Canyon Chaos Read Online Free Page A

robot.
    “The Secret Services wanted you to build a cleaning robot? Why?” exclaimed Jimmy in amazement.
    “D’you know how much the Secret Services spend on cleaners?” asked Grandpa. “My robot would have saved them a fortune! And there were hundreds of other things they wanted robots for too. Things that they said were ‘CLASSIFIED’. So they built me this laboratory in the shed and gave me everything I could possibly need.”
    “The Secret Services built this shed?” said Jimmy, grinning excitedly. “Unbelievable!”
    “I designed this prototype and took it to show the people at the secret department in the secret wing of the Secret Services. We had a few teething troubles to begin with – like the time it ripped their carpet to shreds and ate all the chair legs. But with a few minor adjustments, my plans were finished and I was ready to build a new, improved version of this little chap,” Granda said, patting the biscuit-tin robot affectionately on the lid.
    “Did you build it?” asked Jimmy.
    Grandpa shook his head sadly. “One night,” he said, “I was lying in bed when I heard a noise outside. I looked out of the bedroom window, but I couldn’t see or hear anything. And in the morning, I came down to the shed and all my plans were gone. Stolen.”
    “Stolen?” gasped Jimmy.
    “A week later,” sighed Grandpa, “the man who I had once thought was my friend – the man who I had trusted with some of my greatest ideas – started his own company selling the world’s first robot. He had stolen my plans and made his own robot. Within a month, he was a millionaire.”
    “Who was he, this friend of yours?” asked Jimmy.
    “His name,” said Grandpa, “was Ludwick Leadpipe.”
    Jimmy stared at Grandpa. “You mean – your friend,” he said at last, “the friend you worked with and invented stuff with – was Lord Leadpipe? So that’s why you hate him!”
    “Me?” cried Grandpa. “I don’t hate Ludwick Leadpipe. I despise him.”
    “I can’t believe it,” said Jimmy. “I can’t believe Lord Leadpipe would do something like that.”
    “Neither could I.” Grandpa sighed. “And that’s why I haven’t been in this shed for thirty years. I told the Secret Services I was changing my career, and two weeks after the first Leadpipe robot went on sale I got a job with Total Taxis.”
    “But why give up all this to be a taxi driver?” asked Jimmy.
    “You know where you are with a taxi.” Grandpa nodded solemnly. “You can rely on a taxi. They always come when you call. And they don’t sneak into your shed at night and steal your finest invention.” He stared at the ground and sniffed. When he looked up again, there was a steely glint in his dark eyes. “So,” said Grandpa, “the time has come to put things right. We are entering you for the Robot Races.”
    “But ... but ... but you hate Robot Races, Grandpa,” said Jimmy.
    “Not any more!” cried Grandpa, picking up the robot and spinning it around. “This is our big chance! D’you think I want to spend my retirement drinking tea and weeding the garden? D’you think I’m going to let you miss the opportunity to compete in Robot Races?”
    Jimmy stared at Grandpa in open-mouthed amazement. Had the old man gone crazy? “But I haven’t even got a racer,” he mumbled when he eventually got his mouth working.
    “Don’t you see?” said Grandpa. “I’m going to build you a racer! When are the qualifying races?”
    “In two weeks,” replied Jimmy. His insides were jumping up and down with excitement, but the rest of him couldn’t move.
    “Better get cracking then,” said Grandpa, sharpening a pencil and spreading out a roll of blank paper. “You put the kettle on, and I’ll design you the greatest robot racer the world has ever seen!”

Chapter 5 - Grandpa Gets Busy
    Jimmy stared into his soggy cereal. He always ate breakfast with Grandpa – porridge and mashed bananas for Grandpa, cornflakes for Jimmy.
    But not