Snake Escape

  JUSTIN D’ATH

  with illustrations by HEATH McKENZIE

  Puffin Books

  Contents

  1 DO WE CATCH SNAKES?

  2 MISSION FOX TO THE RESCUE

  3 HISSSS!

  4 SHISHKEBAB!

  5 THINK LIKE A COCKATOO

  6 WHUMP, THUNK AND CRASH

  7 CAPTAIN AMAZING

  8 SCALES

  9 PETRIFIED!

  10 A BITE OF COCKATOO

  11 SNAP! SNAP!

  12 REALLY ALLERIC

  13 ALL OVER IN SECONDS

  14 PET WHISPERER

  15 FROZEN RATS

  16 REAL LIVE SECRET AGENTS

  17 NOT SPIDERS

  1

  DO WE CATCH SNAKES?

  Jordan Fox opened his eyes, feeling confused. It was Saturday. Why was he awake so early? And what was that noise?

  Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz!

  He lifted his head to listen. The noise was coming from across the room. It sounded muffled. Like an alarm clock covered with a blanket.

  Or like a phone under a rock!

  Jordan sat up and prodded the bunk above him.

  ‘Harry, wake up!’ he hissed. ‘It’s the FoxPhone!’

  His twin brother made a grunting sound but didn’t move. It always took Harry ages to wake up.

  Jordan would have to answer the phone himself. Gulp!

  He scrambled out of bed and crossed the room. On his desk there was a big glass tank with sticks and sand and rocks in it. The buzzing sound was coming from under one of the rocks. It was the perfect hiding place for a secret mobile phone. When the twins’ mother cleaned their room, she never opened Max’s tank.

  Jordan had never opened it, either.

  Until today.

  Taking a deep breath, he slowly lifted the lid. Unlike his owner Harry, Max the tarantula was wide awake.

  And he was sitting on the rock with the phone underneath!

  Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz!

  Jordan had to answer. People only rang the FoxPhone in an emergency.

  He grabbed a ruler off the desk and carefully pushed the rock to one side. Max stayed on the rock. His eight beady eyes watched Jordan’s trembling hand come slowly down and grab the phone away.

  ‘Mission Fox Animal Rescue Service,’ he whispered. ‘Does an animal need help?’

  ‘Well, I’m really the one who needs help,’ said a shaky voice. It sounded like an old lady.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Jordan told her. ‘We only help animals, not people. Would you like me to call an ambulance or something?’

  ‘Good heavens, no!’ the old lady said. Jordan heard the sound of paper shuffling. ‘I found this flyer in my letterbox, you see. It says you help find lost pets.’

  Jordan knew the words on the flyer off by heart – they were his words. Well, Harry had helped a bit.

  ‘Have you lost your pet?’ Jordan asked.

  ‘Well, Bella’s my husband’s pet, actually,’ said the old lady. ‘She’s a snake.’

  A creepy feeling, like a tarantula’s feet, ran up and down Jordan’s spine.

  Snakes freaked him out even more than giant hairy spiders. ‘What sort of snake?’ he asked nervously.

  ‘A scrub python,’ said the old lady.

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ Jordan said.

  The FoxPhone had a special app called BRAIN (Bird, Reptile and Animal Identification Network). Jordan typed in Scrub python and a big scaly snake appeared on the screen. Yikes! Jordan nearly dropped the phone. Quickly he scrolled down to . It said scrub pythons were the largest snakes in Australia. They could grow to eight metres long!

  Further down, under , was something even worse …

  Jordan looked in the mirror, and made himself stand very tall.

  He clicked the PHONE button.

  ‘Is Bella a full-grown snake?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said the old lady. ‘You’d have to ask my husband.’

  ‘Can I talk to him, please?’

  ‘That’s the trouble, you see,’ she said.

  ‘My husband’s at the hospital. Yesterday my grandson came to visit and he must have left Bella’s cage door open.’

  ‘Do you know where Bella might have gone?’ asked Jordan.

  ‘I think she’s somewhere in the house,’ said the old lady. ‘But I’m a bit scared to go looking for her.’

  So was Jordan. ‘Could you hang on again, please?’ he asked.

  Jordan crossed back to the bed, and gave his brother a big shake. ‘Harry, do we catch snakes?’

