CHAPTER NINE
THE CAVE
“Is Cody okay down there?” Ratface asked. “Should we haul him up?”
“It’s taking him a long time,” Sully said. “Please, oh please, oh please, find my glasses!”
“The tube is still moving around,” Victor pointed out. “That must mean Cody is, too. And if he’s moving, then he must be okay.”
“I wish there was some way to see what he’s up to,” Carlos said.
“Quit bragging about seeing,” Sully muttered.
Just then, overhead, the pool lights flipped on. Footsteps echoed across the pool deck. A familiar voice broke the silence. “What in the name of Jupiter?”
“Bilgewater!” Ratface warned. “Quick, everybody hide!”
Meanwhile, down at the bottom of the deep pool, Cody had a decision to make. The squid had disappeared through the crack in the pool floor. Cody wanted to go after it and explore what was under the crack. It must be big if the squid can swim right through. We need that phone, he thought. It’s our only chance to get out of here. Still, there was no telling where this crack might lead. It could go to some kind of vicious sea monster’s lair. Don’t be silly, Cody thought. It’s not like I’m in a hurry. I’ve got a breathing tube. I could stay down here for hours. What’s the harm in exploring?
Cody yanked on his oxygen hose to make sure there was plenty of length available. It’s just a crack in a pool, he thought. How big can it be? I’ll catch that squid in no time.
Cody decided to take the plunge. He took a deep breath, held tight to Sully’s glasses, and dived down through the crack.
It was even darker down there. The beam from his flashlight seemed puny, and it faded before it ever found an edge to the hole. The temperature felt colder through his suit.
What is this place? Cody thought. The water goes on and on forever! This is one seriously leaky pool.
A treasure chest! With gold coins! Cody felt around to see if his suit had any pockets. It didn’t.
Small fish by the dozens swam over to Cody to investigate his flashlight. Just like the anglerfish, he thought. It must always be dark down here. This is maybe the first light they’ve ever seen! Just then, a floating, glowing school of pink jellyfish bobbed by. No, there were other things that glowed down here, too. Cody was glad he had a suit on to protect him from the stinging jellies.
The floor of the underwater cave was like a gigantic fish tank. There was still no sign of the squid with the cell phone. Then Cody saw a greenish light in the distance. It might be the phone, he thought. He set off to investigate.
It was no mere cell phone. This was something big looming in the distance. A sea monster? Cody approached cautiously.
When he got closer, he dropped his flashlight in astonishment.
It was a submarine! With lights on inside!
Cody peered through the windows. Who could have left a submarine here? Why would someone have a submarine underneath the broken, abandoned swimming pool?
Cody’s mind started spinning. All this water under here had to have come from the ocean. Shipwrecks, jellyfish . . . there was no other explanation. This was an underground ocean cave, maybe, mysteriously reaching for miles, all the way to Splurch Academy. And here was a submarine. Never mind cell phones . . . this was a real way out! Somehow, if he could just get everybody down here, they could sail away under the sea to freedom!
Bilgewater’s sensible nursing shoes clicked across the pool deck. She sniffed the air, her nostrils flaring wide. She carried a huge pail of mackerel. She grabbed one and munched it like a candy bar. Then she tipped her pail into the pool.
“All right, come out,” she called. “Where are you? I know there are stinking boys down here somewhere.”
Then Nurse Bilgewater caught sight of the breathing tube running down into the pool.
“Aha,” she cried. “Something fishy’s going on here.”
She reached down, grabbed the tube, and yanked it.
Ratface gasped. Victor clamped a hand over his mouth. “That’s the signal!” Ratface breathed. “Cody’s gonna come to the surface now. She’ll catch him!”
Moments before, down at the bottom of the cave, Cody was still peering at the submarine when the squid with the cell phone went gliding past him. He turned and aimed his flashlight at it. In one arm it held the cell phone. In another it held . . . an old ketchup bottle! How weird!
Cody followed the departing creature with his flashlight. Then his heart thumped in his chest. It was only a shadowy movement. He couldn’t be sure. But something larger—much larger than the cell phone squid—swam past the beam of his light.
Was that a ship? A whale? Or could Cody simply be imagining things down here in the murky depths?
Maybe it was time to get out of here.
Just then he felt a sharp tug from the breathing tube.
“Geez, guys,” he muttered to himself. “Tug any harder, and it’ll come off. Then I’d drown down here!”
Kicking, swimming, and climbing up the tube, hand over hand, Cody made his way toward the surface.
Nurse Bilgewater suddenly turned toward where the boys were hiding. She was inches away from discovering them. They could smell her fishy body odor and mackerel breath.
She reached down and tickled the squid. “Where’s your big brother?” she asked. “Is he still being mean to you? The big bully! I’ll give him a talking-to. But first, I have some business to attend to.” She pulled a long, sinisterlooking pair of scissors from her nurse’s uniform pocket and seized the breathing tube. “Choppity chop!”
The boys, watching from behind the box, froze in terror. What about Cody? If she cut the tube, he’d drown down there!
“Whoever’s down there in the water isn’t supposed to be,” she said, loud enough for all the boys to hear. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s rule breakers.”
“We’ve got to stop her,” Carlos whispered. “We’ve got to save Cody!”
Just then a figure emerged from the shadows and spoke.
“Except when you’re the rule breaker. Isn’t that right, Beulah?”
Nurse Bilgewater whipped around to see the newcomer. She rose to her feet, brandishing the scissors.
Bilgewater’s face crumpled with rage. “So you’re the one chomping my baby squiddies!” she screamed. “Vertebrate vermin!”
Eelpot laughed and flexed her arm muscles. “Don’t blow a gasket, cephalopod scum! I wonder what Farley will say when I tell him you’re hiding squids down here in the pool.” She shook her head . . . and transformed into a shark woman!
She chomped her jaws and dived into the pool.
Bilgewater ripped off her nurse’s hat and shoes. “Oh, no, you don’t, you fishy fiend! You’re not gonna munch on my squiddies!” As she spoke, Bilgewater’s legs dissolved into fat, oily octopus tentacle arms.
“Gross,” Ratface whispered to Sully. “Do all girls do that?”
Sully clapped a hand over Ratface’s mouth.
With a colossal splash, Nurse Bilgewater heaved herself over the edge of the pool and into the water, chasing after Eelpot.
Just then Cody’s bubble diving helmet bobbed up to the surface. He climbed out of the pool and popped the helmet off his head.
“Hey! Guys!” he said. “Sully, I got your glasses. You’ll never guess what’s down there!”
Sully grabbed the glasses gratefully. “You’re my hero, man,” he said.
The other boys attacked Cody, unzipping him out of his suit before he could protest.
“You’ll never guess what’s down there,” Victor said. “But we don’t have time to tell you now. Unless you want to be fish food, hurry up. Let’s get outta here!”
