Deep Waters

by H. I. Larry

  DEEP WATERS

  BY H. I. LARRY

  ILLUSTRATIONS BY ASH OSWALD

  Deep Waters

  published in 2006 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  85 High Street

  Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

  stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without

  the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  Text copyright © 2006 H. I. Larry

  Illustration and design copyright © 2006 Hardie Grant Egmont

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted

  Illustration and design by Ash Oswald

  With special thanks to the spys of

  years 2 and 3 (2005) of the St Michael’s unit of GIB

  for their top-secret mission support.

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  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

  Zac couldn’t help it. He was trying to look interested in what the tour guide at the West Sea Aquarium was saying but could he help it if his eyes kept closing all by themselves?

  ‘Zac Power!’ hissed his teacher, Mrs Tran. ‘I suggest you pay attention.There’ll be a test after the excursion, you know.’

  Zac’s eyes snapped open.

  ‘Coral might not look exciting…’ the tour guide was saying.

  He’s right there, thought Zac, checking his watch yet again. How could it still only be 9.03am?

  ‘...but did you know coral takes over a million years to form?’

  A million years!

  Surely he wouldn’t be stuck at the aquarium that long!

  Zac stared out the window. The aquarium was on the edge of the West Sea. Zac saw perfect surfing waves breaking. If only he was out there instead of being stuck in here...

  ‘I’ll pass around some coral,’ said the tour guide. ‘Can you feel how rough it is?’

  Zac stood with his arms crossed. He’d had more fun sorting his sock drawer!

  ‘Let’s move on to our next exhibit, kids,’ the tour guide went on. ‘The shark tank!’

  Zac woke right up. Sharks! Maybe there’ll be giant white pointers with huge, bloody teeth!

  ‘Onto the moving walkway,’ called the tour guide.

  The moving walkway was a flat escalator snaking all around the aquarium. The whole class stepped on and moved slowly towards the shark tank.

  ‘It’s feeding time,’ said the tour guide, sounding excited.

  Zac craned his neck to see. Inside the tank were two divers with hunks of meat in their hands. Four sharks were swimming straight for them.The sharks were massive!

  ‘Don’t worry, everybody,’ said the tour guide. ‘The sharks really want that meat. It only looks like they’re attacking the divers!’

  The sharks circled around the divers. The water churned.

  ‘Wait – they really are attacking the divers!’ shrieked the tour guide.

  A shark had one of the divers by the leg.

  ‘Shark attack!’ Mrs Tran yelled.

  Suddenly, everyone in the aquarium was screaming. People were running right and left. The tour guide hid under a chair.

  In all the confusion, Zac felt a tap on his shoulder.

  ‘Zac Power?’ a voice said.

  Zac turned around. Beside him stood a giant turtle. Or, to be exact, a woman dressed in a turtle costume.

  ‘Come and look at the baby turtle exhibit,’ said the giant turtle woman.

  Baby turtles? What was this woman talking about? There was a shark attack on!

  Zac wanted to help.

  Or, at the very least, watch.

  ‘Ah, no thanks. I’ll stay here,’ Zac said firmly.

  ‘No, come with me. Now!’

  Suddenly, the walkway started moving under Zac’s feet. But this time it wasn’t going slowly. It was speeding Zac and the giant turtle woman towards the baby turtle exhibit. Next door, Zac could still hear screaming.

  ‘It’s not a real shark attack,’ explained the giant turtle. ‘GIB hired stunt divers to create a diversion while we sent you on your next mission.’

  GIB, or Government Investigation Bureau, was the spying agency Zac worked for. The woman pushed up the bright green sleeves of her turtle costume. Zac saw a miniature walkie-talkie strapped to her wrist. She tapped it once and then spoke into it.

  ‘Attention all GIB ground staff. This is Big Turtle. Do you read me?’

  The walkie-talkie crackled.

  ‘Loud and clear, Big Turtle,’ came the reply. ‘The amphibious submersible is good to go.’

  The water in the turtle exhibit started bubbling. Then, the coolest thing Zac had ever seen rose up from behind a clump of seaweed. The top was glass. There were wings on the side and rockets on the back. Underneath were two fat tyres.

  ‘What is it?’ said Zac, who couldn’t help being impressed.

  ‘An amphibious submersible. It goes under water like a submarine and across land too.’

  Big Turtle handed Zac a set of keys.

  ‘Ever piloted one before?’ she asked.

  Zac shook his head.

  He didn’t know what his next mission was, but he didn’t care. Wherever he was going, he was going there in the amphibious submersible.

  It sure beat learning about coral!

  CHAPTER TWO

  Right, thought Zac to himself, as he settled back in the amphibious submersible’s cockpit, how hard can it really be to pilot this thing?

  Zac’s brother Leon would have known exactly how to get the amphibious submersible started. The entire Power family were spies, but Leon was the techno-geek of the family. But after Zac almost single-handedly completed their Poison Island mission and saved Leon’s life, GIB had decided Zac was ready for his first solo mission.

