Zoobreak (7 page)

Two a.m. found them still in open water. By this time, the simple act of rowing had become backbreakingly painful. The team members took their turns on the oars. Even Melissa grew exhausted and agreed to rest.

She passed her oar off to a none-too-steady Logan and retreated behind her hair. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright, waving her BlackBerry urgently at the others.

“Look!”

Ben squinted at the small screen. It was the portside webcam view. It showed the darkened paddleboat and — far offshore in the distance — three tiny bobbing lights.

“It’s us!” Ben exclaimed. “Our flashlights!”

Tired celebration broke out on the dory as the BlackBerry was passed around the team. They had found Rutherford Point.

Savannah began to row with renewed vigor. “Hang in there, Cleo,” she murmured determinedly. “I’m coming to get you.”

The rowers picked up their pace. Soon, they could identify the lights of the preserve and at last, the gray silhouette of
All
Aboard Animals
growing larger and larger off their bow.

“Oars up!” commanded Griffin in a low voice.

The dory skimmed along the black water until it bumped softly against the heavy steel hull.

Ben gazed at the paddleboat’s rail several feet above their heads. “The rope ladder!” he rasped. “Darren was bringing it! Now what are we supposed to do?”

Pitch was already knotting fishing nets together. “Relax.” She leaped up and clamped sure hands onto the gunwale of the larger craft. Then she swung her body over the rail onto the deck. A mountaineering knot affixed one end of the nets to an iron cleat. The other she tossed down to Griffin, who secured it to the bow of the dory.

One by one, the team headed up the ratline formed by the nets and stepped onto the deck. Griffin brought up the rear. From his backpack he produced six pairs of soft cotton surgical booties and passed them around.

“To muffle our footsteps,” he explained in a whisper. “We’re now in silent mode. Remember — Klaus is on this boat, and we’ve heard from Logan he’s a very light sleeper.
You all know the plan: Ben goes in first, and when he opens the front door, we want to be in and out with the monkey ASAP. The longer it takes, the greater the chance that someone’s going to make noise. And we all know what that means.”

Pitch swallowed hard. “Let’s do it.”

Griffin and Ben crept aft toward the vent opening. The lifeboat suitcase was just where they’d left it, and it was easy for Griffin to boost Ben up to the horn-shaped opening.

In his heart of hearts, Ben was half hoping that the four screws holding the vent grating would be too rusted to turn. But the grill came off easily, and the way in yawned wide.

He peered down at his best friend, who was perched on the lifeboat suitcase. “What if I fall asleep in there?”

“You won’t,” Griffin said. “You already napped back at the marina.”

Ben wriggled into the dusty duct, fighting a burning desire to sneeze. He felt like Santa Claus, squeezing through a chimney. Come to think of it, Santa had it easy. He was always welcome. No wonder the old guy was so jolly. He wasn’t trying to commit Grand Theft Monkey.

The passage was tight but smooth, so progress was steady. There it was, dead ahead in his flashlight beam — the vent! A mea sure of relief washed over him. He was actually going to make it. Operation Zoobreak was just beginning, but at least this part — the part he’d been dreading the most — was almost done.

He slithered forward and trained his flashlight straight down into the compartment below. The sight he saw there would give him nightmares for the rest of his life.

Instead of the room with the monkey cage, the beam shone directly into the sleeping face of Klaus Anthony. Even more horrific, the security guard’s eyes popped open and stared straight up into the light.

W
ild with terror, Ben tried to scramble away but only succeeded in whacking his head on the roof of the duct. Dazed, he toppled forward onto the grating. It gave way, and the grill, the flashlight, and Ben dropped right onto Klaus. The cry of shock from the security guard vibrated throughout the entire ship.

Ben took off like Superman, clawing at air and bulkhead — anything to get him up, up, and away. Klaus rose, too, reaching groggily for the intruder. Ben’s bootie-clad sneaker came down on the security guard’s blond head. It was the boost Ben needed. He was back in the duct, wiggling like a terrified snake in a desperate bid for escape.

With a howl of rage, Klaus hoisted himself to the vent and crawled inside after the runaway. His anger blotted out every ounce of reason, and he blasted forward, his broad shoulders pressing the passage to its limit. By the time he came to his senses, he was hopelessly jammed into the ventilation system — unable to go forward, unable to retreat, his bare feet dangling from the ceiling above his bunk.

