
Exotics #1: The Floating Menagerie

De Kenyon
Table of Contents

Copyright Information

Start Reading

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

About the Author
Copyright Information

Exotics #1: The Floating Menagerie

Copyright © 2013 by De Kenyon  
Cover image copyright © DesignWest and Oorka | Canstockphoto.com   
Cover design copyright © 2013 by DeAnna Knippling  
Interior design copyright © 2013 by DeAnna Knippling

Published by Wonderland Press

All rights reserved. This books, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the author. Discover more by this author at www.Wonderlandpress.com.
The Floating Menagerie
Chapter 1

Rachael, who had just brushed her teeth and changed into green spotted pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers, was almost ready to kill the final wave of zombies on her video game when the doorbell rang.

From the kitchen where he was washing dishes after supper, her dad yelled, "Rachael! Will you check the door?"

"I'm on the last wave, dad!" she yelled back.

"Just push the pause button."

"Please?"

"It's your turn!"

That was true. Rachael pushed pause on the game, annoyed because it was never the same when you had to push pause all the time. Meanwhile, the person at the front door had started pushing the doorbell button over and over again and pounding on the door.

Rachael peeked out of the glass beside the door. Even though it was dark out and he should have been getting ready for bed, Raul was outside their door. He looked mad and scared at the same time.

"Open the door!" he yelled.

Rachael liked Raul, but he wouldn't talk to her at school. They were both in Mrs. Sorensen's second-grade class. Sometimes they played tag at recess, and she'd let him catch her. He was part of a club, the Animal Lovers' Club, that met with Rachael's mom at their house once a week (Tuesdays). Sometimes he would talk to her after the meeting, but mostly not.

Rachael unlocked the door. Raul rushed in, slammed the door behind him, and locked it.

"Your mom—" he said, too out of breath to say anything else.

"Nobody's found her yet," Rachael said. Rachael's mom had disappeared a week ago, but Rachael was an ordinary girl who couldn't do anything about it. So she tried not to think about it too much.

"Your mom's computer. Hurry."

Rachael said, "Why?"

"Just come on." Raul led her upstairs to her mom's office.

"What's the matter?"

Raul still had his uniform on from school, and it was dirty, with bits of leaves stuck to his back. "Nothing," he said.

Somebody banged into the front door like they had run right into it. Raul said a bad word and ran up the stairs really fast, leaving Rachael behind.

"Rachael," her dad called. "Would you get that? Please?"

"Don't open the door," Raul said. He went inside the office.

The front door thudded again, and Rachael heard a cracking sound as the wood started to break.

"Rachael," her dad whined.

She ignored her dad and followed Raul into her mom's office; she really didn't want to open the door.

Raul was sitting at the computer desk, jiggling the mouse and saying more bad words. Rachael knew her mom's password (she'd looked over her shoulder), but she wasn't sure that she should give it to Raul.

Then the front door broke open and slammed against the wall. Rachael started to scream, but clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself.

Raul jumped out of the chair. "I have to get out of here."

"I'm coming, too," Rachael said.

Raul almost growled at her. "Stay here. Hide in the closet, and they'll leave you alone."

"I said I'm coming too."

Something barked loudly from downstairs like a really, really big dog.

Rachael's dad said, "What is going on, Rachael? Are you messing around again?" Then he said, "Who broke the door? What are these dogs doing in here? Out! Out!"

Rachael opened the window into the back yard, where their gigantic dog, Ox, was barking and growling. "Go down the trellis," she said. "Dad made it really strong in case of storms. Then jump onto the shed. There's a big trash can on the other side."

Rachael pulled out the window screen, and Raul slid out the window. She started to follow him.

"Go back," he yelled.

Rachael stuck her slippers in the trellis, reached up, and slid the window shut the rest of the way, as quietly as she could. "Shh," she said. "They'll hear you."
Chapter 2

Raul banged down onto the shed, then jumped down to the trash can, knocking it over. Rachael followed him, quiet as a snake, then pointed toward the back gate. The gate led to a gap between Rachael's back yard and their neighbor's back yard. The gap, which was full of weeds and trees and stuff, ran all the way to the end of the block.

They tiptoed through the garden. The streetlights were so bright they almost covered up the stars.

Ox licked Rachael's hand, then walked to stand under the office window, woofing to himself very quietly. Inside the house, Rachael's dad yelled, and something crashed and broke.

Rachael reached the gate and opened it, and she and Raul left just as the upstairs window slammed open.

Rachael expected Ox to bark, but he went perfectly quiet and stood in the shadow of the shed.

Something stuck its head out the window. "I smell him," it growled. There was something weird about its head.

Raul grabbed her arm. "If you're going to come, then hurry up."

Rachael followed Raul through the weeds I juas something thumped in the back yard. Suddenly, Rachael heard a big, angry bark from Ox as he attacked whatever had jumped out of the window. Raul pulled her arm even harder, so hard that she had a hard time following him and not tripping in the weeds.

Rachael heard another thump, and the sound of dogs fighting got even louder. Rachael's dad screamed her name, but she and Raul kept running until they reached the sidewalk.

Raul started to head right, but Rachael grabbed his arm and jerked him back the other way. "We can cut across the dead end," she whispered. She whispered because the crickets and leaves sounded too loud, like they were spying on them.

Raul ran with her up the street. Running uphill is always the worst, she thought. I always feel like I'm running through glue.

Ox yipped with pain then whimpered, and the back gate broke with a crash. A police siren started howling, far away. The wind blew harder for a second, making the leaves rustle all the way down the street, and Rachael ran even faster, passing Raul.

She was almost at the dead end when the animals reached the other end the street. They howled so loud that it drowned out the police siren, and Rachael couldn't help but look, even though she knew it was a bad idea to slow down.

There were two black dogs—not quite as big as Ox, who was part Mastiff—at the bottom of the hill. A white truck with the words "Animal Control" stopped by the two black dogs. One of the dogs wagged its tail when it saw the truck.

Then Raul grabbed her again. "Which way? You stay here. Just tell me which way."

Rachael pointed between two white houses. "Go that way. It comes out behind the school."

Raul shoved through the bushes in front of one of the houses, making a lot of noise.

The two dogs started running up the street. It took them a lot less time than it had taken her and Raul. The dogs raced like two motorcycles speeding under the streetlights, they were zooming up the street so fast.

Rachael had been almost ready to give up the adventure—her dad would be scared out of his mind; he'd think she'd been kidnapped, just like her mom—but the way those dogs ran up the hill made her panic, so she ran after Raul.

She was a lot quieter, though.
Chapter 3

Raul hissed at her from behind a tree. "Go home!"

They ducked under branches, climbed low fences, and got prickly plants stuck in their socks. It sounded like the two dogs were right behind them.

"No!" Rachael whispered. "They'll eat me. What's going on? Do you know where my mom is?"

"Shut up," Raul said.

One of the dogs growled—but not from behind them, from in front of them.

"Oh, no," Rachael whispered.

"Shut up!"

The other dog was behind them; Rachael could tell, because he growled, too.

"We're going to have to turn left," Raul said.

"Don't," Rachael whispered. "We'll just come out on the football field. They'll catch us for sure."

"They'll catch me," Raul said. "You go home."

"No."

Raul sighed. "Close your eyes for a second."

"Okay," she said, but she didn't.

It was even darker under the trees, and they were in the middle of a bunch of bushes, so she couldn't see much. But she did see Raul bend over. He grunted, shook off his clothes, and changed into something else.

"You looked," he growled.

"Wow. You're a werewolf. But it's not a full moon."

"I'm not a werewolf," Raul said. His voice sounded growly, but more like a puppy trying to sound tough than a scary monster noise. "Grab on."

Rachael sat on Raul's back, grabbed the fur on the back of his shoulders, and leaned forward. Raul started running so fast that she almost slid off. She grabbed on tighter and squeezed her legs together around Raul's belly.

Raul turned to the right, running toward the playground behind the school and right past the big dog, which yipped in surprise. Raul ducked between the swings, under the monkey bars, over the teeter totters, and out the other side of the playground.

Even though Raul was carrying Rachael, the other dogs were falling behind, because they were too big to jump through the playground equipment. Raul, who was much more graceful as a wolf than as a kid, turned around the corner, almost spilling Rachael onto the sidewalk. She was feeling a little sick to her stomach, to tell the truth.

Raul ran onto the school's front lawn, toward more houses. The two big dogs started to catch up to them.

Raul ran across a couple of empty lots and turned onto a narrow side street. The houses on this side of the school were packed together, with tall fences everywhere, so Raul couldn't hide.

The white Animal Control van pulled into the street, blocking the way out. Behind them, the two dogs were almost close enough to knock her and Raul onto the ground.

Suddenly, Raul stopped, and the two dogs ran past him, unable to stop as fast as he had. Raul was panting so hard it sounded like he couldn't breathe, and Rachael realized that carrying her had exhausted him. She should have let him go without her—he was going to get caught because of her. The two big dogs stopped and ran back toward Raul, guarding him.

Rachael rolled off his back and onto the street. Her whole body hurt from hanging on so hard. "I'm sorry, Raul," she said. "I only followed you because I thought you might know what happened to my mom. I didn't mean to get you caught."

A man got out of the truck. He was wearing a blue-and-white shirt with what looked like a picture of a black dog on the pocket.

"Here, boy," the man said, whistling at Raul. "Miss? You should stay back. That animal is dangerous. He might have rabies. Do you know what rabies is?" He pulled a long gun out of the van. "Don't worry. This is a tranquilizer gun. It won't hurt him; it'll just put him to sleep."

Rachael looked at Raul. Now that she could see him, he looked just like a really big wolf, only kind of skinny. The streetlights made his gray fur shine orange.

The man aimed the gun at Raul.
Chapter 4

"Don't shoot!" Rachael shouted.

The man ignored her and kept aiming the tranquilizer gun at Raul.

Raul whimpered.

Rachael made up her mind to do something to help Raul, because it was mostly her fault that he hadn't been able to escape.

Rachael ran straight toward the man. "Help!" she yelled. She ran right in front of the man, waving her arms, then followed him when he tried to step to the side, staying between him and Raul. "Help me, mister! I was almost eaten by that wolf. He picked me up and dragged me all the way here!"

"I'll help you, miss," the man said, "if you'll just get out of the way."

"I don't know what happened to my friend Raul," Rachael said. "One minute he was there, the next minute, he had run away!" She yelled the last two words really loud, hoping Raul would get the hint. "Yeah, he must have run away!"

"Get out of the way!" the man shouted. He snapped his fingers twice.

Rachael heard something moving behind her. She looked around and saw the two dogs starting to circle her.

Rachael screamed. Where was everybody? Couldn't anybody hear her?

A few lights went on in the houses nearby. The man said a bad word and waved his hand toward her while he aimed the gun at Raul.

Rachael screamed again and ran toward the man. "Help me, help me," she sobbed. She didn't have to try too hard to sound scared. "Now there are three big dogs attacking me."

She heard the click of claws on the street behind her, then Raul was knocking her out of the way, charging the man, jumping onto his chest, and knocking him to the ground.

The two big dogs grabbed Raul with their teeth and tried to pull him off the man, who was moaning. Raul tried to bite the dogs, but they were both bigger than he was and knocked him to the side.

Rachael didn't dare jump into that dogpile.

Then Rachael heard more barking as the sound of sirens got a lot louder and closer.

Suddenly, Ox rushed into the dogs and dragged one of them off Raul, shaking the bigger dog back and forth with his jaws.

"Ox!" Rachael yelled.

Raul and the other dog rolled off the man and attacked. Now that Raul wasn't outnumbered, he was beating the bigger dog.

The man sat up and reached for his tranquilizer gun again.

Rachael heard a bark of pain and saw Ox cowering in front of the other dog. It looked like he was hurt, one paw held off the ground. The other dog was walking slowly toward Ox and growling.

Rachael was getting really, really mad. Ox was hurt, Raul was in trouble, her mom had disappeared a week ago and nobody knew where she was, and nobody would tell her why any of this was happening.

Rachael ran at the man, grabbing the long part of his gun. "Your dog is attacking my dog! Make him stop! Make him stop!"

The man tried to push her away, but she grabbed his gun and twisted it around like she'd learned in karate class. He was a lot stronger than she was, but Rachael could tell she was hurting him. She twisted harder. Her heart was beating so hard that she thought she was going to die—then the man finally dropped the gun, yelling and grabbing his hand.

Rachael felt something sting her leg. It hurt a lot—then stopped hurting. She looked down and saw something sticking out of her leg, probably one of the tranquilizer darts from the gun, full of sleepy medicine.

Shoot, she thought.

Suddenly, all she could see was the man's face, which looked scared for some reason. Rachael tried to stay standing up, but she couldn't. She was falling asleep, whether she liked it or not.
Chapter 5

Rachael woke up in a cage. Two walls were cement; the other two walls were made out of chain-link fence. She stood up. Her legs were shaking, and she was so thirsty her lips stuck together. There was a cage door on one wall with a padlock holding the door shut. She reached through the cage and yanked on the lock, but it wouldn't come open.

