Drama Queen (6 page)

EJ approached the line of trailers. These were the leading actors' trailers, long silver caravans that became the stars' home-away-from-home when they were shooting a film on location. There were four trailers, one very large one and three smaller ones. EJ was guessing that Sydney Radisson's was the very large one. She was careful to keep her cap down and stay well back as she trailed Sydney, who was still texting. Was it Sydney who had sent the message to a
SHADOW
agent? Was she texting another one now? If the answer was yes, did that mean Sydney Radisson worked for
SHADOW?
Suddenly Sydney swung around and stared directly at EJ who also quickly spun on her heels and began to walk in the opposite direction.

‘You!' cried out Sydney.

Is she talking to me?
wondered EJ.
I really hope she is not talking to me.

‘You in the pink cap!'

Yes, she is. Have I been found out?

‘You! Come here!' shouted Sydney.

EJ turned around slowly.

‘Bring me my cat! She's on the chair over there.'

EJ leant over to pick up the fluffy white cat whose tail was twitching from side to side. As EJ picked her up, she noticed her pink collar and shiny, diamond-studded pendant with a large S on it. As the pendant fell across her hand, EJ felt how heavy it was.

‘I'd be cross too if I had that thing around my neck,' she whispered to the cat. ‘Come on, let's take you to your grumpy owner.'

EJ walked up to Sydney, keeping her eyes down.
‘Here you are, Ms Radisson,' she mumbled, holding out the cat.

Sydney grabbed the cat, turned and walked up to the large trailer, opened the door and slammed it shut behind her. EJ relaxed. She hadn't been found out. It seemed Sydney only wanted her cat—even though she didn't seem that fond of it—and to get to her trailer, quickly.

EJ edged closer to the trailer. When she was about two metres from the door she stopped, took out her spy pad and pressed the X-ray app, holding the pad in front of her. While to a passer-by it would look as if EJ was just reading something in her folder, she was actually looking right into Sydney Radisson's trailer. But EJ knew she couldn't just stand out the front of the star's trailer. She moved around to the side where she would not be noticed so easily. The inside of the trailer was like a luxury hotel. There were plush red sofas and a long, shaggy white rug on the floor. There was a glass coffee table that held an enormous vase with dozens
of white orchids and a bowl of chocolate bars, double-fudge chocolate, EJ assumed. From the roof hung a glittering chandelier. One wall was covered with mirrors and another with a row of black cupboards with gold handles and locks. EJ watched as Sydney put her phone down on the coffee table, picked up a sheet of paper and sat on the sofa. Eating a chocolate bar and stroking her cat, she studied the sheet intently.

Perhaps she is just learning her lines for the next scene,
thought EJ.

EJ watched for more than half an hour and nothing happened. Sydney just sat and read, eating chocolate bars and checking her phone now and then. Just as EJ was thinking that maybe Sydney Radisson was just a bad-tempered movie star and not a
SHADOW
agent at all, Sydney did something unusual. She checked her phone and then looked back at the papers and wrote something down. She got up, tickled her cat under its neck and then reached up and opened one of the cupboards
above the table. She took out three large, pretty-looking bottles, all with a large letter S on the front. There was a pink, an orange and a blue bottle. EJ watched as Sydney shut the cupboard and then tickled the cat under the neck again.

She really likes her cat,
thought EJ, even though she thought the cat still looked pretty grumpy.
But what are those bottles? I need a closer look.
She zoomed in with her X-ray. The bottles looked like perfume bottles but they seemed to have something other than liquid in them. EJ zoomed again. They were, as EJ knew they would be, full of tiny balls.

These must be the bottles the delivery women were talking about,
thought EJ. She watched as Sydney looked at her sheet of paper and picked up the orange bottle and gave it a shake.
What is she doing?

Then EJ was distracted as a woman ran up to the trailer. Just in case she was seen, EJ stepped back and began talking into her phone as the woman knocked on Sydney's trailer. With her X-ray app, EJ
watched Sydney quickly give her cat yet another scratch under the neck and then open the cupboard and put the bottles away before giving her cat one more tickle. She threw the paper she had written onto the table then looked towards the door and called out. EJ guessed she was saying ‘Come in', as the woman then entered the trailer.

Why would Sydney pet her cat if she is in such a hurry and why would she need to hide the bottles?
wondered EJ. Things were definitely getting more suspicious.

EJ could hear voices in the trailer. She couldn't make out the words but there was no doubt that Sydney wasn't happy. Her voice was getting louder and louder. ‘If I have to,' she finally yelled at the woman as the door suddenly burst open and she stomped down the steps in her high heels.

