A Sea Monster Conundrum (The Misfits)
Date: 2026-01-06 00:00:00+00:00
Description: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • When there are suspicious sightings around the bay (ghosts?! a sea monster?!)—who're you gonna call? An elite team of crime-fighting underdogs, that's who! The Misfits are on the case in the hilarious series from Newbery Honoree Lisa Yee and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat! “For any kid who’s felt like a misfit, this crackling adventure packs a wallop!” —Lincoln Peirce, creator of Big Nate Oof! When reports of ghosts arise around an abandoned lighthouse, Olive and her elite team of underdogs are immediately thrust into a brand new case. After all, ghosts don’t
Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Also by
Lisa Yee

The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum

The Misfits: A Copycat Conundrum

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

Random House Books for Young Readers

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Text copyright © 2026 by Lisa Yee

Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2026 by Dan Santat

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Editor: Tricia Lin

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Managing Editor: Rebecca Vitkus

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

Trade ISBN 9798217023776

Library Binding ISBN 9798217023783

Ebook ISBN 9798217023790

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Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1: Ghostly Sighting?

Chapter 2: Whip-Smart?

Chapter 3: Crypt-O- Zoo-Ol-O-Gist

Chapter 4: Flibbertigibbets!

Chapter 5: Sea Monster Sighting

Chapter 6: Butter Bakery

Chapter 7: Rejects

Chapter 8: Foodie Festival

Chapter 9: Golden Gate Bridge Danger

Chapter 10: Mutant Whale?

Chapter 11: Carnival of Chaos

Chapter 12: The Blue Moon

Chapter 13: Sea Monster Mania

Chapter 14: Odious

Chapter 15: $999,999.99

Chapter 16: Nock’s New Creature Division

Chapter 17: Something’s Fishy

Chapter 18: Marine World

Chapter 19: Penguin Escape

Chapter 20: Frannie

Chapter 21: My Monster

Chapter 22: Trust Yourself

Chapter 23: Free Frannie Headquarters

Chapter 24: Annie, Thannie, Frannie

Chapter 25: Professor Fable Howser

Chapter 26: Oozoo

Chapter 27: Dinosaur!

Chapter 28: You Are a Professional

Chapter 29: 18,000 New Species

Chapter 30: Amazing. Incredible. Wondrous.

Chapter 31: Little Frannie

Chapter 32: Birdie and Blight Beach

Chapter 33: Sync or Swim

Chapter 34: Bad Corn Dogs

Chapter 35: Stay with the Plan

Chapter 36: Looks Real

Chapter 37: Escaped

Chapter 38: The Real Deal

Chapter 39: Danger!

Chapter 40: Are You Okay?

Chapter 41: Sink or Swim

Chapter 42: Frannie Lives!

Epilogue

Agent Profiles

Gadget Profiles

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Illustrator

_154569606_

This book is dedicated to the library.

Growing up, I knew you were always there for me, and the books on your shelves were my inspiration. Thank you for helping make my childhood dream of becoming an author come true.

Prologue

Whoa and oof! Seriously. It had been quite a journey for Olive Cobin Zang, all the way from weird awkward kid at her old school to weird awkward Misfit at RASCH, the acclaimed Reforming Arts School for the artistically adventurous. Only now, instead of being bullied, bored, and depressed, she was happy and an elite supersecret agent trained in covert operations, combat fighting, and cookie baking.

In the past few months, Olive had unspooled centuries-old mysteries, activated puke pellets, broken into places where she shouldn’t have been, and learned to be a good friend. Though she loved all these undertakings, it was the friend part that Olive liked most.

The four other Misfits were as awkward as Olive, and maybe that explained their bond. But if the Misfits had learned anything over the past few months, it was that they were much more than just awkward:

James was a walking encyclopedia of facts and trivia, plus he had an impressive collection of bow ties.

Iggy’s breaking and entering was unparalleled, plus she was the most impressive Misfit when it came to mixed martial arts.

Theo possessed the innate ability to chill out, plus he could also charm information out of anyone anywhere.

Phil’s unflappable character made her the perfect candidate for running Command Central, plus her brains made her the perfect inventor of lifesaving gadgets, like Stink Spray.

And then there was Olive, who was a descendant of NOCK (No One Can Know) operatives….

Until recently, she had no idea that her parents and grandmother worked for an agency so secret that not even the government knew about it. Before, Olive had always assumed that her mom and dad were away a lot on business, and that Mimi taught her only grandchild how to be a world-class acrobat because she needed a hobby.

However, it was exactly those acrobatic skills, plus her ability to over-worry, that made Olive perfect NOCK material.

“Anyone who’s too confident is bound to slip,” Modest Cusak would remind them. Modest was a former double agent and Arby’s crew member, as well as one half of the team that trained the Misfits. Back in Russia, he had been a celebrated dancer—who could lift two ballerinas at once. Despite Modest’s hulking build, the Misfits knew that the giant strongman was a softy at heart.

On the other end of the seesaw, his partner and wife, Monica LaMonica, was hard as steel. A former world boxing champion, she provided the discipline and defensive training the Misfits needed for their assignments.

“Kids!” she’d barked when they first met, pulling a dagger from her left boot and throwing it across the room. Instantly, the Misfits ducked—it was either that or get a haircut. When the blade lodged smack on the nose of a RASCH benefactor’s portrait, Monica continued, “Kids are always underestimated. We will use that to our advantage!”

Individually, the Misfits were okay-ish. But together? OOF! They made a team that could take on the world—or, at least, nefarious stuff happening in the San Francisco area.

And that was a good thing, because their next assignment would be fraught with danger, and take place on land, sea, and air….

1.

Ghostly Sighting?

It was a minute after midnight when Olive and her grandmother Mimi climbed 210 feet up the side of Coit Tower, a San Francisco landmark. At the top, Dr. Cobin Zang and Dr. Zang Cobin, Olive’s parents, were grinning wildly and holding out a luscious lemon cake—a family favorite. It was the first time that this clutch of authorized NOCK agents had been assembled. Olive was so happy that she almost began to cry, but her father beat her to it, sobbing into his sleeve.

However, his flow of tears was interrupted by a strange brouhaha.

“The lighthouse!” Olive shouted, training her binoculars across the bay at the tall structure that loomed over Foggy Island.

Immediately, she chomped down three times, activating her ComChom. This ingenious device resembled a retainer and allowed the Misfits to communicate in secret. Through her EarBuzz, a device that could pass as a fleck of earwax, she could hear panic as an alarm blasted from RASCH.

James, the youngest, smallest, and self-proclaimed smartest Misfit, was theorizing that the hazy figure of a woman floating in the air was—

“A GHOST!” he yelled through Olive’s EarBuzz.

A ghost! Olive had always wanted to meet a ghost.

Iggy’s skeptical voice came in. “There is no such thing as ghosts!”

“There’s total panic here,” Theo broadcast via his ComChom. He sounded thrilled.

Phil added in a calm but assertive tone, “Misfits, it’s time to gather!”

A jumble of emotions bounced so powerfully inside Olive that she began to wobble. Her parents never had time for her before. It was something she had longed for, plus there was lemon cake and her beloved grandmother Mimi. However, danger and adventure beckoned.

Steadying herself, and bravely pushing away the slice of cake her mother was holding out to her, Olive informed her family, “I’ve got to leave. NOCK and the Misfits need me!”

Via a souped-up Jet Ski, Mimi dropped Olive back off at school. Foggy Manor, home of RASCH, was a castle-like mansion that loomed over the late-night fog as Olive raced toward it. Outside on the lawn, students huddled in groups, hiding behind trees and singing. If Olive hadn’t known better, it would have seemed like a normal evening, except that it was after midnight. And there had been ghost sightings.

Whispers and yells reached Olive’s ears as she ran by:

“Ghosts? This is so exciting!”

“What if the ghosts start haunting Foggy Manor?!”

“What if everyone stopped talking about ghosts and let the rest of us go to sleep?”

Yash, the long-suffering assistant of RASCH’s dean, clomped around the grounds, wrapped in an oversized periwinkle-blue bathrobe that puddled around her. Gripping a megaphone bigger than her head, Yash ordered, “EVERYONE, BACK TO YOUR ROOMS. NOW!”

Behind her, the dean herself emerged, looking fresh and dewy as ever. Her billowing caftan was the color of the lemon drops she always stashed in her pockets, and her hair was swept up in a delightfully complicated style.

“There’s no need to yell,” Sunny trilled, patting her assistant on the shoulder.

Yash glared at the dean and shouted into the megaphone, “I KNOW THAT.”

“If you can’t use it correctly, then give it back,” Sunny said, patiently holding her hand out.

The students around them watched in bewilderment as the dean tried to wrestle the megaphone away from Yash. In the commotion, Olive slipped away unseen toward the abandoned Donut Trespass! area.

The forbidden backside of the island looked nothing like the gorgeous gardens and massive green lawn that graced the front of Foggy Manor. Instead, the area was run-down and dangerous, overflowing with rusted machinery. Over the years, students spread menacing rumors of frightening fog that could squeeze the courage out of you, and tales of hungry wild boars with sharp tusks. It was said that in the 1960s, quicksand in the Donut Trespass! area swallowed a pod of unruly RASCHers.

Olive shivered. What if they had returned as ghosts?

If anything, these stories made the Donut Trespass! area even more appealing to someone like Olive. She eased under the rusty chain-link fence and hurried toward the lighthouse, where the ghostly sightings had occurred, but Olive was in such a rush that she tripped over a small pile of broken bricks.

As trained, she merely rolled herself into a ball, tumbled gracefully when she hit the ground, then leaped right back up without breaking stride as the fog rolled in.

Slipping on her FoggyGogs, Olive could see clearly through smoke and fog. Coming into focus were Theo and Phil, chatting as Iggy pretended to punch James. All the Misfits were wearing their pajamas except for Iggy, who slept in her street clothes.

Queenie the cat circled all of them nervously. Putting on her nose clamps to thwart her cat allergy, Olive scooped up the butterscotch feline and nuzzled her.

“I’m here!” Olive announced.

“We can see that.” Iggy didn’t even attempt to hide her yawn. It was, after all, way past midnight by now.

