The length of the driveway leading to the aquarium was jammed with expensive cars, lights flashing and horns honking as chauffeurs jostled for the closest parking spots. The people they had seen arrive by yacht streamed towards the aquarium entrance. The sun was setting fast, a full moon rising up to replace it. In town, the Water Dragon ceremony would be in full swing, everybody too distracted to notice what was happening at the top of the hill.

Alex, Zoey and Anil held on tight in the back of the ice cream van as the wheels bumbled over the uneven road. Kraken and the otters gripped the side of the repurposed freezer as the cold water splashed around, sloshing over the sides to soak the group’s freshly polished black shoes.

“How come she gets the front seat?” called Alex.

Bridget peered around the headrest and smirked. “Because she can break you in half with her little finger.”

Grandpa steered them onto the grass and stopped as close to the aquarium as they could get. Guards posted at the entrance kept their attention on the guests streaming inside.

“I got walkie-talkies so we can communicate,” said Zoey, presenting Alex with an orange plastic handset that looked like an old children’s toy. “It’s the best I could find.”

Alex held it close to his ear. “Do they work?”

“Testing – Awesome Angelfish to Beluga Puke?” Zoey said into her identical walkie-talkie.

“I hear you loud and—”

“TESTING!” Zoey bellowed, making his ears ring.

Grandpa switched off the engine. The guards had spotted the van and were eyeing it suspiciously.

“Everybody ready?” he said.

Alex looked between them all dressed in their hastily cobbled together black uniforms. The odds were so stacked against them that it seemed ridiculous to even try.

He closed his eyes and felt the tug of the nearby Water Dragon, as if they were connected by one of the watery threads of the ocean even here. Power seemed to reverberate along it, building in rippling waves of potential, as if getting closer to the dragon made Alex stronger. It filled him with confidence. There was no way he would turn back now.

“We’re ready,” he said.

Grandpa reached up and flicked a switch on the roof of the van. The chimes began to play a jangling song that rang out into the night. “Hurry it up. It won’t be long before they realize I’ve got nothin’ to serve.”

Unable to resist the lure of ice cream, some of the guests peeled away from the crowd to approach the van. Grandpa slid open the serving window to greet a man wearing a bowler hat and glasses slung on a chain around his neck.

“Do you have any sorbet? I’d like to cleanse my palate before sampling the canapés. You know how it is!”

“Can you change a fifty-pound note?” asked the woman behind him.

The forming queue provided enough of a distraction for Alex to safely open the back doors. They climbed out onto the grass and quickly gathered the bags containing their equipment.

“I’ll send up the drone,” said Zoey.

The rotors whirred as she launched the machine into the air. It hovered for a moment, the eyes of the doll’s head winking at them, before Zoey sent it darting upwards into the night sky. An image on her phone flickered. At first it showed nothing but splotches of light like underwater phosphorescence. Gradually it stabilized to show an aerial view of the aquarium through the grubby glass roof of the building.

“I won’t be able to see everything,” she said. Alex thought she almost sounded nervous.

“We’ll just have to be extra careful,” he said.

Lastly, he summoned the otters out of the van and asked them to kindly stack up. Bridget approached them with the mayor’s coat.

“You think this is going to work?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m pretty sure none of the guests have actually met the mayor before.”

Bridget slung the coat around the otters, fastening it at the front so they were completely hidden underneath the plush material. She added a chunky fake golden chain that hung loosely around where the neck was supposed to be. The otters trilled and fidgeted impatiently under their disguise.

Next, Alex reached inside the jacket of his uniform and took out Kraken. The octopus was placed on top of the otter stack and a wide, feathered hat positioned on her head.

“Camouflage,” said Alex.

The blue of Kraken’s skin faded to a sallow pink, darker spots remaining to approximate eyes, nose and mouth. She could almost pass for a human face under the shadow cast by the brim of the hat.

“It looks weird,” said Bridget.

“Yeah, but so does Mayor Parch.”

“Fair point. Let’s go.”

The makeshift mayor shuffled forwards, robe dragging along the ground. Alex, Anil and Bridget followed close behind, scanning the crowd for threats like real bodyguards.

“Turn right,” whispered Alex.

The robe meant Alex had to guide the otters the best he could. Kraken, with two arms outstretched to create shoulders and the rest tucked away in the collar, tried to steer the stack.

Some of the guards had run off to join the increasingly impatient queue extending from the ice cream van. Those remaining stood to attention and let them straight through when they saw what they thought was the mayor approaching.

“So far so good,” said Alex. “Just keep moving.”

The otters tottered forwards, almost losing their balance, before standing straight again and shuffling through the gate.

“Are you okay, Your Lordship?” asked one of the guards.

Bridget grabbed a sleeve of the coat and used it to wave the concern away, at the same time stepping across to block the guard’s view.

The walkie-talkie crackled in Alex’s pocket, Zoey’s fuzzy voice pushing quietly through the speaker. “All the guests are still on Oceanic Avenue.”

Every tank on the boulevard had been polished until it shone. The water inside was sparkling clean, the black iron frames scrubbed of rust and cobwebs. Even the tank ornaments had been washed, the serpent’s head flashing sharp stone teeth, the bronze diving helmet gleaming. The guests milled around on the pathway picking morsels of food from silver trays carried by waiting staff in bow ties.

“I see little kebabs, salmon rolls, what looks like grilled—” came Zoey’s voice from his pocket.

“You can study the menu after we haven’t been caught.”

The baroque double doors through to the dragon tank were closed, a red velvet rope slung across to keep people away until the auction began. Several eager guests already waited outside.

“We have to get them away from the doors so we can get through to the dragon,” whispered Alex. “It’s time to draw some attention.”

The makeshift mayor lurched sideways and pirouetted on the spot before catching its balance. It was enough to make people spot it and hurry over to fawn and flatter.

“Lord Mayor!” called a woman wearing a sleek black dress and diamond necklace. “You’re looking…interesting this evening.”

“I just wanted to say that these canapés are delightful!” said a man with a white jumper tied around his shoulders, holding a half-eaten crab puff. “I wondered if I could trouble you for the name of your chef? I’d love to have them on my next fishing expedition.”

More people – including those who had been blocking the doors – gathered to hear the answer. One of the otters let out a sharp squawk from underneath the robe.

“What was that, old boy?” said the man. “You haven’t tried them? Oh, you must!”

He pushed the rest of the crab puff towards Kraken underneath the hat. The octopus reached out a suckered arm to snatch it away, making the man stumble back in alarm.

“Let’s go,” said Alex.

They hurried towards the freshly cleared archway. Before opening the doors, Alex quickly scanned around for anybody watching. He caught sight of Callis standing in the shadows between two tanks. The poacher narrowed his eyes at the imposter mayor now holding court with half the guests.

At the same moment, a great burst of fanfare sounded from the front gates. A guard in sharp black uniform stepped into the crowd and cleared his throat to make an announcement.

“Introducing Lord Mayor of Haven Bay, patron of this auction, the only reason you’re all here tonight…the honourable, actually-an-average-height-if-you-look-at-statistics, Humbertus Parch!”

The real mayor stepped through the gates. Dressed in full ceremonial robes, golden chain clanking around his neck, he waved regally at the bemused crowd.

The mayor’s grand entrance was distraction enough for Alex to open the doors and wave Anil and Bridget through. While the guests looked away, the otters evacuated the coat, dropping to the ground and scurrying away to hide, taking Kraken with them.

By the time Callis and anybody else turned back there was nothing to see but an empty coat and golden chain lying on the ground.

Alex quickly shut the door behind him. They had reached the tank.

Now they just needed to get the Water Dragon out of it before the auction started.