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left my bedroom and switched off the light.
    As we left the house, Nosh nudged me and indicated across the street with his head. Two men stood watching us. The moment it was obvious we were looking at them as well, they turned and started talking to each other.
    ‘Who’re they?’ I frowned.
    ‘Must be the police,’ Nosh whispered back. ‘Maybe they’re hoping your mum will turn up tonight and they’ve been sent to grab her when she does.’
    ‘Or maybe they’re just waiting for someone who lives in the house opposite,’ I said dryly.
    Nosh was getting totally carried away! He always did have a vivid imagination. Much more of an imagination than me.
    ‘No, I reckon I’m right,’ Nosh insisted as we headed up his garden path. ‘Or maybe they’re reporters waiting to do an exclusive story …’
    ‘I thought you were meant to be the voice of logic and reason,’ I reminded him.
    ‘Oh, yeah! I forgot! In that case, like you said, maybe they’re just waiting for someone to come out of the house opposite.’ Nosh grinned.
    As we walked into Nosh’s house, I took one last curious glance back across the street before Nosh’s dad shut the door. The two men were both looking my way – watching me intently.

Chapter Six
Halle
    I FROWNED DOWN at the VAULT application’s password screen on Mum’s phone. Why had she wanted me to get hold of this in particular? What was on it? I needed to crack her password and to do that I had to try and think like Mum. What sort of password would she use? I sighed. Knowing Mum it could be anything. I glanced across the room at Nosh, who was in his own bed, deep into his Spiderman comic.
    Think, Elliot! Think!
    I had to work out what the password was – I had to. How about ‘Nosh is nosy’! No, too short! How about ‘Nosh is very nosy’! No. Still too short! Maybe if I … Without warning, the door to Nosh’s bedroom burst open. I’m surprised it didn’t fly off the hinges or at least crash through the wall to fall to the landing on the other side.
    Halle stood in the doorway.
    And was she cheesed off, or what! She had a expression like a constipated elephant and her whole body was poised like a cobra about to strike.
    ‘You maggot-faced little ratbag!’ Completely ignoring me, Halle strode across the room and lifted Nosh bodily out of his bed by his pyjama lapels.
    ‘Dad! DAD!’ Nosh yelled at the top of his voice.
    ‘Julian told me what you said about me, you … you …’ Halle released Nosh suddenly and he fell back against his pillows.
    I moved cautiously back against the headboard of my own bed as I watched, grateful that I didn’t have any older sisters!
    ‘What’s the matter?’ Nosh’s dad called from down the stairs.
    ‘Dad, Halle’s trying to kill me!’ Nosh shouted.
    ‘Halle, leave your brother alone.’ Nosh’s dad ran up the stairs. From the sound of it he was taking them two and three at a time. This was obviously something that had happened before.
    ‘D’you know what he told Julian yesterday?’ Halle turned to her dad as he entered the room, her eyes still blazing. ‘He told Julian that I was trying to find a way to dump him because he had bad breath and BO, but I hadn’t told him yet because I wanted to break it to him gently, without hurting his feelings.’
    Nosh’s dad’s lips twitched.
    ‘It’s not funny, Dad!’ Halle was spitting nails by now.
    ‘No, it’s not. Nosh, why did you tell the poor boy that?’
    ‘He deserved it. He has got bad breath and BO,’ Nosh replied.
    Nosh’s dad moved like lightning to intercept Halle. Nosh, very wisely, cowered back against the wall. ‘Halle, go downstairs and calm down.’
    ‘Yeah, go on. You talk about helping and protecting all creatures? You call yourself green ?’ Nosh taunted.
    ‘Not when it comes to you, you little brat! You’re the only exception!’ Halle bit out.
    ‘Halle …’ her dad began.
    ‘Call yourself an ANTIDOTE member? ’Cause I don’t.’
    ‘Harrison!’