by Justin D'Ath
Queenie let out a low whinny – exactly like Banjo had done when Ella went into her stall. She nudged Jordan with her big, soft nose.
She wants me to get onto her back, Jordan thought.
But he’d never been on a horse.
And Queenie didn’t have a saddle.
SWOOSH! WHAP!
Maggie got him on the shoulder this time. Not too hard, but it was enough to make up Jordan’s mind.
Queenie was his only hope.
15
Bright Red
Harry was waiting on top of the wall. He saw Jordan in the tree being attacked by the magpie.
He saw the dogs under the tree, trying to get him.
He saw Queenie go trotting over and bump him with her head.
And then he saw the two horse thieves at the top of the hill. One of them went into the stables and came roaring out on a yellow quad bike. The rider stopped to let the other man get on behind him.
Then they came racing down the hill towards the tree where Jordan was trapped.
Jordan needed help!
Harry pulled the rope up the inside of the wall and lowered it down the outside. Then 4.7 seconds later (a new record!), he was on the ground next to Myrtle. Quickly, he clipped her to the FoxMobile.
‘We’ve got a Code Bright Red situation on our hands, Agent M,’ he told her.
If Jordan was there, he probably would have said that it wasn’t a Code Bright Red situation. It wasn’t a zoo break-out, there weren’t any crocodiles, and nobody was doing mean stuff to animals.
But Jordan wasn’t there.
Harry jumped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the handlebars.
‘Mush, Agent M!’ he said in his deep Space Traffic Controller’s voice. It was also his Captain Amazing voice.
Captain Amazing was who Harry had pretended to be when the twins were little. He was a much better superhero than the Pet Whisperer, Harry thought.
And Captain Amazing’s favourite colour was bright red.
16
Swoosh! Whap!
Jordan lowered himself onto Queenie’s back. She was huge. It was like sitting on an elephant! If he fell off, he’d break his neck. Or the dogs would get him. Probably both.
He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the horse’s big strong neck.
Giddy-up Queenie, he mind-whispered.
Who knows if Queenie heard him, but she trotted out from under the tree.
SWOOSH! WHAP!
This time Maggie’s beak clipped Jordan’s back. It didn’t hurt. But it gave him a fright.
Go faster, Queenie! Head for the gap in the wall.
Queenie broke into a canter. Jordan lay flat on her back, hoping she was going in the right direction. He hung on for his life. Horse riding was harder than it looked. And very bumpy. Every part of him was bouncing and jiggling and rattling. Even his brain was bumping about!
But Jordan didn’t try to make Queenie slow down. He could hear the dogs howling and barking just behind them.
Then he heard something in front of them. It sounded like an engine. He craned his neck to see over Queenie’s bouncing head.
The quad bike came racing down the hill with the two horse thieves on it. They were going to catch him and Queenie before they got to the wall!
Turn round! Jordan mind-whispered, pulling on one side of Queenie’s mane to show her which way.
The horse swung round in a wide, bumpy U-turn with the dogs hot on her heels. But now Queenie was galloping away from the gap in the wall!
Jordan peeped over his shoulder. The quad bike was following them, not far behind the dogs. It was going really fast, and the riders weren’t wearing any helmets. That gave Jordan an idea.
Head for the tree, he mind-whispered. Run right under it.
Jordan didn’t know if Pet Whispering really worked or not. Queenie might have gone that way anyway. But maybe she did hear him, because she galloped towards the tree. Jordan put his head down so the branches wouldn’t sweep him off her back. But he kept one eye on the big black-and-white bird perched on the edge of its nest.
He remembered what it said on BRAIN. A magpie won’t swoop if you’re looking at it.
But the horse thieves weren’t looking at the magpie. They didn’t even know it was there. Until …
SWOOSH! WHAP!
17
Blinder Than a Bat
Tosh didn’t see Maggie coming. He didn’t see her going, either, because she knocked his glasses clean off.
Without his glasses, Tosh was as blind as a bat.
Tosh didn’t have sonar, either, so he was blinder than a bat!
The quad bike ran straight into a tree stump.
CRUUUUUUNCH!
The quad bike stopped dead and both horse thieves went flying.
Luckily, they had a very soft landing.
Unluckily, it was in a big pile of horse poo Queenie had left there earlier.
18
Meet Agent M!
Good one, Maggie! Jordan mind-whispered.
Then he remembered that the magpie couldn’t hear him. Or wouldn’t listen.
He pulled Queenie’s mane again and she headed back towards the gap in the wall.
Then there was another problem. A big pile of bricks blocked the gap. Jordan remembered how Ella and Banjo had got through. They’d jumped over the bricks.
No way was Jordan going to jump through on Queenie! He didn’t even have a saddle. He’d fall off for sure!
And he couldn’t get off and climb through because of the German shepherds.
Growling like wolves, they were running around Queenie, showing their teeth, and waiting for him to get down.
Jordan was trapped.
‘Need a hand, Agent J?’ asked a familiar voice.
