Chicken Mission: Chaos in Cluckbridge Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  By the Same Author

  Dedication

  Copyright

  In the bustling metropolis of Cluckbridge, the City Zoo was closing for the night. The head zookeeper was finishing his final round of security checks. Night-time was when the animals were at their most active and it was important to make sure they were all safely locked inside their enclosures before he went home for his supper.

  The reptile house was the last place on the zookeeper’s list. It gave him the creeps. The head zookeeper could cope with lions and tigers. Logic told him that tarantulas should be wary of him and not the other way round. But the reptiles – especially Cleopatra, the queen cobra – scared the pants off him.

  Cleopatra was the most formidable animal the head zookeeper had ever come across in all his years at the zoo. The snake was perfectly camouflaged. She could hypnotise her prey with one look of her yellow eyes. She was five metres long and could rise up in the air by a third of her length to strike. One bite from her fangs contained enough venom to kill an elephant.

  Cleopatra was deadly.

  And now it had been confirmed that Cleopatra was about to lay eggs.

  The plan was to remove the eggs from Cleopatra as soon as she laid them, and to incubate them in a container until they hatched. Then they would be parcelled out to other zoos around the world to help preserve the species. The head zookeeper was glad he didn’t have to do it. Of course Cleopatra would be sedated, but when she woke up and saw that her eggs had been taken, she would be furious.

  All of a sudden a great clamour went up amongst the animals. The chimps chattered, the night birds hooted and from the direction of the lion house came a threatening growl. The head zookeeper felt the hairs on his neck prickle. Hastily he gave the door of the reptile house a quick tug to make sure it was securely locked, then let himself out of the front gates of the zoo and snapped the padlock shut behind him.

  Inside the reptile house, the animals heard the metallic scrape of the bolts being drawn across the gates and the chink of the padlock.

  ‘He’sssssss gone, Cleopatra,’ whispered the python.

  ‘Ssssssso will I be sssssssoon,’ came a soft hiss in reply.

  ‘Remember to leave your ssssssskin behind ssssssso your keeper doesn’t notice you’re misssssssing when he comesssssss to feed you in the morning,’ the python advised.

  ‘Very well,’ came the whispered response. ‘I will do it now.’

  The queen cobra flexed her coils, then she went completely limp. Very slowly, head first, she began to slip out of her old skin, emerging from it inch by perfect inch. Her new skin was identical to the old, with exactly the same brown and yellow markings. She was still perfectly camouflaged against the bed of leaves and twigs.

  With a final slither, the last loop of her tail came free. Cleopatra turned her head and regarded the shed skin. It would fool her keeper for a while.

  Cleopatra let out a long hiss. She had to lay her eggs in private: somewhere the humans couldn’t take them from her.

  She moved quickly to the back of the enclosure, where the snakes were fed through a hatch.

  There! She flicked her tongue out and inserted the forks into the lock. Click! With a quick twist the lock opened. The hatch swung back with a creak. She poked her head through it into a narrow corridor with a concrete floor.

  Heating pipes ran along the length of the corridor, letting out a faint gurgling and hammering as the water chugged through them. Cleopatra’s tongue flicked in and out. On it she caught the scent of fresh air. She raised her head. A draught was coming from above the pipes where a window had been left ajar.

  Freedom, thought Cleopatra, at lassssssst.

  ‘Goodbye, Cleopatra. Good luck,’ hissed the python.

  Cleopatra barely heard him. She slipped through the hatch, climbed up the water pipes and disappeared through the open window into the dark night.

  ‘Done!’ Amy Cluckbucket stuffed the final bits and pieces into her suitcase and banged the lid shut. ‘Phew!’ she lay back on her straw bed with her legs in the air. Amy wasn’t a very tidy chicken, and packing was hard work: even harder than being a chicken agent, in fact. There were so many things to remember, like her toothbrush and her bandana. Not to mention all the things she wanted to show her parents, like her Certificate of Egg-cellence from the Kung Fu School of Poultry and two editions of the Daily Snail which had pictures of her on the front page.

