Invasion of the Dognappers (6 page)

“Where’d he go?” Thatcher asked. The hairy man had disappeared. “Have you seen him? Are we in danger?”

“He must have beamed himself up to his ship,” Logan said at last.

“If he could do that, why didn’t he do it before?” Thatcher asked. “Why did he run away? If I could beam myself up, I wouldn’t bother running away….”

“He didn’t want us to see him do it,” Logan said. “Let’s ask that kid if he’s seen him.”

They approached a boy standing in front of a small, pale green house.

“Are you chasing my dad?” the boy asked.

“Your dad?” Thatcher asked. “The hairy guy with the accent is your dad?”

“He said some crazy boy was chasing him and accusing him of stealing dogs.”

“Is this your house?” Logan asked.

“No,” the boy said. “But me and my family live in it.”

“You live in a house that isn’t yours?”

“We rent it.”

“I’ve seen this kid before,” Thatcher whispered in Logan’s ear. “Walking the same dog the hairy guy walks.”

“He must be an alien, too, then,” Logan whispered back.

“Is this a prank or something?” the boy asked. “My dad doesn’t get American pranks.”

“Isn’t he American?” Thatcher asked. “What is he?”

“He’s Cretan. He was born in Crete.”

“The island by Greece?” Thatcher asked. “Where the minotaur lived? I love the minotaur!”

“Right,” the boy said. “Most people don’t know anything about Crete.”

“I
love
the Greek myths,” Thatcher said. “The minotaur’s awesome.”

” Yeah,” the boy said with a curling smile.

“He’s not from Crete, Thatcher,” Logan said. “He’s the son of an alien.”

The hairy man stepped out the front door, holding a cell phone.

“I am going to call the police if you don’t leave my property at once,” he said, glaring at Logan.

“The police?” Thatcher gasped. “My mom wouldn’t like it if I got arrested, Logan. Maybe we should go….”

“Go ahead and call the police,” Logan said to the man. “I think you’re bluffing. You don’t want the police here.”

“I am really going to call,” the man said. “You cannot harass me this way, boy.”

“Logan!” a voice yelled from down the street.

They all looked. At the intersection, Logan’s mom was poking her head out the window of her car.

“Mom!” Logan yelled back. “What are you doing here?”

She turned the car and sped toward them.

“Okay, here comes my mom,” Logan said to the man. “Now you’re in for it. My mom doesn’t mess around. She’s a life coach, and one of her clients works for the FBI.”

“A life coach?” the man asked.

Logan’s mom pulled her car to the curb and jumped out.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, rushing up to Logan and grasping his arm. “You were supposed to stay at Sandwiches. I’ve been scouring the neighborhood for you!”

“This is one of the aliens, mom,” Logan said, indicating the man standing in the front door. “He made Festus disappear. Probably Pickles, too.”

His mom looked at the man with a pained expression on her face.

“I am going to call the police!” he said, shaking his fist in the air. “Your boy is harassing me! He is crazy!”

“I’m so sorry,” Logan’s mom said, moving toward him, her hand extended, her face bright red and screwed up to show her regret.

“Mom!” Logan shrieked. “Don’t!”

“I’m Jenny Lonergan,” she said. “My son has aliens on the brain, I’m afraid.”

The man reluctantly unclenched his hand and let Logan’s mom shake it.

“He accused me of stealing dogs,” he said.

“His friend’s dog went missing recently,” Logan’s mom said.

“Two friends,” Logan interrupted. “Festus just got abducted….”

“He’s been upset about it,” his mom broke in.

“But he shouldn’t go about accusing people,” the man said.

“I know, I know. I’m so sorry. Really. I am
so
sorry.” She turned to Logan. “Logan, would you please tell this nice man how sorry you are?”

“For what?” Logan said. “He admitted he’s an alien.”

“He’s from Crete,” the man’s son said.

“Crete?” Logan’s mom said. “How interesting! How long have you lived here?”

“A year,” the man said. “But we lived in Wisconsin for eight years before that.”

