now.
âOf course not,â said Petty. âAs IF! No . . . I really wanted to get away for a while and just relax and share the company of happy young minds . . . thatâs all.â
âSo,â Danny eyed her suspiciously, ânothing at all to do with your Serum Which Instigates Total Cellular Hijack?â
âNot at all,â said Petty, grinning again. âIâm on holiday too. I donât plan to hijack the cells of anyone or instigate anything this week. Although you might like to know that the REPTOSWITCH formula is very nearly complete.â
âHow can you complete it?â asked Josh. âYou never found the final crystal cube with the last bit of the secret formula!â
He and Danny exchanged uneasy glances. They had been helping Petty find the REPTOSWITCH formula all summer. It was hidden in six parts, each part in code in a crystal cube. Theyâd found them allâbut the very last one was not in Pettyâs lab. Right at this moment, it was in a thick old sock at the bottom of Dannyâs camp gym bag. Theyâd decided Petty was too dangerous to have it when she nearly killed an old enemy a couple of weeks ago after S.W.I.T.C.H.ing him into a cockroach.
âWell, Iâm hoping I can somehow work out the missing bit,â went on Petty. âAnd in the meantime, as a side experiment, Iâve also concocted AMPHISWITCH!â
âAMPHISWITCH?â Josh couldnât help the tiniest flutter of excitement. He had always adored amphibians.
âYes! Reptiles and amphibians are quite similar, you see . . . and although the missing part of the REPTOSWITCH formula is flummoxing me when it comes to perfecting reptile S.W.I.T.C.H.ing, the parts I have got were nine-tenths of what I needed for amphibians. I put my brilliant mind to work onsome calculations, which are far too complicated for you to understand . . . and discovered the final bit for AMPHISWITCH last week! Now I can S.W.I.T.C.H. you into a frog or a toad or a newt!â Pettyâs eyes gleamed through the condensation on her glasses.
Danny and Josh gave her a stony look. âBut not NOW, obviously,â simpered Petty. âWeâre all on holiday. No S.W.I.T.C.H.ing, no experiments . . . just lots of jolly FUN! Soâwhat do you say? Shall we go and get lunch? Itâs pot pie and peas . . . my favorite!â
âOK,â said Josh, and Danny nodded. They followed Petty out into the rain, which really did seem to be going up as well as sideways, and made for the canteen cabin.
Petty smiled happily at them as they stepped outside into a big wet gust of wind, but Josh and Danny didnât smile back. They didnât look at her at all. So they didnât see the four plastic spray bottles hidden in her coat as the gust blew it open.
Charlie was doing a handstand on a dining table when they walked into the canteen cabin. A dozen or so kids were counting and clapping. It seemed sheâd been handstanding for quite some time, because they were up to sixty-six.
âKeep counting,â squeaked Charlie, her face beet red and her many beaded black braids dangling between her elbows. She was wearing the Outdoor Action Camp uniform of blue shorts and a lurid orange T-shirt (the instructors and camp counselors liked to see them easily at a distance), but even upside down Danny could see that sheâd âimprovedâ her T-shirt with a Sharpie marker. The big smiley on it now had fangs, dripping blood.
âGood lord,â said Petty. âDoes she do this sort of thing often?â
âAll the time,â Danny grinned. âThatâs Charlie Wexford.â He thought Charlie was brilliant. In the three days since theyâd arrived, Charlie had been the most punished kid onsite. Sheâd climbed up on the girlsâ dormitory cabin roof and yodeled (no dessert), canoed off on her own down the river and got herself happily lost for an hour (no dessert