Free The Revenge of Dr Von Burpinburger by John Heffernan Page A

want to hurt me.’ He looked very small and frightened. ‘Don’t let them catch me,’ he begged. ‘Promise you won’t let them catch me.’
    Eric held his mate close. ‘Of course, I won’t let them catch you.’ He patted the mouse gently, then placed him on the pillow where he usually slept and lay down himself. They both rested quietly for a few minutes.
    â€˜Anyway, they might have given up,’ Eric said after a while. ‘I didn’t see any sign of them yesterday. Maybe they’ve gone away for good.’
    â€˜I hope so.’ Einstein rolled over. ‘I really hope so.’

CAT AND MOUSE
    â€˜He’s my mouse. Mine!’
    At the Cheap & Nasty Motel, several blocks from Eric Wimpleby’s apartment, Dr von Burpinburger strode back and forth.
    â€˜He belongs to me !’ The doctor beat his chest and burped. (The doctor always burped when he was excited). ‘Not to that silly Eric Wimplebottom, or whatever his name is.’
    â€˜That’s right, Master,’ the doctor’s assistant, Tikazza Brique, agreed.
    â€˜I created him. I implanted the nanocomputer in his brain.’ The doctor’s face turned purple with fury. ‘And I want him back!’

    Dr von Burpinburger and his assistant had tried all sorts of ways to capture the mouse who had escaped from the doctor’s castle in the faraway land of Bulgonia.
    They hid at the entrance to the apartment building where Eric lived, but the boy used another entrance.

    They followed Eric to and from school, hoping for a chance to grab the mouse, but the boy was too fast. He ducked down alleyways and vanished in the city crowd.

    They even tried breaking into the building, but the doors were too strong. They disguised themselves as electricians, plumbers andcleaners, but the security system was too strict. Yesterday they almost got inside as buskers. But their singing was so bad some of the residents chased them off.
    â€˜Think, man. Think.’ The doctor gave his assistant a whack over the head to help him think. ‘We have to catch that mouse!’
    The whack must have worked, for Brique’s eyes brightened. ‘Cat,’ he shouted.
    â€˜What did you say?’
    â€˜Cat. It’s simple. Cats catch mice. All we need is a cat.’
    â€˜Bah! Cats catch mice, but they also eat them, you nincompoop! We want our little mastermind alive.’ The doctor was about to whack his assistant again, when he suddenly stopped. ‘Wait. Perhaps that’s not such a bad idea at all.’
    â€˜Well, thank you, Master.’
    â€˜Cat. Yes. Brilliant!’
    â€˜You flatter me, Master.’
    â€˜Not you, Brique. Me – I’m brilliant. Cat. Why didn’t I think of that before?’
    â€˜But, Master.’ Brique wrinkled his brow. ‘I was the one who –’
    â€˜Cat-a-pult!’ The doctor held up his finger, and then repeated the word slowly and deliberately. ‘CAT-A-PULT!’
    â€˜I beg your pardon, Master?’
    â€˜Yes! That’s how we’ll get into their apartment. I’ll catapult you in.’
    Tikazza Brique fell to his knees. ‘Oh no, Master, please. I beg you!’
    But the doctor wasn’t even listening. He was too busy drawing up plans for his catapult and chuckling to himself. ‘Just you wait, you little rodent!’

ALL ABOUT FLYING
    Eric slept in the next morning. He didn’t play a weekend sport. His parents were too busy for that sort of thing. They worked at least six days a week, leaving before Eric was even awake, and sometimes not arriving home until he was asleep. They were at the office already this morning, like most Saturdays. He wouldn’t see them until the afternoon at the earliest.
    Einstein had already gone, too. There was a little dent in the pillow where he’d slept. Eric sat up, stretched, and climbed out of bed.
    He found the mouse sitting on the rooftop terrace in the