In the Deep Read online

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JUDITH C. GREENBURG has edited and co-written many science books for young people. She is a frequent visitor to schools and is always interested in what kids want to know. She is also interested in all areas of biology-the stranger the better! Recently, Judith has been learning how to care for tigers, including how to feed four-week-old Donya and how to help her learn to swim. Judith is married to Dan Greenburg, author of the popular series The Zack Files and Maximum Boy.

  Hiya! My name Thudd. Best robot friend of Drewd. Thudd know lots of stuff. Why ocean is salty. How octopus change color. Why continents always moving.

  Drewd like to invent stuff. Thudd help! Now Drewd help Uncle Al make new underwater invention. Oop! Accident happen! Adventure happen! Want to come along? Look for giant squid? Turn page, please!

  Get lost with

  Andrew, Judy, and Thudd

  in all their exciting adventures!

  Andrew Lost on the Dog

  Andrew Lost in the Bathroom

  Andrew Lost in the Kitchen

  Andrew Lost in the Garden

  Andrew Lost Under Water

  Andrew Lost in the Whale

  Andrew Lost on the Reef

  Andrew Lost in the Deep

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost in Time

  To Dan and Zack and Dad

  and the real Andrew, with love.

  And to Jim Thomas, Mallory Loehr,

  and all my Random House friends,

  with an ocean of thanks.

  —J.C.G.

  Andrew’s World

  1. Night Lights

  2. Sinking!

  3. Shrinking!

  4. Melting!

  5. Getting Crabby

  6. Getting Crabbier

  7. A Big Orange Head!

  8. My, What Big Tentacles You Have!

  9. Dead or Alive?

  10. Aloha!

  True Stuff

  Where to Find More True Stuff

  Andrew Dubble

  Andrew is ten years old, but he’s been inventing things since he was four. Andrew’s inventions usually get him into trouble, like the time he shrunk himself, his cousin Judy, and his little silver robot Thudd smaller than a bee’s knees with the Atom Sucker.

  But today Andrew is in the biggest trouble he’s ever been in. He fooled around with his Uncle Al’s underwater vehicle, the Water Bug. Now Andrew, Judy, and Thudd are headed for the deepest, most dangerous place on earth!

  Judy Dubble

  Judy is Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin. She’s been on four safaris to Africa. But today she’s going to a place where only two other humans have been before….

  Thudd

  The Handy Ultra-Digital Detective. Thudd is a super-smart robot and Andrew’s best friend. When Andrew and Judy were lost on the reef, Thudd saved them from tiny—and deadly—blue-ringed octopuses. Can Thudd help Andrew and Judy save the giant squids?

  Uncle Al

  Andrew and Judy’s uncle is a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd and the Water Bug. Now he’s finishing up a new underwater vehicle called the See Horse so that he can rescue Andrew, Judy and Thudd!

  The Water Bug

  It used to be an old Volkswagen Beetle until Uncle Al turned it into a submarine. Now it has a glass floor, a sharky fin on its roof, and a bathroom in the back. It’s headed for a place where the water will press against it like tons of elephants. Is it strong enough not to be crushed?

  Soggy Bob Sloggins

  This bad guy of the sea is building Animal Universe, the biggest theme park in the world. But Soggy Bob doesn’t care about the animals. He hung a sign above the aquarium in Squid World. It says SOGGY BOB’S GIANT SQUIDWICHES—COMING SOON! Will Andrew, Judy, and Thudd find the giant squid in time to stop Soggy Bob from turning it into giant snacks? Will anyone find the giant squid? After all, no human has ever seen a giant squid alive….

  Ten-year-old Andrew Dubble was zooming through the ocean in his uncle’s underwater vehicle, the Water Bug.

  All through the dark water, sparks of blue light exploded like mini-fireworks.

  The headlights of the Water Bug fell on huge dish-y shapes swooping closer and closer.

  Those couldn’t be flying saucers, Andrew thought. We’re underwater, so they’d have to be swimming saucers!

  Next to Andrew sat his thirteen-year-old cousin Judy. This morning, Andrew and Judy had been getting ready to fly home from their vacation in Hawai’i. But Andrew made a little mistake. Now they were on their way to save the giant squids!

