UNBEKNOWNST TO EMMET, DR. CATALYST RELEASED the video feed of Dr. Doyle in captivity with the two hybrids in the water circling his cage. Within minutes it was running on every television channel and website in South Florida, and by the time they arrived, the media was in full-on insane mode. The main lot at the operations center was a mass of trucks and SUVs from every radio and TV station from Florida City to Miami.

Reporters with microphones chased after Dr. Geaux’s car as it pulled up to the gate. Only a line of county sheriff’s deputies kept the horde from surging through and following them all the way to the operations center. Still, they screamed and hollered questions at her through the car windows.

“Why are there so many reporters here?” Emmet asked.

“I told them I was holding a press conference at eight P.M., and everyone wants to get the best spot,” she said. There was a falsely cheerful tone to her voice, and Emmet thought she wasn’t telling him the whole truth. He wished he’d checked the TV before they left the house. It made him wonder if there was some new information about his dad she was keeping from him.

Calvin and Emmet, with Apollo in tow, went to wait in a conference room while Dr. Geaux stayed behind, speaking with a group of rangers, cops, and other law-enforcement personnel gathered in the parking lot. Inside, Calvin sat at the table while Emmet paced nervously back and forth across the floor. Apollo sat on his haunches watching Emmet for a while, then curled up in a ball and went to sleep.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Emmet said.

“No big deal,” Calvin said, with the familiar shrug.

“You said there were protestors down here all the time. Has anything like this ever happened before?” Emmet asked. “Somebody being taken hostage or kidnapped?”

Calvin shook his head. “Not that I can remember. I don’t recall Mom ever saying anything about it. Things can get heated, though. My mom … her job is not all that easy. She has to try to keep everyone happy, and gets pulled in a lot of different directions. You’ve got the environmental extremists, and those types who have all kinds of ideas about how the Everglades should be preserved. My mom says they range from ‘the nutty to the reasonable.’ At the other end you’ve got people who want to exploit the Everglades. They want to drain it all and build condos. Also nutty to reasonable. And then there’re the people who want to open it wide to hunting, boating, all that. She gets a lot of grief from all of them.” Calvin paused for a moment. “Even my dad.”

“What do you mean?” Emmet asked.

“He was basically living out there when they met, in a camp. He was probably more on the ‘close it down’ or ‘give it all back to the Seminoles and let them manage it’ side of the ‘what to do with the Everglades’ debate. Right before my dad … at the end … they actually fought a lot about it,” Calvin said.

“Really? It seems like they would be on the same side. My mom yelled at my dad sometimes, because he kind of has his head in the clouds a lot thinking about his work, but she was all about nature and supported my dad’s career,” Emmet said.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Calvin said. “They supported each other. I just think my dad was old-fashioned and my mom realizes that things are just too far gone, and someone has to make really hard choices to protect the River of Grass.”

“River of Grass?” Emmet asked, confused.

“It’s what the locals call the Glades sometimes,” Calvin said.

Emmet couldn’t stop pacing. He kept looking at the map of the park on the conference-room wall. It was an immense area, over one and a half million acres. He thought that if Dr. Catalyst was holding his father somewhere in the swamp, he could be anywhere.

“Calvin,” Emmet asked. “Suppose you were going to kidnap someone and hide them in the Everglades. Where would you do it? Where would you stash them?”

“I wouldn’t,” Calvin said.

Emmet sighed. He’d only known Calvin for about a week, but he was beginning to suspect he was often intentionally difficult.

“I know you wouldn’t kidnap someone. But let’s just play ‘pretend Calvin is a criminal.’ Where would you hide someone if you did?” Emmet asked, trying and failing to keep the frustration out of his voice.

“No, I get what you’re saying; what I mean is, I wouldn’t keep anybody in the swamp,” Calvin said.

“Why is that?” Emmet asked.

“Because there’s nothing out there, except a few rustic cabins and that’s it. And as big as it is, there’re always rangers and tour guides and hunters and fishermen zipping by unexpectedly. Nope, if it were me, I’d hide them in a town, in a basement somewhere,” Calvin said.

Emmet considered this while he paced.

