Endangered Operation

by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Quickly and quietly, you walk away, clutching the snake tracker. You’re out of the restaurant now. Which way should you go? You decide to walk toward the village center and look for a place to hide until you can meet up with Carmen. The world’s greatest thief should be impressed that you swiped the tracker from right under VILE’s nose.

  Between two buildings, you spot a high fence around an empty yard and decide to hide there. But just as you open the gate, you see El Topo, the other VILE operative, walking toward you.

  He sees you, too, and sees that you are carrying the snake tracker. “Stop!” he shouts.

  Moving quickly, you dodge through the gate and slam it shut, dropping a crossbar in place to lock it from the inside. El Topo kicks from the other side, but the fence is strong and topped with barbed wire, so you should be safe for now.

  You still need a place to hide. Looking around, you see that you are in a wide, cluttered yard, with piles of plywood, a tractor that looks like it’s being repaired, and stacks of wooden crates. You try a door that leads into one of the buildings, but it’s locked.

  Suddenly, the dirt in the middle of the yard puckers up into a mound, as if something is pushing from below. A moment later, El Topo comes bursting out in an explosion of dirt, launching himself from the ground. Somehow, he dug a tunnel under the fence! You are so surprised, you stumble backwards and fall.

  “I think we can both agree,” he says, “you have been caught. So please, hand over that device you have stolen. It is more important than you know.”

  “I know what it does,” you say, holding the tracker in front of you. “And I think snakes belong in the forest.” With all your strength, you hurl the tracker at a wall. It smashes open and lands on the ground with an electric buzz.

  El Topo shakes his head sadly. “I wish you had not done that,” he says.

  Suddenly, you hear a fierce barking, and a moment later, three wild-looking dogs charge out from behind the nearest building. The front dog is the size of a German shepherd, with pointy ears, matted fur, and vicious teeth. It leaps up on El Topo, knocking him to the ground.

  El Topo swings out with his fist, swatting the dog backwards. A second dog gets its teeth around El Topo’s wrist. The third runs circles around him, barking wildly.

  You steady your breathing and consider the three canines. They don’t look like trained attack dogs, more likely local animals protecting their turf. El Topo may not know any better, but fighting back is the worst thing he could do.

  “Hey!” you shout, waving your hands in front of you to show that you are no threat. The first dog turns away from El Topo and stalks toward you, growling viciously. You hold out your hand. The dog sniffs it and then starts barking furiously while the other two dogs circle around you.

  “We’re in their territory,” you tell El Topo. “They’re just trying to show us they’re in charge. Get up and walk slowly toward the gate.”

  El Topo stands. The two of you walk toward the gate in the fence, showing your hands and never turning your backs on the three dogs. They bound around you, barking and snapping near your legs, but they don’t bite. You open the gate and slip back out onto the road, closing the gate behind you.

  El Topo wipes his forehead with the back of his hand. He looks pale, and you can see that he is genuinely shaken. “Thank you,” he says. “I thought those dogs would be the end of El Topo.”

  “They were just being dogs,” you say.

  “I am sorry,” says El Topo. “Although I am grateful for what you have done, I cannot let you go after you have ruined our mission.”

  El Topo grabs your arm just as Le Chèvre comes running up. You are trapped. The two men take you in their pickup truck to the port town of Itajaí, where they put you on a boat. You are locked in a windowless cabin for days.

  When your cabin door finally opens, you stagger up on deck, weary and seasick, blinking in the bright midday sun. You see that the boat has docked on a tropical beach, with a large gray building looming out of the forest nearby.

  An enormous woman stands at the end of the dock, her hands on her hips, watching you with a smile. “Welcome to VILE Academy,” she says.

  “I don’t understand . . .”

  “My name is Coach Brunt,” she says, “and I’ve had my eye on you. You showed gumption when you took on Tigress. You showed thieving skill when you swiped the tracker from Le Chèvre. And the way you handled those dogs, well, that was grade A prime. Sugar, I think you might be VILE material.”

