CHAPTER 25

“Best vacation I’ve had in years!” hollered Fake Elvis, sticking his head out the window of the zoo train’s passenger car and lifting his nose to the wind like a retriever. He looked different in the full light of day. The only thing left of his costume from last night was his tinted sunglasses. Along with the white sequined jumpsuit and blue suede shoes, he’d left his black pompadour wig back in the RV, and it turned out that underneath he was as hairless as a Ping-Pong ball. I decided to think of him as Bald Elvis from now on. “You girls sure know how to have fun!”

Pearl grinned at him. In the engine cab ahead of us, Great-Aunt Abyssinia tootled the whistle again. The train sped along the narrow tracks that skirted the edge of the steep, forested canyon between the Rose Garden and the zoo. It was a little spooky under the canopy of trees, especially since we were the only passengers. I still wasn’t exactly sure how Great-Aunt Aby had arranged to have the train waiting for us, but I guessed there were some perks to being a fairy godmother, even a slightly defective one.

Bald Elvis was clearly enjoying himself, but my stomach was in knots. What if Dr. Dalton was there and spotted Olivia? She was the key to our plan for getting Geoffrey back. What if we bungled things somehow?

Beside me, Olivia looked equally nervous.

“Do you think Hawk Creek will make it?” she whispered with an anxious flurry of crocuses.

I shrugged. The dismal traffic report made it sound like getting to the zoo would be a nightmare. The only good thing Field Trip Friday had going for it was that Mrs. Bonneville was in charge, and Mrs. Bonneville didn’t like delays. They were on her list of rules.

We chugged to a crawl near the perimeter of the zoo, then came to a stop just outside the wolf enclosure.

“This is as far as she goes,” my great-aunt told us. “Can’t afford to have anyone spot the train, so you’ll have to go on foot along the tracks from here.”

I leaned forward. “Aren’t you coming?” I whispered, risking a toad. I flicked it into the shrubbery alongside the track. Bald Elvis still didn’t know about my affliction, and I figured I might as well keep it that way.

She shook her head. “I’m going to try and bring the RV around. Good luck, and whatever you do, try to blend in.”

Fat chance of that, I thought. We looked like a bunch of hillbillies. Bald Elvis was wearing a coverall just like Great-Aunt Aby’s and chewing a toothpick; Pearl and her updo were swaddled in the bright orange poncho she’d borrowed from my great-aunt; and my stepsister had replaced her lost Mariner’s cap with a straw sun hat she’d dredged up from a storage cupboard in the RV. It was obviously one of Great-Aunt Abyssinia’s thrift-store finds and looked like Archie had used it as a chew toy. And then there was me: aspiring toad huntress disguised as a small boy, but really just Catriona Skye Starr, twelve-year-old toad spitter.

I shook my head as we trudged off down the tracks.

I would have felt better with my great-aunt along for backup, but what with her unpredictable skills and all, maybe it was better this way. The zoo could be a dangerous place for an occupationally challenged fairy godmother. If she messed up here, who knew what could happen. I didn’t want to end up as a penguin. Or lunch for one.

“Hey!” shouted a uniformed man a few minutes later as the four of us stepped from the train tracks onto the deserted platform. “What are you doing over there? The tracks are off-limits!”

“Just looking for the little boys’ room,” Pearl replied brightly. She tucked her arm through Bald Elvis’s and pointed at me. “Our grandson had to go, and since we couldn’t find it, we headed for the woods. Any port in a storm, right?” She laughed a tinkling little laugh, and I hung my head and scuffed my feet, pretending to be embarrassed.

Which I was. We were a freak show.

It was quick thinking on Pearl’s part, though, I had to admit. Still, why did I always have to be the butt of every joke? Beside me, Olivia suppressed a laugh. I shot her the stink eye.

The zoo employee pointed wordlessly across the platform to the door clearly marked MEN’S ROOM.

“Well, whaddya know,” exclaimed Pearl, pretending to be astonished. “Can you believe that, kids?”

Shaking his head in disgust, the employee walked off.

“That was a close one,” whispered Pearl. Letting go of Bald Elvis’s arm, she took my hand and put her arm around Olivia’s shoulders. “Stay close, kids, and remember, girls—no diamonds and no toads.”

“Huh?” said Bald Elvis, who was still clueless in the toad department.

“Nothing,” said Pearl.

The four of us made our way to the penguin exhibit and got in line outside. The plan was to keep a low profile, avoid Dr. Dalton at all costs, and see what we could do to help grab Geoffrey back in case the FBI’s plan went awry. Two heads were always better than one, so we figured, why not two plans?