She looked around. Her cage was on one side of a hallway; on the other side, the cages were full of dogs. She thought she might be in an animal shelter.

In the cage beside her was a familiar-looking wolf.

"Raul?" she said.

The wolf growled. He started pacing back and forth, and his toenails clicked on the cement floor.

"Raul? Is that you?"

The wolf shook his head, his ears wobbling back and forth. Rachael noticed there was a black collar around Raul's neck. On the collar was a small black box with a flashing green light. The wolf rubbed his neck against the chain link fence, pushing the collar back and forth. The wolf whined.

Rachael reached her hand through the cage and touched the wolf. His fur was rough, pokey, and a little dirty. For a second, she thought he would bite her, but the wolf just rubbed harder against the side of the cage.

Rachael said, "Hold still," and the wolf stopped rubbing. She grabbed his collar and turned it around until she could touch the black box. She felt around until she found a switch under the band. She pushed it really hard, and the green light went off.

The wolf coughed and said, "Uhghoooahgh" and smacked his lips. "Ahghah. That feels better. We're in an animal shelter. It must be midnight by now. Can you reach the handle on my door? It might not be locked."

Rachael tried to reach around the front of her cage to Raul's door, but her elbow was too big, and she couldn't reach. The wire of the cage scratched her arm all the way from her elbow to her wrist, and it really hurt.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't reach. Why don't you turn back into a kid and try it?"

"I don't have any clothes," Raul said.

"I won't look."

"You will too." Raul huffed like a dog and lay on the floor.

Rachael sat on the floor next to him.

"You got me captured by the Shadow Dogs."

"I told you to run away. And who are the Shadow Dogs?"

"A club, kind of. They kidnap Exotics like me and sell them into slavery."

Rachael didn't understand. She was just about to ask Raul what he meant, when he said, "You get sick, really sick, and sometimes when you get better, you can change into an animal. Some people get stuck as an animal and can never change back. They call us Exotics. Some people like to keep us as slaves. Or pets."

Rachael thought some more. "You're part of my mom's Animal Lovers' Club."

"Yeah," he said.

"Is everybody in the club an Exotic? Is my mom an Exotic? Is that why I couldn't join the club?"

Raul didn't want to answer. He huffed, got up, turned around in a circle, sat down, and huffed again.

Rachael said, "Raul?"

Raul yelled, "Yes! Okay, yes, we are. We all are. Including your mom. But she didn't want you to find out."

"What is she?"

Raul huffed again. "A bee."

"A bee?"

"Not just a bee. The Queen Bee."

Rachael didn't want to say anything, but it seemed strange. She couldn't imagine her mother turning into a tiny, fat bee who laid eggs all day. If Raul was telling the truth, where were her bee brothers and bee sisters?

Suddenly, Raul sat up and started scratching his neck with his back foot, turning his collar around so the box was opposite the front door of his cage. "Shh!"

The door at the end of the hall opened.
Chapter 6

The man who had shot Rachael with the tranquilizer gun walked into the room.

"I want to go home," Raul growled.

Ugh, Rachael thought. Why did he even bother to hide the fact that his collar was turned off, if he was just going to give himself away? But that was Raul; he couldn't keep his temper.

The man shrugged. "Got your collar turned off, huh? I want a lot of things, too. I'm not going to let you go, so stop asking."

"My mom will—"

"You're dead," the man said. When Raul didn't say anything, he continued, "Oh, sorry. Did I make you cry? Wait, wolves don't cry. We made it look like you got hit by a car that exploded. Your mom isn't even looking for you. She's burying a burnt-up, dead wolf."

Raul growled and charged the side of the cage, making the chain links rattle. He banged his head against the wire again and again.

The dogs on the other side of the hall woke up and started barking and howling. Rachael covered her ears with her hands.

The man waited until Raul had stopped banging on the fence. Raul stumbled around, dizzy from hitting his head.

"Make all the noise you want," the man said. "Nobody can hear you. Don't worry, nobody will actually kill you; you have too much valuable information. But I don't really care, as long as you don't make problems for me before I can get you out of here."

Raul turned his back on the man and laid in the corner, whining to himself.

"You." The man pointed toward Rachael.

She tried to make herself smaller, but of course there was nowhere to hide.

The man said, "You're the Queen Bee's daughter. We've captured her, but she's not telling us what we want to know."

Rachael felt like her whole body was on fire. He knew about her mother! Maybe he knew where she was!

The man continued, "It's probably a waste of time to ask, but if you tell us what we want to know, we'll let you and your mother go. What is the password for your mom's computer?"

Rachael said, "I'm not supposed to tell anybody." Which was true. She looked at her feet and curled her arm tighter around her knees.

"Your mother is a prisoner right now, kid. Don't you want her to go free?"

"Yes," she said.

"So what's her password?"

She whispered, "I don't remember." Even though she did, of course.

"What's that? I can't hear you."

"I don't remember."

"You're lying," he said.

"It's not fair!" Rachael said. "I want to save my mom. But I can't remember!" Her voice got louder and whinier, and her eyes filled with tears. "You have to let her go. It's not her fault I can't remember!"

This was something she rarely did, whining and crying about things not being fair. To tell the truth, nobody at her house really cared about what was fair; her parents mostly rolled their eyes and ignored her if she complained about her chores or something like that. On the other hand, she'd seen some of her friends do it, and their parents would do almost anything to make them shut up, so she decided to give it a try.

Rachael grabbed the side of her cage and shook it, making the dogs bark again. She whined, "I don't know..." Then she burst into tears.

She thought she was doing a pretty good job of wailing her head off, but the man just rolled his eyes and left.

Rachael kept crying and shaking the fence until the man had closed the door to the hallway behind him and turned out the lights in that room, too. Then she started giggling.

Raul snarled, "It's not a game, Rachael. What if you get your mom killed messing around like that? They can probably see you on a spy camera right now."

She hadn't thought of it like that. "Oh," she said. Suddenly, she felt very cold and sad. She'd been trying so hard not to think about her mom being gone.

Rachael sat on the floor in the corner closest to Raul and leaned her head on the cage. She pulled her arms inside her shirt and cried. 
Chapter 7

It took a long time to fall asleep. Rachael woke up shivering and hungry. Her stomach was upset, and she needed to use the bathroom.

While she'd been complaining about things that weren't fair last night, she should have included "no bathrooms." And no food. And the place where her leg hurt from the tranquilizer dart.

Raul was lying on the floor with his eyes wide open, not really looking at anything.

"Are you okay?" Rachael asked.

"No," Raul said. "Leave me alone."

"Don't worry. I'll rescue you."

Raul snorted. "You can't even rescue yourself."

"I will. And I promise I'll rescue you, too."

Rachael expected Raul to make fun of her for saying that, but he didn't. Instead, he said, "Thank you. I guess."

"You're welcome."

"I need to go to the bathroom," Raul said.

Rachael thought about reminding Raul that wolves didn't use the bathroom. However, the cages already smelled bad enough, and Rachael thought Raul would probably stop talking to her if she told him quit whining and pee in the corner.

The man opened the door to the hallway. He was wearing the same kind of blue-and-white striped shirt, but it wasn't dirty from their fight. It must be his work uniform.

Why wasn't he in disguise? she wondered. Did he think they would never be let go? Or was he just dumb? She would tell the cops on him, no matter what.

"Are you ready to tell me your mom's computer password yet?" the man said.

"Excuse me?" Rachael said. "May I use the bathroom?"

The man said, "Sure," then shook his head. "No, wait. First you tell me your mom's password, and then I let you go to the bathroom."

"That's not fair," Rachael said.

The man turned around and started to leave.

Rachael sighed. "Please, mister? I have to go. I'll be good."

Raul paced back and forth in his cage. Rachael suspected that Raul was angry that she hadn't asked for him to go to the bathroom too, but Raul could ask for himself, and besides, Rachael wasn't worrying about going the bathroom as much as she was about trying to escape.

The man unlocked Rachael's cage and led her through the door at the end of the hall into a grooming area, with tables that had poles and chains on them. You could put a dog on the table, clip the chain onto the pole onto its collar, and make it stand still while you combed it, cut its hair, and trimmed its nails. Ox would have hated it.

The man pointed at a door in the side of the room. "In there. You have two minutes."

Rachael went through the door and locked it behind her. There was a window!

She closed the toilet lid and climbed onto the back as quickly but as quietly as she could. She braced one foot on the top of the toilet paper holder, whispering to herself please don't break, please don't break, and looked out the window.

She could see a big road with a bunch of cars on it and tall buildings on the other side of the road. Just outside the window were a bunch of bushes.

The window wasn't locked, only latched. She opened the latch and pushed the window out as far as it would go, then grabbed the windowsill and jumped and pulled herself up so her head was sticking out the window and the top of her body was resting on the windowsill.

Her feet thumped on the wall.

"What's going on in there?" the man asked. "You come out right now!"
Chapter 8

The air outside the window was really cold. The sun hadn't really risen yet—it was light but not bright outside. This was the earliest Rachael had been awake for a really, really long time, and she was very tired.

The man pounded on the door. "Get out here! Right now!"

Rachael sighed and slid back inside the bathroom, pulling the window shut behind her. She couldn't leave without Raul. She knew her dad would think she was being stupid; she should escape and tell the police where Raul was, so the police could rescue him, but she just couldn't do it. She'd promised.

Rachael shouted, "I'm busy! Just wait a minute." She used the bathroom, washed her hands, and looked in all the drawers while the water was still running. She found a small pair of clippers with short, curved snippers on them, and put them in the deep pocket on the leg of her pajamas.

Then she turned off the water, unlocked the door, and came out.

"I'm sorry I took so long," she said. "But I really, really had to go."

"I don't need to know, kid," the man said. "Did you change your mind about your mom's password yet? Did you 'remember' it?"

Rachael shook her head, and the man led her back to the room with the cages. He locked her in her cage.

"What's going to happen to us?" she asked.

The man grinned. "The two of you are going on a little trip to meet someone who isn't as nice as I am. So, you know, if you don't want to go, you should tell me the password first."

Raul headbutted the cage. "Shut up about the password already. She isn't going to tell you."

The man shrugged. "In that case, it's time for the trip."

"To where?" Rachael asked.

"Far, far away," the man said. "I'll bring you some food and water in a few minutes."

"Do you know where my mom is? Is that where we're going?"

The man laughed. "If you think I'm going to tell you, you're dumber than a box of rocks."

"What?"

"I mean you're stupid, kid."

"I'll tell you my mom's password if you tell me where she is," Rachael wheedled.

"Nah, it's too late for that now. You had your chance. But tell me anyway. What is it?"

"I was lying." Rachael crossed her arms over her chest. "I still don't remember what it is."

"That's what I thought," the man said. "Why would your mom even tell you what her password is? You didn't even know she was a spy."

"Did too," Rachael lied. Her mother was a spy?

"Hah." The man locked the door behind him as he left.

Raul paced back and forth. Rachael noticed that Raul had used one corner of his cage as a toilet after all, but she decided not to mention it.

"We have to figure out a way to get out of here," Raul said, his toenails clicking on the floor. It was very distracting.

"If you can turn into a human, you can get out the bathroom window," Rachael said.

Raul stopped walking as he realized that Rachael hadn't gone out the window, not without him. "Oh." After a few seconds, he started walking again. "I know, when they come to get us, we'll charge them. We'll knock them down and run away."

Rachael pulled the clippers out of her pocket and tried to cut through the lock, but the U-shaped shackle was too strong.

"Try the wire," Raul said.

Rachael couldn't cut through the wire of the cage, but she could wedge the clippers under the loops of wire holding the cage walls together. She twisted the clippers around until the end of one loop popped free.

Rachael inspected her cage. If she could pop off two more wire loops, she'd be able to push the corner of the cage up and sneak into Raul's cage. Then she could get through the front of Raul's cage so they could both escape.

She started to work on the next wire loop. It popped off right away. But the last one was wrapped around twice and wouldn't budge.

Raul yipped, "He's coming back!"
Chapter 9

The man came through the door just as Rachael put the clippers in her pocket. She ran toward him and started shaking the door of her cage to distract him so he wouldn't look at the missing wires.

"I'm so hungry," she moaned.

"Well, aren't you lucky," the man said. "I brought you something to eat." He had a plate of cheese and crackers and a carton of milk. "Go stand in the corner. I don't want you trying to run away."

Rachael let go of the door and backed away. Should she try to run past the man?

The man wouldn't unlock her cage until she touched the back wall. Rachael tried to look like she wasn't paying attention, but as soon as the man opened the door, she ran straight toward him.

The man dropped the tray. Rachael ducked and twisted, but the man's big body was in the way. He shoved her, and she tripped on the tray, knocking crackers, cheese, and milk everywhere.

