Samantha quickly walked down the stairs and into the living room. She saw her parents in the kitchen and turned the other way. They were talking loudly to hear each other over the sound of chinchillas. She left through the front door instead. She sped around the house, down the driveway, and up the steps to Uncle Paul’s apartment.

The door was still unlocked. She turned the knob and entered. No one had been inside for several months now, except for her and Nipper. Samantha had been there earlier that day, when she borrowed the Encyclopedia Missilium. She headed back to the tall bookcase.

Among the atlases and dictionaries, a set of thick, leather-bound books stood where she remembered. Each one featured the words THE WORLD’S DEADLIEST ANIMALS on the spine in red-and-gold lettering. She reached for the third book in the set.

VOLUME III

HIPPOPOTAMUS TO POISON DART FROG

“ ‘King cobra…Kodiak bear,’ ” she read out loud as she flipped through the pages.

She stopped at a photo of a giant, greenish-gray lizard.

“ ‘Komodo dragon.’ ” Samantha sighed, shaking her head. She snapped the book shut and raced back to the house.

A minute later, she pushed open the door to her brother’s room.

Nipper held one end of a pillow. The lizard’s mouth was clamped tightly onto the other end. They were engaged in a tug of war.

“Nipper,” she said, holding up the book. “You’ve done a lot of incredibly dumb, dangerous things, but this is the worst!”

The lizard let go of the pillow and turned to look at Samantha.

Samantha started thinking about some of the incredibly dumb things her brother had done. A little over two months ago, he’d tried to loot a secret tomb and it almost got them drowned in ancient Egyptian sewage. A little over ten months ago, he’d tried to build a roller coaster in the backyard and—no. No. This was much worse.

She raised the leather-bound book, opened it, and read loudly.

“ ‘Komodo dragons are giant lizards native to several islands of Indonesia. They can grow to be ten feet long and weigh up to one hundred and fifty pounds. They are venomous, and they dominate their ecosystem, feeding on bugs, birds, mammals, and each other!’ ”

She lowered the book and glared at her brother.

“That is not a baby dinosaur,” she said. “It’s a teenage Komodo dragon. And it’s venomous!”

Nipper mouthed the word venomous. He looked down at the very large lizard, then back at his sister.

“That means their bite is poisonous!” she added angrily.

The lizard hissed loudly and bared a set of gleaming white teeth. It stuck out its long, forked tongue and wiggled it at Samantha. She noticed a glistening drop of clear goo dangling from one tooth. Slowly, the creature began to slink toward her. She took a step back. It continued moving in her direction. She stepped sideways around the room and kept reading.

“ ‘Komodo dragons have a powerful sense of smell,’ ” she continued. “ ‘They can detect their prey up to six miles—’ ”

The lizard lunged at Samantha. She closed the heavy book quickly and swung it, smacking the beast hard across its snout. It jumped back and retreated behind her brother.

“Watch out,” said Nipper. “You could hurt her.”

The Komodo dragon poked its head through Nipper’s legs and looked up at Samantha again. It hissed fiercely. A thin strip of blue tape fell from its mouth and fluttered to the floor. Nipper picked it up and read.

“ ‘Chinchilla lanigera. Lima, Peru.’ ”

He tilted his head thoughtfully.

“Lima…Lima…Lima. That sounds familiar.”

His eyes widened.

“Oh. Yeah. Now I remember,” he said. “Those cards in the hallway read L-I-M-A.”

Samantha scowled at him.

“As in Lima, Peru,” he repeated, and handed her the scrap of tape. “I guess we were really close. Weren’t we, Sam?”

A hiss rang out. It wasn’t a lizard. It came from an angry, angry sister whose brother didn’t pay attention to things.