Gecko Gladiator (5 page)

They were in a large room under sloping eaves. The loft area, Danny guessed. It was huge at the moment, of course, because they were small lizards. But even as humans, it would be pretty big. Three high windows ran along one side. The slanting windows in the ceiling above would normally let in plenty of light. But they were covered in dark blinds. The room was
bathed in the green glow of Petty's computer monitors sitting on a high bench. Josh and Danny wandered across the wooden floor, staring all around them. The room was clearly a laboratory. One much bigger than the laboratory beneath Petty's garden shed. Its many shelves and tables were filled with bottles and boxes and Bunsen burners and test tubes and weird gadgets of every kind. A large mouse cage took up one corner. And in the center was a familiar square tent of plastic—the S.W.I.T.C.H.ing chamber.

“Well,” Petty said, stepping out of the chamber and peering down at them in the dim light. “What do you think?”

Josh and Danny tried to tell her how impressed they were—but all that came out were those chirruping, clicking, and occasionally grunting noises.

“Aaah—geckos! The noisiest lizards there are!” Petty said, smiling at them appreciatively. “The only reptiles that can make noises humans can hear, don't you know? Well—one of you
is
a pretty boy!” she added. She knelt down and patted Danny on the head. He growled.

“But I need you to S.W.I.T.C.H. back now so we can talk,” Petty said. And she swiftly squirted them with a bottle of antidote spray.

“Aa-aaw!” Josh was disappointed. “I wanted to walk across your ceiling!”

“Plenty of time for that later,” Petty said.

“How come he got to be all cool with spots and I turned into Barbie Gecko?” snapped Danny, folding his arms with a huff.

“Well, you're very much the same—it's just a skin pigment issue,” Petty said. “Although it does suggest that the formula is a little unstable … again.” She looked slightly concerned.

“Unstable? That'll be the third unstable S.W.I.T.C.H. you've let us try!” squeaked Danny.

“The second,” corrected Petty. “I didn't let you try the TurtleSWITCH, you may recall. You stole it and tried it entirely of your own free will!”

“But the chameleon one was unstable too,” argued Danny. “And you let us try that even when your mouse ended up half-rodent, half-chameleon!”

“I don't know why you fuss so,” Petty said. “You're always fine in the end. Cutting-edge science can't be perfectly safe. I am a genius, and I must push the boundaries.”

“Hmmm,” Danny muttered. “Funny how you always push the boundaries from a safe distance! I've never seen
you
try the S.W.I.T.C.H. out!”

“I'm much older than you. My bones are far too brittle,” Petty said with a dismissive wave. “Anyway—enough of all this. I wanted you to see my new lab—and here it is!”

“Why have it over Princessland?” Josh asked. “Are you trying to mess with our minds?”

“What did you expect? A hollowed-out, extinct volcano? I am now based here because it is the very last place that government spies would think of looking for me,” explained Petty. “And if they see me coming into the store, they'll think I've just come to buy something pretty for a … niece or something.”

Josh and Danny stared at Petty. They could not imagine her ever buying something from Princessland.

Petty held up a glittery pink bag carrying the store's name. “See!” she said. “I always carry one of these out with me when I go.”

“What's in it?” Josh asked.

“Wadded-up tissues, dried calamine lotion, and chicken pox scabs mostly,” Petty said, peering into the bag.

There was a short silence and then a further pause while Josh and Danny massaged the rigid masks of horror off their faces.

“Come on, come on—over here!” Petty said. She led them to a corner of the room. There, in a pool of white light from a desk lamp, lay a microscope and several jars and boxes. “I've been studying the marbles. You're right—all three of them contain code for MAMMALSWITCH. I recognize my own brilliant work! I must have made the formula … maybe years ago while I was still working for the government. And there are six marbles, the same way there were six BUGSWITCH cubes and six REPTOSWITCH cubes.”

“How do you know there are six?” Josh asked.

“Because when I was clearing out the shelves of my old lab, I found this,” Petty said. She held up a small box covered in blue velvet. It looked much like the square red and green velvet boxes containing the BUG and REPTILESWITCH cubes—but this box was round. Inside there was a ripple of some silky blue material across six round dents. In three of these, Petty had pressed the first three marbles—red, green, and blue. But the other three dents were empty.

“So … did you hide the marbles the same way you hid the REPTOSWITCH cubes?” Danny asked. “In case Victor Crouch double-crossed you and came looking for them?”

“I don't know,” sighed Petty. “Obviously that bit of memory is burnt out, or I would have thought to ask you to look for these when I asked you to
look for the REPTOSWITCH cubes in the summer. And anyway … if I did hide them, somebody else has clearly found them. Or more likely, stolen them.”

“Who?” Josh asked. “Victor Crouch again?”

Petty reached behind her and took down a wooden frame. In it, much to their amazement, was a photo of Victor Crouch. He was wearing a black hat and waving cheerily at the photographer, the one spiky black fingernail on his little finger pointing up into the air. Had he possessed any, his eyebrows would have been raised. But as peculiar as Petty's old nemesis looked, it was something else that made them gasp—he had his arm around none other than Petty Potts.

“Yes,” sighed Petty. “This was when we were friends … or so I thought.”

The Petty in the photo looked about ten years younger. Her hair was darker, and she had one or two fewer chins—and those chins were definitely less whiskery. Someone else's hand was tucked through the crook of Petty's left arm, but they were cropped out of the picture.

“This was taken while we were working together in the secret government laboratories,” remembered Petty. “Little did I know that only a year or so later, he would have framed me in a very different way! And lost me my job and tried to steal all my genius work! I also found this while clearing out the old lab. I keep it to remind me never to trust anyone! You hear me, boys?” Her voice became shrill as she started bashing the picture against the wall. “Never trust ANYONE! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!!!” There was a tinkle of broken glass.

“O … K,” Josh said, stepping away. “So … no other ideas about who the Mystery Marble Sender is?”

“Nope,” snapped Petty. “Were there postmarks on any of the letters?”

“Only on one parcel,” Danny said. “All the others were hand delivered—apart from one which came on a parachute. The parcel had a London postmark. It was a set of books Josh had won in a wildlife competition with Chatz TV. A clue was tucked in with it.”

“London … hmmm. Well, that's not much help,” grunted Petty. She slapped the broken picture frame facedown on her workbench. “No idea at all! And even LESS idea why this Mystery Marble Sender is sending them to YOU two. Go on—go on home now and see if there have been any more clues! Keep watch! Never rest! Watch from behind your curtains at ALL TIMES! If you watch all the time, sooner or later the Mystery Marble Sender will slip up and you'll SEE him!”

“Fine,” Danny said, grabbing Josh's arm. “We'll go now.”

He and Josh left Petty shouting at the broken picture frame and let themselves out. The door at the foot of the stairs had a deadlock that they could open from the inside, so they got back out into the lobby and then left it to fall shut behind them. The only way back in would be if Petty opened it—or if they S.W.I.T.C.H.ed again.

“Watch from behind our curtains at all times!” scoffed Danny. “What does she think we are—spies? Doesn't she know we have to go to school? And bed?”

“She's going a bit crazy,” Josh said. He rubbed his nose and looked worried. “I thought she might if we told her about the marbles.”