It was pretty spooky inside the school at night, with no one there.
Then, as I was opening the door to my Personal Needs Chamber, someone tapped me on the shoulder, nearly causing me to deefrim in terror.
CHAPTER 17 [LINNSY]
MISTY’S SECRET
Monday afternoon, instead of going straight home, I walked over to Misty’s neighborhood. For a while I just stood on the corner of Oak and Ash, staring at Misty’s house. Then I took a deep breath and walked up to her front door.
I had decided that if we were going to put an end to the nonsense about the Veeblax being a predator, I had to get Misty on our side. I hoped that if she just said she wasn’t really all that upset, things might settle down and we could get back to normal.
I don’t go to visit Misty all that often these days. The two of us haven’t been really close since the time in third grade when she spread a nasty rumor about me and Brad Kent. We got over it, after a while, and got along okay in school and at parties and stuff. But we were never really friends after that.
I rang the bell.
After a few minutes I heard someone come to the door. The door didn’t open, though. Instead, a voice shouted, “If you’re a reporter, go away!”
“Misty, it’s me—Linnsy!”
“Go away anyway.”
“Misty!”
“I mean it!”
“Misty, I have to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Pleskit. And the Veeblax.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
“Misty, if you don’t open that door and talk to me, I’m going to tell Chris Mellblom who really sent him that love note last month.”
The door swung open.
“What do you want?” she said sullenly.
“I just want to talk,” I said. “I’m trying to get this whole situation with you and Pleskit and the Veeblax figured out, and I need some details.”
She stepped aside and let me come in. She looked as if she had been crying.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing. What do you want?”
“I just want to know a little bit more about what happened that day with the Veeblax.”
She shifted her eyes sideways, and my suspicion meter, which was already quivering, jumped right over the edge. I’ve known Misty since first grade, and I know how she acts when she’s trying to hide something, or when she’s feeling guilty.
“Was it really as scary as it seemed?” I asked, trying not to sound suspicious.
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No, not really.”
I blinked, trying to look more surprised than I really felt. “But you talked like it was horrible!” I said.
She got up and walked away, then came back, then walked away again. I didn’t say anything, just sat and waited. Misty can’t stand silence, so if you don’t say anything, she usually will start talking, just to fill the gap.
“Well, it really was a little scary,” she said. “But I was feeling okay by the time I got home. But then the reporters came to talk to me about it, and they kept trying to make me feel like I had been more scared than I really was. Pretty soon I started thinking maybe I had been. And the more scared I acted, the better they liked it.”
“You mean they were trying to get you to exaggerate the way you felt?”
She nodded. “One of them said that the more upset I looked, the more times she could get the television to run my picture.”
I was furious, though whether I was madder at Misty or the reporter, I still couldn’t say. It made me sick to think that they can put stuff like that on the air and call it news and pretend they’re showing the truth.
I wanted to shake Misty, to say, “Do you know how much trouble you caused for Pleskit with all this?” Only I didn’t, because I knew she would stop talking if I did.
I’m glad I kept my cool, because after I had talked to her long enough, and pointed out that Pleskit was missing and for all we knew he might be dead, and that the Veeblax might still die, even if they found him, all because of what had happened on the playground, she burst into tears.
“I can’t stand it!” she cried. “I’m such a horrible person.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked in alarm.
Which was when I finally found out the real reason that the Veeblax had glommed on to her that day.
CHAPTER 18 [TIM]
BEAST!
On Monday night Mom had just left for the hospital and I was putting the last of the dishes into the dishwasher when the phone rang.
I picked up the receiver. A small, girlish voice said, “Is this Tim Tompkins?”
“Yeah. Who is this?”
“I can’t tell you. But I have to let you know that your friend Pleskit was staying at my house. I’m calling because he left without telling us. I wanted to let you know that he was fine until an hour or so ago, but now we don’t know where he is. My daddy is out looking for him. He said to call you to let you know.”
“Who are you?” I cried. “Where are you?”
I heard nothing but a click, and then silence.
Heart pounding, I sat down to think. Pleskit was all right—or had been, until just a little while ago. That was good news. But he was on the road again, and that was bad news. Where could he be going? And who had he been staying with?
I got out a pad and paper and started to make a list of places outside the embassy that Pleskit knew well.
I could only think of one. The school.
I grabbed my coat and bolted out of the apartment, down to the basement, where I store my bike. I unlocked my bike, sighed at my own forgetfulness, and raced back up to the apartment to get a flashlight.
Back down the stairs again. Once I was out of the apartment, it took me only about five minutes to get to the school.
The place was dark and deserted-looking. I knew it would be locked up, but I also suspected Pleskit might have some high-tech way of getting past any locks.
I leaned my bike against the side wall and started to make a slow circle of the school. I mostly kept my flashlight off, using it only when I had to.
The first door I tried was locked. So was the second. But the third, one of the side doors, was wide open. This struck me as being strange, but it was also a sign that Pleskit might have gone in.
Still, it would be unusual for him to leave something like that open, which made me wonder if he was all right.
