The Sea-Quel (5 page)

For Pradeep that was as good as swearing that he would never have Choc Rice Pops, his favorite food on earth,
ever
again.

The dads both nodded. Maybe this doing-things-at-the-same-time thing was catching.

They headed outside to the rowboat. The rain was getting heavier. I looked at my watch—two p.m. I gave Pradeep a look that said
, “
They still have loads of time before it gets dark. As long as that fog from last night doesn't come back in again, they'll be fine.”

The lighthouse keeper turned to me and said, “If the fog rolls in, we'll just follow the lighthouse beacon back here. That's what it's there for, boy,” and he gave me a wink.

Pradeep shot me a look that said, “Our secret looks were just compromised by the old lighthouse keeper. Years of practice down the drain. How did he do that?”

We walked the dads and the lighthouse keeper down to the dock.

“Now, you kids stay outta trouble,” the old lighthouse keeper growled. He gave us a sideways look that could have been “And I'll know if you pesky kids have been meddling with my lighthouse too!” Or it could have been “Don't use all the milk as I'll want some for my tea later.” It was hard to get the hang of reading his looks through all the wrinkles around his eyes.

Then they all got into
A Vision of Velma
and rowed out into the bay.

As soon as they were gone, Pradeep went to check on Sami, and I headed up to Mark's room to look for more clues.

I walked over to the bed where Mark's suitcase was.

The white lab coat's gone,
I thought. The chemistry-set bottles were missing too. And the drawing of the evil eel. Mark must have come back and taken all his stuff to complete his evil plan!

I ran downstairs to tell Pradeep. He had Sami sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of soup in front of her. He was doing that flying-spoon thing that parents do to get little kids to eat their food. She just shook her head and frowned.

“Pradeep, Mark must have come back here after he caught the eel. He's been in his room. The white lab coat and bottles from the chemistry set and the drawing are all gone!”

Pradeep snuck a mouthful of soup into Sami's mouth as she opened it to yawn.

“But if he came back, then where is the boat? And where is he now?” Pradeep said.

I ran out the door and looked out into the bay. The rowboat was too far away for the dads to hear me shout.

That was when I wished I had learned real semaphore and not the made-up flag signaling that Pradeep and I use. In our version:

Waving a World Cup flag = all's well.

Waving an Olympic flag = someone's coming.

Waving one of the pirate flags that we got in a party bag one time = danger. Or pirates.

And waving two pirate flags at the same time = dangerous pirates, but we lost one of them, so we're hoping we never
really
meet any dangerous pirates because we won't be able to signal that.

I was about to run back inside to tell Pradeep it was too late to call our dads back when I glanced down. Under the jetty was the motorboat.

CHAPTER 12

THE SECRET EVIL SCIENTIST SCHEME

Daphne's Delight
was all tucked up underneath the wooden jetty so you couldn't see it from the lighthouse or from the top of the dock. It had a couple of branches thrown over it to cover it from view. So Mark was definitely back then … but what about the evil eel?

I looked over at the lighthouse on the outcrop of rocks jutting into the bay. How could Mark have carried the eel from the boat up the path to the lighthouse or anywhere else? Then I spotted the wheelbarrow. It was at the bottom of the metal fire-escape steps that spiraled around the outside of the lighthouse.

I ran back inside again. Sami turned and smiled at me.

“No more soup,” she said. “Ice cream?”

“I think she's feeling better,” I said. “Pradeep, come outside. I think I might have figured out where Mark went with the eel. And it's a lot closer than you might think.”

We bundled Sami up in a raincoat and hat and went outside. The three of us stood at the bottom of the fire escape and looked up. I showed Pradeep the wheelbarrow and pointed out the boat tucked under the jetty.

“Come on then,” Pradeep said, and we all headed up the stairs. The sky had got so dark that the lighthouse beacon had come on above us and was shining out to sea.

At the top of the lighthouse was a balcony with a door leading into the lamp room. The only way to look inside was through a tiny window at the top. Pradeep put Sami on his shoulders so we could find out what was going on.

