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

Chapter 5: "On the Lookout"

Chip and I hid in the bushes outside the new Mindwarp Industries Museum.

Why were we there? Because we'd been spying on Seth Mindwarp all day, and it turned out this was where he now worked! When people get out of prison, the government tries to find them simple jobs so they can start taking care of themselves. So Seth had been hired as a night janitor for the museum. I thought it was kind of weird - he used to own the company, but now he was reduced to cleaning the floors! If that was me, I'd be furious. In fact, if I were a real wacky bad guy - like Seth Mindwarp - something like this might make me go back to my wacky bad guy ways.

But Seth seemed fine with it! He walked right in the service entrance swinging his lunch box and whistling a happy tune. Maybe he was a new man, I thought.

Or maybe he was just faking it! There was only one way to find out: Spy on him.

"Are you going to turn me into C.H.I.P. the ninja, Nort?" Chip asked excitedly. "Can I use Gummy Grippers to climb the walls again? I love Gummy Grippers! They're so gummy!"

But I had a better idea. This was just a simple spying job, not a full-blown mission for C.H.I.P. So I decided to use the best tiny spy camera in the business: the Ladybug Drone! I pulled the drone out of my pocket and got it ready to launch, then I radioed Stella back at our basement HQ. She was able to control the Ladybug Drone from there, including the miniature camera - which now had night vision, thanks to me!

"But I made it!" Stella reminded me.

"Based on my design," I reminded her.

Chip pointed to the glass-walled museum. "Nort, I can see him inside!" I looked up and spotted Seth Mindwarp on the second floor, working with a mop.

Stella launched the Ladybug Drone and had it fly into the museum through an air vent. Chip and I watched the camera's live view on my phone. As it flew through the dark air ducts, we could see everything clearly. "The night vision - which I added to the camera - works!" I cheered. (One point for me!)

The Ladybug Drone flew out of a vent inside the museum, and there was Seth Mindwarp, mopping away, still whistling and happy as a clam. He seemed perfectly fine just cleaning the floors of a company he founded, surrounded by the many toys he created.

There was a Dumdum Danny display, Mindwarp Industries' first ventriloquist dummy.

There was Sloppy Slime, a type of goo that could be formed into the shape of any animal.

"Hey, look, Build-o-saurs!" Chip pointed out on the drone's video feed. Build-o-saurs were these cool dinosaur figures that doubled as construction toys. "I had those when I was five! I collected every one! Then my dog ate them," Chip said sadly.

"Chip, you ate them," I reminded him.

"Oh yeah, right," he said, a little embarrassed.

Anyway, we could now see that Seth had made his way to the Freaky Fuzzy wing of the museum. It had kind of a dark, spooky entrance, and the light was dimmer in there. Freaky Fuzzies just stood there on pedestals, frozen in time. Completely deactivated, they seemed like creepy statues instead of toys.

"I saw one move! It's gonna attack!" Chip said as he cowered behind me, peering at my phone screen from over my shoulder.

"It did not!" I insisted. "They probably fixed them so they'll never go haywire again." At least, I hoped they did. Anyway, they seemed pretty harmless now.

And how did Seth react to the Freaky Fuzzies? He didn't even look at them! The Freaky Fuzzies were his finest creation. They obeyed his every command, giving him near-complete control of Vortville. And this was the first time he had seen them since C.H.I.P. and I stopped his evil plan and had him thrown in jail. So you'd expect Seth to at least look at the Fuzzies with longing or sadness or something. But he just kept whistling and mopping like they were just a bunch of faceless furballs.

"Well, I've seen enough," I said. "I guess he is truly rehabilitated. Seth Mindwarp really doesn't want to take over the brains of all us Vortvillians after all."

But Stella wasn't so sure. "Something's fishy about that guy. He seems too calm and happy."

"And the Freaky Fuzzies are still alive!" Chip screamed as he ran off to hide behind a tree.

I shook my head and snickered. If people only knew what C.H.I.P., aka "the hero guy", was like in real life.

As Chip and I rode off on our bikes, the Ladybug Drone back in my pocket, I felt confident that Seth Mindwarp was no longer a threat to civilized society. And I'm always right about these things.

Well, almost always.