With his flashlight lost and the wedged Klaus blocking the way out, Ben was trapped in the narrow duct in utter darkness. The very air reverberated with Klaus’s shouting. Of all the worst-case scenarios Ben had imagined, this topped everything — pure, unadulterated horror.

He felt like a blind mouse trapped in a pipe, squirming frantically toward … what? It was so dark that he couldn’t even see the walls of the duct inches from his face. How was he going to find his way out of here?

He was never going to forgive Griffin for this! Boarding school in New Jersey was a picnic compared to the spot he was in right now.

Klaus was still shouting threats, his booming voice echoing in the metal enclosure.
But wait! A powerful smell reached him. The zoo! He surged forward until his probing hands rattled the grill of another vent opening.

He pounded on the grating until it came loose and clattered to the deck. In his enthusiasm to be free from the ductwork, he very nearly followed it in a swan dive. But he managed to maneuver his legs through the opening so he could drop to the cabin below.

He landed hard and rolled, panting and choking on dust. A familiar animal chattering met his ears.

The dim glow of moonlight through the porthole illuminated the compartment. Ben looked around breathlessly. In the cage bolted to the wall, Cleopatra darted and chirped, unnerved by the chaos. Somehow, he had managed to blunder into exactly the cabin he’d been trying to reach in the first place!

Heart pounding, he barreled through the heart of the zoo, navigating the maze of excited animals awakened by Klaus’s bellowing. He threw open the main hatch and burst onto the deck, where he collided with Griffin, nearly bowling him over.

“Ben — you’re okay!”

“Cleo!” Savannah made a run for the door, but Ben held her back.

“I’m not okay! None of us are! Klaus is on the loose!” Gulping air, Ben wheezed out the story of how he’d fallen from the ceiling onto the sleeping security guard.

“Wait a minute!” Griffin interrupted.
“Klaus
followed you into the duct?” He put his finger to his lips and listened. The shouts and threats were much less frequent now, replaced by the reverberating sound of pounding against metal.

“He’s … stuck?” Logan concluded in amazement.

“I barely fit up there myself!” Ben put in breathlessly.

“Let’s get Cleo!” exclaimed Savannah.

The sudden presence of six intruders waving flashlights in the dark zoo boat put the animals’ agitation level over the top. Furry bodies bounced off the sides of their small enclosures. The hen flapped its wings; the beaver splashed what was left of its water. Feral noises filled the air.

At the sight of Savannah, Cleopatra tried to blast clear through the bars of her cage.

“I’m here, sweetie. Everything’s okay …” the girl soothed in a flowery tone that bore
little resemblance to her urgency the moment before.

While Savannah spoke, Griffin went to work on the cage with the wire cutters. He squeezed with all his might, but the metal resisted. An instant of panic — had they gone through all this only to fail at freeing the monkey?

There was a snap as the bar gave way. Relieved, he cut through the others until Savannah could draw her beloved capuchin out of the enclosure into an ecstatic embrace.

Yet even in this joyful reunion, Cleopatra did not calm down. The furry head jerked around relentlessly, scanning the exhibit for some unseen danger.

Savannah was mystified. “I thought she’d be okay once we sprang her, but she’s even more rattled than before.”

“Maybe she’s freaked out by all the yelling,” Pitch suggested.

Savannah shook her head. “I think she’s trying to tell me something.”

An otherworldly screech cut the air.

A
murky shadow swooped down on Cleopatra. Terrified, the monkey buried her face in Savannah’s chest. In a flash of sharp claws, the attacker swiped at the capuchin’s back, not missing by much. The team felt rather than saw two powerful wing beats as the creature disappeared into the blackness.

“What was that?” breathed Logan in awe.

To Ben, the incident was all too familiar. “The monster that ate Melissa’s webcam!”

Flashlight beams panned the compartment from top to bottom.

“Where did it go?” squeaked Melissa.

“Who cares?” Pitch was impatient. “We’ve got Cleo. Let’s blow this Popsicle stand!”

“Not yet,” said Savannah in an angry tone. “I’ve got a feeling about this ‘monster.’ ”

She marched into the exhibit’s main compartment and shone her torch on the owl cage. It was empty, the door wide.

