by Mo O'Hara
‘Aren’t you gonna free me first?’ Mark pleaded from his chair. ‘I can get Sami down while you do the computer stuff.’
‘Yes, yes, in a minute!’ Sanj muttered. ‘I need to concentrate when hacking.’
Meanwhile, Antonio squelched out of his tank, across the floor, and climbed the side of the shark tank with his suckers. He heaved himself over the top and in seconds he was in the water beside Frankie, surrounded by sharks.
‘Please don’t eat my zombie goldfish!’ I yelled down to him.
Frankie narrowed his eyes at Antonio, ready to take on the octopus and the sharks.
‘Help!’ Sami whimpered again.
Antonio looked at Frankie. Then he pointed up at Sami with one arm, at himself with another, and did some kind of complicated sign language, waving his other six legs.
I could see Frankie relax. He nodded.
‘I think Antonio has proposed a truce,’ Pradeep said, ‘so together they can rescue Sami. Or at least that’s what I think he said. I’ve never seen octopus sign language before. He might have said he likes surfing and sushi. I guess we’ll find out?’
Frankie started swimming faster and faster in tight circles, creating a whirlpool of water as he zipped past the hammerheads’ noses. While the sharks were distracted, Antonio climbed back up the inside of the tank. When he got to the top, he threw out two of his long, stretchy tentacles and managed to grab Sami’s dangling hands.
‘Octi sticky!’ Sami squealed, as Antonio used his suckers to start pulling her, and the net we were in, to the side of the tank. As soon as Sami was at the edge, she scrambled down the ladder.
Meanwhile Pradeep and I used our Aqua Survival key rings to saw harder than we ever had in our lives. Finally, the net gave way and we clambered down. Fang leaped after us, hissing at Antonio and heading straight for Mark.
Above us, Antonio was trying to dip his tentacles into the water to grab Frankie, but every time he did, a hungry shark snapped at him. The octopus stopped and rubbed his head thoughtfully with two of his tentacles. Then he plopped into the tank.
‘Frankie!’ Pradeep and I whispered.
‘Octi!’ Sami mumbled.
Sanj was ignoring us, typing away, while Fang appeared to be trying to chew Mark loose from his bungee cord.
Suddenly the black curtain opened on the other side of the tank and we heard the announcer’s voice saying, ‘Welcome to feeding time at City Aquarium’s special shark-feeding tank! This is where the sharks have their meals while we clean out their bigger tank at the front of the Aquarium. Let’s see what the sharks are having today!’
Frankie was looking wobbly now, probably from swimming so fast, round and round in circles. The sharks were getting closer with every swipe. Meanwhile, Antonio had wrapped himself around the head of one of the sharks, holding its mouth closed with his stretchy arms, and was hanging on for dear life.
‘Wait a minute!’ the announcer said. ‘Is that the same fish as before? And the Amazing Antonio! That can’t be right . . .’
Frankie pulled out of his whirlpool and swam up to Antonio’s shark. Then he circled its head as fast as he could, using his zombie stare the whole time.
‘I think he’s figured out a way to hypnotize the hammerheads!’ Pradeep shouted. ‘Look!’
As soon as the first shark was hypnotized, Antonio grabbed another, and Frankie started circling again.
Moments later, all the sharks were gently moving through the water, staring at some seaweed with one eye and up the nostril of the nearest shark with the other.
‘It worked!’ I said.
Antonio shook fins with Frankie, picked up the empty jam jar and climbed out of the tank on to our side of the one-way glass.
The announcer stared at the mesmerized sharks and the lone goldfish now swimming around the tank. ‘Does that fish look like it’s gloating to you?’ he mumbled. ‘And what happened to Antonio? Maybe the sharks aren’t that hungry today. Let’s look in on them later.’ He quickly shut the curtain again.
Just when I thought things were under control, Fang finally bit though the bungee cord. It snapped back with a twang, freeing Mark but sending Fang flying across the room towards Sanj who was huddled over his computer, furiously typing away.
‘Miaooooowwww,’ Fang screeched as she slammed into the back of Sanj’s chair and dug her claws into the closest thing to hand to steady herself: Sanj.
‘Owww! Get your menacing kitten off me!’ Sanj shouted. ‘We are so close to completing our plan!’
