Krakens and Lies (6 page)

She hit a button and the video stopped, then started playing at a regular speed. The screen showed a thick tangle of vines and leaves woven around a small grass hut. It was night, so the video had that blurry night-vision grayness. Something furry and huge shuffled out of the hut, its eyes glowing. It scratched its back on a nearby tree and shuffled back in.

“What was that?” Logan whispered.

“Not the important part,” she said. “Look back there.” She pointed at the top left corner of the screen, beyond the creature's hut. When Logan squinted, he realized there was a wall there, through the vines—the outer wall of the Menagerie.

A head suddenly appeared over the wall.

Followed by an arm, and a leg, and a whole body, as someone pulled himself over the wall. Whoever it was scrambled
down, using the vines like climbing ropes, and hopped to the ground.

He looked around furtively, touched his chest, and then edged away from the hut, into the trees, and off the screen.

Zoe looked up at Logan. “Still think we're crazy?”

Logan sat down in the nearest chair, his head spinning. “But maybe—I mean, we couldn't clearly see his face—” He stopped and rubbed his eyes. There still wasn't any doubt. Xanadu wasn't exactly teeming with six-foot-two bald African-American men, and Logan recognized that nose.

That was his dad on the video, sneaking into the Menagerie.

“When was this?” he asked. “Last night?”

“Last night?” Zoe said. “No, what? Should we be checking last night's feed, too? This was from Monday night.”

“Monday.” Logan tried to remember the crazy week that had just passed. “That was the morning you came over and he realized we were hanging out. Maybe he was just checking up on me. Maybe he wanted to see what you guys were like.”

“By climbing over our wall and sneaking past our enormous mythical sloth in the middle of the night?” Zoe said. “Maybe they do things differently in Chicago, but here most parents would, just hypothetically, call up the other kid's parents and say hello.” She touched Logan's hand to stop him from protesting. “There's more. After we saw this, we went back through the tapes. We found him climbing over in the
same spot at least two other times before.”

“That doesn't mean he's sabotaging the Menagerie!” Logan said, standing up so fast the rolling chair banged into Melissa's desk. “Why would he do that?”

“We were hoping you'd have a guess,” Zoe said.

Logan felt queasy. “He must have a good reason. I mean, this is my
dad
. Even when I'm mad at him, he's kind of awesome, Zoe.”

“I'm sure that's true,” Zoe said. “But we have to figure out what he's doing, right? Could he have broken Scratch's anklet? Or cut that hole in the river grate?”

“I guess maybe—but wait, why didn't the intruder alarm go off when he came in?” Logan asked.

“I have no idea,” Zoe said with a sigh. “Maybe we should ask the dragons. I'll put it on my list for the day, along with figuring out how to get the jackalope milk to Jasmin. Mooncrusher was complaining already this morning about a weird smell coming from his yurt. I was able to sneak over, grab the bottle, and hide it in our fridge, but someone is
definitely
going to notice it there soon.”

“Do you have a plan?” Blue asked from the doorway. He looked rumpled, as if he'd just woken up, in a blue-green shirt that matched his eyes and gray cargo shorts. “Hey, Logan.”

“Hey,” Logan said. He leaned against the desk and rubbed his eyes again.
Dad, what are you up to? Why would you want to take down the Menagerie?

Zoe gave Blue a speculative look. “I might have a plan.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Blue said. He crossed his arms and shook his blond hair out of his eyes. “You're all ‘don't toy with Jasmin's feelings' and then you're like, ‘well, except when we need you to.'”

“But we have to, don't we?” Zoe said. She cleared the video screens and stood up. “She's not going to drink anything
I
give her. I figure you can go over there, apologize for leaving early last night, and, like, make her coffee or something to make up for it.”

“That is weird, Zoe,” Blue said, stepping aside as she went out the door. “Guys don't show up at girls' houses to make them apologetic coffee in their own kitchens. And definitely not apologetic coffee that smells like moose breath.”