  Amy was part of an elite chicken squad whose job it was to defeat chicken predators. Together with her two friends, Boo and Ruth, she had been trained to become a chicken warrior at the Kung Fu School of Poultry in Tibet before arriving at Chicken HQ to meet their mentor, Professor Rooster. Since then Amy, Boo and Ruth had completed two successful missions against Thaddeus E. Fox and his MOST WANTED Club of villains. And Professor Rooster was so pleased with their good work that he had decided to give them a holiday.

  That meant Amy was going home to Perrin’s Farm for the first time in months. She couldn’t wait to see her parents and tell them about her adventures.

  ‘All ready, Amy?’ Ruth sat down beside her. Ruth was a tall, white chicken with spectacles and a grey scarf.

  ‘Yep,’ said Amy. She sat up. ‘Where’s your suitcase, Ruth? Haven’t you packed yet?’

  ‘I don’t need to,’ Ruth said. She waved a remote control at Amy. ‘Behold! The world’s first self-packing suitcase!’

  Amy looked around Chicken HQ. Ruth’s suitcase lay on the floor between the laptop and the gadgets cupboard. A large magnet on a metal arm emerged from inside the case. Ruth pressed a button on the remote control. Various objects flew towards the magnet and landed in the suitcase, including Ruth’s spectacles.

  ‘Barn it, now I can’t see!’ said Ruth.

  Amy went to retrieve the spectacles. Ruth was brilliant at inventing things, but sometimes she didn’t get it quite right first time. ‘What about you, Boo?’ Amy asked. ‘Are you nearly ready?’

  ‘Nearly,’ Boo said. ‘I’m just brushing my boots!’ Boo had beautiful honey-coloured feathers which, unlike most chickens’, went all the way down to her toes. Boo’s lovely thick coat always made Amy feel slightly self-conscious about her own appearance – Amy was a small brown chicken with lots of fluffy grey feathers around her tummy and scrawny pink legs – but she knew that chickens come in all shapes and sizes so she didn’t really mind.

  Amy bent down to collect the spectacles then squinted at the sun through one of the shed windows. Chicken HQ consisted of three dilapidated potting sheds located in an old walled garden on the Dudley Estate. The sheds were joined together inside to make an operations room. Of course, the humans who lived at Dudley Manor had no idea what was in there. It was the chickens’ secret!

  The sun was low in the sky, which meant it was nearly time for their flight. ‘The albatross will be here any minute,’ Amy said excitedly, straightening up. She gave Ruth back her spectacles. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to come with me to Perrin�
�s Farm?’ she asked her friend.

  ‘Not this time, Amy,’ Ruth said. ‘Boo already asked me to go and stay at her Aunt Mildred’s in Cluckbridge, and I always wanted to see the city.’

  Ruth couldn’t go home to her parents because they lived too far away, which was why she had accepted an invitation from Boo’s aunt to stay with her instead for the holiday. ‘I’ll come next time, I promise,’ she added.

  ‘So will I,’ Boo said, coming over, ‘if I’m invited.’ She gave Amy a wink.

  ‘Of course you are!’ Amy had once felt a bit shy around Boo and Ruth – they were so sophisticated compared to her – but now she didn’t. Each of the chickens had a special skill: Boo’s was perseverance, Ruth’s was intelligence, and Amy’s was courage. Together the three of them made a great team.

  A shadow passed across the windows.

  ‘There’s the albatross!’ cried Amy.

  She grabbed her suitcase, threw on her backpack and rushed out of the nearest potting-shed door. Cluckbridge wasn’t very far from Perrin’s Farm. The albatross was going to drop her off first and then take Boo and Ruth on to the city. In just an hour or so she would be home!

  She was about to climb on board the albatross when Ruth called her back. ‘Amy, come here a minute,’ she said.

  ‘What is it?’ Amy asked. Ruth’s face wore a worried expression.

  ‘It’s Professor Rooster. He’s on the laptop. I think he’s got another mission for us.’

  Reluctantly, Amy stepped away from the albatross and trudged back to the potting sheds. She hoped this wouldn’t mean she couldn’t go on holiday.