I noticed an unpleasant odor as I walked in, and wondered if Pleskit had some special fart he made when he was particularly afraid. I thought I heard something at the far end of the hall, down toward our classroom. I stopped, held my breath, listening.
Nothing.
Then I heard a noise in the other direction, toward Pleskit’s Personal Needs Chamber.
Flicking off my flashlight, I began tiptoeing in that direction, moving cautiously, just in case it wasn’t him.
It was. He was opening the door to the chamber.
Maybe I should have shouted for him. But I was afraid that if I did, he would run and try to escape. So I slipped up quietly and put my hand on his shoulder. This was probably a mistake, since it caused him to screech and jump in surprise. The Veeblax shrieked too. Pleskit began to tremble, and for an instant I was afraid that he was going to go into kleptra. But finally he took a deep breath, then said, “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you!”
“Please go away. Pretend you have not seen me.”
He seemed so desperate and frightened, it nearly broke my heart. But I was angry, too. We were supposed to be friends, and he had run off without telling me where he was going.
“Pleskit, everyone is worried about you. Your Fatherly One is just about out of his mind.”
His face had a hard, desperate look I had never seen before. “I am not going to let them take the Veeblax, Tim. You have not had a pet, so maybe you do not understand—”
“I understand!” I snapped angrily
. “All right, at least let me show you a better place to hide. Don’t forget, I’ve spent a fair amount of time scoping this place out for spots where I could get away from Jordan.”
But as we started toward the spot I had in mind, we heard a sound behind us.
We turned—and screamed.
An enormous pile of fur was lurching toward us. It reared on its hind legs. Its head nearly scraped the ceiling. It had blazing red eyes, and its breath smelled like fresh vomit.
Then it farted, releasing a horrible pink-and-orange gas that swirled around it like a cloud.
The smell was even worse than its breath.
“What is it?” shrieked Pleskit, coughing and choking.
“I’m not sure,” I gasped. “But it looks like… Harold!”
The giant woodchuck thing emitted a horrible, high-pitched whistle as it lurched toward us again.
The Veeblax eeped in terror.
Pleskit and I turned and ran, screaming as we went.
The sound of the woodchuck’s enormous paws scrabbling on the tile was horribly close behind us.
CHAPTER 19 [PLESKIT]
ANIMAL CONTROL
As Tim and I raced down the hall to escape the monster woodchuck, my mind was racing too. This had to be the same creature that had been following me for the last two days.
But could it really be Larrabe’s sweet little woodchuck?
If so, what had happened to make it grow like this? And, even more pressing, why had it been following me?
We reached a corner, and in my haste I stumbled and fell. The woodchuck was only a few feet away. I thought my doom was upon me, but the Veeblax flung itself in front of me.
Stretching itself up in a terrible shape, it uttered a piercing squeal that caused Harold to draw back.
Tim grabbed my hand and dragged me to my feet. I grabbed the Veeblax and we ran on, but it was only seconds before we again heard the giant paws scrabbling close behind us. Then, suddenly, the sound stopped. I glanced over my shoulder. Harold was standing still. He looked worried. He closed his eyes, and we heard a sudden ripping sound.
“Oh, man!” cried Tim, waving his hand in front of his face.
Harold had passed gas again, an astonishing fart that created another huge cloud of pink-and-orange gas.
Looking relieved, the woodchuck lunged toward us once more.
We screamed and ran.
“Here!” cried Tim an instant later. “In here!”
It was our own classroom. We scrambled in, then slammed the door behind us.
Tim flicked on the lights.
We heard a muffled thud as the woodchuck flung itself against the door.
Another thud. Another. Then another huge fart.
“I’m not sure how long that door will hold out,” said Tim nervously. “Can you use your sphen-gnut-ksher on Harold?”
“It would never work on something that large.”
The next thud was followed by a cracking sound.
The door was beginning to buckle.
The Veeblax, which was clinging to my neck, shrieked in terror. So did the hamsters.
THUD! CRACK!
“Wait a minute!” cried Tim. “I just realized! I’ve got something that might help us. Now, if I can just find it…”
“What are you talking about?” I cried.
He was busy patting his pockets. “Where is it?” he muttered. “Where is it? Dang. I can’t believe I didn’t bring it with me.” Then his eyes lit up. “Wait a minute! I don’t think I even took it home!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked again.
THUD!
That was it. The door splintered and bulged in. Harold’s furry face was pressing against the splinters.
Tim ran to his desk and began rummaging in it. “Where is it?” he muttered desperately. “Where is it?”
“Where is what?” I shouted in exasperation.
Harold had nearly bulged his way through the door. He was whistling frantically, a shrill sound that made it nearly impossible to think. His eyes were red and fiery. The Veeblax, still clinging to my shoulder, was whimpering now rather than shrieking.
Tim grabbed the legs of his desk and tipped it up, spilling its contents onto the floor.
“Aha!” he cried, diving for a purple object that looked oddly familiar. He scurried across the room to join me.
