CHAPTER 1

A Mystery Unfolds

Billy and Ruby lived in a sprawling, old white weatherboardhouse in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Luckilyand most importantly on this particular occasion, they also had agenerous back-yard with lots of space to play, because this day, yousee, was Billy's twelfth birthday and his party was well underway.

The weather was just perfect, with blue skies and warmsunshine—a beautiful spring day. Squeals of laughter and children'svoices filled the air and mingled effortlessly with the sweet scent ofbudding jasmine and freshly-mown grass, topped naturally with theappetising aroma of sausages and hamburgers sizzling away on thebarbeque, to create a heady atmosphere of fun and excitement ...

"C'mon, Billy ... please let me have a turn." Ruby looked at herbrother beseechingly. "You've used my camera heaps ... and myprinter ... and my mobile ... and ..." Ruby paused for a breath whileshe mentally compiled a list of all the things of hers that she knewher brother just helped himself to. Not that she minded really; healways took reasonable care of her things—unless he decided to pullsomething apart completely, just to see how it worked. He'd alwayshad a very inquisitive mind it seemed and from an early age displayeda tendency towards this curious behaviour, having experimented onalmost every mechanical device in the house by now.

Mum and Dad often spoke of how they had to worry constantlywhen he was smaller that he'd cause himself an injury so they wentto great lengths to keep more dangerous things out of his reach.Nowadays, Ruby could spot the warning signs and had learned tohide certain things in her room for safe keeping. Anyway, Ruby triedto remind herself to be patient and not to forget that it was Billy'sspecial day after all.

"But jeez, you've got so much good stuff," she mumbled underher breath.

Among the many presents he'd gotten a new digital camera andhad already taken dozens of photos of his favourite cousin, Joey andof his best friends, Jack and Yohan. His friend Timmy was also thereand he was busy kicking a small football back and forth to Billy'syounger cousin, Ben, who was only four years old but loved beingaround the older boys. Ben was dressed as Leonardo, one of theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

At the moment he seemed obsessed with them and wenteverywhere in his costume. He even insisted on pizza for every meal,much to his mum's dismay. Ben was having a ball at the party and alot of the time was running around with half-eaten pizza in one handand his sword in the other, yelling "Cowa-bunga" and "Pizza dude'sgot thirty seconds!"

He certainly made the photos seem all the more fun. So too didthe twins, Adrian and Matt, who were identical in every way—sameheight, same brown hair: Matt just had a slightly thinner face. Thething was, they got mixed up by grownups all the time, which wasuseful on occasion as they were full of tricks and often up to mischief.They'd deliberately dressed identically today (a thing they'd normallynever do on weekends: it was bad enough being in the same schooluniform all week!) and were having a great time copying each otherand completely confusing all the adults.

The boys had all congregated around the cubby house, wherethey were all busily examining an impressive-looking version ofOptimus Prime. It was a huge metal robot with a royal blue face,red shoulders and lighter blue forearms and legs—just like he wasin the movie and naturally they each thought that they knew how totransform him the quickest. There was also the fearsome Megatron,leader of the Decepticons. Billy was a bit over the Transformers reallybut these were special. They were first generation originals from the'80's in perfect condition and were now collectors' items. They hadbelonged to his older cousins back in the day and had been handeddown to him. They were something to treasure.

Billy had in fact grown tired of taking photos by this stage andwas now eager to demonstrate his skill at transforming OptimusPrime. He was more than ready to show his mates how it was doneso he finally handed the camera over to a grateful Ruby withouthesitation.

"Just be careful, Rubes. If you wreck it, you're gone!" Billy warnedher sternly as an after-thought and she knew to take him seriously. Asher bigger brother, he'd shown his capacity to out-muscle her manytimes before and she well knew his policy of an eye for an eye. Ifshe broke his camera, he'd certainly break hers and take particulardelight in pulling it apart piece by piece.

"I'll be extra-careful, Bill. I promise. I just have to take somephotos too. Plus then you'll be in 'em," she added thoughtfully. Rubywas ten years old ("nearly eleven" as she kept reminding everyone),only sixteen months younger than her brother and was always tryingto keep up. Of course, she had her own pink camera and even aprinter to develop her own photos but she'd much rather use Billy'snew camera instead. It was better than hers with a nice big viewfinderand a really good zoom lens.

Ruby immediately aimed the...