Agent Crew

Just in case

As Clancy let himself into his house, he was surprised to be met with silence. Normally, he came home to the chaos that was his sisters, but today... Nothing.

"Hello?" he called cautiously, dropping his keys on the hall table.

When a few seconds had passed without a reply, Clancy's stomach began to cramp slightly with foreboding.

Relax, he told himself desperately. You're just a little on edge cos of Ruby, that's all.

He wished he could make himself sound more convincing.

Luckily, before Clancy could work himself up into a full-on panic, he spotted a note on the hall table.

Clancy - I am disappointed, son. While the rest of the family attend the Redforts' museum weekend, please reflect on your recent lax attitude towards school. I expect better when I return. The house staff will keep an eye on you, so no funny business. Your father.

The note left a lot to be desired when it came to fatherly warmth, it was true, but at least he knew where his family was now (he had completely forgotten about the 'museum sleepover' as Ruby kept calling it). The same could not be said for his friend.

Typical, the one time Clancy gets the house to himself he can't even enjoy it because he's too busy worrying about Ruby.

He thought back to the meeting with Hitch. They had parted awkwardly, both too worried to be polite. Hitch had offered Clancy the donuts, and Clancy, unable to bear the sight of them, had chucked them in a bin at the first opportunity. He felt kinda bad for wasting them. (As Ruby said, you should never waste a good jelly donut - was that one of her rules? He couldn't remember.) But they were starting to make him feel sick.

Hitch's last words, delivered with a heavy hand on Clancy's shoulder, hadn't helped.

"Don't worry, kid," he'd said, his voice low. "We'll find her."

He couldn't help thinking of the last time Hitch had come to him, wanting to know Ruby's whereabouts. It hadn't ended well.

Don't think like that, he scolded himself. Ruby's a tough cookie. You know that.

He shook his head, and started up the grand staircase. Normally, he'd take the opportunity of being alone to (finally) take control of the TV remote. But right now he just wanted to be alone.

As Clancy pushed open the door to his bedroom, he heard a muffled clunking sound. Confused, he looked down at his feet, only to see something rolling out of the slight gap he had created by opening the door.

He bent down to pick up the object. It was a long cardboard tube, with a paper wraparound in faded green. The label on the side was for an old brand of mints, but reading it made Clancy's heart skip a beat.

He recognised this tube of mints. Because it wasn't a tube of mints. It was a tube of ground glows.

His hands shaking now, Clancy managed to tip a few of the flat disks into his palm. They didn't look like much, but Clancy knew better.

These little beauties were Spectrum-made glowing trackers. Leave a trail and hopefully another agent will follow, Hansel and Gretel style.

Ruby had pilfered them from Spectrum once before, something Clancy was actually grateful for, since they had most likely saved his life after he got mixed up with some pretty unpleasant kidnappers (long story, blame Ruby). But as far as Clancy was away, she had given them back.

Wait. If Ruby had been taken (which history would suggest was the most likely scenario) then wouldn't she want her friends to find her?

And, being Ruby, wouldn't she have visited the gadget department recently to stock up - just in case?

The ground glows had worked once before, after all.

Hardly daring to hope, Clancy tipped the ground glows upside down. When nothing came out, he shook the tube. Still nothing. Only the five disks already in his palm.

There was only one person who could have emptied the tube, and left it in Clancy's room. The question was - why bother?

And when, Clancy added mentally. When had she been in his room?

The obvious answer was Sunday, when she'd come round to go over the French homework with him. Clancy felt guilt squeeze his stomach as he tried to think back to then, tried to remember if Ruby had seemed off. Had she been in danger that whole time, without him ever realising?

Clancy wasn't sure how long he stood there, just staring at the ground glows as if they could somehow tell him where his friend had gone.

Wait...

Clancy slapped a hand into his forehead, scattering the remaining ground glows onto the floor.

Idiot, he chided himself. Idiot, idiot, IDIOT.

That was exactly what the ground glows could do! As long as Ruby had been able to use them.

Excited now, in spite of his best efforts to stay grounded, Clancy banged open his door and rushed to his closet, flinging it open.

He rummaged through the shoes thrown haphazardly in the bottom until he pulled out a small, battered sneaker.

Far too small for him - but perfect for Ruby.

Clancy turned the shoe over and almost gasped in delight at the small circle attached to its underside. The activator.

After the whole Blue Alaskan wold debacle, Ruby had grown quite fond of the ground glows (Clancy too, though he would never admit it). Her 'lucky charm', Ruby joked. So when she had to give them back to Spectrum, she kept a little souvenir.

"No one's gonna miss this tiny little dot, Clance," she had argued when he found out. "And no one's gonna know I have it if you keep it safe for me."

And Clancy hadn't fought her too hard on it. One: because Ruby was a stubborn as a tomato stain. Two: he kinda felt like they were a lucky charm too.

Which was how Clancy had ended up with an old sneaker in his closet, the activator for the ground glows fixed firmly to the sole.

It had been their own, private 'just in case' plan. And thank goodness, because it looked like 'just in case' had finally come.

Clancy practically ripped the activator from the sole of the shoe, then lifted his own left foot into the air.

He hopped around like a one-legged pigeon for a minute, his arms wind-milling in a desperate attempt to stay balanced, before he finally flopped onto his bed, panting.

Once he had regained his breath (and his sense of dignity), Clancy lifted his left foot into his lap and fixed the activator firmly in the middle of the sole.

Now all he had to do was find the start of the trail. It couldn't be that hard - could it?