THE WOODEN SWORDS CHAPTER 13. - SERIOUS DECISIONS!

We desperately needed a spy and we had no solution. It had been a few hours since Tommy's visit and I was still annoyed at how easy he found out some of our secrets. James had increased his patrols around the treehouse and we were all worried about his threat to chop down our HQ, especially Timmy.

It had been decided that out next few serious meeting would not be held in the treehouse, but in another location that would be decided at the last minute. We were sure that Tommy and the cowboy gang were somehow watching us and waiting for our next move. They wanted to find out our weaknesses, but they didn't know that we don't have any.

We had all climbed back up the ladder and were sat in the treehouse. I had the feeling we were still being watched.

- I think we need to cover the windows, so nobody can see inside.

- With curtains!

- No, not with curtains! You can't have curtains in an HQ.

- You can in an embassy.

-It's not the embassy when we are all here. We could have camouflage, like they use in the army.

- Yeah, camouflage, but where can we get some?

- My mum might give us some of the sheets that Dad uses when he paints the house. They are green, with some dried white paint splattered on them.

- Do you think she'll give them to us, Alex?

- Maybe. We also need spy equipment, like they have in all those films. You know, small cameras, microphone bugs…

-BUGS! Where?

- No Anne, bugs are tiny microphones that nobody can see.

- If nobody can see it, then how do you find it?

- Well, we can see it because we put it there.

- Where?

- It doesn't matter. We don't have one anyway.

- Did you lose it?

- Shut up!

We didn’t know how organized our enemy was, so we made serious decisions:

1. Always talk in code.

2. Only talk in private.

3. Use the password.

4. Get revenge on Tommy.

- I’m not going to see you yesterday in the bush room!

- Are you okay, Alex?

- Yes, it is code. It meant ‘I will see you tomorrow in the treehouse’.

- But you're not coming tomorrow. You said you have to visit your uncle.

- Ralph, it was an example of code. I’m not coming tomorrow.

- Pardon, so you are coming yesterday? That doesn't make any sense. How can you come yesterday?

- No! I wasn't speaking in code that time.

- Oh…so you were talking in code?

- No, no, oh forget the code idea. Let's choose a password.

- Ralph!

- No, not our names.

- What about 'cake'!

- RALPH!

- Hey, you just said we aren't using names, Alex.

- I was telling him to be quiet.

- What about Switzerland?

- Chocolate!

- Curtains!

- Beggars!

- The password is 'password'. Nobody will forget that.

- Forget what?

- Ralph!

We could never teach these sorts of things to Ralph, even though he was my second-in-command it was difficult to get his attention once he began thinking about cakes and chocolate.

- Where shall we keep our weapons, Alex?

- I don't know, Perry. Maybe we should give them to George because he is the Weapons Master.

- I don't want to have to carry them all the way here and back home every time.

- We could leave them here.

- No weapons are allowed in the embassy!

- I think we should keep our own at home just in case there is an emergency.

- Good idea.

- Did you say the password is 'past world?

- RALPH! THE PASSWORD IS 'PASSWORD'!

- Alex, I think that Tommy might have heard you shouting the password. We should probably choose another one.

- Forget it now. What are we going to do to Timmy, err, I mean Tommy?

- Ha, I never thought of that before. 'Hello, Timmy!' 'Hello, Tommy!' Timmy, Tommy, Timmy, Tommy, Tammy, Timmy!

- Stop it or I'll tell your mum you hit me and she'll tell your mum and you'll be banned from the embassy.

- HQ!

- Sorry, Timmy.

- That's given me an idea, Timmy! You could tell your mum that Tommy threatened to burn down the treehouse.

- But he only said, 'Chop it down.'

- Exactly, when Tommy's mum tells him off for saying 'burn', he'll admit he said 'chop' and still get into trouble!

- That's really mean, James. Let's do that!