EJ clicked on the mail message. The screen flashed and a prompt appeared.
EJ thought that might happen. What would Shady Lady’s password be? EJ looked at the little dog now sitting on the floor happily chewing on one of Shady Lady’s boots and smiled as she keyed in P-I-N-K-Y-P-O-O. She hit enter. The email opened.
‘Too easy!’ said EJ. ‘Thanks again, Pinky.’ The email was short but very informative.
SL1—that must be Shady Lady’s code name. EJ checked the time. It was 9:25, which meant Shady Lady would be here at any minute. Then EJ heard the audience roar. A moment later EJ heard footsteps coming along the corridor. The second half of the show was over and the band had left the stage. Shady Lady and the others were coming back to their dressing rooms to get ready for the encore, the final song. And EJ was standing in Shady Lady’s dressing room. This was not good. EJ closed the message and marked it as unread, she didn’t want Shady Lady to know someone had read it. She also didn’t want Shady Lady to find her in the dressing room. EJ looked around for somewhere to hide. There were costumes and guitars everywhere ... Then EJ saw another door with another sign.
The footsteps were getting louder. EJ had no time to think of anywhere else to go. She also realised that Shady Lady would see that Pinky-poo’s bow and stickers had been removed. She scooped up Pinky-poo, opened the door, darted through then quietly shut it behind her. As that door shut, the dressing room door opened and Shady Lady burst in. EJ activated the hyper-hear listening device on her spy-pod and could hear every word Shady Lady said.
‘Pinky-poo! Come here my baby. Pinky-poo! Where are you, darling?’ called Shady Lady. ‘Hiding again, you naughty little girl! Well, Mummy will find you but right now clever Mummy has a secret agency to shut down.’ She laughed to herself as she sat at her laptop and dialled in for her call with SHADOW HQ.
‘This is Shady Lady, rock star and SHADOW agent of the year reporting in to SHADOW HQ about False Note.’
A voice came through the laptop speakers. ‘Voice recognition confirmed. Proceed with report, SL1.’
‘ SHADOW agents are in place in the stadium and ready to receive the final upload code for False Note,’ said Shady Lady. ‘We have instructed them using Headset Hair, my compliments to whoever came up with that idea.’
‘We will pass the compliment on to AX,’ said the voice. ‘Please continue with your report.’
EJ jumped when she heard that. AX? It was Adriana. She hadn’t wasted much time after her last plan, Operation Lights Out, had failed. And, as EJ remembered back to her mission in Black Cave Mine, did that explain why Adriana had been listening to the Pink Shadows music? Had she been working on Headset Hair then?
‘Just to recap,’ continued Shady Lady, ‘little bits of the code for the computer virus False Note have been encoded into all our songs. With so many of the songs downloaded, there are now bits of code sitting on thousands of computers everywhere. The False Note virus has grown and has been spread further than we could have hoped and is now ready for activation. Once activated, the False Note virus will invade each computer’s hard drive and scramble everything. The computers will be useless.’
EJ was listening, stunned, not only to what Shady Lady was saying but to her voice. She sounded nothing like the rock star on television, instead she was very precise and businesslike. EJ felt a little sad. The Pink Shadows was one of her favourite bands. Was the band nothing more than a cover for an evil spy agency or was it just Shady Lady? Her mum had never liked Shady Lady, she always said you couldn’t trust someone in heels that high.
Shady Lady continued her report, ‘We have managed to email hundreds of agents inside SHINE and plant bits of the virus code. The silly SHINE agents have downloaded them themselves, thinking they are just song downloads. By sending the virus out in small parts, we have been able to escape detection by virus protection software. It is, simply, brilliant.’
A1’s email, thought EJ. Even A1 is building the virus! Then she thought of her family’s computer at home. We are building the virus. Millions of people will be.
‘Excellent work,’ the voice replied to Shady Lady. ‘We are impressed.’
‘I look forward to seeing just how impressed when I check my bank account,’ said Shady. ‘The final song tonight has been re-written with the upload code. Once our agents upload it, the virus will be activated and nothing will be able to stop it. I am sending through the code now. It will rock SHINE completely. False Note will shut SHINE down and no one will ever know how it happened.’
Except for me, thought EJ. I have to work out how to stop Shady Lady singing that final song.
Shady Lady was still talking but EJ had heard enough. She needed a plan and quickly. Then Pinky-poo barked.
‘Shhh, Pinky, not now, she will hear you. Oh, no she won’t,’ said EJ remembering the soundproof room. ‘But that has given me an idea,’ she said as she looked at her spy-pod. ‘Okay Pinky, now bark!’ EJ held up a Chum Chew and Pinky barked with excitement. EJ recorded it on her spy-pod then gave Pinky the treat. She then linked her spy-pod to her micro-speak and recorded the barking. She set the micro-speak for repeat play, pushed the pause button then placed the micro-speak in the far corner of the room.