“Evil eel!” she said. “In kiddie pool.”

“Do you see Mark?” I asked.

“No Mark. Naughty eel sleepy,” she said.

“We need to get in there and see what he's doing,” Pradeep said.

On the count of three, Pradeep, Sami, and I shoved hard on the door. It sprang open easily, sending us flying across the room to land in a tangled heap.

“Morons, I've been expecting you,” Mark said with a mocking laugh as he walked over and stroked the head of the sleepy-looking eel.

We jumped up and stood close together in a row. Sami seemed to be pointing at the floor underneath us, where someone had drawn a big chalk line, but we had more important things to worry about.

“We don't know what you're up to, Mark,” I said, “but I'm pretty sure it's evil and it involves killing that eel!”

“We can't let you do it,” Pradeep added.

“I'm not gonna kill the eel,” Mark said with a particularly evil smile, “but I can't have you
meddling kids
trying to stop my
actual
evil plan, so…” He paused and pulled on a rope that was hanging next to him. Immediately three life preservers dropped from the ceiling and fell over our heads, trapping us with our arms pinned to our sides like … well, like three kids trapped in life preservers!

Mark walked over and wedged the rings more tightly around our arms. “Thanks for standing on the booby-trap line I drew. That made things a lot easier, morons.”

We looked down at our feet. If
Scooby-Doo
had taught us anything, it was don't stand in a circle of rope, on anything that could be a trapdoor, or on a chalk line drawn on the ground. Sami had been trying to warn us and we'd ignored her! Pradeep and I hung our heads in shame.

“Well, as you can see, I'm kinda busy so…” Mark started to push us all toward the balcony door.

CHAPTER 13

MWHAHAHAHA HORROR

As Mark shoved us outside into the rain, I looked back at the eel coiled in its shallow rubber kiddie pool. It was still under Frankie's zombie stare! Frankie. He wouldn't have got caught like this. He would have foiled Mark's plan somehow.

“Now you're outta the way, I can get on with my experiment.” Mark grinned.

“Experiment?” cried Pradeep, Sami, and I at the same time.

“We thought you were going to kill the evil eel,” I said.

“Why would I kill it when I can make it into a zombie eel instead?” Mark said, and laughed his Evil Scientist laugh. “You have, oh yeah,
had
a pathetic zombie goldfish. But
I'm
gonna have an evil zombie mega-eel, so I can take on anyone that messes with my evil plans. No one's going to give me detention, or ground me, or stop me from taking over the world now!”

“But how are you going to make the evil eel into a zombie like Frankie?” Pradeep asked.

“All I need to do is gunk up the water with my toxic green goo and then add a little spark.” Mark grinned.

At that exact moment a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder rocked the lighthouse.

“Sorry, gotta go,” Mark said, and slammed and bolted the door, trapping us outside.

“We've got to see what he's doing,” I cried. “Pradeep, if you kneel down, I can stand on your life preserver and see in!”

It was a bit wobbly, but I could just about see into the window at the top of the door. Mark walked over to the kiddie pool. He took out a test tube of green bubbling sludge from his white lab coat pocket and dumped it in the water with the eel.

I concentrated on my lip-reading. “Now, I'd better go get that spark,” Mark seemed to say. He put one end of a long pole into the toxic green goo with the eel. The other end of the pole went up through the roof, past the lighthouse beacon, and into the open air.

I jumped down. Pradeep and Sami looked at me. “Mark's going to use the lightning to shock the eel just like we used a battery on Frankie. The evil eel could be the most evil zombie thing we've ever seen!” my look said
.
At the same time, I wriggled out of my life preserver. Years of being squeezed through the dog flap at home by Mark meant that I'd had lots of practice wriggling out of things. As soon as I was free, I pulled the rings off Pradeep and Sami, too.

Lightning cracked again all around the lighthouse. Pradeep put his arm around Sami as she pulled her hat down over her ears to drown out the thunder.