The Wheels That Vanished

By Michael Dahl

Eleven-year-old Max Martin and his fellow scooter riders Oscar Santiago and Lily Blue (and her pet chameleon, Speck) are hot on the trail of a thief in a puzzling case: The Wheels That Vanished. Max saw a strange green bicycle whiz by him onto a bridge. But it never came out the other end! How could it have vanished?
The thief on the bicycle stole two very important things, and now it's up to Max, Oscar, and Lily to use their clues, and their scooters, to find them. It will take the best scooter skills they have, and a wild scooter ride, for the three friends to catch the crook!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aladdin
• Release date: Sep 7, 2001
• ISBN: 9780743434591

Michael Dahl

Michael Dahl is the prolific author of the bestselling Goodnight, Baseball picture book and more than 200 other books for children and young adults. He has won the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award three times for his nonfiction, a Teachers’ Choice Award from Learning Magazine, and a Seal of Excellence from the Creative Child Awards. Dahl currently lives in Minnesota.

Book preview

THE WHEELS THAT VANISHED

MICHAEL DAHL

Published by POCKET BOOKS

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Read THE GHOST THAT BARKED, another Scooter Spies mystery!

A Minstrel Book

Available from Pocket Books

Be sure to read Michael Dahl’s

Finnegan Zwake mysteries, too!

The Horizontal Man

The Worm Tunnel

The Ruby Raven

Archway Paperbacks

Published by Pocket Books

SCOOTER SPIES Minstrel/December 2000

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A MINSTREL PAPERBACK Original

A Minstrel Book published by

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Copyright © 2000 by Michael Dahl

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

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To Danny Thomas

who walked across the Mixaloopi River bridge

1

THE WHEELS THAT VANISHED

BONG … BONG …

The hundred-year-old clock tower that stood at the center of the University of Metroville boomed out the hour.

Eleven-year-old Max Martin looked down at the small clock attached to the handlebars of his scooter. Two o’clock. His dad would be finished teaching his astronomy class in fifteen minutes at the Space Science Center. In less than twenty minutes, Max would meet his dad at the parking lot in front of the Center.

Max loved riding his scooter through the back-streets of the University. He glanced around at a dim alley he was gliding through. This must be near the Biology Building. Max followed a narrow passage as it angled between smooth concrete walls.

Dylan’s motorcycle would never fit through here, Max thought with a grin. I’ll have to tell him at dinner. Max and his older brother Dylan were always arguing about which was the better set of wheels: motorcycle or scooter. Max kept a growing list of advantages for scooters beginning with:

#1. Athletes ride scooters.

You need strong legs to ride a scooter, Max told his brother over dinner last night. And good reflexes and—

In other words, you should be like me, said Dylan.

If you’re so good, why don’t you run to soccer practice next time instead of riding your stupid motorcycle? Max asked.

Stupid? My bike can circle the U. ten times before your scooter makes it around once.

Big deal, said Max. At least I’m not wasting gas.

Cycles get excellent mileage, said Dylan. I’d still have plenty of gas.

You have plenty of gas all right, laughed Max.

All right, all right, said Mr. Martin at the head of the dinner table. That’s the last time I serve Seven Bean Casserole.

As he kicked his scooter through the alley, Max added another item to his list.

#2. Scooters can ride through the Biology Building alley without scraping the walls.

Up ahead, another scooter in the alley was aiming straight toward him.

Max braced both feet on the aluminum deck. This alley is too narrow. That kid is gonna crash right into me.

He gripped the handlebars and felt the rush of wind as the other scooter rocketed past. Something cool on the other scooter’s deck brushed against his feet. At the end of the alley he skidded to a stop and looked behind him. The other kid had also stopped. Max gave him a thumbs-up.

Smooth ride, said the other kid.

A flash of neon green snagged Max’s attention. Something whizzed past him in the small courtyard behind the Bio Building.

The green blur vanished behind the side of the building. By the time Max reached the corner of the building, the blur had disappeared. Was it a bike?

Max rode back through the alley. He saw nothing in front or in back of the building. The neon-green blur had simply vanished. And so