Rio , livre ebook

Title Page
RIO

by
Ian Berry



Publisher Information
Rio published in 2014 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
The right of Ian Berry to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Copyright © 2014 Ian Berry
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.



One
My name is Rio, but I don’t dance on the sand. That’s pretty much my stock reply when people ask me what my name is. Mind you, then I have to explain about Mum and Dad being fans of Duran Duran. What? Never heard of them? Shame on you. Big pop group, had loads of hits around the eighty’s or thereabouts. Oh, I wouldn’t have heard of them either if it wasn’t for my personal connection. Anyway, they wrote a song called Her Name Is Rio. The rest, as they say, is history.
What do I do? I’m a photographer. Well ok, ok, I’m a schoolgirl at the moment but I’m going to be a photographer. I’m much more certain about that now that my friends the Saskias have gotten involved - but that’s another story entirely. And yes, I did say ‘Saskias’, plural. There’s two of them, and they’re both called Saskia - how weird is that - and they’re not related either.
The Saskias have involved me in all kinds of adventures. They even got me a security clearance to photograph the Prime Minister for them. Well not for them exactly, for the company they work for actually, the Robinson Corporation. Sir James Robinson is their boss, I’ve met him, he’s nice. Owns half the county I think. Anyway, did me no harm at school when it got out I’d actually visited him at his house.
Remember I said adventures? A phone call from a Saskia gave me an inkling there might be another one beginning. I had no idea .
“Hi Saskia. Where’s the fire?”
“No fire, just a question. Can we come and talk to you this afternoon? With your mum and dad? Not going to be with Dan?”
Dan is my boyfriend. He’s a photographer, a real photographer, works for the local paper.
“No. No Dan until this evening. Just me and Mum and Dad. What’s it about, Saskia?”
“Don’t want to tell you on the phone. Could be - interesting - though.”
“More pictures?”
“Sort of - in a manner of speaking. This afternoon - yes?”
“Ok. Any time. Not going anywhere. All a bit mysterious.”
“All will be revealed. See you later, Rio.”
Saskia rang off. I wondered why she wouldn’t tell me what was going on over the phone. Never mind, I’d find out later on.
The Saskias arrived in their white mini just after lunch. I answered the door and let them in. “What’s all this about Saskia?”
“All in good time. Did you have a good time last night? Not worried by being with all the mob?”
We’d all been at a party at Sir James house the previous evening, the Saskias and all their friends - and Dan of course.
“No. Not a problem. They’re all a bit like you really, even the boys in a way.”
“I think you’re officially a member of the mob now,” said Saskia Hunt. “And Dan. Did he see you home ok?”
“Looking out for me, Saskia?”
“Well, you asked us to.”
“We’ll get you introduced to Jeeves,” said Saskia Chandler. “I expect James’ll let you go use his pool and stuff, the rest of us can, anytime we like, more or less.”
“You’re joking. Just appear and ...”
“Yep. Even when James and Lydia aren’t there.”
“Oh wow.” I pulled myself together a bit. “Enough of that. Come on, explain why you’re here, I’m intrigued.”
“Need your mum and dad as well. Come on, lead the way.”
With all five of us sat in the lounge, Saskia Chandler began. “You know how we seem to get involved in all kinds of stuff? Well, there’s a little more to us than meets the eye.” she fished in her bag and pulled out a little folder. She passed it across for me to look at.
“Have any idea what that is?” she asked as I turned it over in my hands.
“Don’t know. looks like a identity badge of some kind. Got your name and picture on it. Hang on, MI5? MI5 ? Does that mean you’re a - spy ?”
“Yes, and then again, no. Not like you’re thinking,” said Saskia Hunt. “None of that James Bond 007 stuff. It just means we have a high security clearance, a permanent one, like yours.”
“But I don’t work for MI5.”
“Don’t be too sure of that,” Saskia Chandler grinned. “Who do you think did the checks on you to get you on the Royal Rota?”
“But - but ...”
“Ok. Sorry to shock you like that,” she said. “We need to tell you some things and then ask you some other things.”
“Strictly we should only be talking to you , you’re the one with clearance but that really wouldn’t be fair to your mum and dad. I’m sure we can trust them to keep quiet, after all, they’d have been included in the original checks, if they’d been subversive characters you’d not have got your badge.”
