Free Zoobreak by Gordon Korman Page B

paler than before.
    “You see, Griffin?” Savannah’s agitation was rising. “We’re in trouble — and the one person who can save us is out of the country!”
    “They think we went to Connecticut,” Griffin reflected hopefully.
    “They won’t think it for long if all the missing animals turn up in Cedarville,” Savannah persisted. “You’ve got to help me!”
    “You asked for help last time,” he reminded her. “And I came up with a great plan to get your monkey back. Everything would have been fine if we’d just stuck to that. But no. One animal wasn’t enough. We had to take forty!”
    Savannah was stubborn. “We did the right thing. Those animals are better off in my shed than under Mr. Nasty’s thumb.”
    “For two weeks?” Griffin challenged.
    Even Savannah had no answer for that. “No, not for two weeks. It wouldn’t be safe, it wouldn’t be sanitary, and I definitely couldn’t keep it a secret from my parents. Especially not if my dad ever wants to cut the grass.”
    Griffin ran nervous fingers through his unruly hair. “Okay, let me think.”
    His mind raced. A big operation always seemed impossible until you broke it down into its many parts. Taken one by one, if all those tiny parts were possible, then the whole plan had to be possible, too.
    Maybe that was the approach he needed here. He could never wrap his mind around hiding forty animals. But could they hide
one
animal — and then do it thirty-nine more times?
    Aloud, he said, “Logan’s house has a leaky basement. That sounds like a pretty good place for a beaver to hang out for a couple of weeks….”

19
    OPERATION HOUSEGUEST
    The GUEST LIST:
    > Kellerman Underground Wetlands — beaver, frogs, salamanders, turtles
    > Dukakis Split-Level Prairie — hen, piglet, prairie dog
    > Benson Temperate Forest — garter snakes, chipmunks, squirrels
    > Drysdale Custom Habitat — capuchin monkey, rabbits, white rats, duck, loon
    > Slovak Suburban Desert — chuckwalla, ferret
    > Bing Rodent House — hamsters, gerbils, mice, meerkat
    “ M eerkats are
not
rodents,” Savannah lectured at the emergency meeting. “They’re actually related to the mongoose family.”
    “Yeah, well, now we know who to call if there’s a cobra infestation,” Ben lamented. “I can’t believe there’s another operation. It isn’t even a whole day since the
last
operation. I went from zoobreaker to zookeeper in just a few hours.”
    The team was gathered in Savannah’s yard after school that day for the beginning of Operation Houseguest. Melissa had the wagon she used to deliver the weekly
Pennysaver
. This would serve as transport to distribute the fugitive animals to their temporary safe houses. Luckily, it had been raining off and on all day, so no one in Cedarville would question Melissa’s use of the cart’s waterproof covering.
    “It’s only for a couple of weeks,” Griffin told the grumbling team. “It’ll fly by.”
    “Yeah, like the Cretaceous period,” Ben muttered.
    “I know it’s a lot to ask,” Savannah admitted, “but look at the results of what we’ve done already.” She indicated her huge dog, Luthor, who was carrying Cleopatra on theback of his neck again. If a pair of animals ever looked drenched in joy and contentment, it was those two.
    Ben was nervous. “Aren’t you afraid that your folks will get suspicious about Cleopatra turning up today of all days?”
    Savannah shook her head. “It makes perfect sense. Cleo got loose in the breakout and made her way home. Most animals have an excellent homing instinct.”
    Pitch ran onto the scene. “Sorry I’m late, you guys. I was glued to the TV.
All Aboard Animals
made CNN.”
    “But they still think the crooks went to Connecticut, right?” Griffin asked breathlessly.
    She nodded. “That’s the good news. The bad news is the cops have figured out the zoobreak was done by kids.”
    “How could they know that?” Savannah demanded.
    “Klaus told them,” Pitch