“That jerk, Mr. Nasty,” she seethed. “That low-down, animal-abusing criminal. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he runs his zoo like a prison — he turns the owl loose at night to terrorize the poor little creatures so they’ll be too scared to try to get out of their cages!” Her voice rose in volume until she was drowning out the cries of Klaus in the ductwork.

“All the more proof that we’re doing the right thing,” Griffin decided. “Luckily, we had the perfect plan.”

“Perfect?” Pitch exploded. “Darren never showed! Ben practically died tonight! There’s a guy trapped in the ceiling! And now we’ve got to row a million miles on the world’s slowest boat and pray we can find Cedarville again!”

“There were a couple of hiccups,” Griffin admitted. “But now we’re in good shape. Keep hold of Cleo and let’s get out of here before Hoo over there comes back for another dive-bombing run.”

“We can’t,” Savannah said.

Griffin was taken aback. “What are you
talking about? This whole operation is for
you
— to save your monkey!”

“And I’m grateful,” she told him. “But if we take Cleo and go, we’ll be leaving all these other animals in the hands of a cruel man who mistreats them. We have to rescue everybody.”

The protests bubbled up from all sides:

“Are you nuts?”

“There are too many of them!”

“We need a bigger boat!”

“Like Noah’s Ark!”

“It’s not part of the plan,” Griffin concluded.

Savannah was adamant. “I don’t care about the plan. If it’s right for Cleo, it’s right for the whole zoo.”

“No, it isn’t,” Ben argued. “The monkey is yours. But you don’t own the chipmunks and the beaver and the ferret. And you definitely don’t own that bloodthirsty raptor!”

“We’re all members of the animal kingdom. We have to stand up for our brothers and sisters.”

Behind them, the piglet oinked in agreement.

Griffin sighed. “Look, Savannah. I know this must be hard. But it won’t work.”

Still hugging Cleopatra, Savannah sat down on a stool. “You guys go. Cleo and I are staying.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Griffin snapped. “You’ll get caught.”

“That’s what I want. If I can’t rescue everybody, the next best thing is to get arrested. Then there will be so much publicity that this so-called zoo will be exposed as the chamber of horrors that it is.”

Pitch blew her stack. “You’re crazy! And the worst part is we’re going to have to do it just to keep you out of jail!”

Melissa’s eyes emerged from her curtain of hair. “It’s possible, you know,” she said softly. “They’re just little animals. There aren’t any elephants.”

“Even if we
could
get them all out of here, what would we do with them?” Griffin challenged Savannah. “Even you can’t have fifty pets.”

“Maybe we should set them free,” Logan suggested. “Then we’d just have to cut them out of their cages and open the door.”

Savannah was horrified. “Absolutely not!
Mr. Nasty trained that owl to attack! Half of them won’t make it thirty feet from the boat.”

“But isn’t that the whole nature thing?” Ben asked. “Survival of the fittest?”

She shook her head. “Not for animals living in captivity. These poor little guys don’t have the tools to compete in the wild. We have to take them with us.”

“And keep them where?” Griffin demanded.

“In the shed in my backyard,” Savannah replied readily. “It’ll only be for one night. First thing tomorrow, I’ll call Dr. Alford. She finds places for animals all the time.”

“That’ll be an interesting conversation,” Pitch predicted. “ ‘Oh, hi. I knocked off a zoo boat last night, so my shed’s full of critters. What’s new with you?’ ”

“Dr. Alford doesn’t judge. She just wants what’s best for the animals. And she has contacts at every zoo and wildlife preserve in the country. I know she’ll help.”

Griffin heaved a sigh of resignation. “Fine, we’ll take them all. But we’re going to have to get Hoo under control before we crack open these cages.”

“Can I make a suggestion?” Pitch flicked the switch on the bulkhead, and the lights came on in the exhibit.

Even Cleopatra shielded her eyes against the harsh fluorescent glare. A chorus of complaint rose from the animals. The owl’s cry was the most angry of all. Hoo flew in erratic circles above their heads, hooting anxiously.

The disturbance even reached the ears of the paddleboat’s forgotten inhabitant. “Hey!” Klaus’s muffled voice rumbled through the ventilation system. “What’s going on down there?”

The team exchanged uneasy glances. They had no great love for the security guard, but no one had anticipated leaving him in such a tight situation.