LITMIR.BIZ

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no matter. Just lucky my air didn’t run out and that you kids swam out when you did. Thanks. Though I’m sure my team would have eventually figured out that something was wrong and come to get me.”

      The teens offered to help the man back to shore. He gladly accepted their assistance, especially since he’d lost a fin and was totally exhausted after his near-death-by-seaweed experience.

      At the beach, Hugh and Rosina helped the man out of the water. He slumped onto the sand. Sam, Tristan, and Ryder quickly dried off with a couple of towels from their backpacks. They hurriedly put their warm clothes back on. The diver sat there staring as the teens’ webbing began to slowly disappear and the odd blue-green shimmer faded from their skin.

      “Who are you?” he asked. “And what are you?”

      Tristan tried to change the subject. “What were you doing out there, anyway?”

      The man pulled back his wetsuit hood to display a shock of silvery white hair. “I was testing something. But as you saw, I got a little caught up in the kelp.”

      “A little, dude?” Ryder said.

      “What were you testing?” Hugh asked.

      “Why do you want to know?”

      Hugh looked taken aback by the man’s response. “Geez, just curious.”

      “Yeah, well, I’m curious about those feet of yours. What’s the scoop?”

      Silence.

      Tristan wondered how they were going to get out of this one.

      After several minutes of no one saying anything, the diver introduced himself as Leo Ozdale. He then tried again to get the teens to answer his questions. They weren’t talking.

      “Okay, I get it. You’re not going to answer,” Ozdale said. “What really matters is what you did. You may have just saved my life. Thank you.”

      “You’re welcome,” Sam said.

      “Yeah, no problem,” Ryder added.

      “Though a simple ‘thank you’ hardly seems enough,” Ozdale told them. “How about lunch tomorrow on my boat? It’s just north of here.”

      The teens exchanged nervous glances and again gave no response.

      “Are you from around here?”

      Tristan hesitated before saying, “We’re volunteers at the aquarium.”

      “Look,” Ozdale said. “I know the director of the aquarium. Just ask Maggie about me and I’m sure it will be okay for you to come out for lunch.”

      The teens remained quiet and wary.

      “Just come out to the boat for lunch. I won’t tell anyone what I saw, and if you don’t want to tell me anything else, you don’t have to. But come out. It’s the least I can do.”

      “I don’t know,” Sam muttered.

      Tristan silently agreed. It was hard to know whom to trust these days. But then again, the guy had already seen their webbed hands and feet, and newly bioluminescent skin.

      “Just ask. I’m sure Maggie will agree, and she knows how to get in touch with me—Leo Ozdale.”

      “Do you need help with your gear or anything?” Tristan asked, again trying to change the subject.

      “No, no,” Ozdale told them, pulling a small waterproof radio from a pouch in his vest-like buoyancy compensator. “I’ve got people standing by. I’ll be fine.”

      The teens hesitated and then said good-bye before walking away.

      “Bye, thanks again,” the man called out. “Talk to Maggie first thing and then have her call me. Lunch on my boat tomorrow!”

      On the way back to Pete’s house, Tristan turned to the others. “That was weird. What do you guys think?”

      “I think we’d better call Director Davis,” Hugh said. “That guy could tell others about us.”

      “Well, this is just great,” Rosina moaned. “Someone else knows about us.”

      “Hey,” Ryder countered. “It wasn’t our fault. Like, we saved that guy. He probably would have died or been eaten by sharks or something.”

      At the mention of sharks eating someone, Tristan stared at Ryder like the teen had just insulted his mother.

      “No offense, shark boy,” Ryder added with a smirk. “But that guy would have been toast if we hadn’t been there.”

      “Well,” Rosina said, “wasn’t like it was our fault earlier in the summer either. And look where that got us.”

      “Hiding from that creep, Rickerton,” Sam said.

      “And getting all the other campers mad at us,” Rosina grumbled.

      “C’mon, Director Davis will know what to do,” Tristan told them. “Maybe this time, this Ozdale guy is one of the good guys.”

      He tried to say it like he meant it, but Tristan had no idea if the man really was someone they could trust.

       4

       JEWEL HEIST

      WHEN THE TEENS ARRIVED AT THE AQUARIUM THE next morning, the place was buzzing. It was about an hour before opening, and the staff and volunteers were scurrying around like a bunch of mice on a caffeine overdose. Tristan had no idea what was going on. He’d never seen the people there behaving so strangely. A worker came toward them as if race-walking while staring at the floor. The man ran straight into Hugh.

      “Hey, watch it,” Hugh mumbled.

      “Sorry,” the man said, hardly stopping.

      “Like, dude, what the heck is going on?” Ryder shouted after him.

      The man looked back and yelled, “Haven’t you heard? A lady lost a diamond earring at the party last night. Supposed to be worth a ton. Everyone’s been ordered to search for it before we open. And there’s a reward for whoever finds the earring.”

      “Whoa,” Hugh said.

      Ryder peered at the ground and began to walk away. “I wonder how much the reward is?”

      Tristan thought for a moment, glanced around, and then turned to Hugh. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

      Hugh nodded, smiling. “Let’s go check it out.”

      The two of them took off at a run. Sam sprinted after them.

      “Wait,” Rosina yelled. “Where are you going?” She then ran after the others. And when Ryder saw all the other campers take off, he followed.

      The teens passed the giant kelp tank. It looked a lot less creepy with sunlight streaming in from above. They rounded a corner and skidded to a stop in front of a large, square tank. A giant red, fish-eating anemone with waving, white tentacles sat attached to a rock at the exhibit’s center. To the left was a cluster of fluffy, white snowflake anemones, and at the bottom, near the viewing wall, were two very big pink sea stars. The tank’s main attraction, however, was mostly hidden from view. Just the tips of its two long red arms were visible, stuck to the viewing window by big white suction cups. The giant Pacific octopus was asleep in its hole.

      “You think the octopus took the earring?” Sam asked.

      Hugh leaned in close, scanning the tank. “Remember his little habit of borrowing things after dark?”

      “Yeah,” Sam said. “But I thought

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