by Kes Gray
Thank goodness they were still really tired from their mission the night before. In fact they were so tired, they were still wearing their daytime clothes!
Just like Harry and Colin, there were certain things that I wouldn’t be able to get. My mum’s hairspray was far too close to her bedside table for me to risk waking her, and the talcum powder in the bathroom had completely run out. Apart from that, though, I was pretty pleased with my haul.
When I met Harry and Colin at the bottom of my drive, I knew straight away that we were totally in business! Between us we had everything on my list. Thanks to our weapon-gathering skills, some things we had two of. Hairdryers we even had three of!
“Let’s do this!” I said, cramming all our weapons into my mission rucksack and jumping back on my bike.
“It’s time to teach Valentino and his Hairy Horror a lesson they won’t forget!”
CHAPTER 21
At 11:02 hundred hours, we arrived in Valentino’s road.
WORLD DEFENCE DAYLIGHT-SURVEILLANCE TIP:
When approaching an evil enemy’s base in broad daylight, use every available piece of cover to hide behind.
The instant we were within sight of his front door, we laid our bikes down on the pavement on the other side of the road and took cover behind a parked car.
“Are you sure Valentino has gone to work?” whispered Harry, peeping over the car bonnet.
Valentino’s house looked empty all right, but I knew from my shadow mission that a hideously hairy danger was lurking inside.
I gave a thumbs-up and then tugged him down by his sleeve.
“Are we going to take a look through the front window?” asked Harry.
“Too risky,” I whispered. “The Hairy Horror could be hiding behind the curtains waiting for me to come back.”
“What if it smells us?” asked Colin. “What if it hasn’t just got a super-hairy body but super-sniffing hairy nostrils too?”
“You’re right,” I whispered, sucking my finger and then holding it up in the air. “If this mission is going to be successful, then we need to surprise the Hairy Horror, not the other way round.”
My finger-sucking skills gave me all the information I needed.
“The wind is blowing towards the house,” I whispered. “That means, if we approach Valentino’s house from the front garden, the breeze behind us could blow our scent straight through the letter box and right up the Hairy Horror’s super-sniffing hairy nostrils. If it smells us before we surprise it, it could have us for breakfast!”
“What are we going to do?” whispered Harry.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.” I smiled. “We’re going to go in round the back!”
It was a brilliant change in tactics. There was no way the Hairy Horror would be expecting us to come in through the back garden and no way it would be able to sniff us if we approached the house from downwind.
“If we go in round the back, the element of surprise will be totally ours!” I explained. “But before we go anywhere we need to activate our weapons!”
WORLD DEFENCE WEAPON-ACTIVATION TIP:
Leave it to an expert.
Luckily for Harry and Colin, I am an expert on activating weapons.
I’d had to use my skills to make mammoth-busting weapons in Dino Valley. Now I was going to need all the skills and know-how I had to create enough firepower to stop the Hairy Horror in its tracks!
As soon as I had emptied our rucksack, I set to work turning ordinary hairdressing equipment into awesome hair-busting weapons. Within five minutes we were armed to the hilt!
By 11:15 my work was done.
At 11:17, we broke cover from behind the car and darted across the road with our bikes.
By 11:19, we were unclicking the latch on Valentino’s back gate.
Every nerve in our bodies was jangling. Could we take on a Hairy Horror? Could we stop a Hairy Horror?!
It was now or never.
On the dot of 11:20 hundred hours, we made our move …
A move so hairy …
A move so scary …
If you wet yourself easily …
Look away NOW!
CHAPTER 22
We had done it! Against all the odds we had defeated the Hairy Horror and stopped Valentino completely in his tracks. The world was safe and we were victorious!
I would love to have seen Valentino’s face when he got home on Saturday evening and found that his humungously hideous Hairy Horror from Hell had been reduced to the size of a small dog!
Imagine how high his eyebrows would have gone then!
CHAPTER 23
When me, Colin and Harry went back to school after the holidays, it was like the world had never been at risk.
We weren’t the only ones who had had their hair cut at Valentino’s before going back to school, but we were the only ones who knew how close Valentino had come to using his evil haircuts to take over the world.
Colin and Harry reckon we should have got medals for saving the universe, but as I’ve said before, medals aren’t my style. Being a world defence agent isn’t about that; it’s about hard work, awesome defence skills and, most importantly, never giving up on a mission, however super-hairy things get.
Or super-tiring.
Take my mum and dad, for example. They are still so worn out from their last mission they haven’t even noticed my new haircut!
I so, so want to be like them.
About the Author
KES GRAY was noted by the Independent as one of the top ten children’s authors in the UK in 2003. He is the author of the bestselling DAISY books, including the award-winning EAT YOUR PEAS, and BILLY BUCKET was winner of the Red House Children’s Book Award for Younger Readers.
Also by Kes Gray
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH LIFE
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH ZOOS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH GIANTS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH KITTENS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH CHRISTMAS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH MAGGOTS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH COCONUTS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH BURGLARS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH SPORTS DAY
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH PIGGY BANKS
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH VAMPIRES
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH CHOCOLATE
JACK BEECHWHISTLE: ATTACK OF THE GIANT SLUGS
Published for World Book Day 2016
DAISY AND THE TROUBLE WITH JACK
Have you read this awesome Jack adventure?
Jack Beechwhistle is here to protect the world from alien attacks, zombie sweet-shop owners and exploding conkers. His missions are always dangerous and deadly, but Jack’s about to face his most challenging test yet: the Attack of the Giant Slugs.
Daisy can’t believe it! Mrs Peters is making her sit next to Jack Beechwhistle – the worst boy in the whole world!
Jack is so cross! Mrs Peters is making him sit next to Daisy Butters – she’s such an annoying blabber!
As the school day goes on, Daisy and Jack think of more and more ways to get one up on each other. Trouble is, they might be more alike than they realized …
Specially written for World Book Day 2016!
It’s the Easter holidays. Daisy has been given the school hamsters to look after, plus FREE TICKETS TO CHOCOLATE LAND!
Daisy is SO ready for Chocolate Land.
TROUBLE IS, is Chocolate Land ready for Daisy?
It’s Halloween and Daisy is going trick-or-treating for the very first time.
In the dark …
in the fog …
with a VAMPIRE …
armed only with a torch and some silly string.
GULP!
Daisy loves surprises! Especially special birthday surprises – like a trip to the ZOO!!! Who’d have guessed a rhino could do so much wee all in one go! Who’d have imagined an elephant tooth was that heavy!
TROUBLE is, the biggest surpri
se is yet to come.
When Daisy’s best friend Gabby gets the most awesome, immense, water-squirting micro-scooter Daisy’s ever seen, Daisy knows she’s got to have one too!
Trouble is, they cost a LOT of money.
So Daisy and Gabby hatch a money-making plan – what could possibly go wrong?
RHCP DIGITAL
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RHCP Digital is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
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First published by Red Fox 2017
This ebook published 2017
Text and character copyright © Kes Gray, 2017
Cover illustration copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2017
Inside illustrations copyright © Garry Parsons, 2017
The moral right of the author and illustrators has been asserted
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–448–19441–4
All correspondence to:
RHCP Digital
Penguin Random House Children’s
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