  Leon was transferred from Field Agent to Technical Officer. It seemed like the perfect arrangement to both of them.

  Zac looked at the panel of dials and flashing lights in front of him.There was no simple ‘on’ button, or anywhere obvious to put the ignition key.

  The briefest doubt flickered through his mind. If he couldn’t even figure out how to pilot an amphibious submersible, was he really ready for a solo mission? But when it came to his talents, Zac never wasted much time doubting himself. Of course he was ready to be a solo spy – even if he was still only 12 years old.

  Zac fished around in the seat pocket for the instruction manual.There it was – and it was about as thick as his maths textbook!

  There was no way Zac was reading all that boring stuff. He flicked straight to the last page and quickly scanned it. Then he chucked the whole thing over his shoulder and into the bin.

  He pressed a green button, and then a flashing yellow one. The amphibious submersible’s engine responded with a series of very loud, very satisfying revs.

  Then a dial labelled ‘speed control’ caught Zac’s eye. He turned it up as far as it would go. The amphibious sub-mersible shot forward!

  A thrill raced through Zac’s body. This was way better than a school excursion, staring into boring old fish tanks.

  Fish tanks?

  Suddenly, Zac remembered he was still inside the turtle tank at the aquarium.The amphibious submersible was racing at top speed towards a huge glass wall t
hat stood between him and the West Sea.

  Frantically, Zac looked around for the exit. There seemed no way out. Was there a button on the dashboard that would somehow slide the glass aside? Zac wondered. It was probably somewhere in the instruction manual.

  But then, Zac hadn’t read it!

  Faster and faster Zac sped towards the glass wall. If he hit it, the glass would break into a million pieces. And Zac didn’t like to think what would happen to the amphibious submersible!

  Then Zac saw something. The glove box! He popped it open. Inside, he saw a remote control that looked exactly like his garage-door opener at home. He hit the big red button on the top.

  The glass wall began to slide out of the way! Zac shot through the gap with only millimetres to spare. He was out in the open sea.

  Zac pulled down the visor in front of him to check his hair. And there, taped right across the mirror was a small metal disc with a note attached.

  Zac sighed. The fun was over. It was time for work again.

  He pulled his SpyPad from his pocket. A SpyPad looks a bit like an electronic game but it is actually a mini-computer, satellite mobile phone and laser, all rolled into one. Every GIB spy has to have one.

  Zac loaded the disc into his SpyPad.

  CLASSIFIED

  FOR THE EYES OF ZAC POWER ONLY

  MISSION RECEIVED

  TUESDAY 9.45AM

  Top-secret sources tell us a new type

  of submarine has been invented.

  An ordinary submarine can

  dive 1500 feet below sea level.

  Rumour has it this new sub can

  dive 4000 feet below sea level.

  The new submarine is due to be tested

  somewhere in the West Sea

  in the next 24 hours.

  YOUR MISSION

  • Locate secret submarine.

  • Discover who is behind it

  and what they plan to do with it.

  END

  He’d got out of school, was piloting the coolest amphibious submersible ever and all he had to do was find some submarine? So far this mission was working out well!

  CHAPTER THREE

  One thing was for sure, thought Zac. The secret submarine would need to be tested in water at least 4000 feet deep. And that could only be a long way away from shore.

  Zac was going to have to set a course right out to the middle of the ocean. And if that meant he could squeeze in a little joy ride on the way…well, that was almost part of the job.

  Flicking the autopilot switch, Zac stuck his feet up on the dashboard. He plugged in his iPod and speakers and turned the music up really loud. His satellite GPS navigation software could handle the directions. It was made by Marine Tech. Zac knew this small company somehow always came out with the coolest sea technology just before the bigger companies did.

  Zac typed in the coordinates for the middle of the sea, where the water was deepest. At least, he thought he did.

  He must have hit the wrong button, because the next second the amphibious submersible was upside down and spinning round and round in circles.

  The foghorn was blaring, the cabin lights were flashing on and off and the fire sprinklers activated.

  Just then, Zac heard his SpyPad beeping.

  He picked it up.

  It was Leon calling! This was going to be embarrassing.

  ‘Zac here,’ he said, trying to sound like he had things totally under control.

  ‘What’s all that noise, Zac?’ asked Leon anxiously. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Zac snapped, holding a bucket under the fire sprinkler and trying to muffle the foghorn with a towel.

  ‘Sure you understand how to operate the submersible?’ asked Leon.

  ‘Of course!’ said Zac, breezily. The submersible spun round and round. He was going to be sick any second.

  ‘OK,’ said Leon doubtfully.‘Listen, I’ve got new information about the mission from our mole at Marine Tech!’

  ‘Uh huh,’ said Zac.

  ‘It looks like the they’re behind the Sea Devil.’

  ‘The Sea Devil?’ asked Zac.

