The Candymakers

Daisy admits that it’s easy to get into character for this mission. As soon as she walked into the candy factory, she didn’t need to pretend to enjoy herself: “Her senses burst to life” (201). She balances enjoying being a part of the contest and remaining fixed on her mission. As she develops genuine friendships with Logan and Miles, she begins to question why her client hired her. She’s always been taught never to question a client’s motives, but for the first time, she senses that her client has bad intentions, and she’s not sure she wants to be a part of it. 

Back at home, Daisy visits her horse Magpie to clear her mind. She still feels conflicted about her mission and asks another spy if she’s ever questioned an assignment: “Like if the information we’re getting for the client is going to hurt the person or group we’re getting it from?” (222). The other spy says that morality is subjective, and she can never really know which is the good side, which doesn’t help Daisy feel better. That night, she sneaks into her grandmother’s room to view the case file. She sees a picture of sweet five-year-old Logan and decides that she can’t complete her mission because she doesn’t want to hurt him and his family. She decides that she will instead compromise the mission by putting a foul-tasting ingredient inside the secret ingredient. Then, whoever the client hires after her to steal it won’t be successful.

At the factory, she more fully embraces being a real contestant and feels like she’s becoming a “real part of the candymaking process” (232). She starts to wish that she could be a normal kid instead of always pretending to be someone else for the spy missions. She eventually tells AJ her plans to sabotage the mission. He doesn’t agree with it, but he also doesn’t stop her from doing it. That night, she sneaks into the factory to spoil the secret ingredient, but she sees that someone else is already in the Cocoa Room. She assumes it’s someone who’s trying to steal it, so she jumps on them.