Water Planet Rescue Read online

  Dad motions that he’ll take a closer look on one side and I should take the other. I swim around to the smallest pile and start looking. Mostly I see sand. A lot of sand and a lot of rocks. The shiny rocks are very pretty. I reach for one the size of a golf ball and try to pull it off the pile to bring home for Penny. Only it won’t come off. I try a different one. It moves a little but snaps right back into place. They’re all stuck to one another, like magnets!

  I’m about to give up, when I remember the air-dryer gadget Graff gave me back at the garage. I pull it out of the pocket of my swim shorts and push the end with the suction cup against the pile of rocks. One flick of a switch later and a small rock bursts free of the pile and shoots inside the tube. A little cover slides over the top, sealing it in.

  I grin. That was easy! I try to slide the gadget back into my pocket, but it misses and drops slowly to the ocean floor. When I bend to pick it up, a small metal object in the sand catches my eye. It’s a screwdriver! My first clue as an ISF deputy! What a rush!

  My heart beating fast, I grab it with both hands.

  Only I can’t make it budge at all. I wave my arms in the water and call out, “Guys! Come see what I found!” I’m not sure they can hear me through the fishbowl on my head, but my splashing around gets their attention. I grab hold of the tool while Dad and Pike tug on my arms. It takes all three of us yanking REALLY HARD to pull it free from the large rocks. I open up the air dryer and drop the screwdriver inside to keep it safe. As I tighten the cap, I realize I could have used it to pull the screwdriver free from the magnetized rocks. Oops!

  We keep searching the area but don’t see anything else out of the ordinary. Dad points to his helmet and then to his watch. We’re almost out of breathing time.

  We swim back through the tunnel until swimming turns to walking and we’re inside again. We yank off our helmets and hurry over to Pockets and Carp. I unscrew the top of my air dryer and flip it over while Dad describes the huge hole.

  The small rock falls out into my palm first, followed by the screwdriver, which is stuck to the end of the rock. “Could this be something?” I ask, prying them apart and handing Pockets the tool.

  Pockets holds his giant magnifying glass up to it and lets out a sharp meow. “It sure is something!” he shouts, pointing to the edge. With the magnifying glass we can clearly read the words PROPERTY OF B.U.R.P.

  B.U.R.P.? The biggest, baddest group of criminals in the universe is involved in this? I’m so surprised that I drop the black rock. It clatters noisily to the marble floor.

  Two things happen really fast after that. Pockets shouts, “Whoa!” and the screwdriver flies out of his paw, over Pike’s head, and into my hand.

  Chapter Seven:

  A Postcard Would’ve Been Nice

  “What just happened?” Dad asks as I struggle to peel the screwdriver from my palm. It takes some effort, but finally I’m able to push it into Pockets’s paw. He grasps it tight this time.

  “It was the stone,” Carp says. “It is not supposed to reach the air.”

  The rock has rolled between Dad’s feet. “This little rock?” he asks, bending over to pick it up.

  “Don’t!” Carp says, stepping between Dad and the rock. “Over the centuries the people of Nautilus have adapted to the strongly magnetic mineral that is found under our ocean floor. It has no effect on us. But when visitors to our planet come in contact with it when the stone is dry, they become magnetic.”

  Dad backs away from the rock and pulls me close to him. “Is it dangerous?” he asks, his voice tight.

  Carp shakes his head. “He only touched it with one hand. He’ll be fine in a few days. A few weeks at most.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad,” I say. “I thought it would be a cool gift for Penny.”

  He sighs. “Maybe next time just get her a postcard.”

  Pockets pulls a square coin out of his pocket and tosses it at me. It lands right in the palm of my hand without me even reaching for it. Cool! I peel the alien coin off my hand and slip it in my pocket. I’m not sure I mind being magnetic if it means I get to pick up stray coins from different planets. I might even start a collection!

  “Hey!” Pockets says. His tail starts swishing back and forth like windshield wipers.

  “Okay, okay,” I say, reaching into my pocket for the coin. “I’ll give it back.”

  “No, it’s not that,” Pockets says quickly. “I’ve just realized I know what B.U.R.P. was doing down here. And they weren’t robbing the bank.”

  “Sure looks like it,” Carp says.

  Pockets shakes his head. “I believe they want what is buried under the ocean floor—the rocks! And judging by the size of the hole, they want a LOT of them. The digging must have set off the bank alarms.”

  “If that’s true,” Salmon says, “then where are all the rocks? There’s nowhere to hide them.”

  I look down at my small rock, still lying on the floor. If I hadn’t taken it, I wouldn’t have found the screwdriver, and Pockets wouldn’t have figured out what B.U.R.P. was after. Strange how one thing leads to another. Suddenly, the pieces come together like a puzzle. “It’s the water,” I blurt out.

  “What’s the water, Archie?” Dad asks.

  “That’s how they’re getting the mineral off the planet,” I explain. “It’s like when me and Penny play at the pool, you know, with that water jet, and it’s so strong it pushes our hands away? Couldn’t those really powerful gushes of water be bringing the rocks up to the sky?”

  Pockets claps his paws together. “The boy is absolutely right! B.U.R.P. has been grinding up the rocks and then setting off the waterspouts to send the magnetic material right up to the sky. It’s a brilliant plot!”

  Carp and Salmon stare with wide eyes at Pockets, then turn to face each other. “I am so ashamed,” Carp says. “We were blaming each other when it was B.U.R.P. taking our water all along.”

  “Not our finest moment,” Salmon agrees. “I am sorry, too.”

  The two leaders shake hands warmly.

  “And the good news is that the water and the rocks are still here,” Pockets says, “inside that huge cloud. They haven’t gotten away with it.”

  Pike rushes in from the other room. “Everyone! Come quick! The cloud is moving!”

  Chapter Eight:

  A Sticky Situation

  Between me worrying about avoiding the reef wall and Pockets worrying about being too late to catch B.U.R.P., the ride up to the surface is not much fun. We finally reach the dock and scramble out of the taxi. I shiver. The cloud is even bigger now, after the last spout, and it completely blocks the sun.

  Abovesea and undersea people huddle together on the island. Many are looking up at the huge cloud, but others are still talking about the bank robbery. The two guards we saw earlier at the beach are trying to keep everyone calm, but it doesn’t seem to be working very well.

  The cloud is moving slowly, but it’s definitely moving. It also seems to have started humming. That’s not something you usually hear from clouds. In fact, you usually don’t hear anything from clouds. I mean, except for thunder, of course. But thunder doesn’t hum. At least it doesn’t on Earth.

  “Does the cloud usually hum?” I ask Pike.

  “I’ve never heard that sound before,” he says, moving noticeably closer to his dad.

  Pockets whips out a pair of the biggest binoculars I’ve ever seen.

  “It’s the engines of a spaceship!” he declares. “It’s pulling the cloud!”

  The crowd gasps.

  “Are we going after it?” I ask, already plotting out the route in my head.

  He shakes his head. “By the time we got up there, whoever is in that ship would be on the other side of the galaxy. I have a better idea.” He stashes the binoculars away and pulls out a long gold-colored tube. It looks a little like the tube I stash my space map in, only this one is wider and longer and not black with a silver star on it. He holds it up. “My trusty new Flirbin Blaster is