Free Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz Page B

of him. “And this report just came in from Cairo.”
    “Thank you, Miss Pickering.” Smithers waited until the woman had left—using the door this time—then glanced quickly at the report. “Not good news,” he muttered. “Not good news at all.
    Oh well…” He slid the report into the “out” tray. There was a flash of electricity as the paper self-destructed. A second later, there were only ashes left. “I‟m bending the rules doing this,” he went on. “But there were a couple of things I‟d been developing for you and I don‟t see why you shouldn‟t take them with you. Better safe than sorry.”

    He turned the package upside down and a bright pink packet of bubblegum slid out. “The fun of working with you, Alex,” Smithers said, “is adapting the things you‟d expect to find in the pockets of a boy your age. And I‟m extremely pleased with this one.”
    “Bubblegum?”
    “It blows rather special bubbles. Chew it for thirty seconds and the chemicals in your saliva react with the compound, making it expand. And as it expands, it‟ll shatter just about anything. Put it in a gun, for example, and it‟ll crack it open. Or the lock on a door.”
    Alex turned the packet over. Written in yellow letters on the side was the word BUBBLE 0-7.
    “What flavour did you make it?” he asked.
    “Strawberry. Now, this other device is even more dangerous and I‟m sure you won‟t need it. I call it the Striker and I‟d be very happy to have it back.”
    Smithers shook the package and a keyring slid out to join the bubblegum on the desk. It had a plastic figurine attached, a footballer wearing white shorts and a red shirt. Alex leant forward and turned it over. He found himself looking at a three centimetre high model of Michael Owen.
    “Thanks, Mr Smithers,” he said. “But personally I‟ve never supported Liverpool.”
    “This is the prototype. We can always do another footballer next time. The important thing is the head. Remember this, Alex. Twist it round twice clockwise and once anti-clockwise and you‟ll arm the device.”
    “It‟ll explode?”

    “It‟s a stun grenade. Flash and a bang. A ten second fuse. Not powerful enough to kill—but in a confined space it will incapacitate the opposition for a couple of minutes, which might give you a chance to get away.”
    Alex pocketed the Michael Owen figure and the bubblegum along with the mobile telephone. He stood up, feeling more confident. This might be a simple surveillance operation, a paid holiday as Blunt had put it, but he still didn‟t want to go empty-handed.
    “Good luck, Alex,” Smithers said. “I hope you get on all right with the CIA. They‟re not really like us, you know. And heaven knows what they‟ll make of you.”
    “I‟ll see you, Mr Smithers.”
    “I‟ve got a private lift if you‟re going downstairs.” As Smithers spoke, the six drawers of the filing cabinet slid open, three going one way, three going the other, to reveal a brightly lit cubicle behind.
    Alex shook his head. “Thanks, Mr Smithers,” he said. “I‟ll take the stairs.”
    “Whatever you say, old boy. Just look after yourself. And whatever you do, don‟t swallow the gum!”

NOT SO SPECIAL AGENTS

    They had a late breakfast at a café in Bayside Marketplace, right on the quayside, with boats moored all around them and bright yellow and green water taxies nipping back and forth. Tom Turner and Belinda Troy had knocked on Alex‟s door at ten o‟clock that morning. In fact, Alex had been awake for several hours. He had fallen asleep fast, slept heavily and woken too early—
    the classic pattern of trans-Atlantic jet-lag. But at least he‟d had plenty of time to read through the papers that Joe Byrne had given him. He now knew everything about his new identity—the best friends he had never met, the pet dog he had never seen, even the high school grades he had never achieved. And now he was sitting with his new mother and father watching the