Chupacabra (23 page)

Grace heard Butch curse, then what sounded like punches landing and a scuffle. She had no idea what was going on and she wasn’t going to wait to find out. She started to sprint down the path.

“Wait, Grace! Don’t go!”

She slowed. The voice was familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

“Butch isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”

She stopped and turned. “Ted?”

“Yeah.”

Ted Bronson jogged down the path to her. He was dressed in black from head to toe. When he got to her, he pulled the hood off his head. “Are you okay?”

“Yes … I … Oh, Ted. Marty’s dead, and Luther and Dylan. They have a chupacabra. They used it to kill them. It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t …” She broke down in sobs.

Ted put his arms around her. “It’s okay … it’s okay. I don’t think Marty’s dead. He’s probably in trouble, but he’s not dead.”

She separated herself from him. “What are you saying?”

“Someone’s flying my dragonspy, and I assume it’s either Marty, or Luther, or maybe even Dylan. I picked up the signal
a couple of minutes ago. It blinked back out, but the dragonspy was definitely in the air.”

“How did you find me?”

“Your dragonspy,” he said. “It came online a few hours ago. I’ll explain everything, but first tell me who’s in the park.”

“Butch, Noah, and Yvonne, and another man on the radio, but I don’t know who or where he is.”

“Where’s Noah?”

“He headed toward the mansion.”

“And Yvonne?”

“I think she’s below.”

“Good. Those are great odds.”

“What about Butch?”

“He’s not going anywhere for a while. I knocked him out with a couple of interesting martial art moves I learned in the Philippines a few years ago, then I tied him to the rail with flex cuffs. I’m hoping a visitor finds him before a staff member does.”

“We need to get his key card. He and Noah are the only ones who can open the main gate.”

“I have his gun, and his key, but we don’t need either to get out of the Ark. That’s what took me so long to get to you. Noah’s security system is unbreakable. I got here a few hours ago, but I couldn’t get inside.”

“But you’re here now,” Grace said. “How —”

“The chopper,” Ted said. “I had to go to the airport and steal it from Noah’s pilots. Noah owes us a chopper anyway, since Butch pushed ours off the
Coelacanth
into the Pacific. Let’s walk while we talk.”

He explained that Dylan’s mother had come home from the university and found a teacup poodle in her living room, a pile
of orange hair and bloody tissues in the bathroom, and no son. She called Ted. When he discovered that their tags were completely off the grid, he headed directly to the Ark.

“I figured they had come here looking for you.”

“Does Wolfe know?”

“Oh yeah. And he’s not too happy. The military is flying him home as we speak. Tell me what’s been going on here.”

The story took them all the way to the keeper service area.

“Switching the real episode for the outtakes was brilliant!” he said. “I hope he doesn’t figure that out.” He swiped Butch’s key through the lock.

Grace led him to the elevator. She got in and punched the button for Level Two.

“So you really think they’re okay?” Grace asked as they dropped down.

“I hope so,” Ted said.

The car stopped and the door slid open.

Marty, Luther, and Dylan were standing in front of the elevator behind two carts carrying two sleeping dinosaurs. They stepped back in shock, ready to run, until they recognized Ted and Grace.

Marty smiled. “About time you got back down here,” he said to Grace, then looked at Ted. “Hey, Ted.”

“Hey, Marty. Glad you’re okay. Where’s Yvonne?”

“Pig heaven,” Luther answered.

Ted looked at Luther and Dylan. “You two look a little rough.”

“That’s because we’ve been doing all the work,” Luther said. He wheeled his cart in. Dylan wheeled in the second one. “See what I mean?”

On the carts were two gorged and sleeping dinosaurs. Grace hit the button and the door closed. She thought this might just be the happiest moment of her entire life.

Ted made a face and waved his hand in front of his nose. “Wow, I’d forgotten about that part.”

They were all relieved to get out of the elevator into the keeper service area where they could breathe.

“Let’s get out of here,” Ted said. “Keep your eyes open for Blackwood.”

“We have one more thing to do,” Grace said. She told them about Noah’s collection and the mother panda without the baby.

“Let’s grab them and go,” Marty said.

Grace led them to the holding area. She used Butch’s key to open the door. The panda cubs were sleeping on a bed of straw. She picked one up and handed it to Ted. She gave the second one to Marty, and picked up the third for herself.

“What’s wrong with this picture?” Luther said. “Dylan and I get the gassy dinos, and you three get the cuddly pandas.”

 • • • 

Noah Blackwood was in a complete rage. He had discovered the missing bedding and realized that was how Grace had gotten below. But how had she gotten up to the third floor? She had been at his computer. He could tell by the way the keyboard sat on the desk, and there were smudges on the snakewood that shouldn’t have been there. There were also smudges on his diorama. Her greasy fingerprints were all over it.

When Butch caught her, Noah was going to make her clean the glass, then he was going to make her tell him how she had gotten up here, and what she had seen on the computer. She
was obviously just like her mother after all. Narrow-minded, disobedient, and disloyal.

He got on the radio.

“Butch?”

He waited.

“Butch?”

He waited.

“Answer me, Butch! If you turned your radio off again, I swear I’ll —”

He heard the helicopter rotors start. He looked at his watch. It wasn’t time to leave, and his pilots wouldn’t leave without him anyway. The quickest way to the main floor and the helipad was the fire escape. He turned on the lights to the cube and ran over to the thylacine panel. He put his hands on the designated spots and pushed. The glass panel swung open. He stepped inside, got on his knees, and pressed on a secret door near the wombat burrow. It clicked open. Inside was a ladder that led down to the library. He scrambled down two floors, opened the secret door into the library, and ran toward the French doors leading to the swimming pool. Sprinting as fast as he could, he arrived at the helipad just as the helicopter was taking off. Marty and Grace were looking out the window at him.

