Krakens and Lies (30 page)

Everyone looked confused except for Logan's mom, who stared at Delia with dawning horror.

Delia nodded and her shoulders began to shake. “No one's called me that in so long,” she said, her voice muffled by her hands.

“Were you there?” Abigail asked, dropping to a crouch beside Delia's knees. She put one hand gently on the agent's shoulder. “Did you see it happen?”

“I see it every night,” Delia said in a cracked, hopeless voice. “Every night when I fall asleep, if I can sleep at all. Every night I see that dragon kill them.” She sat up suddenly, brushing away tears. Her face was lit with anger. “I figured it out, you know. That dragon had a tag in her ear, like the kind for tracking endangered birds. Someone
knew
it was out there, running wild, ready to kill people. And then I read the papers and saw the cover-up. I knew someone was protecting that dragon.” She said “dragon” the way most people would say “giant hissing cockroach.”

“But how did you survive?” Zoe asked. “And how did you end up in SNAPA?”

“I made it as far as I could through the woods and got picked up by a woman who was living in a cabin, off the grid,” Delia said. “She didn't care where I came from, and she didn't believe what I told her about the dragon, of course. But she took care of me for a while, until everyone had stopped looking for me. I learned to tell people I had amnesia, didn't
remember my parents, couldn't remember where I came from. I wound up in the foster care system until I was able to get a scholarship to college.”

She took a deep breath. “I read all the rumors. I wanted to find a way in, so I made myself into the perfect candidate. I majored in zoology and did my thesis on the potential link between the bones of extinct species and the tales of mythical creatures. I became an expert on wildlife protection, endangered animals, cryptozoology, anything I could think of that might make me the right person for a job with whoever was hiding dragons. And then it happened. SNAPA approached me, just as I'd planned.”

“All of that,” Logan's mom said, “your whole life, dedicated to getting your revenge?”

Delia lifted one shoulder, staring at her hands. “My parents were worth it,” she said. “But once I was in, once I had access, I found out that the dragon I wanted was already dead.” She frowned, then glanced out at the Menagerie. “So I went looking for the dragons who hatched from those eggs.”

“Scratch and Scritch,” Logan said.

“What did you do to Scritch?” Mrs. Kahn asked.

Delia hunched forward. She looked brittle and easy to snap in two. “I gave her a shot of a kind of dragon PCP. Like a drug to make her go crazy.” She took another deep, shuddering breath. “But I didn't know how bad it would be. I didn't think she would . . . I didn't mean for her to kill anyone. That's
why I came up with a new plan here,” she added quickly. “Something safer. I just had to make it
look
like the dragon had escaped and done something bad. And I put a sedative in the toothpaste so he couldn't actually get free and hurt anybody.” She passed one hand over her eyes. “Of course, I thought you would use it.”

“I'm guessing
you've
never tried to brush a dragon's teeth,” Matthew interjected.

Delia shuddered from head to toe as if she couldn't imagine anything worse.

“Did you also tamper with the fire extinguisher in the Reptile House? How is letting the most deadly creature in the world out of its enclosure a ‘safer' plan?” Mrs. Kahn asked pointedly.

Logan's hands went to the scarab beetle under his shirt, his skin prickling at the reminder of how close to death he'd come.

“That was an accident,” Delia said. “Honestly, I never meant for the basilisk to get free! I thought the damaged fire extinguisher would be up by Scratch's cave and if everyone thought he'd set it off, it would just be extra ammunition for having him exterminated. In all the chaos of the trial, I forgot to check on where it ended up.”

“So the night Pelly was stolen—” Logan said. “You weren't monitoring Agent Runcible as a werewolf?”

She shook her head. “He just thought I was. I drove him
to the reserve, waited until midnight when he was definitely stuck in wolf form, and then came to get the goose.”

Logan remembered the night he, Zoe, Blue, and Keiko had snuck into the woods to look for a werewolf—the night they'd seen Marco change into a rooster. There had been a car in the parking lot at the reserve that night. An empty car, where Delia should have been sitting, watching the tracking monitor to make sure Runcible stayed within the woods.

That was the night after Pelly was stolen, but he guessed she'd taken the same opportunity that night, while Runcible was furrily occupied, to sneak away, this time to check on her captive.

“So what does this have to do with the Sterlings?” Logan's dad asked abruptly, his deep voice from across the room startling Logan.

“They caught me,” Delia said. “They've been monitoring you, too, for months. There are cameras hidden all through the woods around your property. So they saw me cutting the hole in the river grate, and they approached me with the proposal that we could . . . work together.”

She turned to Abigail. “I swear I didn't know they had you, or the Chinese dragon. They didn't tell me everything.” Her face went hard. “I didn't know about their plans for an amusement park, either, until you came and told us about the map you found. I've told them it's foolish and far too dangerous. I said I would help them expose the Menagerie, but only
if they promised me that dragon wouldn't be allowed to live.”

“I think we've heard enough,” said Zoe's mom, looking sick.

“No, wait,” Zoe said. “Delia, where did they take Captain Fuzzbutt?” She knelt beside Delia's chair, looking desperate. “Please tell us. If anything happens to him—I'm so worried. . . .”

Delia gave her a look that seemed genuinely sympathetic.

“I'm sorry, Zoe,” she said softly. “They didn't tell me. I have no idea where they've taken him.”

Logan watched Zoe's face fall and wanted to hit something. Finally they'd found the person they'd been looking for this whole time, but she couldn't tell them what they really needed to know.

The Sterlings had vanished along with the mammoth.

But there was one place they would definitely be . . . at the election party the next night, in front of a hundred cameras, at the Buffalo Bill Diner.

