MY BEST FRIEND IS A SECRET AGENT, Book 3: How C.H.I.P. Took on C.H.I.M.P. and...

Chapter 26: "A Trip to the Zoo"

Fortunately, Stella was able to track C.H.I.M.P. from HQ since she could now pick up the signal from the C.H.I.P. 1.0 microthingy in his collar.

"He's at the Vortville Zoo!" Stella said.

"I wonder what he's doing there," I said. "Could he be returning to his home, no longer wanting to terrorize the town as a wacky bad guy?"

My dad shook his head. "More likely, he's organizing all the animals for an all-out assault on Vortville."

Carla nodded at me. "I'm going with your dad on this one."

Of course, they were right. C.H.I.M.P. wasn't going to give up easily. He was getting smarter and stronger, and his next scheme was probably going to be even wackier than turning Vortville into a jungle!

We sped across town in the C.H.I.P.-mobile, and when we got to Vortville Zoo, it was eerily quiet. But we were all ready for action - me, Chip, Carla, and Dad and his team.

One of Dad's men turned to him and asked, "Sure you don't want us to just start destroying stuff?"

"No," my dad said. "Let's hold off on that for now. There'll be plenty of time to destroy stuff later."

I radioed Stella and asked exactly where C.H.I.M.P. was.

"Looks like he's in the primate cage," she said, zooming in on her monitor.

Hmm, I wondered. Maybe C.H.I.M.P. did just want to return to his normal life as a normal chimp. But we had to find him to make sure.

We started to head to the primate cage, which was in the center of the zoo. As we walked along, all the animals in their cages watched us very closely and quietly. It was kind of suspicious, like they knew something we didn't.

There was something else suspicious too: No people were around! There were no visitors and not even any people who worked there at the zoo. I wondered if we were headed straight into a trap.

Finally, we arrived at the primate cage, this big area with all sorts of ropes for chimps and monkeys to play with and trees to climb. But today, the chimps and monkeys weren't very playful.

And that was because... the cage was filled with people!

All the zoo staff and even the visitors were trapped in the cage, and all the chimps and monkeys were guarding them! Even the gorillas and apes were standing guard, making sure the people couldn't escape.

"Uh... maybe we should get out of here," Carla suggested. The thought had occurred to me too. In fact, if it was just me, I would have run off screaming a long time ago. But Chip and I were there to save Vortville. And we had my dad and his team too. And, let's not forget, Carla was pretty good at taekwondo, and her knife-handling skills were unmatched!

Even so, I still really wanted to run off screaming, lock myself in my basement and spend the rest of my life inventing cool little things that someone else could use against wacky bad guys.

"Please, let us out!" some lady called out from inside the cage.

"We're working on it," I called back, not wanting to act too soon and end up trapped in the cage myself. I looked around for C.H.I.M.P., but I couldn't see him. But I knew he was close... probably planning something diabolical and evil... probably watching us right now!

"Welcome to my world," said a voice over the zoo's P.A. system.

It was C.H.I.M.P.

"I'm so glad you could join us," he said. Then he laughed that evil laughter that all wacky bad guys seem to laugh. It was truly weird - he was becoming almost human!

"Nort, let me out!" someone else cried from inside the primate cage. I looked through the bars, trying to find the person. "Let me out, and I'll never ever sabotage your science experiments again!"

I couldn't believe it. It was Gert von Brugen! She was sitting high in a tree, being guarded by a silverback gorilla. "Gert? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be helping C.H.I.M.P. with his evil plan?"

"I wanted to," Gert said, "but C.H.I.M.P. won't let me help anymore. Talk about ungrateful. I mean, I was the one who made him a wacky bad guy in the first place!"

So C.H.I.M.P. had locked up his own creator. I hoped that Gert had learned a lesson here: Don't create a wacky bad guy just for spite!

Just then, I heard KER-CHUNK sounds coming from all around the zoo. It was all the cages opening at once! In no time, all the animals escaped their cages, and they wandered around the zoo freely.

Then C.H.I.M.P. came over the P.A. system again, but he wasn't speaking this time, he was howling like a normal chimp. But the other animals must have understood what he was saying because they all started to move in on us!

We looked around at the mob of animals surrounding us. There was everything from prairie dogs to ostriches to gnus to lions, and C.H.I.M.P. seemed to have control of them all.

"Nort," Dad said, "there's still time for us to start destroying things."

"No," I said, "I'm going to let C.H.I.P. handle this." I pulled out my phone, but I hesitated before turning Chip into something. After all, it had to be the perfect human or animal skill that could keep us safe from the animals. Finally, I turned Chip into C.H.I.P. the lion tamer. (Let's be honest, it was the lions I was most worried about.)

C.H.I.P. the lion tamer held up a chair and wielded a whip, CRACKING it at all the animals, keeping them at bay. "It's working!" I cheered.

But Carla was unsure. "How long is he going to be able to keep this up? We've got to take down C.H.I.M.P., don't we? I mean, he's the one who's commanding them."

Of course, she was right. But I didn't even know where the chimp was.

"We'll find him," said my dad. "We'll just blast one building after another, and I'm sure he'll turn up."

"No!" I snapped. "Don't you see, this is why I invented C.H.I.P. in the first place! So we wouldn't have to destroy so many things when taking down wacky bad guys."

Dad rubbed his chin. "That's an unconventional approach, I must admit," he said, "but I'm willing to let you give it a shot."