“We can’t just float around up here all day,” he said. “We have to take more aggressive action.”

Sally sat beside him. “We’re probably not going to get another situation like we had at the surplus store where we were able to get a bunch of them at once. I think the best we can do is swoop down every now and then and get one or two of them.”

“That’s no good,” Adam said. “Especially since they’re making more of their kind every few minutes. We have to do something that will wipe them all out at once.” Adam pounded his numb leg lightly with his clenched fist. “What is it that they’re afraid of besides fire?”

Sally was thoughtful. “We haven’t seen anything else. We know bullets and grenades can’t stop them.”

A remarkable idea occurred to Adam. “Wait a second! We asked ourselves earlier why they appeared today. We thought the cold weather had something to do with it.”

“Yeah. We guessed that they might even have changed the weather.”

“Yes, exactly,” Adam said. “They probably did. It’s summer and it’s freezing today. That’s an incredible coincidence. But what we didn’t ask ourselves is why they would have changed the weather.”

Sally shrugged. “They probably like the cold.”

“No,” Adam said. “They probably need the cold. There’s a big difference between liking something and needing it. I wonder if it got warmer if they would all begin to die. Remember Bum’s story. When Atlantis attacked Mu, the Cryo Creatures dashed up to the North Pole.”

“So they wouldn’t be killed by the nuclear blasts,” Sally said.

“If they were just worried about the blasts, they could have gone anywhere else. But they didn’t go anywhere else. I think they fled to the North Pole because all the bombs—and the asteroid—raised the temperature of the whole world. It’s possible they had to go to the North Pole.”

“What’s your point?” Sally asked. “We don’t have any nuclear bombs here. Or asteroids. We can’t just change the weather.”

Adam sat up straighter. He could feel the power of his idea. He was sure he was onto something important.

“A couple of weeks ago we were having an argument about the witch,” he said. “You were complaining about how rich she was, and how she never shared her wealth. You also said she was wrecking the local environment. Do you remember?”

“Yes. So what?”

“You said the worst thing she ever did—besides murdering hundreds of innocent children—was drill several huge oil wells in the hills behind Spooksville. You said they were somewhere above the reservoir.”

Sally paused. “What are you saying?”