Harry, Myrtle and the FoxMobile appeared on the other side of the bricks.
When the German shepherds saw Harry, their fur bristled. One of them jumped up onto the bricks and got ready to spring.
Harry didn’t look worried.
‘Hey, guys,’ he said to the guard dogs. ‘I’d like you to meet Agent M.’
Then he unclipped Myrtle so she could run free.
19
Questions and Answers
The German shepherds were guard dogs. They were trained to keep unwanted visitors out of Bonwick Estate. But they had never met a visitor like Myrtle before.
Myrtle was the biggest dog in the world. She was much bigger than a German shepherd. She was almost as big as two German shepherds.
They didn’t want to meet her.
But Myrtle wanted to meet them. Even though she looked huge and scary, Myrtle was very friendly. She loved meeting other dogs.
With a deep, happy bark, she leapt over the bricks.
‘Don’t be too rough on them, Agent M,’ Harry said, watching Myrtle fly up the driveway after the two terrified guard dogs.
He picked his way across the bricks to help his brother get off the horse.
That was when they heard a loud squeal. Slowly, the big remote-control gates swung open. With the purr of a powerful motor, a sleek blue Mercedes convertible drove in. It stopped just inside the gates and a woman got out. It was Mrs Bonwick.
Her mouth dropped open when she saw the truck wreck, the broken wall, the upside-down quad bike in the distance, her two workers limping up the hill towards the house, a boy sitting on her second-prize-winning show jumping horse, and another identical boy standing next to them with a big grin on his face.
‘Who are you? Why are you here? What happened to my truck and my husband’s quad bike? Who owns that huge dog?’ she stammered.
It was a lot of questions. The twins took turns answering them.
Harry: ‘We’re Mission Fox.’
Jordan: ‘We’re on a rescue mission.’
Harry: ‘The truck rolled down the hill.’
Jordan: ‘Tosh rode too close to a magpie’s nest and face-planted in some horse poo.’
Harry and Jordan: ‘Myrtle�
�s ours.’
‘I see,’ said Mrs Bonwick, still looking confused. ‘And what are doing on my horse?’
‘Riding her,’ Jordan said. ‘But I’m finished now.’
He slid to the ground – it didn’t seem nearly as far down as it had when he first got on. ‘She’s a fast runner.’
Mrs Bonwick pulled out a mobile phone. Her face had turned red. ‘I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m calling the police!’
‘Good,’ said Harry. ‘Then we can tell them how you stole our friend’s horse.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Mrs Bonwick said. But she looked worried.
‘Haven’t you heard of Silver Banjo?’ Jordan asked. ‘He’s that show jumper you wanted to buy from our friend’s mother. The one that keeps beating you in competitions’.
‘We found him hidden in your stable,’ Harry said.
Mrs Bonwick put her phone away. ‘I was just borrowing him for a couple of days,’ she said in a guilty voice. ‘I didn’t mean any harm.’
Jordan waved a hand at the wrecked truck, the broken wall, the smashed quad bike and the two limping horse thieves. ‘We didn’t mean any harm, either, Mrs Bonwick.’
‘But we had a lot of fun,’ Harry added.
They whistled to Myrtle and walked out through the open gate.
‘Hey, Mrs Bonwick!’ Harry called back. ‘Good luck in the show jumping championships!’
Hey, Queenie, Jordan thought. Good luck to you, too.
20
Pants on Fire!
The FoxPhone rang late that afternoon. The twins were in their bedroom writing up a Rescue Report. Jordan dropped his pen and grabbed the phone.
‘Mission Fox Animal Rescue Service,’ he said. ‘Does an animal need help?’
‘No,’ said a girl’s voice. ‘But a person does.’
‘Sorry, we don’t rescue people.’
‘It’s me – Ella!’
‘I know,’ said Jordan. ‘Did you get home all right?’
‘Sure. What happened after I left?’
‘All sorts of stuff,’ Jordan said. He started to tell Ella how he and Agent H escaped, but she wasn’t listening.
‘I need you to do me a favour,’ she said.
Jordan felt disappointed. She hadn’t even thanked him and Harry for helping her rescue Banjo.
‘What’s the favour?’ he asked.
‘I’m at my Aunt Zoe’s. I heard her talking to Mum on the phone. Someone told them they saw a person that looked like me riding a horse that looked like Banjo.’
‘Oops!’ said Jordan.
‘I told Aunt Zoe I was at the new Twisterman movie, so it couldn’t have been me and Banjo,’ Ella said. ‘Aunt Zoe believes me, but I know Mum won’t. So I need to know all about the Twisterman movie – especially how it ends. Can you tell me, Agent J?’
Jordan handed the phone to Harry.
‘It’s Ella,’ he said. ‘She wants to know what happened at the end of the Twisterman movie …’
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2011
Text copyright © Justin D’Ath, 2011
Illustrations copyright © Heath McKenzie, 2011
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ISBN: 978-1-74-253397-1
