Text copyright © 2019 Liam O’Donnell
Illustrations copyright © 2019 Mike Deas
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication O’Donnell, Liam, 1970–, author
Tank & Fizz: the case of the tentacle terror / Liam O’Donnell; illustrated by Mike Deas.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
isbn 978-1-4598-1952-8 (softcover).—isbn 978-1-4598-1953-5 (pdf).—isbn 978-1-4598-1954-2 (epub)|
I. Deas, Mike, 1982–, illustrator II. Title. III. Title: Tank and Fizz. IV. Title: Case of the tentacle terror.
ps8579.d646t362019 jc813'.6 c2018-904880-8
c2018-904881-6
Simultaneously published in Canada and the United States in 2019
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018954086
Summary: In this illustrated middle-grade novel, fifth in the Tank and Fizz series, a goblin detective and technology-tinkering troll get tangled up with a sea creature, a dangerous band of kobold pirates and a blaze fairy who may be up to no good.
Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed this book on Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Design by Jenn Playford
Illustrations and cover image by Mike Deas
Author photo by Ail Sonderup
Illustrator photo by Billie Woods
orca book publishers
orcabook.com
Printed and bound in Canada.
22 21 20 19 • 4 3 2 1
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To my family, friends and readers who joined me on all these adventures. Thank you.
— Liam O’Donnell
For the readers of Tank and Fizz.
— Mike Deas
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: Disappearing Giants
CHAPTER TWO: Crime-Scene Sneaks
CHAPTER THREE: Getting the Scoop
CHAPTER FOUR: Stakeout Spies
CHAPTER FIVE: Far From Home
CHAPTER SIX: Pirate Surprise
CHAPTER SEVEN: Deep-Sea Dive
CHAPTER EIGHT: Going Underground
CHAPTER NINE: Breakfast on the Beach
CHAPTER TEN: View from the Top
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Return of the Mutts
CHAPTER TWELVE: Pilfered by Pirates
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Dreaming of Home
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Dodgy Deals and Tainted Toasters
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Dream Walking
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Crashing the Pirate Party
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Revenge of the Tentacles
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Home for a Rest
The second ship vanished at midnight.
I was three choco-slug cookies into an unhealthy breakfast when I heard the news. A cargo ship bigger than Gravelmuck Elementary was missing from Fang Harbor. It had simply disappeared without a trace. It happens to my homework a lot, but it shouldn’t happen to a massive ship made of metal and machinery. It had mystery written all over it. And that’s my favorite kind of writing.
The name is Marlow. Fizz Marlow. I’m in the fourth grade, and I’m a detective. I’m also a goblin. Green scales, cute fangs and an adorable tail. The whole package. You cool with goblins? Good, because there are a lot of goblins and other monsters in my hometown, Slick City.
The moment I heard the news, I grabbed another cookie and hopped on a city bus heading to Fang Harbor. It was the weekend, which meant I had no school and nothing to do (except for a pile of unfinished homework, but who wants to do homework when there’s a mystery to solve?). As the bus rolled through my neighborhood, I tried to wrap my head around the disappearances.
It started a week ago, when a cargo ship loaded with home appliances, furniture and other boring stuff sailed into Fang Harbor. The next morning the ship was gone. There was no record of it leaving the harbor and definitely nowhere it could be hiding. It had simply disappeared. It was the top news story across Slick City and all the way to the Dark Depths deep beneath Rockfall Mountain. The police had no clue where the ship had gone or even how it had vanished. And now it had happened again.
I got off the bus and walked the last few blocks to the harbor. Well, I tried to walk.
“Of course no one followed me,” I snapped. “Why would anyone tail a fourth-grade goblin?”
“Because they think the goblin’s best friend’s mom stole those ships.”
Tank stuffed her articulated grabber into her tool belt and sniffed like she was about to cry. Her full name is Tatanka Wrenchlin, but only her mom and a few teachers call her Tatanka. Everyone else calls her Tank. I call her best friend, detective partner and the smartest troll I know. Like all trolls, Tank loves tinkering with technology. From circuit boards to turbo-induced thingamajigs, she can fix just about anything that’s put into her green hands. But from the frown on her face now, it looked like Tank was facing a problem even she couldn’t fix.
“Now I know why you stopped me,” I said.
Tank nodded. “My mom isn’t answering her phone. What if they’ve already arrested her? And they’re looking for me now?”
“That’s ridiculous!” I said. “Your mom is the harbor master, not the police chief. She’s not responsible for stopping crimes like this.”
“Tell that to the news.” Tank sniffed.
She had a point. With no clues and no answers, the media were desperate to find someone to blame. As the monster in charge of Fang Harbor, Janaka Wrenchlin, Tank’s mom, was that someone. As harbor master she oversaw all the ships that came into the Slick City port. That was good enough for the TV stations, daily papers and news sites to pin the blame on her. When the first ship vanished, her face had appeared on the evening news and in the papers. Now that another ship had vanished, things could only get worse for Tank’s mom.