As Mark stomped over to Sanj, Frankie swam to the top of the tank and Antonio used the jar to scoop him up out of the water.
‘Right,’ Mark grumped, picking up Fang and stroking her. ‘I’m free and Sami’s safe, but the morons have escaped and the stupid octopus and fish HAVEN’T been eaten by the sharks! This back-up plan sucks! You better have the money or—’
‘I needed to concentrate!’ Sanj snapped. ‘It took a while to bypass the Lottery website security as we are under age, but now that I’ve hacked into the system and created a new account we are ready to go. Let’s enter those winning numbers!’
‘Stop!’ I yelled. ‘We can’t let you!’
Sanj turned around and stared at us in surprise. ‘You could have told me they’d escaped,’ he muttered, glaring at Mark.
‘I just did.’ Mark glared back.
‘I stopped listening to you after “I’m free”. You really must warn me when you have anything important to say,’ Sanj huffed. ‘Just stop them!’
‘Pradeep, let’s try and grab the computer,’ I said in looks. ‘Sami, you distract Mark.’
They both nodded.
‘Now!’ I shouted. Pradeep and I ran towards Sanj, but Mark blocked us easily, grabbing each of us under one arm. Then Sami tried to crawl through his legs, but Mark clamped his knees closed, trapping her. He was a one-man wall of defence!
Fang sat on Mark’s head and swiped at us as we dodged her claws.
‘Finally, you’re doing something right,’ Sanj said to Mark with a smirk. ‘I’m just entering the final details. When they announce the rollover winner tonight . . . it will be us!’
‘Shark lair, here we come,’ Mark added.
‘Frankie!’ I called with the squished breath from my Mark-squeezed lungs. ‘Help!’
Frankie shot a look at Antonio. The octopus nodded, wound up his arm like a bowler and threw the jar with Frankie in it over Mark’s head and right at Sanj.
The plastic jar knocked Sanj on the head and water splashed all over the tablet. It fizzed and sparked. Sanj dropped it to the ground and the screen went blank.
‘No!’ Sanj screeched, while Frankie clung on to Sanj’s fringe and fish-slapped at his nose. ‘You’ve broken the connection. I’ll have to log in and enter the lottery numbers all over again.’
Meanwhile Antonio had slithered over to Mark, squelched up his legs and was shoving his tentacles into Mark’s nose to try and get him to drop us.
‘GET THE MORON FISH OFF ME!’ Sanj shouted.
‘EEEEWWWW!’ Mark screamed. He dropped us to the floor, grabbed the bungee cord and wrapped it around Antonio’s tentacles before shoving him into his tank and slamming the lid closed. Then he turned to Sanj and Frankie. ‘You are definitely cat food this time, fish!’
‘Mew!’ Fang agreed, jumping on top of Antonio’s tank for a better view.
At that moment, Sanj picked up the tablet from the floor and used it to thwack Frankie like a ping-pong ball towards Mark.
Frankie crashed to the ground and lay stunned on the floor.
Pradeep, Sami and I all leaped forwards to try and grab him, but Mark was faster. He picked up the dazed goldfish and flung him towards Fang, who stood on top of the tank with her mouth wide open.
‘Nooooooooooo!’ Pradeep and I yelled.
‘Swishy fisheeeeeeee!’ Sami shouted.
Suddenly, a spinning bowler hat come hurtling through the air towards Frankie. In one swoop, it scooped up Frankie and boome
ranged back to its owner, Oddjobz, who was leaning against the ‘Staff Only’ door.
‘That is NOT the way we treat fish in this aquarium,’ Oddjobz boomed. He glared at Mark and Sanj. ‘Bring me that jar, shark-girl,’ he added in a softer voice.
Sami scurried over to Sanj, grabbed the jar and brought it to Oddjobz, who gently put Frankie inside. ‘I think he needs a drink, don’t you?’ he said to Pradeep and me.
We ran to get some water.
‘Now I think you two have a lot of explaining to do.’ Oddjobz pointed his tightly rolled umbrella at Sanj and Mark.
Fang leaped off Antonio’s tank and into Mark’s pocket, miaowing a panicked miaow.
Sanj and Mark shot each other a look that said, ‘Let’s get out of here!’
