58 - Deep Trouble II
Page 6
“Excellent. You asked me earlier about the side effects of my plankton experiments, Dr. Deep. About the few kinks I haven’t worked out yet. I think now is the time to show you what they are.”
Dr. Ritter opened the glass door of the cabinet. “When fish eat the plankton, they grow huge.” He pointed to the bottles of plankton lined up on the shelves.
“You’ve already seen that, haven’t you? But what do you think happens when a human eats the plankton? Billy? Want to take a guess?” Dr. Ritter asked.
I took a stab at it. “Um—they grow into giant people?”
“Wrong!” Dr. Ritter cried. “Sheena? What do you think?”
Sheena shrugged. “I couldn’t care less.”
“You should care, Sheena,” Dr. Ritter said. “Because whatever happens, it’s going to happen to you.”
He turned to my uncle. “Dr. Deep? Any guesses? Or have you already figured it out in your research?”
“Just tell us what happens, Ritter,” Dr. D. snapped impatiently.
“All right. I’ll tell you. When a human eats the plankton, he turns into a fish!”
“Excuse me?” I cried.
“Is this fairy-tale time?” my uncle groaned.
Dr. Ritter ignored us. “The human becomes a fish!” he repeated. “Almost instantly! And that person will remain a fish—for the rest of his life.”
“That’s impossible!” Dr. D. protested. “You’re crazy, Ritter. Let us take you to shore and get you some help.”
“I’ll show you who’s crazy,” Dr. Ritter declared. “I’ll prove it to you!”
He grabbed me by the back of the neck.
“Hey! Let go!” I shouted.
He didn’t say a word. He just shoved me up to the glass cabinet. He shoved my face close to a row of bottles. Bottle after bottle filled with murky brown plankton.
“Take a bottle, Billy,” he ordered. “Any bottle.”
He pushed me again, until my forehead nearly knocked a bottle over. Then he let go.
“Go ahead,” he repeated. “Choose one.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why do you want me to take a bottle?”
“I’ll tell you why,” Dr. Ritter said. “Because you’re going to drink it, Billy. All of it.”
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I stared at the bottles.
“Take one, Billy,” Dr. Ritter insisted. “Or I’ll take one and pour it down your throat.”
I had no choice.
I reached up and picked the last one from the middle shelf.
I stared at it. Disgusting brown and green glop.
Not exactly the breakfast I had in mind.
“Wait till you see this, Dr. Deep,” Dr. Ritter said. He stared at me. His eyes gleaming.
“The growth hormone reacted strangely with the plankton,” Dr. Ritter explained. “As soon as the boy drinks it, he’ll turn into a fish. It takes only a minute or two.”
He grabbed the bottle from me. He opened it and handed it back.
“Drink.”
I lifted the bottle to my lips.
“No!” Sheena cried.
Dr. D. covered the lip of the bottle with one hand.
“Wait, Billy,” he said. “This is ridiculous, Dr. Ritter. Stop this silliness immediately. And let us go.”
“I can’t do that. I already explained why,” Dr. Ritter answered.
“You need help, Dr. Ritter,” Dr. D. said. “You’re not thinking clearly. You’re a brilliant man. You could be a great scientist.”
“I am a great scientist,” Dr. Ritter insisted. “I’m about to prove that to you right now! Drink, Billy!”
Dr. D.’s hand still covered the bottle.
Thank you, Dr. D., I thought.
“You can’t be a great scientist if you hurt people,” Dr. D. insisted. “Let us go. We’ll get you the help you need. Then you can change the world for the better.”
“You’re an idiot, Dr. Deep,” Dr. Ritter sneered. “You’ll be the next one to turn into a fish. Just as soon as I finish with the boy.”
He swatted Dr. D.’s hand away from the bottle. “Drink that plankton now, Billy,” he commanded. “Or I’ll throw you all overboard.”
I swished the brown liquid in the bottle.
I gulped.
It looked so gross.
But what was my choice? Drown or drink…
My hand trembled as I raised the bottle to my lips. And I drank it down.