"Ow!"

"Nice try. Too bad I'm so fat, or you might have knocked me over. Oh no, did you spill your food? Too bad. Now you'll have to eat it off the floor." He slammed the cage door. "I'll bring you another carton of milk, though."

He carried a bucket of water and a small bowl of dog food up to Raul's cage. "Are you going to give me any problems?"

Raul bared his teeth at him.

"I'm going to take that as a yes." The man went back into the other room for a few seconds and returned with a yellow stick or gun with a handle on one end and two points on the other. The man opened Raul's cage door. Raul charged the door, and the man poked him with the stick. Raul jumped and whimpered in pain.

"Don't like that, do you? It's called an electric cattle prod, and it'll shock you if I poke you with it. Now stand back from the door, or I'll do it again."

But Raul wasn't ready to give up yet. He charged the man again—and got shocked again. But this time, Raul didn't back away. He kept charging forward until he was under the prod. Then he bit the man on his arm.

The man yelled, and the door at the end of the hall burst open, and two older boys with red hair ran through.

When they saw the man hitting Raul with the prod, trying to get him to let go of his arm (instead of shocking Raul with the prod), they laughed.

"Good job with that wolf, Joe," said one.

Rachael thought the boys looked familiar; they might be eighth-graders at her school, but she couldn't remember their names. They were twins.

"Shut up and help me," the man said. "Ow!"

The two boys dropped to their hands and knees, shook off their clothes, and turned into the big dogs that had chased them yesterday. Raul growled through his clenched teeth. The two dogs circled Raul inside his cage until one of the dogs was behind him. Then the dog bit Raul on the back leg. Raul yipped with pain and let go of Joe's arm, and he jumped out of reach.

Joe checked his arm. It was scratched up but not bleeding too badly; Raul hadn't bitten him as hard as he could have. "It felt like he was going to tear my whole arm off!" He shoved the bucket and dog food into Raul's cage. The two dogs slipped out of the cage, and Joe slammed the door.

Raul charged toward the door, trying to get out, but the door hit him in the head. He slid backward, lying on the floor.

Joe locked the door. The two dogs whined at him.

Joe said, "What, do you think I'm your mother? Pick up your own clothes."

"There's a girl," one of the big black dogs said.

Joe snorted and picked up the dog-boys' scattered clothes, and they all left.

Rachael looked around. Something was missing. "Were did the other dogs go?"

"That man came for them earlier this morning, while you were asleep," Raul panted. "He told me he was going to put them to sleep and that we were next."

"Oh no," Rachael said.

"He was probably lying. Probably."
Chapter 10

Rachael was so hungry that she picked up all the cheese, wiped off the dirt as best she could, and ate it. The crackers were mostly crushed into powder, but she ate a few of the larger pieces. The milk carton was flat, and her bottom was a bit damp from falling in the milk.

Raul drank some of his water but didn't touch the food.

Joe came back a few minutes later with another carton of milk and the cattle prod. He opened her cage, waved the prod at her a few times, then put the milk on the floor and relocked the cage.

Rachael started to open the carton and noticed that one corner was already open. "This one is open already," she said.

"That's because I was going to drink it. But you wasted all your milk, so I'm giving you mine. I'm being nice. I don't have to be nice."

Raul bared his teeth at Joe and growled, but didn't get off the floor.

Rachael said, "Okay," and drank the milk. "Do you want your tray back?"

"Nah," Joe said. "I'll clean up your pens after you're gone."

"When are we leaving?" Rachael asked.

The man checked his watch. "In about fifteen minutes."

Rachael sat against the back wall. She hadn't slept much, and she was tired again. She decided to close her eyes and rest until they came to get her...

· · ·

Rachael had a terrible nightmare. She dreamed that she was in the dark, and it was really, really cold, and she could barely move. Her ears hurt. She swallowed, and they hurt even more for a few seconds, then felt a little better. Her stomach felt awful. She tried to talk out loud, but she could only whisper. She tried to kick, but her feet wouldn't move. Then she felt really dizzy, and that's where the dream ended. She couldn't remember any more.

· · ·

When she woke up, she was in a tiny room with gray walls, and she was lying on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. She sat up. Her stomach felt even worse, so she looked around for a place to throw up.

There was a closet with no clothes in it, a trash can, and a latched metal box so big she could have hidden inside it. All the stuff was gray. She grabbed the trash can and threw up in it. She felt a little better right away, but her stomach still felt like it was rocking back and forth.

"Oh, great," a voice from the top bunk said. "I'm trapped on a pirate ship with someone who gets seasick. Could it get any worse?"

Rachael stood on the edge of the bottom bunk and peeked over the side.

A dark-colored girl with curly black hair and wearing a tan uniform lay on top of the covers, reading a comic book.

"Hi," Rachael said. "Sorry about barfing in your trash can."

"Yeah, hi," the girl said. "Tie up the bag, or we'll have to smell your chunder until exercise time."

"Sorry." Rachael did what the other girl told her to do. "What's your name?"

"Cassie. You?"

"Rachael."

"I'm a prisoner, too," the girl announced. "I'm an Exotic, a big dog, a St. Bernard. But they don't want me to stay as a St. Bernard because they say I poop too much. So they have me trapped as a human." Cassie held up her leg and pushed down her sock. She had a black band on her leg with a flat tag fastened to it.

"Can't you turn it off?" Rachael asked. "Or take it off?"

"No switch on these ones. And I can't take it off without getting a real bad shock," Cassie said. "It usually makes me pass out. What kind of Exotic are you?"

"Um, nothing," Rachael said. "They just want to know my mom's password. Mom's been kidnapped, and she won't tell them, so they're going to use me to freak her out, I guess."

"Your ma? What's her name?"

"Bea Baptiste."

"Ooh, the Queen Bee. You must be Baby Bee. I heard about you."
Chapter 11

"You heard about me?" Rachael asked.

"Yeah," Cassie said. "She's real proud of you. Says you're real smart with computers, for a kid."

Rachael felt wonderful and terrible at the same time. "Cassie, what's going on? Why was my mom kidnapped?"

Cassie put the comic book down. "You're pulling my leg." When Rachael didn't say anything, Cassie's mouth fell open. "You really don't know?"

Rachael shook her head.

"And you're not scared out of your wits, either. Nice. I couldn't stand that, if the Queen Bee's own girl was a crybaby."

Rachael wiped her eyes, just in case, but she did feel slightly more curious than scared.

"It goes like this. There's bad folks in the world who will break the law if it means they get what they want, right?"

Rachael nodded.

"Me and your ma are part of a group that tries to help Exotics, the Animal Lovers' Club. I met your ma once, in Canberra, when I was helping my Uncle Jim catch some poachers. That's about all there is to it, really. Except the last I heard, she was working on something really big, but she didn't want to talk about it. As for me, I was helping my uncle on the preserve one day, and next thing I knew, I'm here. My uncle's going to be dead angry at me, I know it."

"He won't be angry at you for getting kidnapped!" Rachael said.

"You don't know my uncle. But these guys on the ship, they're Shadow Dogs, see? They, ah, I heard they sell Exotics as pets."

A buzzing sound echoed outside the door, followed by a clunk. Cassie slid off the bunk and put her shoes on. "Come on. Put the trash can outside the door." She opened the door. "You coming or not?"

Rachael put the trash can outside the door, as instructed. "Where are we going?"

"It's exercise time." Cassie led her down the gray hallway, down some gray stairs, and through a gray door.

Rachael heard footsteps behind them and looked; other kids were following them down the stairs.

When Rachael went through the door, the sun shone in her eyes so brightly that she couldn't see. She heard water splashing, and it smelled like the world's biggest fish tank. She shaded her eyes with her hand.

Cassie grabbed her other arm and pulled her along. "Get out of the way! You're blocking the door."

Rachael stumbled, then suddenly she could see again. She was standing next to a big gray building on one side and a railing on the other side. Past the railing was an endless, waving, sparkling stretch of water.

But Cassie was pulling on her arm, so Rachael didn't have time to stare at the ocean for long.

Cassie led her along the railing and around the side of the building.

At first, Rachael didn't understand what she was looking at, because the sun was reflecting into her eyes, and she couldn't see again. Then Cassie pulled her closer, and Rachael was looking at a huge glass dome. The dome was filled with lots of trees and vines.

"Is the elevator working yet?" Cassie asked.

A tiny blond girl behind them said, "No. We tried it yesterday after supper, and it almost dropped us all the way to the bottom."

Rachael noticed that two adults, one with an eyepatch, were following them. The adults and kids wore tan uniforms with black dogs on the front. Rachael still had her green spotted pajamas on; they were getting dirty.

"Bleah," Cassie said. "Right. It's the ladder, then."

She led Rachael to a small glass door in the side of the dome. When she opened the door, a gust of wind rushed out, and Cassie pushed Rachael inside quickly. The other three kids followed them inside, and Cassie shut the door. The two adults followed them in, shutting the door behind them, too.

Inside the dome was a jungle that stretched to the top of the dome and went down into shadows and darkness. They were standing on a small, gray platform near the top.

Cassie said, "Guys, this is Rachael. Rachael, we're going down the ladder. I hope you ain't afraid of heights."

The ship moved under Rachael's feet, and she grabbed the railing on the side of the platform. "I'm not afraid of heights," Rachael said. "But why does everything have to keep moving?"

"This is going to be bad," Cassie said. "All right, Rachael. You got to go first, in case you, ah, throw up. Nobody wants to get hit with that."

"Okay." Rachael walked along the railing, hanging on with both hands, until she reached the ladder.

The ladder went so far down into the shadows that she couldn't see the bottom.

Rachael turned around, grabbed the side rails as hard as she could, and started climbing down.
Chapter 12

Rachael felt the boat sway as she was climbing down the ladder. She froze, trying not to be sick.

"Hurry up," a boy's voice said crossly.

"I think she's going to throw up," the blond girl's voice said.

Rachael hung on, ignoring the comments from above until her stomach settled down again. She went down the ladder for so long that she thought she was never going to come to the bottom.

But finally she did.

She let go of the ladder with a sigh of relief and stumbled as the ship moved again. Was it ever going to get any better? She grabbed the trunk of a skinny tree and held on.

Cassie climbed down after her. "Good job there. Let's wait for the others, right?"

Cassie was followed by a frowning, dark-haired boy with black glasses, then the blond girl, and finally a strong-looking tanned boy with tiny eyes and a big smile.

"Oh yeah." She pointed at the boy with glasses. "That's Hideo." She pointed at the blond girl. "Babra." She pointed at the boy with tiny eyes. "And Digger."

"Where are we?" Rachael asked.

"Follow right behind me," Cassie said. "I'll explain as we walk."

They walked along a dirt trail covered with leaves. Cassie kept talking, as promised. "The Gardener says she wants to put a pretty pathway in later, but I like walking on the trail. Makes it seem more like we're really in the jungle. Anyway, we're inside one of the four habitats that the Gardener is building on this ship, the Floating Menagerie."

"Menagerie?"

"Yeah. It means like a zoo. A place for rich people to keep their animals, like. When they're all done, there will be a jungle habitat, a desert habitat, an ocean habitat, and a mountain and cave habitat."

"We're already on the ocean," Rachael pointed out.

"Yeah. But if you get dumped in the ocean around here, you'll get eaten by sharks, and nobody wants that." Cassie pushed between the leaves of a big fern into an open area. She pointed toward the top of the dome. "That's the elevator. I can't wait until it gets finished."

A big glass elevator shaft led from the top of the dome to the jungle floor, supported by the trunk of a giant tree. Rachael walked over to the tree and touched it; it was fake, made out of cement and painted brown.

Rachael looked around. "What about Raul?"

"Who's that?" Cassie asked.

The blond girl, Babra, said, "He's the new wolf that just got here. Is he your friend?"

Rachael nodded. It didn't matter whether Raul thought she was his friend or not. For all she knew, Raul was still mad at her for getting him captured by the Shadow Dogs. But she was his friend now, no matter what.

"When he woke up, he attacked one of the adults," Babra said. "Tapeworm."

Cassie said, "Uh-oh."

Babra touched Rachael gently on her arm. "I'm sorry. Tapeworm beat him up pretty bad. They're keeping him in the infirmary next to Dr. Menney until he gets better."

Rachael was shocked. "Is he going to die?"

"I don't think so," Babra said. "There was a boy who died last year. Dr. Menney was very angry when he got sick, and she got angrier and angrier until she was screaming at everybody. When I went to visit the wolf boy yesterday, she was just a little grumpy, like usual."

"Who is Tapeworm?" Rachael wanted to know, so she could get back at him. Then she shuddered. "Is he an Exotic? Can he turn into a worm?"

Cassie said, "Nah. He's just one of the adults. It's his nickname. He was one of the adults following us upstairs, the shorter one."

A bell chimed from overhead. Cassie yelled, "All right! Exercise time!" and all the kids stripped off their clothes.