Tank held up her phone. “Look who just jumped into the blame game.”
On the screen was the face of the most sinister monster in Slick City. Bald head, beady eyes and fangs more crooked than a politician. In fact, this monster was a politician. Mayor Grimlock, leader of Slick City, ogre most likely to steal lunch money from a lost first-grader and also the biggest bully on the hottest gossip social-media site, Mobsplainr.
“What a jerk!” I growled.
“A jerk with power,” Tank said. “One word from him, and my mom will lose her job. She could even be arrested! I have to find her!”
“Let’s get to the harbor.”
Getting to the harbor was no problem. Actually seeing Tank’s mom was a different story.
We left the pol
ice to their very important job of denying mother-daughter reunions. Tank’s ears drooped like a pair of wilted snaggleruff leaves.
“They’ll take my mom away, and I’ll never see her again.” She moaned.
My friend’s head drooped just like her ears, and she rubbed her eyes. It takes a lot to make Tank cry. She’s as tough as they come and stronger than any of those slouch-spined police officers.
Something bad was happening down on the harbor, and Tank’s mom was going to get blamed for it. I didn’t know what had happened to those ships or if we could stop Mrs. Wrenchlin from taking the fall. But I was sure of one thing—I was going to help my friend. We were going to find out who had stolen those ships.
Tank stared down the hill to the water’s edge.
The boardwalk along Fang Harbor was normally busy with monsters enjoying the view. Today it was packed with police. Teams of forensic ogres dusted for paw prints and claw marks, while more cops rode with the Harbor Patrol tugboats across the choppy water.
“We have to get down there and speak to my mom.” Tank’s brow furrowed. “Somehow.”
“Fizz Marlow! What are you doing here?”
The voice made me jump like a surprised toddler. In fact, the voice had been making me jump, in a good way, since before I was a toddler.
“Mom!” I ran to where my mom stood with the other reporters near the gate to the harbor. “What are you doing here?”
“I was asking you the same thing,” my mom said. “I’m here covering the disappearances for the paper. Didn’t I leave you at home with a healthy breakfast and homework to finish?”
“Um, well, I heard about the second ship and…”
My mom rolled her eyes. “And you couldn’t resist investigating. Always on duty, aren’t you, Mr. Detective? Okay, you can do your ‘sleuthing,’ but don’t get in anyone’s way. Hi, Tank. I’m sorry about the way the press is treating your mom. I know she has nothing to do with all this.”
“Thanks, Ms. Marlow.”
At the gate to the harbor, the slouching police officers jumped to life as a sleek black limousine approached. The reporters huddled around the gate took photos and moved closer to the car.
My mom pulled a notebook from her pocket and headed to the car.
“Got to get back to work. Don’t stay too long. Be home for dinner!” she called over her shoulder.
The driver’s-side window of the car silently slid open to reveal a goblin in a black cap behind the wheel. The goblin said something to the police officer, who nodded and waved to his partner to open the barricade.
We got to the boardwalk and stayed out of sight. Farther along the walkway stood a squat stone building. A tower with large windows rose out of the middle of the building and overlooked the harbor.
“That’s the harbor master’s office,” Tank said. “I bet she’s in there.”
She took a step forward, but I pulled her back.
“Wait,” I whispered.
The black limo had made its way to the water’s edge and now drove slowly along the boardwalk toward us.
Tank’s eyes narrowed. “Vehicles aren’t allowed on the boardwalk. Why can they do that?”
“The answer is on the front fender,” I said.
Tank read the limo’s license plate and rolled her eyes. “SlurpCo. What is someone from the biggest company in Rockfall Mountain doing here?”
“The news said it was another SlurpCo cargo ship that vanished,” I said. “Maybe they’re here to make sure it gets found—and fast.”
The SlurpCo limo rolled past us. The windows on the car were completely black. I couldn’t see who was inside. No doubt sitting in the backseat was some bigwig monster with bad hair, bad breath and bad taste in ties. Everything that came from SlurpCo was bad. But without the company, Slick City and the rest of Rockfall Mountain would be in big trouble. Every day, monsters throughout the mountain depend on products produced by SlurpCo Industries. The company drills deep into the rocks for the goopy slick that runs all our machines. Their factories make the phones and other gadgets we all stare at. Their farms grow the food we eat. And every week, their massive cargo ships arrive in Fang Harbor, loaded with more stuff that we monsters rely on. Tank and I had come snout-to-snout with their corrupt executives before. It was not something I wanted to do again.
The limo stopped in front of the harbor master’s office. The wrinkly goblin in a black jacket and cap climbed out of the driver’s side and shuffled to the car’s rear door. A second later the door to the harbor master’s office flew open. Tank’s mom came barreling out and stormed over to the limo.