“What happened?” Olive asked as Queenie squirmed out of her arms and took off, most likely to Butter Bakery, where it was always warm and welcoming, no matter the hour.

“Queenie probably senses a paranormal presence,” James said.

“That cat needs her beauty sleep,” Iggy grumped. Her scowl was even bigger than usual.

“Beauty sleep?” Theo was having trouble keeping his eyes open, and the moisture in the air was making his already bushy brown hair even bushier. “Where do we sign up for that?”

“Come on, let’s head back,” Phil suggested. She was always the voice of reason. “We can talk about ghosts in the morning over breakfast.”

But even after Olive returned to their dorm and lay perfectly still in her oversized canopy bed, her brain kept racing. Just last week the Misfits were hunting down art thieves and rescuing Zeke, a fellow RASCH student. And now there were ghost sightings?

Iggy was convinced that they didn’t exist, but Olive wasn’t so sure. After all, her own parents and grandmother were often present but unseen.

2.

Whip-Smart?

It felt like no time at all had passed when banging startled Olive awake.

“Do you want me to wait for you?” came Phil’s voice through the door.

Olive rubbed her eyes, then squinted at the sunlight splashing in from her window. Outside, down below, dolphins were frolicking in the bay.

“Go on ahead, Phil,” she called out. “I’ll meet you in the dining hall.”

By the time Olive dressed and went down for breakfast, everyone was abuzz. The tables were already full, and the air was thick with commotion and conversation. All anyone could talk about was the ghosts.

“I saw a scary monster!”

“Clearly, it was a horse galloping!”

“She was beautiful and looked exactly like me,” Primrose said, as her sidekicks, twins Ethel and Enid, nodded in agreement.

“It was awesome!” James was saying as Olive joined the rest of the Misfits. He scraped off a burnt corner of his toast with a butter knife. “I bet the ghost was the murdered bride of Remy Triste.”

That made sense to Olive. The millionaire Remy Triste had built Foggy Manor over a century ago for his dearly beloved, who died under mysterious circumstances. Later, the castle-like mansion was taken over by the government and turned into a maximum-security prison. It was only for the last couple of generations that it had been a boarding school.

Theo drowned his scrambled eggs in ketchup. “I definitely saw the ghost of a lion,” he insisted, using a spoon to shovel his breakfast into his mouth.

“It was just fog,” Iggy cried, “F-O-G, fog, not ghosts!”

“About the ghosts,” Olive interrupted, holding back the wrath of Iggy’s glare. “Do we know what happened? There were documented sightings, right?”

All around them, students were arguing and sharing photos and videos of what they saw the night before. Every now and then, a RASCHer would even pretend to be a ghost, flinging a white napkin over their head and making “oooooh” sounds.

Phil chomped down, and the Misfits looked up as her voice came in through their EarBuzzes, so no one could overhear. The team all had been trained to talk without moving their lips, like a ventriloquist. “Look,” Phil said, “I’ve compiled the clearest videos that were taken. Everyone, check your phones.”

The Misfits pulled out their phones, which looked more or less normal, except for the fact that these could be folded down to the size of a walnut or molded into any shape. Plus, in addition to fun games and cute puppy videos, their NOCK devices contained apps that were capable of thwarting danger.

Olive squinted at the images on her screen. It was hard to tell if there was a ghost, a wayward cloud, or something else entirely rising above the lighthouse. But before any of them could take a closer look—

“Good morning, RASCHers!”

The Misfits turned to find Sunny balancing on a chair at the front of the dining hall. When she clapped, the dean’s bracelets jangled like the wind chimes in Olive’s grandmother’s backyard, and immediately she was reminded of Mimi’s circus-like trapeze, trampoline, and tightrope. Her heart warmed at the thought.

“Good morning, Sunny!” filled the room, with the opera pod singing their greeting.

Next to Sunny, Yash scowled. Like Olive, she was not a morning person.

Still, the glee on Sunny’s face was contagious, and the room lit up with smiles. “We had quite an exciting night!” she said. “Several of you posted on social media, and our mysterious apparition is now in the news. Soon, reporters, scientists, debunkers, and believers will all be jostling to get to the bottom of this mystery!” She paused, then winked. “Of course, we will be charging them the tourist rate to explore the island. And when they do, let’s all give them a warm RASCH welcome! OOF!!!”

The whole room, including the Misfits, erupted in an enthusiastic string of “Oof”s.

Olive smiled at the RASCH cheer. At her old school, everyone always pretended they didn’t care what people thought of them—when really, they cared too much. Here, students were encouraged to be themselves, and if you happened to be a geek, nerd, or dork, it was just who you were. Olive quickly joined in: “Oof! Oof! Oof!”

That afternoon, the Misfits were walking outside the majestic Foggy Manor, up the path toward the backside of the island. James was in front, with the others following close behind as they marched past a familiar beastly yet beautiful sculpture made from metal and shards of pottery and glass. It was created by their friend Birdie, the talented artist who’d helped the Misfits crack a multimillion-dollar art forgery case.

The Misfits’ former hangout, an underground bunker beneath the island, was discovered during that mission, but was now an off-limits crime scene. Thus, it was Iggy’s idea to make the abandoned lighthouse their “new haunt.”

Just as they were about to sneak into the Donut Trespass! area, they heard, “Iggy! Olive! James! Theo! Phil!”

Immediately, the Misfits whirled around, quickly and casually moving away from the fence. James stooped to study some nearby bushes. Phil suddenly found a neighboring tree incredibly interesting. Olive, however, turned toward the speaker, and saw a familiar figure racewalking toward them.

“Come with me now, please!” Sunny said, clapping her hands. “Hurry, hurry!”

The Misfits gave each other sideways glances and Iggy’s eyebrows rose so high they disappeared into her raggedy bangs. Dutifully, they all followed the dean back toward Foggy Manor, where Sunny led them through the winding corridors and resplendent halls that smelled of sandalwood and citrus and were lined with portraits of snooty-looking RASCH patrons.

“Here we are!” Sunny sounded giddy as she swung open the door to reveal a pack of impatient grown-ups. “Meet my whip-smart reforming arts students.”

Confused, the Misfits looked around before realizing the “whip-smart” students she was talking about were them. Sunny flapped her arms toward the Misfits as if they were the grand prize on a game show. “These five will be your guides in the uncharted section of Foggy Island known as the Donut Trespass zone, where the ghostly apparition made itself known.”

“Why did she pick us?” Phil whispered.

Olive held back a smile. She was the only Misfit who knew the dean’s secret—that Sunny O’Moa was also Anonymous, the head of NOCK. If Sunny was assigning the Misfits to this task, then that could mean that the ghost sighting might become a bigger deal than any of them had imagined. Or maybe it was just that Sunny knew that the Misfits could handle dealing with anything, including adults in the Donut Trespass! area. Or maybe they were the only pod with a free period. Or maybe…

As always, Olive was overthinking, something she was great at.

With a dramatic flourish, Sunny removed the bright yellow scarf from her neck, attached it to a tall fishing pole, and handed it to Yash.

“Follow the flag!” Sunny sang to the visitors as they exited the mansion and made their way toward the lighthouse. Lowering her voice, she whispered, “Yash, please stop dragging the flag in the dirt, hold it up high! No, no. Don’t poke the guests….”

3.

Crypt-o-zoo-ol-o-gist

There was an audible group gasp when the journalists, scientists, and ghost hunters reached the spooky side of the island. Yash had cut a wider hole into the rusted fence so no sightseers would get snagged, since the dean was afraid of lawsuits. Impressed by the opening she made, Yash stood next to it, waving her fishing pole aloft, until Sunny made her put it down.

Nervous murmurs arose once the visitors gathered on the other side of the fence. As if on cue, a thick veil of fog rolled in, causing one man to immediately turn around and bolt back out through the hole in the fence.

Another one of the visitors, George Hinky, the leader of the San Francisco Skeptics Society, merely adjusted his hat and scoffed, “Ghosts don’t exist!”

To which another visitor, a poltergeist expert, snapped, “We’ll see about that,” before promptly tripping over a pile of broken bricks and landing in a patch of poison ivy.

As the group grumbled and shuffled past rusted machinery and overgrown weeds, a quiet woman with a curly black ponytail lagged behind everyone else, looking down and around while most of the others looked up. Olive knew from experience that those who said the least, often had the most to say.

Approaching the woman, she remembered to smile. “Hi, I’m Olive!” She was training to be more friendly and outgoing when the situation merited it.

In the distance, Iggy was snickering as she led George Hinky toward a sludge pit. Seconds before he fell in, Phil intervened and guided him toward the lighthouse instead.

The woman nodded to Olive. Her gray-green eyes were friendly. “I’m Fable. Professor Fable Howser,” she said. “I’m a marine biologist and cryptozoologist.”

Olive knew that marine biologists studied life in the ocean. But—

“Crypt…what?” Olive asked, her tongue tumbling over the word.

“Crypt-o-zoo-ol-o-gist,” Fable sounded out. Her voice had a light lilt and a hint of a French accent. “We investigate and research reports of unknown and possibly legendary animals that perhaps haven’t been seen for—”

“—for hundreds or even thousands of years,” James jumped in, suddenly appearing beside Olive. He shook Fable’s hand vigorously. “You’re the first cryptozoologist I’ve met in person! Are you here to investigate the ghost? Do you think the ghost is an animal? Have you met a ghost before?”

Fable didn’t laugh at James, the way some people did when he asked too many questions. Instead, she answered, “I’ve met many nonhumans in my past, and hope there will be many more in my future.”

The Misfits circled the base of the lighthouse as the scientists, skeptics, and ghost hunters did the same. The crash of the waves hitting the rocky shore was drowned out by George Hinky and a ghost hunter accusing each other of being frauds, while others measured the electromagnetic field and held up electronic voice phenomena recorders designed to record spirit voices, and still others snapped selfies.

Away from the crowd and closer to the shore, Fable wandered past overgrown brush and prickly trees to gather plant and soil samples. “I want to run some tests on the marine conditions and plant life. It’s possible they created a host environment for an apparition to appear,” she told Olive. “There have been unusual patterns in the sea recently.”

Of the whole group of grown-ups, Fable seemed like the nicest, with by far the most interesting job. Olive had so many questions. “What kind of unusual patterns?” she asked.

