Chapter 3: Is He a Dog?

As soon as she entered the jungle room…

"I hear someone. Who's there? Mr. Mingles, is that you? Speak."

"Uh, no." replied Nancy, "I Nancy, the new general assistant, and you are?"

"Just call me Mrs. Montague." said the lady, "Now quickly, scratch the left side of my nose before I go insane! Hurry!"

"Uh, ok." So Nancy walked over and scratched the left side of her nose.

"Ah, wonderful! Now get me a bowl of cookies and cream ice-cream - two scoops, with a drizzle of chocolate sauce and a block of chocolate fudge on the side. And a spoon, of course. Silver, not plastic. And don't plan on going anywhere for a while; as you can see, you're goanna be the one operating the spoon.

"Sorry, I really need to do something else first" Nancy replied.

"Like what? Get fired like the last assistant" snapped Mrs. Montague

"Cookies and cream you said?"

"On second thought," shivered Mrs. Montague, "forget it I'm already very cold. The hot water for this bath isn't working. Find out why and fix it."

Beneath her tub was a control panel with the temperature set to -30 degrees. Nancy bent over and set it to 80.

"Ahhh, much better." But before Nancy could excuse herself Mrs. Montague went on. "Before I got in the tub I saw a plant over there was dying. Please water it. It's draining the energy from this room."

So Nancy cupped her hands, dipped them in the fountain, and watered the plant. "And I thought Hannah was plant crazy" she thought.

"You revived the plant. I can tell. I can feel the energy returning to the room already." Just as before, when Nancy was about to say good b- "Please check the paper and tell me what's new."

On a table by the window was the latest Tinsel Town Tattler. Nancy opened to a random page and read the first article. "LSU won the SEC tournament over Vanderbilt this year"

"Oh how nice. My friend Mel will be happy to hear this. One more thing, could you brew me a cut of my special tea CORRECTLY please?"

On a cart was a tea set with directions on how to make tea correctly. So Nancy filled the pot with hot water, put the tea leafs in the strainer, let it boil and then served it up.

"Done with the tea?" asked Mrs. Montague, "Very good" Then she fell asleep.

"At last! Time to snoop" Nancy was very happy.

Taking out her bomb detector, she scanned the room. "Looks like the bombs in the shower head?" Nancy was puzzled, "Who puts bombs in a shower head?"

Anyhow, Nancy pulled over a chair from nearby and unscrewed the shower head. Sure enough, there was a bomb in there. She opened it, and found an Emergency Override Panel. "This could come in handy" she thought.

Luckily, instead of being guarded by a password or other protection, the override setting was activated by forming a line from the starting point to the ending point. She was able to defuse it without any problems. As she was climbing off the chair, a strange green goo fell started to drip out of the old bomb.

"Eww!" Nancy quickly jumped back, "This must be the sticky situation the mad bomber was talking about.

She was just getting ready to leave when-

"Mr. Mingles, are you there? Speak."

"It's just me Mrs. Montague. I was just leaving" While she was speaking, Nancy was edging her way to the door.

"Well don't just stand there, find Mr. Mingles." Mrs. Montague ordered, "Look in the salon, he is hopelessly attracted to the smell of hair."

"Uh, is he a dog?" Nancy asked.

"Of course he's a dog you ninn-"

"OK, thanks." Nancy turned and ran out the door.

"Note to self: Don't let her run out on me again." Mrs. Montague thought.