“She threatened my family.”

“We can protect them,” Ruby said, taking a tentative step forward. “I know I look like a meddling kid who is in over her head, but I work with some very powerful people. We can move you and your family to a place she will never find you. You can start over without fear.”

Dr. Julian looked down at his vial and then back at her, clearly struggling with the decision. Ruby sympathized and wondered what she would do in the same situation: put her trust in some kid on top of a speeding train, or risk her family’s lives?

“All right, kid,” he said as he stretched out his arm to hand her the vial.

Ruby let out a deep breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “You’re doing the right thing,” she said. With her fingertips on the vial, she was suddenly overcome by a tremendous sneezing fit. The vial slipped and fell onto the top of the train. Luckily, it didn’t break, but it bounced and skidded toward the far end of the car.

“Hey, Pufferfish, everything OK?” a voice crackled in her head.

Ruby scowled. The sneeze wasn’t an allergic reaction or a touch of the flu but what happened when a tiny communication link implanted in Ruby’s nose was activated. It was supposed to keep her in close contact with her team members, but as she watched the vial disappear from view, she wished she could reach up her nostril and yank it out. Especially since she knew who was on the other end—Heathcliff Hodges.

“Pufferfish? Can you read me?”

Ruby growled. “You’re not supposed to be on the com-link, Heathcliff!”

“I wanted to help. Have you caught Dr. Diarrhea yet? Where are you? It sounds loud—”

Ruby squeezed her nose to deactivate the link and chased after the bouncing vial. It slid across the metal roof, threatening to shatter and explode at any second. She lunged face-first, feeling the slick glass in her hands once more, only to lose it again when another sneeze took hold. Ruby watched the vial hop across the gap to the next car.

“Hey, is everything OK? I think we got disconnected,” Heathcliff said over the link. “When you get back, we should run a diagnostic on your nostril implant.”

“HEATHCLIFF! If you don’t mind, I’m trying to save the world,” she said, hauling herself to her feet and disconnecting the com-link. Her eyes again on the vial, she dashed ahead, doing her best to keep her balance with the ever-changing shaking of the train. She was just about to reach down and scoop up the deadly potion again when …

“AHHH-CHOOO!”

Her right foot kicked the vial across the gap, sending it onto the next car.

“You have got to be kidding me!” she shouted as her fingers tingled. She was allergic to bad timing and even more sensitive to annoying people.

“Um, I was thinking that maybe I could send a message to the conductor to stop the train. Would that help?”

“I’ve got it covered!” Ruby bellowed. “And this would be over if you would just leave me alone!”

“Oh,” Heathcliff said.

She ignored the hurt in his voice. She knew he was just trying to help, but she didn’t have time for him. She squeezed her nose again to shut him out and leaped across the gap. Unfortunately, this landing was not as lucky as the previous ones. Her feet touched down on a patch of black ice that sent her slipping and tumbling over the side of the car. She survived only by snatching a metal railing on the roof with one hand and grabbing the vial out of the air with the other. Strong gusts sent her crashing into the side of the train as she struggled to pull herself back up with one arm. She imagined the bewildered passengers gaping at her through the windows and hoped they would be smart enough to look away before she fell.

Which was exactly what was going to happen. She just didn’t have the upper-body strength to hold on for much longer. Death was inevitable, but she had to focus on the vial. When she fell, it would fall, too, which meant it would shatter and soak into the soil.

She refused to be the cause of the world falling apart. There was only one way to stop it. She had to swallow the formula.

She had no idea what the glowing red chemical would do to her body. If a drop could take out a city, what would a whole vial do to her insides? The pain would be staggering, but it would only last a brief moment, and then she would fall and it would all be over. It was the only way to save the world. Dying was part of the deal when she agreed to be a secret agent.

She slipped the little glass tube into her mouth and ground her teeth into the cap in order to yank it off. But she was too late. The train went around a curve, and she was thrown against the car. The force was so strong that her grip was wrenched free and she fell.

But she didn’t hit the ground. There was another hand wrapped around her jacket hood, pulling her to safety. She lay on her back, breathing heavily, with the vial still safe—and sealed—between her teeth. In the cold winter air, her savior hovered over her.

“You can’t die on me, kid,” Dr. Julian said over the wind. “You’ve got to protect my family.”

Ruby nodded and removed the vial from her mouth. She squeezed her nose to reactivate the link to the Playground.

“Heathcliff, are you there? I have something for you to do,” she said.

“Really? Oh, boy!” Heathcliff cried.

Ruby set her mouth in a determined expression. “I want Dr. Julian’s wife and children taken into protective custody, and I want it done five minutes ago. You tell our people that no one goes home until the Julian family’s in a safe house. This is top priority.”

Heathcliff squealed with delight. “I’m on it. You can count on me!”

Dr. Julian sat down beside her, lifted the collar on his overcoat, and stared off into the beautiful green fields of northern England, which were slowly becoming more visible in the dawn light.

“So the world owes its continued existence to an eleven-year-old girl?” Dr. Julian asked.

“Actually, I’m twelve,” Ruby replied. “And don’t worry, Doctor. They only send me when James Bond can’t take the job.”

“And how often is that?”

Ruby sighed and turned to Dr. Julian. “Lately it’s been every day.”

When you are a supervillain, it is very hard to get respect from the rest of the criminal community if you happen to be cute, and unfortunately, Miss Information was terribly, depressingly adorable. She had big blue eyes, a button nose, tanned skin, and golden hair. She looked like a movie star. Her peers, on the other hand, were covered in ugly scars and had terribly twisted metallic limbs. Some of them had laser eyes or had been disfigured by chemical spills. Professor Zydeco had an alligator head and an accordion frozen in his chest cavity. Miss Information would have loved that! But no luck—she was a beauty. So she was forced to wear a mask that covered her whole head.

The mask had drawbacks.

First, it was very difficult to eat a candy apple while wearing it.

Second, it gave her terrible hat-head.

Third, whenever she called a customer service number and got an automated voice system, it never understood what she was saying. NEVER! She could shout over and over again, but the voice would always say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that. Let’s try again.”

But the mask did have two major pluses. The first was that it scared the living daylights out of everyone who saw it. She’d witnessed people wet their pants or even faint when they met her. That was cool. The second was that she didn’t have to look at herself when she wore it. Her face, as lovely as it was, brought on a wave of confusing memories—or were they hallucinations? She couldn’t be sure sometimes. It seemed as if she had lived several lives all crammed into one. Was the handsome man with the amazing hair real? Who were the superpowered children that appeared in her dreams? Why did she sometimes ache to wear a cardigan sweater? Why did she have to resist the urge to go into libraries and reshelve books? What was the Dewey decimal system? Why was she always “shushing” people? The mask quieted all of her questions. It made her feel sane.