Ten minutes later, the cookies were done. After they had cooled, Adam replaced the ones Mrs. Sweet had baked with the ones they had baked.
They sneaked out of the cafeteria.
“Dude! We have one problem,” Kay said. “What do we do with Mrs. Sweet’s cookies?”
They took the cookies to an empty classroom. Magna decoded them.
“If that information had gotten out, IM-8 would have been finished!” Kay said.
“We were lucky this time,” Adam said.
They decided to eat all the cookies so that none of IM-8’s secrets would fall into the wrong hands.
The next morning at breakfast, they all sat together.
Mrs. Sweet was carefully watching the clock on the cafeteria wall.
“It won’t be long now,” Adam said.
Mrs. Sweet picked up the box of cookies and headed out a side door.
Adam and the girls quickly followed. They hid behind a bush just as the big black car pulled up in front of the school.
Through the branches, Adam saw Mrs. Sweet hand the box of cookies to the driver.
The driver opened the box, studied the cookies closely, and said, “Heh! Heh! Heh! Our work here is finished! Heh! Heh! Heh!”
Mrs. Sweet gave the driver a puzzled look. “It is?” she said.
“Yes, my dear wife! Heh! Heh! Heh!” the driver said. “Let’s take a little vacation to Hawaii!”
The driver pulled Mrs. Sweet into the big black car, and it roared away from the school.
Adam gasped. “That was my archenemy, General Menace! I should have known he was the one behind this!”
“That means Mrs. Sweet is really Mrs. Menace!” the girls cried.
They ran and told T everything that had happened.
“Good work! That buys us some time,” T said. “We’ll beef up IM-8 security to make sure this never happens again.”
“We need to hurry, sir,” Tulip said.
“Mrs. Sweet is smart,” Magna said. “It won’t take her long to figure out that IM-8 isn’t moving its headquarters to Hawaii!”
“That’s true,” Adam said. “And while you’re at it, you also need to make the IM-8 obstacle course harder.”
Tulip, Magna, and Kay looked at him. “Why?” they asked.
“Well, if General Menace can pass the test …”
“General Menace?” Tulip cried.
Adam nodded. “That was General Menace spying on us.”
“Are you sure?” T said.
“I’m positive. He couldn’t pass up the chance to watch IM-8 agents at work,” Adam explained. “It all makes sense.”
“Then that’s your first job, Sharp!” T said. “A brand-new obstacle course!”
“You’ll need to give the project to someone else, sir,” Adam said. He handed T a letter. “I’m resigning from IM-8.”
The girls gasped.
“Why?” T demanded.
“It’s simple, sir,” Adam said. “I’m the one who wanted Mrs. Sweet—uh, Mrs. Menace—to cook for Spy School.”
“And that was a brilliant idea, Sharp,” T said. “It was the only way to find out how General Menace and his wife sent secret messages to their spies around the world! Now they’ll never be able to use the chocolate chip code again!”
Adam thought for a minute. “I guess you’re right, sir,” he said. “It really was clever!” He took the letter back from T and tore it up.
“Dude!” Kay said. “IM-8 wouldn’t be the same without you!”
“Ja!” Tulip said. “You’re the best!”
“Blimey, Adam! You shouldn’t scare us like that!” Magna said.
Adam grinned. He was back for good. And General Menace had better watch out!
Adam Sharp #4 Page 2