“And this is your son?” Logan’s mom extended her hand to the boy.

“Yes,” the man said. “This is my Darius.”

“Hi, Darius,” Logan’s mom said. She shook his hand, too. His lank black hair swept back and forth with the motion. “You must be about … ten?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Logan is ten, too,” she said.

“And a sixth,” Logan added.

“And this is Thatcher,” his mom said, presenting him with a wave of her arm. “You’re all about the same age.”

“Hi,” said Thatcher with a little wave. “I’ll be ten in July. I live around the corner.”

“I’ve seen you,” Darius said. “Hi.”

There was a silent pause, then Logan’s mom said, “Well! We’re going to leave you in peace now, Mr….”

“Sarris,” the man said.

“Mr. Sarris. Once again, I am so sorry.”

She moved over to Logan and began easing him toward the car. When he resisted, she took his hand and pulled him.

“But
Mom
!” he said.

“Let’s leave these nice people alone, son. Come on….”

“No! Let … me … go!”

“He is very stubborn,” the man said.

“Tell me about it,” Logan’s mom said, with an affected laugh.

“He gets this from his father?”

“No,” Logan’s mom said. “From his mother.”

“Chloe’s back,” Kian said as he took his seat at the table.

The Crew, who had been chattering about Mr. Sarris, the hairy alien, fell silent.

“She just showed up in the backyard this morning,” Kian added, then folded his hands on the table and blinked twice.

“She’s back?” Thatcher asked. “Wasn’t she abducted by aliens? How did she escape?”

“I guess she was too clever for them,” Kian said with a shrug.

“Maybe the aliens didn’t like her yapping and returned her,” Logan said.

“Hey, maybe they’ll return Festus, too,” Thatcher said. “Huh, Aggy? Maybe the aliens won’t like him, either.”

Aggy kept her eyes on the pages of her book. She was rereading
Ginger Pye
, the story of a puppy that is stolen.

“I’m glad you got your dog back,” she said to Kian.

“Gee, thanks,” Kian said.

“He never liked Chloe very much, Aggy,” Thatcher said.

“We went to the animal shelter,” Aggy said, still not looking up from her book.

“Oh, really?” Logan asked. “Did you see any of the missing dogs on the flyers there?”

“I wasn’t really thinking about them,” Aggy said. “I was looking for Festus.”

“I should go over there with the posters and see if any of them are there,” Logan said to himself.

“Don’t you think if the owners of the lost dogs went to the trouble of making flyers, they would have checked the shelter?” Aggy asked. “It’s the first thing we did.”

Logan didn’t answer. He was thinking.

“I saw a dog I really liked,” Aggy said.

“You did?” Thatcher asked. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy,” Aggy said. “His name is Smoky.”

“So he’s gray?”

“Black. He had Lab in him.”

“Listen,” Thatcher said, rubbing his hands together, “I had an idea for how we could get all the dogs back. We build a giant dog whistle, right? The kind we can’t hear but dogs can? Then the dogs hear it, and they all come back!”

“Great idea,” Kian said, nodding exaggeratedly. “I think we should start making it right away. We could chop down a tree and carve out the middle with our pocket knives.”

“Oh, you’re going to get it!” Thatcher said, and dove across the table at him.

“Gentlemen?” Nathan said in a deep voice.

Thatcher, who had ended up on the floor, bounced to his feet, and chirped, “Sorry, Nathan! I’m focusing. I’ll produce, I’ll produce….”

“I say we stake out the alien’s house and follow him wherever he goes,” Logan said after class. “He’s bound to head to his ship sooner or later, then we storm in and rescue the dogs.”

“He’s not an alien,” Thatcher said. “His son seemed cool.”

“Cool?” Logan said. “
Cool?
Tell that to Trudy. Tell it to Aggy.”

“Chloe’s back,” Aggy said. “Maybe Pickles is.”

“Yeah,” Thatcher said. “We should call Trudy.”

