"Wow" Barry breathed.

The gang had just come out of the woods into the small clearing in front of Sector M's abandoned treehouse. In the moonlight the tall structure, built around an unnaturally large sentinel and supported by a rocky hillside looked unearthly – less like a happy place for children and more like the haunted castle in a horror movie, the hangar to the right a gaping maw, ready to swallow unwary travelers whole.

"Right," Egbert said, pulled out his map and checked it under the torchlight. "The side entrance should be over to the right," he looked up. "Yes. Look over there. There are stairs up against the hillside. Let's get to work!"

"But … but what if there's someone in there," Kyle squeaked.

"Don't be daft, Kyle. It hasn't been used in years, there's no one in there."

"Except the ghooosts," Barry moaned and put his torchlight under his chin, to make his face look like a skull. Kyle yelped.

"Oh, shut up, Barry," Egbert snapped "Come on!"

XXX

A few moments later, the gang were shining their torches around in the hangar of the treehouse.

"Hey, there's a SCAMPER," Barry said. "I wonder if it still works."

"What's been in this box?" Kyle wondered, shining his torch on a kid sized box standing next to the wall. It had soft lining, air holes and a sign saying DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DESTINATION REACHED! (I REALLY, REALLY MEAN IT) on the side.

"Focus, people" Egbert said, and examined the map in his torchlight. "The evidence room is down that hallway, fourth door on the left. Come on."

The gang snuck down a hallway and found the fourth door on the right. It was clear that there was something important behind it – it was a massive wooden door, with a huge doorknob, and a lock that looked like a regular lock that had been "improved" by a couple of KND science geeks on a sugar rush.

"All right, Barry, your turn."

"On it, Eggy" Barry pulled out his lockpicks, knelt down in front of the lock and started working.

For about a minute, the only sound was the scraping of metal on metal, as Barry's lockpick probed around inside the weird KND lock.

And then …

BANG!

Kyle and Egbert jumped back as the doorknob exploded.

When they looked again, Barry was sitting, frozen, in front of the lock, his face covered with red paint. As they watched, there was a small, teasing pling and a small mirror jumped out from the lock, showing the unfortunate lockpicker what had happened.

Barry jumped up "RIGHT" he snapped. "NO MORE Mister nice guy. Give me the crowbar, Kyle!"

XXX

Numbuh Thirteen's personal log 12:10 AM

I have managed to locate the stolen treehouse by following the torchlight of the teens. Currently I am hiding in the bushes outside the house next to the hangar. I can't hear anything, so they seem to have gone further into the house. My plan is to sneak in and get my spare communicator and report back to Moonbase and get them to send reinforcements.

As soon as I get free of these … cruddy! … brambles!…OUCH!

Numbuh Thirteen out

XXX

"GAH!" Barry and Kyle tumbled to the floor after the crowbar they were both pulling slipped out of the crack between door and frame - again.

"It isn't WORKING, Barry!" Egbert, who was holding the torch, hissed, annoyed.

"It'll work, Eggy," Barry said, "We just need…, " his eyes fell on a stick in the shadows by the opposite wall. "Kyle, grab that stick over there. We can use it as a second crowbar."

Kyle trudged over and grabbed the stick. It seemed to be stuck, so he automatically gave it a tug, and it flipped over with a small "click".

"What?"

The three boys stared. Kyle shone his light on the weird stick, except it wasn't really a stick. It was stuck in the floor, and looked more like some kind of lever. The he noted a piece of paper on the wall behind the lever.

"Umm … Guys?"

Puzzled, Egbert and Barry came over and the three boys read:

IN CASE OF LOCK MALFUNCTION

PULL THIS LEVER

AND RUN!

RUN! had three lines under it.

In the stunned silence that followed the boys suddenly became aware of a distant scraping sound. It came from somewhere above the lever. Slowly they raised their torches and lit up a round hole, about a foot in diameter, it's upper edge a few inches below the ceiling of the corridor. The scraping sound came from the hole, which appeared to be the end of some kind of chute. It was getting gradually louder. The boys stood on their toes and shone their flashlights up the chute. And then they saw what made the sound.

A ginormous ice-cream missile was rapidly sliding down the chute towards the door.

And them.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE!"

Ouchie - do not meddle in the affairs of KND Science Geeks for they don't know the word "subtle"

Will our heroes escape certain fatal ice cream headache. Read on in chapter 7

But do review first :-)

Ulathon