MY BEST FRIEND IS A SECRET AGENT, Book 2: How C.H.I.P. Took a Dive to Dash...

Chapter 19: "Boating Lessons"

Feeling great about an incredible night's work, I told C.H.I.P. to drive us off the lake and back to HQ.

We had to work out a plan to shut Dr. Eelstrom down for good!

But when C.H.I.P. got the C.H.I.P.-mobile running again, something electric sparked in the dashboard.

Everything seemed okay with the vehicle, but C.H.I.P. the tank commander got a little shock, and that somehow turned him back into Chip my best friend!

"Hey, this is cool!" Chip said, suddenly finding himself in the driver's seat of the C.H.I.P.-mobile.

"Wait," I said, pulling out my phone. I opened up the C.H.I.P. app and tried to change Chip back to C.H.I.P. But it didn't work! The electric shock had shorted out the C.H.I.P. microthingy on his false tooth!

And there we were, stuck in the middle of Lake Vortville without anybody who knew how to drive.

Then I realized, well, if I built this thing, surely I could drive it. I mean, how hard could it be? So I sat down in the driver's seat and grabbed a hold of the steering wheel . . . but my feet couldn't reach the floor pedals.

I was too short to drive my own creation!

There was only one way out of this mess: Chip had to drive the C.H.I.P.-mobile himself. But remember, the last thing he drove was a tractor on his grandfather's farm. And he drove it into a cow.

Fortunately, there were no forms of livestock in the middle of Lake Vortville. But the C.H.I.P.-mobile was a little more complicated than a tractor—and it also happened to be floating in a body of water.

I sat Chip back down in the driver's seat. "Okay, first you put it in Drive," I explained. Chip did that okay. "Then you push your right foot down on the accelerator very slowly." He did that too.

The C.H.I.P.-mobile started to move. It was working! Goofy Chip was driving the C.H.I.P.-mobile, and everything was working fine.

"Hey, what's this thing?" Chip asked, pointing to this big red lever on the dashboard.

I guess you probably know what happened next. Chip pulled the lever just as I was saying, "Whatever you do, don't pull that lever!"

I don't remember much about the next few minutes because everything was kind of a blur. Chip had pulled the "super loco turbo lever," and, as I was yelling "WHOOOAAAA!" I made a mental note to rename it the "super loco out-of-control warp-speed five-alarm danger! danger! turbo lever" when we got back home. If we got back home.

What I do remember was the C.H.I.P.-mobile taking off across the lake and the skin pulling back on my face from the G-force. We were headed straight for the dam, but Chip managed to turn the steering wheel just in time, and we avoided being smashed to pieces at the last second!

Now we were speeding away from the dam, and that gave me the chance to reach for the "super loco out-of-control warp-speed five-alarm danger! danger! turbo lever" to turn it off—but the G-force kept me smashed back in my seat. I yelled to Chip, "Push the lever back up!" but I don't think he heard me. Either we were going faster than the speed of sound or Chip was just having too much fun to want to slow down.

"WA-HOO!" Chip cheered as he zigzagged the C.H.I.P.-mobile around the lake.

Yep, he was just having too much fun.

Then I noticed we were headed right for the waterskiing ramp. I tried to close my eyes, but, as before, the G-force wouldn't let me.

I think we broke the record for waterski jumping that night. I know we broke the record for waterski jumping in an amphibious, glass-bottom tank/boat thing.

And I absolutely know it was a miracle we survived the whole experience!