Alligator Action Read Free Page B

out of his shirt. Sitting down in the tall weeds, they carefully opened it. Inside, set tightly into black foam, were twenty-one small plastic spray bottles, each about the size of a cotton reel. There was a label on each. The first label read “SPIDER.” The seventh label read “FROG.” The twenty-first label read “ALLIGATOR.”

    â€œWow!” Danny stared at Josh in amazement. “It’s the complete set of Petty’s S.W.I.T.C.H. sprays! Every single one!”
    â€œAnd you think she left them for us?” queried Josh.
    â€œWell—let’s find out!” Danny said, and he pulled out a slim, silver gadget from the box. There was a label on it that read “PLAY ME.” It was a digital recording device. Danny pressed PLAY, and a familiar voice rang out.
    â€œAaahh! If that’s Josh and Danny listening—well done! And if it’s not Josh and Danny, bad luck. This device is set to explode if it picks up traces of DNA from anyone else. So . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . BYEEEEEE.”
    Josh and Danny edged back from the box.
    â€œBut if I’m still talking, it is you, Josh and Danny. Good work, boys! Good work. I hope you didn’t find the self-destruct system in the lab too troublesome. Rest assured that there is nothing left down there now except rubble and mud. No possible way for Victor Crouch to find any trace of my S.W.I.T.C.H. project. Now—in the box is a complete set of all the sprays I have made so far. And if you’ve got them, it must mean that I have gone missing, presumed dead. Yes . . . I’m most likely dead.”
    Josh and Danny grimaced at each other.
    â€œAnd oh—what a loss to science!” lamented the voice. “How utterly, utterly terrible! But you—Josh and Danny—you must carry on my work!”
    â€œUs?” Danny looked appalled. “We’re not genius scientists! We’re eight!”
    â€œNow don’t start getting all spluttery, Danny,” went on Petty, as if she was right there with them. “And Josh—you will need your sensible head on. Contact the editor of
New Scientist
magazine and tell him everything! I want the whole world toknow what a genius I am. Or was. Oh . . . .” Petty had a little sniff. “
What
a loss . . .
what
a terrible loss....”
    There was a click and the recording ended.
    Danny and Josh sat in silence for a few seconds.
    â€œDo you think she’s really dead?” asked Danny, after a while.
    Josh shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. Someone kidnapped her. And we still have to find her.”

    â€œBut now,” Danny said, a grin spreading across his grimy face, “we’ve got something to help!” He tapped the box of S.W.I.T.C.H. sprays. “We can be anything from a bluebottle to an alligator!”
    â€œYes,” Josh said. “And how does that help, exactly?”
    â€œErm . . .” Danny said.
    It was one thing to have Petty’s complete set of S.W.I.T.C.H. sprays. It was quite another to know what to do with them.
    They got up and trudged down the garden, to the loose plank in the fence at the far end. They did not plan to retrace their steps through the deadly house. Back in their own garden they headed indoors and hid the lunchbox of S.W.I.T.C.H. sprays under the bunk bed. Mom was appalled when she saw the state of them. And Josh’s singed hair took some explaining. Josh had to say he’d been playing with matches. He lost a week’s worth of allowance.
    After a bath, they really could not think of anything else to do except watch TV in a daze . . .which wasn’t a great idea, because that dreadful Destiny Darcy show was on. “Don’t forget, people!” she was simpering into the camera. “We’re on tour! Coming to a town near you! Come and meet Destiny!”
    Josh and Danny groaned and went to bed.

Petty Potts sat back in the chair. A young lady was