CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Professor Fauna walked through the streets of Old Havana with his black plastic bag cradled to his chest. He was walking slowly, beaming, like he was sleepwalking during a wonderful dream.
“Professor,” said Elliot. “Professor! What did Juanito say?”
The professor shook himself from his daze. “What? Oh, I will tell you, children. I will tell you. But first, we have a Madre de aguas to save!” He thrust a bony finger in the air.
“You’re not going to tell us?!” Elliot exclaimed. “After all that?!”
“Patience, my young friend. Patience. We are not here on the trail of unicorns. We are here to help a majestic creature who is mysteriously suffering!” Elliot rolled his eyes and looked at Uchenna, who rolled her eyes right back. The professor didn’t notice. “Now, let us talk about that disgusting pink sludge in the ladies’ toi—”
HONNNNNNNK!
The members of the Unicorn Rescue Society jumped a foot in the air and spun around. A huge truck was trying to drive down the narrow street where they were walking. To get out of its way, they had to press themselves against the bright pink wall of a building.
The truck crawled past, belching hot fumes all over them.
When it had finally gone, they scraped themselves off the wall and tested if the air was safe to breathe again. Uchenna scowled after the truck. But her scowl turned into a disbelieving stare.
“Look!”
Elliot and the professor looked.
The truck was loaded with black barrels, each one emblazoned with a snakelike S.
At the very same instant, all three of them exclaimed, “Follow that truck!”
Because the streets of Old Havana were so narrow, the truck couldn’t go very fast. But the members of the Unicorn Rescue Society didn’t want to be noticed by whoever was driving it. So they decided to hang back, let it turn a corner, and then follow after it. They tried to look like lost tourists. Which wasn’t hard, because they were getting deeper and deeper into the narrow, confusing streets of the old city, La Habana vieja.
Finally, the truck stopped. A man and a woman wearing black baseball caps and black T-shirts and black cargo pants got out. They left the engine rumbling and started walking toward the back of the truck. Or toward the members of the Unicorn Rescue Society. It was hard to tell.
So Uchenna quickly pointed up at an apartment house with black wrought iron balconies and asked, loudly, “How old is this one, do you think?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” said Elliot, in his best impression of a loud American tourist. “Really old, I bet! A thousand years old, maybe?”
“What?” Professor Fauna exclaimed. “Surely, you know better than that, Elliot! While this may be La Habana vieja, it is still no older than a hundred and fifty years old. Which is impressive, but one thousand? Surely, Elliot—”
“Stop. Using. His. Name,” Uchenna hissed through gritted teeth.
“What? Why would I not call Ell—”
Elliot and Uchenna both poked their heads toward the truck with exaggerated movements. Professor Fauna looked. He was not at all subtle. “Oh!” he said. Then he winked at the kids. “Got it. Yes, maybe it is a thousand years old! Or a million! I do not know anything! Do you know anything, Elli—uh, Ellicotty?” Then he flashed the kids two thumbs up.
Elliot and Uchenna just shook their heads.
Luckily, the truck divers weren’t paying attention to anything except what they were doing. They had unloaded a black barrel from the truck and now were carrying it into a small alley.
“Let’s go see what they’re up to,” Uchenna said softly.
“That seems like it’s asking for trouble,” Elliot replied.
“Oh, the Schmoke Brothers are the ones who have been asking for trouble,” Uchenna said slowly. “They’ve been asking for a long while now. And pretty soon, I’m gonna answer.”
And with that, Uchenna started for the alley, all by herself.
Elliot gazed after her. “How is she so cool?”
Professor Fauna gazed, too. “I do not know. I have tried to be that cool my whole life.”
Elliot cocked an eyebrow at him. “Really?”
Professor Fauna glanced down at Elliot. “Of course not. That was a joke.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Now,” Professor Fauna went on, “a student under my protection is following two henchmen of the most evil men in the world into an alley, in a foreign country she has never visited, completely unsupervised.”
“We should go after her.”
“Sí, Elliot. De acuerdo.”