Endangered Operation

by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  “Do you think those motorcycles belong to VILE?” you ask.

  Carmen shrugs. “It could be. If VILE is tracking the snake, it makes sense that they would park out here and explore the jungle on foot. I’m going to take a closer look.”

  “It’s not safe to fly any lower,” the pilot warns.

  “Not a problem,” Carmen replies. “Is there any place that you can land near here?” The pilot replies that there’s a runway outside a nearby village. Carmen asks him to land the plane there and tells you she will meet you soon.

  “Where are you going?” you ask.

  “I told you,” she replies with a smile, “for a closer look.” She opens the door to the airplane and steps out as casually as if it were a parked car. You look down to see her falling toward the green forest, and then a red triangle appears—somehow, she has popped open a hang glider. She soars down toward the road, landing about a hundred feet from the parked motorcycles.

  “Your friend is . . . unusual,” the pilot says.

  Fifteen minutes later, the plane lands on a rough airstrip, little more than a dirt road through a field on the edge of a village. A handful of small planes are parked on the grass. There is a small restaurant nearby, a wooden building with tables outside, and you decide to get something to drink while you wait for Carmen.

  As you sit outside, sipping a fresh pineapple juice, you notice two men at a nearby table who don’t look like locals. One of them is tall, with a neatly trimmed beard and an irritated look on his face. He is holding an electronic device with a spiral antenna coming out the top, twisting a dial.

  “Still nothing!” the man complains, speaking in a French accent. “This device is clearly defective.”

  “Do not despair, Le Chèvre,” says the other man, who is shorter and thickly built, with spiky hair and a friendly face. “The snake must still be far away. Let us enjoy our lunch, and then we are back into the jungle.”

  In a flash, you realize that the device is a snake tracker, just like the one Ivy is building, and so the two men must be VILE operatives! You wish Carmen were here.

  “While we have a few minutes, I think I will stretch my legs,” the shorter man says. He gets up and walks off down a road that leads through the center of the village. The tall man puts his tracker down on the bench next to him and starts tapping away on a tablet.

  You might be able to grab the snake tracker without him noticing.

  WHAT DO YOU DO?

  ▷ If you swipe the tracker, turn to page 20.

  ▷ If you wait and watch, turn to page 109.

  Return to page 8.

  “LET’S WAIT UNTIL NIGHT,” you say. “The kakapo habitat is protected, so we can’t just walk in.”

  “Okay,” Carmen agrees. “We’ll sneak in by boat after dark.”

  You land in Invercargill with some extra time, so Zack suggests you stop for meat pies, a local favorite food. You enjoy a delicious cupcake-size pie full of minced meat, gravy, mushrooms, onions, and cheese, and then pick up your motorboat, which is about eighteen feet long, with seats for passengers in the front and back.

  Zack drives the boat—this seems to be his job with Carmen’s crew—while you ride up front on the bow. You have plenty of time before nightfall, so you cruise along the coast, watching the lush green land go by. You feel like you’re on vacation with excellent new friends.

  As the sun goes down, you turn toward open water. Codfish Island is about thirty miles offshore, next to the much larger Stewart Island. The ocean feels different at night, almost spooky, with endless black in every direction. As you bob along the waves, you finally see the silhouette of Codfish Island ahead. Carmen asks Zack to get close, keeping the engine low to make as little noise as possible.

  You find an inlet, protected from the waves, where you can jump from the boat to the rocks along the shore. Carmen lays out the plan: You and she will explore the island while Zack and Ivy stay with the boat, ready to make a fast escape.

  As you scramble up the rocks onto Codfish Island, you find yourself in a low forest. The moon is almost full, so you can see a bit where you’re going. A path leads inland, which you and Carmen follow, pushing branches and brambles out of your way.

  “Psst,” says Carmen. “Look at this!” Standing about ten feet back into the woods is a tall, box-shaped cage with an open door. “Do you think VILE set a trap?”