  The flying-saucer shapes were right in front of the Water Bug’s headlights. The shapes had giant mouths. They were wide open!

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “What are those things? Their mouths are big enough to swallow us!”

  meep … “Manta ray!” came a squeaky voice from the front pocket of Andrew’s underwater suit. It was Thudd, Andrew’s little silver robot and best friend.

  meep … “Manta ray not eat people. Just eat tiny stuff. Manta mouth like big net.”

  Judy frowned. “That’s what you said right before we got swallowed by a blue whale!”

  The manta rays tumbled around the Water Bug, gobbling up the mini-fireworks.

  “Jeepers creepers!” said Andrew. “They’re eating those little lights!”

  meep … “Ocean animals with light inside,” said Thudd. “Called bioluminescence.”

  “Oh yeah!” said Andrew “Living light! Like we saw in the underwater cave.”

  “Yoop!” squeaked Thudd. “Animals use living light to find mate. Find prey. Sometimes scare predator. Like big camera flash in face! Ocean got lotsa living light. Look!”

  Thudd pointed outside. The dark ocean twinkled with a zillion tiny lights.

  Judy leaned over and tapped the compass in the middle of the Water Bug’s steering wheel.

  “Hey, Bug-Brain,” she said to Andrew. “Why don’t you watch where we’re going?”

  The words GIANT SQUID were lit up in green letters at the top of the compass. But the compass arrow was pointing away from the words.

  “Oops!” said Andrew. He turned the steering wheel and the arrow zinged toward the green words.

  glurp … “Thank you,” came the voice of the Water Bug. “We are now back on the trail of the giant squid.”

  Suddenly the manta rays flapped away like a flock of giant flying pancakes. Coming toward them was a fish twice as long as the Water Bug!

  The fish swam closer. Sticking out of its nose was a long, flat paddle with big teeth all along the edge.

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “It looks like a swimming chain saw!”

  meep … “Sawfish!” said Thudd.

  “It looks like something Soggy Bob invented to chop up the Water Bug,” said Judy.

  Soggy Bob Sloggins was searching for the giant squids, too. But he didn’t want to save them. He wanted to turn them into squidwiches for his Animal Universe theme park!

  Andrew, Judy, and Thudd were trying to stop him.

  meep… “Sawfish not use saw to hurt people,” said Thudd. “Saw feel electricity that come from all living things. Use saw to find little crabs and fish in mud and dig them up.”

  “Neato mosquito,” said Andrew. “The sawfish has its own tool kit!”

  Suddenly from behind the sawfish came a flashing light. It wasn’t the random glimmer of sea creatures. There was a pattern: three short flashes, three long ones, then three short ones again.

  “It’s a signal in Morse code!” said Judy. “Mom and Dad taught me Morse code before they took me on my first African safari.”

  “What does it mean?” asked Andrew.

  “Three short flashes mean ‘S,’” said Judy. “The long ones mean ‘O.’ … So the
message says ‘SOS.’ That’s the code word for ‘Help’!”

  The sawfish began to circle the Water Bug.

  “Look!” said Andrew. “There’s a rope around the sawfish’s tail!”

  At the end of the rope was a huge white egg with big metal claws. The bright flashes were coming from a window at the front of the egg!

  “It’s the Egg-Mobile!” said Andrew.

  Through the egg’s window, Andrew and Judy saw a big blue parrot. It was flapping its wings frantically.

  “That’s Burpp inside!” said Judy.

  “Burpp” was short for Bob’s Ultra-Robot Parrot Partner. Burpp belonged to Soggy Bob Sloggins.

  “Burpp looks scared,” said Judy.

  “Holy moly” said Andrew. “The Egg-Mobile has big cracks in it. I think we have to rescue Burpp!”

  “But what if this is a trick?” said Judy. “What if we rescue Burpp and he tries to take over the Water Bug?”

  Andrew thought for a moment. “We’ll tie him up before we let him in,” he said.

