Traps and Specters (22 page)

“What time we got?” he asked.

“Nine-fifteen,” Sam answered. “Streets should be empty by now.”

This was good, Tameron thought. Get the people indoors, get them safe. Things were about to get very dangerous.

CHAPTER 40

A
s Sam ran toward Jenkins Street, he said into his bone mic, “I'm going to find a spot between Old Cove and the school.”

“You better hurry....” Solana said into the airwaves.

“Why? What do we got?”

“Someone's coming down Old Cove. A man.”

Sam uttered a curse. He stopped running. “Is it him?”

“I can't tell. He just cut into a corner lot. I can't … I can't see him now. It's too dark. And the fog …”

“Solana, tell me what—”

“Wait! He just turned onto Jenkins Street! He's headed toward the school. He's about five blocks away from it.”

“Don't lose sight of him.” Sam paused, then said, “Hannah, what's your position?”

“I'm on the rooftops, headed toward the action.”

Sam looked around, unsure. Then, he said, “Tameron—I'm coming your way.”

“From which direction?” Tameron asked.

Sam considered this a moment, then said, “From above.”

He retreated into the darkest recess he could find, a spot between two houses and a grouping of trees. He swatted his wrists against his hips, and with two loud clicks, the buckles on his jacket latched onto the zippers at the end of his sleeves. He raised his arms out to his sides, spreading the feathers from inside his jacket. Thin rods shot out from his cuffs, increasing his wingspan.

His transformation complete, Sam crouched low and sprang into the foggy air.

CHAPTER 41

A
s Noah ran toward Jenkins Street, he was startled by a figure running out from a foggy yard. It was Megan, but Noah, having forgotten that his sister was dressed like a pirate, almost didn't recognize her. She turned and ran in his direction, joining him. Twenty feet ahead of the siblings, a man charged past on Jenkins Street—a man in a trench coat and a wide-brimmed hat.

“I've got Megan with me,” Noah announced into the airwaves. “We spotted DeGraff on Jenkins, just past Pheasant Run.”

“Follow him,” Sam said. “Don't get too close.”

“Roger,” Noah said.

As Megan and Noah cut through a corner lot and headed after DeGraff, two figures rose out of the fog in a nearby yard—a screwy-looking kid with checkered flood pants and an oversized bow tie, and a girl with a gold headband, shiny steel bracelets, and a flowing cape. As they ran, the nerd tripped over his own feet and the young Wonder Woman leaped over a bush in superhero fashion. The two kids joined Noah and Megan on Jenkins Street, and together, the four scouts chased after the man the Secret Society desperately needed to keep out of the Secret Zoo.

CHAPTER 42

I
n the area that the tunnel had opened into, Tank stroked his flashlight beam along the wall. It was covered in slime and moss. Stringy green gunk dripped down its sides, and fog concealed its distant reaches. All along it were dark passages like the one he had just walked through. Caves. Caves that led to unknown places. Tank had never seen this part of the Secret Zoo—and it made him nervous.

Huge insects crawled across the walls. They moved in and out of the caves, their long bodies bending around curves.

Tank saw something above the mouth of the tunnel down which he'd slid: a deep engraving in the hard dirt. Letters. Peering forward, he read the word: “Rhinorama.” This made perfect sense because Tank had just portaled into the Secret Zoo through the rhino exhibit in the Clarksville Zoo.

He moved the flashlight above a neighboring tunnel and noticed another deep engraving. Upon reading the words, he gasped and a jolt of terror surged across his body.

The engraving named a spot that wasn't associated with the Clarksville Zoo
or
the Secret Zoo.

The engraving read “Clarksville Elementary.”

CHAPTER 43

A
s Sam softly touched down on a rooftop, he closed his wings across his back and then dropped into the shadows of a wide chimney. The house faced Jenkins Street. To the right, about fifteen rooftops down, was Clarksville Elementary. In the fog, it looked odd and somehow threatening.

“Tameron …,” Sam said into his bone mic.

“Yeah.”

“I can see Clarksville Elementary, but not you. What's your position?”

“Beside the bell tower.”

Sam squinted to see through the fog. Though he made out the shape of the tower, he couldn't spot his friend. “How's the traffic down there?”

“There isn't any.”

Just then, a figure came running up Jenkins Street. Fog whirled around a man in a trench coat and a fedora hat. Him.

“He's coming,” Sam said. “Everyone up. Solana, you keeping a visual?”

“Roger,” Solana said.

Crouched low, she was running along the five-inch cap of the concrete wall, the Clarksville Zoo to one side of her, the neighborhood to the other, as if she were rushing down the dividing line between two worlds.

Directly to her right was DeGraff, a row of houses and their lawns the only things dividing her from him. He moved in and out of Solana's view as trees, thick patches of fog, and other obstacles seemed to race past.