  ‘Uhhhhn,’ went Harry.

  Jordan waved the phone at him. ‘Wake up! We’ve got a call on the FoxPhone.’

  ‘Who is it?’ Harry asked sleepily.

  ‘An old lady,’ whispered Jordan. ‘She wants us to catch a snake.’

  Suddenly Harry was wide awake. ‘Awesome!’ he cried. ‘What sort of snake?’

  Jordan told him about Bella.

  Harry jumped down off his bunk and raced to the wardrobe to look at the handwritten chart that was taped to the back of the door.

  ‘Our first Code Red mission!’ he cried.

  2

  MISSION FOX TO THE RESCUE

  Jordan wrote down the lady’s name and address. She was called Mrs Seabert and she lived in the next street. Jordan got a fluttery feeling in his stomach when he thought about a huge, dangerous snake living just around the corner.

  Now it was on the loose!

  ‘Have you seen my T-shirt?’ Harry asked when Jordan got off the phone.

  ‘Look in the FoxPack,’ Jordan whispered.

  ‘I already did.’

  The FoxPack was where they kept their rescue equipment. Harry had tipped it out on the floor. Their Mission Fox uniforms lay on the carpet. They had matching green cargo shorts, Fox Sports baseball caps with the ‘Sports’ part blacked out, sunglasses and their special GoFaster runners. But there were no T-shirts.

  ‘Mum must have washed them,’ said Jordan.

  He went to the wardrobe and pulled open the top drawer. Sure enough, both T-shirts were there – washed and neatly folded.

  Jordan held one up to read the logo on the back.

  AMINAL RESCUE, it said in big permanent-marker letters.

  ‘Here’s yours,’ he whispered, tossing it to Harry, who wasn’t very good at spelling.

  The logo on the other T-shirt was spelt correctly: ANIMAL RESCUE. Jordan put it on.

  ‘Will we take the FoxMobile?’ Harry asked when they were dressed.

  The FoxMobile was the three-wheeled billy cart they used on rescue missions.

  Jordan shook his head. ‘Mrs Seabert only lives around the corner,’ he said. ‘We’ll just take Myrtle.’

  After they had loaded all their rescue equipment into the FoxPack, the twins crept out and tiptoed downstairs to the lounge. It was very dark because the curtains were closed. Something huge and furry lay on a rug in front of the fireplace. It looked like a sleeping grizzly bear.

  ‘Myrtle!’ Jordan whispered.

  The huge furry thing jumped up. It came bounding across the room and nearly bowled the boys over.

  ‘Calm down, Agent M!’ giggled Harry, as Myrtle wished them both a sloppy good morning.

  Myrtle (or Agent M) was the third member of Mission Fox. She was a dog – a HUGE one. Part Great Dane and part Newfoundland, Myrtle was big enough to be in the Guinness Book of Records. She was the biggest dog in Australia. People often thought she was a pony. But animals didn’t make that mistake. They knew what Myrtle was straight away. It sometimes caused problems when Mission Fox was supposed to rescue cats.

  Jordan clipped on her lead and took her to the front door. Harry followed with the FoxPack. They had to be really quiet. Everyone else was still in bed.
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  Jordan and Harry’s parents didn’t know that Mission Fox was real. They thought it was just a made-up game the twins played. But Jordan and Harry wanted them to think that. No way would Mr and Mrs Fox let their two youngest sons go on dangerous rescue missions if they knew the truth.

  It wasn’t fair. The twins’ older brother, Sam, was allowed to travel all around the world having amazing adventures, and their parents were proud of him!

  Half a minute later, the three Mission Fox agents were safely outside. Nobody had heard them. The street was empty.

  ‘Mission Fox to the rescue!’ whispered Harry.

  They gave each other the secret MF handshake.

  ‘Woof!’ went Myrtle, really quietly for such a big dog.

  Jordan and Harry gave her the secret MF head-pat.

  3

  HISSSS!

  Mrs Seabert was standing on her front porch looking up and down the street. She blinked in surprise when the three Mission Fox agents came walking up her path.

  ‘Goodness me!’ she said.

  Adults often said things like that when they met the twins. It was because Jordan and Harry were identical, and Myrtle was so big.