‘Just one more thing,’ said EJ as she turned the light off. Then, just to make sure it stayed dark, EJ clicked her sneakers again, waited for the heels to fully extend before stretching up, holding Pinky with one hand and removing the globe from the light with the other. The practice room was now in complete darkness but, as an experienced night mission agent, EJ could handle that.
Still holding Pinky under one arm, she quietly opened the door between the practice room and the dressing room, just a little, then activated the play button on the micro-speak with her spy-pod remote. EJ hid behind the door. The noise of Pinky barking filled the room.
‘Oh, Pinky-poo, is that you, darling?’ cried Shady Lady getting up and moving towards the practice room. ‘What are you doing in there, you naughty dog? You know you are not supposed to leave your cushion!’
Come on Shady Lady, keep walking, thought EJ, keep walking.
Shady Lady was moving closer towards the practice room. EJ held her breath—and gave Pinky another treat to keep her occupied.
‘I can’t see you, Pinky, the light isn’t working. Come on, Pinky-poo, come to Mummy.’
The micro-speak kept playing the barking noise and Shady Lady kept walking towards it. EJ could sense Shady Lady was nearly at the back of the room. Like lightning and with Pinky under her arm, EJ stepped out from behind the practice room door and into the dressing room, shutting and then locking the door behind her. Shady Lady had been locked in the practice room—the soundproof practice room. EJ put her spy-pod against the wall and did a quick check with her hyper-hear.
‘Hey what’s happening? Let me out! Don’t you know who I am? I have an encore to sing!’ shouted Shady Lady.
‘I certainly do know who you are and you won’t be singing any encore,’ said EJ, although she knew that Shady Lady couldn’t hear her. ‘The only singing you’ll be doing will be in a SHINE security centre.’
Pinky-poo jumped on to her cushion and EJ went over to Shady Lady’s laptop. Sitting on the desktop was the re-mix of ‘Rock ’n’ Shine’ with the new lyrics. Somewhere in those lyrics was the upload code.
EJ studied the words. It was only the first part that was different, so that must be the bit that contained the upload code. The words to the last song of the last concert that contained the last code. Last, the last word ... Could that be it? EJ took the mouse and highlighted the last word of every line in the song.
Once EJ had highlighted the last word of every line of the song she then copied the words down onto the back of her concert ticket.
EJ was disappointed; she had been so sure that she had cracked the code. She read the words again, and then she smiled as she wrote the words out again, only in a slightly different way this time.
That was it, EJ knew it would be, the final upload code that would rock the SHINE network: 1-4-2-1. Except now it wouldn’t rock anything.
Feeling rather happy with herself, EJ called A1.
‘Hello EJ12. How are you getting on? What do we know about False Note?’ asked A1.
‘Quite a bit. I have discovered what False Note is. It’s a computer virus that has been sent out in Pink Shadows songs.’
‘But surely our virus software would have picked it up,’ said A1.
‘No, that is where SHADOW has been really clever. It only becomes a virus once the final code has been uploaded and that was going to be given to SHADOW agents in the last song at the concert tonight. The song had been re-written to include the upload code. Once the SHADOW agents received it through their crazy hair and headsets, they would upload it to the internet, activating False Note, causing computer chaos everywhere. But not anymore,’ said EJ feeling rather pleased with herself.
‘Well done EJ12! You have done a fabulous job,’ said A1. ‘But there is just one more thing we need to do to bring the curtain down on SHADOW.’
‘What’s that A1?’ asked EJ, worried that she had forgotten something.
‘Well, I was just thinking, shouldn’t that final song be playing now?’ asked A1.
‘Well it should be, but it won’t because I have Shady Lady locked in her own practice room. She will not be singing any more songs. She won’t be going anywhere.’
‘Good work EJ,’ said A1 ‘but...’
‘Yes A1?’ asked EJ. Have I forgotten something else? she wondered to herself.
‘Don’t worry EJ, you haven’t forgotten anything but we still have a problem. If Shady Lady doesn’t go back on stage for her encore, the SHADOW agents will become suspicious. We don’t want that.’ A1 was silent for a moment ‘No, EJ, I have an idea. The show must go on. The show will go on. The final song must be sung but not with the message the SHADOW agents are expecting.’
‘Great idea!’ cried EJ, who seemed to know what A1 was thinking. ‘We can send them a new message, something that will make them come right to us. We will be able to arrest all those SHADOW agents.’
‘Exactly,’ said AI. ‘Great minds think alike, EJ12.’
‘That’s brilliant, A1 but who will sing the new message?’ asked EJ12. She couldn’t think who SHINE would be able to send.
‘Oh, I would have thought that was obvious, EJ12. You, of course.’
That was not obvious and it was no longer a great idea. A1 had to be kidding.