Rachael wanted to know what everybody turned into, so she peeked through her hands as they changed.

Cassie dumped her clothes on the ground and turned into a giant brown-and-white dog. The dog still had a black band on its hind leg. Hideo carefully put his glasses into a case, went behind a tree, and flew out as a parrot a few seconds later. Babra turned beet red, covered her face, and fled behind a big bush. Digger shrank to the ground and crawled out of his clothes as a small black rodent with giant claws, eyes so small they were invisible, and a nose surrounded by tiny pink tentacles. He waved at Rachael, then dug straight into the ground and disappeared.

A small dog with golden, wavy hair on its floppy ears poked its head from behind the bush a few minutes later and barked to get Rachael's attention.

"Babra?" Rachael asked.

The dog barked excitedly and galloped toward Rachael, barking happily. Rachael knelt down, and the dog jumped into Rachael's lap and wagged her tail. Rachael scratched the Babra dog behind her ears.

Cassie snorted a big, slobbery snort. "I think she forgets she was ever human sometimes." She ran off through the trees.

Rachael scratched Babra on the head. "Good girl." Then she heard a noise behind her that sounded like a car driving over sticks and turned to look.

A big black snake was slithering behind her on the path. The snake was so big that the top of its head was taller than Rachael as she sat with Babra on her lap.

Rachael screamed and clutched Babra to her chest.
Chapter 13

The snake raised its head. Rachael grabbed Babra and backed away, trying not to trip. "You better stay away from us!" Rachael yelled.

Babra barked and tried to jump out of Rachael's arms, but Rachael held her tight.

Suddenly, the shorter of the two adults jumped out of the jungle and hit the snake on the nose with a long stick.

"Back!" he yelled.

The snake hissed and shook its head.

"Get back! Ha!" The man whipped the snake across the nose. "That'll teach you to scare little kids. Ha! Ha!"

With each yell, the man whipped the snake again. The snake tried to slither away, but the trees were too close together, except on the path. The snake turned and turned again, trying to get away from the man with the stick.

The man chortled and struck the snake over and over.

Rachael should have been glad to be saved from the giant snake, but the way the man was laughing and yelling at the snake was even creepier than the snake itself.

"Leave it alone!" Rachael yelled.

The man laughed harder. "She was going to eat you up, little girl! I saved you. Aren't you even going to say thank you? Ha!" He didn't stop hitting the snake.

The snake gave up trying to escape and laid its head on the ground. Its whole body shook.

"Stop it!" Rachael shouted.

She put Babra on the ground and charged at the man. At the same time, Babra ran toward the snake.

Rachael twisted the stick out of the man's hand. Then he twisted it out of her hand and got it right back. He raised the stick to hit her. "Nuh-uh, kid. Don't even think about it."

She ducked under his arm and started running. "Help! Help! I'm being attacked by a bad man and a giant snake! Please help me!"

Behind her, the snake hissed. The man charged after Rachael, running noisily through the trees.

Rachael ran along the path, which circled around and around, like it was trying to find the longest way to get where it was supposed to go instead of the shortest, until she almost ran into a curving metal wall that reached up into the dome. The path ended at a metal door with a small, circular window.

Rachael reached up and grabbed a lever that looked like it might be a door handle, but it only moved a little before it stopped with a clang: the door was locked.

The man was right behind her with the stick, and Babra and the snake were right behind him.

The man stopped, grinned, and raised his stick. "I'm going to teach you a lesson—"

"Stop!" A new voice echoed around them. "All of you."

The skinny man lowered his stick and glared at Rachael. Babra stopped barking, and even the snake froze.

Above them, a man in a white suit and hat stood on the elevator platform at the top of the dome. He pointed toward them. "What's going on here?"

The man with the stick moved his jaw back and forth angrily but didn't say anything. In fact, nobody else said anything. The snake flicked its tongue, and Babra whined.

Rachael yelled, "I thought the snake was going to attack me." She pointed at the man with the stick. "Then he attacked the snake, but he was so mean about it that I tried to take his stick away. Then he started chasing me."

The man with the stick bared his front teeth in a silent growl, but he didn't say anything.

The man on the platform yelled, "Tapeworm. I'll see you on the bridge in ten minutes."

The man who had beaten up Raul threw his stick into the jungle. "Get out of my way, kid."

Rachael backed away from the door. As Tapeworm pulled out a key and unlocked the door, Rachael said quietly, "You're the one who hurt my friend."

The man stopped and smiled at her. Only half of his mouth went up, and he showed teeth again. "You're friends with the wolf boy? Don't think I won't do the same to you. Stay out of my way." He opened the door with a jerk on the handle and slammed it behind him.

Rachael looked back at the platform. The man in the white suit had left; she could see him hurrying along a gray walkway that joined the tops of the domes with the big building at the back of the ship.

Babra said, "She wasn't going to hurt you."

Rachael looked down. The snake had left without her noticing. Babra was lying near Rachael's feet with her head between her front paws.

"I didn't know that," Rachael said. "I thought she was going to eat us."

"But she wouldn't," Babra said.

"Okay." Rachael sat on the ground and scratched Babra between the ears. "Is she an Exotic, too?"

"Yes," Babra said. "It's very sad. She gets stuck as a snake most of the time and forgets how to talk. She's very smart, though."

"What's her name?" Rachael asked.

"Her name is Molly," Babra said. "But everybody calls her the Gardener. She's the one who's building the habitats on the ship."

"And who was that man?" Rachael asked.

Babra growled a tiny, adorable growl. "Tapeworm?"

"No, the other man. The one in the white suit."

"Oh," Babra said. "That's Captain Monn. He's my dad."

"Your dad?" Why was Babra locked up, if the captain was her dad?

Another adult came crashing through the jungle, a tall, strong-looking man with a big bald spot on top of his head. "Yo," he said. "Kid. Somebody wants you. Come with me."

Rachael looked at Babra.

Babra said, "It's okay. It's just Sponge. He's nice."

The man frowned at Babra. "I am not nice. Come on." He bent over and tugged on Rachael's arm until she stood up and followed him. "Mr. Hightower wants to see you."

Babra yipped and cowered, then ran into the trees. "Oh no, oh no, oh no..."
Chapter 14

"Never mind her," Sponge said. "She doesn't get along with Mr. Hightower, that's all."

"Babra, Babra!" Rachael called, but the little Exotic didn't reappear.

Sponge led Rachael to the door in the side of the wall and opened it. Rachael stepped through, and Sponge closed and locked the door behind them.

They were standing next to the bottom half of a giant gray ball. The ball was covered with gray, rust-streaked braces that disappeared up into the dark ceiling.

"Wow," Rachael said.

"Yeah, it's a mess down here," Sponge said. "But the only people who see it are—"

Rachael jerked her arm away from Sponge and took off running. She ducked under a brace, ran around the giant ball, and found an aisle that ran along the side of the ship.

"Aw, man," Sponge yelled.

She could hear him running behind her. She wasn't sure what she was looking for; it wasn't like she could throw herself off the side of the ship and swim home. One, there were sharks, and two, she didn't know how far the ship was from land.

She ducked into the space between two of the giant balls and started running in the opposite direction. She wanted to find a computer or some way to communicate with the outside world, so she could tell them where she and Raul were. Or maybe she would find Raul. At least she would cause her kidnappers trouble.

Rachael found a door in a flat wall. There was only one flat wall that she had seen in the ship, and that was in the tall building she and the other kids had come out of. The infirmary should be in the building—the only other place to put it would be in the big domes, and Rachael didn't think a doctor would want to try to carry a patient up and down those ladders.

Rachael yanked on the door, expecting it to be locked, but the door flew open. Rachael dashed up the steps, taking them two at a time. When she got to the first landing, she jerked open the door and rushed into a short hallway. She opened the first door she came to.

The man with the eyepatch was hitting a metal contraption with a wrench. He was saying bad words about a cylinder head on the engine. Rachael slammed the door shut again and headed up more stairs.

Sponge was running up the stairs behind her now. The next set of stairs went up a long time before they reached another landing, and both Rachael and Sponge were panting.

"Come on, kid, just surrender. This is too many stairs to run up, isn't it?" Sponge said.

"Nuh uh," Rachael said. She put on a burst of speed, ran up another flight of steps, and reached the landing. She opened the first door she came to in the corridor and slammed it behind her, locking it.

"Ahem," a woman's voice said.

Rachael turned around slowly. Babra was sitting at a desk next to a computer. A woman with a white coat over her tan uniform and glasses with red frames was standing behind her.

"Yes? Did you need something?" the woman asked.

Babra turned red and quickly shut a black leather notebook. Aha, Rachael thought. There are secrets in that notebook. Rachael leaned to the side a little and saw that Babra was playing a game on the computer.

The white coat looked like doctor's coat, so Rachael made a guess. "Are you Dr. Menney?"

"Yes." The woman stared at her.

"Can I see Raul?" Rachael asked.

"No," the woman said, and Rachael's eyes started to fill up with tears. "He's sedated right now. That means he's asleep. He needs to heal."

"Where is he?" Rachael asked.

The woman jerked her head toward another door inside the room. "In the infirmary. You can see him tomorrow, if you like. Tomorrow evening. Now scat, both of you. I have work to do."

Sponge pounded on the door. "Dr. Menney!"

"Yes?"

"Have you seen a little girl?"

Babra squeaked and looked at Dr. Menney with big, round, puppy-dog eyes. Dr. Menney pointed her toward the door, and Babra got up.

"The new girl? Yes, she's right here." Dr. Menney went back to her computer screen and started typing. "Well? Go out. They've found you."

Rachael unlocked the door slowly.

"Go on, get out," Dr. Menney said.

"You promise I can see him tomorrow?" she asked.

Dr. Menney didn't look up. "Of course not. He might have a relapse. But if it's all right with the captain, and your friend is up for it, then you may. I suggest you cooperate with the captain at least until then."

Rachael finished unlocking the door, and Sponge shoved his way into the room. "You!" he said.

Rachael hung her head down like she was going to cry.

"Don't even pretend you're sorry," Sponge panted. "Ugh. I'm tired now." He grabbed her arm—tighter this time—and said, "I should put a tracker on you."

"I have extra," Dr. Menney said.

"Gimme one. I'll ask the captain if it's okay after I get done with her," Sponge said.

"Why are you doing this?" Rachael asked. "Why are you helping the Shadow Dogs sell us into slavery?"

"What?" Sponge exclaimed.

Babra said, "We help kids!"

"Selling kids into slavery?" Dr. Menney asked. "Where did you hear that?"

But Rachael wouldn't give Raul or Cassie away. "If you're not slavers, then why are you putting trackers on us and locking us up?"

"They monitor vital signs," Dr. Menney said. "We have to make sure the change is stable."

"You kids can't run around the ship loose, especially not the infected ones while they're changing," Sponge said. "It's too dangerous. Well, except for Babra; she's been here long enough to be trusted. She's just here so the captain can keep an eye on her. She was living with her mom, but her mom kicked her out of her house when she found out the poor kid was an Exotic."

Babra burst into tears, and Dr. Menney gave him a dirty look. "Get out!" she yelled. Sponge grabbed Rachael by the shoulder and slammed the door behind him.
Chapter 15

"That's enough running away." Sponge picked up Rachael and carried her over his shoulder.

He went up another flight of stairs, complaining about how much she weighed the entire time, then opened a door onto the deck and into the sunlight.

"That's it. You're not going to see your buddy tomorrow," he said.

"You're not the captain," Rachael said, bouncing up and down on his shoulder.

"I'll tell on you," Sponge said. "What am I saying? I sound just like a little kid."

"I feel sick," Rachael said.

"Go on, puke down my back," Sponge said. "I don't care, as long as you can't make me run up those stairs again."

"Where are you taking me?" Rachael asked.

"The Tiger's Nest," Sponge said.

Rachael yelled, "Help! I'm being fed to tigers!"

"Knock it off. You're not being fed to tigers. That's just the name of the place." He carried her to the dome farthest away from the rectangular building on the end of the ship and put her down outside the door.

A big pile of what looked like rock rose from the floor almost to the top of the dome. Sticks with white tape around them were stuck in the rocks all over next to baby trees. A path through the rocks led around a corner.

Sponge shoved her through the doorway and onto the path. "Careful," he said. "The safety rails haven't been installed. The Gardener doesn't want 'em, says it messes up the look of the place."

Rachael got her balance back and looked down. There was nothing between the side of the path and the floor of the dome but baby trees and sharp, pointy rocks. The ship moved underneath her, and she swayed.

Sponge grabbed her arm. "Hang on there, little buckaroo. Walk close to the mountain, okay?"

Rachael stood close to the rocks beside her and walked down the trail.

Around the corner was a tiny white building with a red and gold-colored curving roof—a pagoda. Flags were hung off the edges of the roof, but they weren't moving, because there was no wind. The air was cold, and Rachael shivered.

"Cool, huh?" Sponge asked.

