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Thea Stilton and the Mystery on the Orient Express (Thea Stilton Graphic Novels Book 13)

Page 7

by Thea Stilton


  Inspector Ratt looked shocked at her

  strange behavior. “We saw the

  Cat Burglar

  running on top of the train, toward the last

  car!” Paulina explained. “Nicky and Pam are

  chasing him! Please, you have to come

  with me! But first, arrest Dimitri: He’s the

  Cat Burglar’s ACCOMPLICE!”

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  Nicky and Pamela were starting to get

  worried: Why hadn’t Violet and Colette

  burst into the train car

  yet? They couldn’t believe that Yusuf wouldn’t

  let their friends in. After all, this was an

  EMERGENCY. There was hardly any

  time to keep the thief from escaping!

  “But how will he get away without being

  discovered?” Pam asked.

  “That harness must be for transporting the

  case with the Veil of Light, but how

  does he think he’s going to get it out of

  there?” Nicky wondered.

  “Maybe Dimitri and his twin have a

  henchmouse

  arriving by helicopter,” Pam

  guessed, looking far off into the sky.

  TOO LATE!

  Nicky shook her snout. “I don’t think

  so . . . but there’s no time to find out. There’s

  no one here to arrest him. We’re going to

  have to STOP him ourselves!”

  And so they did.

  Holding

  on to the

  rope that the Cat Burglar had used before

  them, the two mouselets dropped into the

  train compartment.

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  BUMP . . . BUMP

  When the Cat Burglar saw them dive in

  from the roof, an amused grin spread across

  his snout.

  “Ha ha ha! You’re too late, my little

  cheese niblets,” he said.

  Pam and Nicky exchanged a quick look:

  They needed to delay the thiefif they

  had any hope of preventing him from

  escaping.

  “You won’t be able to get the case out of

  here,” Pamela said, pointing to the

  harness. “That thing is heavier than the

  world’s biggest block of petrified Parmesan!”

  “Ha ha ha!” the thief laughed again.

  “You think I’m going to try to carry it out on

  my back? You must take me for a real

  cheesebrain!”

  A hot-air balloon

  that fits through

  the hole in the

  ceiling . . .

  . . . and the Cat

  Burglar, ready to

  disappear into

  thin air!

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  3

  . . . a superstrong

  harness tied around the

  case holding the

  precious gown . . .

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  T

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  That’s it, keep on squeaking! Tell us how

  brilliant you are! Nicky was thinking. The

  others will be here any second now with

  Yusuf and the inspector, and then we’ll see if

  you’re still laughing!

  The thief pointed to the straps of the

  harness. “Ha ha ha! In another minute,

  I’ll press this button, a hot-air balloon will

  blow up, and the Veil of Light and the

  Cat Burglar

  will soar into the sky! Ha

  ha haaa!”

  Nicky and Pam glanced at each other in

  despair. It looked like the Cat Burglar was

  going to get away with it again!

  But suddenly . . .

  BAMMM!

  The door flew open and a deep voice

  echoed through the compartment:

  “Paws up!”

  Yusuf loomed in the compartment door,

  which suddenly seemed much smaller. Nicky

  and Pam could just barely make out Violet

  and Colette standing behind the guard.

  But the Cat Burglar didn’t seem the least bit

  intimidated

  .

  “Time’s up, my little cheese puffs!” he said,

  THE HOAX

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  laughing. He grabbed the harness

  straps. As soon as the hot-air balloon was

  inflated, he would

  fly

  out of the train with

  the precious gown!

  But what happened next didn’t exactly

  go as the Cat Burglar had planned. . . .

  Suddenly, the Veil of Light disappeared

  from inside the crystal case. In its place stood

  a stern rodent with thick gray whiskers!

  “What in the name of cheddar is that?”

  the scoundrel muttered, spinning around to

  gaze with

  horror

  at the case and its

  contents. He was so stunned he let go of the

  straps.

  “H-how . . . W-what . . . ? I . . . I don’t

  understand!” spluttered the astounded

  thief.

  Nicky and Pam took advantage of his

  confusion. They threw themselves at

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  the Cat Burglar. Nicky grabbed him by the

  tail while Pamela knocked him off his

  paws with a tackle worthy of the National

  Mouseball League.

