21

The rolling desert hills below drifted by silently as Eldon studied a map he’d found in Peggy’s cave. He checked his compass, put a finger in the air, then jotted a note in his Badger Ranger notebook. He turned to the open flame burner in the center of the basket and adjusted it. This heated the air inside the giant bunny balloon that was carrying them across the sky.

Jordan smiled at his friend in action. “How did you learn to do all this stuff?”

Eldon looked up, a little surprised. “Did I not mention I’m a Badger Ranger?”

“C’mon. There can’t be a Badger Badge for navigating a hot-air balloo—” Eldon stuck out his sash. One badge had a tiny balloon on it. “Wow. That’s actually impressive.”

Jordan watched Eldon test all the knots along the side of the basket, then check each task in his notebook. It reminded him of his dad’s to-do list. He wondered how his family was doing, and if his mom and dad missed him.

“Eldon, where’s your family?”

Eldon stopped writing, and Jordan immediately felt like he shouldn’t have asked. “Sorry,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me.”

Eldon slipped his notebook into his shirt pocket. “It’s just that no one’s asked me about them in a long time.” The two boys stood together looking out over the horizon. A warm southerly breeze gently nudged them toward the Gulf of Mexico. “I guess the short answer is, I’m an orphan.”

“So your parents are, uh—”

“Yep. Died years ago. But I lost them long before that happened.” Eldon glanced down at his uniform, flicked a speck of sand off his lapel, and straightened his bolo tie. “For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a Badger Ranger. As soon as I could walk, I became an honorary Junior Runt. I learned as much as I could, as fast as I could. And of course, I grew eager to apply what I’d learned. I’d sneak out, scaring my family half to death. They’d find me wandering the woods, sleeping in trees in the park, tracking and trapping neighbors’ pets. They started locking me in my room at night. They were just trying to keep me safe, of course, but I didn’t see it that way. I felt like a prisoner. So I ran away. I wanted to live outdoors, like a real Badger Ranger. Eventually I learned that being a Badger Ranger isn’t about survival and adventure and living in the wild. It’s about helping others.”

“So you went back?”

“No. I couldn’t face my parents after the pain I’d caused them. But I needed to go somewhere. I found a place—a home—filled with others like me, who had run away and couldn’t go home.”

“An orphanage?”

“Sort of. It was a broken down old house, rotting from the inside, run by a wretched old woman who didn’t even own it. She moved in and took it over, then did the bare minimum to claim herself as a caretaker, so she could collect money from the government. The more of us she had living there, the more money she got.”

“Some caretaker.”

“I just liked that she didn’t care enough to lock my door. So I snuck out a lot. I still dreamed of becoming a First-Class Badger Ranger, and living with so many people in need allowed me to work on my community badges. But I needed wilderness skills, too. And the location of the house was perfect for me to hone my survival-badge skills. It sat at the edge of a thick, overgrown swamp.”

Jordan’s eyes grew wide. “The Okeeyuckachokee? You lived in my grandfather’s house!”

“Your grandfather had long since abandoned it. But for many of my friends, it was the best life they’d ever had. At least, until I offered them a better one. The Okeeyuckachokee Swamp was my classroom. It’s where I learned plant and animal classification, survival skills, hunting, gathering—and of course, the ancient art of spooring, which led me to the trail of the great Florida Skunk Ape.”

“Bernard said my grandfather taught him how to trust you,” Jordan said.

“That came later. I had to find him first. I’d pick up clues—a clump of fur here, a warm dropping there—but the trail always went cold, right at the same spot.”

“Let me guess. The great lemon tree.”

Eldon nodded. “Of course I’d heard all about your grandfather. Both he and Skunk Ape Summer were still a local punch line. But like you, I began to think maybe there was something real behind the jokes. Maybe your grandfather hadn’t been crazy.”

“You must have a badge in acting. You were such a jerk when I asked for your help, but you knew exactly how I felt.”

“I had to test you. I wanted to be sure you were serious.”

“So how did you find Bernard?”

“One night, a terrible rainstorm hit while I was out spooring. The swamp began to flood, and I nearly drowned as I made my way back to the house. I entered my usual way, through a broken basement window. It was flooded that night, and in the darkness I could hear water rushing under the house. My only concern was sneaking safely back to my room. I made my way up the rotting basement stairs. I quietly opened the door to the kitchen to find the old woman sitting up, guarding the refrigerator. She was afraid that in the noisy storm some of us might try to sneak downstairs to steal extra food. As I reached the top of the cellar stairs and opened the door, she lunged at me. But I was too quick for her, and ducked out of the way.”

“She fell down the stairs?”