However, before Fable could respond, an electronic screech sounded from behind them.

“That’s enough now!”

At once, everyone turned to see Yash standing atop a pile of bricks, holding up her beloved megaphone. She yelled, “WE’VE ONLY GIVEN YOU ACCESS TO FOGGY ISLAND FOR TWO HOURS AND YOUR TIME IS ALMOST UP.”

Fable looked confused. “It’s been less than an hour.”

“Yash just wants everyone to leave,” Olive explained as Sunny appeared, lugging a giant white wicker picnic basket.

Though the group of specialists complained about having to stop so soon, they became significantly less grumbly when Sunny revealed Butter Bakery pumpkin spice cookies with translucent layers of pearly royal icing.

When all that was left of the cookies was crumbs, the Misfits accompanied the visitors to the island’s dock. As Olive chatted with Fable, Theo did his best to keep Iggy away from George Hinky, who kept saying things like, “There is zero evidence of a ghost here. It was clearly a school prank!”

Could that be true? Olive wondered. RASCH students were famous for pulling pranks, like the time the entire art, theater, and costume pods dressed like Sunny. The dean was so dazzled by their colorful caftans that she gave them the day off from school.

As soon as the visitors sailed away, the Misfits pivoted and rushed back to the Donut Trespass! zone. By then Yash had already mended her hole in the fence—so the Misfits crawled under it, as usual.

One by one, they ran up the lighthouse’s winding staircase, taking the steps two at a time. Thanks to Modest and Monica’s intensive training, they weren’t the least bit winded when they reached the top.

The lantern room of the lighthouse wasn’t nearly as spacious as their old secret room in the underground bunker. Nor was it as big as the Laundry Room, with its floor-to-ceiling collection of books, games, snacks, and plush couches (though Olive favored the purple beanbag chair). Still, the lantern room did have a cool 360-degree view of the San Francisco Bay. From there, they could see all of Foggy Island. Pods were clumped together over the lawn in front of Foggy Manor, and one group was boarding rowboats.

Phil took out her Privacy Protector Spray from her fanny pack and began spraying the large windows around them. “So we can see out, but no one can see in,” she explained. “Anyone get any info?”

“Professor Fable Howser, the marine biologist and cryptozoologist, says that island conditions were right for an unusual sighting,” Olive informed her friends.

“I still think it was a ghost.” James’s voice sounded hopeful, as if saying this could make it true.

“One scientist said that the cold weather and the fog rolling in through the breeze may have created an illusion,” Phil said as she finished spraying the last window.

“I knew it wasn’t a real ghost,” Iggy said smugly.

Theo was unusually quiet. He stared out over the ocean, watching a pod of whales swimming in circles. “The sea life is acting really weird,” he noted. “Something is off.”

“That’s right,” Olive observed. “Fable said that the patterns in the sea were strange, and that Foggy Island has uncommon patches of dark blue-green algae.”

“Cyanobacteria,” James was quick to clarify. “Due to changes in the climate, the bacteria amplifies the release of methane gas from the ocean into the atmosphere.”

“Hence, the appearance of a ghost,” Phil deduced.

Iggy, Phil, and Theo seemed somewhat satisfied with the scientific explanation. Olive felt a tiny wave of disappointment wash over her. Could it be that simple?

“I was kind of hoping for something more mysterious,” she admitted.

“It would be so cool to see something extrasensory, like a ghost,” James said wistfully.

“Try looking in the mirror,” Iggy suggested.

Just as James was about to lob a comeback, Olive held up a hand. “It’s just so strange that this happened.”

“What if the scientists are right?” Phil asked.

“What if they’re not?” James replied.

“Ghost or no ghost, something weird is going on,” Olive said.

4.

Flibbertigibbets!

“Ghosts are a waste of time!” Monica announced the next morning.

In the Laundry Room, the NOCK instructors stood side by side with their hands behind their backs. Monica’s black pants, dark T-shirt, and combat boots were in stark contrast to Modest’s apricot one-piece jumpsuit and matching ballet slippers.

Though Monica had been their instructor from day one, Olive still couldn’t identify her accent. Often stern, she was not nearly as easy to read as Modest.

“It’s cookies,” Iggy whispered into her ComChom, eyeing Modest’s and Monica’s straight postures and hidden hands. “They’re hiding cookies behind their backs.”

“Well, ghosts are kind of cool….” Modest mused, but stopped when Monica shot him a steely stare.

“Okay, some ghosts can be cool,” Monica reluctantly admitted. “But unless they are causing harm, it is not our job to sniff them out. Misfits, follow up if you must, but you cannot let the possibility of an invisible creature get in the way of your training. Do you understand?”

Modest smiled widely when they all nodded, and Olive briefly admired how straight his teeth were. She felt her left incisor tooth with her tongue. It was slightly crooked, not so much that anyone could tell, but she could.

“Now,” Modest said in his baritone voice. “Today we will have an ultra-important lesson for flying under the radar.” The Misfits leaned forward as he paused for dramatic effect. “…Flibbertigibbets!”

“Flibbertigib—what?” Iggy asked.

James raised his hand. “ ‘Flibbertigibbets’ means to talk so fast and say so many meaningless things that people want to run away from you.”

“Oh. So, you’re already an expert at that,” Iggy said to James, laughing and hiding behind Theo.

“I’ve learned from you,” James shot back.

Theo was jostled back and forth as James and Iggy tried to swat each other, giving Modest and Monica enough time to quickly stuff their cookies into their mouths.

At last, the day’s lessons began.

First, Modest had them practice their existing flibbertigibbeting skills. Iggy was quite good at it, making up meaningless things about fights and flights. When it was James’s turn, he merely recited pages from history books, though Olive wondered if this counted since it wasn’t exactly meaningless. Theo had difficulty talking fast, and Phil was stumped by having to come up with pointless dialogue.

Olive went last, and excelled at the assignment by merely quoting strings of phrases her parents always said, like “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” “Hold your horses,” and “When I was your age.”

After the Misfits wrapped up their flibbertigibbets lessons, Phil retreated to her workshop in the back of the Laundry Room. It was time for their weekly group test, tweak, and brainstorm of their latest apps and gadgets.

Phil had a satisfied smile on her face. “I took Iggy’s suggestion about a disgusting odor and ran with it! There will be some stink and sound,” she warned, “but no huge explosions or mess, so we’re good to review them in here instead of the gymkhana.”

Phil wheeled out her stainless-steel cart and pulled back the black velvet cloth on top to reveal ordinary-looking whatnots, like candy hearts, stationery supplies, and jars of spittle. “Now, this one is called Poo Plops….”

In unison, the Misfits backed away. Given that their Stink Spray, which they used to repel people or mark criminals, was so strong, Olive could only imagine how smelly a Poo Plop might be.

“Who wants to test it?” Phil asked cheerfully. She held up what looked like a gray-green jellybean and a glass of water. When no one volunteered, Phil tried not to look disappointed. “Okay, fine, I’ll do it. This works somewhat like Stink Spray, but with a much farther reach.”

She slipped a pair of clamps over her nostrils, thought about it for a second, and then clamped on another pair right behind the first. Slowly and ceremoniously, Phil dropped a single Poo Plop into the water.

Instantly, it started to fizz. A smell worse than the worst farts imaginable began to overtake the Laundry Room. Theo, James, and Iggy ran away screaming. Modest and Monica were nowhere to be seen, having retreated to the faculty lounge, slamming the door shut behind them.

Olive pulled out a trio of nose clamps from her fanny pack. “That stinks! Another winner!” She congratulated Phil and then retreated to join the others.

While the Laundry Room was being aired out using Phil’s Smell-B-Gone and an industrial-sized fan, lessons were continued in the giant gymkhana. With its shiny, polished wood, the facility now looked a little different from when Olive first started at RASCH. After the Misfits’ art forgery case revealed the legendary Grisham ghost ship had been run ashore on Foggy Island, NOCK had agreed to repurpose parts of it and incorporate it into the Misfits’ fitness and training center.

In the gymkhana, Modest and Monica had a tightrope and aerial silks installed just for Olive, and she had been known to jump up and down on the gymkhana’s trampoline for hours, doing somersaults, pikes, and twists for fun or relaxation.

The space was cavernous enough for James to run laps around it without getting dizzy. The weapons detonation area for Phil’s inventions was soundproof and secure. Iggy kept her robotic boxing equipment in the corner and, at Theo’s suggestion, every Misfit also had their own de-stress chamber, each as large as a small igloo.

Monica tramped into the gymkhana behind the rest of them. There appeared to be some sort of green ooze on the soles of her boots, but she ignored it. “For today’s lessons we will be employing a rather ancient weapon,” she announced.

Iggy gasped in delight.

There was a heavy creaking sound and all eyes turned to Modest, grunting as he pushed a huge wooden device that looked like it had a giant spoon attached to the top of it.

“The catapult was first used in China in the fifth century BC, and then later during medieval times to launch projectiles, like stones, at a target,” Monica said as Modest struggled to move the device into position.

James’s eyes widened. “Looks like this one is a Scorpio used during the Roman Empire. It took ten men to operate one of these.”

Modest flexed his muscles. “And ten to move one of them!”

“What projectiles will we use?” Iggy asked excitedly as Phil circled the catapult, studying it.

A mischievous grin crossed Monica’s face before she tamped it down. Modest, however, did not hide his delight.

“Today we will be flinging…Misfits!” Modest patted the catapult fondly. “We’ve adjusted the spring to make it less forceful. Don’t want anyone splatting on the walls. They were just cleaned.”

“If this old thing still works, you will be thrown into the air!” Monica chimed in. The Misfits paid attention as the former world boxing champion ran up to the front door, executed a backflip, changing her position, then landed on her feet. Jogging back toward them, she continued, “While in flight, your assignment is to figure out a way to avoid bruises or broken bones upon landing. I’ve just given you a hint. Olive, you’re up.”

Thrilled to be first, with the amount of acrobatics training Olive did with Mimi, she felt like she was born for this. She curled up in the bucket and prepared to be launched. From high inside the catapult, Olive could see a pool of water, a pile of mattresses, and a mud pit at the far side of the gymkhana.

“Three…BLAST OFF!” Modest yelled.

