Blockbuster (2 page)

Zac scanned the skies for an answer. Then he saw it. A chopper was weaving in and out of the blimp's flight path!

What kind of idiot would fly so close to
another aircraft?
Zac thought furiously. The chopper's blades, whizzing so fast they were a blur, would slice through the blimp's outer lining in a flash!

Zac looked closely at the chopper. Inside the cabin sat a woman with blonde hair piled high on her head. A hairless dog with bulging eyes and a diamond collar lay curled in her lap.

The woman waved her fist in Zac's direction. Zac noticed the sharp red nails, like claws, at the end of her fingers.

The woman looked an awful lot like Chrissie L'Estrange, the Hollywood actress. Everybody knew her – it was impossible not to. Chrissie and her little dog Poppet were on the cover of every magazine. Zac hated her movies.

Zac looked again. Now Chrissie was screaming something in his direction!

Zac was glad of his lip-reading training. He could understand her perfectly.

‘GET OUTTA MY WAY, JERK!' she screeched. ‘DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?' Her chopper swooped in front of the blimp.

Inside the blimp, Zac heard an announcement:

‘This is your captain speaking.

We apologise for this unexpected turbulence.

The chopper will land on the helipad

on top of the Hotel Deluxe.

We will land there afterwards.'

Zac thought he heard the captain mutter, ‘Even though we were here first.'

A few minutes later, the blimp touched down on the helipad. Chrissie L'Estrange was already there, surrounded by fussing personal assistants.

I'll just go over there and clear things
up
, thought Zac to himself. But as soon as he took a step in Chrissie's direction, flashbulbs exploded in his eyes.

‘Who are you? Are you Chrissie's latest boyfriend?' someone cried out of nowhere.

‘What's your name? Who's your agent?'

Zac's mouth dropped open.
The
paparazzi!Where did they come from?

‘He's no-one,' Zac heard one of them say. ‘Let's follow Chrissie.'

And with that, the photographers and reporters scattered from the helipad.

I'm not no-one
, Zac wanted to reply.
I'm
a top spy here for a big premiere!

Zac turned back to the blimp. But in the commotion, it had flown off without Zac noticing. Zac's backpack lay on the helipad. All of a sudden, he was alone in Hollywood – the strangest of all strange places.

CHAPTER THREE

Zac's ears popped as the super-fast lift swept him up to his penthouse on the fifty-first floor of the Hotel Deluxe. The doors opened directly into the suite, which was equipped with an ice-cream machine and a wide-screen cinema.

Zac dumped his backpack on the king-sized bed. He clicked on the remote control and a giant TV screen dropped down from the ceiling.

An announcer with a stiff wave of blonde hair was beaming at the camera.

‘Stay tuned for a Channel One exclusive report into spying in the modern age,' she was saying. ‘We reveal how spy agencies are looking for ways to make their investigations quicker and more efficient.'

Leon would probably watch that, the big
nerd,
thought Zac, smiling to himself.

THUD!
THUD!
THUD!

Someone was knocking at the door of his suite – loudly!

‘Room service!' called a voice.

Zac got up and opened the door.

‘Hot dog?' said the pimply guy standing in Zac's doorway. He held out a tray of hot dogs zig-zagged with yellow mustard.

‘Er, I didn't order a hot dog,' said Zac.

‘Take one, they're delicious!' said the guy, and then he leant in closer.

‘I'm a GIB agent,' he muttered. ‘We tracked your arrival in the blimp. We've actually been trying to get in touch with you since yesterday, but it seems the lining of the blimp interfered with your SpyPad receptor, and blocked all incoming messages.

‘No-one at GIB knows why you're in town,' he added, ‘but you've got a new mission. Now take the hot dog.'

He handed Zac a hot dog and left, singing, ‘have a nice day!' as he went.

Zac stared after him, feeling confused. Why didn't GIB know why Zac was in Hollywood? After all, it was GIB who invited him to the
Covert Operations
premiere! And if they didn't, who did?

I guess I'd better find out what my mission
is
, thought Zac as he checked out the hot dog. There was a sticker on the bun, so tiny he had to squint to read it. It said ‘FTP enabled'.

The mission must be a file inside the hot dog! But there was a problem. How was Zac going to upload a mission into his SpyPad from a
hot dog
?

Without smearing mustard on the casing, Zac held the hot dog up to his SpyPad. A green light flickered on. His SpyPad was bluetooth compatible...and so was the hot dog. The mission was uploading wirelessly!

CLASSIFIED
FOR THE EYES OF ZAC POWER ONLY

MESSAGE RECEIVED
SATURDAY 4:54AM

Cinemania, a Hollywood film studio is spending millions on a mysterious invention called ThoughtVision.

In fact, they're spending more than they do on producing films. This may be innocent, but GIB is suspicious.

YOUR MISSION

• Work out what ThoughtVision does and locate a prototype for GIB.

MISSION TIME REMAINING
12 HOURS 6 MINUTES
END

So now Zac had two missions. To solve the ThoughtVision mystery and to figure out who'd invited him to the premiere. But the premiere was only twelve hours away!

Before leaving the penthouse suite, Zac paused in front of the mirror to slick some product into his hair. There was no way he wanted to look scruffy on the stylish streets of Hollywood!

Zac supposed that the obvious place to start the ThoughtVision investigation was at the Cinemania Studios. But before he could hail a taxi, a vehicle pulled up right in front of him.

The passenger door opened and a voice wafted out. ‘Please, come inside.'

Zac had to step back to take in the full size of the car. It was a yellow stretch Hummer. Its engine rumbled loudly.

Zac climbed in. But there was no-one driving the car! The voice, which was obviously computerised, said, ‘Welcome to AutoJeeves, the driverless chauffeur service. Where would you like to go?'

‘Cinemania Studios,' replied Zac.

Ah, the Hollywood lifestyle,
thought Zac, as the stretch Hummer took off into the honking traffic.

The Hummer pulled up outside the fancy iron gates of Cinemania. Through the fence, Zac could see row after row of sets from old movies.There were people everywhere, zipping around the huge studio lot in white golf carts, or sitting around in canvas chairs with their names on the back. The studio must keep shooting movies all night!

A security guard stood at the gates, where a queue of people waited to get in.

‘Yes? What is your business here?' asked the guard mechanically. ‘I have a script meeting with Mr Spielford,' Zac heard someone say. ‘I am Chrissie L'Estrange's plastic surgeon,' said a woman just in front of Zac.

‘You?' the guard asked Zac.

A big part of spying was pretending to be someone you weren't. But Zac was totally exhausted. It had been a long night. For once, he struggled to think of a false identity. ‘I've got an appointment with Poppet L'Estrange,' blurted Zac at last. ‘I'm…I'm…I'm her hair stylist.'

The guard eye-balled Zac silently.

I'm such an idiot!
Zac panicked.
Who'd
believe a hairless dog has its own hairdresser?

Zac's spirits plummeted. No way would he get past the security guard and into Cinemania now!

Was the unthinkable about to happen? Was Zac Power actually going to fail a mission?

CHAPTER FOUR