“All right,” Emmet said. “Another question. My dad told me whoever is making these predagators needs at least two things: a lot of knowledge about biology, and money. Just the computers and equipment to … I don’t understand all of his scientist-speak, but he said something about ‘creating the DNA models to properly construct recombinating genes’ … or whatever … would cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So you’d require money and brains.”

“I suppose,” Calvin said.

Emmet stopped pacing.

“That’s why whoever this is, whoever took my dad, has to be hiding in the Everglades!” he said.

Calvin frowned, and despite the seriousness of the moment, a small part of Emmet was glad it wasn’t another shrug. He seemed to consider Emmet’s point for a moment at least. Before he rejected it.

“Emmet, I know this is a lot of pressure, and it’s a tense time, but —” Calvin was interrupted.

“You bet it is. And I’m going to find my dad somehow. But I’m not just saying this. Think about it,” Emmet said.

“Think about what?” Calvin countered.

“This whole make-a-new-species thing. Whoever is doing this is smart and has money, or at least access to it. Maybe they stole it, who knows, it doesn’t matter. But like my dad said, they are inside a lab, running an experiment that is going back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. They’re trying to re-create the itchy-actor-ox, or whatever my dad called it,” Emmet said.

“Yes, and apparently they’ve succeeded, because we’ve seen them in action,” Calvin said.

“Exactly! If you were this Dr. Catalyst, and you were spending who knows how much money and trying to re-create a species that lived a bajillion years ago, wouldn’t you take every precaution? Wouldn’t you make sure no one found out about it?” Emmet was getting excited.

“I … guess,” Calvin said. He still seemed skeptical, and a little unsure of where Emmet was going.

“You would have to build your lab right in the swamp!” Emmet said. “Don’t you see?”

“No. That would be the last place …” Calvin started to say, but Emmet waved him off.

“But one of his critters already escaped or died or something, because it’s in your mom’s dinosaur morgue, right?”

“Yes,” Calvin said.

“There is no way somebody going to this much trouble would build their lab somewhere else, stir up some new species in a petri dish, hatch them, let them grow, and then bring them here to the swamp for a test drive. What if they got out? Or you were in a car accident on the way?

“‘What’s that noise coming from your trunk, sir?’” Emmet put his hands on his belt like a police officer might. Then he pretended to be sitting at the wheel of a car. “‘Oh, it’s really nothing, Officer. Just some prehistoric creatures I cooked up in the basement of my Homestead condo.’

“It would never work,” Emmet went on. “And nobody smart enough to do this would take that chance. But if you were creating and testing those things here, you’d be a lot less likely to be discovered. If one got away, it might die and get eaten by something, or sink to the bottom of the swamp. Or even if it was found, like the one in the morgue, no one at the park is going to say anything. They would do exactly what your mom did. Keep the whole thing quiet to avoid a panic.” Emmet was getting more and more animated by the minute.

“I’m not so sure,” Calvin said. “And even if you’re right about the ‘lab in the swamp’ part, it doesn’t mean he’s keeping your dad there.”

“Just go with me for a minute. If this Dr. Caboose is working alone, I don’t think my dad would be kept too far from his lab. He’d need to watch over his animals and the hostage. And I don’t think he’d keep them both together, either, because he knows your mom is going to move heaven and earth to find him. If they find my dad and the lab, he’s toast. Maybe they wouldn’t be right in the same place, but I bet they’d be close to each other,” Emmet said.

“Dr. Caboose?” Calvin arched an eyebrow. “Do you always make up goofy names when you’re nervous?”

“Yes. It’s my thing. Like your shrug. But don’t change the subject,” Emmet said.

“Shrug? What shrug? I don’t have a shrug,” Calvin said. Of course, he shrugged while he said it.

“And that right there is what I’m talking about, but it’s not important right now,” Emmet said. “Where would you hide someone?”

“I don’t …” Calvin hesitated. He walked over to stand in front of the map.

“Calvin, the first day we got here and went out in your boat, your mom said you were the best ‘under eighteen’ Everglades guide in Florida. Your boat is in tip-top shape; you do everything right according to that Manny guy on the radio. When the boat was disabled, you fixed it with some sand and spit. You have the world’s biggest backpack and live in a tree house….” Emmet said.

