“Let’s see her attack a smaller target,” Minnie said, activating her cloak.
Heathcliff watched Ruby move with lightning speed and land thunderous punches at what looked like nothing but air. She spun around and there was an “Oof.” She shot her knee upward and there was an “Aargh.” She jabbed a wicked uppercut and then there was a thump followed by a weak “I quit.”
When Minnie reappeared, she was on the floor with the beginnings of a black eye. “I believe her,” she croaked.
“This is a very important mission. The people we are going to confront are dangerous. Can we count on you?” Brand asked the bewildered kids.
Rupert nodded. “We’re in. We’ve only got one problem,” Rupert said. “We’re actually really lousy spies.”
“The worst,” Mikey said.
Ruby looked at Heathcliff and Agent Brand. “What can we teach them before I disappear?”
Heathcliff, Ruby, and Brand led the NERDS into a training room. Heathcliff was thrilled not only to meet such legends but also to feel like a full member of the team once again. Ruby was no longer giving him meaningless jobs to keep him busy.
Brand taught the children all he could about submission holds, pressure points, using leverage against opponents, and using their minds to combat muscles. His years of secret-agent training and knowledge of dozens of fighting styles were spread out before the freshman spies, and Heathcliff hoped they would take advantage of what they learned.
Ruby focused on intelligence, preparing the children for the environment they would soon visit and going over all the information about the BULLIES and Miss Information she had collected.
Heathcliff turned his attention to each of the children’s gadgets, helping them understand their capabilities, and even managed to find new ways to use them. Rupert could combine lenses to produce a bright flash that could temporarily blind an opponent. He expanded Macramé’s handiwork from yarn and knitting needles to rope and wire and even discovered she could chisel away at hardened concrete with her superfast hands. He taught Ghost how to expand her cloaking technology to hide other people and objects as big as cars. He taught Static Cling how to create a charge in his hair that he could hold and build in strength, making his electrical blast infinitely stronger. Mikey wanted to be known as Fantastic Boy for his ability to invent gadgets on the fly. Unfortunately, of all the agents, he was the most vulnerable in a fight.
“So,” Mikey said, grim-faced. They sat before a workstation he was using to create his inventions. “I sort of stink.”
Heathcliff shook his head. He knew exactly how Mikey felt. “No, you have the best gadget of the bunch. You’ve got a very imaginative brain. Your head will probably save the world more than the other gadgets combined. What have you been working on? Maybe there’s something here that you can use as a weapon.”
Mikey showed him a long stick with a claw on the end. When he pushed a button on its tip, the claw contracted. “It’s for getting things off of high shelves. I call it the Gator Grabber.”
“Um, probably not going to be much help unless your bad guy is hiding on top of a Christmas tree,” Heathcliff said. “What else?”
Mikey handed him what looked like a harpoon gun with a plunger on the end. “This is the Suction Gun. It’s also for getting things off of high shelves.”
“Right,” Heathcliff said as he tried to hide his nervousness. “You seem to have a thing about high shelves.”
“I’m tall, so everyone asks me to get things for them,” Mikey grumbled. “I build these things so people will leave me alone.”
“OK, but we need something that might be intimidating,” Heathcliff said.
“Oh! I got it!” Mikey scooped up what looked like a pair of Moon Boots made of metal. He slipped them on his feet and grinned. “What do you think? I call them Extend-o-boots. They’re designed to help you get—”
“—things off of high shelves?”
Mikey nodded, then frowned. “Yeah.”
Heathcliff forced a smile. “Maybe your skills are better suited for communications or planning.”
Mikey nodded. “Maybe you’re right.” He leaned over to take off the boots, and with a loud “Oops!” the boots extended him thirty feet off the ground on two spindly stilts.
Heathcliff craned his neck to look up at the boy. “Wow!”
“Sorry, the trigger is pretty sensitive,” Mikey said as the stilts lowered him back to the floor.
“How high can those go?”
“About forty feet,” the boy shouted. “But I could design them to go as high as a hundred. Why?”
“I think we’ve found something we can use,” Heathcliff said. “These amazing boots make you into some kind of butt-kicking beanpole. In fact, that would be a great code name for you—Agent Beanpole!”
The boy scowled as he descended to his normal height. “That’s the dumbest code name I’ve ever heard.”
“Well, they can’t all be winners. They used to call me Choppers—wait, what’s that?” Heathcliff asked, pointing to the massive silver box behind the desk.
“Benjamin!” Mikey cried. He pushed a button on the box’s side and it glowed with a blue light. “It’s called a computer. The other guys think I’m wasting my time, but someday it will help the team with its missions—if I can ever get it working.”
Heathcliff removed his backpack and took out the two halves of Benjamin he was trying to reassemble. “You’re not wasting your time.”
Mikey took the pieces and examined them closely. “This is my work. I mean, it’s super tiny, but this motherboard is my design! It works! Benjamin works!”
“Actually, it doesn’t at the moment. It’s damaged. I almost had it working again, but I had a setback,” Heathcliff said.
Mikey put on a set of goggles with thick lenses. “Well, it needs some wiring replacement, but I see a problem already. You’ve got a conductor in the wrong position.”
He took a set of tweezers and went to work on the robot’s inner workings. Heathcliff heard a click and then Mikey handed it back.
“That should do the trick. I’ve got some copper wiring over there if you need any, and feel free to use my tools. I’d love to see how he turned out.”
Heathcliff grabbed a few things he would need, thanked Beanpole, and shoved Benjamin into his backpack just as May approached.
“Agent Brand says we need to go. We’re about as ready as we’re gonna get,” she said.
TOP SECRET DOSSIER
CODE NAME: UNCLE MITCH
REAL NAME: MITCH CASTO
ACTIVE: 1998
CURRENT OCCUPATION: MANAGER OF A WAVERUNNER COMPANY
HISTORY: MITCH, THE UNCLE OF
FORMER AGENT AMOS “JUNIOR”
CASTO, DISCOVERED THE PLAYGROUND
WHILE SPYING ON HIS NEPHEW’S
AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES. HE GOT
TRAPPED INSIDE THE UPGRADE
ROOM, WHERE IT WAS DETERMINED
HIS BIGGEST WEAKNESSES WERE HIS
HANDLEBAR MUSTACHE AND
THIN COMB-OVER HAIRCUT. HE
WAS GIVEN THE NANOBYTE VERSION
OF A TRIM AND A SHAVE, EMERGING