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

Chapter 23: "The Root of the Problem"

C.H.I.M.P. could only be king of the jungle if there was a jungle to be king of.

So I had to get rid of the jungle! And that would require me going to the source: Gert's basement. But who was going to hold off C.H.I.M.P. while I was gone? Sure, I could give Chip back the ability to change his skills all by himself, but I still felt that was dangerous because of his new animal skills. I mean, how's C.H.I.P. the boa constrictor supposed to know when it's the right time to switch to C.H.I.P. the dung beetle? No, a human had to be in charge of the C.H.I.P. app. And, since I had to take off down to Gert's house, that human had to be Carla Mawhinney!

"Wow, cool!" Carla said when I offered her my phone. "Can I change him into C.H.I.P. the butterfly?!"

I told her she could change him into anything she wanted, as long as he could successfully fight C.H.I.M.P. "But hold off on C.H.I.P. the dung beetle for now. I want to be here when that happens."

I ran back down the vine mountain as fast as I could, and I drove the C.H.I.P.-mobile at top speed to Gert's house. Along the way, I passed lots of people on their way to work, but instead of walking or driving cars, they were swinging on vines! I admired my fellow Vortvillians for their adaptability, but I still felt it was best to turn the Vortville jungle back into plain old Vortville.

Finally, I found Gert's house and hacked my way down into the basement. There was barely any room to move around down there since the main roots of the jungle vines sprouted out of the basement floor, and they were huge! But at least they'd stopped growing, which was what had prevented C.H.I.P. the safari guide from hacking his way down there earlier.

I searched the room for some evidence of how C.H.I.M.P. was able to grow the jungle in the first place. It was a mess, though, so any evidence of the chimp's original experiment had been wiped out by the jungle vines, so there was no obvious way for me to try to reverse the process. I realized I'd have to use pure brain power to figure this one out. And I'd have to scrounge through this mess for the appropriate tools and supplies to make it all work. To some people, this monumental task might seem impossible! But to me...

...Well, for the moment, I was one of those people.

I hoped, at the very least, that Chip and Carla were able to hold off C.H.I.M.P. and Gert back at the mountaintop. They told me later that it wasn't easy. They tried another of my new secret agent animal gadgets, the Tickle-bot. It was a robot that was supposed to tickle the chimp, distracting him so that Chip as C.H.I.P. the jaguar could sneak up behind him and snatch the collar from his neck.

Apparently, the Tickle-bot ended up in a thousand pieces scattered all over the jungle. I guess chimps don't like being tickled any more than humans do.

In Gert's basement, I racked my brain for how to reverse the growth of the jungle. But then I realized, the chimp was able to grow his own jungle, and he was just a chimp! Then again, he wasn't just any chimp, he was C.H.I.M.P., an animal with a microthingy that I invented sending signals to his brain. So that meant that I was the one who really grew the jungle in the first place. So shouldn't I be the one who could reverse that process as well?

But I was still stumped, and it was driving me nuts. And what drove me even more nuts was the thought that, hey, maybe Gert helped her chimp figure out how to grow his own jungle. Maybe Gert von Brugen came up with a science experiment even more advanced than any of mine!

Except that she didn't. As I looked all over her basement for any sort of clue, I discovered some complex diagrams that looked rather familiar. That was because they were my diagrams! Gert von Brugen had tried to steal my work many times over the years, and this time she had succeeded. The diagrams were of my science fair project from way back in fourth grade, where I invented a plant food that could grow a huge cherry tree in just 18.4 minutes. The chimp must have found them and figured out how to do the same thing with a whole jungle!

Then I remembered, after I'd performed that experiment in class, my teacher wasn't too happy that this huge cherry tree had filled up her whole classroom, so I had to figure out how to reverse its growth as fast as possible. It took a little gene splicing, but I was able to get that cherry tree to shrink back down in no time.

And all I had to do was the same thing here with this huge jungle! So I got to work right away, and I crossed my fingers that it would work out. After all, mangos and bananas are great and all, but you can really get sick of them if you're forced to eat them every day.