The Complete Ruby Redfort Collection. Lauren Child

was almost about to give herself up when the first voice said, ‘Well, either that or go get some bug spray – it will be a large spider. You know how many spiders set off alarms and sensors? I’ll tell you, a lot.’

      ‘Really? Must have been a pretty elephant-sized spider.’

      ‘Don’t tell me you’re scared of spiders.’

      ‘Not scared,’ said the second voice, a little aggravated. ‘Just don’t like ’em is all.’ Ruby could hear the footsteps moving towards her.

      Darn it, she mouthed silently, as she tucked the whistle inside her T-shirt. Now she had managed to steal two things. She made herself very flat and began to crawl forward on her stomach. She was just about able to squeeze her way under the cabinets and make it to the door. Once in the corridor she sprinted as fast as she could to the restroom and retrieved her boots.

      When she returned to her seat in Buzz’s office she was rosy in the cheeks and perspiring.

      ‘You know, you don’t look so good,’ said Buzz.

      ‘Yeah well I don’t feel so good,’ said Ruby sincerely, ‘but give me a few minutes and I’ll be OK.’

      ‘So long as you’re sure.’ Buzz looked concerned, she wasn’t used to queasy kids ‘Well if you’re really certain you’re all right,’ she said warily, ‘LB wants to see you – I’ll walk you to the waiting area outside her office. Don’t go anywhere, don’t touch anything, in fact don’t move until LB comes to get you.’

      ‘Sounds like fun,’ said Ruby.

      No one was around, which gave her a good chance to have a snoop about. On the walls were big colourful paintings, all of them abstract. Some of them made your eyes ache to look at them.

      LB must be a fan of Op Art, thought Ruby. Her mother sold a lot of this kind of work at her modern art gallery and Ruby knew that it was usually very expensive. One entire wall was painted with concentric circles in colours which seemed to buzz and vibrate. Ruby stared at it so hard that she eventually lost her balance and fell forward. Putting her hands out to save herself she unwittingly pressed on a hidden catch and what had looked like a wall sort of became a door and swung open.

       Oops.

      There in front of her was a room completely empty but for hundreds of black and white photographs which covered the walls from floor to ceiling. Photographs mainly of people, people and cars – people up mountains and in jungles, people on elephants, people canoeing down rapids. One picture particularly intrigued her. It was of a youngish boy, sitting at the controls of an aeroplane and smiling at the camera. She guessed he must be the son of one of the agents. There was another of him scuba diving.

      Lucky kid, she thought. Right up high on the far left was a picture of a man looking a huge crocodile in the eye. He was making a stupid face, his eyes were crossed and he appeared not even slightly bothered by the reptile. The man looked familiar but even with her glasses on Ruby couldn’t quite make out who he was or where she had seen him before. Curiosity getting the better of her, she dragged a chair from the lobby and climbed up to take a closer look.

      ‘Well I’ll be darned, he certainly is some butler!’ she said out loud. Hitch could only have been about twenty or so in the picture, and out of a suit he looked quite different.

      ‘So, you’re a snoop, Ruby Redfort.’

      Ruby spun round, losing her balance, toppled off the chair and landed in an undignified sprawl on the cool rubber coated floor.

      She was eye level with a pair of bare feet – the toenails painted red.

      ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to, it was sort of an accident, the door kinda opened on its own,’ Ruby stammered.

      ‘What next? It wasn’t me?’ LB’s voice was chilly. She wasn’t mad – she was furious.

      ‘I’m not making excuses or anything – just saying it was an honest accident.’

      ‘You accidentally opened a concealed door? Accidentally dragged a chair into a private room? Accidentally stood on it and started accidentally examining my personal photographs? What complicated accidents you have.’

      ‘Well, when you put it like that it sounds kinda bad,’ said Ruby.

      ‘Too much curiosity can be fatal,’ said LB. ‘Something it is wise to remember.’ This statement sounded a little sinister and Ruby quickly picked herself up off the floor. She noticed she had torn a hole in her jacket – a huge rip down the left sleeve – which only added to her humiliation.

      ‘I’m sure I didn’t see anything important – by the way, that’s a very nice picture of you. When was it taken? You look kinda young, is that your boyfriend?’ Ruby was pointing at a picture of a girlish looking LB, who was smiling warmly at a good-looking young man. However, the real life LB was not smiling, she was glaring. If Ruby thought she was going to distract LB with the old flattery and fast talk then she had a great deal to learn about LB.

      ‘If it wasn’t for your test results and what we already know about you, I might be sorely tempted to think again.’

      ‘Look, I’m sorry, I’m not a snooper, not normally anyway...’

      ‘OK, cut the baloney, Redfort – you have a chance but use it carefully because right now I’m this close to telling you to take a walk.’ LB was holding her thumb and forefinger very close to represent the amount of slack she was prepared to give Ruby – it wasn’t much, about a millimetre.

      Ruby kept her mouth shut.

      LB pointed at a chair and Ruby sat down, but before anything could be said, a light flashed on LB’s desk intercom.

      She sighed an exasperated sigh and said, ‘now, I am going to leave you for about three minutes, certainly no longer; try not to touch anything – sit on your hands if you have to.’

      LB left the room. Ruby sat completely still for two minutes and fifteen seconds – not a twitch until she spotted a small brightly coloured object which had fallen under LB’s desk. She couldn’t help herself; she reached out and picked it up. It was a keyring, with a sort of puzzle attached. It had letter tiles you could slide around to form words, or perhaps a word.

      The door opened – Ruby quickly palmed the keyring and tried to act normal.

      LB sat down. ‘I’ll cut to the chase. We need you to go through some files – we recently lost our code breaker, and we find ourselves one very valuable brain down.’

      ‘How did you lose him?’

      ‘Her, actually – she died. She was on vacation, mountain climbing.’

      ‘She fell?’ asked Ruby

      ‘Avalanche; by the time they dug her out it was too late – they never did find her climbing partner.’

      ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Ruby, popping some bubblegum into her mouth.

      ‘Could you lose the gum,’ said LB. It wasn’t a question – Ruby lost it.

      ‘She was unlucky, there was no warning, it took everyone by surprise.’ LB paused as if collecting herself. ‘Anyway, Lopez was working on a case, code name Fool’s Gold – they uncovered a plot to rob the Twinford City Bank, though we still have no idea who is involved.’

      ‘The Twinford City Bank? The unrobbable bank?’ said Ruby, astonished. ‘When is it planned for?’

      ‘The evening the gold bullion arrives from Switzerland – it will be deposited in the Twinford Bank on April 22nd and the robbery is set to take place twelve hours later.’

      ‘So if you know all this why do you need me?’

      LB didn’t say anything for a long moment; perhaps she was wondering if she could trust this green-eyed short kid from Twinford.