Chapter 1

The explosion was small; just big enough to singe Horatio’s eyebrows and break his glasses. He hadn’t had an incident like this since he blew up his bedroom five years ago, and his parents had built him a shed out the back. They hoped if there was another explosion, it would be away from the family home. He was grateful they let him experiment at all, so he tried to be extra careful. Today, however, something had gone wrong. Even though it was a minor incident, it shook him.

It shook Snowball even more. The cat, whom the Entwhistles had looked after since his owner had been sent to prison for kidnapping Horatio’s scientist parents, had shrieked in fright. In doing so, he knocked over the beaker of glue Horatio had been working on, and urinated all over the mess of glass and glue on the shed floor.

“You stupid cat,” Horatio sighed, although there was no malice in his words. Actually, he felt sorry for Snowball. Thanks to Horatio’s experiments, he had been turned pink a few months ago. Now his fur, which had turned blue after a second foray into the shed, was a dirty grey colour as the bright blue faded. Since then, Horatio had tried to keep him away from his experiments, but somehow Snowball seemed to find ways to slip into the shed when he wasn’t looking.

He looked down at the jumble on the floor, and then looked again. The stirring wand, firmly stuck in the glue a few moments ago, lay next the beaker and the glue was slowly dissolving around it. He picked up his glasses, looking through one broken lens. He looked again at the wand and then picked up Snowball and waltzed around the shed with the cat in his arms.

“You wonder cat!” he gleamed. His grin was so wide he could feel it stretching his face. “You clever, clever girl. I owe you a carton of Whiskers.” He began to dance again and almost bumped into a small dark-haired girl standing in the doorway of the shed. She looked at him as if he was mad.

“I thought you didn’t like Snowball.”

“Oh, Ming, whatever gave you that idea? I loooove Snowball. She’s the smartest cat on the planet. A genius, in fact.”

“Hmmph. What chemicals have you been using, Horatio? And what have you done to your hair?” She lifted her hand to his head and a black, singed curl fell into her hand.

Horatio laughed and put Snowball on the floor. The cat shot out the door as if it had been scalded. “Snowball’s just solved my problems. It’s cat’s urine!”

Ming Yi put her hands on her hips and glared. “Now I know you’re high on some chemical. I’ve told you before; you must keep the door open when you’re working in here. At least until you get the fume extractor.”

“No, no. It’s not the chemicals. It’s the glue.” For the past six months Horatio had been working on developing glue that was strong enough to stick any two surfaces together – skin, wood, glass, paper, plastic, silver, gold, diamonds, porcelain... In fact, every possible surface imaginable.

He dreamed that a time would come when surgeons, builders, teachers, carpenters, jewellers and a host of other professions would need only one thing to stick any two surfaces together – a tube of Horatio Entwhistle’s Stupendous Glue. The problem with his glue was it stuck to everything and was almost impossible to tear apart.He hadn’t yet discovered a solvent to dissolve the glue so that it could be used effectively. At least, not until today.

Before he had time to tell Ming what he’d discovered there was another interruption. This time it was his neighbour, Wheels.

“I’ve almost got the controls right,” Wheels said, as he manoeuvred his bright purple wheelchair into the shed. Horatio’s parents had arranged to have the entry extended to fit Wheel’s chair, although it was a tight fit as all four walls of the shed were fitted with shelves and cupboards. He had managed to squeeze a little more room by moving his ‘treasure chest’ of bits and pieces that used to take up a corner of the shed to his father’s workshop under the house. There was no chance of moving his laboratory there though. Even his absent-minded parents, who supported and understood his love of science, had put their feet down.

“Tell us what you’ve done with your chair and I’ll tell you what the amazing, brilliant, genius super cat Snowball did with my Stupendous Glue today.”

“With that wind up, I think I want to hear your news first. What has Snowball The Magnificent done to get you so excited?”

Horatio opened the drawer under the bench and took out a pair of glasses with two intact lenses. He had six spare pairs altogether, but the frequency with which he seemed to break them meant they probably wouldn’t last the year. He put on the new glasses.

“That’s better.” He grinned at Wheels. “What has The Wonder Cat done, you ask? He’s solved my problem, that’s all. He urinated on my glue and it dissolved! I’ve worked out the answer to handling the glue so we’ll be able to remove it if it accidentally sticks something we don’t want, like my hand to the stirring wand.”

Wheels started to laugh. “You mean the answer is cat’s p-?” He made an effort to control himself although his lips still twitched. “Do you mean to tell me, you’re going to have to run around with a pot waiting for cats to, well, do their business, so you can dissolve your glue?”

Horatio rolled his eyes. “You’re taking the cat’s urine out of me, aren’t you?”

“Yep,” Wheels grinned. “I know you’re going to do something brilliant like analyse the chemical composition of urine and then produce a synthetic solvent to dissolve the glue, sell it, make a million dollars and retire at 14 years old.”

“Something like that,” Horatio said. “Knowing what dissolves the glue will help me develop a polymer to coat inside whatever type of container I use so I’ll be able to stop the glue sticking to the sides.”

“That’s great. And what, boy genius, are you going to do with the glue when you’ve solved all your problems?”

Horatio dismissed with the question with a wave of his hand. “I don’t know yet. I’ll talk to Mum and Dad. Now tell us about the change you’ve made to your chair and then we’ll get to work on the solvent.”

“Not today,” Ming said. She glared at Horatio.

“This is really important, Ming. I can’t leave when I’m so close to having the answer.”

“Yes, you can. You promised, and I’m not letting you go back on your promise.” She swiveled to face Wheels, her hands on her hips and her expression so furious Wheels leaned back in his chair. “And that goes for you too, Wheels Petersen.”

Wheels held up his hands. “Don’t take it out on me. I’m not the one chickening out.”

“That’s right. And neither is Horatio. There’s no way I’m going to the country to visit my dippy cousin without you, so you might as well give in without any more arguments.” She glared at Horatio again. “Is that okay with you, Entwhistle?”

Horatio sighed. “Yeah, that’s okay.”

“You’ll love it. Good country air, great food and my soppy cousin fluttering her eyelashes at you. It’ll be fun.”

“As much fun as going to the dentist,” Horatio mumbled. “A whole day wasted.”

“Oh, you never know,” Ming said. “There’s lots of animals in the country, maybe you could take a bucket and collect samples for your analysis.”

“And maybe you should quit while you’re ahead. I might just drop the bucket on your head.”

Ming laughed. Horatio thought, not for the first time, how lucky he was to have friends like Ming and Wheels. Until they came along he’d hated school, even science class was boring compared to what he did in his shed. Now, they were together at Technology High School where all the students loved science and maths. No one called him ‘nerd’ or ‘science freak’ like they did at his old school, and he was able to spend most classes and breaks with his friends.

During their first term at the new school he hadn’t been bullied like he had at primary school. Not that he was afraid of bullies anymore; not since Wheels came along. The school yard bullies avoided them, as soon as they discovered Wheels had a whole range of special attachments to his wheelchair, including a security screen, smokescreen generator, an oil-slick generator and a feature that expelled golf balls along a tube attached to the back mudguard.

Ming’s prod on his back woke him from his daydreaming. “Come on, Horatio, we’ll be late and you know how my Dad hates it if we’re not punctual. He’ll complain all the way to Gympie.”

Horatio couldn’t resist one look back at his glue on the bench before he locked the shed door and followed Wheels down the ramp they’d built for his wheelchair. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad, he thought. Ming might stop him working on the solvent, but she couldn’t stop him thinking about it, and he suspected that was what he’d do until he got back to his shed and solved his problem at last.

It was only later he realised he still didn’t know what Wheels had done to his chair.