"I guess so."

"Mr. Hightower's in there. Go in. I'll wait out here."

Rachael walked up to the door, which was barely big enough for her to walk through without ducking. Was Sponge too big to fit through the door?

Rachael couldn't see a door handle, so she pushed on the door, and it opened.

The inside of the building was very dark and only a little warmer than it was in the dome. The windows were covered with carved wood panels, but the panels had no glass in them and weren't doing any good in either letting in the sunshine or keeping out the cold.

The room looked only half-finished, with red panels on part of the walls. In the back of the room was another door, and Rachael went inside.

She found herself inside a tunnel. She rubbed the wall; it felt like cement, not rock. The tunnel was so dark that she didn't dare let go of the door and shut out all her light.

"Hello?" she called. There was no answer.

She went back into the building and out the door. "Nobody there," she told Sponge. "I guess we better go."

Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and nearly jumped out of her dirty slippers.

"Miss?" a voice said.

Rachael turned around ever so slowly.

A man in a buttoned shirt and tan pants was standing behind her. He was taller than she was, but not by much. He had glasses that made his eyes look big and a shiny spot on top of his head. There was something about him that was just creepy, but she couldn't figure out what it was. "Are you Miss Rachael?"

She nodded.

He beckoned toward her, one finger making a "come here" toward her. He led her through the door inside the building and down the tunnel, in complete darkness.
Chapter 16

Rachael kept one hand on the wall of the cave and one hand in front of her to keep from hitting her head on anything. The tunnel led around and around until she was almost dizzy, but at least it was warmer the further down she went.

Finally, the man stopped in front of her, and she accidentally pushed into him with her hand. She heard something heavy moving, and saw a thin line of dim light that widened until Rachael was looking through a doorway into a huge cave. The man led her inside. Dim light came into the top of the cave, which must have reached to the top of the mountain.

"Wow," Rachael said.

The man closed the door behind them.

The walls of the cave were decorated with what looked like beautiful scribbles pushed into the walls with a giant paintbrush. Rachael turned around and around, trying to look at everything at once.

"The Gardener's work," the man said. "Follow me." The man led Rachael to the other side of the cave.

"Who are you?" Rachael asked.

The man said, "Isn't that obvious?"

"Um, Mr. Hightower?" Rachael guessed. "Why do you want to talk to me?"

"I have some questions to ask you."

"Do you know where my mom is?"

"I do," the man said.

"Where is she?"

"I'm not going to tell you," the man said. "Sit here, please." He pointed at a folding chair sitting next to a table with a laptop and a flat box with a bunch of cords connected to it. Mr. Hightower sat on the chair at the other side of the desk and opened the laptop. A blue glow lit up his face from underneath. He touched a few buttons on the box.

"Now," he said. "Tell me what you know about the Animal Lovers' Club."

"Nothing," Rachael said. "It's a club that my mom has at our house on Tuesdays."

"And do you know anyone named Armand?"

"Our mond?"

"Armand. It's a man's name. You know your mother's password. What is it?"

"Not that again," Rachael said.

"What do you know about the Exotics virus?"

"Just what Raul told me. You get sick, and sometimes afterwards you become an Exotic."

"What do you know about magic?"

"Magic?"

"You don't think people turn into talking animals just because they get sick, do you? Magic."

Rachael shook her head. It was hard to believe, but she had to admit it would be pretty hard to talk if you didn't have lips.

"Do you have strange dreams?" Mr. Hightower asked.

"Sometimes," Rachael said.

"Describe one of them, please."

"I was in a toy fight with a bunch of kids at school. A giant toy made of blocks ate me, but I hung on to his uvula so he couldn't swallow me. A bunch of my classmates were inside his stomach and wouldn't come out. And then I woke up."

"Do you have dreams with any of these shapes in them?" Mr. Hightower waved at the walls.

"No."

"Who do you think should rule the earth?"

"My mom."

Mr. Hightower stared over the edge of the laptop at her, looking angry for the first time. "Why?" he demanded.

"Um, because she's nice? Because she's my mom?"

"Hm," Mr. Hightower said, relaxing. "Last question. What is your mother's password? Again, I already know that you know her password, so don't pretend that you don't know."

"I'm not going to tell you," Rachael said.

"Yes, you will," the man said.

Rachael knew how the rest of that argument went. "No, I won't."

"Yes, you will," the man said. "I can tell that you don't understand what's going on, that your mother hasn't told you very much. In fact, I'm surprised that you know her password. She may have several passwords, but this will, at least, take us further than we were before. Your mother knows some very dangerous people, Rachael, and she's likely to get herself killed if you don't help her."

Rachael didn't dare say anything, not knowing what would help her mother and what would hurt her.

"And if you don't tell me," Mr. Hightower said, "I'll have the man called Tapeworm beat up your friend Raul again."

"No!" Rachael yelled. 
Chapter 17

"Hm...you love your friend more than you love your mother," Mr. Hightower said. "That's interesting."

"I do not!" Rachael said.

"You didn't yell when I told you your mother was in danger," he pointed out.

Rachael crossed her arms over her stomach and glared at him. He could say whatever he wanted to, but she loved her mom, and he couldn't trick her about that. But her mom was a grown-up, and she could take care of herself. She hoped.

"And, by the way, don't try to run away again. Or I will have Raul beaten up again. I'm sure Tapeworm would enjoy it."

"Whatever," Rachael said. She stared at the swirls of paint on the walls so she wouldn't have to look at Mr. Hightower's terrible, boring face in the light of his computer screen.

"It might kill the boy if Tapeworm gets hold of him again," Mr. Hightower said.

"Whatever."

"It'll be all your fault."

"No, it won't!" Rachael yelled. "You're just a big bully."

The air in the cave wasn't as cold as it was outside, but it was still pretty cold, and she started to shiver.

Mr. Hightower paused for a few seconds, then started typing away on his computer. Rachael didn't think for a second that he was giving up.

"You might think that the Exotics virus was something that just happened," Mr. Hightower said, still typing. "But it isn't. It takes magic to turn a human being into an animal."

"Are you an Exotic?" Rachael asked.

"Does it matter? Catching the Exotics virus is only half of what has to happen in order to turn a human into an Exotic. The other half is a magic ritual. That means that someone is turning humans into Exotics on purpose."

What was he trying to do now, make her change sides? To betray her mother and Raul? Did he think she was stupid or what? She didn't want to listen to him, but she couldn't help herself.

"This magician, whoever he or she is, is evil. We know that. But we don't know who this person is or what they are trying to achieve. We are trying to find this person and stop them from changing humans into Exotics, and we're trying to find a cure for the humans who are already Exotics. It might sound like a romantic adventure to you, but trust me, it isn't.

"People who turn into Exotics start slowly turning crazy. They start thinking like animals and stop thinking like humans. They forget everyone they love—"

"My mother loves me," Rachael interrupted. "You talk and talk and try to convince me to tell you my mom's secrets. But it's just stupid. If you're going to hurt my mom, then hurt her. If you're going to have Tapeworm beat up Raul, then tell him. But stop trying to tell me stuff I know isn't true. It's so stupid. I don't care if you think that being mean to people is going to save the world. But I know that my mom loves me, so whatever."

"All right." He reached down to his belt and pulled out something that looked like a walkie talkie, a box with an antenna on it. He pushed a button and said, "Tapeworm. This is Hightower."

After a few seconds, a voice came out of the speaker. "This is Tapeworm. Over."

"Meet me in the infirmary. Now."

"Roger. Over."

Mr. Hightower put the walkie talkie back on his belt. "Either you'll tell me your mother's password or you won't. But don't lie to me."

"Or what?" Rachael said.

"Or I'll have Tapeworm beat you up until you admit you're lying." Mr. Hightower closed his laptop, walked around the desk, and stood next to Rachael's chair. She didn't look at him, and she didn't move. She even held her breath, she was so scared.

Mr. Hightower said, "I'm going to the infirmary to watch Tapeworm hurt your friend now. You may come with me or not, as you choose." Then he left, heading toward another door in the cave wall and unlocking it.

Rachael stared at the ceiling until her eyes filled with tears. Then she followed him.

The door led into the belly of the ship, the same place she'd tried to escape from Sponge. Mr. Hightower was walking down the long hallway. She caught up to him, walking just behind him. He stopped at the door at the bottom of the main building to look at her, but she turned her face away.

He led her inside, up the stairs, and into Dr. Menney's office. Dr. Menney was at her desk, arguing with Tapeworm.

"Get out," she said.

"Mr. Hightower told me to wait here."

"I don't care. This is my office. Get out."

Mr. Hightower said, "Carol. Please leave."

"No."

"I'm sorry to do this to you," Mr. Hightower said.

"Don't be ridiculous; you're not sorry about anything."

"You know what will happen if we don't get what we need."

"This is not how we do things!" Dr. Menney yelled.

Mr. Hightower shrugged and pulled out his walkie talkie. "Captain."

Dr. Menney pushed the walkie talkie away from Mr. Hightower's face. "All right. Do what you want. But leave the captain out of this." Dr. Menney stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

Mr. Hightower raised the walkie talkie to his mouth. "Never mind."

Tapeworm said, "What's up?"

"This little girl has promised to tell me what I want to know, but only if you beat up her friend for her."

"What?" Rachael screeched. "You liar."

Tapeworm grinned. "Glad to oblige."
Chapter 18

Tapeworm pushed open the door to the Raul's room, and Mr. Hightower followed him.

Rachael was too scared to look, so she stood in a corner and hid her face.

She heard Raul's voice say, "Who is it?" then, "You!"

Tapeworm laughed. "Come on, kid. Just try it."

"Ow!" Raul yelled.

Rachael put her arms down and forced herself to turn around. She had to save Raul somehow, so she rushed into the room and charged at Tapeworm's back. He was holding Raul by one arm and had his other arm pulled back so he could hit Raul in the face.

Rachael only saw Raul for a second—she was too busy trying to fight Tapeworm—but his face looked bruised and was covered with bandages. Even worse, he looked terrified.

From behind, Rachael yelled and side-kicked Tapeworm in the back of the knee. Tapeworm stumbled and started to tip backward, toward Rachael. Rachael ducked out of the way and grabbed his arm where he was holding onto Raul. She twisted his arm around and slammed her elbow into his face.

She had never hit somebody so hard in her life, definitely never in karate practice, and she had no idea how to figure out what to do next. Tapeworm grabbed his nose and howled, taking two steps backward and falling onto the floor.

She suddenly remembered what Sensei always said to do next: run. She headed for the door.

Raul screamed, and Rachael looked back. The boy was clawing at the black box strapped to his leg. The light on the box was flashing red.

Mr. Hightower said, "My dear, I can make it hurt worse if you like." He turned something on his walkie talkie, and Raul screamed even louder. He was tearing at his leg so hard that blood was all over his leg and his fingers.

"Stop!" Rachael said.

"Why should I stop?" Mr. Hightower asked gently.

"Please stop!"

Mr. Hightower shook his head. "No, dear. Not until I get what I want. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."

"You're not sorry!" Rachael screamed.

Mr. Hightower twisted the dial again. Raul sobbed and dropped to the floor with a thud, still clawing at his leg.

Tapeworm groaned and rolled over. "I'm going to get you, kid."

Rachael had only half a second to decide: run or tell her mom's password. She took one step toward the door and stopped. Raul was rolling on the floor, screaming again. She couldn't think. Tapeworm pushed himself to his hands and knees. His nose was dripping blood onto the floor.

She really, really wanted to kick Tapeworm in the face. But they were on a boat. Where was she going to run? She had to think. She needed time to think.

She looked at Mr. Hightower and put up her hands. "I'll talk."

Mr. Hightower couldn't have heard her over Raul's screaming, but he did. He turned the dial on the walkie talkie, and Raul stopped screaming, then curled up in a ball and whimpered.

"Just don't let Tapeworm beat me or Raul up."

"It may be a little late for that," Mr. Hightower said.

"If he hurts us, I won't tell you." She heard Tapeworm get to his feet behind her. She didn't dare look at him. She could feel herself shaking.

"Password?" Mr. Hightower said.

"Promise!"

"Promises mean nothing on this ship. Tell me the password."

"You promise me first!"

Tapeworm grabbed her by the back of her neck. "Want to find out what a broken nose feels like?"

Mr. Hightower snorted. "I promise. You know it means nothing."

"Let go of me!"

Tapeworm shook her by the neck, which gave her a terrible headache. Then he shifted his grip from her neck to her hair and jerked her sideways. Suddenly she was looking right at his upraised fist.

"I suggest you talk, my dear," Mr. Hightower said.

"It's—it's tiGerleely2319."

"Spell that," Mr. Hightower said.

"Lower case t-i-capital-G-e-r-l-e-e-l-y-2-3-1-9."

"Thank you." Mr. Hightower left without looking back.

Tapeworm chuckled. "He got what he wanted. Now I'm going to get something, too."

