Drama Queen by Susannah McFarlane Read Free Book Online Page B

on the pink cushion on the sofa. The paper was dirty—and for a moment, EJ’s thoughts flashed back to her diary—but in tact. EJ picked it up.
    SPY MOVIE 2
SCENE 44
    Agent White is alone on the bridge of the large reservoir waving a bottle over the edge. A helicopter is hovering above her. Agent Black leans out of the chopper.
    BLACK
    It’s over, White! It’s all over!
    WHITE
    No, I still have the bottle.
    BLACK
    You are surrounded. Hand it over!
    WHITE
    Never. Stand back or I will throw it off the bridge. (Agent White throws the bottle. Agent Black swoops with the chopper in an attempt to catch the bottle but misses.) Mwah ha ha ha. You won’t catch me either! (She takes out a remote control and presses a button. Another helicopter sweeps into view and lands on the bridge. White jumps in and flies away.)
    It was another part of the Spy Movie 2 script, scene 44. This script sounds a lot like what SHADOW is trying to do, thought EJ. Does ‘follow 44’ mean follow the script of scene 44? It could but what does ‘to the letter’ mean? Is it the same code as the last script message? It was worth a try. EJ counted out the words but the first set of words made no sense at all. On hovering another over still
    EJ tried mixing the words up but they didn’t make sense in any order. I’m counting words, thought EJ. What if I count letters, what if I ‘follow to the letter’, will that work? letters.
    EJ enlarged the first sentence and counted the
SCENE 44

    EJ quickly counted through the numbers for the first set, 5-21-24-15-42. The fifth letter was T. The twenty-first letter was H. The twenty-fourth letterwas R. The fifteenth letter was O. The forty-second letter was W.
    T-H-R-O-W spelled out EJ. Now this is looking more promising. Let’s try the second set, let’s see, 39-24-8-16-2-3. The thirty-ninth letter was O. The twenty-fourth letter was, as last time, R. The eighth letter was A. The sixteenth letter was N. The second letter was G. The third letter was E.
    O-R-A-N-G-E. THROW ORANGE
    Throw Orange. Was that it? Was that the message? Orange what? But then, all of a sudden, EJ got it. Orange Balls! The balls in the bottles, the bottles with the big letter S on them. Why didn’t she think of that? S must stand for SHADOW. The bottles contained the balls that SHADOW was using to absorb the water. When Sydney was told she was about to shoot the bridge scene, she had requested instructions and the instructions came in the text, telling her that she needed to throw theorange balls over the bridge into the reservoir. And she would be able to do it because she would be on the bridge filming scene 44. It wouldn’t even disrupt filming because no one would ever suspect anything wrong was happening because Sydney would be doing exactly what it said in the script! A spy playing a spy, it was the perfect cover—who would ever suspect it? EJ needed to report into SHINE. She took out her phone and texted.

    Within seconds, A1 sent back a text.

    Why? wondered EJ but before she could ask there was another text.

    So how do I stop her? thought EJ. Again, she was just about to text her question when A1 texted back.

    At least getting a sample shouldn’t be a problem, thought EJ. She knew the balls werein the cupboard. She checked the tracker and was relieved to see that Sydney hadn’t moved from the set. EJ took a charm from her bracelet that looked like a bottle, twisted it and was soon holding a small glass bottle, a charm that was used for scientific testing. An agent simply put a sample into the bottle and pressed the button on the neck. Microchip technology inside the bottle then tested the composition of the sample and transmitted the data back to SHINE lab for analysis. The lab would then text the agent their findings. EJ had used it before, on a marine mission, and it was easy. At least it was easy once you had the sample.
    When EJ went to open the cupboard