A second later, they were running for a fire exit on the far side of the room. But before they could even reach the door handle, Oddjobz pressed a different button on his umbrella and it shot out two lengths of rope with weights on each end. The ropes tangled around Sanj and Mark’s ankles, sending them crashing to the floor.
‘Oh, man!’ yelled Mark. ‘Now I’m tied up again. This REALLY sucks!’
Oddjobz sauntered over to them. ‘As I was saying, you two have some explaining to do,’ he said as he hung his umbrella over his arm and readjusted his hat.
‘Who wants to start?’
By now Pradeep and I had filled Frankie’s jar with water and untied Antonio, who was poking at Frankie with a tentacle. But Frankie wasn’t poking him back. In fact, Frankie wasn’t moving at all!
‘Swishy fishy poorly,’ Sami said.
‘Not to worry,’ Oddjobz replied. ‘I’ve seen this in fish before, when they’ve had a shock. You need to move the water around the jar to get it flowing through his gills.’
I started to swish the water around in the jar.
‘It’s best if it’s shaken, not stirred,’ Oddjobz added.
I gently shook the jar instead, and Frankie started to come around.
‘What did you say you did before you worked at the Aquarium?’ Pradeep asked.
‘That’s classified.’ Oddjobz smiled. He looked down at Frankie, who was now swimming around.
‘Works every time,’ he said.
Antonio picked up the ‘Say It, Spell It’ toy keyboard from inside his tank and started to type. ‘I predict that the fighting fish will recover well, but he will have mucho grande headache,’ the robotic voice announced.
Frankie nodded.
‘Poor swishy fishy,’ Sami said snuggling the jar. ‘I look after you.’
Frankie rolled his eyes at us but let Sami kiss his head when he thought we weren’t looking.
‘Thanks, Mr Oddjobz, for saving Frankie,’ I said.
‘And thanks, Antonio, for saving Sami and for saving us,’ Pradeep added. ‘And for not eating Frankie.’
Antonio typed, ‘De nada, no worries,’ and waved his tentacles.
‘Antonio –’ Oddjobz leaned down to talk to the octopus – ‘I’m really sorry, but you have an appearance to make out there in the Aquarium.’
Antonio shrugged his tentacles as he didn’t really have shoulders to shrug with.
‘Octi sad,’ Sami mumbled.
‘You’re coming too,’ Oddjobz said to Mark and Sanj. He helped them to stand up, then tied them together with the bungee cord before releasing their ankles. ‘I wish there was a way to avoid it, Antonio,’ he said, looking back over his shoulder as he worked, ‘but there’s a big crowd gathered. Word has spread around that you got into the shark tank and put on quite a show. You’re more popular than ever.’
‘Hang on, that’s it!’ Pradeep suddenly shouted. ‘You’re more popular than ever. That’s why it might work!’
Pradeep whispered his plan to us all.
‘What do you think?’ he asked.
Antonio typed, ‘It’s worth a try.’
‘Listen, while you’re working all this out you might as well let us go, right?’ Sanj said, squirming in the bungee cord.
‘Yeah, you can’t keep us like this,’ Mark added. ‘It’s cruelty to evil scientists.’
‘And evil computer geniuses,’ Sanj added.
‘I’m used to taking the law into my own hands,’ Oddjobz said, straightening his hat. ‘I’ll deal with the consequences.’
He radioed the security team through a hidden speaker in the umbrella.
‘That is the coolest umbrella ever,’ Pradeep said, staring at the buttons on the handle. ‘Do they sell these in the gift shop?’
‘Standard issue from my old job.’ Oddjobz smiled. ‘You’re pretty good at coming up with plans though, kid. Maybe you’ll get one for yourself one day . . . when you’re older.’ He winked.
Oddjobz escorted Mark and Sanj while Pradeep held Frankie and I pushed Antonio in his tank on the trolley. Sami carried a very unhappy Fang (whom we’d removed from Mark’s pocket after we’d caught her trying to bite through the bungee cord).
We opened the door to the public bit of the Aquarium and headed towards the octopus display area. When we got there we saw that a huge crowd had gathered in front of the tank, and the announcer was standing in front of the curtain. ‘There’s just going to be a short delay . . .’ he was saying. ‘I’m assured that one of our staff is bringing Antonio back safely as we speak . . .’