Marty smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.

They reached the island at sunrise. Grace was glued to the window as they made their approach. She had wondered if she would ever see the little island again. They flew right over the top of the western promontory, where Wolfe’s three-story house sat overlooking the Pacific. It was built out of huge moss-covered stones and looked more like a castle than a house.

Ted swooped the helicopter down toward the interior of the island, past the staff housing; the giant-sized Quonset hut, called QAQ, where Ted invented all of his wonderful things; and finally to the second Quonset hut they used as a hangar for Wolfe’s military bomber, which had been converted into a transport jet. The jet was parked on the tarmac.

Ted set the helicopter down next to the transport. Several of the crew members were there to greet them, including the Bishops — Phil, Bertha, and their daughter, Phyllis — and another man Grace didn’t recognize.

“Is that your dad?” she asked Dylan.

“Yep,” Dylan said. “Wild Bill Hickock, but you can just call him Bill.”

Marty and Luther got out first, followed by Dylan, whose dad gave him a big bear hug that Dylan happily returned.

Grace was disappointed that Wolfe wasn’t there, and wondered how she would be greeted by everyone. After all, she had abandoned these people when she went away with Noah Blackwood.

She needn’t have worried. As soon as she stepped onto the tarmac, the Bishops swarmed her, hugging her so long and so hard she thought she would have bruises.

Bo the chimp came hooting out of the trees.

“Crap,” Luther said, and took refuge behind Marty.

“She’s only after your hair,” Marty said. “You don’t have anything to worry about until it grows back.”

Bo eyed Luther suspiciously.

Grace walked up to the chimp and gave her a scratch under the chin. “I missed you,” she said, then turned to everyone. “I missed all of you! I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be back here!”

At that moment a fighter jet screamed overhead, shot out over the Pacific, then circled back toward the island. A minute later it touched down on the long runway, taxied over to them, and came to a stop.

The flight crew wheeled a set of stairs over to it. The canopy opened and a huge man climbed out of the rear seat. He was wearing a helmet and a flight suit, but Grace would have recognized him anywhere. Travis Wolfe, her father, pulled his helmet off, shook the pilot’s hand, then limped down the stairway. She ran over to greet him, but stopped ten feet short, unsure of herself.

“Why are you just standing there?” Wolfe shouted. “Get over here!” He threw his giant arms out. Grace ran to him.

Wolfe held her for a long time.

“I guess we ought to talk to your partners in crime,” he finally said.

“I guess so,” Grace said.

They walked over to the helicopter hand in hand. Ted was standing outside the door with Marty and Luther.

“So what do we have?” Wolfe asked.

“Two dinosaurs, four kids, and three panda cubs,” Ted answered.

Wolfe looked at Marty and frowned. “Pandas?”

“It wasn’t my idea,” Marty said. “Talk to your daughter.”

Wolfe smiled at Grace.

“I have a lot to tell you,” she said.

“I guess you do.” Wolfe looked at Ted. “Nice chopper. Where’d we get it?”

Ted shrugged.

“So we’re in huge trouble,” Wolfe said. “Again.” He called the Bishops over. “I guess we need to get out of town for a while. You up for another flight?”

“Sure thing,” Phil said.

“We’ll take the hatchlings, the pandas, and that chopper with us.” Wolfe glanced at his watch. “When can you be ready?”

“Maybe by tonight,” Phil said.

“Where are we going?” Marty asked.

“Right now we’re going up to the Fort, where everyone can get cleaned up, take showers, change their clothes, eat some breakfast, take a nap. And then, as soon as we’re all rested and ready, we’re heading down to Brazil to find your parents.”

Mr. Zwilling loved doing rounds at the Ark.

He had already spoken to Paul Ivy, assuring the poor fellow that they would have the surveillance back up within a week. He told him to come up with a completely new design for the system, and that money was no object.

He said good morning to all of the research staff, popped into security and told them they could have a few days off because the cameras were down, then headed up to the keeper area to find out how their charges were doing.

When he finished below, he went up top. It was a glorious day. The fog had burned off and there were nothing but blue skies above. He had just enough time to tour the exhibits before he had to leave the Ark grounds and head over to see the giant squid at Northwest Zoo and Aquarium. He stepped out of the keeper service area and started whistling. He couldn’t help himself.

A school group recognized him.

“That’s Noah Blackwood!”

“I’ve seen his show!”

They ran over and swarmed him, asking for his autograph.

He took out his pen and signed every scrap of paper they had.

 • • • 

As Mr. Zwilling signed autographs for the kids, Noah Blackwood looked out the window of his private jet, thirty-five thousand feet in the air. Two rows in front of him sat Dr. Strand and Mitch Merton. Mitch had been delighted to leave the Ark and Henrico’s taxidermy studio. Noah had told him that he had a new job for him … “One where I’ll be using your mind instead of your hands.”

“Perfect, Dr. Blackwood,” Mitch had said. “I love using my mind.”

Noah shook his head as he recalled the conversation.
People hear what they want to hear.
He hadn’t said, “
you’ll
be using your mind.” He’d said, “
I’ll
be using your mind.” He had already told Dr. Strand what he wanted to do. Strand had spiked Mitch’s drink with a tranquilizer and was just waiting for Mitch to go to sleep.

Butch McCall and Yvonne Zloblinavech were seated three rows behind Noah. He hadn’t spoken to, or even looked at, either one of them since he had untied Butch and rescued Yvonne from the potbellied pig.

A pig, for crying out loud!

He was disgusted with both of them, but he needed them. His spies on Cryptos Island had told him where Wolfe was going. It was a place he knew well. The place where it all began.