“She fell through them. She was swept away by the underground torrent rushing beneath the house. As much as I hated her, I had a duty as a Badger Ranger—especially one working toward his Citizen Hero Badge—and dived in after her. The water whisked me away from the house and under the swamp. The underground streams split off in ten different directions, and I was sure I’d drown. But I got lucky. I suddenly found myself careening down a mudslide, faster and faster, deeper into the earth. I shot out into an underground room, splashing and sputtering on the muddy floor, gasping for air like a catfish. And there he was—the great Florida Skunk Ape, surprised as I was that the floodwaters had dropped me smack-dab in the middle of your grandfather’s lemon-tree lair.”

“What happened to the awful caretaker?”

“I never saw that old lady again. As for Bernard, he was a proud creature, and not very happy when the annoying ranger kid he’d successfully dodged and evaded for so long belly flopped in the middle of his flooded-out living room. But he respected me as a worthy adversary, and decided not to toss me back out into the storm, or tear my limbs off.”

“That was nice of him.”

“He was lonely, and he saw a loneliness in me. For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to run away. I felt like I was home. I wanted to stay down there forever. And soon after, Bernard invited me to do just that. He showed me what he and your grandfather had started, and wanted me to help him make it a reality. Bernard wanted to protect and hide the cryptids your grandfather had made contact with, but knew it was just a matter of time before they were discovered. He couldn’t board an airplane or cruise across the sea to check on them. We both realized what I could bring to the operation, aside from my Badger Ranger skills, was the ability to pass in and out of both worlds. Together we could protect all the cryptids your grandfather had met. But we couldn’t do it alone. We’d need helpers. Lots of them. We’d need a team.”

“So you went back to the old house. For the others.”

“With the old lady finally gone, there was no one left to care for them. Many of them were happy to follow me into the swamp. Those who weren’t we helped take care of in other ways. But the ones eager to join this adventure were even more eager to get to work. They made it all happen. Your grandfather’s dream of a secret society of Creature Keepers would’ve died without them. They all would’ve made him very proud.”

“Not all of them,” Jordan said. “I don’t think Grampa Grimsley would be too happy with this Harvey Quisling kid.”

Eldon shook his head. “I can’t understand it. I helped trained Harvey myself. He’s a good kid. Never in a million years would I have guessed he’d be capable of something like this. Still, I should’ve seen it. This is all my fault.”

“Don’t say that. You never know about people, what’s really in their hearts. How could anyone guess someone who’d been abandoned himself could abandon the amazing creature he was supposed to care for? You told me how being a Creature Keeper is about keeping quiet and remaining unseen. I bet it can get boring. Maybe Harvey was offered a better job.”

“Not a chance. Being a Creature Keeper is far niftier than being a zookeeper.”

“Not just a zookeeper. A crypto-zookeeper.” Jordan thought about this as he gazed out at the horizon. “Still, I can’t connect Harvey to getting Nessie across the Atlantic.”

“You saw the letter from that Gusto person. They had a deal.”

“Exactly! Harvey’s part of the bargain was to deliver Nessie. But it wasn’t Harvey that Alistair saw that night; it was some old man—maybe even this Gusto himself. So if Gusto is paying for the zoo, and he’s kidnapping Nessie himself, what’s he need Harvey for?”

“Maybe Harvey just told Gusto where he could find her.”

“I thought that, too, but it still doesn’t compute. If Harvey wanted to open a crypto-zoo with Gusto, what’s wrong with the cryptid he already had? I mean, he and his antler-headed, fluffy-tailed roommate live just a few states away from where the zoo’s being built—why cross an entire ocean to try and bag a six-ton water lizard with an attitude, who you know will put up a fight the whole trip back from Scotland to Florida?”

“She can be a handful. Not to mention risking the wrath of Alistair . . .”

“Right! Meanwhile, all Harvey needs to do is jiggle some car keys and Peggy goes into screensaver sleep mode. Load her onto a U-Haul, and you’re open for business the next day. I’m telling you, something here still doesn’t add up.”

“Nessie’s more famous,” Eldon said. “She’d bring in bigger crowds.”

“My dad has tossed us in that ugly car for a family road-trip vacation every year I’ve been alive. Believe me, anyone willing to pay good money to see a giant, captive water lizard will pay just as much to see a giant, captive jackalope. Nessie may have the name recognition. But after driving hundreds of miles with a carful of bored and whining kids, parents will pay whatever you ask, to see whatever you stick in front of them.”

“You’re right,” Eldon said. “It doesn’t make sense, unless—”

“Unless this Gusto person has another reason for wanting Nessie.”

Eldon and Jordan looked down at the calm, blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, rippling gently beneath them—the complete opposite of the violent, surging black waters of Loch Ness.

“Maybe it’ll be all right,” Jordan said. “According to Alistair, Nessie’s too smart and too strong to let herself be caged up in some swamp zoo by an old fart and a crooked Keeper kid.”

“Still,” Eldon said, staring at the water below. “We have to find her before anyone else does.”