“Ah, don’t worry about it. That wasn’t the real Zorb. It was just a big papier-mâché balloon that Bula painted in her art class. The real Zorb is over there, in the corner. In the real containment vault.”

“The real Zorb? The real containment vault? But that means the security bots were guarding the fake Zorb instead of the real one!”

“Yup. It’s called hiding in plain sight. And it’s the oldest trick in the book. By the time our cushy little custodian figures out what happened, it’ll be too late.”

“Too late? Dad, he’s just going to come back and try to steal it again.”

“Well, he can try, but there won’t be anything here to steal.”

“What do you mean? The Zorb is right over there.”

“Not for long. Kelvin, you were right. The Zorb is too dangerous! I see that now. And I’m sorry for not taking you seriously before. I really did think we could study it and harness its power and accomplish great things. And maybe we could have. But if a ten-inch-tall stuffed nitwit like Failenheimer could cause this much trouble, I don’t even want to think about what an actual, competent evil genius would do.”

“So what are you going to do with it, Professor?”

“Me? Nothing. You guys are the ones with the plan. Go ahead and use it. Besides, I wouldn’t want to accidentally shrink my suit. It’s a little too tight in the backside already. HAR!”

Hey, I wonder if he accidentally shrank his sense of humor. That would explain a lot.

Spotch, Rand-El, and I wheel the Shrink Ray over to the real containment vault. Brian is following behind with the partially eaten Cheese Dad on the hand truck. He’s chewing on something that looks like an elbow.

“I bet he’d be great at catching mice! HAR!”

Rand-El aims the ray. Spotch sets the dial to 0 percent of original size. Brian sniffs Cheese Dad. And I pull the lever.