The Ruby Redfort Collection: 4-6: Feed the Fear; Pick Your Poison; Blink and You Die. Lauren Child
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route. She considered the tag’s printed number five. Five things, she concluded, the task is to retrieve five things.
There was no indication that she was up against the clock but she imagined she probably was, time was always a factor.
The task required her to make her way across the varied urban landscape. The lines on the tag gave her the necessary clue as to the direction she should go in; how she managed it was down to her.
And so she began. At first cautiously, assessing the terrain and planning the route that would take her to object one – a small bunch of keys; not easy to spot, particularly for Ruby whose eyes were not her greatest asset. The keys were lodged in a wall that she had to climb whilst contending with a fake rainstorm, which drenched her in under a minute – but even so it didn’t present too much of a challenge. Ruby slipped object one into her pocket.
One down, four to go.
The next was a yellow flashlight. It was perched on top of a shattered rooftop, the only way to reach it that Ruby could see was to climb the building’s crumbling walls. Bricks and plaster came loose as she made her way up and a whole section of roof fell away as she clambered onto the rafters, tiles and beams crashing down with the most almighty boom.
Oops, thought Ruby.
Ruby grabbed the flashlight and paused to take stock. The tag’s map indicated that she should make her way through the room beneath her and exit via a doorway into the adjacent building, but the room was now full of rubble and whatever doorway there might have been was gone. So she tucked the flashlight into her belt and found another route, much longer and more perilous and involving a certain amount of physical hard labour in order to uncover a trap door.
The third object was hidden in an underground space that Ruby had to crawl into on her stomach. She shivered at the prospect, Ruby being no fan of the small dark space. However, this was where the flashlight came into its own and Ruby traced the light across the walls, methodical in her search, and although she was not at all at ease she didn’t allow herself to become panicked (after all, RULE 19: PANIC WILL FREEZE YOUR BRAIN).
However, she was aware of the time ticking by and was sure it had taken her longer than it should to lay her hands on the copper-coloured coin that was object three. She needed to speed things up and so rather than continue crawling through this long winding tunnel she decided to resurface and make her way at ground level, that way she could pick up the pace.
From looking at the map it seemed that the fourth object was on the other side of the urban set, so she headed for the water tower, which stood fifty feet in the air. It was a gamble but as it turned out it was a good gamble. Having climbed the fifty feet to reach the wide platform that held the tank, Ruby chose not to make the final ascent by way of the ladder propped against the tank itself but instead to free-climb up it, using the wooden bands around it for hand and footholds.
Ruby took off her shoes – they weren’t climbing shoes and she’d have better grip with her bare feet. She was a good climber, and she shimmied up in no time, never looking to left nor right. At the top she found what she was looking for – a small penknife fastened to the surface by a metal band. It took Ruby no time at all to figure out that the copper coin would act as screwdriver and she could use it to turn the screw and release the penknife. She stood there on the edge of the tank surveying the terrain. She could see object five – she didn’t need to check her map, it was suspended from a crane, a large silver cylinder gleaming in the light.
Ruby didn’t want to lose time by climbing down from where she was, but if she was going to reach the crane by jumping then she needed to be on the other side of the tank. The only way was to dive into the water and swim.
So she did.
Hauling herself out of the water, she barely paused before making the leap from water tower to crane. Her heart lurched as her fingers slipped – she threw up her other hand and gripped the metal and swung herself monkey-like along the crane’s arm.
She could see the cylinder hanging from the end on a sturdy rope. Fall from here and she might cause herself some damage – or certainly end up with more than a few bruises. But she wouldn’t fall. Reaching the crane’s end she pulled on the rope, then grabbing the cylinder she used the penknife to slice through its tether. The cylinder was a good deal heavier than she had predicted and also awkward to carry, her solution was to push it up her T-shirt which worked just fine.
From there she used what was left of the rope and swung herself back and forth until she felt able to let go, flinging herself towards the scaffolding platform at the far end of the urban jungle.
To reach the end zone meant jumping across a gap wider than she had ever jumped, the drop beneath looked to be approximately thirty feet – it didn’t look possible but everything was possible, wasn’t it? She took fifteen paces back and then ran as fast as she could before leaping into the air, propelling her body forward, touching her toes on the far side, falling forward and gripping what she could grip.
She had made it.
Just.
She leaned against the wall and dropped her head to her knees; she was out of breath but she had proved what she needed to prove – she could get a perfect score. A guy in a white short-sleeve shirt and brown tie came out from behind the building she had been resting against, and stretched out his hand.
‘Thank you Agent Redfort, you made great time and a pretty good score.’
Ruby looked at him, stunned. ‘What? Did I wobble or something?’
RUBY WAS REQUIRED TO WAIT ON THE HARD METAL BENCH until someone told her otherwise. ‘About ten minutes or so.’ They didn’t even give her a towel. Or return her shoes.
No doubt she would be debriefed by some brainiac uber-nerd who would yack on to her about her skills, ego, motivation, blah, blah. To be honest, Ruby was not looking forward to this. The way she saw it, it was all so much hot air. Could she do it or not was the point – clearly she could, so why talk it over?
After what seemed like a long ten minutes, someone came to fetch Ruby and she was led to a grey door down a monochrome spiralling passage. On the other side of the door was another agent, also wearing a white short-sleeve shirt and brown tie. He was sitting at a grey desk shuffling pieces of paper around.
‘Hello Ms Redfort,’ he said getting to his feet. ‘I’m Agent—’
‘Gill,’ finished Ruby.
He looked surprised.
‘I recognise your voice from the phone,’ said Ruby.
‘You have a good ear,’ said Agent Gill. ‘Do sit down.’
Ruby sat and waited for Gill to speak.
He did some more shuffling and clearing of his throat before he eventually came to the point.
‘You took a lot of risks out there,’ he said. ‘I have to be honest, a couple of those objects I didn’t expect you to reach, given how high they were.’
‘Are you saying I’m short sir?’ said Ruby, her face in no way making it clear that she was kidding around.
‘I’m saying that you obviously took my advice and worked on your fitness; you made some very big stretches considering, well, considering. . . no insult intended Ms Redfort.’
‘Forgiven,’ said Ruby.
Gill looked a little perturbed but took a sip of his water and continued.
‘The thing is, there’s a problem.’
‘What? I made it without falling, didn’t I?’
‘Yes,’