  ‘We’re from Mission Fox,’ Jordan said. ‘You called us about the snake that escaped’

  ‘But you’re just boys!’

  ‘We’re small for our age,’ said Harry. He made his voice go deeper. ‘Actually, we’re nearly twenty.’

  It wasn’t a lie. The twins were nearly twenty if you added their ages together.

  Mrs Seabert pointed at Myrtle. ‘Is that a pony?’ she asked.

  Jordan shook his head. ‘Myrtle’s a dog.’

  ‘Where’s the snake?’ asked Harry.

  ‘I’m not really sure,’ Mrs Seabert said nervously. She stepped to one side and pushed open her front door. ‘Would you like to go in and see if you can find her?’

  Harry went straight in. He was braver when it came to snakes. Jordan stayed outside with Myrtle and Mrs Seabert.

  ‘Agent J!’ Harry’s voice came from inside. ‘Aren’t you going to help?’

  Agent J was Jordan’s code name. Jordan and Harry needed to keep their real names secret in case someone told their parents.

  ‘Is it all right if our dog comes in?’ Jordan asked Mrs Seabert.

  ‘Be my guest,’ she said.

  Jordan pointed at the open door. ‘Find the snake, Agent M!’

  Myrtle was good at sniffing things out. She ran into Mrs Seabert’s house with her nose to the floor. Jordan stumbled in after her, hanging onto her lead. She dragged him down a short hallway and turned right, into a very dark room.

  Then she started barking.

  Jordan tried to hold her back. She was nearly pulling his arms off. Jordan took off his sunglasses and looked round the room. All he could see were the black shapes of furniture. Bella could be anywhere! It was the worst feeling. Jordan really wanted to switch on the light, but Myrtle was pulling so hard he couldn’t let go to reach it. She was barking like crazy.

  There was another noise, too: Hissss! Hissss! Hissss!

  ‘Agent H!’ yelled Jordan. ‘I think Myrtle’s found it!’

  A Harry-shaped shadow appeared in the doorway. The light clicked on.

  Now Jordan could see that he was standing in the middle of an old-fashioned lounge room. It was crowded with furniture that looked like it should be in a museum. Sitting on the back of a large flowery armchair was a hissing black cat.

  Oops! thought Jordan. He’d forgotten to ask Mrs Seabert if she had a cat.

  Myrtle didn’t hate cats, she just liked chasing them. Now that the light was on, she could see the one she’d sniffed out. With a deep, happy bark, she jumped at the cat, ripping the lead out of Jordan’s hands.

  The chase was on!

  The cat let out a yowl of fright and jumped off the back of the chair. It hit the floor running. It shot under a little table with a lamp on it. It went skidding around the back of a couch. It ducked under another chair. And then it flew out the door between Harry’s legs. All in about two seconds.

  Myrtle wasn’t far behind. The first chair toppled over. The little table went flying. The lamp crashed to the floor. The couch spun in a circle. The second chair tipped onto its side.

  Harry got bowled over.

  ‘Why did you let her go?’ he asked, as Jordan helped him up.

  ‘I didn’t let her go!’ Jordan said crossly. ‘She got away.’

  ‘I thought you could control her.’

  ‘I can – except when she goes off chasing cats.’

  They stopped arguing when they heard a crash and a loud SCREEEECH from one of the other rooms.

  ‘Oops!’ said Jordan.

  ‘Follow me,’ said Harry.

  4

  SHISHKEBAB!

  They found Myrtle in the kitchen. The cat was there, too. It was crouched on top of the fridge, looking scared. Myrtle was sitting in front of the fridge, looking pleased with herself.

  The cat was trapped. Myrtle had done her job.

  But she’d made quite a mess of the kitchen. All sorts of things had been knocked over, including a big birdcage with a cockatoo in it. Mr and Mrs Seabert had lots of pets.

  Including a snake, Jordan remembered as he grabbed Myrtle’s lead.

  Well, they would worry about that later. First they had to clean up the kitchen.

  ‘Sit!’ he told Myrtle. Then he helped Harry lift up the cockatoo’s cage.

  The cage was on a tall wooden stand. Harry pushed and Jordan pulled while the big white cockatoo flapped around inside in a panic.

  Suddenly the cage door fell open and the cockatoo flew out!