Now that everyone thought my stepsister and I were safe and sound, the FBI would be bringing along a stand-in for Olivia. At least that’s what I’d suggested. We’d be there in case anything went wrong with Plan A.

Bald Elvis had agreed to be the muscle for Plan B. He was middle-aged and a little pudgy, but the bald head kind of made him look like a boxer. He was going to act as Olivia’s bodyguard and, if needed, run interference with the kidnappers while Pearl and I grabbed my little brother. Great-Aunt Aby’s job was to bring the RV around to the zoo entrance. I’d been skeptical about using it as the getaway vehicle, but now that I knew it could make it from Las Vegas to Portland in 12.3 seconds, I was willing to give the RV a little more respect. If Great-Aunt Aby couldn’t get around the roadblock, we’d have to improvise. There was always public transportation. My dad is forever bragging about how great it is in Portland. I hoped we wouldn’t have to put it to the test, though.

We’d also eventually have to sort out the whole diamond and toad mess. Right now, though, the main thing was to get Geoffrey back and keep Olivia out of Dr. Dalton’s clutches, and a lifetime of captivity in Area 51.

I regarded the line of people in front of the penguin exhibit. Which ones were FBI? Police? Plain old zoo visitors? Were the kidnappers here too? It was impossible to tell. There was no sign of Dad and Iz yet, nor did I see my little brother anywhere. And so far there weren’t any Hawk Creek students, either.

All of a sudden Olivia stiffened. I looked to see what had caught her attention, and sucked in my breath sharply. Dr. Dalton was sitting on a bench across from the exhibit entrance. He was reading a newspaper and trying to look casual in a sweatshirt and baseball cap, but I’d know him anywhere. He looked up from his reading, his intense eyes scanning the crowd. Olivia turned her back to him, her face drained of color.

We both stood motionless, until his gaze passed over us, then sagged with relief. I grabbed Pearl and pointed him out surreptitiously.

“Dalton?” she whispered, frowning.

I nodded, and she relayed the message to Bald Elvis, who sized him up. “He’s the one who wants to take you to Area Fifty-one?” he asked my stepsister.

She nodded.

“Not on my watch,” Bald Elvis told her stoutly. He looked at me. “And he can’t have you, either.”

I became an Elvis fan right then and there.

The exhibit doors opened and the line moved forward. As we descended the long hallway that led into the Penguinarium, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“Mrs. Bonneville wants everyone to stay with their assigned partners! No wandering off!”

Hawk Creek Middle School had made it!

Olivia’s face lit up and she started to turn around—to look for Connor Dixon, no doubt. I elbowed her sharply. She glared at me, then faced forward again and jammed her sun hat down more firmly on her head. We filed into the exhibit’s warm, humid interior, wrinkling our noses. The Oregon Zoo’s penguins are Humboldts from the coast of Peru, not the arctic kind. The temperature in the exhibit always fools people who expect it to be glacial.

“P-U,” said Pearl. “It’s stinky in here.”

“You said it, sister,” agreed Bald Elvis, fanning the air in front of his face.

The crowd began milling around, and the large, dimly lit room soon echoed with the shouts of excited middle school students. As planned, Pearl, Bald Elvis, Olivia, and I made our way to the wall across from the glass tank, where we pretended to examine the informational placards.

“‘Found only in the Southern Hemisphere, Humboldt penguins are agile and can swim at speeds of up to thirty miles per hour,’” Pearl read aloud, keeping one eye on the crowd. “Well, whaddya know.”

All systems go, I texted A.J.

He texted me right back: Hawkwinds in place.

I glanced over to where Rani and her brother and Juliet Rodriguez were setting down their backpacks. Connor was with them too. Their mission was to provide a diversion if one proved necessary. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were going to do, but I had a pretty good idea.

Olivia, who was wedged securely between Bald Elvis and the map of the Humboldt penguin’s natural habitat, reached over and poked me in the arm, jerking her chin toward the entrance. My father and Iz had just walked in. I glanced at the cell phone in my hand: 9:00 a.m. on the dot—right on time. My heart did a somersault at the sight of them, and I would have given anything at that moment to be able to run across the room and fling myself into their arms.

But if I did that, Dr. Dalton would step in and snag Olivia, and our bargaining chip would be gone. We might not get Geoffrey back. Suck it up, Cat, I told myself sternly. Pull up your socks. Hold fast.

My father and stepmother had a girl between them with curly blond hair just like Olivia’s. Or at least at first glance I thought she was a girl. On closer look I could see that she was actually a vertically challenged adult—an FBI agent, probably—dressed like a middle schooler.