  Andrew pressed a black button on the dashboard and spoke into a microphone. “Cut the rope,” he said. “Get Burpp out of the Egg-Mobile and use the rope to tie him up. Then bring Burpp into the Water Bug.”

  glurp … “A bad idea,” said the Water Bug. “But if you insist …”

  The hood of the Water Bug popped open. The long gray tentacles of the Octo-Tool twirled out from under the hood. One of the tentacles carried scissors. Lightning fast, it cut the rope that tied the Egg-Mobile to the sawfish’s tail. The sawfish sped away.

  The other tentacles yanked at the window of the Egg-Mobile. The window was also the Egg-Mobile’s door. But the tentacles couldn’t open it.

  Three of the tentacles ducked back under the hood. When they came out again, they were carrying hammers. They began to bang away at the white shell. Inside the Egg-Mobile, Burpp pecked the walls with his beak.

  KRAAACK!

  The giant egg split in two! Burpp tumbled out. The Octo-Tool tentacles grabbed Burpp, tied up his feet, and towed him under the hood of the Water Bug.

  A few seconds later, two big parrot feet poked through the rubber flap under the Water Bug’s steering wheel. Andrew yanked one foot and Judy tugged the other.

  Awk! “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Burpp squawked from under the hood.

  “Wait a minute,” said Judy. She stopped tugging Burpp’s foot and made Andrew stop, too.

  “Can we really trust you?” she asked.

  Awk! “Promise!” said Burpp. “On my bird of honor!”

  “You’d better be telling the truth,” said Judy. She grabbed a scaly leg and pulled. “Moof!” she groaned. “I think he’s stuck.”

  “Oofers!” said Andrew. “This isn’t easy!”

  Awk! “This not easy for Burpp, either!” squawked Burpp. “Burpp is getting squashed down to parakeet size!”

  “One, two, three … PULL!” said Judy.

  Klink, klink, klink …

  With a tinkle of metal feathers, Burpp burst through the flap.

  Burpp’s wing smacked Judy in the nose and poked Thudd out of Andrew’s pocket.

  “You’ll have to get in the back,” said Judy, shoving Burpp’s tail feathers over the front seats.

  Instead of having a backseat like other cars, the Water Bug had a tiny bathroom and a kitchen.

  Burpp landed between the bathroom door and the kitchen sink.

  Awk! “Burpp is grateful to you, little Dubbles!” said Burpp. “Soggy Bob left the Egg-Mobile stuck on the coral reef. Then Burpp saw the sawfish. Burpp used the Egg-Mobile claws to rope him! The sawfish pulled the Egg-Mobile off the reef.

  “But the Egg-Mobile hit a rock. Everything broke! No power! No steering! The claws wouldn’t let go of the rope! Burpp could have been stuck to the tail of that sawfish forever!”

  Andrew looked Burpp in the eye. “You know we’ve got to find the giant squids before Soggy Bob does,” he said. “We can’t let Soggy Bob turn them into giant squidwiches.”

  Awk! “Burpp will help you!” said Burpp. “Soggy Bob is loony as a gooney bird and only getting worse!”

  “Okay” said Andrew. “Let’s go! Judy untie Burpp’s feet.”

  Andrew pressed the gas pedal. But instead of speeding ahead, the Water Bug bounced up and down in the water like a pogo stick.

  Kerchunk … kerchunk … kerchunk …

  “Uh-oh,” said Andrew. The Water Bug began to zigzag down.

  Blurghhhh …

  It sputtered and sank. The buttons and dials on the dashboard blinked. The headlights flickered.

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “We’re losing power and sinking fast!”

  “What’s going on, Water Bug?” Andrew asked. “Are you out of fuel or something?”

  glurp… “Checking, checking, checking,” said the Water Bug. “Do not know.”

  Judy turned to Burpp and pushed her face close to his beak.

  “Did you do something to the Water Bug?” she asked.

  Awk! “Burpp didn’t do anything!” said Burpp, chewing on a broken claw. “Please don’t blame Burpp!”

  “Thudd,” said Andrew, “call Uncle Al.”

  meep … “Okey-dokey,” said Thudd.

  Uncle Al was Andrew and Judy’s uncle and a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd and the Water Bug.

  Thudd pressed the big purple button in the middle of his chest.

  The purple button blinked three times.

