Everyone went home that night and tried to get as much sleep as they could, aware that for the next few days sleep might not be found so easily.
The next day the trainees were each issued their mission briefing, handed their survival packs and offered a last chance to back out.
No one backed out.
A Spectrum agent, one Ruby didn’t recognise, had appeared from nowhere and was now handing out brown envelopes containing their instructions. Ruby pulled the tag which ran down the side of the envelope and pulled out the brown paper contained inside.
On it was written a code.
Ruby looked at it, frowning, for a few seconds. Then she smiled. Whoever had created the code had divided the message into six-letter chunks to make it seem more complicated than it was, but she soon saw what she was dealing with.
The clue was the frequency of certain letters.
In English Es and Ts appear a great deal more often than most other letters and Zs and Qs are in comparison pretty rare. Ruby surmised this was a substitution cipher, therefore whatever symbol was taking the place of E would come up most often, followed by T, then O, then A. The clumps of Xs she figured were just there to confuse so she ignored them.
She began substituting the most common letters, and soon saw familiar groups, like E, H and T and U, Y and O. She paused for a moment; the substitution gave her the right letters, but no recognisable words:
UYOLWI LEBDPR DPEOYB OILHET RCEPNI KOUNWN NARTRN IEXXXX.
NOEHTO ERHTDS IEFOEH TTAMIO NUNOUY LIWLEE SANCRA HXXXXX.
KMAEYU ROYAWO TEHTNC RAHUES NENNAD LRTSUE ARHOSE ORFMEH TARRCO LXXXXX.
ISWMEH TRHOSE SOASCR EHTVRE IRNADE ETHTRT IOTASP OTXXXX.*
KMEAUY ORYAWO TEHTON SEDCVR EIRNAD SCROST IXXXXX.
LWKADN WOEASM TRIULN TUYORE ANBDEY OEHTAE AWLRTL FXXXXX.
NFDIAD IDHNEN ACEONA DPLADD ETIIUL NTUYOR CAEHEH TNOLWD OADGEE DXXXXX.
OTNCEI NUNOOF TOOTSB AEMCAP.
OCCKLN IXXXXX; IOMNIS SELCDT MOPEXX.
ARWGIN NXXXXX: FIUYOE ARPTSD TEOIUR GLTNSEH TRHOSE UYOLWI LVHAEA FDEILN IUYORI OMNISS.
* EHTRHO SELWIL EBRTRD EENUOT EHTNCR AHYBTE AROHNN ATEGXX.
Then she looked again. The clue now was the repeating strings, like ‘NCRAH’, which had to mean ‘RANCH’, and ‘RHOSE’, which had to be ‘HORSE’.
Conclusion:
What she had in front of her was an anagram.
Ruby smiled as she decoded the mission instructions in less than one easy minute.
You will be blindfolded and dropped by helicopter in unknown terrain.
On the other side of the mountain you will see a ranch.
Make your way to the ranch unseen and rustle a horse from the corral.
Swim the horse across the river and tether it to a post.*
Make your way to the second river and cross it.
Walk downstream until you are beyond the waterfall.
Find a hidden canoe and paddle it until you reach the woodland edge.
Continue on foot to base camp.
Clock in; mission completed.
Warning: if you are spotted rustling the horse, you will have failed in your mission.
* The horse will be returned to the ranch by another agent.
Ruby was the first to decode her message and as a result had gained time credit before she had even begun. Once everyone was ready to go, one hour and forty-five minutes later (Trainee Lowe sucked at codes), she lined up with the others and was handed her rucksack.
‘Check your kit,’ shouted the agent as a general instruction to the group, ‘and make sure you take care of it. One: it’s all you got and two: it contains some pretty costly Spectrum equipment.’
The rucksack contained:
Socks, one pair
Thermals
Gloves
Scarf
Waterproof overtrousers and coat
Penknife
Small cooking can
Energy bars x five
One canteen of water
Binoculars
Basic map
Home–made compass
A micro–parachute
Once she had checked through her kit and was all set, Ruby walked over to Sam Colt.
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll remember everything you taught me. I got it all here in my head.’
Colt looked at her, his eyes full of concern.
‘In your head is no good,’ he said. ‘Your gut is where you got a keep it.’
THE PLANE HAD BEEN FLYING FOR SOME TIME NOW and what with the blindfold, the noise of the engine and the overpowering smell of plane fuel, Ruby felt she had lost all sense of time and place. She had no idea how many other agents were in the plane with her, or at what point they had parachuted out. She just waited until it was her turn. She felt a hand press on her shoulder.
‘You’re up Redfort,’ said a voice she didn’t recognise. She got to her feet, a little wobbly from sitting so long and the plane’s angle. With the help of the anonymous hand, she shuffled from the row of benches until she reached the place where the doors must be.
‘You ready?’
She nodded.
‘Sure you’re sure?’ said another voice she immediately recognised – it came from the cockpit.
Hitch’s voice.
As far as secret agents went, Hitch was considered the best. He was Ruby’s immediate boss, though some would doubt it to listen to her. If there was one thing that Hitch might want to change about Ruby Redfort, it was her mouth, or rather her inability to keep it shut when it might be a good idea to keep it shut. ‘Kid, we have a rule here at Spectrum, rule number one in fact. Did anyone ever fill you in on it?’
When faced with this bothersome question, Ruby would widen her eyes and say, ‘I’m not sure. Does it have something to do with not talking with your mouth full? Or is it no strappy sandals in the workplace?’
Hitch would mutter, ‘Why me?’ and remind himself that she wouldn’t always be thirteen and a total pain in the butt.
But, despite the banter and the occasional run-in, they got on very well and Ruby knew rule number one better than anyone.
SPECTRUM RULE 1: KEEP IT ZIPPED.
‘Hitch?’ she called from the back of the plane. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Someone’s got to fly this thing,’ he replied. ‘You OK kid?’ ‘Sure,’ said Ruby. ‘I’m looking forward to a little alone time.’ ‘Something goes wrong out there