Mum seems to have had a word with Dad because he doesn’t mention the whole body double thing at lunch. She must have made him realise how completely stupid and ridiculous and impossible the whole idea is. So when Sam and I set out to make our first collection at the post office depot that afternoon, I’m feeling quite cheerful.
The depot is behind the main post office in town. It’s basically a huge car park filled with all the Royal Mail vans that make the deliveries around the county. The instructions are to find the van with the licence plate details we’ve been given, use our set of spy car keys to open the van and pick up the package, which will have been marked with the HQ symbol.
Problem is, we weren’t expecting quite so many vans.
‘There must be fifty of them!’ Sam scans the parking lot and frowns at the sea of red vehicles.
‘We’d better hurry up and find the right one before someone notices us,’ I say. ‘I’ll take the left side and you take the right.’
Sam nods and heads off. I walk carefully among the vans, keeping a lookout for anyone working in the depot coming to ask us what we’re doing. The licence plate number we’re looking for is NE16 SSB and I read each plate off as I run from one van to another. My phone vibrates in my pocket – Sam’s found it! I run over to her. The van’s parked right by the gates and she’s already got the back open.
‘You stand guard, I’ll get in and grab the package,’ she tells me, reaching up to pull herself inside. We’ve been told the package will be hidden behind a bag of emergency parts on the right hand side of the van.
Behind us, there’s a bang as the depot door opens. ‘Hurry up,’ I hiss. ‘I think someone might be coming!’
‘I can’t find the package!’ Sam’s voice comes out from the depths of the van sounding panicked. Sam’s usually really calm so it makes me feel panicked too, especially when I see a driver approaching out of the corner of my eye. There’s no time to get Sam out without him seeing her and asking awkward questions. Like what we’re doing crawling about inside a Royal Mail van. My skin turns icy. We could blow the whole mission!
‘Quick, hide!’ I call through to Sam and then I close the van doors as quietly as I can. I crouch down behind the rear wheel and hold my breath, praying that the driver’s heading to one of the vans on the other side of the car park so I can get Sam out quickly. But a second later I realise we’re in trouble – the driver’s door opens and shuts, and the van moves off! It’s now I clock the licence plate – it’s one letter wrong. Not only is Sam being driven off in a van, it’s not even the van with the HQ package!
I leap up and pelt after it, shouting after the driver. ‘Hey! Please! Stop!’
For a split second I think he hasn’t heard me and then the van screeches to a halt by the gates to the road. The driver leans out of the window. ‘What’s up? What’s happened?’
‘I –’ Time to think on my feet – fast. ‘There was a cat – you nearly ran it over!’
‘A cat?’ The driver looks puzzled. I’m not surprised – there’s obviously absolutely nothing in front of the van.
I hear the click of the rear doors behind me as Sam climbs out. I babble to cover the noise. ‘Yeah, it was a big one, surprised you didn’t see it. It was huge. Almost like a lion really. A lion cat! Like the musical. Except obviously the cat wasn’t singing or anything. If it had been singing you would have noticed that, wouldn’t you?’
The driver gives me a funny look, and leans back into his seat, further away from me, as if I smell. Maybe he thinks I’m dangerous. ‘Yeah, well, it’s gone now, hasn’t it?’
I glance behind me and see Sam slipping back into the depot car park. ‘Yeah, yeah, it definitely has. No more lion cats here! Thanks.’ I step back and the driver revs the engine and takes off, giving me one last strange look before he screeches into the road and disappears.
‘That was close!’ Sam runs up to me. ‘I didn’t fancy being driven off on a postal round! Let alone coming up with an excuse of how I got in the van in the first place.’
‘Yeah, it would have been quite hard to explain,’ I say, grinning at her. My grin widens as I see over Sam’s shoulder the van we’re looking for, parked further back in the depot. Things are definitely improving.
Sam is frowning as she stares after the post van she got in, which is turning the corner at the top of the road. ‘But what about the package?’
‘I think we’ll have more luck finding it this time,’ I tell her, pointing out the licence plate I’ve just spotted.
Sam slaps her forehead. ‘I got in the wrong van? Sorry! And thanks for stopping him from driving off with me. You covered really well.’ She snorts. ‘Though what exactly is a lion cat?’
I raise my eyebrows, pretending to be offended. ‘Weren’t you listening? It’s an enormous cat that goes “miaow-grrr”.’ Sam snorts again and then we both collapse with laughter.
‘It did work though,’ I tell her when we’ve recovered.
‘Yeah, it did,’ Sam says. ‘And it’s hard coming up with something with no notice.’
It’s good to know I can manage in situations like this now. I wasn’t able to think on my feet like that when we first started working together.
This time everything goes smoothly. We open up the back of the van with our multi-remote key and Sam finds the bag within seconds. We’re out of the depot in under two minutes with the package safely tucked away in my rucksack.
‘Good teamwork,’ Sam says, as we walk towards the bus stop.
‘Bet none of the other spy partnerships at HQ work as well together,’ I say. ‘Except maybe Mum and Dad.’
‘Yeah.’ Sam sounds suddenly flat. I glance at her and see her face has clouded over.
My stomach sinks like a deflated rubber duck. I know what she’s thinking. When we move, there will be no more working together. No more partnership. No more laughing about lion cats. More than anything, I want to ditch my girl disguise, but that doesn’t mean I want to ditch my best friend too.