Free The Secret of Rover by Rachel Wildavsky Page A

Embarrassed, David dropped to a crouch.
    Katie lifted her face and gazed into his. She was very calm. “So what now?” she asked simply. “What do we do?”
    David did not reply, so she continued. “The way I figure,” she said, “there are two things. I mean, two things we have to do. For starters—”
    â€œKatie.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œStop a minute—OK? I have to say something, and I only want to say it once. So you have to promise that after I do say it, we never talk about it again—all right?”
    She was silent, curious.
    â€œYou have to promise or I won’t—”
    â€œOK! I promise.”
    David took a deep breath and his heart began to race. “I’m sorry,” he said, trying to control his voice. “I’m sorry I got us into this. I know you didn’t want them—you didn’t want Mom and Dad to go.”
    For a moment she simply absorbed this. “OK,” she said. “That’s OK. David? I was trying to tell you, there are two things we have to do.”
    She didn’t even seem to mind! Maybe he hadn’t needed to apologize.
    â€œThe first thing,” she was saying, “is that we have to get out of here, and before tonight.”
    Amen to that, thought David, remembering the rats.
    â€œWe can’t sleep here,” Katie continued, “and we don’t want to be here tomorrow either. What if they come back? I never want to see Trixie again,” she added feelingly. “So that’s one. Two is that after we get out, we have to tell.”
    â€œBut what about Mom and Dad, Kat? If we tell, they’ll—”
    â€œThey’ll what?” she demanded. “And what’ll they do if we
don’t
tell? If we don’t tell, are they going to let them go?”
    This had not occurred to him.
    â€œNot telling—that’s
their
idea. Those are
their
rules.”
    â€œRight,” he said slowly, getting it. “We have to make our own rules, for us. But who do we tell? Because whoever it is, they have to handle this just right. As soon as we tell them they have to move fast. They have to get the Katkajanians before the Katkajanians can get Mom and Dad.”
    â€œExactly. And even before that they have to believe us, and that means we have to tell the right person. I mean, if we tell the police, the first thing they’ll do is go talk to Trixie. She actually is our nanny, remember? She has papers from the agency! And she’ll laugh it off and say we just ran away, and they’ll believe her. They always believeadults! And then they’ll give us back to her and when the police are gone—”
    â€œI get it,” said David. “No police.”
    â€œWe can’t tell any strangers at all,” continued Katie. “In fact, the way I see it, there’s only one person we can tell.”
    â€œAnd that person is . . . ?”
    â€œUncle Alex.”
    David’s jaw dropped. “Uncle
Alex
? Hermit Uncle Alex? Uncle Alex who we’ve never
met
?”
    â€œThink, David! What’s this all about, this kidnapping? Millions of people adopt babies—why take Mom and Dad? This is about Rover! They want Mom and Dad because of Rover! And who else in the world—besides Mom and Dad, I mean—knows about that?”
    â€œBut isn’t there something you’re overlooking, Katie? We don’t know where Uncle Alex lives!”
    â€œThat’s not true! We know exactly where he lives. Mom and Dad have been telling us for years.” She began reciting. “He lives on a mountain north of Melville, Vermont, just below the border with Canada. There’s only one road that crosses Melville, and you take it straight through. You go half a mile past the first bridge out of town, then turn north into the woods by the big rock that was split by lightning.”
    â€œYou climb, always going north,” said David, taking