Turtle Terror by Ali Sparkes Page B

enough being a spider! And anyway—we’re not thinking about any S.W.I.T.C.H.ing, are we? We’re just having a vacation—hundreds of miles away from Petty Potts and her secret lab and her S.W.I.T.C.H. spray . . .”
    â€œYeah—I s’pose,” Josh said, lying back on the beach mat and putting his hands behind his head. “We probably do need a break from all that excitement and danger. Getting turned into insects and spiders and frogs and lizards is amazing—but it wears you out.”
    â€œA nice, peaceful holiday,” agreed Danny. Piddle returned to his hole and carried on digging for a while before heading off up the cliff path, obviously hoping to get some lunch from Mom or Dad at the cottage.
    â€œYup,” Josh said. “With
nothing
getting S.W.I.T.C.H.ed and
no sign
of Petty Potts and her genius experiments anywhere.”
    And that was when a parachute landed on the beach next to them.

For a second Danny thought it was a reckless sky diver landing dangerously off course. And then he realized he’d just gotten the scale wrong. It wasn’t a
big
parachute, far away—it was a
small
parachute, close up.
    Josh was already on his feet and running across to the billowing yellow chute, which was in fact about the size of a playground merry-go-round. Danny ran to it too and began to gather up the fine silk in bunches to stop the sea breeze from tugging it along the beach.
    â€œWhat is it?” Josh peered beneath the chute. “A teeny weeny thrill-seeker?”
    Attached to its web of fine white cords was not a tiny skydiver but a silver cylinder with a screw top, about the size of a jam jar—but much lighter.

    â€œAluminum, probably,” Josh said, picking it up.
    â€œWho dropped it?” Danny scanned the high cliffs above them but could see nobody.
    Josh was looking around too. “And were they dropping it for
us
?”
    There were very few other people on the beach. Their holiday was during school term, so no other kids were around at all—just adults, dog walkers, and a couple of surfers. And they were all a long distance from where the parachute had landed.
    â€œGo on then—open it!” Danny said.
    Josh shrugged. “Well . . . if nobody’s coming to claim it, we might as well.”
    He struggled with the lid. It was very tightly screwed shut.
    â€œHere—let me, you wuss!” Danny grabbed it off his brother and twisted with all his strength. Then he paused. “You don’t think it’s full of toxic gas, do you?”
    Josh laughed. “Um—no! We’re not in Petty’s lab now!”
    â€œOK.” Danny gave another twist and the lid gave.
    Inside was a piece of folded yellow paper.
    Danny stared at Josh, his heart suddenly beating hard. “You know what this is, don’t you?”
    Josh could hardly believe it. “Here? Two hundred miles away from home?” He felt slightly panicky.
    Danny stared at the canister and then up at his brother. “
Not
Petty Potts. And now I sort of wish it
were
Petty Potts. Even if she was barmy enough to follow us all the way down here, at least she’s the kind of barmy we know. But this . . .” He opened the paper with the familiar spidery writingon it, just like the other ones. “This is . . .”
    â€œ . . . from the Mystery Marble Sender,” whispered Josh. “Now I’m freaking out.”
    Danny opened the note out and read aloud.
    GREETINGS, JOSH & DANNY. ARE YOU READY FOR CLUE 3?
    He gulped. “Whoever this is, they are definitely watching us. Following us. Tracking us. I mean . . . when they sent the first two clues it was all at our house and that was freaky enough—but following us here?”
    Josh felt shaky too. The Mystery Marble Sender had been in touch with them over the past month, sending clues to get them to find marbles. But not just any marbles. These marbles contained a hologram and a