Mrs. Wrenchlin scowled at the small blaze fairy hovering in front of her.
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you.” Mirella Ballaworth’s words bubbled like she was singing a children’s song.
“That still doesn’t mean you can drive your car along the boardwalk,” Mrs. Wrenchlin snapped.
“Ms. Ballaworth can park her car wherever she likes.” The gruff voice sent a chill down to my tail. A slouching ogre in a rumpled overcoat stood on the steps of the harbor master’s office.
“Detective Hordish!” I whispered.
“What’s he doing here?” Tank moaned.
Detective Hordish was as pleasant as a bag of old gym socks. We had helped the police detective solve a couple of big mysteries in the past, but he still treated us like a rash that wouldn’t go away. If he was here, that meant he was leading the police investigation into the missing ships. And that meant we had better stay out of sight.
Hordish shuffled down the steps and over to the limo. “I received word from Mayor Grimlock himself that Ms. Ballaworth is permitted to assist in our search for the missing ships.”
“Assist us?” Mrs. Wrenchlin’s brow furrowed. “Why does the mayor think I can’t do my own job?”
“I completely understand, Harbor Master.” Mirella’s words dripped with sweetness. “But please remember that SlurpCo Industries is the real victim here. We’ve lost valuable cargo, and we’d like to help in any way we can.”
Mrs. Wrenchlin glared at the blaze fairy. “SlurpCo Industries has been trying to take control of this harbor for years. You’d like to put me and my colleagues out of our jobs and replace us with your bots.”
“It would be more efficient,” Mirella chimed. “And save the city money.”
“It would be more dangerous,” Mrs. Wrenchlin growled. “And it would line the pockets of your bosses and the politicians they bribe.”
Detective Hordish stepped in between the two monsters. “Why don’t we put aside our different views and move this inside?”
“Fine,” Mrs. Wrenchlin said.
“A wise suggestion, Detective.” Mirella flew a tight circle around the other monsters. “Before we do that, perhaps we should say hello to your other guests.”
Mrs. Wrenchlin looked around. “Other guests?”
“Yes.” Mirella chuckled and looked in our direction. “Hiding in the shadows over there.”
My scales stood on end. Beside me, Tank gasped.
“Children, come out from there,” Mirella called. “I’m sure Tank would like to see her mother.”
Tank gulped. “Busted.”
The tiny fairy had busted us big-time.
We stepped out from our hiding spot. Tank rushed to her mom and hugged her.
I looked at the blaze fairy. “How did you know we were there?”
Mirella smiled. “Fizz Marlow, I’m from SlurpCo. We know everything about everybody. It’s what we do.”
“I was wondering when you two would show up.” Detective Hordish scowled. “Get inside.”
“You don’t want us to scram? Stay away from this mystery?” I said.
Detective Hordish sighed. “Would you listen to me if I did?”
“Probably not.”
“That’s what I figured,” Hordish said. “Get inside. And stay out of the way.”
Tank’s mom led us into the harbor master’s office and to the contr
ol room at the top of the glass tower. The large windows overlooking the harbor wrapped around the open room. A row of computer terminals sat against one wall. Lights flashed and small screens blinked, tracking the movement of all the boats on the water below. A sharp-eyed troll sat at the control panel, speaking quietly into her headset to one of the tugboat captains bobbing along on the harbor.
Mrs. Wrenchlin stood in front of a large screen that hung on the back wall. “I can fill you in on what we know.”
I grabbed a seat near the screen and got comfortable. My scales tingled with anticipation. All that was missing was a bag of popped slugcorn. Tank pulled up a seat beside me.
“Try not to look so happy,” she whispered. “Remember, my mom’s job is on the line.”
“Sorry.” I wiped the grin from my snout. “But we’re finally going to get the scoop on the missing ships.”
Mirella Ballaworth buzzed once around the room and perched on top of a filing cabinet near one of the windows. Detective Hordish slouched into the room and stood beside Tank’s mom. The ogre cleared his throat before speaking.
“This recap of what we know shouldn’t take too long because we really don’t know much,” he said.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Detective,” Mirella chirped from her perch. She peered out the window to the harbor, where the harbor patrol and the police were combing the chilly waters for clues. “Your monsters are doing a wonderful job.”
Detective Hordish pulled at the collar of his wrinkled shirt. “Um, thank you, Ms. Ballaworth.”
“Please call me Mirella, my dear,” the blaze fairy cooed. “We have no time for stuffy formalities. We have ships to find!”
“Very well, Mirella,” Hordish muttered. The screen behind him lit up and displayed an image of two cargo ships. He waved a meaty hand at the screen. “These are the vessels that have vanished. Both are SlurpCo cargo tankers and both disappeared in the same way.”
The Case of the Tentacle Terror Page 1