  But . . .

  SWISH . . . SWISH

  . . . the thief wriggled out of their grasp

  like a slimy sewer rat! His bodysuit was

  covered in a slippery substance that made it

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  impossible to get a grip on him.

  That was when Yusuf, Violet, and Colette

  came to the rescue. They had just

  realized what the thief had planned to do

  with his strange tools.

  Yusuf launched himself across the

  compartment at the

  Cat Burglar

  . At

  the same time, Violet and Colette pulled the

  train’s manual brake.

  The Orient Express shook, jerked violently,

  and stopped

  SUDDENLY

  . A moment

  later, Paulina and Chief Inspector Ratt

  hurried into the compartment.

  The inspector had a strange

  smile

  on

  his snout. In his paws, he held a small object

  that looked like a remote control.

  Everyone looked around for the Cat

  Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech!

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  Burglar. In all the commotion, they’d

  lost sight of him. Where had he gone?

  Pamela raised her eyes to the ceiling. All

  she saw was

  blue

  sky. There was no

  sign of the hot-air balloon.

  “Did he escape?” she asked, confused.

  “Did anyone see what happened?”

  No one answered. Then they heard a

  moan.

  Pamela saw a paw in a black glove waving

  from beneath Yusuf’s enormouse bulk. She

  burst out laughing. “Ha ha ha! Even the

  most slippery customers are no match for

  Yusuf!”

  The stern guard gave no response, but the

  barest hint of a smile flitted across his snout.

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/>   Inspector Ratt pawcuffed the Cat Burglar

  immediately to make sure that he wouldn’t

  wriggle away when Yusuf got up.

  The Thea Sisters hugged one another.

  Colette, Paulina, and Violet were happy

  and relieved that Nicky and Pam had survived

  their adventure on the train’s roof!

  “Ahem!” the inspector

  coughed

  to get their attention. “I think you mouselets

  deserve the honor of revealing the thief’s

  identity.” He pointed to the hood that was

  still covering the scoundrel’s snout.

  Nicky, Pamela, Paulina, and Violet pushed

  Colette forward. “Go on, Colette!” Pam said.

  “If it wasn’t for the scalding you accidentally

  TWO THIEVES

  IN ONE!

  gave him, we never would have figured it

  out.”

  The mouselet timidly approached the Cat

  Burglar. With a quick, deft move, she

  removed the hood from his snout. Under a

  mass of messy fur, the thief’s eyes shone

  with fury.

  Colette smiled and said politely, “My name

  is Colette, what’s yours?”

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  “Leon!” the thief grumbled reluctantly. His

  snout was completely identical to his twin’s!

  “Dimitri and I would have gotten away with

  it if it weren’t for you meddling mouselets!”

  Now there was just one mystery left

  to solve: Who was the rodent inside the case?

  “It’s another projection,” the inspector

  explained, winking slyly. “It’s Malik Ratt

  the First, my grandfather!”

  The inspector looked as happy as a

  mouseling

  on Christmas morning.

  “You see, I made a small adjustment to

  my original plan B. I wanted the thief to

  believe that the Veil of Light was kept in the

  last train car, guarded by Yusuf. We used the

  same trick here as in the EXHIBITION

  car — a projection of the gown.”

  “So where is the real gown, then?!” Colette

  asked, bewildered.

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  Everyone turned anxiously to look at the

  inspector. He laughed. “It’s already in Istanbul.

  The two fake cases were designed to contain

  identical holographic images, perfect

  reproductions of the gown and my

  grandfather. I used this remote

  control to switch the projections.”

  Chief Inspector Ratt pushed a button.

  The image of his grandfather disappeared,

  and the wedding gown reappeared.

  “Wow, it seems so real!” Pam said,

  pressing her snout against the glass.

  Ratt pushed the button again, and

  the image of his grandfather reappeared.

  “See how easy it is?” he exclaimed. “My

  grandfather dedicated his whole life to

  finding the Veil of Light. It seemed right

  that he be present in some way when the Cat

  Burglar was CAPTURED.”

