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said.
    “Big-time,” Wolfe said. “Right here in Washington State. And it just so happens that the guy who helped Dylan and his dad on the volcano is a retired field biologist named Buckley Johnson, and he’s working with Robert Lansa at the jaguar preserve in Brazil.”
    “Big coincidence,” Ted said.
    “Small world,” Wolfe said. “How can they help us with our transportation problem?”
    “Before Bill got hooked on cryptozoology, he was a real-estate guy,” Ted explained. “He owns property all over the Pacific Northwest. His wife is staying at one of his condos on Lake Washington. She’s teaching at the University ofWashington this summer. She’d probably keep an eye on these two until we can work something out. I’ll be around for a couple of days before I head back to Cryptos. I can check in on them, too. I’ll take them with me when I figure out how I’m getting back to the island.”
    “We’ll have to get them to that Lake Washington condo,” Wolfe said.
    “Dylan just turned sixteen,” Ted answered. “He has a license. I loaned him one of my cars.”
    “That’ll work.”
    “Excuse me,” Marty said. “We’re right here.” He hated it when adults talked about him as if he wasn’t there.
    Ted looked at him and grinned. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”
    “Funny,” Marty said.

Grace and Butch stepped outside of the panda exhibit into the public area.
    “Beautiful day,” Grace said cheerfully. “But there aren’t many people here.”
    “Squid,” Butch grunted.
    “Oh, that’s right,” Grace said, as if she had forgotten. “We have the park almost all to ourselves.”
    Noah’s animal park was like the biblical Ark, but thousands of cubits bigger. All of his parks were of the same design. What visitors didn’t know was that they were only seeing about ten percent of what was actually there.
    The tip of the iceberg , Grace thought. Or the deck of the ship. The most interesting things are below, invisible to the public. She looked up at her grandfather’s mansion. It sat atop a small hill, overlooking the park like a ship’s bridge overlooking a deck.
    “What do you want to do now?” Butch asked without enthusiasm.
    Grace hid her grin. She had taken a page out of Luther’s book by driving her reluctant babysitter crazy with polite, but very annoying, chatter and requests. She knew Butch was now long past wishing she had stayed aboard the Coelacanth .
    “Let’s go see the hatchlings!” Grace said.
    “Again? We were just there a couple of hours ago.”
    “I know, but they change so quickly. It’s like seeing new babies every time we visit them.”
    This was an exaggeration, but the hatchlings had grown a lot since they’d arrived at the Ark.
    “Maybe we should go to the lunchroom and chill for a couple of hours instead,” Butch muttered.
    “You go ahead,” Grace said, reaching for her cell phone. “I’ll just call my grandfather and see if he can take me down to the hatchlings. Or you can loan me your key card.” Everyone at the Ark had a key card hanging from a lanyard around their neck, except for Butch. He kept his key card in his coat pocket.
    Butch flushed with anger. Grace used this tactic on him several times a day. When they got to the Ark, Noah had said that she could “go anywhere and do anything she liked.” He gave her a cell phone that could only call one number … his. “If you have any problem whatsoever, I’m just a call away. I promise you that your problem will vanish.” This was about as true as his telling her that she could go and do anything she liked. But threatening to call Noah Blackwood never failed to enrage Butch McCall. It was impossible to go anywhere behind the scenes without a key card. Grace had one hanging around her neck, but it only opened the front door of the mansion and the keeper work area beneath the Ark. Noah said he was working on getting her a card that opened everything, but that it was a complicated procedure