Alligator Action

by Ali Sparkes

  Books in the

  S.W.I.T.C.H. series

  #1 Spider Stampede

  #2 Fly Frenzy

  #3 Grasshopper Glitch

  #4 Ant Attack

  #5 Crane Fly Crash

  #6 Beetle Blast

  #7 Frog Freakout

  #8 Newt Nemesis

  #9 Lizard Loopy

  #10 Chameleon Chaos

  #11 Turtle Terror

  #12 Gecko Gladiator

  #13 Anaconda Adventure

  #14 Alligator Action

  Text © Ali Sparkes 2012

  Illustrations © Ross Collins 2012

  “SWITCH: Alligator Action” was originally published in English in 2012. This edition is published by an arrangement with Oxford University Press.

  Copyright © 2014 by Darby Creek

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

  Darby Creek

  A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  241 First Avenue North

  Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.

  For reading levels and more invormation, look up this title at

  www.lernerbooks.com.

  Main body text set in ITC Goudy Sans Std. 14/19.

  Typeface provided by Monotype Typography.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Sparkes, Ali.

  Alligator action / by Ali Sparkes ; illustrated by Ross Collins.

  pages cm. — (S.W.I.T.C.H. ; #14)

  Summary: When Petty Potts disappears, twins Danny and Josh search her secret laboratory and house, where they find an irresistible bottle of S.W.I.T.C.H. spray, and later they find themselves on a live television talk show.

  ISBN 978–1–4677–2117–2 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978–1–4677–2414–2 (eBook)

  [1. Missing persons—Fiction. 2. Television talk shows—Fiction.

  3. Alligators—Fiction. 4. Brothers—Fiction. 5. Twins—Fiction. 6. Science fiction.] I. Collins, Ross, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.S73712All 2014

  [Fic]—dc23

  2013019718

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1 – SB – 12/31/13

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-2414-2 (pdf)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-4030-2 (ePub)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-4029-6 (mobi)

  For Aled Lloyd Houston

  With grateful thanks to

  John Buckley and Dorothy Driver of

  Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

  for their hot-blooded guidance on

  S.W.I.T.C.H.’s cold-blooded reptile heroes

  Missing Scientist . . .

  Brief Encounter

  The Washing-Up of Death

  From the Beyond

  Pretty Potts

  Make it Snappy

  Getting in Tents

  Dreamy. Steamy. Screamy

  Men in White Coats

  See Ya Later, Alligator

  Watery Wonder

  Top Secret!

  Recommended Reading

  “9-1-1. Which service do you require?”

  “Police! Ambulance! Fire and Rescue . . . all of them!” Danny said.

  “What is the nature of your emergency?”

  “This old lady we know has vanished, and we think she’s been kidnapped—or killed—or . . . or both!”

  “What is your name and address, caller?”

  “Eerrrm,” Danny said. “Well . . . it’s kind of secret!”

  “Is this a prank call?”

  “NO! It’s just that . . . she’s a genius scientist who can S.W.I.T.C.H. humans into spiders and frogs and snakes, and we’re her assistants, and we have to keep it secret . . . and . . .”

  “Young man, prank calls put other people’s lives at risk! If we hear from this number again, there will be trouble. I’m hanging up now.”

  CLICK. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

  “That went well, then,” Josh said, who had heard it all on speakerphone. “I told you it’d be no good! Nobody is going to believe us!”

  Danny slumped down in the hallway and hung up the phone with a sigh. Josh was right. How could they ever explain what was really happening? Nobody would believe the truth—that their next-door neighbor was not just a slightly dotty old lady but, in fact, a genius scientist who had developed an amazing S.W.I.T.C.H. spray that could turn people into creepy-crawlies and amphibians and reptiles. He and Josh knew it was true—because they were the people Petty had S.W.I.T.C.H.ed. More times than they could count.

  “Come on,” Josh said, peering at the computer print-out in his hand. “Let’s go down to the den. We need to think.”

