the ranger. He didnât seem to know what to say after that, so Boris made a suggestion.
âPerhaps we should put our squirrel in a bag. That way we wonât frighten the tourists.â
The ranger looked grateful. âJust what I was going to suggest,â he said. âBag it. Carry on.â
We stuffed the squirrel into a green nylon sack that Boris had in one of his pockets, and moved on to find Nanny X at the fountain. I was glad we had been reassigned to the Castle. That meant I could finally see my painting of Yeti.
Just then, a big drop of rain landed on my forehead.
âMy painting!â I said.
I took off as the rain started falling even harder.
When we reached the exhibit, Mrs. Bonawali, our art teacher, was trying to cover up the artwork with a plastic sheet. âThis was not in the forecast,â she said.
Boris was craning his neck, looking all around for thefountain and for Nanny X, but he took out a rain poncho and handed it to me. I put it over the Yeti painting, which had only gotten a little smeary near the tail. Thatâs when I noticed the purple ribbon that meant fourth place.
Stinky had a piece in the exhibit, too, a mosaic heâd made out of lentils and other kinds of beans. But when Boris handed Stinky a poncho to put over his project, we saw a squirrel sitting on the easel, nibbling on the lentils.
From the way it was holding its head, it didnât look like a robot squirrel, either.
âIâm sorry, Daniel,â Boris said, putting a hand on Stinkyâs head. Daniel was Stinkyâs real name. âAt least we know he has good taste.â
Stinky didnât look even a little upset. âAnd at least beans are natural,â he said. âItâs better for him than the other food heâs probably finding around here.â
Then I noticed something else on Stinkyâs artwork: a red ribbon, for second place. Heâd beaten me, just like Ursula had beaten Mr. Huffleberger. But I could still beat him by finding more clues first.
I was working very hard on not being jealous when Stinky gave me his poncho. âI donât want to bother the squirrel,â he said. I think he still felt bad that the robot squirrel got clobbered with the sauté pan.
I almost said no. But then the rain started coming down harder and I pulled it on. I looked like a dandelion, but at least I was dry. If there were ribbons for junior agents, Iâll bet Stinky would have gotten a blue one. Heâd get a blue one if there were ribbons for friends, too.
We still didnât see Nanny X or Jake or Eliza anywhere, even though theyâd left way before we had. We went over to the fountain, which was pretty small. There were lots ofripples from the raindrops hitting the water. But we didnât see a fish. Maybe my brother had caught it already.
Boris led us back to the Mall side of the Castle. He spotted two people in the distance, running at top speed with a stroller. They stopped running, and Borisâs phone rang. He held it to his ear, but we could still hear it when Nanny X said, âWeâve got her. Weâve got The Angler.â
18. Jake
Somethingâs Bugging Nanny X
âGot herâ was an exaggeration. What Nanny X should have said was that we âpossibly almost cornered her.â Or âWe see her!â That would have worked.
Because we did see The Angler. She was still standing on the top step of the Museum of Natural History as the rain fell down around her. And she was studying the screen on what was not a video game, but a remote control, just like Iâd guessed.
At first I thought we should just go up behind and grab her, but we didnât know if she had any weapons. Plus, she had threatened the president of the United States. And even though she had threatened to destroy things and not people, once you start threatening destruction, itâs probably hard to know when to stop. Nanny Xâs computer