‘That’s right.’ Oddjobz’s voice boomed out across the room. Everyone turned around to look. ‘Here he is.’ Then he nodded to Pradeep and me and whispered, ‘You’re up.’
Pradeep cleared his throat. ‘Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,’ he said in a loud clear voice that Mrs Loubinhall, our school drama teacher, would have been proud of. ‘We have an announcement to make.’
Just then we spotted our dads in the crowd. At the exact same moment, they spotted us . . . including Mark and Sanj tied up in the bungee cord.
They pushed to the front of the crowd. ‘Where were you at the shark feeding?’ my dad said. ‘We were worried!’
‘And what are you doing with our sons? Let them loose immediately,’ Pradeep’s dad said to Oddjobz.
‘I’m sorry, sirs, but your sons have been involved in an incident,’ he said.
Both dads’ faces dropped into a look that clearly said, ‘Oh no, here we go again.’
Oddjobz explained that they had trespassed in restricted areas, contaminated exhibition tanks, and endangered the well-being of customers and the Aquarium fish. A security guard came over and Oddjobz handed the boys over to him. ‘I’m afraid they’ll have to work off the money to pay for everything that they’ve damaged,’ Oddjobz continued.
‘This is all just a misunderstanding,’ Sanj protested.
‘It was the stupid moron fish’s fault!’ Mark muttered.
‘Oh, and a kitten was illegally brought on to the premises. There’ll be a fine for that too,’ Oddjobz added. The security guard put on protective gloves before Sami handed him a hissing Fang.
Sami shark-swam up to her dad and pretended to attack his legs. Then Antonio the octopus reached out of his tank and patted her on the head.
The crowd gasped.
‘Me make octi friend, Daddy,’ said Sami.
‘What?’ said Pradeep’s dad.
Pradeep stepped forward and handed the ‘Say It, Spell It’ to Antonio in the tank. ‘The Amazing Antonio has something to say to you all,’ he announced.
The computer voice started speaking as Antonio typed. ‘My name is Juan Antonio Ignatius Carlos Octopus, but you can call me Antonio. I was captured off the coast of South America last year. Gracias for your communication device. It is mucho helpful. Excuse my grasp of English. I am translating from Octopus to Spanish and then to English. It can get jumbled. I long to get back to mi casa, my home . . . the sea.’
The crowd gasped again and the Aquarium announcer leaned back against the wall and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He was as white as a sheet.
As soon as Antonio stopped speaking, that was my cue. I started clapping and shouting ‘Brav
o!’ Then Sami, Pradeep and Oddjobz joined in. The dads started clapping too, even though I’m sure they didn’t know what they were clapping for. Soon the whole audience was clapping and cheering.
Pradeep stepped forward again. ‘Thank you for participating in City Aquarium’s totally interactive “Talking Octopus Experience”. This show was designed to entertain you, including octopus and stunt goldfish chases throughout the day, a pretend shark fight and now the “Amazing Antonio the Talking Octopus Experience”!’
The cheers from the crowd got louder.
‘I knew it was staged,’ one lady said.
‘Yeah, that goldfish must have been one of those plastic motorized fish,’ a man replied.
‘I bet it was all CGI,’ a boy added.
Frankie wriggled angrily and tried to jump out of his container, but I clenched my hand over the lid.
‘The show was to entertain,’ Pradeep said. ‘But the message that we want to teach you is much more serious. City Aquarium is committed to sea-animal welfare and believes that some sea creatures need to be in their natural habitat to be happy. So as part of that commitment they are going to release Antonio back into the South American ocean!’
The crowd cheered even louder and clapped. The Aquarium staff were patted on the back and congratulated.
Pradeep’s dad went up and shook hands with someone in a suit who must have been the Aquarium manager. She looked shocked as Mr Kumar said, ‘What a fantastic way to get everyone involved in your commitment to help sea creatures return to the wild!’
The announcer pushed through the crowd and stood next to the manager. ‘The crowd loves this idea. It’s great for our image!’ he whispered.
The manager stepped forward and smiled at Pradeep. ‘Yes, of course, City Aquarium is always looking for creative ways to teach and entertain.’ She looked at Oddjobz and Antonio. ‘Some more creative than we ever thought possible.’ She faced the crowd again. ‘So City Aquarium will release Antonio back into the ocean.’