  They walked out to the garden and found their way into the rhododendron bush. Piddle, their pet terrier, ran in behind them and sat between Josh and Danny, wagging his tail energetically, hoping for a ball game.

  Danny took the computer printout from his brother and anxiously scratched his spiky blond hair as he read Petty Potts’s last diary entry.

  When it looked as if Petty still hadn’t come back to her house after three days in a row, he and Josh had gotten so worried that they’d gone to check in the parking lot at Princessland—the girls’ toys and frocks superstore over which Petty rented an attic—the location of her new secret laboratory. They had spotted Petty’s old station wagon there. So they’d crept through Princessland to the lobby at the back and used the only S.W.I.T.C.H. spray they had—GeckoSWITCH. They had shrunk down to agile lizards and crawled through a gap under the locked door that led to Petty’s lab.

  In the lab, as soon as they’d S.W.I.T.C.H.ed back to boys again, they could see signs of a struggle . . . and Petty’s diary entry still on her computer! She had been speaking her diary into a microphone—using a special program to convert her voice into words on-screen. It was the very last bit which had horrified Josh and Danny.

  . . . my S.W.I.T.C.H. formula saved a life today! Josh, Danny, and Charlie ended up .W.I.T.C.H.ing into green anacondas to rescue one of the girls from Charlie’s school after she fell into the river.

  But all of this pales into insignificance against more Mystery Marble Sender news. We found another marble at the zoo! And there’s something about Mystery Marble Sender’s note . . . the list of shopping errands on the end . . . that has tickled my memory. The yellow jacket—it’s something to do with a yellow jacket. And warts. . . I can almost see someone wearing a yellow jacket and tackling their fungal feet . . . but who? Is it my destiny to find out?

  Hmmm . . . destiny . . . Wait. Shhhh! What was that?

  Who’s there? Josh? Danny?

  What?! Hey! What do you think you’re—

  NO! DOOF! GAH!

  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

  CRSSHHSZZZZ—kesheeek—ssheeeeek—sheeeek.

  Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  sssssssssssss

  “What does ‘CRSSHHSZZZZ—kesheeek—ssheeeeek—sheeeek’ mean?” Danny murmured.

  “Nothing good,” Josh said.

  “Maybe we should just tell Mom and Dad everything when they get back from shopping,” sighed Danny.

  “But they’ll never believe us, either!” Josh said.

  “Not all the stuff about her S.W.I.T.C.H.ing us into spiders and frogs and snakes and stuff. Just that we thin
k she’s in trouble,” Danny said.

  “And then what?” Josh asked. “They’ll call the police who will break into her house—boom—crash—fizz—mangled people! If only Petty wasn’t so paranoid about people being out to get her!”

  “Yeah,” Danny said. “But it looks like someone did get her.”

  Josh and Danny frowned at each other over Piddle’s head. They were thinking of the same thing. The Mystery Marble Sender. The person who had been messing with their minds for weeks now, sending clues to get them to find marbles . . . but not just any marbles.

  “We knew something big was going to happen next, after we got that fifth marble,” Josh said. “We knew there was only one more to go. And that the Mystery Marble Sender would soon do something. Because there was no way he was just giving us clues to find all the marbles, with the secret code to MAMMALSWITCH formula, free. He wants something. And I think it’s Petty—or what’s in Petty’s genius head.”

  “Well, if she’s been kidnapped,” Danny said, “I think we might get the ransom note. Probably quite soon . . . I mean, there’s nobody else to send it to, is there? She’s got no family.”

  Piddle suddenly got up and tore out of the den, yapping loudly. He ran down the side passage and around to the front of the house. This usually meant somebody was coming in through the gate. Josh and Danny, still worried and gloomy, scrambled out of the bush and went down the side passage to see who was there.

