The Mission to Find Max: Egypt (5 page)

‘In all my years as a bird watcher,' said an elderly man, ‘I've never seen a bird like this before.'

‘It's so regal,' said a woman. ‘What do you reckon it is?'

‘Some sort of falcon,' replied the man.

It was certainly unusual. It had a dark blue head, green wings and a white breast. As Jack stared at the bird, it turned its head and gazed at him with piercing eyes.

The old man nudged him.‘He seems to have taken a liking to you,' he said.

‘Yeah,' said Jack, feeling uncomfortable. They weren't called birds of prey for nothing.

Keeping its eyes fixed on Jack, the bird spread its wings and flapped up off the branch. It soared high into the sky, then circled majestically over the courtyard. The crowd gasped in awe.

Then, suddenly, the falcon changed direction and dived towards the crowd, its talons outstretched. It was going in for a kill!

‘Get down!' yelled Jack. ‘Cover your necks!'

Everyone fell to the ground in panic, and covered their head with their hands. The next thing Jack knew, something sharp scraped against his fingers. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw the falcon soaring up into the air, circling around for another attempt.

Spying a plant pot nearby, Jack grabbed a handful of stones that were sitting on top of the soil. He stood up as the falcon dived again and started throwing stones at it. Most of them missed, but one hit the bird square in the chest, making it screech in anger, pull away and fly off southwards.

Jack and the others waited for it to return, but it disappeared into the distance. Everyone relaxed, and stood up again. ‘He nearly took your head off!' said the twitcher to Jack. ‘At the very least you'll need to get that taken care of.' The man nodded down to Jack's fingers, which were scratched and bleeding. Jack had been so focused on getting rid of the bird that he hadn't realized he'd been hurt.

‘Dude,' said Richard, walking over. ‘That bird almost snatched you. I saw it with my own eyes.'

One of the parent helpers rushed over to Jack with a first aid kit. She quickly began to wrap his fingers in sterile gauze. ‘You'll need to see the nurse when you get back to school,' she said.

‘Hurry, children!' yelled Mr Marshall, hustling his pupils towards the bus. ‘Let's get on before there's any more trouble.'

Still in shock, Jack clambered onto the bus and settled into his seat. Richard and Charlie were talking about what they'd seen in the courtyard.

‘Did you see its beak?!' said Charlie. ‘It was huge!'

‘It was this close to flying off with Jack!' said Richard, putting two fingers an inch apart.

Jack wasn't sure about that, but he was sure of one thing. That bird was definitely targeting
him
. But why?

He told himself the answer didn't matter. After all, he was safely on the bus now. There was no way he was going to see that bird again. At least, he hoped not.

Compared to being attacked by a bird, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Jack came home at 3:30 p.m., played a few computer games, ate dinner, and by 7:20 p.m. was heading upstairs. When he got to his room, he wrapped pieces of the GPF's Fix-It tape around his cuts and watched as the clock ticked by to 7:30 p.m. His miniature globe, Whizzy, was still asleep, snoozing on Jack's bedside table.

Whenever the GPF had a mission for Jack, Whizzy would wake up at 7:30 p.m., and cough a country-shaped jigsaw piece out of his mouth. Jack would then slot the piece into the Magic Map of the world on his wall and be transported to his destination.

Since Whizzy was still asleep at 7:32 p.m., Jack was sure he didn't have a mission tonight. He went over to his desk and opened a drawer. Sliding his hand inside, he tapped the underside and a secret hiding place was revealed. He pulled out some important papers.

Carrying them over to his bed, Jack laid them out on the duvet. The first was the original note he'd received many months ago, telling him that Max was in danger. The second was an example of a forged note from Max in Louise Persnall's handwriting. The last was the coded note from Max himself.

As he was looking at the letters, something struck Jack. The Signature ID was created after notes from Max started coming home. This meant that Jack had never checked the identity of the person who wrote the first note! Jack shook his head in frustration. He couldn't believe how silly he'd been.

Quickly he tapped his Watch Phone and asked for the code of the day. As soon as the code word F
OOTBALL
appeared, Jack punched it into the lock on his Book Bag, and opened it.

Pulling out the Signature ID, he scanned it over the letter. It took only seconds, but the name ‘Penny Powell' popped up. Jack didn't know anyone named Penny, so he asked the Signature ID to give him more information. When he found out who Penny worked for, he was shocked.

Penny worked for none other than the GPF. The same organization that he and his brother belonged to! Maybe Penny knew details about Max. Better still, she might help Jack get to Egypt.

Using his Watch Phone, Jack found Penny's phone number in the GPF Employee Directory, and dialled it. A crackling noise came from his Watch Phone. An image of a woman sizzled onto the screen. She was young, probably in her twenties, and more than a little nervous.

‘Secret Agent Courage here,' said Jack. ‘Are you Penny?'

‘I've been waiting for you to contact me,' she said, looking quickly over her shoulder. ‘I don't have long.'

‘What do you know about Max?' asked Jack.

‘I used to work for Director Barter,' she said, ‘before Louise. I came across your brother's file, and saw that he was in trouble.'

‘What kind of trouble?' said Jack.

‘Someone was trying to hunt him down,' said Penny. She looked over her shoulder again, then back at the screen. She leaned in closer. ‘I told the Director that we should pull Max off the case,' she said. ‘That it was getting too dangerous for him.'

‘What did he say?' asked Jack.

‘Nothing,' said Penny. ‘He ignored me. Before I knew it, I was assigned to work with someone else.'

Jack's heart was really thumping now. If what Penny said was true, then Max was all alone. Jack really was his brother's only hope.

‘Can you get me to Egypt?' he asked.

There was a noise behind Penny. ‘Someone's coming,' she said, looking worried. ‘I'll see what I can do.'

Before Jack could say anything else, the image disappeared from the screen.

Just then, Whizzy woke up, winked at Jack and started to spin. Whizzy coughed up a jigsaw piece and Jack scooped it up. As soon as he saw its shape, Jack knew that Penny had managed to help him.