the hunt is on

5 graded readers

Antoinette Moses & Alexander Gordon Smith

Antoinette Moses & Alexander Gordon Smith

© 2018 – StandFor

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Moses, Antoinette

The hunt is on : standfor graded readers : level 5 / Antoinette Moses & Alexander Gordon Smith ; illustrated by Gilberto Martimiano. -- 1. ed. -São Paulo : FTD, 2018.

ISBN 978-85-96-01507-3 (aluno)

ISBN 978-85-96-01508-0 (professor)

Literatura infantojuvenil em inglês

I. Smith, Alexander Gordon. II. Martiniano, Gilberto. III. Título.

Índices para catálogo sistemático:

1. Literatura infantil em inglês 028.5

2.

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Literatura infantojuvenil em inglês 028.5

THE HUNT IS ON!

Alexander Gordon Smith is the author of eleven novels –including the Escape From Furnace series (Fuga de Furnace in Brazil), loved by millions of readers worldwide. His other books include The Inventors, The Fury, and The Devil’s Engine series. He is passionate about the benefits that reading and writing bring to people of all ages, and runs creative writing talks and workshops across the world. He lives in Norwich, England, with his wife and his daughters.

Antoinette Moses was born in London and now lives in Norwich. She writes plays and fiction, and has published many books including a guide to Athens, Greece, a cookery book, and a book of poems. She has also written over twenty award-winning books of short fiction for English language learners. Antoinette teaches creative writing at the University of East Anglia in England, where she also runs the Festival of Literature for Young People.

Alexander Gordon Smith and Antoinette Moses are also the authors of The Wrong Shoes for StandFor Graded Readers Level 2.

BEFORE READING

These are some of the people in the story. Match the names to the descriptions and check the answers as you read.

a. He loves working with computers and writing computer games.

b. He’s Paloma’s little brother.

c. She is from France and she is good at skiing.

d. She lives on an island and works in a café.

e. She’s very rich and bored.

f. He’s very rich and thinks that he can do anything that he wants.

g. He’s very strong and dangerous.

Check the things that you think are in the story. a cave P computers P crocodiles P a dog a motorbike a mountain P palm trees P a school a swamp P a train a waterfall P a yacht P

1

1. Sofie

2. Paloma

3. Byte

4. Flint

5. Paulo

6. Bear

7. Morgan

1 Chapter

The New Job

My new life is about to begin!

I can’t believe it, but it’s happening. I’m standing outside the biggest house I’ve ever seen. It’s like a palace, and the entrance hall is bigger than my mom’s apartment. I’m not here to meet a king or queen, I’m here to meet my new employer. I don’t even know what he looks like, I’ve only spoken to him on the phone. His name is Flint Castello and he has a sister called Morgan. I looked him up on the Internet. The Castello family is very rich, but Flint and Morgan don’t work. They just seem to go on one vacation after another. Flint wants me to work for him. He must really want me, because yesterday he sent me an airplane ticket, then a huge black car picked me up from the airport. And now I’m here in his house.

Oh, a door is opening. I get my smile ready. But it’s a man in sports clothes. I think I’ve seen him on TV. Yes, I know who he is, he’s a famous tennis player.

“Hello,” I say. I try to speak loudly, but I’m too shy. The man looks up, but he doesn’t smile. “Excuse me,” I say. “You’re Tim Rodgers, aren’t you?”

He turns towards me and lifts his bag on to his shoulder.

“Yeah,” he says.

“You’re famous,” I say. “I saw you play at the U.S. Open, on TV.”

“You saw me lose,” he says. “That’s why I’m here, teaching tennis instead of playing it. And now they’re bored of tennis.”

“Who?” I ask. “Flint?”

“Flint and his sister, Morgan,” Tim says as he walks past me. “They employed me a month ago; they wanted to enter a tennis competition. But they don’t care about tennis. Before tennis, they were interested in skiing. Before that, horse riding. Before that, who knows? Their interests last for five minutes. Why are you here? I can see that you don’t play tennis.”

I laugh nervously, but he still isn’t smiling.

“I make games,” I say. “Video games. I’ve just designed a new game called The Hunt.”

“But you’re so young!” he says.

“I’m seventeen,” I say. “Nearly eighteen. The Hunt won a video games competition. Flint saw it, and now he wants me to make him a special game.”

“Well, enjoy it,” says Tim. “Because they get bored very quickly. Flint is like that, Morgan too, they—”

“They what?” says another voice. I look up and see another boy, only a few years older than me. He looks like a movie star. His hair is perfect, his clothes are expensive, and he’s wearing a big gold watch. Being in the room with him makes me feel smaller. And even Tim looks a bit frightened.

“Sorry, Flint,” Tim says quietly. “I just meant—”

“I told you to leave,” says Flint. Tim nods and hurries out of away. Flint turns to me and I want to run out away as well, but Flint pulls me into the house and looks at me. His eyes remind me of a shark’s eyes; they’re dark and cold. He

doesn’t speak, but I hold out my hand. I try to stop it shaking.