  They saw nobody at the gate or the front door—or anywhere around the garden. But Piddle was still flinging himself against the garden wall. Mom and Dad had arrived, though. Dad was in the kitchen, sorting out the groceries, and Mom was watching Chatz TV. The sound of the show drifted through the front room window. Mom and Jenny liked to watch it most afternoons, although Josh and Danny couldn’t imagine why. It was mostly people shouting angrily at each other in front of a studio audience. Still, Mom was watching it now and obviously hadn’t been interrupted by anyone at the door.

  “Shut up, Piddle!” Danny called, and the little dog gave one last disgruntled wuff and then ran back down the side passage. Josh stood very still. Across the low wall, he could just make out somebody standing silently on Petty’s front step.

  “Come on,” he said, grabbing Danny’s arm and leading him round to Petty’s. A dark-haired young woman in a grey suit stood with her back to the door, holding a briefcase. She clearly did not expect anyone to open the door. She smiled tightly at them as they walked up the path.

  “You must be Josh and Danny Phillips,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  The young woman opened her case and took out a brown envelope. “I am Petty Potts’s lawyer,” she said, in a businesslike voice. “And it is incumbent upon me to place this directly into your hands herewith.”

  “You what?” Danny said.

  The lawyer sighed and checked her watch. “It was my client’s instruction that nobody else should see this,” she said, waving the brown envelope, “and that it should be handed directly to you two and nobody else. That’s why I’ve had to stand around in this doorway waiting for you to come along.”

  “It’s a letter for us?” Danny queried.

  “The clue is on the envelope!” snapped the lawyer.

  “No need to be snarky,” Josh said, taking it from her. “When did Petty ask you to give us this?”

  “She didn’t ask me,” the lawyer said, closing her case with a click. “She left me instructions many weeks ago to deliver this to you two if she ever failed to call me and check in. Most weeks she makes a phone call on a certain day and gives me a code word, so I know all is well. If she doesn’t make that call, I have to wait forty-eight hours . . . and then deliver this to you. Well . . . she hasn’t called, it’s been forty-eight hours . . . and here I am. Now, if you don’t mind, I must be on my way to another client. Good-bye.” Her heels clicked away down the sidewalk, and then she was out of sight.

  Josh and Danny stared at each other across the brown envelope. Josh tore it open. Inside was a piece of lined paper. He expected a letter—some explanation, maybe, about where she’d gone and why. But it wasn’t a letter. It was a list in Petty’s scrawly handwriting.

  He and Danny sat down on Petty’s tiled doorstep to peer at the list.

  1. DADDY LONGLEGS DISCO—COLLECT.

  2. IF UNSEEN, ENTER.

  3. DUCK. FAST.

  4. WALK THE STAINS.

  5. AFTER THIRD STRIKE, DO NOT BREATHE UNTIL THE BIRD CALLS.

  6. WASH UP. USE GLOVES.

  7. EXIT BACK ON ALL FOURS.

  8. ONE MINUTE FROM RED DOOR.

  9. WORKING LUNCH.

  10. ONE MINUTE FROM RED DOOR!

  “What on earth does all that mean?” squawked Danny.

  Josh was creasing his brow trying to figure it out. “It’s instructions. Something we have to do.”

  “Walk the stains?” Danny said. “Daddy Longlegs Disco? She’s lost it. Completely. I mean, we always knew she was bonkers, but now she’s totally gaga!”

  “No.” Josh smoothed the paper out on the step. “There’s logic to it. It’s like crossword clues. We have to get one or two of them and then the others will start to make sense.”

  “OK,” Danny said with a shrug. “Let’s start with Number One . . . Daddy Longlegs Disco . . .”

  Josh puzzled. Danny puzzled too. They flopped down on Petty’s doorstep with big sighs. It had been a freaky enough day already without having to figure out cryptic clues!

  Then Josh’s eyes widened, and he gave a shout. “Whoa! Wait! This is EASY!”

  “What?” Danny sat up straight.

  “Daddy Longlegs Disco!” Josh said. “Don’t you remember? When we were daddy longlegs, we went out, didn’t we? We flew toward the light where loads of other creepy-crawlies were boogying about and head-butting the bulb.”