Sooner than Olive expected, she was hurled up toward the pool. Doing a double twist midair to slow her body’s movement, Olive rounded her back, tucked in her head, and cannonballed into the water, sputtering triumphantly when she surfaced.

But as the other Misfits applauded, Olive’s heart beat faster, not from joy, but from fear. Being flung into the pool discombobulated her more than she wanted to admit. When she was young, a swimming incident left her afraid of the water. Not to mention, almost drowning in the bay when the priceless Royal Rumpus necklace was missing had scared the heebie-jeebies out of her.

Maybe, Olive reasoned as she bobbed in the pool, shivering, it’s time to face my fears.

“Great!” Monica yelled as Phil helped Olive out of the pool. “Next!”

5.

Sea Monster Sighting

Today, the Misfits ate lunch in the lantern room of the lighthouse. Though small, it was furnished nicely. Sneaking fancy chairs out of Foggy Manor, across the lawns, and up the structure’s 210 circular stairs was a challenge, but the view of the San Francisco Bay made the effort totally worth it. Besides, the mansion was stuffed with antiques. Who would notice a few missing? Still, with limited space, they were only able to fit four chairs and a small table for Phil’s computer screens. This meant that one Misfit was always left standing.

“The cheese stands alone,” Olive mused, recalling an old song that Mimi used to sing to her about a farmer.

“Cheese?” Theo’s hair was especially big, like it was when there was excess moisture in the air. Which was practically all the time.

“Never mind,” Olive replied, and opened a box of Butter Bakery cookies.

“What do you think about Sunny’s announcement?” Phil asked.

“Which one?” Theo said, taking a couple of peanut butter crunch cookies. “The one about the Pancake Toss, the Boat Parade, or the Foodie Festival?”

“The last two.” Phil selected a spiced sugar cookie from Olive and nodded a thank-you.

“Well, neither one applies to us,” Iggy noted as she munched on a ginger molasses cookie. “Are there more of these?”

Olive shook her head. She was getting tired of standing.

“The Bay Silly Sail is a yearly boat parade,” Theo said, spilling crumbs all over his “Peace” T-shirt. “It’s really cool. All the boats are decorated, and there are prizes for the most creative. That’s why RASCH is entering this year. Sunny thinks RASCHers can win.”

A boat parade? Olive hoped she wouldn’t have to be involved with that. The last thing she wanted to do was go sailing. What if she fell into the water?

Phil consulted one of her computer rings and let out a sigh. “Modest and Monica signed us up to volunteer for the school bake sale at the Foodie Festival.”

“How is it that we’re volunteers if we didn’t volunteer?” James wanted to know.

“It’s for a good cause,” Theo reminded everyone. “It benefits the Bay Area Community Outreach Center.”

The Misfits nodded. They all knew how important this place was. After the case of the Royal Rumpus, they had even donated some of their reward money to the organization.

“Maybe we can get Poppy to help us with the bake sale,” Olive suggested. She looked around the room and realized they didn’t have a trash can, so she just held on to the empty box. “Butter Bakery is famous, and if we get Poppy involved, everything will be sure to sell out.”

“Makes sense,” Phil agreed.

From the window, Theo peered down through an antique telescope. “Looks like the Artsy Gaggle pod has already started on the boat decorations, and—”

“Whoa! Look over there!” James called out from the other side of the lighthouse.

Olive, Theo, and Iggy rushed to James’s window, where far off in the ocean, a pod of whales was swimming in circles. But Phil stayed glued to her seat, staring at one of her rings.

“WHAT?” she yelped. Instantly, the rest of the group turned toward her. Quickly, she tossed a Splatter Ball against a window to darken it, then projected the image on her ring onto it.

A newscaster with swoopy hair was reporting. “Sightings of a sea monster have been reported in the San Francisco Bay. And while we do not have any footage of this alleged creature, several people have sworn they have seen it.”

Wordlessly, all the Misfits, including Phil, stationed themselves at the lighthouse windows, searching for the sea monster through their binoculars.

“I hope it’s real,” Olive said. When she was little, she read a book about the Loch Ness Monster and always felt that it was misunderstood.

“Riiiight,” Iggy said. “Everyone’s saying they saw a ghost, now a sea monster. Next thing someone will say they’ve seen a UFO on the front lawn.”

“I’ve seen a UFO,” James volunteered.

“Yeah, where?” Iggy challenged.

“I’m looking at it right now,” he said, staring back. “You’re an Unidentified Frightful Object!”

As Iggy leaped toward him, James hid behind Phil. “Save me!” he cried with mock fear.

But Olive and Theo were too busy staring through their binoculars, searching the waves.

6.

Butter Bakery

Poppy merrily agreed to oversee three pods for the RASCH bake sale. Each pod was to send in two student volunteers.

When she arrived at Butter Bakery with Iggy, Olive was immediately confronted with dirty looks from Primrose and Ethel, the twin who now had pink hair. But when Joff and her friend Zeke from the drama pod gave them friendly hellos, Olive immediately felt a little better.

“Okay, bakers!” Poppy’s melodious voice filled the room as she raised her spatula in the air. “We’re going to do a scrumptious variety of cookies and cupcakes.”

Though Olive was a huge fan of Butter Bakery’s chocolate orange marmalade sponge cake, she knew that smaller pastries sold better at fundraisers. Whenever her old school had a bake sale, her mother always brought store-bought cupcakes, then smashed some of them to make them look homemade. But today, Olive would actually be baking from scratch. By the time she and the other RASCHers were finished that afternoon, Olive was covered in flour, her arms sore from mixing. Still, she’d managed to make several batches of cupcakes and a bunch of them even looked okay. If only her mother could see her now.

Carefully balancing two pink boxes tied with string, Olive made a stop at the faculty lounge in the Laundry Room. The door was hidden behind a huge tapestry, but Misfits were always welcome inside. This was where Modest and Monica had their espresso machine, dual lounge chairs, and computer monitoring system.

“Where’s Monica?” Olive asked as she handed Modest a box of practice pastries. The best ones were kept for the bake sale.

He was watching the Top Cop marathon and had been tossing salted peanuts in the air, catching them in his mouth.

“She’s climbing Mount Rushmore. She should be back before midnight.”

Olive nodded. “Um, can I talk to you about something important?”

Instantly, Modest sat upright, turned off the TV, and gave her his full attention, even setting a lopsided butter cookie aside. “Of course. Anytime. Is this about the chair someone saw you take from Foggy Manor?”

“Oh. No, not that, it’s about…” Olive could feel her ears turning red. “…Swimming?”

“You know what we should do?” Modest interrupted. Olive hadn’t even had a chance to tell him what was on her mind. “Let’s aqua groove!” He mimed swimming across the room. Now doing an elegant backstroke with his arms, Modest said, “A series of stylish swim lessons. We can make it fun. No pressure, but as a team we can cheer each other on. What do you think, Olive?”

When she nodded, Olive could feel the heat from her ears fading as her smile grew.

“It may take some time to set up lessons.” Before Modest finished eating his cookie, he reached for another. “The gymkhana pool isn’t big enough for what I have planned, unless of course you’d like to use the ocean or the moat?”

Olive shuddered. On her first day at RASCH, while talking to the swans, she had fallen into the narrow murky moat that ran around the mansion. “Lessons can wait,” she said.

By the time Olive and Modest had finished pretending to swim around the Laundry Room, she was late to meet the other Misfits.

As she neared the Donut Trespass! zone, something shot at her out of the tall weeds. In one swift move, Olive slipped on her FoggyGogs and nose clamp.

“Queenie!” she called out as she caught her feline friend midair and rubbed her face into her soft fur.

The fog was just beginning to roll in as Olive ambled toward the lighthouse. Then there was a sudden shift in the wind. Queenie tensed up in her arms.

“What is it?” Olive asked, stroking the cat.

Whimpering, Queenie squirmed out of Olive’s arms and scampered away.

Olive shook her head and laughed. “Hello? Ghost, are you there?” she called out.

But when her joke was met by silence, Olive felt a shiver go through her. What could have scared Queenie that badly? she wondered. What if someone…or something was out there?

7.

Rejects

“Rejects!” Iggy shouted gleefully when Olive entered the lantern room at the top of the lighthouse.

“What did you just call us?” James looked up from his Complete History of History book and frowned.

“Reject cookies and cupcakes,” Olive clarified, pointing to the pink box. “From Butter Bakery.”

After baking all day, she had splotches of colorful frosting all over her shirt. Iggy had frosting on her face and hair, some of which she added on purpose to be funny.

Instantly, James’s demeanor changed. “Well, in that case, cheers to rejects!”

He slammed his book shut with such force that Phil startled. She had been examining the glass lantern that anchored the room.

“Could it have been the light and not a ghost we saw?” Olive handed the Butter Bakery box to James.

Phil shook her head. “This light hasn’t been used for decades. I doubt it still works. Whatever we saw was not from up here.”

From the narrow outdoor walkway, Theo yelled, “They’re at it again!”

“Who’s at what?” James was studying a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting that had a small dent on one side.

Theo pointed off in the distance. “The whales, they’re swimming in odd patterns. So strange.”

“You know what’s really strange?” Iggy’s eyes widened, and she sounded frightened. “He is!” she shouted, pointing to James.

He lunged at her, about to smash his cupcake in her face, but right before it hit her nose, James pulled it back, took a big bite, and said, “I wouldn’t waste a dented cupcake on you!”

Everyone was laughing—except for Theo, who was staring out at the whales.

8.

Foodie Festival

Butter Bakery was bustling when the Misfits arrived just after sunrise. Olive couldn’t stop yawning. She didn’t understand morning people like Phil and James, who were cheerfully chatting nonstop. Would it be wrong to yell at them? she wondered.

Just then, Iggy snarled, “Stop being so happy—it’s too early for that!”

Olive couldn’t help but laugh at the startled looks on James’s and Phil’s faces.

Theo was already inside organizing the cookies and cupcakes for the Foodie Festival. Each Misfit scooped up several boxes and together they marched down to BoBu, the amphibious boat bus that ferried RASCHers to and from the mainland.

“Pay the fee,” Yash barked when they tried to board.

Theo dutifully handed over a cupcake, which the dean’s assistant added to the other two on her dashboard.

