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role coming to me.”
    “Don’t get too fancy,” Ben advised. “He’s a muscle head, not an idiot. You don’t want him to guess what we’re up to.”
    “Shhh!” Logan hissed. “I’m getting into character. My childhood has been painful….”
    “It’s going to be a lot more painful if you get Klaus mad at you,” Griffin warned.
    “Don’t worry, you guys,” Logan promised. “You can count on me. This is going to be an Academy Award performance.”
    “Come on, Kellerman,” the spotlight operator called in annoyance. “You’re supposed to stand on your
X
.”
    “Don’t rush me!” Logan snapped. His acting skill faced far greater challenges than one little school play.
    SAVANNAH DRYSDALE
    Specialty — animal expert
    Objective — monkey handler
    Luthor’s supper dish was the size of a slop sink, and Savannah filled it from a bag of dog food taller than she was.
    “Cleo doesn’t need
handling
,” she told them. “You’re never going to find a more mature, well-behaved primate.”
    It was feeding time in Savannah’s room, which was a major operation. The cats, rabbits, turtles, parakeet, and chameleon were already chowing down with gusto. Only Luthor showed no interest in his meal, gazing with sadness at the empty bowl marked CLEOPATRA .
    Griffin grinned at Savannah. “In that case, why don’t you just stay home, and we’ll stuff her in a gunnysack and drag her off the boat?”
    “I will be there,” Savannah insisted emotionally, “to whisper in her ear that it’s all going to be okay.”
    “And that’s not handling?” asked Ben.
    “It’s friendship and support at a time when she needs it most. Poor Cleo! She’s been kidnapped and held hostage on that floating sewer! Even though we’re rescuing her, it’ll still be traumatic. Monkeys can be very easily stressed. Everyone knows that.”
    Griffin rolled his eyes. “So I’ll cross out ‘handler’ and put in ‘guidance counselor.’ Come on, Savannah, we’re on the same side here!”
    She reddened. “Sorry, Griffin. You guys are awesome for doing this. I’m never going to forget it, and neither is Cleo!”
    BEN SLOVAK
    Specialty — smallest kid in town
    Objective — sneaking onto boat via tight space
    “Aw, Griffin, why do I always have to be the tight-spaces guy? You don’t even know if
All Aboard Animals
has any tight spaces!”
    Griffin and Ben headed down Savannah’sfront walk, with Luthor’s dejected whining still ringing in their ears.
    “I’m sure they lock the boat up at night,” Griffin explained. “You can’t predict the exact details, but we need a kid shrimpy enough to jam through a porthole just in case. Besides, I want someone on the team I trust with my life, someone to be my assistant.”
    “Assistant to what?” Ben challenged. “Melissa’s webcams spy on the boat; Logan neutralizes the security guy; Pitch gets us onto the grounds; I crawl on board and let everybody else in; Savannah takes her monkey home. The only person who doesn’t have a job is
you
, Griffin. What do you do on this team?”
    GRIFFIN BING
    Specialty — burglary
    Objective — springing monkey from cage
    Possible BREAK-IN methods:
    (i) lock (pick school library has no burglary books; check public)
    (ii) burn opening with blowtorch (how flammable is monkey fur?)
    (iii) wire cutters (thickness of bars?!)
    That night, the team in place, Griffin sat back at his desk and studied his notes in a businesslike fashion. It wasn’t a plan — not yet. He had formulated enough plans to know that the details would not come together until their scouting trip to the Rutherford Point Preserve on Saturday.
    Hang in there, Cleo
, he thought to himself.
It won’t be long now
.

9
    “ T his must be some zoo to have you kids begging to come back so soon.”
    Nick Benson, Pitch’s father, piloted his Land Cruiser in through the gates of the Rutherford Point Preserve.
    “It definitely caught our interest,” his daughter agreed, her sharp eyes