Then he hit Rachael in the face. Lights sparkled in her eyes. It hurt so bad she thought she was going to throw up. She landed on the ground next to Raul.

She heard the door slam as they left and started crying. "He promised. He promised."

Raul whimpered.
Chapter 19

After a while, Dr. Menney came into the room. When she saw the two kids, she yelled. She yelled at Mr. Hightower; she yelled at Rachael; she yelled at Raul; she yelled at Tapeworm. But mostly she yelled at the captain, who wasn't there.

She lifted Raul onto the bed. The light on the black box had gone from flashing red to a steady green. She cleaned up Raul's leg and put bandages on it, then gave him a shot that put him to sleep.

Then she glared at Rachael and said, "You stupid girl. You stupid, stupid girl."

Rachael didn't know what to say. She was still crying.

"Why couldn't you just—" Dr. Menney threw a stack of papers from her desk onto the floor. "Get out. Get out of here. And don't come back."

Rachael got up and walked slowly toward the door. Her face hurt terribly every time she blinked or moved her mouth.

"Stop," Dr. Menney said.

Rachael froze and turned around slowly. Dr. Menney shoved a paper cup at her; the cup had a small pill in it.

"For pain and swelling," Dr. Menney said. She closed Rachael's hand over the cup, crushing the cup so the pill couldn't spill out, then shoved her out of the infirmary and out of her office, slamming and locking the door behind her.

Sponge was standing outside the door. "Ouch," he said.

Rachael looked at her feet. Even crying hurt.

"Yeah, it hurts. But I saw what you did to Tapeworm. He definitely got it worse than you did." Sponge laughed to himself. "You should stay away from that guy. He definitely has it in for you now. I think you scared him."

"It doesn't matter," Rachael said. Tears rolled down her face.

"Come on," Sponge said. "Let's take you back to your room. There's gotta be, like, some clean clothes around here or something."

He led her up another two flights of stairs and stopped outside a room. "You're with Cassie, right?"

Rachael was still staring at her feet. "Yeah."

Sponge pushed a button on his walkie talkie, and the red light by the door knob turned green. Sponge turned the handle and pushed open the door a fraction.

"It's me," he said. "Sponge. I'm bringing Rachael back."

Something growled from behind the door.

"Come on, Cassie," Sponge whined. "Tapeworm hit her. The last thing anybody needs right now is another fight."

Rachael heard something move on the other side of the door.

After a few seconds, Cassie said, "You can come in now."

Sponge pushed open the door. Cassie was lying on the top bunk, reading another comic book.

"Take a look at that eye," Cassie said.

Rachael burst into tears, crying so hard she dropped the paper cup she still had clenched in her hand.

Sponge picked it up and set it on the top bunk next to Cassie. "Make sure she takes this. I'm, uh, gonna find her some clean clothes. I'll be back."

Cassie slid down off the top bunk, holding the paper cup. She pulled Rachael down onto the bottom bunk and put her arm around Rachael's shoulders.

Rachael put her arms around Cassie's neck, laid her head on her shoulder, and cried.

After a while, Cassie pulled back the covers and tucked Rachael into bed. She gave Rachael a small glass of water.

"Too late to worry about germs now," she said. "Sit up."

Rachael sat up.

Cassie held out the small pill. "Can you swallow this without chewing on it?"

Rachael took the pill from Cassie and tried to gulp it down, but her throat was too tight. Cassie handed her the water, and Rachael took a big gulp. The pill washed down her throat. Rachael drank until the water was gone.

"More?"

Rachael shook her head, which made her face hurt worse than ever. She lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over her head.

She said, "I'm going to escape. With Raul."

"What?" Cassie asked, still sitting on the edge of the bed.

"We're going to escape. Do you want to come with us or not?"

Cassie paused. "It's a ship in the middle of the ocean. How are you going to escape? You know Tapeworm will beat you up again if they catch you."

"Do you want to escape or not?" Rachael asked.

Cassie didn't say anything for a long time. "I'm sorry, Rachael. I can't help you. It's too dangerous for you to even try."

"I thought so," Rachael said.
Chapter 20

After a while, Sponge came back with a tan uniform. Rachael wouldn't get up to put it on, so Cassie left it at the end of her bunk.

Rachael would have liked to have everyone leave her alone for the rest of forever, but she had to use the bathroom and she was hungry, so when the buzzer sounded and the lock on the door went clunk, she followed Cassie out of the room.

Babra gasped when she saw Rachael's face. Digger looked worried.

Hideo said, "I suppose you think that makes you look tough."

"Stuff it, Hideo, you stupid spy," Cassie said.

"You don't fool me," Hideo said.

Cassie turned and ran toward Hideo so fast that he took a step backward. She shoved him, and he went back a few more steps. "I said stuff it, Hideo!"

Hideo rushed toward Cassie and shoved her back.

Babra started crying. Rachael took her hand and led her up the stairs. She didn't want to talk to Babra; she wanted to stay angry and come up with a good plan to escape. But after a few seconds of listening to Babra cry, she couldn't stay angry anymore.

"It's okay, Babra," Rachael told her. "Let's go to the bathroom. I really have to go. And I want to wash my face."

"It's this way," Babra said in a tiny voice.

Behind them, Rachael heard a loud thump. She looked back and saw Digger throw Cassie up against the wall. Hideo was already on the floor, holding his nose.

Digger didn't say anything, just glared at Cassie. Cassie put up her hands and said, "Okay, okay. We're done. Right, Hideo? We're done?"

Hideo grunted something, and Digger let go of Cassie, then stomped away.

Babra sighed and led Rachael to the bathroom.

When Rachael was done using the toilet, she washed her hands and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her eye was purple all across the top and bottom on the right side, and it was so puffy that it looked like her eye was completely swollen shut. Rachael could see just a little out of it anyway.

She touched her eyelid. "Ouch." But it hurt less than it had a little while ago.

Rachael took some paper towels and washed her face very gently. Her clothes really were dirty. She should change into the uniform, so the adults would think she was cooperating, not thinking of ways to escape.

She couldn't ask Babra for help. Her dad was the captain of the ship. As nice as Babra was, she probably didn't want to run away.

She'd already asked Cassie, the scaredy cat.

Hideo was a jerk.

But Digger might help her.

Rachael threw the paper towels away and said, "Okay, I'm ready. I'm really hungry."

Babra said, "Me, too. Come on."

Rachael followed Babra into a different room. Babra said, "This is the mess hall. Where everybody eats."

The mess hall was a long, narrow room with blue and white floor tiles and white tables with white chairs all bolted to the floor. Babra went to a counter. The man with the eye patch was behind the counter, on the side with the food.

"Yar," he said.

"Did you cook today, Ken?" Babra asked.

"Yar, I did," he said. "Somebody caused a ruckus, so I had to take over for Sponge." He glared at Rachael with his one eye. "And I see that somebody right there."

"I'm sure you did much better this time," Babra said.

"I wouldn't be too sure," Ken said. "It's meatloaf." He gave her a slice of meatloaf, a huge scoop of potatoes, and a glass of orange juice.

"Thank you."

Rachael stepped up to the counter.

"Whaddya want? Yar," the man said.

Rachael had to ask. "Did you really lose an eye?"

The man flipped up the eyepatch to reveal a regular-looking eye.

"I didn't think so," Rachael said.

"Watch this," Ken announced. He dug his finger into his eye socket and popped out his eye.

Rachael gasped, while Cassie hooted with laughter.

Ken popped the eye back into the hole and flipped down the patch. "Yar! It's a good day, I freaked out another kid! Have some meatloaf!" Ken handed her a tray.

Rachael walked over to the table where Babra was sitting and sat down.

The mess hall door opened, and the captain and Tapeworm walked in. Tapeworm's face was a covered with bandages, a big white square over his nose with big strips of white tape to hold it in place. He had cotton balls sticking out of his nose.

"You!" he said. He sounded like he had a bad cold.

The captain said, "You've already done your damage, Tapeworm. Get your food and have a seat."

"Huh," Tapeworm said.

Ken handed him a tray with about six slices of meatloaf and a pile of mashed potatoes that looked bigger than his head. Tapeworm grabbed the tray and sat at the table farthest from Rachael and Babra.

The captain took another tray and sat next to Babra, who smiled at him. "Hello, daddy," she said.

"Hello, darling. Miss Rachael." He nodded at her.

Suddenly, Rachael had an idea about how to escape: she wouldn't need Digger's help at all.

It was probably going to get Babra in trouble, though.
Chapter 21

Bedtime finally came. Rachael had been on The Floating Menagerie only one day, but it had been a very long day, and she was tired.

She was going to have to be careful, or she was going to fall asleep.

In the bathroom, Cassie and Babra changed into sleep shorts and t-shirts. Babra had brought a set for Rachael, too, and shyly handed them to her.

Rachael took a shower and put the clean shorts, t-shirt, and underwear on.

Maybe Babra wouldn't get in trouble for what Rachael was about to do. Maybe she wouldn't get in too much trouble.

Rachael followed Cassie back to her room.

"Goodnight, Babra," Rachael said.

"I hope you have a better day tomorrow," Babra said.

Rachael nodded. "You, too."

As soon as the door was closed, Cassie said, "You're planning something, aren't you?"

Rachael said, "Who, me?"

"Whatcha going to do?"

Rachael was tempted to tell Cassie her plan; she'd been on the ship for a while and might be able to help her get out of the room tonight.

The doors went clunk as the automatic locks slid into place.

She decided to tell Cassie only a part of her plan. "I want to escape from our room tonight," she said. "I have to see if Raul is okay. Can you help me?"

Cassie said, "Sure."

Huh? If Cassie was too scared to try to escape, how was she brave enough to help Rachael break out of their room at night?

Cassie said, "If you get caught, though, you have to tell them that you figured this out all by yourself and did it after I was asleep."

"Okay."

"We'll have to wait until the middle of the night, when all the adults are asleep. Do you think you can stay awake that long?"

"Yes," Rachael said. "But I don't think you can stay awake that long. Tell me how to do it, in case you fall asleep."

Cassie frowned at Rachael. "I won't fall asleep if you don't."

"Are you too scared to tell me? Or are you just faking about knowing a way to get out of the room?"

Cassie said, "Promise me you won't try to get even with Tapeworm, all right?"

Rachael said, "I just want to see Raul. That's all."

"Fine. Then what you do is, climb up on the top bunk and shove open the ceiling tile. On the wall, there's a hole for wires and stuff to go through. Go through the hole, really carefully. Babra's room is on the other side. They don't lock her door. She sleeps on the bottom bunk, so be really careful not to jiggle the bed and wake her up."

"Thanks," Rachael said.

"You can have the top bunk tonight," Cassie said. "But I still don't think you can stay up that late."

Rachael looked around the room. "Is there a clock anywhere?"

Cassie said, "There was, but I got mad one day about being locked up, and I broke it."

"How can I tell whether it's after midnight?" Rachael asked. "Wait. Let me borrow some of your comic books."

Cassie looked scared then. "What are you going to do with my comic books?"

"Just read them. It's after eight o'clock because I saw the captain's watch when we left supper, and it was eight o'clock then. It takes me about half an hour to read a comic book, which makes two comic books an hour. Four hours times two comic books is eight comic books. So give me ten comic books just in case I read them too fast. When I'm done, it should be after midnight."

"You're pretty good at math for being eight," Cassie said.

"How old are you?"

"I'm ten," Cassie said.

"That's pretty old," Rachael said.

Cassie gave Rachael ten comic books from the big box at the end of the bunk bed. About half the comics were superhero comics, and the other half were about romance and friends and stuff.

Rachael lay on top of the covers with the stack of comic books beside her.

Cassie stood on the bottom bunk, her head and shoulders sticking over the side. "Please be careful."

Rachael, already reading the first comic book, said, "Don't worry. I won't tell."

"I know that," Cassie said. "Just don't get caught. I don't want you to get hurt. And come back before sunrise. And, whatever you do, don't fall asleep before you come back. And don't go out on the deck. There's always somebody awake all night on the bridge, making sure there aren't any emergencies, and they'll see you for sure."

"Okay," Rachael said. She went back to reading, and Cassie's head disappeared.

When Rachael finished the last comic book and peeked over the side, Cassie was asleep with her mouth open. Rachael pushed up on the ceiling tile and slid it over top of the other tiles. They'd left the lights on in their room, so it wasn't too dark, but Rachael had trouble finding the hole in the wall for a few seconds.

Then she saw it. It looked pretty small, and Rachael wasn't sure she would fit.
Chapter 22

Rachael slithered part way through the hole in the wall. She was nervous about getting stuck, but she didn't know of any other way to get out of the room, so she did it anyway.

Rachael felt around the dusty ceiling tiles on Babra's side of the wall. She couldn't get her fingers to go around the edges of the tile—wait! There was a piece of tape stuck to one of the tiles. Rachael pulled on the edge of the tape and quietly lifted the ceiling tile out of the way.