“I don’t live there,” Calvin insisted.

“And Riley likes you,” Emmet said.

“No she doesn’t!” Calvin said, his face starting to redden.

“See, you’re getting mad. Try to think like Dr. Catalyst. You love the Everglades. It’s being destroyed. You are going to save it. Taking this hostage will make them close the park and start to repair the damage. So where do you, Dr. Calvin, hide your hostage?”

Calvin sighed and gazed more intently at the map.

“There … it’s just … there isn’t much out there,” Calvin started to say. “I don’t see how it would work. You’d need power and there’s hardly any way to get electricity out there.”

“I thought you said your dad lived out there?” Emmet asked.

“He did. But it was a really rustic camp. No electricity or running water. He used batteries for light and propane to cook with. To do all the things you’re saying, Emmet, it just doesn’t seem possible,” Calvin said.

“There’s no electricity in the whole park?” Emmet asked.

“There is, just not a lot of it. The ranger stations have power, and a few of the public areas, to pump in freshwater, but …”

“What? But what … ?” Emmet said.

“Nothing.”

“Calvin …” Emmet said. “If you’ve got an idea you better spill it. Or … or … so help me … you … My dad is missing and if you’ve got an idea that might save him you better start talking.” Emmet stalked back and forth. He didn’t know what else to do. Calvin was so deliberate in everything he did and Emmet was desperate. Then he thought of something.

“Speak. Or I’ll call up Riley right now and tell her you don’t like her and think she’s weird.”

Calvin’s eyes got wide. “She is not weird, and you wouldn’t …”

”Swear to God, I will, Calvin,” Emmet said, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ll call her right now.”

“All right … all right! If I was going to kidnap and hide somebody, there might be one place,” Calvin said.

“Where?”

“Plantation Row. It’s way on the far side of the park where hardly anyone goes anymore. It’s where all the old, big sugarcane planters had mansions. Nobody has lived out there since the 1950s. But they must have used electricity back then, and it might be possible to get it turned on or use the existing power lines if you had the resources,” Calvin said.

“Good,” Emmet said, snapping the phone shut. “Take me there.”

“What? I can’t take you there. Are you insane? I would be in so much trouble. We’ll tell the rangers and they’ll …”

“Do you really think they’re going to listen to me? I’ve seen search-and-rescue operations in the mountains in Montana. There are rules and grid searches and all kinds of —” He was interrupted by Dr. Geaux entering the office.

“I just wanted to check on you before I went to talk to the press,” she said.

“Is there any news?” Emmet asked.

“No, I’m afraid not. But it’s a big park and —”

“Mom,” Calvin interrupted her, “Emmet has an idea about Dr. Catalyst that makes a lot of sense.” Emmet stared at him, wondering why Calvin had changed his mind so suddenly.

“What is it, Emmet?” she asked.

“I … it’s … I was just thinking, if I were …” he stammered at first, nervous and on edge, but then gave her a short version of his theory.

“I don’t disagree. That makes a lot of sense. But I’m afraid Plantation Row has already been searched by the county sheriff’s deputies. They didn’t find anything.” She tried to keep an upbeat expression on her face but failed. Emmet couldn’t hide his disappointment. He shuffled across the office and slumped into the chair next to the desk.

“I’m sorry, Emmet,” she said. “We’re going to find him. You guys hang out here a little longer, and after my press conference we’ll go home.” She smiled as she left, but both of them could see the worry in her eyes.

“Dang it,” Emmet said. Calvin didn’t say anything because he didn’t know what to say. Instead, he picked up the remote for the TV on the wall, punched the on button, and set it on a local Miami station.

Emmet sat up straight in his chair and stared at the screen. They were expecting to see Dr. Geaux addressing the media. Instead, a very familiar face greeted them.

He was standing outside the park headquarters in front of a group of protestors holding signs. He spoke into a reporter’s microphone and was wearing a green T-shirt that said SAVE THE EVERGLADES.

It was Dr. Newton.