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I made a disgusted face. My whole body shook.
Then I stood there stiffly. Every muscle tensed. Waiting.
The others stared at me. They didn’t move, either.
Sheena’s chin trembled. “I don’t want you to turn into a fish, Billy! Why did you drink it? Why didn’t you throw it on the floor?”
“He would just pick out another bottle for me,” I replied hoarsely. I could still taste the liquid in my mouth. I felt it gurgling around in my stomach.
At least a minute passed. Then another minute.
“Okay,” Dr. Ritter said. “It should happen—now!”
He pointed at me. I stood there. I was still a boy.
“I don’t see any changes,” Dr. D. said.
“Give it another minute,” Dr. Ritter insisted. “I know it works. I tried it on my assistant, Mel, last night. He’s swimming around out there playing tag with a blue marlin right now!”
The room fell silent as we all waited for me to turn into a fish.
My stomach felt a little queasy. Otherwise, nothing.
I sighed and shifted my feet.
“It’s been more than five minutes, Ritter,” Dr. D. said. “Looks like your plankton doesn’t work.”
Dr. Ritter scowled furiously. “No! That’s impossible! It works! I know it works!”
He grabbed me and shook me. “Fish! Turn into a fish!”
I bumped him away. He toppled backwards.
Dr. D. pounced on him. “Gotcha!”
Dr. Ritter pushed him off. And grabbed a bottle of plankton.
He raised the bottle over his head.
“Look out, Dr. D.!” Sheena cried.
Dr. Ritter swung the bottle.
Dr. D. ducked.
I snatched the bottle from Dr. Ritter’s hand.
My uncle leaped at Dr. Ritter. Dr. Ritter dodged him and dashed out of the lab.
“He’s going up on deck!” Sheena shouted.
We raced after him. Dr. D. tackled Dr. Ritter on the deck. Dr. Ritter rolled away. He jumped on Dr. D.
They wrestled around. I set the bottle of plankton down.
“Get off him!” I yelled. I tried to pull Dr. Ritter off my uncle.
Dr. Ritter elbowed me away. Dr. D. grabbed him. They rolled across the deck.
“Dr. D.—look out!” I screamed. He was about to roll overboard.
With a grunt, Dr. D. jumped to his feet. He dove on Dr. Ritter and pinned him to the deck.
“Get a rope, Billy! Quick!” he ordered.
I grabbed the first rope I found on the deck. “Tie him up!” Dr. D. ordered. “Sheena—help me hold him down.”
Sheena took a running start and leaped on top of Dr. Ritter.
Dr. Ritter grunted. “My stomach!”
Sheena sat on top of him. Dr. D. pinned his arms down. I wrapped the rope around his wrists.
Dr. D. had taught me some sailor’s knots the summer before. My mind raced, trying to remember them.
How did it go? I thought in a panic. Over, under, around?
Dr. Ritter squirmed under Sheena. “Hurry, Billy!” she snapped.
“I’m trying!” I said.
“It’s over, Ritter,” Dr. D. said. “We’re taking you to the International Sea Life Patrol.”
Over, under, over?
“No, you’re not!” Dr. Ritter cried. He bucked Sheena off.
She tumbled to the deck.
He wrenched his hands from the rope and shoved Dr. D. away.
My crummy knots were useless.
Dr. D. tried to grab hi
m. But Dr. Ritter dove away and crawled across the deck. He snatched up a bottle of plankton.
He stood and waved the bottle at us. “You’ll never turn me in!” he declared.
Then he pulled the bottle open, tilted it over his mouth, and drank it down.
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“It works!” Dr. Ritter declared. “I’ll prove it to you!”
He tossed the bottle aside. The glass smashed on the deck.
“You can’t fool us, Dr. Ritter,” Sheena said. “We know that stuff doesn’t work. We saw Billy drink it.”
But Dr. Ritter’s body began to tremble. Quickly, his skin began to darken to a slivery, blue-gray.
“Something’s happening!” Dr. D. exclaimed.