  It circled the kitchen a couple of times, then landed on the old-fashioned light high above the boys’ heads.

  ‘WHO’S A PRETTY BOY?’ it shrieked.

  ‘Quick! We’d better catch it before Mrs Seabert finds out,’ said Harry.

  Too late.

  ‘What on earth are you doing?’ the old lady asked from the kitchen doorway.

  ‘Your cockatoo got out,’ Jordan said.

  ‘I can see that,’ said Mrs Seabert. She raised a bent old finger for the bird to land on. ‘Come here, Charlie,’ she said.

  But Charlie took no notice. He wasn’t looking at Mrs Seabert and he wasn’t looking at Jordan and Harry. Or at Myrtle, or the cat. He was looking at the cupboards above the sink.

  The twins looked up too.

  ‘Shishkebab!’ they gasped.

  5

  THINK LIKE A COCKATOO

  Bella was enormous. She looked like one of the huge ropes they use to tie up ships. Except ships’ ropes aren’t covered in leathery scales. And they aren’t alive.

  Somehow, the monster snake had climbed up onto the cupboards above the sink. Her long, fat body was coiled in the little space between the cupboards and the ceiling. She was looking at Charlie, and Charlie was looking at her.

  ‘Do Bella and Charlie like each other?’ Harry asked Mrs Seabert.

  ‘I don’t think they’ve ever met.’

  Jordan remembered something. ‘On BRAIN it says that scrub pythons eat birds,’ he said.

  It looked like BRAIN was right. Bella had started to move towards Charlie. And there was a hungry look in her eyes. Slowly she stretched her head and neck across the gap between the cupboards and the swaying light.

  Charlie just watched her getting closer.

  Fly away! Jordan thought, but Charlie didn’t move.

  He was frozen in fear. In thirty seconds he would be Bella’s breakfast.

  ‘Please do something!’ wailed Mrs Seabert. She sounded as scared as Charlie looked.

  She sounded as scared as Jordan felt.

  But Harry wasn’t scared. Quickly he freed his arms from the FoxPack and dumped it on the floor. He opened it and pulled out a short pole. Then he screwed a big round net on the end. The two pieces joined to make the FoxNet. It used to be an old butterfly net that belonged to the twins’ great-grandfather.
>
  ‘Give me a piggyback, Agent J.’

  ‘Hurry!’ gasped Mrs Seabert.

  Bella had almost reached Charlie, who still hadn’t moved.

  Jordan lifted his brother onto his back and Harry swung the FoxNet at the same moment the python struck.

  Snap! went its powerful jaws.

  Missed!

  Harry had scooped Charlie off the light a second before the snake got there.

  But Bella wasn’t giving up that easily. She opened her wide pink mouth again.

  ‘Going down!’ yelled Jordan, bending his knees.

  Snap! went Bella’s jaws.

  Missed again!

  Harry and Jordan landed in a heap on the floor. Charlie was safe in the FoxNet.

  At least, Charlie should have been safe. But the FoxNet was ninety years old and was meant for catching butterflies, not cockatoos.

  Rip!

  The silk net fell apart and Charlie came flapping out.

  ‘Catch him!’ cried Harry.

  Jordan made a grab for the panicked cockatoo, but it slipped through his fingers and flapped back up towards the ceiling, where Bella was waiting.

  Mrs Seabert screamed a warning, but Charlie didn’t listen.

  Snap!

  Jordan couldn’t look. Poor Charlie had become a python’s breakfast for sure.

  ‘Get back!’ yelled an angry voice.

  Jordan opened his eyes. Harry had climbed up on the stove and was fighting Bella off with the shredded FoxNet. But he was too late to save Charlie. A single white feather stuck out from one corner of the python’s mouth.

  Poor Charlie! Jordan thought.

  ‘WHO’S A PRETTY BOY!'

  Huh?

  Looking up, Jordan saw more white feathers. They belonged to an upside-down cockatoo.

  Charlie was alive!

  Somehow the cockatoo had got away from Bella. He was clinging to the cover of a fan in the ceiling above the stove. Bella was trying to get him, but Harry kept pushing her back with the loop of wire on the end of the FoxNet’s pole. But the wire was bending a little more each time the huge python struck at Charlie.