Once Upon a Toad by Heather Vogel Frederick

Author:Heather Vogel Frederick
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

“What do you think you’re doing?” whispered Olivia furiously as she struggled to tug her hand out of my grasp. “It’s pouring rain out here!”

I gripped her more tightly as I dragged her across the lawn. My stepsister might be bigger than me, but I was more determined. “Trying to save your life, you moron,” I whispered back, ducking under the rhododendron. “Do you want to end up in some zoo exhibit?”

“What are you talking about?” She glared at me as we squatted in the shrub’s branches.

I pulled the poncho over us, hoping it would help conceal us from the searchers who I knew would soon appear. “Area Fifty-one, that’s what!”

My stepsister looked at me blankly.

“Are you telling me you’ve never heard of it?” I said in astonishment, ejecting toads right and left. “Don’t you ever watch science fiction movies? It’s where the government keeps aliens and UFOs and stuff. That’s why Dad was so worked up.”

Olivia snorted. “Yeah, right. There are no such things as UFOs.”

I pointed silently at the ground in front of us, which was covered with diamonds, toads, and enough flowers to open a florist shop. “There’s no such thing as this, either,” I reminded her.

Olivia flapped an edge of the poncho at the toads to scatter them. She snorted again, but it was an uncertain kind of snort.

“Fine then, don’t believe me.” I jerked my chin toward the back door, which had just flown open. “Go on, go ahead back inside. I’m sure Dr. Dalton will be delighted to see you.”

Olivia fell silent. The lights by the back door came on, and we watched as the government scientist strode onto the deck. My father and Iz and the two FBI agents were right behind him.

“They can’t have gone far,” said Dr. Dalton, scanning the yard. Fortunately, the pool of light by the deck didn’t reach as far as the rhododendron bush where we were hiding. “We have to find them!”

“Don’t make a sound,” I whispered to Olivia as another pair of toads fell from my lips. “Not unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a biology experiment.”

She hesitated, then nodded.

Agent Salgado stepped out onto the lawn. “We’re going to need a flashlight,” he told his colleague, peering into the darkness.

“There’s one in the car,” Agent Reynolds replied, and holding her raincoat over her head, she cut around the corner of the house toward the driveway.

Agent Salgado and Dr. Dalton started across the grass. I could hear their shoes squishing into the lawn. I looked over at Olivia and pressed my finger against my lips.

“Awful lot of footprints out here,” grumbled the government scientist as Agent Reynolds reappeared with two flashlights.

“That’s because an awful lot of people have been working this case,” she snapped. “Kidnappers, police, our team, and as if that wasn’t enough, now you.” Agent Reynolds seemed to hold the same low opinion of Area 51 as my father did. She handed a flashlight to Dr. Dalton. He pointed it across the yard toward the Dixons’ house.

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