  “Whaaat?”

  “VILE. It stands for Valuable Imports, Lavish Exports. We are the world’s greatest organization of thieves, stealing for fun and profit. Every year, we recruit forty students to train here at VILE Academy. How would you like to be one of them?”

  “Do I have a choice?” you ask.

  “Well, of course you have a choice, sugar. We don’t want anyone at VILE Academy who doesn’t believe one hundred percent in our mission.”

  WHAT DO YOU SAY?

  ▷ “Yes”—turn to page 55.

  ▷ “No”—turn to page 139.

  Return to page 97.

  “LET’S BACKTRACK to the other bridge,” you say.

  “Good vote,” says Ivy. “I knew I liked you.”

  “Aww man,” says Zack as he turns the car around. “You guys are no fun!”

  It’s frustrating to lose time while Carmen is waiting, but a couple of hours later, you reach the second bridge and are back on track. By late afternoon, you arrive at your meeting spot at the intersection of two roads, near where the Cropan’s boa was found.

  You find Carmen sitting on a fallen tree trunk, waiting for you. She opens the back door of the car and slides in next to Ivy.

  “Sorry we’re late,” Zack says. “Ivy wanted to take the long way.”

  “No problem,” Carmen replies. “I’ve been looking around, but no sign of VILE yet. Hopefully we got here first. Ivy, how’s that tracker working?”

  “Let’s find out,” Ivy says. She proudly holds up a chaotic tangle of parts and wires, with an antenna sticking out the top. She flips a switch and then adjusts a knob back and forth until the tracker starts to beep. “Bingo!” she says.

  “What’s the beeping mean?” Zack asks.

  “It means we’re in the snake’s general neighborhood,” Ivy explains. “Remember, the snake has a radio transmitter under its skin, right? This tracker beeps when it picks up the signal. The stronger the signal, the faster it beeps.”

  Carmen nods her understanding. “So it’s like a game of hot and cold. If the tracker beeps faster, we’re getting closer.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Zack declares. “You guys ready to head into the woods for some snake hunting?”

  “We could,” says Carmen. “Or we could wait for VILE to find the snake first, and then use the tracker to follow them.”

  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

  ▷ If you want to follow the snake’s signal now, turn to page 60.

  ▷ If you want to hide and wait for VILE, turn to page 112.

  Return to page 57.

  YOU SLIP THE DEVICE into your ear. It fits perfectly, so small that you doubt anyone will notice you’re wearing it.

  “Hi there,” says a friendly voice in your ear. It sounds like a teenage boy. When you don’t say anything, he says, “You can talk. The earpiece has a microphone built in, so I can hear everything you say.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Player. You’re the zookeeper from Vienna, right?”

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  “Okay, listen, I know this is weird, but my friends and I are trying to get all those animals back to their homes, and we’re hoping you can help. Does that sound okay to you?”

  “Wait . . . who are you again?”

  “I’m Player.”

  “I know; you said that, but who are you? And who are your friends? And where are you?”

  “Look behind your ship about twenty degrees to starboard. Do you see a blinking l
ight?” Sure enough, when you look out over the black ocean behind the cargo ship, you see a distant light flash one, two, three times.

  I see it, you say.

  “That’s our boat,” says Player. “The problem is, the ship you’re on is faster than ours. So we need you to put your ship into reverse for a minute to give us time to catch up. Can you get to the bridge?”

  You look up toward the bridge, a brightly lit room at the back of the ship, with stairs leading up to it. “I see it,” you say, “but the captain is inside.”

  “I’m not sure how to help you with that,” Player admits.

  Figuring you’ll decide what to do once you get there, you climb the metal stairs that lead up to the bridge. The door at the top is unlocked, and you walk in to see a jumble of controls and displays. Two separate radar readouts on green and black screens show the ocean around you.

