1 Ssssssssssss

Chapter 1 SSSSSSSSSSSS… "Yerrrrghhh!" groaned ten-year-old Andrew Dubble. He was dragging a heavy black bag through his classroom door. The bag was squirming! No one else was in the room. "Wowzers!" said Andrew. "We've finally got the place to ourselves." Ch… ch… ch… ch… ch… Angry screams were coming from a cage behind Andrew. It was Harry and Howard, the class guinea pigs. Andrew felt a poke inside his shirt pocket. meep… "Animals afraid, Drewd," came a squeaky voice. It was Andrew's little silver robot and best friend, Thudd. Thudd was short for The Handy

Ultra-Digital Detective. Andrew looked around the room. A forest of trees reached for the ceiling. Plants with giant leaves pressed against the windows. Plastic hamster trails zigzagged through it all. A shelf at the back held roomy cages for mice and guinea pigs. A hairy tarantula spider the size of Andrew's hand lived in a sandy aquarium tank. "Don't worry, Thudd," said Andrew. "I'll make sure the Goa Constrictor eats just the garbage." Andrew checked the clock on the wall. "The cafeteria ladies said they would bring the garbage at three o'clock," he said. "We've got fifteen minutes to get ready." Andrew untied the squirming black bag and pulled a small remote control from his pants pocket. He pressed the Slither Out button. Ssssssssssss… came a loud hiss from the bag. A giant brown snake head poked out. It had blinking red lights for eyes. A thin black tongue flicked from its mouth.

The huge snake slipped out of the bag. Its body was brown and yellow. It was as thick as a wastebasket and as long as a ladder. Andrew beamed. "Wowzers schnauzers! Isn't the Goa beautiful?" "Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!" said Thudd. "But gotta be careful, Drewd. Remember Atom Sucker." Not long ago, Andrew had invented the Atom Sucker. It shrunk things by sucking the empty space out of atoms. Andrew accidentally shrunk himself so small that he got snuffled into the nose

of a dog, flushed down a toilet, and almost eaten by a nasty neighbor. Andrew laughed. "I'll never forget that," he said. "Andrew!" came a voice from the hall. It was Judy, Andrew's thirteen-year-old cousin. "And Judy will never let me forget it, either," said Andrew. The Atom Sucker had shrunk Judy, too. "Cheese Louise!" Judy yelled as she backed away from the doorway. "What is that?" "It's my entry for the Young Inventors Contest," said Andrew. "It's called the Goa Constrictor. Goa stands for Garbage Goes Away." "Then you should call it the Gga Constrictor," said Judy. "That's the right way to make a name from initials, Bug-Brain." "It's my invention," said Andrew, "so I get to invent its name, too. Wait till you see the Goa in action. It swallows a giant pile of garbage, then it squeezes the empty space out of the atoms and makes the garbage super-small. I'll show you."

Suddenly the Goa Constrictor raised its head. Its tongue flicked faster. meep… "Goa Constrictor smell stuff with tongue," said Thudd. "Goa Constrictor got little pits on side of face that feel heat. When garbage get rotty, garbage get warm. Goa find it." Ssssssssssss… The Goa Constrictor, red eyes blinking faster, slithered toward Judy. "Aack!" yelled Judy, backing away. "Does it think I'm garbage or something?" Andrew shrugged. "I don't know," he said as the Goa Constrictor zigzagged toward the door. "But it sure does smell something funny."