Logan followed them back through the living room, trying to concentrate on the conversation, when what he really wanted to do was run home and freak out at his dad. What would Dad say if Logan asked him about this?

One of the hellhounds was sitting on the grass right outside the glass doors, panting and slobbering, with an enormous grin all over his shaggy black face. He saw them coming and wagged his tail. Zoe stepped around Captain Fuzzbutt and slid open the door.

“Morning, Sheldon,” she said, scratching his head. The hellhound poked his nose into her neck, tipped his head at Logan for a considering moment, and then went to sniff
around the sleeping mammoth. Captain Fuzzbutt made a grumbling noise and whacked the rhino-sized dog with his trunk.

Sheldon yipped amiably and wandered into the kitchen, where he promptly sprawled out and took over most of the floor.

Logan felt the weight of the beetle necklace under his shirt. Would it protect him from hellhounds? How could a little beetle do that? Not that Sheldon was much of a threat. He'd meant to ask Zoe about the necklace first thing, but he also kind of wanted to keep it to himself. If his mom had broken SNAPA rules by giving it to his dad, he didn't want to get her in trouble—or have to give it back.

“Have your parents figured out how to give the Sterlings kraken ink?” he asked. “Maybe you could slip the jackalope milk in the same way.”

Zoe shook her head. She took the two mugs out of the microwave and climbed on the counter to reach the cocoa and marshmallows. “From what we can tell, the Sterlings are being really careful. They'll only drink bottled water from, like, the Alps, or something. They even brush their teeth with it.”

“How on earth did you figure that out?” Logan asked.

“My parents can be very resourceful when the Menagerie is in danger,” she said. “What it means is that we won't be able to fix this by slipping kraken ink into the town water
supply, which is what SNAPA usually does.”

The bag of marshmallows suddenly tipped over as Zoe was climbing down, even though she wasn't touching it. A shower of mini-marshmallows cascaded to the floor and Sheldon sat up with a hopeful expression.

“I got it,” Logan said, coming around the table to help pick them up.

A small creature was sitting on the floor, gobbling up marshmallows as fast as it could. Logan caught a glimpse of honey-colored fur and enormous dark eyes when it looked up at him, and then it vaulted onto the table, up to the top of the doorframe, and out of the room before he could even blink.

“What was that?” Logan asked.

“What was what?” Zoe said, picking up the bag.

“That thing eating the marshmallows,” Logan said.

She gave him a quizzical look. “Thing eating the marshmallows?”

“Didn't you see it?” Logan said. “Was it the baku?”

“No, the baku is nocturnal and moves very slowly,” Zoe said. “We'd know if it was in the kitchen. You must be seeing things.”

“Yes, I did,” Logan said. “One actual thing, eating marshmallows. Seriously, it was right there!”

“Anyway,” Zoe said. “My parents have gone to meet with the SNAPA agents this morning to tell them everything. Actually, they're making Ruby tell them, which I kind of wish
I could be there for. They decided we'll need SNAPA's help, and for once, I kind of agree. Stopping the Sterlings is a bigger problem than we can solve, but SNAPA cleans up potential disasters like this all the time. I think. I hope.”

“Wait,” Logan said, struck by an awful thought that chased the mystery creature right out of his head. “Zoe, what if . . . what if the Sterlings know something about my mom? What if SNAPA gives them kraken ink and they forget everything?”

Zoe set down the cocoa and stared at him with wide brown eyes. “Oh my gosh, Logan.”

“Hang on,” Blue said. “There's no reason to think there's any connection between what happened to Abigail and that map in Mr. Sterling's office.”

“But there could be,” Logan said. “Right?”

“What if the Sterlings
have
her?” Zoe said. “Maybe they tried to grab the Chinese dragon and ended up getting Abigail as well.”

“Jasmin's parents aren't kidnappers,” Blue said, but Logan thought he didn't sound so sure. “They wouldn't . . .”