  The laptop stood in the middle of Chicken HQ on an old wooden crate. Boo and Ruth sat beside it on garden stools. Amy dragged herself over to the third stool and plonked her bottom on it. Maybe the professor just wanted to wish them happy holidays, she thought hopefully.

  Professor Rooster was staring out at them from the laptop screen. As soon as she saw the stern look on his face, Amy knew it was something important. Her head drooped in disappointment. She was going to miss her holiday after all. Then she remembered the monitor was two-way and that the Professor could see her, so she lifted her chin up and tried to look brave.

  ‘Chickens,’ he said, ‘thank goodness I caught you. Something terrible has happened.’

  ‘What is it this time, Professor?’ asked Ruth.

  The professor drew himself up. ‘It is my duty to inform you that Cleopatra, the queen cobra, has escaped from Cluckbridge City Zoo,’ he said.

  Boo gasped. ‘Cleopatra!’

  ‘Yes, Boo, I’m afraid so,’ the professor said. His voice was gentle.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Boo started to cry.

  Amy looked from Professor Rooster to Boo and back again in puzzlement. ‘What’s the matter with Boo?’ she whispered to Ruth. ‘Did I miss something?’

  Ruth shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ she replied.

  ‘Boo already knows about Cleopatra from personal experience,’ Professor Rooster said. ‘I will leave it to her to tell you about it if she chooses. But for the benefit of you, Ruth, and you, Amy,’ he pointed at them in turn, ‘let me fill you in.’

  They waited. Something told Amy this was one of the most serious things that had ever happened in her young chicken life. She listened carefully.

  ‘A queen cobra is probably the most deadly animal in the world,’ said the professor. ‘It can hypnotise its prey with a look and kill with one injection of venom. Cleopatra isn’t just any queen cobra, however, she has a track record. She is known to have attacked her human keeper at the zoo on a number of occasions. She is also reported by my spies in Cluckbridge to have consumed over twenty full-grown chickens in the past year. And I should tell you, chickens, that she doesn’t always bother to kill them first.’

  Amy felt faintly sick. She put her wing round Boo, who was still sobbing quietly. Amy gave her a squeeze.

  ‘This is what Cleopatra looks like,’ the professor said.

  Amy started as a picture of a terrifying snake showed up on the screen. Cleopatra was dark brown with a yellowish throat and a great hood. She stared right out at Amy from the laptop. Even thought it was only a photograph, Amy felt she was being drawn in by the snake’s cold, mesmerising stare.

  ‘We’re not entirely sure how she escaped,’ the professor said. ‘The human newspapers are reporting that Cleopatra’s keeper may have forgotten to lock the cage properly. That seems unlikely to me. I suspect that Cleopatra’s been planning this for a while.’ He gave a little cough. ‘You see, chickens, unfortunately it’s not just Cleopatra we have to worry about …’

  ‘You don’t mean Thaddeus E. Fox and the MOST WANTED Club have teamed up with her as well, do you?’ Amy squawked.

  ‘No, no,’ the professor said hastily. ‘Thaddeus and his gang haven’t been seen since your last successful mission.’

  Amy let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for that!

  ‘The problem is, Cleopatra is expecting babies,’ said the professor. ‘Any day now, she’s going to lay eggs.’

  ‘Eggs?’ Amy exclaimed. She’d never really thought about how snakes had babies before, but the fact they laid eggs came as a complete surprise. ‘What, like a hen?’

  ‘Yes, Amy, like a hen, except whereas a hen will only lay one egg at a time, Cleopatra will lay a large number all at once.’

  ‘How many is a large number, Professor?’ asked Ruth.

  ‘Anywhere between 30 and 50,’ said Professor Rooster.

  There was a stunned silence. Boo had stopped crying. She wiped her beak on a tissue.

  Amy gave her a reassuring pat.

