Butterbean pawed at the front door.“Walt! Open! We need to go now!”
“Butterbean, wait.” Oscar turned to Walt. “Maybe Chad can help?”
“I don’t know—Butterbean might be right,” Walt said, looking at Wallace. If he had risked coming to a cat’s apartment, the situation must be bad.
“Maybe we should—” Walt started, but she was cut off by a screeching noise in the vent.
A screeching noise that was coming from Marco.
He skidded into the room and grabbed Walt’s leg, clutching at it in desperation.
“WALT!” he screamed. “It’s Polo! We went to Madison’s apartment to check on her, but she wasn’t there! But there were signs something bad had happened, so we decided to check on the Coin Man, and he got her! He found the button! And it’s bad! Oh, Walt!” Marco sobbed.
Walt put her paws on either side of Marco’s shoulders. “Marco. Calm down. Where’s Polo?”
Marco shook uncontrollably.“Oh, Walt. Polo’s dead!”
[Êàðòèíêà: img_3]
15
[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]
[Êàðòèíêà: img_34]
BUTTERBEAN GAVE A LOW MOAN. Oscar put his wing around Marco and led him over to Butterbean’s squeaky carrot. “Sit down, Marco. Now, you’re sure she’s dead?”
“The Coin Man got her! Of course she’s dead!” Marco wailed. He sat down on the squeaky carrot, which emitted a long, plaintive squeal. “She must be.”
Oscar and Walt exchanged hopeful glances.
“So she could still be alive?” Walt asked. “There’s a chance?”
Marco sniffled and wiped his nose on the squeaky carrot stem.“Hardly any chance. You weren’t there, Walt. It was bad.”
Walt’s whiskers trembled. “Okay, but hardly any is still a chance. Even if it was bad, it might not have beendead bad.”
“The Coin Man kicked at her. She went flying across the room.” Marco’s eyes welled up. “Do you think she could’ve survived that? He was going after her when I left.”
Walt winced. That didn’t sound good at all. But she wasn’t about to tell Marco that. “Marco, we don’t know what happened next. Polo is a very resilient young rat. We can’t give up on her yet.”
“Walt is right,” Oscar said. “We have to do something.” He looked at the window thoughtfully. “The window in the Coin Man’s apartment may not be open anymore. And even if it is, it would be too easy for me to be seen.” He looked at Wallace, who was eyeing the vent like he wanted to leave. “Wallace, can you take me to the Coin Man’s apartment?”
Marco blinked.“What? You just said the window might be closed. How are you going to get in?”
“Through the vent, of course,” Oscar said, fluffing his feathers. “I should fit. You both did it. It will be fine.”
“You’re going in the vent? YOU?” Marco said. “You don’t even like to have your cage door closed.”
“Well, it can’t be helped,” Oscar said. “It’s the only way. If we can rescue Polo, it’s worth it.”
Wallace looked from Oscar to Marco uncertainly.“I can show you how to get there,” Wallace said. “If you really want to go.”
“I’ll do it!” Marco said, standing up and wiping his eyes. “You don’t need Wallace to show you. I’m not afraid to go back. I owe it to Polo.”
Wallace shrugged.“I’ll go too, if it’s all the same to you. Just to make sure you don’t get turned around wrong.” He didn’t like the idea of Marco and a bird blundering around in his vents unaccompanied. It sounded like a recipe for disaster.
“Thank you, Wallace.” Oscar put one foot into the vent and tried not to think about how much he hated vents. Or how narrow they were. Or how dusty they were. And he definitely couldn’t think about how likely he was to get trapped inside them forever. When he was a fledgling, he’d heard stories about an aunt who’d gotten stuck in a chimney once. He’d had nightmares about it more than a few times. But he had to think of Polo now. If she was still alive, they had to do something.
“Yeah, um, excuse me,” Marco muttered, finally pushing Oscar aside. He took a few steps into the vent then looked back. “Oscar? You coming?”
Oscar took a deep breath and climbed in. It wasn’t that bad, actually, especially knowing the exit was right behind him.
“I’m going too,” Walt said, slinking over and wriggling inside. “Move over, Oscar.” It was going to be a tight fit, but nothing she hadn’t done before. She’d once managed to fit herself into a tissue box. One of the pop-up ones, not one of the more spacious horizontal kind.
Oscar squawked in dismay. He wished he’d brought a paper bag to breathe into.
“I’m going too,” Butterbean said, hurrying over to the opening. She wasn’t about to be left behind.
Butterbean managed to squeeze into the vent up to her ears, but getting her whole head inside was trickier than she’d thought. That didn’t mean she couldn’t do it. It was just a matter of willpower.
“Bean, no,” Walt said, her eyes gleaming in the darkness. “You need to stay here. We need someone to guard the apartment.”
“No, I’m going too,” Butterbean said, twisting her neck to try to get her whole head inside the vent. “I know I can squish. I’ve got a squishy head. Just give me a second.”
“But what if Bob comes back?” Walt said. The last thing they needed was for Butterbean to get stuck in the vent. “You’ve got a powerful bark. We need you here, to bark for us if there’s trouble.”
Butterbean stopped and pulled her head back out of the vent. She hated to admit it, but it was probably for the best. Her head wasn’t even the widest part of her body. “Fine,” she finally said, staring at the floor. “I’ll stay here. I’ll be ready to bark.”
“Good. Thank you, Butterbean,” Walt said. “You guard the coins.” Walt waited a minute to make sure Butterbean was really staying behind and then turned and disappeared down the vent.
Butterbean suddenly sat up straight. The coins. Her eyes gleamed. She knew just what to do.“Right, I’ll guard the coins!”
Polo sat in the dark thinking about her life choices. Ever since Mrs. Food had gone away, things seemed to have taken a bad turn. And Polo was pretty sure a lot of it had to do with some questionable choices on her part.
Madison, for instance. It had seemed like a very good idea to go check on her when she didn’t show up. And when Polo had seen the trashed apartment and realized Madison was gone, it had seemed like a very good idea to go check the Coin Man’s apartment.
And when she realized he’d kidnapped Madison, it had seemed like a very good idea to throw herself repeatedly against the vent grate until she broke through and fell kamikaze-style into the living room. And since she was down there anyway, within striking distance of the Coin Man’s ankles, attacking those ankles had seemed like the logical thing to do. Anybody would have done the same thing, right? It had all seemed like a very good idea—until he’d kicked her across the room, that is.
The last thing she remembered was hearing Marco screaming as she flew through the air. She’d thought it would be the last thing she ever heard. But instead she’d woken up in Madison’s pocket, so in a way she’d been pretty lucky.
Polo sighed. If her bad choices had gotten her into this mess, she was just going to have to make some good choices to get out of it. She stuck her nose out of the pocket and looked around. It was dark, and Madison seemed to be sitting on the bathroom floor. Interesting choice. Maybe Madison should evaluate her life choices too. Polo shook her head. That wasn’t fair. Madison wouldn’t even be in this situation if it wasn’t for Polo and her button.
“You okay, little guy?” Madison said in a low voice. “You awake?”
Polo craned her neck to look up at Madison. Her face was streaky looking, like she’d been crying. Polo twitched her whiskers at her.
“I thought I’d better get you out of the way before he kicked you again.” Madison gave her a weak smile. “Now you’re stuck with me, but it’s better than being stomped.”