Harold was caught in the doorway, but he was pulling himself forward with his claws, which were so powerful, they were actually digging into the floor. He stopped to fart again, and a horrible orange-and-pink cloud billowed up behind him.
Tim popped open the device he had retrieved from his desk.
“Where did you get that?” I asked in astonishment.
“Your Fatherly One gave it to me, so I could contact him if I had any information about where you were.” He pressed two buttons. The tiny screen lit up. “This is Tim, calling Meenom. Tim Tompkins, calling Meenom. Emergency. Emergency!”
He had to shout to be heard above the cacophony in the classroom, Harold’s piercing whistle, the rending sound of the wood as he pushed his way through it, the terrified shrieks of the Veeblax.
Just as the comm-device was connecting, we heard a sound in the hallway.
“Speektam brechlij keebo!” cried an unfamiliar voice.
Harold made it all the way into the room. He reared up on his hind legs, just as he had when Larrabe had held up the carrot for him, only it was a lot less cute now that he was nearly eight feet tall. He farted again, and the horrid pink-and-orange cloud of his gas drifted around our knees. His shadow loomed over us. He swayed back and forth, and now his whistles held a tragic note that seemed filled with desperate longing.
A noise at the doorway distracted Harold. He swung to see what it was. On the far side of his huge, furry bulk I saw two off-worlders wearing dark brown uniforms. The Interplanetary Animal Control Team! But they had come expecting to retrieve a relatively harmless little Veeblax. When the giant woodchuck lurched toward them with an ear-piercing shriek, they cried out in terror and fled.
One of them dropped their ray gun.
“Tim!” I cried. “That ray gun has a powerful tranquilizer beam. If we can distract Harold long enough for one of us to get it, we might be able to immobilize the monster.”
“All right,” he replied. “Who gets the woodchuck, and who gets the gun?”
“It seems to have been after me all the time,” I said nervously. “So I guess I’m the one who should distract it.”
I began to edge away from Tim.
The giant woodchuck kept its glittering red eyes fixed on me. It whistled again, the sound shrill and horrible, but somehow pathetic.
And then, finally, I figured it all out.
I reached into my coat pocket, pulled out the pouch of Veeblax chow, and flung it across the room.
With a squeal, Harold lurched after it, scattering desks and chairs in all directions.
Tim dived across the room and grabbed the ray gun. “How do you use this dang thing?” he cried.
“Bring it here!” I shouted. “Quick!”
Harold had snatched up the package of Veeblax chow, pathetically tiny in his enormous paws, and was tearing at it with his huge front teeth.
Tim handed me the ray gun. I adjusted the dial and pulled the trigger.
A purple beam shot out and struck Harold squarely in the rump. He emitted one last, horrible fart, then swayed to the side, caught himself, swayed again, and toppled to the floor with a muffled whump!
CHAPTER 20 [LINNSY]
THE TRUTH AT LAST
Once I had the truth from Misty, it took me almost an hour to figure out how to get a message to the embassy. Finally I called Ms. Weintraub, who gave me the number for McNally’s cellphone.
Less than ten minutes after I had told him what was going on, the limousine squealed to a stop in front of Misty’s house.
While Misty left a note for her parents, I called my mother to tell her I would be at the embassy.
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Then the two of us piled into the car.
“Man,” said Misty as we settled into the seat beside McNally, “what a car. You’ve even got a chauffeur! I feel like a movie star.”
I saw Ralph-the-Driver glance into the rearview mirror. But he didn’t say anything. According to Tim and Pleskit, he never does. I didn’t say anything either, even though Misty’s comment really annoyed me. It was as if she felt she were getting a reward, when what she deserved was… Well, I don’t know what she deserved, but it wasn’t a reward. But I was afraid if I said anything, she would get in one of her moods and refuse to cooperate.
So I kept my mouth shut.
Misty continued to be wide-eyed and astonished as we drove up to Thorncraft Park, where the embassy hangs from its great hook. We entered the tunnel that leads to the underground entrance, then, after getting out of the limo, took the “pipe” that carries visitors up the curve of the hook to the main hallway.
Ms. Buttsman was there to meet us. “The ambassador is tied up with an interplanetary call,” she said, her voice dripping ice. “After that, he has to speak to the president. He’ll be with you as soon as he can. Until then, you can wait here.”
She showed us to a couple of purple seats. They were more comfortable than they looked.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After a while Shhh-foop came in with a tray of snacks. The sight of a six-foot-tall orange alien with tentacles growing out of her head nearly sent Misty into hysterics, and she was not able to sample the snacks. I tried a couple. One was way too salty. The other was sweet, and I think I might have been able to learn to like it, but the way it wiggled on my tongue was a little too weird for me to want any more right then, especially since I was so keyed up.
Almost three hours dragged by before we were finally escorted into Meenom’s office.
He was sitting in his command pod. “Greetings, girls,” he said solemnly. “My apologies for making you wait so long, but we are in a state of deep crisis right now.” He paused, then said, “I understand you have some information for me.”
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