Rocky Road (5 page)

The Pink Shadows were really knocking out the song on stage. Shady Lady was now swinging over the audience from a rope suspended from the stadium roof.

With the headset off, the noise of the concert was almost deafening but with the headset on EJ heard something very unexpected. She could still hear the music, but now more as a fuzzy background noise, almost a buzz. The headset hair seemed to be blocking out all the noise, the band, the crowd, everything except Shady Lady's singing. And, as
EJ listened, she noticed something. Shady Lady was singing a different chorus to the usual version. As well as the words she knew, there seemed to be other, new words added to the chorus, a new one every ten seconds or so. And the headset made these words louder. But why? As the song was coming up to the chorus again, EJ connected her spy-pod to the headset and set it to record. There were the same new words again in the chorus.

The song finished and the Pink Shadows left the stage. It was interval and the perfect time for EJ to try to work out if those extra words were connected to
SHADOW.
EJ needed a place where she could be alone, where she could play back the chorus, but where could you find a place like that at a sold-out rock concert?

‘Oh no,' she said to herself as she thought of somewhere, ‘not again.'

The toilets. The only place EJ could think of was the toilets. Why was she always finding herself sitting on a toilet seat as part of a top-secret mission, and just when she thought this mission
was more glamorous?

EJ made her way towards the toilets but she wasn't the only one. In fact, it seemed like the entire audience was heading in the same direction and as EJ got closer she could see a long queue outside the women's toilets. So much for that idea, but where could she go? Then EJ spied a door with a sign saying ‘Cleaners only'. EJ tried the door but it was locked. EJ took her key charm and twisted it to activate the skeleton key. Quickly, hoping no one would see, EJ unlocked the door and stepped inside. Actually outside. EJ was standing outside in a dimly lit, very smelly area with all the rubbish bins from the food stalls.

Guess I was wrong,
thought EJ,
there is somewhere less glamorous than the toilets after all.
But it was quiet and she was all alone, which is exactly what she needed.

EJ took out her spy-pod, switched it to playback and listened. As the song, or at least what was left of it, played back through EJ's headphones, she took out her phone, scrolled to the notepad app
and keyed in the extra words from the chorus she heard.

That doesn't mean anything at all!
thought EJ, crinkling up her nose and looking at what she had written. Perhaps the headset was just broken after all. But then EJ thought back to the Shady Lady interview she had watched in the limo and to something the interviewer had said. She had said that the Pink Shadows song lyrics were ‘like a code'. Perhaps they weren't like a code, perhaps they
were
a code. A code EJ needed to crack. She looked at the words again and, with a pen and paper began moving the words around, re-arranging them to see if she could get them to make sense.

False Song? Was that something? False Song in code? But what was a false song? EJ tried again.

Was it something about the Last Song?
wondered EJ.
That made more sense than a False Song,
she thought.
And, hold on, Up Load Code, that had to mean something, but what?

Nothing seemed to make sense. At least some words looked like they might mean something, but not the whole sentence. EJ was sure that these words, in the right order, did mean something, something to do with
SHADOW.
EJ tried another word order.

‘Hmm, is that it?' said EJ to herself. Upload the last song? Maybe that made sense but the rest of the sentence didn't seem to mean anything. Or did it? Was False Note something? Was it something in code? EJ felt all the possibilities were now just whirring around in her head but she kept going. EJ tried another word order.

EJ looked at what she had written and then smiled to herself. ‘That's not right but now I am pretty sure I know what is,' she said as she quickly scribbled it down, afraid it might fly out of her head.

Up Load Code.
Yes,
thought EJ.
I am pretty sure the message is talking about an upload code. That would explain
SHADOW's
internet activity, they are uploading codes. And that upload code could be in the last song, the last song of something. Maybe it means the last song of the Pink Shadows' concert.

That could make sense, EJ decided but she still didn't understand what False Note was. She was, however, pretty sure she had the right word order and that the message was a code from
SHADOW.
And, that could only mean one thing—Shady Lady had to be connected to
SHADOW.
She was singing the message so she just had to be, didn't she?
thought
EJ, her mind spinning with what that meant.

A1 was right. It is all too much of a coincidence,
thought EJ.
How could we not have picked it up? The Pink Shadows, how could we not have got that? And Shady Lady? Of course, ugh, it's so obvious—once you know.

EJ again thought back to the interview. What else had Shady Lady said? She had said that she was taking a message to her Shadow peeps. Now it began to make sense to EJ. Could it be that Shady Lady really was ‘taking a message', a code, to her peeps and that her peeps were
SHADOW
agents? The Decoder Tour—that was how
SHADOW
had been communicating with their agents, through the songs! Shady Lady had been hiding the messages in the songs and the agents had been using the headset hair to decode it. Who would ever have suspected crazy pink hair would be the key to a secret message system? Then again, who would have thought that Shady Lady was a
SHADOW
agent? She had to be but were the other band members involved too?

With a sudden chill, EJ remembered what else
Shady Lady had said. ‘And for our last song at our last gig, we will play a brand new, never before heard re-mix of “Rock 'n' Shine”. It will be chaos!'

EJ needed to call A1 to tell her what she had found out. She took out her phone and called. A1 answered immediately.

‘EJ12, what is your report?' asked A1.

‘Shady Lady works, as you suspected, for
SHADOW.
I'm not sure about the rest of the band.'

‘I thought so,' said A1. ‘I never did like the way she treated her dog. That should have been another clue. What else did you find out?'

‘She has been sending messages to
SHADOW
agents via their songs and I think, but am not yet completely sure, that it all has to do with something you can upload called False Note. I don't know what that is yet but I think we can assume it is not good. And I think there are hundreds of
SHADOW
agents here, A1, all wearing pink hair and all waiting for the code in the final song.'

‘You must find out about that code before they do, EJ,' said A1.

‘I know. When the band goes back on after interval I'm going backstage to see if I can. Oh, and A1?'

‘Yes, EJ?'

‘You know that download link you received with the Pink Shadows song? I don't think you should open that.'

‘No,' said A1, ‘neither do I. Well done, EJ12, and be careful,' said A1. ‘
SHINE
out.'

Through the door, EJ heard an announcement in the foyer. ‘Please take your seats. The Pink Shadows' final performance is about to recommence. You won't want to miss it.'

I might just have to,
thought EJ. There was no time to lose.