The First Adventure (9 page)

They laughed as they ran, not because it was funny, but from the sheer release of tension. When at last they came staggering into the cover of the mess hall, they found most of the camp already there, sheltering from the storm, just as drenched as they were.

Cyrus rushed forward, his brow almost as dark as the thunderheads outside. “Where have you two been?”

Griffin cast him a look of newborn innocence. “We were looking for Darren, but we got turned around in the woods. It was pretty scary.” It was technically the truth — with a few important details left out.

“Liar!” Darren exploded. “You've got a dog out there, and it attacked me! But then Malachi drove his boat into the mechanical monster, which is really a submarine! And then you guys jumped in the lake!” He turned to Cyrus. “Look how soaked they are!”

“We're all soaked,” the head counselor said in exasperation. “Darren, I want you to go see Nurse McNulty. You had a pretty stressful morning. You'd better get some rest this afternoon.”

“I'm not stressed — I'm telling the truth!” Darren pleaded. “It's not my fault it sounds like lies!”

“Come on, Darren,” Griffin chided. “Who takes a dog to summer camp?”

Huddled under a vast umbrella, Marty bundled Darren — still protesting and accusing — off to the infirmary. When the screen door slapped shut behind them, Cyrus fixed Griffin with a piercing gaze. “The next time I see Malachi, he's not going to know anything about all this, right?”

“Of course not,” Griffin replied readily.

“Besides,” Savannah added, “I don't think he'll be coming by here anymore. The last time I saw him, he said something about quitting his job.”

* * *

When the rain finally abated, and Griffin made it back to Cabin 14, he found fresh clothes folded on his bunk. The T-shirt featured a black-and-white photograph of a kissing bride and groom inside a heart-shaped frame of pink and red roses. The caption read:
Marco and Elyse, Endless Love, May 11, 1999
.

“Is this a step up from Care Bears?”

Startled, Griffin whipped around to see Marty standing in the doorway. “It's dry,” he replied. “That's definitely an improvement. Thanks.”

“Anytime.” The counselor regarded him intently. “You know, Griffin, when you first got here — when your stuff was all torn up — I remember thinking it looked like it had been chewed by some kind of animal. That couldn't have had anything to do with a dog, could it?”

“I was thinking more of a Nile crocodile,” Griffin joked. “Or maybe a velociraptor.”

Marty laughed. But, Griffin reflected, there was nothing funny about the conversation. It wasn't his first clue that Luthor was no longer safe at Ebony Lake. But it was the one that put things over the top.

“The good news is Cyrus and Marty don't believe Darren,” he told Savannah at an emergency meeting behind the wash station while the other campers were at lunch. “The bad news is they don't really believe
us
, either. At least, they're suspicious that there's something going on behind their backs.”

“My counselor hasn't taken her eyes of me since we got back,” Savannah reported mournfully. “It's like the whole camp is on high alert for anything out of the ordinary.”

“The next time the counselors hear barking, it won't be
‘oh, hey, what's that?'
” Griffin agreed. “They'll turn the world upside down until somebody stumbles on Luthor.”

“Or they'll follow
us
sneaking out to see him, which is just as bad,” Savannah added.

Griffin's expression was grave. “It's not just the counselors I'm worried about. Malachi told Swindle we were hiding the dog, so Swindle knows Luthor's location. He can't stay here anymore.”

Savannah was appalled. “He
has
to stay here! Where else can he go?”

“I think I might know a place,” said The Man With The Plan.

M
elissa stared at the small screen of her phone in disbelief. Was he talking about
Luthor
? What else could the “package” possibly be?

Melissa was afraid of Luthor. Scared to death, actually. She accepted Savannah's word that the Doberman was sweet and loving at his core. But since Savannah was the only person who could reach Luthor's core, that wasn't much use to anyone else.

“How's this?”

Logan stood on the edge of the stage in Camp Ta-da!'s performance center, his face illuminated by a single brilliant spotlight. For the past hour, he had been adjusting the beam a millimeter or two this way and that, and demanding her opinion.

“Fine,” she told him. “It was fine an hour ago, too. To be honest, Logan, I can't really tell the difference.”

He glared at her. “I have what is known in the theatre as a ‘needle nose.' If the lighting isn't exactly perfect, it looks wrong. Whole careers have crashed and burned because some stage manager made an actor's nose look too big, or too small, or too bulbous, or too needly —”

“I get it.” It wasn't like shy Melissa to interrupt, but the text from Camp Ebony Lake was weighing heavily on her mind. “Listen, we just got an emergency message from Griffin and Savannah. They want to know if we can hide Luthor here for a while.”

Logan did a double take. “Are you crazy? That dog's a lethal weapon! And besides, how are we supposed to get him here all the way from Ebony Lake?”

She shrugged. “It's only twenty-five miles. If anyone can make it happen, Griffin can. They wouldn't ask if it wasn't important.”

“It doesn't matter,” Logan shot back. “Ta-da! is a drama camp. Maybe your parents only sent you here to bring you out of your shell, but acting is my life's work. No way can I put my career on a back burner to baby-sit some mutt.”

Melissa tuned him out. She was not at all sure she could handle Savannah's giant Doberman, much less conceal him in a crowded theatre camp. But one thing was certain: The quiet girl owed a lot to Griffin Bing. She'd been a complete loner before he'd recruited her as an electronics expert on one of his operations. She might never have made any friends without him.

If The Man With The Plan thought this was necessary, that was enough for Melissa.

Twenty-five miles to the west, at Camp Ebony Lake, a smiling Griffin texted a response to Melissa.

He put down his phone and set his mind to the details of Operation Hideout: Phase Two.

The plan was dead. Long live the plan.

G
ordon Korman's first four books featuring Griffin Bing and his friends were
Swindle
,
Zoobreak
,
Framed
, and
Showoff
. His other books include
This Can't be Happening at Macdonald Hall
(published when he was fourteen);
The Toilet Paper Tigers
;
Radio Fifth Grade
; the trilogies Island, Everest, Dive, Kidnapped, and Titanic; and the series On the Run. He lives in New York with his family and can be found on the Web at
www.gordonkorman.com
.