  The Water Bug kept drifting down. Outside, animals that looked like strings of Christmas lights fluttered through the darkness.

  “Look!” said Andrew. He pointed to a red jellyfish as big as a washing machine.

  A long, skinny fish zipped by. Lights glowed along its side like the windows of a spaceship.

  A squad of umbrella-shaped squids floated up to the windshield.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “These guys are amazing!”

  Up and down the arms of the squids ran dots of flashlight-bright colors—blue and yellow, purple and red. Even the squids’ eyes sparkled with light.

  meep … “Squids got living light, too,” said Thudd.

  Awk! “Maybe the squids are sending a message,” said Burpp.

  Suddenly the hood of the Water Bug started to flash colors. It flickered sky blue, then leaf green, then pearly pink.

  “Jumping gerbils!” said Andrew. “The Protectum coating is going wild!”

  glurp … “Telling squids we come as friends,” said the Water Bug.

  Judy’s eyes narrowed. “Cut the squid chat,” she said. “Let’s get the Water Bug fixed! Now!”

  “Oh, right!” said Andrew. He pushed buttons and turned dials. But still nothing happened.

  They drifted deeper and deeper.

  Strange new creatures prowled the night ocean. With their jagged shapes and awful mouths, they could have hatched from bad dreams.

  Some had fangs so long they couldn’t close their mouths. One looked like a giant mouth attached to a long sock. Some looked like messy piles of seaweed with mouths in the middle.

  One wide-open mouth had a light inside. A tiny fish swam up to the light, and the mouth snapped it up!

  As the parade of creatures glided and squirmed by, Thudd squeaked out their names: dragonfish, hatchetfish, gulper eel, fangtooth, ghost shark, saber-toothed viperfish!

  Suddenly the big purple button in the middle of Thudd’s chest began to blink. It popped open and a beam of purple light zoomed out.

  A hologram of Uncle Al appeared on the dashboard.

  “Hi there, guys!” said Uncle Al.

  He was smiling, but he looked tired. His shaggy hair was even shaggier than usual.

  “Hi, Uncle Al!” said Andrew.

  “Hiya, Unkie,” said Thudd.

  Awk! “Hello, Professor Dubble!” said Burpp.

  “We’ve got a problem!” said Judy.

  “I’m not surprised,” said Uncle Al. “And it sounds like you’ve got Soggy Bob’s parr
ot with you! I hope he’s not the problem.”

  When Uncle Al visited them by hologram, he could hear them but not see them.

  “We had to rescue Burpp,” said Andrew. “He’s on our side now.”

  “The bad news,” said Judy, “is that the Water Bug lost power and is sinking!”

  GRAAACK! came a sound from the back of the Water Bug.

  Andrew and Judy turned to see what had happened. A lightning-shaped crack ran halfway down the rear window!

  “The back window cracked!” yelled Judy.

  Uncle Al’s bushy eyebrows tilted up to his shaggy hair. “Uh, that’s because the Water Bug is shrinking,” he said.

  meep … “Water Bug more than mile deep now,” said Thudd. “Lotsa water press against Water Bug. Water heavy, heavy, heavy! Like big giraffe sitting on every inch of Water Bug.”

  “That’s dumb,” said Judy. “Giraffes are too big to fit on an inch of anything.”

  Uncle Al interrupted her. “A big giraffe weighs about three thousand pounds,” he said. “Three thousand pounds of water are pressing against every inch of the Water Bug. The amount of water that presses against something is called water pressure.

  “But don’t worry about the window,” said Uncle Al. “The water pressure will probably hold it in place.”

  “Probably?” yelled Judy. “‘Probably’ is not the word you want to hear when you’re more than a mile under the ocean!”

  Uncle Al nodded. “I understand,” he said. “But don’t worry. I’ve finished the See Horse and am on my way to find you.”

  The See Horse was a new underwater vehicle that Uncle Al had been working on.

  Uncle Al rubbed his chin and frowned. “I just hope you’re not anywhere near a certain place.”

  “What place is that?” asked Judy.

  “It’s called the Challenger Deep,” said Uncle Al. “It’s the deepest place in the ocean.”