The Great Brain Robbery by Anna Kemp Page B

would carry them. Frankie was breathing so hard he thought his lungs would burst into flames. But he couldn’t slow down for a second. He knew what Dr Calus
Gore was capable of and he wasn’t about to take any chances. Alarms wailed and flashed all around them. Marvella had alerted security. Frankie glanced over his shoulder to see two enormous
security guards charging after them like angry rhinos.
    ‘Come in, Blitzen! Come in, Blitzen!’ one of them honked into his walkie-talkie. ‘We have located the party-poopers. Repeat. We have located the party-poopers.’
    ‘Read that, Donner,’ a voice crackled back. ‘I’ve got the exits covered.’
    Frankie and Neet exchanged panicked glances. ‘This way, Frankie,’ said Neet, pushing through a side door that led straight into the shop. The store was already heaving with shoppers.
Frankie and Neet pushed into the throng, but the guards were catching up fast. Frankie turned his head to see one of them right behind him, reaching forwards with a huge, hairy hand.
    ‘The smoke-bomb!’ Frankie cried. ‘Quickly!’
    Neet pulled the perfume bottle out of her pocket and yanked the chain.
Whooooooooooosh!
Within moments the shop was filled with a thick blue fog, so dense that Frankie couldn’t
even see his own feet.
    ‘We’re getting out of here, Frankie,’ called Neet. ‘Hold on to my ponytail.’ The crowd began to shout and shove their way towards the exit. Frankie felt himself
being carried along on a surge of people that was so thick and fast-moving he was afraid he might drown. ‘Hold on, Frankie!’ called Neet. Frankie took a deep breath, then, before he
knew it, he tumbled out of the fog and crush of the shop into the crisp winter air.
    ‘Nice one, Neet!’ said Frankie coughing the smoke from his lungs. ‘Now we need to get home and tell the others.’
    But Neet didn’t reply.
    ‘Neet?’
    Frankie felt an enormous hand clamp down on the back of his neck and winch him off his feet. It was Rudolph, the henchman that had taken Timmy away. Frankie saw that Neet was in his other hand,
wiggling and squeaking like a gerbil. The guard turned them both around to face him and grinned like an enormous toddler playing with glove-puppets. Frankie tried to shout but Rudolph’s huge
thumb was squeezing his throat so tightly, he could only draw the thinnest wisp of air into his lungs. He felt the sweat beading on his forehead and saw stars floating before his eyes. Then, just
as he was about to black out, he heard a shrill howl of pain. The guard’s enormous fists sprang open, dropping Neet and Frankie on to the pavement. ‘Waaaaaaah!’ yelled Rudolph
clutching, his bottom. ‘Owweeeeee!’ Frankie couldn’t work out what had happened. But then he heard the most ferocious barking. So savage were the growls he felt sure a wolf had
escaped from the zoo. But no! Frankie recognised those fluffy white ears and that pink satin collar. Colette! The poodle let go of the guard’s trousers and, as he went howling back into the
shop, she trotted delicately over to Frankie and licked the tip of his nose.
    ‘Thanks, Colette!’ gasped Frankie, catching his breath. ‘You’re a lifesaver!’
    The familiar sound of a motorbike engine revved behind them.
    ‘Let’s go, little cabbages!’ cried Alphonsine, chucking them a helmet each. ‘No time to be fandangling about!’
    Neet and Frankie swung themselves on to Alphonsine’s growling panther of a bike and within minutes they were roaring away from the toyshop and out of town. As they sped into the
countryside, they told Alphonsine about everything they had discovered at Marvella’s. By the time they had finished, Alphonsine was crosser than a plateful of hot-cross buns.
    ‘Disgracious!’ she fumed. ‘Disgustful! Snitching children’s memories and turning zem into adverts! That Dr Calus is as mad as a mushroom!’ Colette growled in
agreement. ‘We must stop him! Straightaway! Once and forever!
    The motorbike