7 Chocolate and cream

Chapter 7 Chocolate and cream Tempo dived at DeLay. She flapped her wings in his face, forcing him backward. "Get away!" He lashed at her with a bony hand. But Tempo circled the villain's head and squawked in his ears.

DeLay drew his arm back and swiped at Tempo with the roll of plans, as if it was a baseball bat. The clever cuckoo dodged him easily, but DeLay toppled backward, off the barrel. He landed on the ramp. Thud! "Ooof! Oww! Yeow!" DeLay rolled over and over, all the way down the ramp.

He finished up flat on his back at the foot of a tall tower made of chocolate éclairs. The long pastries were filled with thick cream and topped with shiny chocolate icing. They reminded Hannah of her model skyscraper—she'd had to stack the craft sticks very carefully, to prevent the skyscraper from falling over. Maybe this éclair tower could help save the Eiffel Tower... DeLay was still distracted, trying to swat the cuckoo away. "Keep him busy, Tempo!" Hannah cried. "Jackson, do what I do!" She darted to the side of the tower of éclairs where DeLay was lying, and began pulling them out from the bottom of the stack. Jackson joined her, flinging

cream-filled éclairs over his shoulder. Once they'd made a big hole in the side of the tower, it started leaning toward them. It wobbled and leaned a bit more. "Tempo, move away now!" Hannah cried. DeLay was now alone, still on his back. He looked up just in time to see the tower topple. "Nooooo!" he cried and reached for a Time Crunch. He was too late.

Splat! Thlop! Thlump! The villain was buried under a huge heap of pastry, soft cream, and squidgy chocolate. "Hooray!" cried Jackson. Hannah needed to do something before she could raise a cheer. She stepped around the other side of the gooey mess and saw a bony hand sticking out. It was clutching the plans. She edged forward carefully, but her feet were sliding in the creamy gloop, and she had to go back. "I can't reach them," she groaned. "Cuckoo!" Tempo flew down, grabbed the red, white, and blue ribbon in her

beak and pulled the plans out of DeLay's hand. She dropped them into Hannah's arms. "Cuck-OOOooo!" she cheered. "Good work, Tempo!" Hannah said. She leaped back as DeLay struggled to the surface. He was covered in creamy chocolate sludge and looked very angry. "This isn't the last you've seen of me," he snarled as he wriggled free.