  “Yeah—that hurt,” remembered Danny. Josh was looking up. Right up above them. At the little square porch light over their heads. “It’s where we found a REPTOSWITCH cube, isn’t it?” Danny jumped to his feet. “She’s hidden something else in there! Quick—help me up!”

  Checking first that nobody was watching, Josh hoisted Danny up on his shoulders. “Eeeeeugh!” he heard Danny call down. “There’re dead things in here!”

  “Don’t be a wuss!” hissed Josh. “Find the thing . . . whatever it is. Quickly. You’re breaking my neck!”

  Danny made a few more whimpers as some disembodied legs and wings floated down. But then he whispered, “Got it!” He jumped off his brother’s shoulders and waved a door key.

  “Right,” Josh said, consulting the list. “Number Two. ‘If unseen, enter.’”

  Danny looked around again and then shoved the key into the lock of Petty’s front door. It turned easily.

  “Hang on,” Josh said.

  Danny pushed the door open.

  “Wait a bit,” Josh said, grabbing his arm. But Danny had already stepped through.

  “DUCK!” screamed Josh! “FAST!”

  Danny hit the floor. Josh followed . . . a little too late.

  There was a sudden thump of air and a powerful roar.

  A ball of flame was flying toward them.

  They didn’t have time to scream. Flames filled the doorway. Facedown on the welcome mat, Danny felt the heat blast across his shoulders. Josh felt the heat too . . . in his hair.

  The flame was there and gone in seconds. Except for the bit in Josh’s hair. Little flickers of flame were dancing through his short blonde crop. Danny threw himself at Josh’s head and batted the flames out.

  Then they sat very still on the doormat and stared at each other. Josh’s hair was singed. It smelled awful. But the flames had not reached his skin. In fact, the ball of fire had done very little damage to the hallway. It had obviously been designed to fly directly through the front door at around chest height. If they had not ducked—fast—they would have been barbecued.

  “Petty’s security system!” whispered Josh. “We DO N
OT MOVE . . . not until we’ve figured out the next two or three instructions!”

  Danny nodded, carefully closing the front door so they could sit and think without being seen.

  “Number Four,” Josh said, in a slightly shaky voice. “Walk the stains.”

  They looked around them. “Walk the stains,” murmured Danny. “Erm . . . do you think she means those stains?” He pointed across the hallway carpet. It was a very old carpet that had once been a cream color. There were lots of stains on it, but Danny saw that some were more noticeable than others—five or six darker ones leading down the hall like stepping stones.

  “The brown ones?” Josh said.

  “Yeah . . . chocolate cake stains,” Danny said. “Petty’s always eating chocolate cake . . . I think she’s dropped some chocolate icing deliberately—to mark a path . . .”

  “So . . .” Josh pondered. “If we walk on those chocolate cake stains, it should be a safe path through to . . . the kitchen, by the looks of it. Because Number Six is ‘Wash up. Use gloves.’”

  “OK,” Danny got up and went to step out.

  “Wait!” Josh grabbed his arm. “We need to be sure of what’s coming next! Number Five is this: ‘After third strike, DO NOT BREATHE until the bird calls.’”

  They screwed up their faces again, trying to figure this one out. “What bird?” Danny said. “I can’t see a bird anywhere.”

  “OK,” Josh said. “Let’s just walk the stains first—see how that goes.”

  Danny stepped across to the first dark splodge. His foot landed on it. He froze, waiting for something terrible to happen. Nothing did. He shrugged and stepped to the next splodge. Josh followed his path. Danny could feel his heart thumping hard in his chest. He knew that, at any moment, something extremely violent could happen. Petty left nothing to chance. Outside, the sun went behind a cloud, and the hallway grew dimmer.

  “Josh! Look!” Danny froze and carefully pointed to his right. In the dimness, he could see a needle of blue light shining down from the ceiling. And now Josh could see several more of them—piercing though the dark of the hallway at different angles.