Dr. Ritter’s skin began to flake. Then it turned scaly. It glittered in the sunlight.
His body began to shrink. His clothes slid off the slick scales. His hair fell away. His head flattened. His whole body shrank and flattened.
“It’s working!” I gasped. “He’s turning into a fish!”
Dr. Ritter’s arms shriveled into fins. His legs melted together, melted into a fish tail.
He flopped on the deck. One flat eye stared glassily up at us as he flapped his tail.
“He’s a fish!” Sheena cried. “I don’t believe it!”
With one great flip of his tail, the fish plopped over the side of the deck and into the water.
We watched him as he dove under the surface.
“Stop him!” I shouted. “He’s getting away! We can’t let him escape!” I started for my snorkeling flippers.
But Dr. D. squeezed my shoulder. “No, Billy. It’s okay. Let him go.”
“Huh? Why?”
“You heard what he told us, Billy. Dr. Ritter will be a fish forever,” Dr. D. explained. “He can’t do anyone any harm now.”
I stared down at the silvery fish. It splashed its tail in the water and swam out to sea.
“Wow,” Sheena gasped, pressing her hands against her cheeks.
Dr. D. put his arms around us. “I guess that adventure is over,” he sighed. “I was never so scared in my life.”
Sheena and I agreed. “I’m scared—and amazed,” I told my uncle. “I’ll never forget the strange things we saw this week.”
We followed Dr. D. down to help him prepare breakfast. He stopped in his lab.
“What a mess,” he sighed. “I guess I’ll clean it up later.”
Sheena walked over to the cabinet of plankton bottles. She turned to me and narrowed her eyes at me. “Hey, Billy—you drank a bottle of plankton too.”
I shrugged. “Yeah. So?”
“So why didn’t you turn into a fish like Dr. Ritter did?” she demanded.
“You know why,” I teased.
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do. It’s because I’m not human. I’m superhuman.”
She punched me in the stomach. “Come on. Tell me the real reason.”
Dr. D. folded his arms across his chest. “Yes, Billy. Tell us. I’d be interested to hear this.”
I grinned. “Well, it’s all thanks to you, Sheena.”
“Me?”
“Uh-huh. I was really angry after you played that trick on me. You know, the doll’s head in the goldfish bowl?”
Sheena giggled.
“Ha-ha. Hilarious. Anyway, I spent all day and all night trying to think up a good trick to play on you. To get you back.”
“That’s all you ever do, Billy,” Sheena said. “What’s so different about that?”
I tapped the cabinet. “I had a great idea. I took one of the plankton bottles and dumped the plankton out.”
Dr. D. grimaced. “You what?”
“Sorry, Dr. D.,” I said. “I figured you had so many, you wouldn’t miss one.”
“I still don’t get it,” Sheena said. “Then what?”
“I washed out the bottle. Then I poured iced tea into it,” I explained. “I was going to bring you in here and say, ‘Hey, Sheena! Want to see me drink plankton?’ Then I’d gulp down the iced tea and totally gross you out!”
“That wouldn’t have grossed me out,” Sheena protested.
“Yes, it would!” I insisted. “You would’ve puked all over the cabin floor!”
“No, I wouldn’t!”
Dr. D. interrupted us. “You planted a bottle of iced tea in the plankton cabinet? So when Dr. Ritter told you to choose a bottle…”
“Right!” I cried. “I picked the bottle of iced tea!”
Sheena laughed. She laughed so hard, she almost choked.
“I know it’s funny,” I said. “But even I don’t think it’s that funny.”
She hiccupped and caught her breath. “I don’t believe it,” she gasped. “You and I are starting to think alike, Billy.”
“What do you mean?”
“I played the same trick on you!” she cried. “The exact same trick! I put iced tea in a bottle too. Watch!”
She pulled a bottle from an end of the cabinet, ripped off the stopper, and gulped it down.
Dr. D. and I gaped at her in shock.
Sheena made a weird face. Her eyes bulged. She grabbed her stomach.
“Oh, wow,” she groaned. “Did I drink the right bottle?”
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