Primrose, Enid, and Ethel, along with the rest of their pod, were already seated, surrounded by bake sale boxes. When the Misfits walked up, Zeke, Joff, and their friends yelled, “Oof!” Olive waved to Zeke, and she and the Misfits echoed back, “Oof!”

“Sit! Seat belts!” Yash ordered, steering BoBu into the open waters. She took a huge bite of a cupcake, briefly shutting her eyes to savor the deliciousness.

“WATCH OUT!” James yelled when BoBu almost collided with a trio of RASCH students in a rowboat.

“Pay attention to where you’re going!” Yash hollered at them. “We got a bake sale to get to!”

Even though the festival didn’t open for at least another hour, massive crowds had gathered at the entrances to the Golden Gate Bridge. The Misfits pushed past the eager foodies, waved their vendor passes, and found their booth.

“There are only two os in ‘cookies,’ ” James pointed out as Theo hung their banner.

“Ours are COOOKIES,” Theo said, turning red. “I, um, did that on purpose.”

Luckily, good spelling wasn’t a requirement to become a Misfit.

Meanwhile, inside the booth, Primrose “accidentally” leaned into one of the Misfits’ boxes, smashing the cupcakes. “Oopsie!” she sang, not looking very sorry at all.

Phil’s eyes darkened. “I saw what you did, and if you don’t swap out a box of yours for this one, I’ll tell Iggy—and she’s already in a bad mood.”

Immediately Primrose’s face fell, and she switched the Misfits’ box for her own.

In the other stalls, there was every kind of food imaginable, from small bites to big sandwiches. Live music and performers added to the festival atmosphere. Since only six people fit in the booth at once—only two from each pod—the Misfits took turns selling baked goods.

“It sure is crowded here,” Zeke said, passing a bag of cookies to a mom who was wrangling unruly triplets. “I heard the tickets sold out the first day they went on sale.”

“Hey, kid,” a bearded man with big bushy eyebrows called out to Olive. “Gimme dat chocolate cupcake wid da sprinkles.”

“I’ll have that pretty flower cookie,” trilled a woman wearing a San Francisco Giants cap. When she lowered her sunglasses and winked, Olive tried not to gasp as she saw through the woman’s disguise.

“Yummy!” the bearded man said, devouring the cupcake, and Olive whipped her head in his direction. Yes—there was her father in disguise, standing right next to her mother! “So glad we got last-minute online tickets to the Foodie Festival—and at half price, too!”

“We’d like to give you a tip!” Dr. Cobin Zang said generously. Both Olive’s parents’ disguises were quite good. Were they on a NOCK mission, or just here to say hi?

“We can’t accept tips,” Olive sputtered.

“I can!” Iggy insisted. “Cash, gift cards, gold bars, whatever’s easiest for you.”

“If you’d like to make a donation to RASCH,” Olive said, “that would be appreciated.”

Dr. Cobin Zang dropped her change in the donation jar and leaned in, lowering her voice.

“The tip is…when faced with adversity, rather than quit, keep calm and carry on.” She paused, then shrugged. “I read that on a coffee mug.” She motioned behind her. “Oh, look at the line, we shouldn’t take up any more of your time. Besides, we’re late for a plane to Borneo!”

Dr. Zang Cobin wiggled his fake eyebrows, and then they backed into the crowd and disappeared.

Olive stared after them, unsure. She suddenly realized she might never know the truth of what her parents got up to when she wasn’t around. Then again, she supposed they didn’t know what she did for NOCK either, which was the point of No One Can Know.

“Earth to Olive?”

She turned to see Theo staring at her, with James standing next to him.

“Oh, sorry.” She shook her head, then noticed that Theo looked like a walrus and James resembled an elephant. “Um…” She gestured to their faces.

“We visited the face-painting booth,” James explained. “It’s our turn to sell pastries. Phil says you and Iggy should join her at the empanada booth.”

“The festival is packed,” Theo reported as they switched places. “Every booth is selling—”

But before Theo could finish, the bridge beneath them began to sway. Olive immediately dropped into a squat to steady herself. Then the movement stopped, but all around them, the crowd began to murmur.

James’s jaw dropped. “Did you feel that?!”

“Earthquake?!” Theo yelled, sounding delighted.

But the murmurs around them turned into excited rumors, then harried shouts. People rushed over to one side of the bridge, calling out. As it got louder and louder, Olive could make out the words…

“SEA MONSTER!”

Instinctively, the Misfits bolted from the booth and ran to where people were pointing and taking photos. It was too crowded to see anything, but with everyone on one side of the bridge, the surface beneath them kept vibrating, ever so slightly.

Phil’s voice came in on the EarBuzzes. “Misfits! The bridge is overpopulated.”

“Too many pedestrians can cause it to wobble and sway,” James chimed in. “Same thing happened in 1987 when three hundred thousand spectators tried to cross at once on the Golden Gate Bridge’s fiftieth anniversary. The crowd caused the bridge to sway, and panic ensued.”

“Judging by the density of the pedestrians,” Iggy said, “I’d say they massively oversold the tickets.”

Olive recalled her parents saying they got last-minute tickets at half price. “I’ll bet a scammer sold those!”

“The sea monster is over there now!” someone cried.

The crowd rushed to the right side of the bridge, causing it to sway even more. Olive’s eyes widened as she felt the rumble beneath her feet. Both Theo and James tensed at the movement.

“There are too many people!” James said frantically.

“We have to clear the bridge now!” Phil ordered through their EarBuzzes. “I’m calling this in to Modest and Monica. We need a plan, and fast, before the whole bridge buckles and collapses, taking everyone down with it!”

9.

Golden Gate Bridge Danger

Sea monster rumors ricocheted through the crowds, gaining more strength each time they were repeated. Meanwhile, the 1.7-mile-long Golden Gate Bridge continued to sway, and the Misfits were on hyperalert. Olive’s sensitivity to smells, sounds, and movements had once been considered a pain. Now that she was a NOCK agent, it was a valuable asset.

Olive stood perfectly still to evaluate the motion. “The swaying is getting worse,” she reported. “It’s still undetectable to most, but if the crowd keeps moving back and forth in sync, that can change.”

“We need to evacuate the bridge without causing a panic.” Phil’s voice was calm but authoritative. “Blue Sky, quick!”

Instantly, the undercover operatives began throwing out suggestions and solutions. When in Blue Sky mode, no one was allowed to mock or put down any ideas. Though they had their differences, the Misfits were team players when it mattered most.

“We could activate our ComChoms to Darth Vader mode and command everyone to leave….”

“Let a bunch of snakes loose…”

“Use the emergency alert system…”

“Offer free prizes to those who exit first…”

“Uh, EXCUSE ME!” The distinctive whiny-sounding voice behind them could only be Primrose. “You losers are just hanging around blabbing when you’re supposed to be selling cookies and cupcakes. That’s okay, though—I’ve just sold out and there’s no point in staying. We’re leaving!”

Olive watched Primrose, Enid, and Ethel march away with the rest of their pod…and that’s when the idea hit her.

“Guys,” she said excitedly in her ComChom, “listen to this….”

A mere five minutes after they started their brainstorm, the Misfits had a solid plan in place.

Phil immediately dispatched her tiny but powerful drone, Bee, as Police Chief Ruby Lopez arrived on scene to assess the situation. Ruby was also NOCK, and while she could be fun-loving, right now the police chief was all business.

“Misfits, report,” Ruby ordered. Phil adjusted their ComChoms to broadcast into the chief’s earpiece and the Misfits quickly filled her in. James reasoned that if the police or emergency units showed up in force, it might cause a panic and lead to a stampede.

“Copy that,” Ruby agreed, pointing to her nose and then at James. “I’ll give you ten minutes to clear the bridge. If that doesn’t work, then more forceful tactics might have to be applied. Lives could be at stake.”

“I’ve got Bee monitoring the situation,” Phil assured everyone. She had employed the bob-and-weave boxing techniques Monica had taught them, to dodge the crowds and hurry off the bridge. By now Phil was back in Vana, the self-driving van, and overseeing Command Central. “The bridge appears stable, but it’s beginning to bow in the middle since the weight limit is exceeded by over one hundred percent. If there’s a stampede, then we’re sunk. Misfits, are you all in place, ready to proceed with our plan?”

“Affirmative!” they shouted in unison into their ComChoms.

James, whose face was still painted like an elephant, and Theo, who continued to be in walrus mode, stationed themselves at the agreed-upon destinations on the bridge. On cue, they donned their nose clamps. Then, the two reached into their fanny packs and retrieved Stink Spray, expelling it in the air.

Around them, as people smelled the stench, they wrinkled their noses and instinctively jumped back, trying to get away—helped along by James and Theo, who herded them toward the exits on either side of the bridge.

To accelerate the evacuation, Iggy tossed Poo Plops into the Porta-Potties. When the plops hit the liquid, there was a fifteen-second delay before they activated, exploded, and caused mega stink plumes to blast over the bridge. Instantly, friends, families, and strangers began speed-walking and accusing each other of farting.

Meanwhile, inspired by Primrose’s early exit, Olive used her ComChom to throw her voice, make it louder, and announce, “Most booths will be closing early due to supply shortages. Because of this inconvenience, everyone who bought a ticket will have it refunded one hundred percent. Vendors, you will be compensated for your time and delicious food, too.”

“That’s going to cause a lot of headaches to refund everyone,” James said.

Iggy immediately replied, “It would be harder to replace people’s lives if they fell into the bay.”

“Good point,” James had to agree.

Later, back at police headquarters, Ruby Lopez was fanning the air with a Modern Police magazine when Phil tossed her a nose clamp. “I don’t suppose you have a tiny one?” The police chief motioned to her turtle in the aquarium. “Gilbert has an acute sense of smell.”

“Uh, sorry, no nose clamp that small,” Phil said.

Olive watched Gilbert slowly close his eyes and retreat into his shell.

She sometimes wished she had a shell she could disappear into, too.

“Well, Misfits, I’ll forgive you for stinking up my office, since your plan was a success!” With the clamp on, Ruby sounded like she had a stuffy nose. “You stopped the Golden Gate Bridge from collapsing and saved lives!”