“It’s not our business,” Aggy said. “I wouldn’t want strangers calling me about Festus.”

“We don’t need to call anyone,” Logan said. “All we need to do is follow the hairy guy to his ship and rescue the dogs. As the Crew leader, I say we go stake out his house.”

“Who made you leader?” Aggy asked.

“I don’t think we should,” Thatcher said. “I don’t think we should bother Mr. Sarris anymore. He’s not an alien. He’s just a guy.”

“I’ll go,” Aggy said, closing her book.

Thatcher gawked at her.

“I’ll go, too,” Kian said. “I’ve never seen an alien’s ship before.”

“Okay then,” Logan said. “Let’s go.”

He, Kian, and Aggy walked off.

“Oh, all right,” Thatcher said. “I’m coming. But I’m telling you the guy’s just a guy.”

They stopped at Sandwiches on the way to see if any of the flyers had been rehung. They found posters with pictures of missing dogs, including Pickles, on several telephone poles. Logan tore down the few he didn’t have.

“You shouldn’t take those down,” Thatcher said.

“They can put up as many flyers as they want,” Logan said, as he filed the flyers with the others in a folder he kept in his backpack. “But we’re the only ones who can save their dogs, because only we know what really happened.”

“How do you know that?” Aggy asked. “Maybe the police are investigating, too.”

“The police don’t investigate lost dogs,” Logan said.

“No, it’s the duty of little kids like us,” Kian said.

“What if we told them what we know?” Thatcher said. “Wouldn’t they investigate if they knew it was aliens stealing the dogs?”

“They wouldn’t believe us, even though we have airtight evidence. We’re just kids.”

“Maybe it really is someone playing pranks,” Aggy said. “You know, unbuckling dogs from their collars, then rebuckling them …”

“Most dogs wouldn’t run away,” Logan said. “Like Festus. Would he have run away if some kid unhooked him?”

Aggy didn’t answer. She pulled off her backpack and took out
Ginger Pye
.

“It would be a really mean prank to let people’s dogs go,” Thatcher said. “You think maybe they opened Kian’s fence, too, so Chloe could get out?”

“But she came back,” Aggy said, opening her book at the bookmark.

“And blew my chance at getting a real dog …” Kian said, glumly.

“You could adopt Smoky,” Thatcher said.

“Smoky’s mine,” Aggy said.

“Nobody better try to let Bear go,” Thatcher said. “He’d tear an alien to pieces. Bear’s a maniac.”

“Like his owner,” Kian said, and gave Thatcher a loud, open-palmed slap to the back.

“Why you!” Thatcher said, swinging back, but missing.

Kian got in another quick slap, then danced out of reach.

“Will you guys knock it off?” Logan said. “We are trying to capture a squad of dognapping aliens here. And some of them live right in that house.”

They had arrived at the Sarrises’.

Thatcher abandoned the slap fight. “Darius and his dad aren’t aliens, Logan,” he said.

“Are you questioning my skill in identifying alien life-forms?” Logan asked.

Thatcher shrugged. “I guess so. I mean, yeah. I think you’re wrong. I don’t think Darius is an alien. ”

Aggy clapped her book shut. “Can you guys stop acting like idiots and let’s just get the dogs back?”

They hid behind some nearby bushes and watched and waited for the hairy guy to appear. Half an hour went by. Then forty-five minutes.

Logan didn’t mind. He was used to waiting and watching. Aggy had her book but was nearing its end.

Kian and Thatcher, however, were done waiting and watching after ten minutes. By the hour mark, they were bored out of their minds.

“Soccer’s way better than this,” Thatcher groaned.

“Piano is better than this,” Kian said, and smacked the back of Thatcher’s head.

Thatcher smacked him back.

“Get out of here, you apes,” Logan whispered. “You’ll blow our cover.”

Kian puffed hard into Thatcher’s face, making Thatcher’s long hair lift.

“There,” he said. “I blew your cover.” He laughed, then took off running.

Thatcher ran after him.

