Waiting for the bus to school the next morning, Sam looks really serious.
‘Are you all right?’
‘I think we need to tell your mum and dad about Curtis.’
‘I thought we agreed to investigate him by ourselves?’ This is the last chance for me and Sam to work together – I wanted to have at least a bit of this mission in our control.
‘But if he is definitely a mole and he’s trying to uncover your disguise, then it could be dangerous – for you and your mum and dad,’ Sam says. ‘The mission isn’t just about stopping someone from stealing something, is it? It’s about someone giving away important information to enemy spies. He could make the whole thing fall apart if we don’t manage to catch him before he catches us. I think we should tell your mum and dad everything we’ve found out so far.’
I hate it when people are right.
‘Okay,’ I tell her. ‘We’ll tell them after school. But until then, we put Curtis under extra surveillance.’
Sam smiles at me. ‘Deal.’
Trying to watch someone in the classroom is pretty hard. Especially when you’re supposed to be concentrating on a maths test. Luckily Curtis makes it easier by trying out his new Being Nice tactic on me and Sam. When Ms Hardy is out of the room, getting some more graph paper, Curtis walks up to our table and smiles. At least I think it’s a smile. It could be that he’s just put an entire lemon in his mouth and is wincing from the taste.
‘Have you always been into football, Sam?’ he says, leaning against the desk and twiddling with his watch.
‘Uh, yeah,’ Sam says.
I almost laugh when I realise that now Curtis seems to be concentrating on Sam! Maybe he thinks Sam is the undercover boy.
Curtis fiddles with his watch again. Something about that watch is nagging at me. It reminds me of something. And then it feels like a firework going off inside my head as I realise what it is. Finally we’ve got real evidence of what Curtis is up to.
I lift my hand and waggle my fingers as if I’m waving to Melissa on the other side of the room. She looks a bit confused (I’m not exactly a waving type of girl-boy) but I’ve got what I want – a photo of Curtis’s watch.
Curtis has to go back to his desk then because Ms Hardy comes back into the room but I’m grinning. If that photo shows what I suspect it will, then we have our proof that he’s a mole.
At home, back in Mission Control, I take off the Click-It Ring and ask Dad to bring up the photo on one of the screens. As soon as it appears, Mum swivels round to us. ‘Where was that taken?’
‘At school,’ I say. ‘We think a boy called Curtis might be a mole.’
‘What?’ Dad looks startled. ‘You mean one of the kids in your class?’
‘Yes,’ Sam says. ‘He’s new and he’s been acting oddly – trying to wind up the girls. We think he might be trying to make the person undercover slip up.’
Mum rakes her hair with her fingers. ‘Why didn’t you mention this earlier?’
I think about telling them about our little surveillance mission and then decide that maybe I’ll tell them later – much later.
‘We didn’t have any hard evidence – until now.’ I point at the photo on the screen. ‘That is what I think it is, isn’t it?’
Dad nods. ‘Yes. Well done. You’re absolutely right. It’s standard spy kit. A recording watch. Even from here you can see the evidence of the micro NEB008.’
Whatever that is.
Dad strokes his chin. ‘My guess is he’s trying to record you talking. If you say anything suspicious then he can pass it back to his HQ. I assume you didn’t say anything suspicious?’ He looks sharply at me.
‘Of course not!’ What do they take me for?
Mum lets out a huffy sigh. ‘I wish you would tell us these things straight away!’ She turns to Dad, frowning. ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do about tomorrow night, Jed.’ The little line between her eyes is back.
‘What’s happening tomorrow night?’
Dad sighs. ‘The last collection was supposed to be made during parents’ evening,’ he says. ‘It’s the most important gadget to pick up because it sets up the meeting where our HQ team will surround the double agent. But maybe doing the pick up at the parents’ evening isn’t such a good idea after all if this Curtis boy is a mole.’
Mum taps her fingers on the table by the gadget drawers. ‘It has to happen tomorrow. I need that gadget. Maybe HQ can rearrange the location.’
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mum look this worried before. I reach out and touch her hand. ‘Don’t worry, Mum, we can get round Curtis, can’t we, Sam?’
Sam nods. ‘I really think we can.’
‘We did all right with Mr Jones, remember?’ I can’t help reminding Mum of how Sam and I managed to convince the last enemy spy who tried to uncover my disguise that he was wrong.
‘Yes, you did,’ Mum says. ‘And without telling us.’ She narrows her eyes at me and then breaks into a smile. ‘But it’s true, you handled it well. Let’s see what HQ say. Maybe they can find another place for us to make the collection so we don’t have to worry about this Curtis kid.’
‘Or maybe we can deal with him.’ Managing to take this drop under his nose would be great. I’d like to pay him back for every nasty comment he’s made – especially the ones to Sam.
‘Did you say this is our last collection?’ Sam asks. Her voice sounds really small all of a sudden, as if someone’s turned her volume down.
‘Yes, I’m afraid it is, Sam,’ Mum says gently. ‘It will be the last part of our mission here.’
‘You mean after tomorrow night we’ll be free to go? And I can be a boy again?’ I can’t believe it – my trousers are finally in sight!
‘That’s right,’ Dad says. ‘But this is the trickiest mission of them all for your mum, which is why she’s so worried. And why it’s so important to take the drop without any problems.’
‘I get it,’ I say. And I do. I get it all – how dangerous this is, how good it will be for me if we get it right – and how bad it will be too. Because I’m looking at Sam and realising that this is our last mission together. Ever.
I might be about to get my trousers back but I’m also about to lose my best friend.