By now, most of James’s painted elephant face had smudged off. Theo used his T-shirt to wipe off his remaining walrus paint. “What about all those people who paid to attend the Foodie Festival, and all the vendors?” he asked. “Are they really going to get their money back?”

Ruby pointed both forefingers at him. “Not a problem! My Credit Fraud Investigation team and Cyber Crimes Division will track down the criminals who oversold the tickets and recover the money. Plus, under city law, the Golden Gate Foodie Festival was required to have insurance, so all the vendors will be reimbursed for lost wages.”

Even though the police chief was NOCK, she was also a bona fide government official. As such, Ruby had complete access to city and state services. And since she was an old friend of Monica’s, the link between Ruby Lopez, NOCK, the Misfits, and the police was as solid as silicon carbide.

“Good job, kids! Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.”

When they left police headquarters, Phil passed around Smell-B-Gone spray to get the stink off their clothes before they piled back into Vana. Gesturing at the computer screen that was reserved for her drone, she said, “Look at Bee’s footage.”

In high speed, they watched the packed bridge, then the crowds streaming out the exits. “See over here.” Phil motioned to the left of the monitor, in the water. She slowed the footage down. “This is what everyone was looking at.”

Olive squinted at what appeared to be a grainy photo of a blob. Phil moved in on it, making the image clearer.

“A sea monster!” James screamed so loudly that a startled Phil almost hit the delete key.

“Real so it’s?!” In his excitement Theo jumbled his words, but everyone knew what he meant.

“Whoa, wait,” Iggy said, shaking her head. “It’s unconfirmed. No one has taken a clear photo of this…whatever it is. It’s probably just a wayward whale.”

Olive’s breath quickened. “But what if it really is a sea monster?!”

“You just want it to be one,” Iggy told her. “Just like you wanted the ghost to be real.”

Olive shrugged sheepishly. Iggy knew her pretty well.

“So what if I did,” she admitted. “Even you’d have to agree that feels too strange to be a coincidence!” If there was one thing Olive had learned from NOCK, it was that you should always question coincidences.

Iggy let out a snort. “If it’s really a sea monster,” she said, “I’ll believe it when I see it with my own two eyes!”

10.

Mutant Whale?

“All eyes on me!”

Everyone startled and turned to face Monica as she grimly edged around the Laundry Room, her hands in tight fists, nose level. Glaring at each Misfit, one at a time, she caused them to squirm in their seats.

“Now that I have your attention, we will be studying nonverbal communication this morning!” Monica said brightly, immediately dismissing all traces of her glower. “Different areas of the face and body tell us something without words.”

Modest stepped up. He whirled his hands around his head and then pointed to his face. “There are seven basic expressions.” He held up four fingers on one hand and three on the other, counting them to make sure they added up correctly. “Anger, contempt, disgust, and fear.” One by one he demonstrated each emotion. “Then there’s happiness, sadness, and surprise. Did I miss any?”

The Misfits began yelling out “awe,” “concentration,” “confusion,” and “desire.” “Doubt,” “elation,” “interest,” “pain,” and “triumph” were also thrown into the mix.

“EXCELLENT!” Modest was wearing a look of happiness, his eyes shining and his smile wide.

“Now.” Monica’s voice was clipped. “These expressions go along with emotions. The sooner you can recognize them, the sooner you can learn to read people. The sooner you can read people, the sooner you can figure out their motivations.

“Observe that gentleman standing here.” She raised her chin toward Modest, who stood tall with his hands by his side. He stared straight ahead with a blank look on his face, which was kind of weird since he was usually so expressive.

“Surprise!” Monica shouted, and Modest raised his eyebrows.

“Anger!” Monica ordered, and Modest knit his brows together.

“Sadness!” The inner corners of his eyebrows drew up.

The entire morning was spent trying on different expressions and guessing each other’s emotions. Blinking rapidly, blinking too little, and staring intensely (something Iggy was great at) “can signal anger or attention,” Monica said.

Lip biting (anxiety), pursed lips (distaste), and covering one’s mouth (hiding something) were all part of the lessons. Olive learned that crossing one’s arms meant someone was defensive, whereas leaning forward meant interest.

By the time the class was over, Olive was so self-conscious about her body language that she walked stiffly out of the room, face frozen and unreadable.

The five sat stone-faced in the dining hall, all having dared each other not to show any emotion. In contrast, RASCHers all around them were talking loudly and exuberantly emoting about the sea monster sightings.

“I saw it!” Enid and Ethel acted enthralled as Primrose described her meeting with the monster. “It was huge and green and scaly with big fangs.”

“Look at her eyes,” Phil noted, her face still as a blank slate. “Primrose keeps blinking, and see the way she’s waving her hands? You can tell she’s lying.”

“And the twins,” James noted, barely moving his face. “They’ll just agree with anything she says, but you can tell they don’t really mean it!”

Sure enough, Enid and Ethel had identical frozen smiles.

Iggy smashed a cracker in each fist and dumped the pieces into her minestrone. “They’re boring, and so is all this sea monster business. There’s no way it’s real.”

Theo slumped in his chair. Keeping his face blank was tiring him out.

“Yeah,” Phil said, without moving any facial muscles. Olive hadn’t realized how expressive the Misfits usually were. “I can’t verify it. Chances are that what people claim to have seen is an oversized walrus. Or maybe a mutant whale?”

James’s eyebrows shot up. “A mutant whale?!”

Iggy pointed her soup spoon at him. “You lost!”

Olive, Theo, and Phil sighed and slumped over, finally able to relax now that the game was over.

“We don’t know that it’s not a sea monster,” James insisted, scowling.

Theo raised his hands as if surrendering. “Duuudes,” he said. “Maybe it is or maybe it isn’t, but let’s respect each other’s beliefs. Peace!”

When Theo raised his fingers to form peace signs, Iggy and James looked at each other, nodded, then began pelting him with Butter Bakery rolls. Theo laughed loudly and grabbed them out of the air. “Thank you!”

Olive smiled to herself. Before she came to RASCH, she used to hate eating alone in the school cafeteria. But here, she ate with friends. She looked around the dining hall. From what she could see, there were no loners on Foggy Island, although if someone needed space, the other students respected that.

It was weird. Before she met the other Misfits, Olive thought she was a loner. It wasn’t until she met her friends that she realized she had been lonely but didn’t even know it.

As Iggy and James argued about whether UFOs and ghosts were real, an older RASCHer ran into the dining hall and up the main aisle. Olive watched as the girl bolted to the front of the room, stood on a chair, cupped her hands around her mouth, and yelled.

“IT’S BEEN CONFIRMED! The sea monster is real! It’s on video, and there are photos…and it’s terrifying!”

As the dining hall exploded into a wild rumpus, no one noticed that the Misfits were long gone—not that they noticed the Misfits were there to begin with.

Racing through the manor and into the Laundry Room, Olive, Phil, James, Theo, and Iggy found Monica and Modest glued to the TV in the faculty lounge. On the screen, an overly handsome reporter sporting a chiseled chin was standing at the pier, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Foggy Island behind him.

“There have been multiple sightings and photos of a sea monster in the San Francisco Bay,” the reporter was saying, breathless. “The Coast Guard is on alert and boaters are cautioned to be careful. Already, the creature is being compared to the Loch Ness Monster, who the locals nicknamed ‘Nessie.’ From the looks of it, there’s a sea monster in San Francisco too…and I’d say, Frannie lives!”

Olive and the others were speechless. They stared at each other in shock as Modest muted the TV.

Then James whispered reverently: “I knew it.”

11.

Carnival of Chaos

“The unknown is not to be feared, but embraced,” Olive’s grandmother had said wisely.

It had been the first time Olive tried boba tea, and she thought the globules of black chewy balls looked gross. But Mimi’s eyes had just twinkled with anticipation.

It took a while to get used to, but the drink was good, even if the globs were a little strange at first. Since then, Olive had tried all sorts of new foods, though she still refused to eat snails, which are considered a delicacy in some fancy restaurants.

These days, Olive relished exploring the unknown, foods and otherwise. The 360-degree view from the lighthouse revealed a bay crammed with boats trying to catch a glimpse of the sea monster. Olive was looking for the sea monster, too. She’d never seen one before.

“It’s wild!” Iggy said, gazing down. “Look at all those boats. There’s bound to be a crash!” She sounded hopeful.

“If there was a ‘something,’ it probably fled out of the bay once all those boats arrived,” Phil pointed out. “There’s nothing keeping it here.”

“Frannie,” James called out. Olive noticed that his fingers were crossed. “Frannie, are you there?”

“Frannie, Schmannie, Zannie,” Iggy sang, then asked playfully, “Why is this mythical creature so important to you?”

In less than half a heartbeat, James’s eyes flashed. “Why is this NOT important to you?” he shouted, fists clenched, eyes glaring. “Frannie is real, people believe in her, and she is so much more than a mythical creature. Frannie represents hope and imagination and humanity, and she could be in danger, and you have the nerve to laugh at that?!”

No one said a word. No one moved. It was Iggy who blinked first. “I…You know I was kidding, right? I mean, okay, maybe I hadn’t thought of it that way. Sometimes I joke when I’m not sure about things….”

Everyone knew that was as close to an “I’m sorry” as Iggy could muster.

James gave her an ever-so-slight nod of forgiveness.

While the others looked at Iggy, Olive observed James. He was still riled up, she could tell. Why was it so important to him that Iggy believed in Frannie? Olive was used to people not believing in her, like her teachers and classmates at her former school. Modest and Monica were the first adults, other than Mimi and her parents, who really took her seriously.

“You dweebs,” Phil said, breaking the tension. She tossed a Splatter Ball against one of the windows. Instantly, the surface turned navy blue and blocked out the view. Then she tapped on one of her rings to project an image. The Misfits gathered to watch the suave-looking news anchorman report, “It’s a carnival of chaos here! Our beloved San Francisco Bay is full of boaters. The curious, thrill seekers, and skeptics have descended upon the city, all in search of the same thing: San Francisco’s sea monster, Frannie!”

A bunch of photos and amateur videos came up, revealing what looked like a cross between a narwhal, elephant, and dragon.

“Since Frannie’s initial sightings yesterday,” the reporter went on, “she has not been seen again. But we’re hoping our own Loch Ness Monster will be found soon!”