“Hi,” I say. “I’m Byte.”

His face changes immediately and he smiles. His smile reminds me of a shark, too. His teeth are very white and he looks dangerous.

“Byte,” he says. “Hi!”

He walks up to me. He’s very tall, and he stands very close to me, so that I have to step back to look at him. He doesn’t shake my hand, he just puts his hand on my shoulder. I don’t like to be touched, but I’m too scared to say anything. He squeezes my shoulder, hard enough to hurt.

“Listen,” he says. “I need you to do something for me.”

“OK,” I say. The truth is I’ll do almost anything, because he has offered me more money than I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s more money than I can spend in a year. It’s the only reason I’m here. Mom told me not to come. “These people aren’t the same as us,” she said. “They’re not honest.” But I wanted to come here, and I wanted the job. She’ll understand when I come home with lots of money.

The Hunt is On!

Flint is about to speak, but another voice stops him.

“Who’s the boy? What are you doing now, brother?”

A girl walks down the stairs. She walks slowly, because she’s looking at her cell phone. She could be a model. Everything about her is perfect and she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. She looks like one of those photographs you see in a magazine. She stops in front of a huge, silver mirror, and looks at herself. Then she looks at me, but only for a moment. I don’t think she’s really interested in me.

Flint doesn’t look at her or answer her. He’s watching me. “I played the game you designed,” he says. “And I won.”

“My brother thinks he’s going to be a video game designer now,” the girl says as she joins us. She’s looking at her phone again. Flint finally lets go of me so that he can turn to his sister.

“Shut up, Dumbo,” he says. “This isn’t even for a video game.” He looks at me again. “Where did you get the idea for The Hunt?”

“The idea?” I say. I’m puzzled, but I love talking about my games. That is easy. “I wanted a game that was full of action, but which made you think. I wanted a game you could play with your friends online, where you could play against each other to win a prize. I wanted something new.”

“Nothing is new,” says Morgan. “Everything has been done before.”

“Not this,” I say. “In The Hunt you’re one of eight players dropped onto an island which is a long way from anywhere else. It’s a dangerous place, and there are lots of things that can hurt you. There are snakes and crocodiles and other animals. And there are dangerous rivers and caves and thick forest. You have to find a way through the forest to get to the middle of the island. And then you have to find your way across the island looking for clues, and the clues all lead to a prize.”

“A prize?” says Morgan, studying her hair in another mirror.

“Yeah,” I say. “I mean, in my game the prize for winning The Hunt was just an e-mail. If I make it into a real game, I think the prize could be something bigger and better.”

“A million dollars,” says Flint. I almost ask him to say it again because I can’t believe what he’s just said. He smiles at me. “A million dollars, that’s the prize.”

The Hunt is On!

“What!” I’m so excited. “Is that why I’m here? Do you want me to design The Hunt for you again, and make it better?”

“Oh yes,” says Flint. He puts his hand on my shoulder again and squeezes it. It hurts. I want to run away, but I also want to design The Hunt for him.

“OK, cool,” I say. “We can add more animals. Or maybe we can bring in some people from another planet, and—”

“No, you don’t understand,” says Flint. “Yes, I want a better game, a bigger game. But I don’t want a video game, Byte.” He smiles at me again. Even Morgan is looking at him.

“I want you to make The Hunt,” Flint says. “I want you to make it for real.”

“For real?” I ask.

“A real island,” he says. “Real people, real clues, real danger. Can you do it?”

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Making a game on the computer is easy for me, but can I make one in the real world? I nod. There’s so much money, I can’t say no. It’s going to be difficult, but I think I can do it.

“I knew you were going to say yes,” he says. “Good boy.”

When he says that, it makes me feel as if I’m a dog and I’ve just brought him back his ball. Flint looks at Morgan.

“I’m going to call Maximo and tell him the good news,” he says. “Sister, text the group and tell them that something big is about to happen.”

He walks away, and runs up the stairs, then he turns.

“And tell George to find the boy a room. Two rooms. He needs a room where he can sleep and a room where he can work,” he says. “The Hunt is on!”

“Talk to me, Byte.”

2 Chapter Byte

A Different Kind of Game

I cough nervously. I’m a bit worried, but I’m excited too. Flint is waiting for me to tell him about The Hunt. I’ve been living in their house for two weeks now. Actually, it’s their parents’ house, or one of their parents’ houses. But they aren’t here. It seems they aren’t here very often.

I’ve been working on The Hunt for eighteen hours a day. I think it’s almost finished, but Flint is angry that I didn’t do it more quickly. He walks up and down the room, and I think about a shark swimming round and round before it attacks. Tim was right about Flint and Morgan, they’re not patient people.

“OK,” I say. I don’t really like talking to people. I prefer computers. Computers speak to me. There’s something beautiful about the language computers speak, something simple and clean. When people talk to you, you never know what they’re really thinking. But with a computer, everything is there in zeroes and ones, it’s so clear. There are no lies. It’s why I’m called Byte. It’s not my real name. On a computer, a byte is something very small, which is how I feel when I talk to people.