  The captain sits in a worn chair, reading a magazine. “What?” he asks flatly without even looking up.

  “Otter Man sent me. He says to stop the ship. We . . . we need to pick up one more animal, and another ship is meeting us at sea.”

  “Hmph,” the captain snorts, setting his magazine aside. “The little tiger was supposed to be the last one, and then full steam ahead for Greece.”

  “I don’t know. I guess there was a change of plans.” When the captain still looks skeptical, you add, “The order comes straight from Coach Brunt.”

  That gets his attention. “Fine,” he says. He consults a large compass hanging over his control station and then pulls two levers all the way back. You can feel a change in the hum of the ship beneath your feet as the powerful engines go into reverse, slowing the ship down.

  Three seconds later, you see Otter Man come up from a stairwell at the far end of the deck, sprinting toward the bridge. He must have felt the change in the ship’s direction and is coming to find out why. The captain has gone back to his reading and hasn’t seen Otter Man yet, but you don’t have much time . . .

  WHAT DO YOU DO?

  ▷ If you tell Otter Man a lie, turn to page 107.

  ▷ If you lock the door to the bridge, turn to page 44.

  Return to page 123.

  YOU KNOW THAT OCEAN CURRENTS can be powerful and unpredictable, so you better get out of the water as soon as possible. You wave your arms frantically as you bob up and down. “Over here!” you shout. “OVER HERE!”

  At first, you’re not sure if they spotted you, but then you see that Zack is wheeling his boat around and coming back toward you. The second Interpol speedboat sees you too and races toward you from the opposite direction.

  You climb a sharp point of rock that sticks out from the ocean, holding tight against the crashing waves. Zack reaches you a second before the Interpol speedboat, and you leap from your perch into the back of his boat. Ivy and Carmen do their best to catch you, and the three of you tumble in a heap onto the deck.

  Zack swerves just before he collides with the Interpol speedboat, so close that the sides of the two boats scrape and bounce off each other. The impact sends the Interpol boat crashing into the rock that you jumped from. It flips end-over-end into the air, the driver tumbling into the ocean as Zack speeds away.

  “You did it, bro!” Ivy whoops.

  “Just like our street-racing days, only wetter!” Zack cheers.

  And then you notice a thrumming sound and see an Interpol helicopter coming toward you. “Turn off your engine immediately!” booms a voice from above. “You are all under arrest.” The helicopter turns so that it is flying directly above you, matching your speed and direction.

  “Oh boy,” says Zack. “I don’t think I can outrun a chopper.”

  “I’ll take care of this one,” says Carmen. She points her arm toward the sky, and a grappling hook shoots out of her sleeve, attaching to the helicopter’s landing gear. Incredibly, Carmen flips up into the sky and catches hold of the helicopter. A moment later, the pilot tumbles out and lands with a splash in the ocean.

  “Whoa!” says Zack. “I hope she knows how to fly that thing.”

  “Carm can do pretty much anything,” says Ivy as the helicopter bobs in the air and then flies toward land. “Now let’s get out of here before they send a submarine after us.”

  As you zoom toward the mainland, you see the Interpol cruiser up ahead, trying to cut you off. “Don’t worry,” Zack says as he adjusts your course. “We’re a lot faster than that thing.”

  “WAIT!” Chase’s voice booms from the cruiser. “Carmen Sandiego dropped something!” He waves Carmen’s red fedora in the air. “I know how much she is attached to her special hat, and I wish to return it to her . . . as a gesture of goodwill.”

  Chase flings the fedora out over the water. It spins through the air and then drifts down onto the ocean like a falling leaf. Zack steers past it, reaching down to scoop it from the water. “That was nice of him!”

  “Yeah, real nice,” says Ivy, grabbing the hat from her brother. “I’d say there’s a zero percent chance he didn’t put a tracker in this thing.” She feels under the brim of the hat and pulls out a thin disk of metal. “Bingo.”