  “Maybe,” you say, “but more likely that was set by the rangers. Every single kakapo gets caught about once a year for a quick checkup. It’s like going to your yearly doctor’s appointment.”

  As you keep moving through the forest, you hear a strange sound off the path to your left, like a low trumpet blast. Stepping as lightly as you can, you move in that direction. You push into a small clearing to see one of the most delightful things you have ever seen.

  Standing on the forest floor, a large bird stares up at you, its black eyes twinkling in the moonlight. It shifts from foot to foot as it considers you. A kakapo.

  “What’s it doing?” Carmen whispers.

  “Probably out foraging for plants to eat. Kakapos are nocturnal, so this is their most active time.”

  Suddenly the kakapo dashes away, fluttering its wings, and disappears into the undergrowth. Carmen laughs. “They’re faster than they look.”

  “Yeah,” you agree. “Maybe it won’t be so easy for VILE to catch one.”

  “Seriously, imagine for a minute that you were trying to steal a kakapo,” Carmen wonders aloud. “What would you do?”

  “I don’t know. They’re not easy to find. We’re lucky we saw one. I mean, there are only about a hundred and fifty in the whole world, even though this has been a good year for kakapo eggs . . .”

  And then you realize how you would steal a kakapo.

  “That’s it!” you say. “Sometimes if a kakapo lays more eggs than she can take care of, the rangers take one or two of them away to raise by hand. And this year, there were a lot of kakapo eggs!”

  Carmen nods her understanding. “So the rangers probably took some away. Why steal a bird when you can steal an egg?” She checks in with Player and learns that there is a ranger’s hut on the island, less than half a mile from where you are now. That’s where the eggs would be kept. You start jogging in that direction.

  The path leads out of the forest and up a rocky hill. You come to the top of a ridge, looking down over a flat, grassy area with a wooden building that must be the ranger’s hut. A strange futuristic aircraft sits on the grass, sort of like a jet, but standing on its wings, which are folded down by its side as if they were legs.

  “What in the world is that?” you wonder.

  Carmen snaps a picture and sends it to Player. He tells her that he’s not sure, but it looks like a helijet, an experimental aircraft that can fly like a jet and hover like a helicopter.

  “I don’t think that belongs to the park rangers,” you say.

  “VILE tech for sure,” says Carmen. “Someone’s coming!”

  A Japanese woman wearing a kimono and carrying a parasol comes out of the hut. She is flanked by three VILE guards in black suits, one of them carrying a satchel that you guess must hold the kakapo egg.

  “That’s Lady Dokuso,” Carmen whispers. “One of VILE’s best operatives. Dokuso is the Japanese word for toxin or poison.”

  You don’t like the sound of that. Carmen’s face shows intense focus as she studies the situation. “I’d rather not take them on directly,” she says, “but with so little time, I don’t have a choice. I’ll handle the VILE guards. You look for a chance to grab that egg.”

  Carmen sprints toward Lady Dokuso and the VILE guards, then leaps into the air. Suddenly, a red hang glider springs out from her back and she takes flight. She soars down the hill, kicking the guard with the satchel from behind.

  The guard tumbles to the ground, dropping the satchel. The two remaining guards wheel to face Carmen, while Lady Dokuso dashes up the helijet stairs. You run down the hill, ready to grab t
he satchel or join the fight.

  And then Lady Dokuso raises her parasol and aims it toward Carmen. What is she doing? A dart shoots from the tip of the parasol—but Carmen grabs one of the guards and swings him around in front of her so that the dart hits the guard instead. He immediately falls unconscious.

  Lady Dokuso pulls something out of her hair and flings it at the ground. The thing bursts into a cloud of purple smoke that surrounds Carmen and all three guards. You almost run into the smoke yourself but stop short just in time.

  Carmen staggers and then collapses in a heap. The smoke must be some sort of knockout poison! The guards that Carmen was fighting fall too—Lady Dokuso didn’t care if she knocked out her own people so long as she got Carmen.

  WHAT DO YOU DO?

  ▷ If you grab the satchel and run, turn to page 17.

