Secret Weapons Read Free

he actually felt something—like the bee coming in for a landing on the top of his ear—that he jerked his head and tried to duck away. And at that moment the heavy ladder gave a lurch, slipped out of his grip—and came crashing down against the shed roof.
    Ari froze in horror. A split second later a loud voice yelled, “Hey! What was that?” And in another split second Ari was off, running as if his life depended on it. Which it probably did.

Chapter 3
    H ALFWAY UP THE DRIVEWAY , while running at top speed, Ari came to a swift decision. The kind of swift decision that investigative reporters have to be good at making. This time the decision was—forget the cherry tree . Head for the holly bush .
    His cherry tree hiding place was farther away, and besides, he was pretty sure Aurora knew about it. And if she did, he wasn’t at all sure she wouldn’t tell, even though he was her only brother and not quite nine years old, which was way too young to be used for karate practice. The holly bush, on the other hand, was closer but a lot pricklier. Ari was way back in the holly bush when Kate came pounding down the driveway. Closing his eyes, he scrunched down among the prickly branches, trying not to say “Ouch.” At least not very loudly.
    After a minute he heard other footsteps going by. Softer ones. Probably Aurora’s. Both sets of footsteps came to a stop on the sidewalk only a few feet from Ari’s hiding place.
    “Did you see anyone?” It was Aurora’s voice.
    “No,” Kate answered, “I didn’t see the little geek. But it must have been Ari.”
    For a moment no one said anything. “Well,” Kate said, “don’t you think it was?”
    “Well, maybe,” Aurora said finally. “But maybe not. It could have been Bucky.”
    Right! Good for Aurora, Ari thought. It certainly could have been Bucky. In fact he’d heard a rumor that Bucky and his PRO buddies were planning to spy on other people’s science-fair projects to get some new ideas, because all the ones they’d tried had self-destructed. “Tell her, Aurora,” he whispered under his breath. “Tell her about Bucky getting new science-fair ideas by spying.”
    But Aurora didn’t say anything more and only a few seconds later Kate said, “Well, where are you going, twerp? I thought you were still asleep.”
    Ari pushed aside a particularly prickly branch and peeked out in time to see a small, pigeon-toed, bristly-haired figure trudging up the sidewalk. Carson Nicely. “I’m going to Web’s house,” he heard Carson say. “To see Web.”
    Just before Ari turned loose of the holly branch so he could stick his punctured finger in his mouth, he saw Carson start on up the sidewalk. But a moment later he heard Kate’s voice again. “Wait a minute. Come back here. I want to ask you something. Did you see anybody running out from behind the Pappases’ house just now?”
    There was a long pause. Ari pushed the dangerous branch aside again and saw Carson peering nearsightedly down the driveway. “No,” he said finally. “Who was it?”
    “Holy cow!” Kate said in an exasperated tone of voice. “That’s what I was asking you. We don’t know who it was. But somebody just tried to spy on our science project. Or else sabotage it.”
    “Sabo … what?” Carson said.
    “Sabotage. You know. Blow it up, or steal it, or stuff like that.”
    “Ohhh,” Ari heard Carson say. “Ohhh.” He didn’t say anything more but Ari could see that he was nodding his head slowly up and down and his eyes, behind his round glasses, were wide and glassy.
    “Oh for Pete squeaks,” Kate said. “You’re no help. Come on, Aurora. Let’s go look for clues. Maybe whoever it was left some clues.”
    Ari scrunched down again as Kate and Aurora’s footsteps went past him down the driveway. But he didn’t hear Carson’s going anywhere, so after a minute he peeked out again. Carson was right where the girls had left him—in the middle of the sidewalk. He was standing very