“Good,” Logan said. “I hope they don’t come back.”

“I have a question, Logan,” Aggy asked. “Can the alien make people vanish, too?”

“Absolutely,” Logan said.

“So if Mr. Sarris is really the alien, do you think it’s a good idea to make him mad? He doesn’t like you, Logan.”

“I know how to defend myself against an alien,” Logan said, and tapped his forehead with his finger. “I have mind control. They can’t do anything to you if you have control over your mind. Which I do. Do you, Aggy? You better start practicing. Tell yourself, ‘I will not be zapped by an alien. I will not be zapped by an alien. I will not be zapped by an alien.’…”

“You
must
be kidding,” Aggy said.

“I recommend you work on concentrating your thoughts. Unless, that is, you want to see the inside of an alien spacecraft.”

“Concentrate your thoughts on that,” Aggy said, pointing at a small gray car coming down the street.

It pulled into the Sarrises’ driveway and stopped. Mr. Sarris got out the driver’s side, his son, the other.

“Be back by five,” Mr. Sarris said, and walked toward the house.

“That the alien’s son, Darius,” Logan whispered to Aggy.

“Mm-hm,” she said. “I’ve seen him before, playing with a drumming group in the park.”

Logan gasped when Darius pulled open the garage door,

“What is it?” Aggy asked. “What do you see?”

“Nothing,” Logan said. “I was just expecting to see something.”

“Hoping to, you mean.”

Darius wheeled out a black BMX with red tires. He put on a black bike helmet with red skulls printed on the sides, straddled his bike, and coasted down the driveway. In the street, facing the bush where Logan and Aggy were hiding, he skidded to a stop.

“What are you doing in there?” he asked.

Logan stepped out from behind the bush.

“I think you know,” Logan said to the boy.

“Checking out the aliens?”

“Correct,” Logan said.

Aggy stepped out. “Sorry about him, Darius. I’m Aggy.”

“Your dad stole her dog,” Logan said with a sneer.

“I don’t think my dad is your dog thief,” Darius said.

“Oh? Why is that?”

“Because our dog disappeared, too.”

“Really?” Logan said, skeptically. “Then I guess your dad would have a motive to steal dogs, wouldn’t he?”

“Huh?” Darius and Aggy said at the same time.

“To replace the one he lost,” Logan said.

“Is he always like this?” Darius asked Aggy.

“Oh, no, not you again!” came a voice from the house. Darius’s father stepped out onto the front porch. “I don’t want you around here! You called me alien! And dog thief!”

“It’s okay, Dad,” Darius said. “We’re leaving.”

“You’re going to spend time with this boy? This crazy boy who insults your father?”

“No. I’m going to escort him off the property. Then I’m going to the library to do some research.”

“I need to go there, too,” Aggy said. “I’m writing an essay on Neptune.”

“Mine’s on volcanoes,” Darius said.

“Let’s go then,” Aggy said.

“You are falling for the oldest trick in the book, Aggy,” Logan said.

“What trick?”

“He wants you to think he’s just another kid. But he isn’t.”

“Okay,” Darius said. “Time to go.”

Kian burst through a hedge then, followed by Thatcher.

“Hey! Where you guys going? Are you leaving? What’s up?” Thatcher asked, out of breath, his hair littered with dried grass and leaves. “Hey, Darius! How’s it going?”

“Hey, Thatcher,” Darius answered.

“We’re going to the library,” Aggy said. She hooked Logan’s arm. “All three of us.”

“What?” Logan said.

“Cool,” Thatcher said with a hair toss. Some leaves fluttered free. “You coming with us, Darius?”

“Who’s this guy, Thatch?” Kian asked out of the corner of his mouth, eyeing Darius warily.

“I’m the alien’s son,” Darius said with a smile. “No, you’re not, dude,” Thatcher laughed.

“Don’t believe him, Kian. Darius is cool.” He gave the new boy a heavy slap on the shoulder.

“Oh, he’s cool,” Kian said, his jaw tight. “Cool.”