed office building took up the entire block. Here and there throughout the building, a light shone in an empty office, most likely where someone had forgotten to turn it off.On the ground floor, Tony could see through the floor-to-ceiling windows into a spacious lobby, lit only by dim security lights. The streets were deserted except for a beat-up sedan parked opposite the front door.
In the passenger seat, Frostee slipped on his VR headset and held up his backpack. Four pods detached from the outside of the bag and unfurled into small flying robots. As the drones shot out the open passenger window, they shimmered and became transparent. “Ghost drones away,” Frostee said. “Fly, my spooky friends, fly!”
Cisco drove the truck to the middle of the next block and parked. He twisted in his seat, nodding at the lone sedan. “I’ll keep lookout from there,” he said. “But if anything happens, just call and I’ll—”
“If anything happens,” came Ms. Nowhere’s voice over their earpieces, “you’ll what now?”
Cisco startled. “Uh, I’ll—I’ll stick to the plan,” he answered.
“Which is?”
“To keep watch unless you say otherwise.”
“That’s right.”
The four of them got out of the truck and crept quietly toward the building. Tony saw the frown on Cisco’s face and chucked him on the shoulder. “We’ll be fine, don’t worry,” he said. “And if the old lady brought a crew, and we walk into a fight, we’ll make sure to chase them out of the building first so you can help.”
Tony, Echo, and Frostee left Cisco hunkered down by the sedan and quickly crossed the street. They hid behind a decorative shrub outside the main entrance while Frostee’s cloaked drones buzzed around the building, scanning for security guards through the lobby windows.
“Okay,” Frostee said a moment later, watching the readout in his goggles. “Looks like just one guy, and he’s awake. Alecto must have snuck by him.”
“Whoa,” came Cisco’s voice in their earpieces.
“Oh, come on, it’s one dude!” snorted Echo. “Sneaking by one dude is not that impressive.”
“No, not that,” Cisco whispered. “It’s this car.”
“What, the sedan?” asked Tony.
“Yeah,” breathed Cisco. “The wheel is . . . huh.”
“What about the wheel?”
“Let’s keep the chatter down!” interrupted Ms. Nowhere. “No one cares about the hunk of junk you’re using as cover.”
“That’s the thing, though,” said Cisco. “It looks like a hunk of junk, but I swear this wheel is custom. And that dash has way too many switches to be—”
“Cisco,” hissed Ms. Nowhere. “You have one job as lookout, and that is to look! Out!”
“I am,” Cisco insisted. “I’m telling you, something is weird about this car!”
“The guard is up and moving,” Frostee said from beside Tony. “I think he’s gonna go take a leak.”
“Team, this is your window,” said Ms. Nowhere. “Get that forged access card ready, and remember, it’s the second—”
“Second bank of elevators on the right, we know,” Echo said, rolling her eyes.
“Maybe I should pop the hood,” muttered Cisco.
Tony heard shuffling over the earpiece and risked a glance across the street. In the dim light, he saw Cisco crouched in front of the sedan, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
“Hey,” whispered Cisco, “remember that story Mitch was telling us a couple of days ago? About the stolen cars?”
“Cisco,” said Ms. Nowhere. “I am ordering you to forget about the car! And what is rule number three?”
Cisco opened his mouth to answer . . . and then he recoiled, half-standing as the sedan’s engine roared to life.
“What the—?” Frostee exclaimed, pushing his goggles down and turning to look.
“CISCO!” barked Ms. Nowhere.
“I didn’t do it!” cried Cisco. “It must be controlled remotely!”
“Cisco,” Tony said urgently, “get away from that car!”
But in the next instant, the sedan, with
no one at the wheel, shifted into gear and shot forward. With a whoof, Cisco doubled over and was popped up onto the hood. He had just enough time to jam his fingers between the windshield and the hood before, with a screech, the car peeled around the corner and out of sight.
CHAPTER 3
THURSDAY, 11:45 P.M.
“Frostee,” Tony yelled, “get the drones after him!”
“You got it, T,” replied Frostee. He frowned behind his VR headset, and Tony heard whirring around him as the ghost drones broke off their recon and whizzed away.
“Let’s go!” Tony grabbed one of Frostee’s arms to guide him while he controlled the drones. Echo grabbed Frostee’s other arm, and the three of them began sprinting for Cisco’s truck.
“What are you doing?” Ms. Nowhere protested in their earpieces. “Our people just picked up a data download coming from the firm. The hack is happening right now. Get in there!”
“Are you kidding?” Echo said, disbelieving. “That car stole Cisco!”
“Rule number one! Cisco can handle himself, and the way you described that beater, it’s not going anywhere fast.”
“It’s a sleeper!” Cisco yelled through the comm. His voice was strained and almost drowned out by rushing wind and engine noise.
“Cisco, you okay, man?” Frostee said, climbing into the truck’s passenger seat. “The ghost drones should catch up to you any second now.”
“It’s a sleeper!” Cisco repeated.
“He’s right,” said Tony, starting the truck as Echo swung into the bed. “Did you hear that engine tone?”
“I heard it,” Echo said. “I think the truck can take it, though.”
Tony gunned the engine and peeled away from the curb. “Why is a self-driving sleeper parked in the middle of a deserted block downtown?”
“A self-driving what?” asked Ms. Nowhere. “No, wait, I forgot: I DON’T CARE. Get back to the mission right now!”