“The Hunt,” I say. “I’ll start with the rules.”

“Rules are boring,” says Flint.

“Let him speak, brother,” says Morgan. She isn’t even listening, she’s looking at her phone. That’s all Morgan seems to do. I think she’s very lazy.

“Rule One,” I say. “There are six players. Each player must be a regular person, and not a soldier or a professional sportsperson.”

This will make the game fair. If a soldier or a sportsperson took part in The Hunt, they would win easily. Flint nods, but I’m not sure that he likes the rule.

“Rule Two. Each player is dropped into the ocean near the island. They must make their way to the beach where they’ll find their first clue. They must solve this clue to find where the next clue is. There are three clues, and the first person to solve the final clue, and find the prize, wins. They win the million dollars.”

A million dollars. That’s so much money, but it’s nothing to Flint and Morgan. They can afford to buy anything they want.

“Rule Three,” I say. “Each player is given a map and a big knife, but nothing else. They need the knife to cut through the forest. They aren’t given any food or water; they have to find that on the island.”

Flint just wants the game to be as exciting as possible. But I worry that it will be dangerous.

“Rule Four,” I tell him. “Each player has a camera on their chest. We’ll have screens on the yacht and we can watch all the players when their cameras are turned on. When a player turns off their camera, or when someone turns off somebody else’s camera, it means that the player is out of the game.”

Flint likes the idea of the cameras which you can turn off. But he wants more. I think he wants the players to attack each other with the knives. He’s older than me, but sometimes he behaves like a child.

“Rule Five,” I say, but Flint doesn’t let me finish my sentence.

“Rule Five,” he says, smiling his dangerous smile. “Is that Byte makes this game exciting or he doesn’t get any money.”

I feel my face go red. I’ve been trying to make this as exciting as my video game, but it’s different. My video game had robot armies, but we can’t have a robot army on a real island.

I look at Morgan, but she’s not listening.

Flint leans over me, and studies me with his dark eyes. “Why aren’t we ready yet?”

“It’s nearly finished,” I say. My hand is shaking. Flint scares me, but then almost everybody scares me. I don’t like arguments.

“We’ve agreed what the rules are, you’ve bought the cameras, but there’s one huge thing I haven’t found yet,” I say. I hope he doesn’t get angry. “We don’t have an island. I’m still trying to find an island.”

“That’s not a problem,” says Flint. “I’ve found an island. It belongs to a friend, and it’s perfect.”

“I hope the island is more fun than the Maldives,” says Morgan. “It’s so boring there. There’s nothing to do except swim, and we can do that from the yacht.”

“Of course, there’s something to do; we have The Hunt,” says Flint. “It’s Maximo’s island. He uses it for business, but nobody lives there. It’s perfect for The Hunt. We’re not going swimming, Dumbo.”

I can see Morgan hates it when her brother calls her that, but she never says anything. She just looks at her phone. I think he bullied her when they were young. I think he still bullies her.

“OK,” she says. “I still think this whole thing is stupid. I don’t understand why you want to play this game.”

A Different Kind of Game | Chapter 2

“You wouldn’t understand,” he says. “You’re too stupid and lazy. Maximo understands.”

Flint doesn’t talk much about his friends, but I know there’s a group of them. There’s him, Maximo, Morgan, Elena, Valentina, and Tucker. They call themselves Group Nada. It means “The Nothing Group”, which is strange because they have everything. Flint has invited them all to take part in The Hunt, but not as players. He won’t tell me what he wants.

I don’t think they’re very nice people, especially Maximo. When Flint talks about Maximo, Morgan looks scared.

“I hope you’re ready,” says Flint. He grabs my wrist and squeezes. “We’re leaving this afternoon.”

“What?” I say, trying to pull away. “But there’s still—”

“I’m bored of waiting,” he says. “It’s time to play. Pack your bag and be ready at one.”

Flint walks out of the room. Morgan gets up from her chair. She starts to leave, then looks back at me.

“I know you think this is your game, but it isn’t,” she says. “It’s his, and he’s going to change it. He’s going to make it something else, a different kind of game.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. She doesn’t answer, she just walks out of the door.

A different kind of game.

But what?

THE HUNT IS ON!

Byte designs computer games, and when he gets a call from the wealthy Flint Castello he can’t resist; Flint wants him to design a game just for him and his friends.

Paloma works long hours in her father’s café, so when Maximo gives her the chance to win a million dollars playing Byte’s game, she can’t resist, either.

But they both find themselves in much deeper water then they expected. Soon they are in a game of life and death.

StandFor Graded Readers provide a range of engaging reading materials for learners of English. Carefully graded by level, the series includes retellings of great classics and informative, factual titles.

Level 1 | 380 Headwords

Level 2 | 580 Headwords

Level 3 | 800 Headwords

Level 4 | 1000 Headwords

Level 5 | 1350 Headwords