“Those photos and videos look fake,” Iggy said, then clapped her hands over her mouth when James looked at her.

“It’s okay to be skeptical,” he conceded. “But open-minded, too. We are here to find the truth.”

Phil nodded. “Odds are it’s a fake. It’s easy to manipulate that sort of thing, but I’ll look at the time stamps and see if there’s a connection.”

Theo pushed his hair to the side. “Can you play the montage segment again?”

Phil replayed the compilation in slow motion. They could make out a large head rising in the water, eyes wide with what resembled a crown on its head.

“It looks scared,” James said.

Theo leaned forward. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Those things on its head look like crests that some dinosaurs had. Maybe it’s a dino?”

The creature was surfacing for brief intervals before going beneath the water again. To Olive, it seemed like it was looking for something. “For research’s sake, say this footage is real. How big would you guess Frannie is?”

Everyone turned to Iggy, who said, “Can you freeze the clearest image?” When Phil did, Iggy took it in as if memorizing the scene. She closed her eyes. “Okay. Based on the boat in the foreground, and Foggy Island in the distance, I’d say what we’re looking at is approximately sixteen feet long? But I’d have to study all the photos and footage to really get a good idea of whatever this thing is supposed to be. We’re only seeing the top of the creature.”

“Hey!” Theo lit up. “There are storms all over the world—typhoons, hurricanes, severe tropical cyclones. Maybe the sea monster is from another ocean but got swept away and ended up here. This has got to be a first for the West Coast.”

James shook his head. “No, not really. There was a San Francisco Bay Monster that some say looked like a giant plesiosaur from prehistoric times. The first sighting was in 1931, on an overcast night….” When he was sure he had everyone’s attention, James went on. “Two brothers were boating when they saw what they thought was a huge sea lion. Only, when the creature came closer, its neck rose ten feet out of the water!”

Olive shivered and Theo started wheezing, stopping only when Phil patted him on the back.

“Go on,” Iggy urged.

“That’s it,” James said matter-of-factly. “The brothers paddled to safety. That was the first and last reported San Francisco Bay Monster sighting. Legend has it that if you go out at night on a blue moon, you can see the creature’s shadow.”

“What’s a blue moon?” Phil asked.

“It’s not literally blue.” Theo coughed, then cleared his throat. “Though it can sometimes look that way. In a month that happens to have two full moons, a blue moon is the second full moon.”

“When’s the next one?” Iggy wanted to know.

Theo grinned. “Tomorrow!”

12.

The Blue Moon

The next morning before class, using pulleys and hoists and bungee cords, the Misfits were able to move some of Phil’s computer equipment from her Laundry Room workshop and quickly set up a Sea Monster Central in the lighthouse. The impossibly small space was even more cramped now, but at least from their vantage point at the top of the structure, they had an expansive view of the bay.

While Phil researched how to build mini submarines—“I’m assuming we will need one at some point”—Theo was busy charting a route to search for Frannie.

“It’ll be tricky since so many boats are crowding the water,” he said, nodding toward the congestion. “Hopefully there will be less traffic at night.”

“If we’re in subs, we’ll be underwater,” Iggy pointed out.

James looked up from his book, Famous Sea Creatures: 1800 to the Present. “The law says you have to be sixteen years old to get a California Boater Card.”

“The law also says it’s illegal to break into a museum and camp inside it overnight, which you’ve done,” Iggy was quick to remind him.

They were both right. “I’m sure there’s a way we can work around the rules,” Olive assured James. Working around the rules was something she had always been good at.

“Shouldn’t we tell Modest and Monica about our investigation?” he asked, loosening his bow tie. Today’s was a jaunty green-and-orange plaid.

“Hmm…maybe not yet,” Olive suggested. “Let’s gather more information first.”

By the time evening rolled around, the sky was thick with clouds. In true Foggy Island fashion, fog lingered on the front lawn, and Foggy Manor quickly faded behind Olive as she rushed toward the sound of waves lapping the shore.

When Olive spotted the RASCH rowboat that they’d agreed to “borrow,” her body tensed. It was the same one the Misfits had used to rescue her back when she almost drowned, near the beginning of the school year.

She slowed, gritted her teeth, and walked bravely forward until she spied what appeared to be a giant pretzel in the rowboat. It was Theo doing one of his yoga poses. He had been trying to get the other Misfits into yoga for months but was met with resistance.

“It will help relax you,” he had urged Iggy.

“I DON’T NEED TO RELAX,” she yelled, balling her fists. “I’M ALREADY RELAXED.”

The other Misfits were waiting, and the rowboat gently rocked as they boarded. Olive scooched next to Iggy, who was the strongest swimmer of the group. Though she wasn’t planning on falling into the sea, Olive put on her nose clamp just in case and adjusted her FoggyGogs, which were also designed to be swim goggles.

Phil held up a bunch of small envelopes. “Float coats! These are the new NOCK-sanctioned life jackets. If they get submerged, they’ll automatically inflate.”

Olive made sure hers was strapped on as James rowed the boat away from the dock. The farther they rowed, the more the fog lifted, and by the time they reached open water, they could see the city lights twinkling in the distance. They were far from alone out on the inky-black waters that night, and when an occasional boat neared, Iggy blinked their lights as a warning, and the other boat blinked its lights back.

“The moon doesn’t look blue.” Phil pointed to what looked like a blurry tennis ball floating in the sky.

“Shh.” James brought a finger to his lips. “We don’t want to scare Frannie away.”

“What do we do if we actually find the creature?” Olive said.

“We document it,” Phil answered.

“We report it to the Marine Mammal Protection Agency,” James said.

“We make sure it’s not in danger,” Theo suggested.

“We confirm that it’s real, because it could be a hoax,” Iggy said. She paused, then added almost defensively, “Well, it could be.”

“Frannie, are you there?” James whispered to the water.

“I’m here….” a high-pitched voice answered.

James startled for a moment, until Iggy broke out laughing behind him.

“It’s me, Frannie, the sea monster!” she teased as James shoved her, causing the boat to rock.

Olive gripped the side of the boat and wondered how deep the water was.

“Shh!” Phil raised her hand. “Listen! Do you hear that?”

Instantly, they all went quiet. A wailing call skirted across the water, and every one of their heads swiveled in the same direction at the same time, like a K-pop band.

“That way,” Theo said, looking back toward Foggy Island.

“Row faster!” Iggy told James. “Here, let me do it!”

As the two fought over the oars, Phil pulled out something small and mechanical from her fanny pack. It looked like an old-fashioned alarm clock. Quickly, she attached it to the back of the rowboat, and soon they were motoring toward RASCH, until—

“Stop!” Olive shouted.

Phil cut the motor, leaving the rowboat rocking in the waves as the Misfits stared at Foggy Island in the distance. Now the fog had returned and was starting to settle in around them, making it hard to see again. But under the light of the fuzzy, ever-so-slightly bluish moon, a smoky figure appeared to be rising above the island….

“It’s a ghost!” James yelled, jumping up.

“Sit down! It’s not a ghost,” Iggy said, pulling him back down as Olive tried not to panic. “You’re rocking the boat!”

“What else could it be!” James insisted.

“Quick—back to RASCH!” Theo said as Phil adjusted the engine. “Maybe we can see it up close.”

13.

Sea Monster Mania

The fog was as thick as cream of mushroom soup, but without the mushrooms. With their FoggyGogs on, the Misfits hastily docked the rowboat and rushed toward the Donut Trespass! zone.

“A clever ghost could easily hide in the mist,” James said, managing to run forward while looking back over his shoulder.

Though they searched high and low and sideways, any hint of an otherworldly apparition had dissipated, disappeared, or ditched the island entirely. Dejected, the Misfits trudged up the stairs of the lighthouse, arguing every step of the way.

“It was real—we saw it!” James said.

“It was just the clouds!” Iggy remarked.

“If it was real, where is it now?” Theo chimed in.

“What about the noise it made?” James insisted.

“What about Frannie…?” Theo trailed off.

Yes, what about Frannie? Olive wondered. Wasn’t Frannie the reason they ventured out during the blue moon? They weren’t any closer to finding her than when they first left the island, and there was still no sign of the ghosts. If there was something odd happening on Foggy Island, it was up to the Misfits to sort it out. After all, it was their home and the home base for their NOCK crew.

By the time they reached the top of the lighthouse, it was nearly midnight. Theo was having trouble keeping his eyes open, and Iggy didn’t even try to hide her yawns.

Phil looked over at Sea Monster Central, where the computers were still hard at work. “Incoming data!” she cried as one screen began to flash red.

“I’ll stay up with you,” Olive volunteered, while the others began to drop off, snooze, and snore.

Phil’s nose was practically pressed up against the computer. Finally, she sat up. “I’d venture that the sightings of Frannie are legitimate. I can’t find any link between the people who posted videos and photos. As far as I can tell, they aren’t even remotely connected.”

“So, it’s real, right?” James asked brightly.

Olive thought he was asleep.

Phil shook her head. “I can’t confirm that. But I can create a rendering based on what I’m seeing here.”

“How and why would someone even fake a sea monster?” James wanted to know.

“It would need to be someone who was very rich,” Olive suggested. “Who could pay off people to report sightings.”

“Or a TV show, or someone who’s pranking an entire city,” Phil ventured.

Based on the visual imagery collected from the posts of videos and photos, her rendering was starting to come to life. Slowly, an image of Frannie came into focus.

“Frannie lives,” Olive whispered, over Iggy’s and Theo’s snores.

The next morning, Phil projected her findings in the Laundry Room, and a miniature hologram of a sea monster floated in the air. All the Misfits, as well as Modest and Monica, tilted their heads back as they looked up toward the ceiling.

“It’s a compilation,” Phil explained. “I’m not sure of her coloring, or many of the details, but based on the sightings, this is as good a replication as we can get for now. Since all the images I have of Frannie are from above the water, I had to approximate what she might look like below.”

“It was my idea to add the double dorsal fins.” Theo pointed to the four sets of flippers that she used to paddle and swim.

“I approximated her size,” Iggy added.

Bee flew over and under and around the hologram while the NOCK instructors looked at each other, faces blank. Then, at the same time, they both broke out in grins.

“Frannie!” Modest yelled, launching into an impromptu dance that involved swimming moves and high leaps.