Babra's room was dark. Rachael reached down to the top bunk—her feet were braced inside the hole in the wall to keep her from falling right onto the bed—and felt a lump under the covers.

Rachael froze. She could hear someone breathing, but it didn't sound like the breathing was coming from the lump. Rachel pushed down on the lump, gently, to see if it was warm, and heard a tiny squeak.

Rachael giggled as silently as she could. Babra had hidden a squeaky toy under the covers on the top bunk!

Rachael crept down to the top bunk, avoiding the toy, and crawled down the ladder to the floor. When she turned the door handle, it opened easily.

Rachael looked both ways and tiptoed down the hall toward the stairs.

Luckily, everyone was asleep, and Rachael didn't have any trouble getting to Dr. Menney's office, although she thought she kept hearing things—even though when she looked behind her, she didn't see anything.

Rachael took the door handle in her hands and hoped it wasn't locked.

It wasn't.

Rachael slipped through Dr. Menney's office to the infirmary door. It was true that she wanted to see if Raul was all right.

And she wanted to ask him some questions.

Rachael turned the handle on the door where Raul was kept, only to find that it was locked. Rachael said a bad word about Dr. Menney. Why had she locked the door if she hadn't bothered to lock the door to her office?

Because Raul was a prisoner, too, that's why. No matter what the adults said, this was a prison ship.

From the other side of the door, Raul said, "Who's there?"

"Me. Rachael."

"Let me out."

"I can't. It's locked."

The door rattled as Raul shook the handle.

"Shh!" Rachael said. "It won't do you any good to escape the infirmary, anyway. Are you okay?"

"No," Raul said. "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I have to use the toilet, and I'm all beat up. Do you think I'm okay?"

Rachael decided Raul was in a bad mood but was mostly okay anyway, despite what he said. If he was well enough to get out of bed and act snotty toward her, he must be better.

Rachael went over to Dr. Menney's desk and turned on the monitor. Sure enough, the computer was locked. Rachael looked around in the desk drawers until she found the black leather notebook that Babra had slammed shut yesterday.

Rachael opened the front cover and found a code at the bottom under a sticky note. She typed in the code, and, as she had suspected, it unlocked the computer. Rachael found Dr. Menney's email program and opened it. The program was offline, which meant that it wouldn't send her email message right away, but it would send the message the next time Dr. Menney sent an email.

"What are you doing?" Raul hissed.

Rachael went back to the door. "Raul, if you were a prisoner on a pirate ship and could only send one email to get someone to rescue you, who would you send it to?"

"Ha, ha," he said. "Stop joking and get me out of here."

"I'm not joking," Rachael said. "I'd send an email to my dad, but I don't know if he could rescue us. Do you think the Animal Lovers' Club could do it?"
Chapter 23

Raul didn't answer Rachael's question.

Rachael said, "Raul? Who can save us in the Animal Lovers' Club?"

"I'm thinking," he said. "Normally, I would say your mom, but..."

"Who's my mom's boss?" Rachael asked.

Raul paused. "Somebody named Armand. But I don't know his email address."

Rachael said, "How do you spell Armand?"

"A-r-m-a-n-d."

Rachael went back to the computer and typed the name into Dr. Menney's search field on her email.

The name appeared in a few emails. Rachael read them carefully. It looked like Dr. Menney was trying to find a cure for the Exotics virus for the Shadow Dogs, with Mr. Hightower's help. It also looked like somebody named Armand was trying to help her mother find the cure, for the Animal Lovers' Club. However, Armand's boss (someone named "R") thought that there shouldn't be a cure, and more people should turn into Exotics in order to keep the humans from killing off all the animals and destroying the Earth.

Finally, in the last email, Mr. Hightower said he wanted to talk to Armand personally, and Dr. Menney sent him Armand's email address.

Rachael copied the address, started a new email, and typed "More Research" as the subject line, so it would look like the kind of thing Dr. Menney really would send to Armand. Rachael wondered why Dr. Menney and Armand were sending emails to each other anyway. Weren't they supposed to be enemies?

In the main part of the email, Rachael typed, "Dear Mr. Armand, two members of the Animal Lovers' Club are trapped on the Floating Manajery"—she had no idea how to spell the word—"and need to be rescued. Also some other kids probably need to be rescued too. The people on the ship say that they aren't going to sell the kids as slaves, but I don't know if I believe them, because Mr. Hightower is so mean. He let Tapeworm beat up Raul and Rachael. I am afraid Mr. Hightower will hurt more people so please come and save them. Your friend, Babra."

Rachael almost clicked the send button, but she hesitated.

She was putting Babra's name on the email so if Dr. Menney or anybody found the email, they would blame Babra and not her.

But did she really want to get Babra in trouble?

Babra's dad worked for the Shadow Dogs, which meant that Babra must be Rachael's enemy. But Babra was the closest person that Rachael had to a friend on the ship. She was definitely the nicest person.

Rachael clicked on the email and deleted the word Babra, then changed it to annonnnymouse, so the end of the email read "Your friend, annonnnymous." The email program underlined that word, too, but Rachael couldn't figure out how to spell it correctly, so she just left it the way it was.

She clicked the send button, closed the email program, locked the computer, and turned off the monitor.

Hopefully, Dr. Menney wouldn't notice the email hiding in her send box.

Rachael tiptoed back to the infirmary door. Rachael whispered, "Okay, I set it up so the email will send the next time Dr. Menney hooks up her computer to the Internet."

Raul growled from the door. "There is no Internet on a ship, stupid."

Rachael panicked for a second. Her stomach felt so upset she thought she was going to throw up. Then she remembered: "Of course there's the Internet on ships. On this ship, anyway. Mr. Hightower wanted my mom's password, didn't he? That must mean somebody has the Internet. And Dr. Menney got an email yesterday. It was in her inbox."

"You're wrong," Raul said. "It was a stupid idea."

"Fine! You figure out how to save us, then," Rachael said. "I don't see you coming up with any ideas."

"Go away," Raul said.

Rachael snorted. "You're lucky I'm so nice. I like you even though you say mean things like that."

Raul didn't say anything. Rachael stuck out her tongue at the infirmary door and left the office.

Within a very short time, she was asleep in Cassie's bunk next to a pile of comic books.
Chapter 24

Babra wasn't at breakfast the next morning, and Rachael felt guilty, even though she knew there was no way for anyone to know that she had almost tried to get Babra in trouble. Cassie told her that Babra sometimes left early in the morning to help the Gardener. The Gardener, not being able to change into a human when she wanted to, sometimes needed someone with hands to help her, and nobody else had the patience to help a giant snake when they had other jobs to do.

"Even if they are pretty lazy jobs," Cassie said, staring at Sponge and Tapeworm a few tables away.

"I heard that," Sponge said.

Tapeworm just glared at them.

Rachael pretended to ignore them and ate her oatmeal. "I think I'm getting used to the ship. I haven't felt sick since yesterday before supper."

"That's good," Cassie said. She leaned forward and whispered, "Did it go okay?"

Rachael, her mouth full, just nodded.

Behind them, Hideo said, "Did what go okay?"

"Butt out," Cassie said. "It's none of your business."

"I heard someone moving around in the hallway last night," Hideo said. "Was that you, Rachael? How did you get out?"

Cassie picked up her tray. "Come on, Rachael. We're done eating."

Rachael shoveled the last of her oatmeal into her mouth and got up.

Cassie and Rachael dumped their trays in the bin and left.

Sponge followed them out the door. "Ladies, I hope there's no trouble going on."

"No trouble," Rachael said.

"We all know that Hideo is your spy," Cassie said. "So quit having him try to spy on us."

Sponge shook his head. "You kids are too smart for me. I'll just stay out of it. Where are you going?"

"To...to the cavern," Cassie said. "We're supposed to hurry up and help Babra with some painting and stuff."

"No problem," Sponge said. "Bob's already down there with Digger. They're helping, too." Sponge led them to the last dome and into the small, white building on the side of the mountain, the Tiger's Nest. "No messing around, all right?"

The two girls went inside the building and into the tunnel. On the way down, Rachael felt Cassie tug on her shirt in the dark. "What are you going to do?" Cassie whispered.

"What do you mean, what am I going to do?" Rachael asked.

"To escape."

"I can't tell you," Rachael said.

"Don't you trust me?"

Rachael thought about that for a second. Did she or didn't she? "It's not that I don't trust you, it's that you can't get in trouble for what you don't know."

Which was true.

"Did you do it already?" Cassie said. "Last night?"

"Do what? I only went to the infirmary," Rachael said.

"How's Raul, then?"

"Mad," Rachael said. "I don't think he's as hurt as he's making everyone think, though." Rachael decided that she wanted to get out of that dark, cramped tunnel right away and pulled her sleeve out of Cassie's hand so she could rush down the tunnel. "Ugh. I have to get out of here. It's creeping me out."

Cassie didn't say anything else as they rushed out of the tunnel and into the cave. It was dark, but at least it wasn't as dark, and it was a lot bigger.

Dangling from a bunch of ropes and a harness, Babra was painting about halfway up the cave wall. A spotlight behind her was throwing her shadow against the wall. The Gardener had reared up underneath her and looked like she was trying to catch Babra so she could swallow her whole.

Rachael gasped.

Babra said, "Who is that? I can't see you with this light on."

Cassie said, "It's me and Rachael. We're here to help you and to stay away from Tapeworm."

"Okay."

The Gardener dropped to the floor, nosed around in a pile of stuff near the cave wall, and pulled out a bucket. She slithered toward Rachael and Cassie, circled them, then slithered back toward the paint.

Overhead, a bored man's voice said, "She wants the floor of the pond to be blue. Would you mind painting the pond?"

Rachael looked up. Another adult was suspended from the roof by ropes, painting a swirl of red onto the wall. Strangely, she didn't see Digger anywhere.

"Who is that?" she whispered to Cassie, as they walked toward the bucket.

"Bob," Cassie said. "He's one of the engineers that works for Ken."

"He looks familiar," Rachael said. "I mean, from before."

Suddenly, Rachael felt a strong hand on her shoulder.
Chapter 25

Rachael twisted out of the way and ran straight into Mr. Hightower, who grabbed with both arms around her chest and hung on until Tapeworm could get both of her arms behind her.

"Help me!" Rachael shouted.

"Oh no, not again," Babra squeaked. She struggled in her rope harness but only managed to get herself tangled up.

"Got you now," Tapeworm chortled. "Want another black eye? You'd look like a raccoon, and then you'd fit right in with these animal freaks."

Cassie backed away, both hands over her mouth and a terrified look on her face.

"Let me go!" Rachael shouted.

The Gardener hissed and started slithering toward them. Tapeworm slapped Rachael across the face and told the giant snake, "Come any closer, and I'll do worse."

The giant snake stopped but kept hissing.

The other man up in the ropes, Bob, said, "Don't be so rough, Tapeworm."

"I'll be as rough as I want to," Tapeworm said. "Rachael here has been very naughty. She was wandering around the ship last night when she wasn't supposed to." He shook Rachael by the arms.

"Ow! Stop it!" Rachael shouted.

"Miss Rachael." Mr. Hightower leaned down and put his face next to hers. He pushed up his glasses. "Why were you in Dr. Menney's office last night?"

"I was not!" Rachael said. "I fell asleep reading comic books! I didn't go anywhere!"

"We know that's not the truth."

Babra had let herself down to the floor and ran toward Rachael. She tripped in the ropes. "You let her go!" she shouted. "I'm going to tell my dad on you!"

Bob pulled out a walkie talkie and spoke into it quietly.

"Hm," Mr. Hightower said. "Tapeworm. My room, if you please."

Tapeworm frog-marched Rachael (that is, with both hands behind her back) out of the bottom door of the cavern and into the belly of the ship. Rachael struggled, but Tapeworm had a pretty good hold of her. She dropped to the ground, wrenching her arms backwards until they were almost over her head. It hurt, but she wasn't about to walk any further.

Tapeworm dropped her arms and grabbed her by one foot and started dragging her. The floor of the ship was smooth metal, but every time he dragged her over the edge between two metal plates, her back got scratched up.

Rachael kicked with her other foot, and he captured that one, too. She tried to sit up so she could claw at him with her fingernails, but she couldn't get herself up far enough.

As Tapeworm dragged her, she screamed: "Help me!"

At the bottom of the stairs, Mr. Hightower said, "Stop. If you drag her like that up the steps, you'll knock her out."

"So?" Tapeworm asked.

"It's a waste of time if I can't ask her any questions."

Tapeworm grumbled and dropped her feet. Rachael rolled away and tried to run, but Tapeworm caught her again before she could get more than a step away. He tried to frog-march her again, but she just sat down and refused to move.

"I'm going to need help," Tapeworm said. "I can't carry her around like a sack of potatoes."

"No," Mr. Hightower decided. "This is isolated enough. I'll ask my questions here. Miss Rachael, we know that you used an access area above the wall in your room to sneak into Miss Babra's room and out to the hallway. We know that you were in Dr. Menney's office last night. What were you doing there?"