  Ivy flips a tiny switch on the tracker. “There, I turned it off.” She hands the tracker to you. “Here you go. You can keep it as a souvenir.”

  “Thanks,” you say, examining it front and back. It’s about the size of a postage stamp, with visible circuits running through it and a tiny black switch on one side. “Are you positive they can’t follow this?”

  “Not unless you turn it back on,” Ivy says.

  “So don’t turn it on,” Zack adds helpfully.

  WHAT DO YOU DO?

  ▷ If you throw the tracker in the water, turn to page 121.

  ▷ If you slip it into your pocket, turn to page 71.

  Return to page 78.

  YOU SPRINT OUT THE FRONT DOOR of the tiger nursery, looking around for a guard. You pull out your phone and dial the number for the police, holding the phone to your ear as you run past the hippopotamus pool and toward the center of the zoo.

  “Stop!” a voice calls out behind you.

  You wheel around to see a young woman in a red trench coat standing right in the middle of the path. She wears a wide-brimmed red fedora on her head that casts a shadow over her face. “Please,” she says, “hang up the phone.”

  Something in her voice makes you want to trust her, so you touch the button to end your call. “Who are you,” you ask, “and what are you doing here?”

  “My name is Carmen Sandiego,” she says. “I’ll tell you everything, but right now I need to move quickly, and I need your help. I know that something has been stolen here tonight, but I don’t know what. Can you tell me?”

  “A tiger,” you say. “An Amur tiger cub. Her name is Nadezhda.”

  Carmen nods. For just a moment, you wonder if she’s the one who took Nadezhda, but then she pulls up the brim of her fedora and you see the warmth and genuine concern in her eyes. “Okay,” she says, her voice full of reassuring confidence. “Where’s the nearest exit from this zoo?”

  “Wait,” you say. “I don’t understand. Who would steal a baby tiger?”

  “The most dangerous criminals in the world,” says Carmen. “And they have a head start. Will you help me catch them?”

  WHAT DO YOU SAY?

  ▷ “Of course I’ll help!”—turn to page 67.

  ▷ “Well . . . I’m just a zookeeper.”—turn to page 95.

  Return to page 5.

  “LET’S GO FOR THE KAKAPO!” you say. “They’re a kind of parrot, the largest parrots on Earth, and one of the most endangered birds.”

  “Okay,” says Carmen. “If you wanted to steal one, where would you go?”

  “They used to live all over New Zealand, but now they’re only on a few small islands.”

  Carmen nods. “Player,” she says, “we need a flight to New Zealand.”

  “Who’s Player?” you ask.

  “I’ll introduce you on the plane.”

>   * * *

  Two hours later, you are taking off from Vienna International Airport on a private jet. You can hardly believe this is happening—you’ve never been outside of Europe.

  There are two other passengers, a brother and sister named Zack and Ivy, who come from Boston, in the United States. It turns out that Player is a teenage computer genius who lives in Niagara Falls, Canada. He’s a vital member of Carmen’s crew, doing research for missions, hacking into security systems, and arranging transportation—all from his bedroom.

  You sit next to Carmen, looking at her laptop. She pulls up a picture of a kakapo standing on a log in the forest. It looks like an extra-large, extra-chubby parrot, with moss-green feathers and a wise face.

  “Aw,” coos Ivy, “it really is cute.”

  “That kakapo should get up in the trees,” Zack suggests, “where it won’t be so easy to catch.”

  “That’s the problem,” you explain. “Kakapos can’t fly. For thousands of years, they lived on islands that had no predators on the ground, so they were safe walking around. Then, about seven hundred years ago, Polynesians came to New Zealand and brought predators like dogs and rats. Later on, Europeans brought even more predators. The kakapo became an easy meal.”

  “Predators are the worst!” Zack complains

  “It’s not the predators’ fault,” you say. “Every ecosystem on the planet is a delicate balance. There are dozens of examples of humans bringing plants or animals to a new place and causing problems.”