The Golden Paw by Jason Lethcoe

Author:Jason Lethcoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2018-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

“He’s a what?” roared Rusty.

“A government agent working with my grandfather. He said that you were a spy working for the Collective,” Andy said sheepishly.

“And you believed him?” Rusty said. “Tell me that you didn’t.”

“Well…I…” Andy said. He fidgeted nervously. Now that he’d brought it out into the open, the charge that Rusty was a spy seemed ridiculous. The way Rusty looked at him with his big orange handlebar mustache twitching, Andy couldn’t tell if he was about to laugh or rage at him.

It seemed like Rusty didn’t know, either, and he started making a strangled choking sound that was somewhere between a guffaw and a shout.

“I’ve known your grandfather for years, boy, remember that. I swore an oath, and if you knew me half as well as he does, you would know that Rusty Bucketts is always true to his word. Bartlemore…that lowlife, sneaky, lying son of a…”

Betty shot Rusty a warning glance, and the big man stopped talking. Instead, his face red and flushed, Rusty took a moment to gather himself and gave Andy a serious stare.

“That two-bit excuse for an actor is no government agent, and—” he began.

“But he showed me his badge and ID,” interrupted Andy.

Rusty held up his big hand to stop Andy short. “Faking a badge and ID is easy enough to do, boy. Why, if you could see the phonies I’ve dealt with over the years, your hair would curl—”

But Rusty was suddenly interrupted by a long, keening wail. It was very loud and seemed to emanate from the darkness ahead of them. It sounded to Andy like a woman’s voice, or some kind of tortured cat, and it made all the hairs on his arms stand on end.

“What was that?” Abigail asked.

“Shhh!” Betty and Dotty said in unison. In one fluid motion, the sisters grabbed fistfuls of throwing stars from the silken pouches at their waists.

The scorching red had drained from Rusty’s face at the sound. It seemed as if the sound had affected him much the same way it had Andy. The big pilot reached into his rucksack and pulled out his slingshot. “Stand back Andy, Abigail,” he hissed. “Betty and Dotty, you ladies are with me.”

“Roger,” Dotty said. Betty nodded in curt agreement with her sister.

A second wail, this one decidedly closer, echoed through the tunnel. Andy wheeled around to look behind him.

“It sounded like it came from over there,” he said, pointing to the tunnel they’d come from.

“Time to move. Go, GO!” Rusty said.

The group rushed back down the passageway. As they all lurched forward, Andy suddenly had a thought.

“Wait, who’s checking for—”

He’d been about to say the word traps, but just as it was about to leave his lips, another pair of screams, these ones all too human, sounded directly in front of him. Andy had barely enough time to see the heads of Betty and Dotty disappearing into a hidden pit when, without thinking, he leapt forward and grabbed the first thing his hand touched.

It turned out to be the scabbard of the katana Betty wore on her back.

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