 Venus Spring, by Johnny Zucker. Red by Jenny Bryce. Friday. The cobbled alleyway was lit by narrow shafts of moonlight, as the unmarked van perred to a stop at its entrance. In the back were the country's top teenage military cadets, male and female. They sat in absolute silence, their eyes locked on corporal Adam Lester. He glanced at his sleek silver watch, and eased open the back doors of the van. Go!" he hissed. Swiffly and noiselessly, the combatants streamed out of the van. Their guns pressed close to their chests, their legs striding over the ground. The future of the entire country rested on how well they performed in the next thirty seconds. But as they sprinted through the alleyway, their movements were suddenly halted. They completely froze in mid-stride. First coordinator Ed Frye pressed a button on the DVD remote, and the pictures of the teenage soldiers vanished from the screen. "'That's where you come in,' Frye explained, pointing to a large diagram tacked to the wall, marked with several red circles. "'From that second on, you lot are in the frame, everyone running in unison. You take the corner and head for your positions in the barracks. Are there any questions?' It was six p.m. and fourteen-year-old Venus Spring looked around and had to suppress a squeal of excitement. At three-thirty that afternoon, her school had broken up for the autumn half-term. She'd said goodbye to her mates and had his straight over to Elstree Studios. And there she was, sitting in a large room at the film studios with a group of teenage stunt artists. They had been rehearsing a storming the barracks scene for the last couple of hours, ready for the shoot the next day. Venus had dreamed of doing real film stunts ever since her stuntman grandad Dennis Spring had started teaching her stunt skills years ago. What had started off as a wish to spend time on film sets with Dennis had turned into a desire to become a fully qualified stunt artist. She'd even attended Dennis's stunt camp in the summer holidays to learn more skills, but it ended up thwarting a conspiracy to poison the local countryside with the plotter dying in a plane explosion and Venus thinking she'd killed the plotter's son Franco. That name still sent shivers down her spine. Contrary to her initial belief, he was very much alive and had warned Venus he was after her. Venus tried to put all thoughts of Franco out of her mind whenever they strayed there. In the past when she was on film sets with Dennis she'd only been allowed to do stunts when there was a break in filming and the set was in dead time.