Free The Venetian Job by Sally Gould

canal. That time I managed
to hang on. Then I saw the bad guys up ahead and we were getting
closer. They saw us too. Lucky there weren't any other boats
between us. Then the bad guy in the Save the Planet T-shirt rolled
a metal drum off the back of his boat and it hit our boat with a
thud. I jumped backward. The front of our boat jerked up out of the
water, then crashed down and the boat kept going.
    Charlie and I crouched down and glanced at
each other. I whispered, "What if Santo and Luca catch them?
They'll have to wrestle the bad guys to the ground. They aren't as
young and fit as the bad guys."
    "If Santo carried a gun like real policeman
that wouldn't be a problem." Charlie rolled his eyes.
    "We should tell Santo we've got junior black
belts in taekwondo. We can help. Four against one." I imagined
Charlie and me impressing Santo with our flying side kicks. Of
course in real life the bad guys could probably pick us up and
throw us over the side of the boat, but if I got a few bruises in a
fight that would make my story for school even better.
    Santo hadn't taken his eyes off the bad
guys. Our boat took another sharp turn, which made me feel like
throwing up. We were going so fast everything was a bit of a blur.
The canals got narrower. Had Luca lost the thieves? I stood up
straight again and Charlie did the same. There wasn't any sign of
the water taxi.
    "Luca is trying to cut off the their boat,"
Santo said to us.
    Seconds after, we turned into another canal
and I almost fainted. The bad guys' water taxi was facing us head
on. It was as if we were about to play a serious game of Chicken on
the canal.
    Santo stood his ground, directly facing the
guy wearing the Save the Planet T-shirt. Santo wasn't afraid; that
was good. But the bad guy stood his ground as well and he didn't
seem afraid either. That wasn't so good. I could barely breathe as
I looked from Santo to the thief and back to Santo. No one
moved.
    The driver who was wearing the Save the
Whales T-shirt began to reverse his boat, when a different siren
sounded real close. Suddenly behind the water taxi was a boat full
of Carabinieri with their machine
guns by their sides. They didn't even bother pointing them at the
two bad guys.
    Charlie and me didn't need to speak Italian
to know what was going on. The bad guys stared open-mouthed at the Carabinieri for seconds before it
sank in that they were trapped. Slowly, they put their hands behind
their heads and in no time the Carabinieri handcuffed them and took the black bag
with the tubes inside.
    Luca maneuvered the police boat alongside
the bad guys' boat, and Santo and Luca stepped into the bad guys'
boat to talk to the Carabinieri .
They were chatting and laughing with one Carabiniere like they were at a football match. A
couple of times, Santo turned and pointed to me. I guess he was
telling the Carabiniere the whole
story. Santo waved for us to join them and Luca got out his cell
phone and took our photo with Santo and the Carabiniere . Then he took a photo of the bad
guys.
    Wow! Now I had evidence to show my
class.
    Another boat suddenly appeared from nowhere.
There were two passengers - a bloke with a big camera and a lady
who looked like a fashion model, but must've been a reporter
because she had a microphone. After the cameraman got photos of the
bad guys and the Carabinieri , the
reporter asked Santo for an interview. Her high heels made it
difficult to stand steady in the boat. We got in their boat and
docked it, so we could stand on the sidewalk.
    Charlie and me stood close to Santo, but
since he and the reporter were chattering in Italian we didn't
understand a word. Santo pointed to me and the reporter gave me a
smile. Not long after that, one of the Carabiniere came over in his boat and called Santo
and Luca over.
    The reporter turned to Charlie and me. She
switched to perfect English and asked Charlie, "Could you please
tell me what part you played in these dramatic events and what