Agent Crew

A qualified agent

As he contemplated the wet rocks before him, Clancy began to regret his decision to 'think like Ruby'.

He had made his way back up to Dasher's Peak, and after searching around for a good ten minutes, remembered that ground glows stopped being secret in the rain, and just lit up for any old villain to see and follow. If the ground glows had been here, he would have seen them this morning.

He kicked the nearest rock, and stumbled back, his foot now sore.

"Ow, ow, ow," mumbled Clancy, hands wind-milling as he hopped backwards. He knew logically that it was entirely his fault, but he still wanted to get as far away from the offending rock as possible.

In fact, he only stopped hopping when his back hit something soft, but unmoving, sending him wobbling forwards.

"Easy there, kid."

A steadying hand reached out to grab Clancy's arm, and he looked around to see Hitch, a stern but slightly amused look on his face.

"Thanks," said Clancy, as he gingerly lowered his aching foot to the floor. It didn't collapse, so he reckoned it was good. "What are you doing up here?"

Hitch appeared to raise an eyebrow, though Clancy couldn't be sure as his face was partially shadowed by the hood of his sleek black raincoat.

"Well, someone told me Ruby wanted to meet here," Hitch said. "And - as a, you know, qualified agent - I thought I'd check it out."

Ah. Definitely an eyebrow raise then.

"There's nothing here," Clancy told him, figuring he might as well lay some cards on the table. As Ruby had once told him (after he tried, unsuccessfully, to deny he had doctored his French homework): never kid a kidder {Rule 26}.

"Really?" said Hitch. "And you'd be a qualified agent too, now, would you?"

Clancy didn't have a reply to that, so he let Hitch start to nose around the area. He knew there was nothing to find here, and he even considered telling Hitch about the ground glows, just so he'd turn his attention elsewhere. But Clancy didn't like to dog Ruby in, even now. He'd save it until they were really desperate.

It was as he came to this conclusion that Clancy was startled by a dull thump from behind him. Hitch had started overturning the smaller, looser rocks around them. Clancy was about to say something snarky about leaving no stone unturned (you know, in honour of Ruby), when a thought stopped his mouth mid word.

"Clancy?" asked Hitch, turning at the strange sound. "Kid? You good?"

He was a complete bozo.

Not quite daring to get his hopes back up, Clancy overturned the rock that he'd banged his foot against (take that, rock), and walked through the dry patch of earth revealed. As he did so, a small circle lit up.

Ruby had been here. Ruby had been here.

But why leave the ground glow under a rock. It wasn't as if the rocks led anywhere, and they couldn't be anywhere else, because of the rain.

"Earth to Clancy?" called Hitch, sounding more than a little confused. "What in the Dickens are you up to?"

Clancy hesitated for only a second before blurting, "Rubystolethegroundglows."

Hitch didn't even look surprised.

"There's no trail, though," Clancy continued, when there was no response.

"Maybe," replied Hitch. "Still, wouldn't hurt to check under the other rocks."

So they did. And there wasn't a single other ground glow around, at least not under the rocks you could move without a forklift, and they were fairly sure Ruby didn't have one of those.

Defeated, they gathered round the one - now invisible - ground glow.

There seemed to be nothing that marked this spot, or the rock that had sat upon it, out from anything around it.

After about a minute of blank staring, Clancy kicked at the dusty earth in frustration, a few pine needles skittering away.

Clancy was about to apologise, when he stopped. There were an awful lot of pine needles, considering there's been a rock here a second ago. He brushed some more away with his sneaker, and looked at the bare earth underneath.

It wasn't quite as smooth as the earth around it. Granted, that earth was wet, but it looked almost - crumbly.

"Hitch..." He said slowly.

"You thinking that looks like it's been dug up recently?" asked Hitch.

Clancy nodded.

"Only one way to find out." Hitch squatted down, and pulled a long pencil from his pocket. He started to scrape at the dirt with the end, and the earth moved much more easily than cliffs usually do.

After only a few seconds, Clancy couldn't bear it any longer, and knelt down to help. He scrambled at the dirt with his fingers, and slowly it became clear that was they were excavating had already been a hole.

At last, Clancy's fingers hit something smooth, and he brushed desperately at the dirt above it to reveal the top of a biscuit tin. He heard Hitch suck in an excited breath - or maybe that was him.

It took far too long, in Clancy's opinion, to excavate the tin, but eventually they pulled it out.

It wasn't too old, that was clear, and Clancy recognised the brand. It was one that Mr Redfort ordered in from England.

"Ruby," breathed Clancy.

Clancy was glad when Hitch ripped the lid off. He felt like ripping something apart too. Especially if that something was hiding stuff about Ruby.

The two leaned over to tin, and Clancy felt his heart leap when he saw what was inside.

A notebook. A bright yellow notebook, with one sheet of paper - clearly ripped from inside - laid carefully on top.

Without waiting for Hitch, Clancy grabbed the letter and started reading it aloud in a (barely) shaking voice.

"Hey Clance. I'm guessing it's you, but if it's not - get out of my tin, buster!"

Clancy felt himself smile, in spite of everything.

"It's me, Rube," he whispered. Hitch remained respectfully silent until Clancy picked up reading.

"Sorry for flaking, by the way. But it's important. I promise I'll make it up to you, but first you got to do me a favour, Clance. Take this notebook to Mrs Digby and then get her to come up to Dasher's Peak. She'll work out the rest. Then I think you might be the best judge of what to do next. I trust you, Clancy Crew. I know you got this - Ruby."

If it hadn't been shaking before, Clancy's voice was definitely shaking now.

"Seriously, kid?" muttered Hitch. "You couldn't be any clearer than that?"

But all Clancy could think was that they finally had a proper clue. And he couldn't argue with the fact that Mrs Digby was a good person to have in your corner. She'd saved them all once before, after all.

Ruby trusted him, and Clancy was not about to let her down.