  ‘Cleopatra doesn’t want to lose her babies. She will do anything to stop the humans at the zoo getting hold of her eggs in case they donate them to other zoos around the world,’ Professor Rooster said. ‘But she doesn’t have much time. My gut feeling is she’s still in Cluckbridge. Her instinct will be to lie low somewhere dark and quiet in the city where there’s plenty of food. That way she can build a nest and incubate the eggs until they hatch …’

  Amy opened her beak to say something but Professor Rooster held up his wing.

  ‘Before you ask, Amy, yes, a snake does sit on her eggs like a hen.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Amy. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘In the meantime, no chicken in the area will be safe; nor will any chick. Cleopatra is used to being fed them live by the keeper, but she’s more than capable of catching them herself.’ He looked directly at Boo. ‘That includes the rest of your family, Boo.’

  The rest of Boo’s family? What did he mean? Amy wondered.

  Boo nodded. ‘I understand,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Very well,’ the rofessor said. ‘Your mission, chickens, is to fly to Cluckbridge, find Cleopatra and return her to the City Zoo. If she has already laid her eggs, then you must return them too. It is vital, I repeat, vital that you stop those eggs from hatching outside the zoo. Otherwise, no chicken in the area will be safe.’

  ‘What about our holiday?’ Amy burst out. As soon as she’d said it, she wished she hadn’t.

  ‘The mission comes first, Amy,’ Professor Rooster reminded her sharply. ‘Chickens’ lives are at stake. No one is taking a holiday until this is over. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, Professor,’ Amy replied. She hadn’t meant to sound sulky and silly but she was so disappointed she wouldn’t be able to see her parents that she couldn’t help it.

  ‘I hope so,’ said Professor Rooster. ‘All three of you will be staying with Boo’s Aunt Mildred until further notice. Amy, I’ve already informed your parents that you won’t be able to join them at Perrin’s Farm this time.’

  Amy felt a tear trickle down her cheek. She hadn’t realised how much she missed Perrin’s Farm until she suddenly wasn’t allowed to go. She felt a wing steal round her shoulders.

  ‘Hey!’ It was Ruth. ‘Cheer up. You’ll be able to go and see them when the mission’s over.’

  Amy nodded glumly. Only if the
y defeated Cleopatra, she thought. If they failed, she might never see her parents again.

  ‘Remember, whatever you do, don’t make eye contact with Cleopatra or she’ll hypnotise you,’ Professor Rooster told them. ‘And watch out for her tongue. That’s how she senses things if she can’t see them. Not by taste, but by smell.’

  ‘How will we keep in touch?’ asked Ruth.

  ‘Aunt Mildred has access to a computer if you need to contact me,’ Professor Rooster replied. ‘In the meantime, I’ll tell my spies to keep an eye out for any sign of Cleopatra. Any news, I’ll let you know by pigeon post.’

  ‘What gadgets should we take?’ asked Ruth.

  ‘I’ve put some things to help you in the Emergency Chicken Pack,’ Professor Rooster said. ‘The mite blaster won’t work on Cleopatra’s scales, so you’ll need to use other weapons against her. Good luck, chickens.’ Professor Rooster leaned forward towards his computer screen and turned it off. The screen fizzled with grey and white lines and then went black.

  Down in a burrow in the Deep Dark Woods on the edge of the Dudley Estate, Thaddeus E. Fox was fast asleep in his feather bed, when there was a knock on the door.

  ‘Go away,’ Thaddeus growled.

  There was a pause, then the knock came again.

  ‘I’m not here,’ Thaddeus said.

  ‘Yes, you are,’ a posh voice replied.

  Thaddeus groaned. The posh voice sounded very much as if it belonged to his old school pal, Snooty Bush. Thaddeus wasn’t very keen on Snooty Bush at the best of times but right now, what with everything that had happened lately, Snooty Bush was positively the last fox in the world he wanted to see. He couldn’t bear the humiliation. He buried his head under the duvet and put his paws over his ears.

  BASH! BASH! BASH!

  ‘Let me in!’ the voice demanded.

  ‘Or what?’ Thaddeus shouted back at it.

  ‘Or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!’ Snooty Bush chortled.

  ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ said Thaddeus sarcastically. ‘Tell you what, how about I light the fire and you come down the chimney?’