“They might at least know what happened to her, or where she is,” Logan said. “And if they do—”

“Logan's right,” Zoe said. “If they have Abigail and the Chinese dragon, and we dose them, they might forget where they're keeping them. We might never find them.” She pulled out her phone. “We can't risk it. I'll text my parents right away.”

Logan looked down at his hands, clenching them into fists and then opening them again. His stomach felt like a yawning pit full of angry dragons.

Was it possible? Did the Sterlings have his mother trapped somewhere?

“I feel like I'm in a Hardy Boys book,” Blue said.

“Well, I've been in Narnia all week,” Logan said. “It's not that big of a jump from there.”

The doorbell rang.

Zoe and Blue blinked at each other. Neither of them moved.

“What?” Logan said. “Why do you guys look so spooked? It's just the doorbell. Most people find those
less
scary than man-eating hellhounds.” On the floor, Sheldon thumped his tail twice as if to say,
Yup, that's me, I'm terrifying!

“The doorbell never rings,” Zoe said. “Nobody ever comes over. Who is that?”

“Can't be SNAPA,” Blue said. “Leftover trick-or-treaters?”

“Maybe we shouldn't answer it,” said Zoe.

“Oh, come on,” Logan said. “It's probably a delivery or someone selling Girl Scout cookies.
I'll
go get it, if you want.”

“Wait, Logan,” Zoe said, hurrying after him.

Logan pulled open the front door.

And found himself face-to-face with Jasmin Sterling.

Z
oe froze in her tracks. Jasmin was
here
. At her
house
. This never happened even when they
were
friends. As far as Jasmin knew, Zoe owned at least seven cats, which Jasmin had to stay far away from because of her crazy allergies.

“Hi, Logan!” Jasmin said brightly. She had her dark hair swept up into a cute messy ponytail and she was wearing a soft sage-green shirt that flared at the wrists, plus jeans with sneakers. She was carrying something dark blue draped over one arm. No tall boots, no fancy jacket, no expensive jewelry. She looked like she always had when she was Zoe's best friend.

She didn't look sick, either. Zoe felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes. More than anything in the world, in the
whole world
, she wanted to run over and throw her arms around Jasmin and hug her and never let go.

Jasmin's gaze shifted past Logan and she saw Zoe standing in the hallway. “Oh,” she said. “Um. Hey.”

“Hi,” Zoe said, swallowing the lump in her throat.

“ROWF ROWF ROWF!” Sheldon suddenly boomed from the kitchen, loud enough to shake the pictures on the walls.
Delayed reaction, doofus
, Zoe thought.

Jasmin looked startled. “What the heck was that?”

“That's . . . our dog,” Zoe said. They were lucky you couldn't see into the kitchen from the front hall. She just had to pray that Blue would keep Sheldon in there. He might
sound
kind of like a dog, but he
looked
like something that ought to be guarding a fire-breathing demon's mansion.

“Loud, right?” Logan said, rubbing one ear.

“Crazy loud,” Jasmin said. She scrunched her nose at Zoe in the way that used to signal something they would both find hilarious.

“How are you?” Zoe asked. What she meant was,
are you sick, are you okay, I miss you, I'm sorry,
and
do you need my kidneys because you can have them if you do
.

Jasmin looked at her like she almost understood all that.

“Just looking for Blue,” she said. She sounded casual, but Zoe could tell she was nervous from the way she hooked her
hands in her pockets and tipped her toes toward each other. Nervous about coming to see Blue, Zoe guessed, but also nervous about talking directly to Zoe for the first time in months.

“Is he here?” Jasmin asked. “Is it too early? I'm sorry if it's too early—my parents got the cleaning crew in first thing this morning to deal with the party mess, even though it's, like, barely anything, but someone put slime and fake bugs on the walls, and you know how my parents are about their glorious
walls
and their beloved
couches
, so, anyway, there was vacuuming, it was loud, I couldn't sleep.”