Saskia Hunt grinned at Mum and Dad who were sitting together. They looked a bit shocked at what they were hearing.
“Actually,” said Saskia Chandler, “we’ve already told you most of it. Saskia and I are MI5 operatives. We’ve been asked to ask you if you’ll do a little job for them. It won’t involve us, you’ll be working with Kyra and Katya, you know, the SuperTwins.”
Oh wow! I’d met the SuperTwins. They’d rescued me from the old steelworks when I broke my leg. I suppose you could say I was a friend of theirs.
“Now for some difficult stuff,” said Saskia Hunt, before I could open my mouth to speak. “First a question. How do you think Kyra and Katya knew where you were when you broke your leg at the steelworks?”
“I - don’t know,” I said. I suppose they heard me calling for help.”
“They did - but not in the way you think. If they’d heard you call, why did it take quite a long time before they came and fished you out?”
“I - don’t know. I’ve not really thought about it.”
“The answer is that they were actually visiting James, at his house when they heard you call out. By now you must have realised they didn’t actually ‘hear’ you call.”
Saskia Chandler took up the explanation. “Kyra and Katya are very mildly telepathic. Given the right circumstances they can talk to each other mind to mind. You, young lady, are a natural telepath. The twins ‘heard’ your telepathic call and shouted back to you. You told them where you were and they came and rescued you.”
“Oh, wow! That explains so many things! Sometimes I know what my friends are going to say before they say it - I sometimes hear what people are saying even when they aren’t speaking. I just thought it was my imagination.”
“So now you know it isn’t, it’s real, more or less,” said Saskia Hunt.
Incredibly, Mum was nodding. “I can do it too, a little. I can’t speak but I can listen.” She turned to Dad. “I sometimes know what he’s thinking, we made it a joke, but I knew it was real. I wondered if Rio would be able to do it, seems she can.”
Both Saskias were nodding.
“This is why we’ve been asked if you’ll help the twins. They asked us to do it rather than do it themselves because they thought you knew us rather better than them. They want you to sit inside an aeroplane and talk for them, translate if you like, while they carry the plane to take surveillance pictures. The three of you should be able to speak together without speaking - if you see what I mean.”
I thought quickly. “Can’t they just use a radio? Maybe not - no - definitely not, or they wouldn’t need me.”
Saskia Chandler nodded. “Radio silence it’s called. The twins will carry the plane with its engines switched off so nobody will hear it. Anyway, I have to ask - will you do it?”
“Oh yes! What an adventure. Just wait ‘til I tell - no - I can’t tell anybody can I?”
“Sorry, no. We’ll know, Sir James will know, for reasons that’ll become apparent shortly, but nobody else. Will you mind?”
I thought about this. “Is it important - this thing we’re going to do?”
“It might save a lot of people from getting killed,” she said.
“In that case you’re on. I’ll do it - no question. I’ll know what I’ve done. It’s enough.”
“In that case, we need to give you this,” said Saskia Hunt. She fished out an envelope and handed it across to me. “Keep it safe and don’t lose it.”
Inside was a badge like the one they showed me before. “It’s got my name and picture and everything. It says I work for MI5. What does ‘INACT’ mean? Here in teeny letters?”
“Means ‘Inactive’. Means you won’t get called on to do stuff you shouldn’t be involved in, the stuff normal operatives have to deal with. We’re the same, and so are Kyra and Katya. They have to ask us very nicely if they want us do anything for them. Take good care of that. It’ll open all sorts of doors.”
“Now you’ve agreed to do this, the twins will come calling, probably tomorrow. They need to make sure you can talk together without speaking. This’ll involve James’ swimming pool, which is why he’ll know about it. They’ll tell you a bit more about it if they think you need to know. We only know what - not why,” said Saskia Hunt. “Oh, and we know when. The Friday after Christmas. That ok?”
“I guess so. Can’t quite take it all in yet.”
“Your mum and dad will help,” said Saskia Chandler, I could see them both nodding.
“I’m sorry we’ve got to go,” said Saskia Hunt. “Sorry to drop a big bomb and run away but we need to organise the next bit. Then we get a bit of time off for good behaviour.”