  ‘The secret deep-sea submarine!’ said Leon, sounding impatient. ‘Marine Tech is going to use it to get to GIB’s Safe Talker, hidden on the floor of the West Sea!’

  Leon went on. ‘We thought the Safe Talker was secure because it’s 4000 feet down. But now that Marine Tech has invented the Sea Devil, they can easily bug it. I’m working on deactivating the Safe Talker now, but it’s going to take at least 24 hours.’

  Leon finally paused for air. Zac tried to make sense of what he’d said.

  ‘Leon,’ Zac said finally. ‘What’s a Safe Talker?’

  ‘Only GIB’s most important piece of technology ever!’ Leon yelled. ‘Safe Talkers transmit all our secret communications. They’re in code, of course. But if anyone got their hands on a Safe Talker, they could switch off the encryption filter. All our communications would be in ordinary English.’

  ‘So they’d understand every word,’ said Zac.

  ‘Yup,’ said Leon. ‘And our secrets are pretty high-tech stuff. The enemy could use them to build aircraft, subs, satellites …whatever! Then they could sell them for heaps of money.’

  ‘I’ve always thought it’s strange that a small company like Marine Tech invents the coolest stuff first, every single time,’ said Zac slowly.

  ‘This must be how! They steal other people’s secrets,’ said Leon.

  Zac’s mind chewed over the mission. ‘If Marine Tech’s after our Safe Talker, won’t their sub testing station be somewhere close to it?’

  ‘I’m sure you’re right, Zac,’ said Leon. ‘Good spying. The Safe Talker’s located at 89 degrees west south-west.’

  Zac programmed it into his GPS. Automatically, the computer calculated the distance Zac would have to travel to reach the Safe Talker.

  ‘It’s ages away. It will take me hours just to get there – let alone stop the Sea Devil from diving 4000 feet down to the Safe Talker,’ said Zac.

  ‘I know. It’s 10.43am now, which only gives you 23 hours to stop the Sea Devil diving. You can’t waste a second, Zac.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ said Zac, hanging up the SpyPad.

  But however much of a hurry Zac was in, he knew he’d be going nowhere if he didn’t figure out how to work the amphibious submersible first. He fished the instruction manual out of the bin.

  He’d have to read it after all!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Zac looked up from the instruction manual. The forward momentum and downward lift of the wing allows your Personal Amphibious Submersible to literally fly below the water’s surface, he read.

  He checked his watch.

  It’d taken him more than two hours to figure out how to pilot the submersible properly. No wonder his eyes were watering.

  Just then, Zac’s SpyPad beeped again. It wasn’t the usual beep though. This beep was much louder. The SpyPad only made this kind of beep when there was a special emergency message being broadcast to everyone in the area, not just GIB spies.

  Zac grabbed his SpyPad.

  TO ALL VESSELS IN

  THE WEST SEA AREA

  A small plane has

  crashed into the sea.

  Two passengers need rescuing.

  If you can assist, go immediately

  to the crash zone at

  72 degrees north north-east.

  MESSAGE FROM

  WEST SEA OCEAN RESCUE

  If Zac didn’t head for the Safe Talker straight away, he’d fall seriously behind on his mission. And he couldn’t fail – not on his first solo mission.

  But, then again, wasn’t his spying job with GIB really all about helping people? And there were two people whose lives were in danger right now.

  The crash site was in the opposite direction to the Safe Talker. But Zac had no choice. He changed the coordinates in his GPS system.

  He was going to the crash site.

 
At top speed, Zac raced off in the amphibious submersible, sticking close to the surface. He needed a good view of what was going on.

  Zac pressed the ‘Up Periscope’ button on the dashboard. The periscope poked through the water.

  Through it, Zac could see what was happening up above. Straight away, Zac saw the plane wreck in the distance. Both wings were broken in half, and Zac could just make out a man and a woman, hanging on as tight as they could.They were waving desperately for help.

  But the worst thing was, the plane wreck had just caught fire!

  Zac had to get there and save those people before the fire took hold. If the fuel tank caught fire, the plane would explode.

  The amphibious submersible flew through the water. But still it seemed too slow! Was he going to make it in time?

  Zac checked the periscope.

  He was almost there!

  ‘Help us! Somebody! Help us!’ yelled the woman.

  Zac steered the submersible upwards until it broke through surface of the water. He opened the hatch on the very top of the submersible and stuck out his head.

  ‘Don’t panic!’ he called to the couple. ‘I’ve got everything under control.’

  But Zac knew that he didn’t really have everything under control.

  He couldn’t just jump out of the amphibious submersible and swim over to the plane wreck to help the people. For a start, he couldn’t possibly carry the man and the woman by himself. And what if the plane’s fuel tank did explode? Then he’d be killed too.

  Zac scanned the cabin for safety gear. Besides Zac’s own life jacket, there was only a weird kind of gun with an enormous loop on the end of the barrel. Beside that was a bottle of liquid labelled ‘RescueBubble’.

  Could this be what he thought it was?

  There was only one way to find out!