SWARM’s Agent K was at the wheel. The house was cordoned off and a crime-scene-unit van was parked on the pavement outside. Officers could be seen going in and out through the wreckage of the front door. Agent K glanced up and down the street to che...
said Alfred.The programmer was walking along the main corridor of SWARM HQ. To either side were offices, workshops and emergency living quarters.Beside him strode Queen Bee, and between them flew Chopper the dragonfly and Hercules the stag beetle, their precise mechanical wings keeping them exact...
The nine survivors of the Berners-Lee were sitting on raised stretchers, wrapped in blankets and being attended to by medics. A van drew up and a TV news team piled out. They barged their way through the crowd of onlookers and approached Commander Ferguson, camera and microphone pointed in his di...
Mum was wearing a black dress she’d bought specially for the occasion. Dad had dug out his old grey suit to wear, but Mum had made him give it to a charity shop and buy a new one. He came home with a suit that was almost identical to the old one.Mum had responded to the line on the invitation tha...
FBI HEADQUARTERS, Washington DC. Saxby Smart’s Crime HQ, my garden shed. Three major centres of crime-busting operations. But which is the odd one out? The answer is: my garden shed. Reason: because the other two have got heating systems, and my bloomin’ shed hasn’t. Durin...
Once again, it was propped up beside the leaky roof over the toilets. The caretaker was slapping on the waterproof DIY sealing thingummy whatsit with a huge, sticky-looking brush. And the sticky-looking bit was purple. ‘Morning, Mr Gumm!’ I called. ...
WHY WOULD ANYONE keep a diary? Not the birthdays-and-appointments-at-the-dentist type - that’s OK, that’s no problem. I mean the writing-down-stuff-you-don’t-want-people-to-see type. A diary like that is asking for trouble. You just know that someone, sometime, is going to read it. I mean, if you...
cried Auntie Madge. “I told you not to be long. I wish I knew what you got up to in my garage, all hours of the day and night.”“I told you, Auntie Madge, it’s a special project,” said Blackwater. “Don’t be so nosy.”“Don’t you be so rude, young man!” said Auntie Madge.“Sorry, Auntie,” smiled Black...
And that! And that! Ooooh!’ ‘Muddy,’ I growled through clenched teeth, ‘pack it in. People are staring.’ ‘But look,’ he cried, ‘they’ve got a proper laboratory. And have you seen the size of their canteen? And that sign up there says IT Centre. Not just a room like at school – a whole centre! I c...
Until recently, the man had worked for MI6. The woman had been an undercover agent for the CIA. Now, they worked for SWARM.Neither of them looked particularly remarkable, or memorable, which was exactly what they intended. Nobody around them in the crowded, echoing hall of the Underground station...