The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop Read Online Free PDF Page B

have much choice, do I? And I don’t have anything else to do today.” He picked up his skateboard and ran into the flat on the ground floor with a purple front door. A moment later, he emerged with a large plastic pet carrier.
    “Open the little door, please,” Demerara said.
    Caydon opened the end of the pet carrier and the fussy cat trotted inside.
    Lily bent down to look at her through the bars. “Are you comfy in there, Demerara?”
    “Yes—if nobody swings me about too much. Now, let’s get moving.”
    “Well,” said Caydon, “I didn’t expect to spend my day taking orders from a cat.”
    Oz thought it was nice of him to be so calm about it. “Sorry you had to get involved.”
    “Sorry?” Caydon grinned. “Are you joking? This is the most fun I’ve had in ages!”

    Even if Demerara had got the wrong witch, Caydon was extremely useful. He knew exactly the right buses theyshould take down to the huge, modern MI6 building beside the Thames, which Oz had only ever seen in one of the Bond films.
    “I know the one,” Caydon said. “He smashes through the wall in a speedboat.”
    It turned out that Oz and Caydon had a lot in common. They sat together on the bus, talking about computer games, the basketball hoop that Oz’s dad was going to put up in the yard when the weeds were cleared, and the enormous toy car track they could build on Oz’s bedroom floor if Caydon brought his track from across the road. In between, Oz filled Caydon in on the story of the Spoffards and the magic chocolate.
    Lily sat behind them with Demerara. Caydon wasn’t taking any notice of Lily; whenever she spoke he looked at Oz, as if she didn’t exist. She would have felt left out if she hadn’t had the cat to talk to.
    “But you mustn’t say anything—it’ll freak out the other passengers to hear a cat talking.”
    “Oh, all right,” Demerara sighed, from the depths of the pet carrier. “But it’s so hard—I haven’t had a refined conversation since 1938.”
    They were on the top deck and it was nearly empty. Lily looked round carefully before she asked, “Can’t you have one with Spike?”
    “No,” said Demerara. “I try to make allowances—I know Spike hasn’t had my advantages in life—but a ratfrom the sewers is no companion for a posh animal like me.”
    Lily didn’t like rats, but she felt sorry for Spike; it couldn’t be much fun spending all those years with a cat who despised you. “How did he get to be immortal, anyway?”
    “By mistake—it started when Pierre left some of the talking-chocolate out overnight.” The voice floating out of the pet carrier was scornful. “Next morning, we woke up to the horrible sound of a rat’s drunken singing. For some reason, Pierre thought it was FUNNY”—she spat this word out—“and he decided to keep Spike for experimental purposes. Rats never mind being experimented on. Unfortunately, when Pierre died, I was stuck with him.”
    “We’re here,” said Caydon.
    They were in the middle of the city, beside the wide, gray-green river. The MI6 building was huge and modern, made of slabs of pinkish stone. Lily, Oz and Caydon stared at it. The gleaming entrance hall was full of smartly dressed people with plastic IDs hanging around their necks, all looking very busy and important. Two policemen stood outside the main entrance.
    Oz, who was carrying Demerara, bent down toward her and asked “What do we do next?”
    “Obviously, we go inside!” Demerara hissed impatiently.
    “I don’t think three kids with a pet carrier are going to get very far.”
    “Just show them my card.”
    “What card?”
    “I have it with me inside the carrier.”
    Lily opened the door—and there was a small, plastic-covered card sitting under one of the cat’s front paws. “Where did this come from?”
    “Never mind where it came from. It’s my secret ID.”
    They all looked at Demerara’s ID, which was nothing but a bar code and a paw mark.
    Caydon said, “I’ve a