Dino World

Sleuthing Spies

Midnight and all was quiet in the luxurious hotel of Dino World. In the security room, a guard was calmly sitting in a chair with a mug of delicious hot chocolate, calmly watching the security screens that depicted everything that occurred in the building. He was just taking another swig, when something appeared on the middle screen that made him spit out his hot drink in alarm. A Spinosaurus was wandering right through reception!

"What?! How did she get in there?!" the guard spluttered, before darting out of the security room towards reception. No sooner had he left, than the grill covering for the air-vent in the ceiling swung open and Sam, Clover and Alex lowered themselves into the room via their Expandable Cable Bungee Belts.

"Boy, that poor guy sure looked alarmed," chuckled Clover. "He's going to be majorly annoyed when he realises that dinosaur is a fake, courtesy of the Hologram Projecting Mood Ring."

Sam rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Say, did you notice he was wearing an earpiece? I mean, every member of staff we've met here seems to wear them. I wonder if it's important..."

"It's probably just standard equipment here," said Alex as she connected her compowder to the main computer and started checking through the files. "Hey, check this out! According to the compowder, the guest list here has undergone various alterations and some of the security tapes seem to have wiped. It's like they're trying to hide that the missing guests were ever here!"

"That's not all," said Clover as she read the data coming in on the compowder. " That out-of-bounds mountain sure is drawing a lot of power out of the grid here. Now why'd you think they need to turn such a dull rocky hill into a giant battery?"

"I don't know," said Sam, "but I doubt it's all for some new theme park ride. There's definitely something fishy going on here, and something tells me that we'll find the answers we need over there."

Alex glanced at the security screens. "Uh-oh! I think the guard's realised that dinosaur of ours is a phony! He's coming back this way!"

Hurriedly, the spies disconnected the compowder from the computer and clambered back up the ventilation shaft. No sooner had they closed the grill covering than the guard came back in, having come to the conclusion that the Spinosaurus he saw was just one of the 3D display projectors misbehaving. Somewhat relieved that it had all been a false alarm, he wearily settled back in his chair and finished his hot chocolate, as the girls carefully made their way back up the vent to their rooms.

******

On the top floor of the building, Simon Hammond was in his office getting some late-night paperwork out of the way. A good-looking man in his early thirties, he straightened his mustache absentmindedly and settled back in his comfy leather chair as he continued checking through latest manifests for visitors and cargo coming to the island. All of a sudden, his earpiece started beeping and his face took on an expressionless look as though his feelings had been switched off like a lightbulb. He leaned over to the computer on his desk and hit a switch, whereupon an electronic voice began to come through on the speakers.

"SIMON. WE HAVE A SITUATION."

"What is it, DAN?" asked Simon in a robotic and emotionless tone.

"THERE SEEM TO BE SPIES CHECKING THROUGH OUR CLASSIFIED FILES," intoned DAN. "I REGISTERED THE FILES BEING DOWNLOADED IN THE SECURITY ROOM AND ACTIVATED THE HIDDEN CAMERA IN THE MAIN COMPUTER SCREEN THERE."

An image appeared on Simon's computer screen, clearly showing Sam, Clover and Alex in the security room, checking through the system there, blissfully unaware that they had been detected.

"Should I detain them?" inquired Simon.

"NEGATIVE. AN ARREST COULD PROMPT AN INVESTIGATION AND WE CANNOT AFFORD TO HAVE INVESTIGATORS HERE AT THIS STAGE OF THE PLAN. I THEREFORE RECOMMEND THAT THEY MEET AN 'UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT' WHILST THEY TOUR THE ISLAND TOMORROW."

"Is that wise?" asked Simon. "We're already having to cover for the guests that we have 'acquired' for the operation. Would an accident not draw more attention to us?"

"IT IS A RISK, SIMON," conceded DAN, "BUT ONE WE SHALL HAVE TO TAKE, IN ORDER TO FULFILL THE PRIME DIRECTIVE. YOU WILL MAKE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THEIR ELIMINATION IN THE MORNING."

And with that, the computer screen switched off by itself and Simon blinked, as though waking up from a deep sleep. Then he shrugged to himself and went back to his boring paperwork.

******

The sun rose brightly on Dino World island, making the start of a new day and the girls were already up and about, enjoying some breakfast in the canteen downstairs while they planned their next move. The three of them had changed into outfits styled like safari explorers, which Clover thought would be quite appropriate for their planned Jurassic exploration, and Sam had also got out a map of the island, so they could work out the quickest route to the mountain they were planning to investigate.

"Okay, as best as I can tell, the closest we can get to Mount Muldoon via the jeep would at the Stegosaurus area. We'll then have to jump out and make the rest of the journey on foot," said Sam quietly, making sure no-one else could listen in on their conversation.

Alex was a little doubtful about the idea. "I don't know, Sammy. Seems a bit of a long shot to me. I mean, what if it turns out that there's nothing villainous going on at that mountain at all? For all we know, they could simply be building new attractions there after all."

"Well we have to start searching for the missing guests somewhere," pointed out Clover as she finished her cereal, "and we don't really have any other leads to work on. Besides, it will give us a chance to check the island out a bit more."

"I'm more worried about the dinosaurs we'll be encountering," said Sam apprehensively as she folded up the map. "I know they've supposedly been programmed not to harm humans, but there's nothing to stop someone from reprogramming them to attack. If there is someone up to no good here and they realise we're onto them, we could be in for some major trouble."

"Then we better get a move on, before anyone gets wise," said Alex. "And we better watch our step too in case any of the dinosaurs do get hungry. I sure don't want to end up on their lunch menu!"