Free Alligator Action by Ali Sparkes

“9-1-1. Which service do you require?”
    â€œPolice! Ambulance! Fire and Rescue . . . all of them!” Danny said.
    â€œWhat is the nature of your emergency?”
    â€œThis old lady we know has vanished, and we think she’s been kidnapped—or killed—or . . . or both!”
    â€œWhat is your name and address, caller?”
    â€œEerrrm,” Danny said. “Well . . . it’s kind of secret!”
    â€œIs this a prank call?”
    â€œNO! 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 . . .”
    â€œYoung man, prank calls put other people’slives at risk! If we hear from this number again, there will be trouble. I’m hanging up now.”
    CLICK. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
    â€œThat 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.
    â€œCome 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 Joshand 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 Princesslandto 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 onthe 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!