The Great Brain Robbery Read Online Free Page A

glowing like a blue beacon, sparks flying between his long mechanical ears.
    Frankie screamed and jumped out of bed. Immediately, the blue light vanished and, by the time Alphonsine burst into his room waving a burglar-bashing tennis racket, everything looked perfectly
normal. Gadget had tumbled to the floor and was lying on the rug like a completely normal toy.
    ‘Where is he? Where’s he hiding himself?’ yelled Alphonsine, leaping round the room swinging her racket like a champion.
    ‘There’s nobody here, Alfie,’ said Frankie, feeling bewildered. ‘At least I don’t think so.’
    ‘Then why all this hollering and squallering, Frankie?’ Alphonsine asked. ‘It is bang-wallop in the middle of the night!’
    ‘Sorry, Alfie, I think I had a bad dream. That’s all.’
    Alphonsine tucked him back into bed. ‘Ah,’ she said, nodding wisely, ‘nightscares are terrible things.’
    ‘Night
mares,
’ Frankie corrected her, smiling.
    ‘Yes, yes,’ said Alphonsine, ‘but lucky for us, nightscares are not real.’
    ‘You’re right,’ said Frankie, as Alphonsine kissed him goodnight, ‘nightscares aren’t real.’
    All the same, before Frankie turned out the light he picked up Gadget the Rabbit, put him in the bottom of his wardrobe, and shut the door.

 

    Frankie stamped his feet and clapped his hands against the cold morning air as he waited for Mrs Pinkerton to blow the whistle. As usual, he was sitting on the bench, waiting
for playtime to end. Never in a million years had Frankie thought he would actually prefer lessons to playtime, but when you have no one to play with, double Maths with Mr Gripe suddenly
doesn’t seem so bad.
    ‘What are you doing over here?’ said a bright, smiley voice.
    Frankie looked up. ‘Neet!’ he cried. Frankie sprang to his feet and gave his best friend a hug. ‘You’re back!’
    Neet grinned. ‘Good to see you, Frankie!’ she smiled. ‘Chickenpox is rubbish, by the way, don’t try it.’
    ‘I won’t,’ Frankie giggled. He was so glad to have Neet back again. Everything was better when she was around.
    ‘Wanna go play with the others?’ asked Neet. Frankie wasn’t sure what to say.
    ‘Errr . . . I think . . . um . . . no, not really,’ he stammered.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ Neet frowned.
    ‘Well . . . nobody’s talking to me. Timmy told them not to.’ Frankie looked at his friend. ‘And if he sees
you
talking to me, well . . .’
    Neet’s eyes went as round as ping-pong balls.
    ‘Well what?’ she said, folding her arms crossly. ‘I’m not doing what Timmy Snotbags tells me to. Oooh!’ she growled, ‘he gets right up my nose. Tell you what,
I’m going over there right now and—’
    ‘No, wait!’ said Frankie, catching her arm. ‘It’s OK. Anyway . . .’ Frankie shuffled awkwardly. ‘I already walloped him once.’
    ‘Really?’ beamed Neet. ‘Good for you, Frankie!’ Frankie grinned. He was so, so glad that Neet was back.
    ‘Have you heard from Wes?’ he asked as they wandered across the playground to where Mrs Pinkerton was blowing the whistle for assembly. ‘He’s not been in touch with me
since he went off to stay with his aunt.’ Wes had been one of Frankie and Neet’s closest allies. He was only seven but he was such a smartypants that he had been put into the same class
as the older kids. He had been a real help to Frankie and Neet when there had been all that ‘trouble’ at the school the year before. But now he had left and nobody seemed to quite know
where he’d gone.
    ‘No,’ said Neet, shaking her head. ‘Not a peep. Poor Wes, it’s terrible, isn’t it?’
    ‘What do you mean?’ said Frankie.
    ‘Didn’t you hear?’ said Neet, surprised. ‘His mum and dad went missing on safari. Nobody knows what happened to them.’
    ‘That’s awful!’ gasped Frankie.
    ‘You bet,’ said Neet. ‘Mrs Pinkerton told me he’d gone to stay with his Auntie Elvira, but Mrs Pinkerton didn’t have the address. He