  ▷ If you pretend to be knocked out by the smoke, turn to page 129.

  Return to page 39.

  YOU RUSH OUT of the bridge and down the stairs to intercept Otter Man.

  “What’s going on?” he snaps at you. “I think we’re slowing down.”

  “The captain says we’re having mechanical trouble,” you tell him. “He says he should have it fixed in a couple of minutes.”

  “Mechanical trouble? The engines are still on; they’re just in reverse.” He pushes past you. “I’m going to talk to the captain.”

  “Tell him there’s a whale,” Player suggests in your ear.

  “Wait—it’s actually a whale,” you insist. “We were going to hit a whale, so we had to slow down.”

  Otter Man just waves you off. “A whale? That makes zero sense. Anyway, we don’t exactly care about endangered animals on this ship.”

  “Sorry,” says Player. “It was the best I could think of on short notice.”

  Otter Man is up the stairs now and onto the bridge. You see him talking to the captain, who is pointing at you. Uh-oh. Now Otter Man is talking to someone on his phone. You decide this would be a good time to get out of sight, so you head for the stairs that lead below deck, when a powerful hand grabs you from behind.

  “You seemed so nice,” says Moose Boy as he lifts you by the back of the shirt. “I’m sorry you turned out to be a traitor.”

  With a massive heave, he hurls you through the air and over the railing at the side of the ship. You plunge down into the cold, salty water, going under for a few seconds and then popping back to the surface. The ship looms massively overhead and you swim away from it, not wanting to be caught up in the pull of the engines.

  “Player,” you say, “are you there?” But the water seems to have shorted out the earpiece, and there’s no reply.

  You are clear of the ship now, swimming as hard as you can. But you have no idea how far you are from shore, and honestly, your chances don’t seem good.

  THE END

  Return to page 28.

  YOU SIP YOUR PINEAPPLE JUICE, watching Le Chèvre as he watches a video on his tablet. Ten minutes later, El Topo comes back to the table. “My friend,” he says, “let us return to our search. There is a lot of jungle out there and only one little snake.”

  Le Chèvre agrees. The two men walk right past the table where you are sitting, while you are careful not to make eye contact. You wish again that Carmen were here, but she’s not, and you know that you can’t let these two criminals disappear. You count to ten and then follow them out onto the road.

  The two men get into a green pickup truck about a hundred feet away. As Le Chèvre slams his door, you dash toward them, keeping your head low. Just as the truck starts to move, you hoist yourself into the cargo bed in the back and duck down.

  They don’t see you. It’s probably the sneakiest thing you’ve ever done.

  They drive out of the village along a road that leads deeper into the forest, with you as their unknown passenger. There is a large bucket next to you in the cargo bed, as well as a snake hook—supplies to catch and transport the Cropan’s boa.

  Le Chèvre drives while El Topo holds the tracker up in the air, adjusting a dial, trying to pick up the snake’s signal. They are talking, but you can’t hear what they are saying from your hiding place in the back.

  Finally, after an hour of driving along bumpy roads, Le Chèvre stops the truck. El Topo opens his door and steps out. You realize that he will probably come to the back to get his supplies, so you climb out of the cargo bed. The forest is thick here, so you dive into the bushes and crouch low, peeking out between the leaves.

  El Topo holds the tracker in the air, listens to it, turns the dial, and then gets back into the truck. To your surprise, Le Chèvre starts driving again and the pickup truck rumbles away, too fast for you to climb back in.

  You realize that you have been left behind, somewhere deep in the Atlantic Forest, with no way to get back to civilization. You have no food or water. It’s already late afternoon.

  With no other choice, you start walking down the road the way you came. You think you will make it back eventually, but by then, Carmen’s crew and VILE will probably both be long gone.

  THE END

  Return to page 97.

  “LET’S WAIT FOR VILE,” you say. “If we follow them, we might find out where they’re keeping all the stolen animals.”

  “Just what I was thinking,” Carmen agrees.

