White Band 10
The Day of the
the f o y he Da
HAUNTED HOUSE
Location:
D E T N HAU E S U HO T
A very spooky house
Operative: Merit – ready for action. Or is he? Mission:
Find out why there’s a mysterious red light coming from the spooky old house.
Browse the complete Collins catalogue at
www.collins.co.uk ISBN 978-0-00-839915-3
An adventure story 9 780008 399153 www.collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat
99153_Cover.indd 1
Zoë Clarke Chris Callaghan Amit Tayal
11/11/2020 14:54
e
of th y a D The
D E T N U A H E S U HO
Written by Chris Callaghan and ZoĂŤ Clarke Illustrated by Amit Tayal
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Shinoy and the Chaos Crew When Shinoy downloads the Chaos Crew app on his phone, a glitch in the system gives him the power to summon his TV heroes into his world. With the team on board,, Shinoy can figure out what dastardly plans the red-eyed S.N.A.I.R., a Super Nasty Artificial Intelligent Robot, has come up with, and save the day.
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1 Flashing red lights Shinoy, Toby and Milo were camping out in Shinoy’s back garden. Something had woken them in the early morning. A flash of red light was shining through the wall of the tent. “Umm. What was that?” Toby said. There was a pause, and then more flashes of red light. Shinoy and Toby poked their heads out of the tent flaps. Shinoy squinted into the dark. “It’s coming from the old house.”
Toby shuddered. “You mean the spooky old house.” 3
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“It’s not that spooky,” Shinoy said. “Really?” Toby replied. “I heard that Clive from Year Eight went to deliver the Flat Hill Gazette there and was never seen again.” “The same Clive who still delivers the Flat Hill Gazette every weekend?” Shinoy laughed. Toby harrumphed. “Are you going to call the Chaos Crew?” “I don’t think so. It’s just a flashing red light.” “Or S.N.A.I.R. stuck in the spooky old attic,” Toby persisted. “He did get stuck in your bathroom once.” 4
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“Not every red light is S.N.A.I.R.,” said Shinoy. “Anyway, there are short flashes and long flashes in a pattern. S.N.A.I.R. is a bit more random.” Toby rummaged in his rucksack. “I’ve got a pen and notebook. I’ll write down S or L every time we see a flash.”
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After a few minutes, the flashing stopped. “I think that’s it,” Shinoy said. “So, what have we got?” Toby took a deep breath. “S S S S / S / S L S S / S L L S.” “You sound like a snake,” Shinoy laughed, throwing a pillow at him.
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2 A coded message Shinoy and Toby were still thinking about the flashing red lights when they got to school. “I think the pattern of lights might be a code,” Shinoy said. So, they sidled into the school library and checked out the non-fiction section. Toby flicked through a book. “What have we here ... smoke signals?” Shinoy shook his head. “No.”
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“Semaphore? That’s when you wave flags about, apparently.” “Definitely not.” There was a thin book squeezed between the others. “Morse code!” they said together. They laid the book on the table and Toby got his notepad. 9
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White Band 10
The Day of the
the f o y he Da
HAUNTED HOUSE
Location:
D E T N HAU E S U HO T
A very spooky house
Operative: Merit – ready for action. Or is he? Mission:
Find out why there’s a mysterious red light coming from the spooky old house.
Browse the complete Collins catalogue at
www.collins.co.uk ISBN 978-0-00-839915-3
An adventure story 9 780008 399153 www.collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat
99153_Cover.indd 1
Zoë Clarke Chris Callaghan Amit Tayal
11/11/2020 14:54