BEFORE THEY COULD DIGEST WHAT THEY HAD JUST SEEN, before Emmet could say “I told you so,” a doctor finally emerged from the exam room. The group gathered in a half circle around him. The name on the pocket of his white coat read FLORES, and his sleeves had blood on them. Emmet tried not to think about it being Stuke’s blood.

“We’ve managed to stop the bleeding,” Dr. Flores said. “It’s a vicious bite. We’re going to have him airlifted to South Miami Hospital for surgery. He’s stable and we’ve given him enough pain medication to knock him out. What is it that attacked him?”

Dr. Geaux stepped forward. “Dr. Flores, I’m Dr. Rosalita Geaux of the NPS and superintendent of Everglades National Park. We’re not quite sure what it was. It might have been a barracuda.”

Dr. Flores shook his head. “I get a lot of injured swimmers in here. That’s not like any barracuda bite I’ve ever seen. Whatever attacked the boy had a mouth full of teeth, but the bite pattern is not like —”

“I’ll make sure the authorities are alerted, and we’ll find out what happened,” Dr. Geaux interrupted. “Right now we’d like to focus on Stuke.”

Dr. Flores’s eyebrows furrowed a moment. Emmet watched the exchange like it was a tennis match. He was almost ready to blurt out the truth but remembered his promise to keep the details secret for now.

“Hmm. Well, he’s asleep now. We’ve also given him a huge dose of antibiotics to combat infection. The Life Lift chopper is inbound. If one or two of you would like to see him, you can wait with him until it gets here. That’ll be fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on him again.” Dr. Flores disappeared through the double doors back into the ward.

Emmet’s dad and Riley went to check on Stuke, while Dr. Geaux made a call.

Before long, Emmet could hear the sound of the chopper approaching.

The drive to Miami seemed to take forever, even after Dr. Geaux called the Florida State Police for an escort to help them cut through traffic.

Stuke was in surgery when they arrived, but his parents were in the waiting room.

Stuke was an almost perfect combination of his mom and his dad. He had his mother’s height and her round, friendly face. His dad had the same red hair and freckles, and was pacing intensely back and forth. Stuke’s dad was a Florida City police lieutenant. He had already seen the footage on the television, and he was beyond angry, stalking back and forth in the waiting room, his body coiled. His jaw was so tight it looked like it had been carved out of granite. But he softened when he saw Emmet, Calvin, and the girls.

“You kids,” Officer Stukaczowski said. “You saved my boy. My wife and I … we … the way you all took care of him … made sure he got to safety … we …” Tears formed in his eyes and he had to look away. His wife rubbed his shoulders and smiled at them, but she had teary eyes as well. Raeburn stepped up and gave him a hug.

“Officer Stukaczowski,” she said, “it’s okay. If it had been one of us, Stuke would have done the same thing.”

He looked at Dr. Geaux. “When you want to start looking for this creep, I’m ready. My resources, contacts, sources, my off-duty hours — whatever you need, you’ve got it.”

“Tom,” Dr. Geaux said, “you know we’re going to catch this guy. But don’t worry about it now. Right now, let’s be here for Stuke. We can think about Dr. Catalyst later.”

Stuke was in the operating room for six hours, but the surgery was deemed a success. Even so, his recovery and physical therapy were going to take several months, and he would have to spend a few days in the hospital. The doctors wanted to dose him with antibiotics to make sure he didn’t end up with an infection. The long, ragged bite on his leg had over one hundred stitches in it. It would probably leave a winding, jagged scar along the calf and knee of his right leg. Two of the tendons in his leg had been severed, but the surgeries had reattached them. Thankfully the creature hadn’t broken any bones or permanently damaged any nerves. It was going to hurt for a while, and Stuke would be confined to a wheelchair while the stitches healed. But the main thing was he was going to be okay.

Emmet decided he liked Stuke’s dad. He welcomed any new members to the “I Hate Dr. Catalyst” club. And it was probably a good thing to have a policeman on the membership roster.

But Emmet was still the president.