Rachael couldn't believe it. Who had ratted her out? Babra? Had Babra betrayed her, after she decided that she didn't want to get Babra in trouble?

Or Hideo? Had he overheard too much?

Tapeworm pinched her. Well, regardless of who had betrayed her, she was going to have to get out of it somehow. First step: deny everything.

"I didn't go anywhere!" Rachael yowled. "Let me go!"

A metal door slammed above them.

"What's that?" Mr. Hightower asked.

Tapeworm shrugged.

The sound of toenails scratching metal echoed down the hallway. The howl of a wolf echoed through the building.

Rachael grinned. "I'd start running now if I were you, Tapeworm. It sounds like someone let Raul loose."
Chapter 26

"So someone let the wolf-boy out," Tapeworm snarled. "Oh well. I'll just have to beat him up again." He let go of Rachael to pull out his walkie talkie.

Rachael started running up the steps.

Tapeworm said a bad word but didn't chase her. Rachael dashed up the stairs two at a time. Her heart was beating so hard, she felt like she couldn't breathe.

Mr. Hightower snorted, and Rachael heard him climbing the stairs behind her. He wasn't running, though.

Raul appeared and ran down the stairs past her. He growled when he saw her but didn't stop. Rachael looked down.

"Hah!" Tapeworm said, still holding his walkie-talkie and turning a dial on it. "Take that!"

But Raul leapt toward Tapeworm, knocking him over and skidding the walkie talkie across the floor.

"You should be howling in pain!" Tapeworm screamed.

"Someone took off his transmitter," Mr. Hightower said.

Rachael heard panting at the top of the landing and looked up to see Digger and Hideo gasping for breath. Digger waved a small wave at Rachael, and she smiled.

Below, Raul was standing on top of Tapeworm with his teeth ready to bite. Tapeworm tried to push Raul off him, and Raul snapped his teeth at him. "Don't even think about it," Raul growled.

Tapeworm kicked Raul, and Raul yipped in pain, then bit Tapeworm on the shoulder. Tapeworm rolled over on top of Raul and punched him in the side.

"That's enough!" a voice yelled down the stairs.

Rachael froze, but the voice didn't stop Tapeworm from hitting Raul and Raul from fighting back.

"As your captain, if you don't stop that right now, Mr. Webster, I will throw you off the ship."

Tapeworm had both hands wrapped around Raul's jaws as Raul whipped his head back and forth. Raul stopped, and Rachael saw him raise his hind claws at Tapeworm's stomach.

"No!" Rachael shouted. "Stop, Raul! You'll kill him!"

Raul froze, growling through his teeth.

The captain came running down the stairs with Ken, Sponge, and Dr. Menney behind him. Sponge and Ken dragged Tapeworm off Raul. Dr. Menney bent over Raul and started checking his injuries. She glared at Tapeworm.

"How is he?" the captain asked.

"Captain Monn, as your superior officer in the organization—" Mr. Hightower started to say.

"Shove it," Captain Monn said. "You can have me fired after we dock. Until then, this is my ship."

"I must insist."

"You were going to torture a little kid!" Captain Monn shouted.

"We were not going to torture anyone," Mr. Hightower said. "Only persuade."

Babra and Bob appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Babra said, "Tapeworm hit her! And Mr. Hightower didn't tell him to stop!"

Cassie showed up behind them. "Twice," she said. "Tapeworm hit her yesterday, too. Gave her that shiner. And Mr. Hightower didn't say anything about it then, neither. It ain't right."

Rachael hadn't told Cassie about Mr. Hightower being there when Tapeworm had hit her. How had she known? Suddenly, she knew.

"It was you," she said. "You were the one who betrayed me. You're the only person I told them where I was going. It was your idea to sneak out of Babra's room, because it was always unlocked at night!"

"But my room's not unlocked at night," Babra said, puzzled.

Cassie hung her head. "Sorry. But I'm a Shadow Dog, see? I'm supposed to be spying on you guys."

Hideo said, "And you were always accusing me of being a spy."

"Had to throw you off the scent," Cassie said. "And nobody likes you, anyway."

Hideo snorted. "Because of you."

"I didn't like you from the moment I met you," Cassie said. "You're a snob, through and through. Wouldn't talk to me even when I tried to be friendly. So there."

Captain Monn said, "You kids can work out who has a crush on whom later. Rachael sent a message to the Animal Lovers' Club last night, and they're coming. A lot of them. Anybody who doesn't want to get captured had better get off this ship."

Rachael cheered.

Babra said, "But what about us, Daddy?"
Chapter 27

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Captain Monn said. "I can't leave the ship. You'll have to go with the others."

"I'm not leaving," Dr. Menney said.

"Carol—" Captain Monn said.

"I'm not leaving. And the Gardener can't leave, not on that puny helicopter."

"I'm staying, too," Babra announced.

"I am working on the cure," Mr. Hightower said. "Can't you see how important that is?"

"You're crazy," Captain Monn said. "Nobody creates a cure by beating up little kids. Go back to your lab."

"This ship is meant to be my lab. That's the only reason this ship exists," Mr. Hightower said, pushing up his glasses again.

"This ship was supposed to be a safe haven for Exotics in trouble, and I will sink it before I let you hurt any more of them," Captain Monn said. "I expect the Animal Lovers' Club to be here within a few hours. Now go."

The adults started to leave.

Rachael said, "Wait! What about my mother? Where is she?"

Mr. Hightower sneered at her. "I'll be seeing her sooner than you will."

"Where is she?"

"Locked up in a castle. That's all I'm going to say." Then he left with the others.

Cassie spread her hands wide and said, "Well, I guess you're all pretty mad at me. I better go pack." She headed up the stairs. Hideo tried to trip her as she went by, but Digger stopped him.

Rachael gave Babra a quick hug and followed Cassie up the stairs and into their room. She closed the door behind them.

Cassie sighed. "I guess you're going to yell at me now. I suppose I deserve it."

"I won't forget that you stood up for me," Rachael said.

Cassie smiled, grabbed a stack of comic books, and shoved them into Rachael's hands. "Here. I can't carry all of these. You take some."

"Thanks," Rachael said. "I hope your Uncle Jim isn't too mad at you."

"Oh, that," Cassie said. "He'll get over it. I am pretty good at helping him catch poachers, though." She shoved a bunch of comic books into a backpack. "I really did meet your mom once, you know? I liked her. She was all right. Helped me get away from a poacher, even though we were supposed to be on opposite sides." Cassie shoved in some clothes and her toothbrush and pulled the top of the backpack closed. "Right. I'm outta here, then. See you, Baby Bee."

"Bye," Rachael said.

Cassie left without looking back. Rachael put the comic books on the bed and went down the hall to look for the others.

She found Digger and Hideo pretty easily, but she didn't see Babra anywhere. She saw Tapeworm coming down the hall toward her, ducked through the nearest doorway to hide from him, and ended up in Dr. Menney's office with Dr. Menney staring at her.

"Hi," she said. "Have you seen Babra?"

Dr. Menney glared at her.

"What about Raul?" Rachael asked.

"He's injured again," Dr. Menney said, almost growling at her. "And I sedated him again. He would not settle down."

"I'll go now," Rachael said. She didn't know what "sedated" meant, but she was pretty sure that Dr. Menney would do the same to her, if she didn't behave. Fortunately, when she ducked back into the hallway, Tapeworm was gone.

Rachael wandered around looking for Babra until she was on the deck of the ship. A helicopter was sitting on the deck past the last dome, and Tapeworm, Cassie, and Mr. Hightower were on it. Tapeworm was in the pilot's seat, looking down at something. Mr. Hightower stared at her like he was staring right through her, and Cassie had her nose in a comic book. Nobody else was on the helicopter.

Captain Monn was standing outside, talking to Mr. Hightower. When he saw Rachael, he jogged over to her and said, "Have you seen Babra?"

"No, Sir," Rachael said. "I'm still looking for her."

The captain shook his head and walked with her to the other end of the ship.

"What's going to happen?" Rachael asked.

"I'm not sure," the captain said. "Despite what Mr. Hightower said, this ship was never intended to be used as his lab, but as a safe place for Exotics to meet with each other. Don't get me wrong, we were planning to charge them a lot of money to stay here. But..." He shrugged. "Something's wrong with the Shadow Dogs. I don't know what's going on anymore. Maybe the Animal Lovers' Club will take over the ship. Maybe I'll switch sides. As long as Babra's safe, I'm all right with whatever comes of it."

Behind them, the helicopter started up and blew sea spray all over the deck. They watched the helicopter until it took off.

"What about Babra?" Rachael asked.

He snorted. "I'm sure she'll come out of hiding, now that the helicopter's gone and I can't make her leave. Come on, let's go to the mess. If I'm hungry, I'm sure she's starving."

They walked to the mess hall. Babra was nowhere to be seen.

"Did anybody see Babra?" Rachael asked.

Sponge was dumping some green beans into a metal pan. "Dunno," he said. Ken spread his hands and shrugged. Bob—who still looked oddly familiar—grinned at her.

Captain Monn rolled his eyes. "All right, the helicopter is gone. You can stop hiding her now."

Sponge looked over his shoulder and said, "All clear."
Chapter 28

Babra trotted out from behind the counter in her small doggy form, ran to her dad, and jumped into his arms when he bent over to pick her up.

"You know you can't stay here," he said. "It's only going to get more dangerous."

She licked his face.

Captain Monn sighed. "Armand won't get here for another two days. What do you want to do until then?"

"Two days?" Rachael said. "You told them it would be in a few hours."

"That's as long as I could stand to have them around," the captain said. "No, Dr. Menney received an email from Armand explaining that they couldn't get here any soomer and to try to protect you kids, which was not very smart of him, but very thoughtful."

"Oh," Rachael said. "Then, if it's all right, may I work on the cavern? I wanted to paint."

"Okay," the captain said.

Babra barked excitedly and jumped out of his arms, then ran around Rachael's feet in circles.

"Can I eat first?" Rachael said.

She and Babra and Digger (and even Hideo, even though he didn't talk much and didn't smile at all) went down to the cavern and painted the floor of the pond and played hide-and-seek in the jungle.

Two days later, a different, larger helicopter landed on the pad, and four men wearing ski masks and holding guns jumped out of the helicopter and started yelling at everyone to put their hands up.

Sponge was there to meet them. All the kids but Raul (whom Dr. Menney wouldn't let out of bed yet) were watching from the small building at the top of the mountain.

"I hope they don't shoot Sponge," Rachael said.

One of the men pulled up his mask. Hideo said, "That's Armand!"

Rachael stared at the man. He was short but handsome, with gray hair and a big grin. He walked up to Sponge and said something. Sponge said something back and pointed toward the Tiger's Nest.

Armand walked into the dome. "Hello? Rachael? Raul? Are you in here?"

Rachael came out. "Hello?"

"I am Armand," the man said. "I am here to rescue you."

"We don't need rescuing anymore, but thank you," Rachael said. "Can you just take us home? The bad guys are gone now. Please be nice to everyone who is still here. They all helped."

Hideo rushed out of the building and said, "Armand! You came!"

"Hideo!" Armand handed his gun to one of the other men and hugged Hideo. "I didn't know where you were. I'm so glad to see you."

By then, the captain had arrived.

"Armand," the captain said.

"Daniel," Armand said. "Does this mean you have left the Shadow Dogs?"

The captain nodded. "For now."

"Good," Armand said. "Men! This ship is under Club control, with Captain Daniel Monn in charge. Put up your weapons."

Rachael cheered.

· · ·

Rachael's dad was angry and crying and happy to see her all at the same time. Ox jumped around her feet, barking and wagging his tail so hard that his butt shook back and forth.

"I'm sorry," she told her dad, but he shook his head. "I was worried, that's all."

"I'm sorry I didn't find out where mom is," Rachael said.

"You leave that up to the police," her dad said. "Don't go looking for her again. Promise."

Rachael didn't say anything.

"Promise," her dad said.

"Promise," she said.

That night, she sneaked up to her mom's computer and tried to log in.

But the password had been changed.

· · ·

To be continued. Read more of Rachael's adventures in The Exotics Book 2: Xanadu House
About the Author

De Kenyon is a writer and mom who lives near Denver, Colorado, in kind of a boring suburb, where she passes out horror books for kids every Halloween and has shelves full of weird crystals and skulls and one of those machines that you have to put in fifty cents every time you want candy. If you don't want your black jellybeans, she does. The three neighbor kids next door think she might be a witch. She's not a witch, but she keeps a scythe in the back yard just in case. She writes The Exotics series and weird short stories for kids. Her first short story collection is Tales Told Under the Covers: Zombie Girl Invasion & Other Stories.You can find out more at www.WonderlandPress.com.

As always, this story is dedicated to Lee and Ray,   
without whose love none of this would be possible.