Would she fool the kidnappers? I certainly hoped so. If she didn’t, we’d have to step in.

I saw my father tense as he spotted Dr. Dalton. He clearly didn’t like the government scientist. I doubted anyone did. If Dr. Dalton had a dog, I’d bet even his dog didn’t like him.

A moment later a door in the wall just to the left of us that read STAFF ONLY opened, and a tall, skinny man in a zoo employee uniform appeared. He was carrying a janitor’s broom. He started sweeping, scanning the room all the while. His gaze settled on my father, Iz, and the female FBI agent standing between them.

Here we go, I thought. Showtime.

A few yards away on the other side of us, I noticed a woman with a stroller lean down and speak directly into her baby’s sippy cup. Odd, I thought, then realized that it was actually Agent Reynolds—and that the “baby” in the stroller was just a bundle of blankets. She’d spotted the kidnapper too.

I nudged Pearl and Bald Elvis, pointing at the janitor.

“Got him,” Pearl whispered. “Where’s your little brother?”

There was no sign of Geoffrey.

Olivia peeked out from behind Bald Elvis. Her eyes widened when she saw the man we were talking about. “I’ve seen him somewhere before!” she exclaimed, quickly covering her mouth with her hand to hide the inevitable result of her words.

Pearl frowned. “Who is he, honey?”

Olivia scrutinized him as he began sweeping his way toward my father and Iz. She shook her head. “I’m not sure,” she told us, covering her mouth again.

Suddenly a female voice cried, “Hey, look, there’s Olivia!”

I whirled around to see Piper Philbin waving at my stepsister. Olivia ducked back behind Bald Elvis, but it was too late. The janitor paused, alert as a hawk. He watched as Piper ran over to us.

“Why are you hiding?” she asked my stepsister. “And what’s with that ugly hat?”

“You stupid—,” I began to say, before Pearl clamped her hand over my mouth. I gagged as I felt my mouth fill with toad.

“Fleabrain!” Olivia finished for me, launching a sharp-edged diamond at her.

Everything happened really fast after that. The janitor spotted the gemstone. His eyes lit up. So did Dr. Dalton’s. As Piper stood there looking bewildered, they both started for us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Agent Reynolds grab the sippy cup off the stroller. She spoke into it again as she sprinted in our direction.

The janitor reached us first. Pushing Piper aside, he lunged for Olivia. Bald Elvis stepped forward to block him, but the janitor tripped him with his broom, sending him sprawling. Pearl let go of me and started smacking the janitor with her purse as he grabbed Olivia’s wrist and dragged her toward the door that read STAFF ONLY.

My eyes were watering. I couldn’t hold the toad in any longer. “Bleah!” I cried, spitting it into my hands and hoping no one saw me.

Piper did. She shrieked and backed into Dr. Dalton, who stared at the toad, then at me, riveted.

Great, I thought. Area 51, here I come.

At least the janitor hadn’t seen me. He was too intent on capturing my stepsister. Hoping to distract him, I pitched the toad at the back of his head. Unfortunately, it missed and hit Pearl instead, who yelped and dropped her purse. The Hawkwinds mistook this for the signal to create a diversion, and in a flash the Penguinarium echoed with the strains of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik. I resisted the urge to cover my delicate, shell-like ears. Connor was terrible on the saxophone.

“Where’s my little brother?” I hollered at the man in the zoo uniform, heedless now of toads, Piper Philbin, Dr. Dalton, or anyone else. All I could think of was Geoffrey. “You promised to give him back!”

He didn’t even pause to turn around and look at me as toads streamed from my lips, dropping to the floor and scattering in every direction. One landed on Piper Philbin’s foot. She fainted, and Dr. Dalton caught her just before she hit the ground.

As the toads hopped off in a panic, people screamed and ran for the exit doors. Agent Reynolds was swept away in the stampede, and so were Pearl and Bald Elvis and my father and Iz.

Things had gone terribly, horribly wrong. Plan A, Plan B, all of it. I looked around wildly, hoping to spot the cavalry again, but Great-Aunt Abyssinia was nowhere in sight. Really, I thought with disgust. What was the point of a fairy godmother if she didn’t show up when you needed her?

I had no choice.

It was up to me to try and rescue Olivia and Geoffrey.

I dived for the man in the zoo janitor’s uniform, latching on to his leg as he hauled my shrieking stepsister through the open door in the wall. The last thing I heard before it slammed shut behind us was my homeroom teacher wailing, “Mrs. Bonneville doesn’t like toads!”