  There’s nothing to do now except wait. The car gets hot and stuffy as the afternoon drags on. You get out for some fresh air, peering into the dense growth of the Atlantic Forest. You imagine the Cropan’s boa hanging around somewhere in all that green.

  “Hey!” Ivy shouts. “The beeping is getting faster. We’re not moving, so that means the snake is coming toward us!”

  “VILE must have found the snake!” Carmen says. “They’ll take her somewhere for a handoff. We should hide and let them pass, and then follow them to find the rest of the animals.”

  The four of you push into the forest, ducking behind the bushes that grow alongside the road. The beeping gets faster until you see a green pickup truck drive past. “The transmitter is on that truck,” Ivy says in an excited whisper, “which means the snake is on that truck.”

  Once the truck is out of sight, the four of you get back into your car. “Stay on their tail,” Carmen tells Zack. “Let’s find out where they’re going.”

  Zack pulls out and follows the truck. “Not a problem, boss.” After a few miles, the road opens onto a straightaway with farmland on either side. You can see the green pickup truck ahead.

  “Not too close,” Carmen warns. “Don’t let them see that they’re being followed.”

  Zack lets the pickup truck get farther ahead. It’s often out of sight, but as long as the tracker keeps beeping, you know you are close. You seem to be heading south, farther away from São Paulo.

  “Hold on; slow down,” Ivy says. She holds up her tracker, and you hear that the beeping has gotten slower.

  “They must have turned off the road somewhere,” Carmen says. “Zack, turn around.”

  When you head back in the other direction, you notice a very rough road that branches off from the main one, little more than a path through the forest where the trees have been cleared away. The beeping is very quick now, which means that the snake—and VILE—are close.

  Zack stops the car, and Carmen gets out. “On foot from here,” she says. “I don’t want anyone to hear us coming.”

  The four of you creep through the forest, the beeps still getting faster. Up ahead, you see sunlight where the path opens into a clearing. You take a few more steps and see a large field, with the pickup truck that you have been following parked on one side. There is a large bucket in the truck’s cargo bed, which must contain the snake. Two men stand nearby talking, one tall and wiry, the other short and strong.

  “Le Chèvre and El Topo,” Carmen whispers. “VILE operatives.”

  “What are they doing?” Ivy wonders.

  In the distance, you hear the drone of an engine, slowly getting louder. Looking up
, you see the silhouette of an airplane coming in for a landing on the field. “They’re making the handoff,” Carmen realizes.

  The plane gets lower and then touches down, rumbling across the field and coming to a stop close to Le Chèvre and El Topo. A door opens from the cockpit, and a pilot leans out. “Here for the pickup,” she says.

  “Greetings,” says El Topo. “How was your flight?”

  “Good enough,” the pilot says. “I just came from Kansas, picking up some ferret thing. You’re my last stop before the final drop-off.”

  “The package is ready,” says Le Chèvre. “Please open the cargo hold.”

  The pilot goes back inside the cockpit, and a few seconds later, a hatch opens in the middle of the plane with the whir of a hydraulic motor.

  “I need to sneak onto that plane,” Carmen says. “It will take me wherever VILE is keeping the rest of the stolen animals. There’s only one door, though, and I don’t think I can get past Le Chèvre and El Topo in broad daylight, unless . . .”

  “. . . unless we create a distraction,” Ivy finishes the thought.

  “Distraction is my middle name,” Zack adds proudly. “Watch this!”

  Zack hollers and charges out into the field, directly toward El Topo and Le Chèvre. “Maybe not the best plan,” Ivy says, “but I guess we’re going with it.” She charges out into the field too, about thirty feet behind her brother.

  El Topo throws himself toward the ground and begins to dig like a mole, disappearing into the dirt. Le Chèvre goes into a fighting stance and, a moment before Zack reaches him, leaps up to grab the airplane wing with both hands. He somersaults into the air and comes down right on top of Zack, pinning him to the ground with his knees. “You!” he sneers. “What are you doing here?”