Which meant there might be one last chance to stop them before the Menagerie was exposed and destroyed forever.

“I
wish
I
could vote,” Logan said grumpily, leaning against the side of the van.

“Me too,” said Blue.

“Me three,” Zoe said. She couldn't stand still. She hadn't been able to sleep all night; she just kept rolling over and looking at the empty floor where Fuzzbutt usually slept. Her chest ached as though the Sterlings had carved out part of it on their way out the door.

“I voted,” Ruby said cheerfully from her perch on a nearby railing. “Except the other candidate seemed lame, so I just wrote in Miley Cyrus.”

“I'm sure that'll help,” Zoe said, rolling her eyes.

They were stationed in the alley across from the back of the Buffalo Bill Diner. There was only one set of doors big enough to fit a mammoth through—the big rolling service door at the back, where trucks delivered the food. Earlier it had been busy with staff getting ready for the party, but now it was quiet; the action had moved to the front of the diner, where guests were already starting to arrive. Zoe could see the flash of cameras going off like lightning. She twisted her hands together nervously.

Where were the Sterlings? Why weren't they here yet?

Was Jasmin okay?

Was Captain Fuzzbutt okay?

Was this going to be the night everything was ruined forever?

She squinted at Logan, distracted for a moment from her scurrying thoughts. “Logan, did your shirt just . . . move?”

“Don't worry about it,” he said. “I brought backup.”

“Okay.” Zoe didn't know what that meant, but she couldn't add one more worry to her list right now. She looked at her watch. “The polls are about to close. Why aren't they here?”

“I think they are,” Matthew said, hopping out of the van.

A U-Haul rolled slowly down the small street behind the Buffalo Bill Diner. It jerked to a halt, and then backed up to the delivery entrance. Jonathan Sterling jumped out of the passenger side, glanced around furtively, and hurried to the back of the truck. Ruby let out a small hissing sound. He hit
the button for the diner doors and turned to roll open the U-Haul.

As the metal door of the diner rattled up, Zoe could see her parents and Logan's parents standing inside the loading area, waiting. Jonathan didn't notice them; he was busy pulling out the ramp that led down from the U-Haul.

But now Mr. and Mrs. Sterling were climbing out of the front of the truck, and they spotted the welcoming committee at the same time.

“We're not going to let you do this, Arnold,” Zoe's dad said in a clear, ringing voice.

Mr. Sterling grinned in a way that made Zoe want to feed him to the kelpie. He sauntered toward the loading area, brushing off the arms of his suit jacket. He was wearing a white cowboy hat that matched Mrs. Sterling's impeccable jacket and skirt. They looked shiny and photogenic, tailor-made for a national news conference.

“I don't rightly see how you're going to stop me,” said Mr. Sterling. “After all, this mammoth is my property, as I am now the owner of the company who created it.” He tipped his hat at Abigail. “And I happen to have security camera footage that shows you stealing it. Along with evidence that you've been harboring it in your little zoo there for some time now.”

He made finger guns at each of Zoe's parents. “So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to announce my plans for a jim-dandy rooting-tooting tourist attraction right here
in little old Xanadu that's going to bring in visitors from all over the world. And I am going to sue you for stealing this mammoth, and I'm going to win, and I'm going to end up with everything you own.”

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” said Mr. Wilde. “I'm a lawyer, in case you didn't know, and I can see several holes in your case from across the Grand Canyon. Not to mention the little matter of your kidnapping escapades.”

Mr. Sterling shrugged this off. “I guess we'll see you in court then, my friend.” His teeth were as big as mammoth toenails. “Because once we expose this little secret, I have a feeling a lot of people will be rooting for me. By the way, Robert, Holly—if you're not too disagreeable, I might let you stick around to show us the ropes. But if I have to get my own zookeepers in here, that's all right with me, too. Now excuse me, I've got a speech to give.”

He made a commanding gesture at Jonathan, who had climbed up into the truck. Jonathan started forward, tugging on a rope. From her angle, Zoe couldn't see into the U-Haul—but she could see that he was holding a riding whip.

She couldn't stay back anymore, even though her parents had warned her to keep out of the way.

“Zoe, wait!” Logan protested as she launched herself away from the van and ran across the street. A moment later, she heard his footsteps behind her, and then the others as well.

“Captain!” she cried, darting to the back of the U-Haul.

The mammoth was at the top of the ramp, his ears drooping sadly, wearing a harness attached to the rope Jonathan held. When he saw her, Fuzzbutt's whole face lit up and he surged forward.

“Don't touch him!” Mrs. Sterling barked as Zoe reached out. She held up her cell phone, her thumb poised over the screen. “We have an email here ready to send to every major news outlet. It contains a press release along with an absolutely beautiful set of photos of a mammoth, a golden goose, and an exotic Chinese dragon. Of course, we would rather reveal our surprise out there, in front of the cameras, with Arnold's marvelous speech that he's practiced so much. But if you make one move to stop us, I will hit send right now.”

Everyone was frozen in place. Zoe glanced up at Captain Fuzzbutt, now halfway down the ramp, and spotted Jasmin standing in the truck behind him. She had her arms wrapped around herself and she looked like she'd been crying.

Mrs. Sterling spotted her, too. “Oh,
Jasmin
,” she snapped. “I told you it was a mistake to let her ride in the back with the animal,” she said to Mr. Sterling. “Now look at you. Your hair is a mess, your dress is covered in fur, and what is wrong with your face? We don't have time to fix your makeup.”

Jasmin wiped her eyes. “I'm sorry, Zoe,” she said. “They took my phone. I couldn't do anything.”

“It's all right, Jasmin,” Zoe said. “It's not your fault.”