Agent Crew

Definitely not panicking

Like Clancy, Hitch was not having a good day.

It had started well enough, with coffee and dry toast (what, it was a good combo) but the peaceful atmosphere of the kitchen was soon shattered.

Hitch's agent-issue watch beeped, the signal for 'get your butt over here ASAP' as Ruby had once put it.

He sighed, and tapped into the message.

'Need you at base 0700. Bring the kid.'

The name tab told him the message was from an Agent Singh. Hitch wracked his brains, but came up with zilch.

Still, the message was marked with level 1 security clearance, which usually indicated a sector head. Like LB.

With a last, longing look at his steaming coffee mug - still half full of his second drink of the day - Hitch got up, and went to wake Ruby. The kid would not be happy, but on the whole he reckoned she preferred keeping her job to sleeping in... Maybe.

"Kid?" Hitch knocked on Ruby's door. He didn't think it would wake her (that kid could sleep), but he wanted to give her a chance.

Silence.

"Okay kid, I'm coming in," Hitch warned as he pushed open the door.

"Up and at 'em," he said in a fake cheery voice, knowing it would annoy Ruby. "Spectrum's calling, Ru- "

Hitch's words were cut off as his heart stopped. Ruby's bed was empty. At 6:32 in the morning.

The sheets were rumpled, so Ruby had been here. But she clearly wasn't anymore.

Calm down, Hitch scolded himself. He was a professional agent, for goodness sake. He couldn't afford to jump to conclusions.

You can't afford to get attached either, whispered a traitorous voice in his mind, yet here we are...

Hitch twitched his head, sliding the thought to the back of his mind. Unhealthy, sure, but at this point it was a bit late to start worrying about his psyche.

The bed was empty, but slept in. First clue. Hitch moved to the side table. He scanned the usual clutter of objects - curse Ruby's allergy to tidying - before his eyes stopped on Ruby's alarm clock.

It had been a present from Sabina, a half-hearted attempt to combat her daughter's tardiness. Ruby never used it. Yet right now it was set to 6:00. 6:00 AM.

Either Ruby had been replaced by a clone, or something was up. Hitch tried to think back to the last time he'd seen her. Last night. They were talking about some code Blacker had asked her to help with. Hitch hadn't followed half of what Ruby was saying, but he'd understood enough to know that LB wanted the code deciphered ASAP.

For a brief second, Hitch felt a sense of calm. Because, of course, Ruby would get up early if there was a case to solve.

Then, the calm dissolved as Hitch remembered how Ruby liked to solve cases. On her own, with no plan, and heaps and heaps of danger. He started to panic again.

Before his imagination could run away with itself, Hitch pulled up Blacker's communication details on his watch.

Have you seen Ruby? he typed. He considered asking about the code, but it was better to keep it short with the communicators. And, besides, Blacker could get a bit carried away.

While he waited for Blacker to respond, Hitch decided it couldn't hurt to have a nose around. If Ruby didn't want him going through her stuff, she shouldn't leave it lying all over the floor.

There was a stack of books at the foot of her bed, all of them related to codes and ciphers in some way. Hitch assumed Ruby had pulled them out for research purposes. He flicked through the top book, but nothing leapt out at him. There weren't any bookmarks or dog-eared pages (which is a crime)... Nothing to indicate what Ruby had been thinking about at all.

Hitch sighed, turning to face the rest of the room. He spun in a slow circle, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary - hard, when you're standing in a literal pig sty. There was a pile of t-shirts in one corner, a stack of magazines by the door that had started to spill over, and a plug socket winding up towards Ruby's prized telephone collection.

The one Hitch was looking at was the lobster phone, the one that always reminded him of Salvador Dali. Wait a second...

If Ruby had cracked the code (and, knowing Ruby, that was entirely possible) and gone off on her own (again, more than likely), there was one person she might have told about it. One person who knew more about Ruby than anyone, even though he really, really shouldn't.

Hitch picked up the lobster and dialled a number he had memorised for occasions such as this.

Come on, Clancy, he prayed silently. Pick up.

The phone rang three times before Hitch heard the sound of breathing down the line. He let out a short breath of relief.

"Clancy, thank God," he said. "Listen, this is really important so -"

"Who are you?" asked a young voice, sounding mildly disinterested.

Somehow, Hitch managed to keep his cool. "Uh, I'm the Redforts' household manager. And, you are?"

"Oh, you're the butler," said the voice in recognition. Hitch clenched his teeth. "'M Olive."

It took Hitch only a second to place the name. The youngest Crew kid. Dammit.

"Is Clancy home?" he asked calmly.

Olive made a faint humming noise. "No," she said after a second. "He left after the first phone call."

The first phone call... That must have been Ruby.

"Okay, Olive," said Hitch. "When was this?"

"Dunno," said Olive.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

"Do you know where he was going?"

"He wouldn't play with me," she replied. "And it was really rainy."

It took Hitch a second to realise that these two sentences weren't connected - to his question, or each other.

"Okay, thanks Olive," he said, his grip on the phone turning his knuckles white. "You've been really helpful." He slammed the lobster back into its cradle.

His watch beeped, and Hitch looked down. It was a message from Blacker.

Nope, it read. Should I be worried?

Hitch typed back a quick 'everything's fine', then started pacing the room, which was no mean feet in amongst all the mess. Ruby hadn't spoken to Blacker. Of course.

What did he know? Hitch almost smiled, as he realised that was a technique he picked up from Ruby. He shook the thought away.

He knew that Ruby's bed wasn't made. Logical conclusion: she'd slept in it. He knew her alarm clock was set to 6:00 AM. Logical conclusion: that was when she'd woken up. He knew someone called Clancy this morning. Someone who made him leave the house. Logical conclusion: that someone was Ruby.

What Hitch didn't know was why any of those things had happened. But he had a feeling that if he could find that out, he'd find Ruby, too.

But, first, he had to go meet this Agent Singh. Hitch really didn't want to - what he wanted to do was drive over to the Crew Mansion and wait there until Clancy showed up to answer his questions. But you don't ignore a call from a level 1 clearance agent.

And afterwards he could go find LB. Kick up a fuss. LB could be stern with Ruby, sure, but Hitch knew she cared really.

Besides which, Ruby had stumbled into enough evil lairs by now for even LB to admit that the kid had something of a sixth sense for trouble. And trouble was Spectrum's business.