Desert Disaster Read Free Page B

a whole year without water.”
    “Get it out, get it out, get it out!” whimpered Horace as the scorpion crawled under his desk.
    “All in good time,” Sir Rupert replied with a withering look. “The desert itself is almost entirely composed of sand which forms in dunes. These are large hills or even mountains of sand made by the strong winds, known as the sirocco , that whip across the desert. The dunes can be very dangerous, especially when driving over them.”
    Horace was practically jumping up and down on the table now. “Please! Take it away!”
    Missy rolled her eyes and stood up. “Keep your pants on. I’ll get it.”
    She calmly grabbed her metal pencil case and emptied it on the desk. Then she walked over to the scorpion and trapped it under the tin, as easily as if she was dealing with a fly. Carefully she took it over to Sir Rupert, who took the case with a warm smile. “Thank you, Missy. You weren’t scared?”
    “Nah,” she said, sitting back down. “Not really. I’ve seen bigger. Once I woke up to find a forest scorpion on my pillow. Big as a dingo, that critter was!”
    “Excellent! Everyone should take a leaf out of Miss McGovern’s book. Keep calm, keep cool, and if possible keep away.”
    Horace jumped down from the desk. “You’re insane! You’ll never work again! Releasing a scorpion into a classroom? My father will hear of this!” he said, hurrying to the door.
    “I don’t know what Horace is complaining about – he smashed the glass,” said Chip.
    “Well, what’s done is done,” said Sir Rupert, packing Sting away in his rucksack. “We’ll call it a day, I think. Good luck to everyone for the next race!”
    “Wherever that might be,” said Kako.
    Sir Rupert smiled, and Jimmy saw the glint of mischievousness again. “Well, if you’ve been paying attention in this lesson, you should know everything you need to about the location of the race.” Then he tapped the side of his nose as if to say, “y ou didn’t hear it from me.”
    Jimmy smiled and felt his heart pumping faster. He looked into the faces of each of the four remaining racers in the room and in a breathless whisper said, “I think I know where we’re going.”
    At that moment they heard a bing! through the airship’s speakers, followed by the robot co-ordinator Joshua Johnson’s clear voice saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing in approximately ten minutes. That’s ten minutes.”
    Jimmy and the other racers burst out of the classroom like they’d just heard the starting pistol at the start of a sprint. Jimmy felt the slight turn of the airship, the floor tilting underneath him.
    “Last one to the observation deck is a rusty wheel nut!” Missy yelled, and sped off down the corridor with a whoop. Jimmy and Sammy caught each other’s eye and smiled, before charging off down the corridor after her.
    The racers ran as fast as they could down the length of the ship, passing Horace on their way to the observation deck, a room at the very bottom of the airship that was entirely made out of glass – even the floor!
    Jimmy gasped when he saw the vast landscape below him. Looking down past his dirty trainers and through the transparent floor, he could see the huge yellowy-orange carpet of desert. His stomach lurched a little as he realized that there was just a piece of glass between him and a huge drop to the earth below.
    “ Sugoi! ” said Kako, which Jimmy had learned meant “Awesome!” in Japanese.
    “Woah!” said Chip, stepping out onto the deck.
    “I knew it,” Jimmy gasped. “We’re racing across the Sahara!”

Chapter 4 - Gadgets and Gizmos
    Jimmy tore out of the observation deck and back into the corridor. I’ve got to tell Grandpa about the location of the next race , he thought. Cabbie would need to be adapted for the sandy terrain.
    He ran to the workshop, where technicians and engineers were going crazy, running about and falling over each other in a mad panic to try and