  PARTY AT THE

  TOPKAPI PALACE

  MUSEUM!

  When the Orient Express reached the

  station in Istanbul, word of the Cat Burglar’s

  capture had already circulated on the

  Internet. Inspector Ratt was welcomed

  as a hero, and a day of celebration was

  declared in his honor. He brought the Thea

  Sisters with him and thanked them for

  their invaluable help.

  Together, they drove down Istiklal Caddesi,

  the main street in Istanbul. The sidewalks

  were teeming with rodents cheering them.

  All the passengers from the Orient Express

  participated in the

  CELEBRATION

  ,

  and even Peggy got a moment of glory: She

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  was the one who found Picamouse’s missing

  painting! The heiress had ordered a cup of

  hot cheese in the café car, where she noticed

  the lost painting sticking out from its hiding

  place. Her discovery came as an enormouse

  relief to her dear friend Pablo!

  At the end of the day, the guests assembled

  at the Topkapi Palace Museum and waited

  eagerly to see the Veil of Light. But minutes

  kept slipping by without anything happening.

  The journalists were beginning to gossip

  about the possibility that the precious gown

  had been stolen again when suddenly the

  lights went out and a beam of light

  illuminated the grand terrace outside.

  Everyone scurried out, and their snouts

  dropped open in surprise. While

  sweet, sad music filled the air, the magnificent

  Zelda Mitoff began to dance. She

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  was wearing the Veil of Light!

  Violet was moved to tears.

  “In light of the extraordinary situation,

  Zelda agreed to dance one last time,”

  explained Eliot Albamouse.

  “She’s hoping everyone will forget that the

  Cat Burglar

  was her own assistant!”

  hissed Priscilla Pawson.

  “Not exactly,” Paulina corrected her.

  “Dimitri was a substitute for the real assistant,

  who mysteriously quit a few days before the

  Orient Express was due to depart.”

  But it was the kind theater critic who had

  the last word. “Actually, what really convinced

  Zelda was the enthusiasm of a young

  detective who wanted to see her perform!”

  Violet blushed from snout to tail. Her

  friends put their paws around her, delighted

  to see her so happy.

  But no one was as delighted as I was when

  I met the mouselets at the museum and they

  told me all about their journey. As always,

  the Thea Sisters proved the power of

  teamwork and had a truly thrilling

  adventure!

  T

  h

  e

  y

  w

  e

  r

  e

  m

  o

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  e

  t

  h

  a

  n

  f

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  i

  e

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  d

  s

  .

  T

  h

  e

  y

  w

  e

  r

  e

  s

  i

  s

  t

  e

  r

  s

  !

  Check out

  these very

  special editions

  featuring me

  and the Thea

  Sisters!

  The Journey

  Through Time

  Join me and my friends on

  a journey through time in

  this very special edition!

  M

  o

  u

  s

  e

  f

  o

  r

  d

  Athletic fields

  Library

  South Tower

  Dorms

  Teachers’ living

  quart

  ers

  Garden


  Herb garden

  North Tower

  Cafeteria

  Great Hall

  Headmaster’s

  office

  Cl

  assrooms

  W

  h

  a

  l

  e

  I

  s

  l

  a

  n

  d

  24

  3

  2

  1

  25

  6

  5

  7

  8

  11

  9

  1O

  21

  23

  22

  18

  19

  2O

  4

  16

  17

  15

  12

  13

  14

  11

  1. Falcon Peak

  2. Observatory

  3. Mount Landslide

  4. Solar Energy Plant

  5. Ram Plain

  6. Very Windy Point

  7. Turtle Beach

  8. Beachy Beach

  9. Mouseford Academy

  10. Kneecap River

  11. Mariner’s Inn

  12. Port

  13. Squid House

  14. Town Square

  15. Butterfly Bay

  16. Mussel Point

  17. Lighthouse Cliff

  18. Pelican Cliff

  19. Nightingale Woods

  20. Marine Biology Lab

  21. Hawk Woods

  22. Windy Grotto

  23. Seal Grotto

  24. Seagulls Bay

  25. Seashell Beach

  Map of

  whale island

  Thanks for reading,

  and good-bye until our

  next adventure!

 

 

 


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