EJ came out from beside the trailer and walked past, scribbling furiously on her pad. Sydney didn't even look at her as she and the woman walked off.

EJ knew she couldn't keep following Sydney.
Sooner or later she would notice her. From what EJ had seen though, she needed to keep tabs on Ms Radisson, and she'd thought of a way to do it.

EJ walked towards the shooting area and stopped at the catering tent, taking one of the water bottles out of a large fridge. EJ then took her star charm from her bracelet and twisted. Within seconds it shrank to a tiny, sticky star in EJ's hand. EJ hoped her little plan would work. She took a deep breath and shouted out, ‘Ms Radisson! Ms Radisson!'

Sydney Radisson turned back looking surprised and more than a little cross. ‘Are you talking to me?' she snapped.

EJ ran up to her. ‘Yes, sorry for yelling, Ms Radisson, but you forgot your water.'

‘I have my water right here, can't you see, can't you see that?' snapped Sydney, glaring at EJ.

EJ gulped. ‘No, that water is no good,' she said, thinking quickly. ‘This one has added nutrients. It's been especially ordered for you.'

‘Oh well in that case, why didn't you say so?
Give it to me!' said Sydney even more rudely this time. ‘Come on, I don't have all day!'

EJ leant forward to pass Sydney the bottle and as she did, she pretended to stumble.

‘Hey!' cried Sydney as EJ grabbed the bottom of her trench coat. ‘What are you doing, you stupid girl?'

‘Oh gosh, I am so sorry,' said EJ, stroking Sydney's trench coat back into place. ‘Sorry, sorry, Ms Radisson, I tripped. Here is your water. I'll leave now,' said EJ.

‘Good idea,' said Sydney turning her back on EJ and walking onto the set.

‘Yes it was,' said EJ to herself as she re-opened her pad and pressed the star-tracker app. A map appeared on the screen with a yellow star. When Sydney moved, the star would flash as it moved along the map. A red light indicated EJ's position. EJ had successfully put the homing device on Sydney's trench coat and would now know where she was at all times. That was good, very good. But what she
most needed to know now was what those little balls were in the perfume bottles. She headed back towards Sydney Radisson's trailer to find out.

It was another message from
SHINE.
EJ opened it and read.

EJ checked the time. The text was received only three minutes ago. Was that what Sydney had seen on her phone? Was that what made her get up and go to the cupboard? EJ could see the message was
clearly a code and if it was a coded message going to Sydney Radisson, then it was confirmed: Sydney Radisson had to be working with
SHADOW.
She was obviously a better actor than EJ had thought. But what was the code? EJ12 would need to find out—and fast.

EJ looked at the message again.

She had seen Sydney pick up the paper as soon as she read the text message and then she had seen her write something down. Was that something to do with what ‘follow 44 to the letter' meant? EJ wasn't sure but she knew the only way to find out
was to get into that trailer and take a look at what Sydney had been reading. She checked the star-tracker. Sydney was still over at the set but EJ may not have enough time. She ran over to the trailer and pulled on the door handle but the door was locked. Calmly and quickly, checking that no one was watching, EJ took her key charm and twisted it to convert into a larger universal skeleton key. EJ put the key into the lock and turned it smoothly. She then opened the door and stepped up into the trailer, closing it quickly behind her.

This really is like a five-star hotel,
thought EJ, feeling the soft plush carpet under her feet and, for some reason, she wondered what the toilet was like. But now was not the time to explore the trailer, she needed to look at the sheet of paper. The piece of paper that Sydney's cat had just walked across on her way to settle 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.

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.

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

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 letter
was 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 the
orange 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 were
in 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 she had seen Sydney take the bottles from she hit a problem. The cupboard was locked but it wasn't a key lock so her universal key wouldn't work. It looked like some kind of card-swipe lock but Sydney hadn't used a card—or had she? In her mind, EJ replayed what she had watched Sydney do and then remembered that she had stroked her cat under the chin before
and after opening the cupboard. EJ looked at the little pendant on the cat's collar, the one that was so heavy.

‘I wonder,' she said as she felt around the edge of the pendant. ‘Hold on, little one, I won't hurt you. I just want to look at your pretty pendant.' There was a small clip on the side that EJ pushed up. The back of the pendant flipped out and a small metal card fell out. As EJ took the card and slid the back of the pendant into place again, she noticed the cat's name inscribed on the back.

That's a funny name,
thought EJ.
Does it mean something important?
She pressed her word app on her pad and quickly keyed in the name. She
smiled when she saw what appeared on the screen.