“Are you proposing something?” Monica asked, still mesmerized by the hologram.

“Sea monster mania has swept San Francisco and beyond,” Olive began as Phil projected images of the heckling skeptics and the Find Frannie activists. “If we unravel the mystery of whether or not she’s real, we can help calm the city and bring some answers to all the questions.”

Modest cleared his throat. Then, ever so slowly, a strange look spread across his face that told the Misfits a story was about to start.

In barely a whisper, Modest said, “Sea monsters! Let me tell you about the creatures who haunt the depths of the ocean!”

Immediately, the sounds of waves and the squawks of seagulls filled the Laundry Room. Olive looked to see if the windows had blown open, but they were shut tight. It was Monica, creating sound effects with her mouth as Modest spoke….

“Legend has it that as far back as 1200 AD, a fierce and ferocious sea monster with a giant head and eight arms ruled the Norwegian seas.”

He scrunched up his face and began waving his arms so fast that it looked like he had four on each side.

“This giant scary creature was known as…”

Monica began flicking the lights off and on, and wailing, “Oooooh…”

A chill ran through Olive.

“THE KRAKEN!” Modest yelled so loudly that the Misfits flinched.

“Kraken, kraken, kraken,” Monica echoed, sneaking up behind them and whispering ominously in their ears. “Kraken.”

Modest menacingly sailed through the room, pausing to jerk his head around and bare his teeth.

Monica stepped in. “Destroyer of ships, killer of sailors, and later the name of a hockey team, the kraken was said to be up to fifty feet long, the size of two and a half giraffes. Could it have made its way to the San Francisco Bay?”

The Misfits sat transfixed as Modest whirled and twirled, waving his arms.

“Yes!” Monica answered herself. “Anything is possible!”

Modest abruptly stopped and struck a menacing pose. Everyone burst out cheering and applauding.

“Wowza!” Theo gushed. “That was amazing.”

“Okay!” James said. “By delving into this, we can help put the kraken and other sea monster rumors to rest. It’s possible it’s a rare oarfish, also known as Doomsday fish—they can be longer than BoBu!”

Once again, Olive admired how well-spoken he was. Even though James was the youngest Misfit as a result of skipping a couple grades, he was by far the most mature. Well, it was between him and Phil. It might be a tie.

Theo nodded, his bushy hair bouncing up and down. “Totally. If the creature is real, we need to keep it safe.”

“But if it’s an elaborate hoax,” Iggy was quick to add, “we’ll bring that to light and shut down the chaos circus.”

Monica’s face was unreadable when she turned to Modest. Tapping his fingers on his chin, he said, “Let’s run this past NOCK. We can also see if Police Chief Ruby Lopez is open to a bit of Misfits assistance.”

Olive and the other Misfits put their hands up and crossed their fingers.

14.

Odious

The Misfits waited all afternoon to hear back from NOCK. Only Theo possessed the virtue of patience, displaying this by kicking back with the Meggie & Her Fun Family comic book that Olive passed along to him. The others, despite their stellar skills, could not master mellow and were in constant motion, trying to tamp down their nerves. Iggy paced the Laundry Room using two small bronze statues as dumbbells. Phil tinkered with some new inventions, causing a flurry of inconvenient minor explosions. And James scuttled up and down ladders on their floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in search of sea creature books.

Olive was swinging upside down from the ceiling via the aerial silks Monica had installed for her. She stopped only to give Queenie a couple of snuggles before the butterscotch cat disappeared again by taking a flying leap onto the open window ledge. Though Queenie was the school cat, Olive kind of felt that the two of them belonged to each other, having bonded during a near-death catastrophe together.

From the purple squishy beanbag chair, Theo called out, “Hives?”

Oops. Olive realized that she hadn’t been wearing FoggyGogs or nose clamps around Queenie! She brought her hand to her cheek and felt the itchy bumps starting to appear on her skin. Suddenly, she sneezed so violently that her eyes watered. Her cat allergies had struck again.

Silently, Phil tossed her a bottle of the herbal allergy relief they bought at KittyKon while on another mission. The sneezing ceased immediately after she took it…and Olive felt drowsy as she slowly slipped down the aerial silks and onto the ornate Persian rug.

Olive awoke with her face planted on wool carpet just in time to hear Iggy shout, “That’s a plan!” as the other Misfits gave each other high fives.

“What’s a plan?” Olive asked, blinking. Her mouth felt dry.

James turned to her, excited. “Monica says that Operation Frannie is now an official NOCK assignment!”

Suddenly, Olive was wide awake.

The Misfits agreed that their first stop would be to gather information in the city.

By the time they made it onto BoBu, the bay was more crowded than ever. Several ships were flying Frannie flags, and everyone seemed to have the same black binoculars as they searched for the elusive sea monster.

“Bay’s full of annoying boats just bobbing up and down and not going anywhere,” Yash complained as she barreled BoBu straight toward one. She swerved at the last minute, causing the boaters to scream and Yash to chuckle when one person dove into the water.

When they made it to shore, the pier was packed with people and the press, all with strong opinions about Frannie. One reporter was interviewing a crew of “Nessie Believers” who had come from Loch Ness in support of “Frannie, wee sister of Nessie!”

The Misfits thanked Yash for the ride, then headed straight toward the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. At the wharf, self-proclaimed “experts” were perched on ladders arguing over whether Frannie was real. Several people who claimed to have seen her were selling photos, and one artist had created a twelve-foot painting of a ferocious sea monster and charged people ten dollars to take a photo in front of it.

“Looks nothing like your hologram,” Theo said. They were being jostled by the crowds, so were communicating with their ComChoms.

Phil shrugged. “Mine was created from a cross-section of sources, and all of those were blurry, but it’s a start.”

As they headed inland, the crowds and congestion on the streets were worse than Olive’s stuffed-up nose during a strong allergy attack. At last, she perked up when Ripley’s Believe It or Not! was in sight. The Misfits waited forever to get in, ignoring Iggy’s suggestion that they sneak in through the back.

Once they made it to the lobby, they spotted a museum guide. “Welcome!” he said warmly.

“Damien!” they chorused. All the Misfits knew Damien and adored him. He worked at several museums and always made time for them when they were in the city for NOCK assignments disguised as school projects.

Damien motioned to the packed lobby. “You here because of Frannie?”

“Why would you think that?” James asked cautiously.

“Everyone else is! Show yourselves around, but call if you need me.”

The Misfits nodded, then immediately made their way to the most crowded part of the museum. The Frannie sighting had stoked interest in the Amazing Creatures of the Deep exhibit, and several people were even dressed as sea monsters. It was hard to tell if they were part of the exhibit or just masquerading for fun, as RASCHers sometimes did.

At the exhibit, visitors around the Misfits seemed split over whether the depictions of sea serpents and swimming dinosaurs were real or fake. At one point a shouting match turned into a shoving match, and Damien was forced to break it up.

James pointed to a display of a mythical sea serpent. “These were the dragons of the ocean.”

“Aha!” Iggy pressed her lips together, barely hiding a smug grin. “So, you admit that sea monsters are fake!”

James looked bored. “Not in the least. Many of the mythical sea monsters were sightings of giant squid and other sea life.”

“So, now you’re saying Frannie is a squid?” Iggy pressed.

James braced himself. “I’m saying that Frannie could be mistaken for something else, or maybe has been unidentified. It would be arrogant of us to think we know everything about the ocean and its creatures.”

“That’s ironic coming from you,” Iggy said.

“A smart person can entertain two opposing thoughts at once!” James shot back. “But you wouldn’t know about that.”

Olive and Phil sighed as James and Iggy started bickering again. It was as if they forgot the truce they made days before. Bravely, Theo wedged in between them and said with the exaggerated cheeriness of the lady in the laundry detergent commercial who just got out a stubborn stain, “Time for our next stop!”

They exited the museum and made their way toward quieter streets before finally turning down a dark corner and through a deserted alley where Vana was waiting, engine humming.

“Here we go,” Phil said, as everyone climbed into the van.

Out of the city and down the scenic coast, Marine World awaited. Part theme park, part oceanarium, part aquarium, the sprawling amusement complex on prime property overlooked the ocean. For a high price, you could see dolphins perform, interact with penguins, or just admire the marine life in large aquariums. And for an even bigger price, you could swim with a dolphin and get a souvenir video for a “minimal additional fee.”

“Isn’t this place owned by Oscar Odion?” Theo asked, looking like he had just bitten into a lemon.

“Oscar ‘Odious’ Odion,” James said, spitting out the name. “The fourth-richest person on the planet, and the only people with more money than him are his mother, father, and sister. Only, unlike Odious, they shun the spotlight and actually donate to good causes.”

“I’ve heard that he loves his nickname.” Olive recalled her pre-RASCH days when she was called rude names on a regular basis. “Who enjoys being insulted like that?”

“Someone who’s so bad that they feel it’s a badge of honor,” Iggy said. “He owns that podcast called Pompous.”

“When you’re mega-rich, nothing really fazes you,” James said. “Odious is a self-centered billionaire who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. He bought Marine World when it was a research facility and then turned it into a theme park.”

Theo, who was usually in a good mood, said through gritted teeth, “He also has his own personal exotic animal zoo filled with wildlife that’s illegal to privately own. He calls it OOZOO, for Oscar Odion Zoo.”

“According to the Marine World website, they still have an oceanic research staff,” Phil informed the others. “James and I thought it might be worth it to ask them their thoughts about Frannie.”

Olive always thought Marine World sounded fun, but now she wasn’t so sure. She had never really considered the sea creatures who were kept there—and if the place was owned by a man nicknamed Odious, chances were it wouldn’t be good.

15.

$999,999.99

As the Misfits strolled into the theme park, employees dressed as cheery sea animals waved to them with their fins, tentacles, and claws. Olive started to return their waves, but stopped abruptly, holding her arms out to hold the others back.

“Watch out!” she yelled as a whale barreled toward them. It was moving fast, considering there was a human inside the oversized padded costume.

Instinctively, the Misfits assembled in fight formation.

But before it reached them, the whale tripped on its tail and tumbled to the ground. As it flopped around, a familiar voice called out, “Hey, kids! It’s me, Wally the Whale!” There was a pause, and then the person inside the whale costume added, “It’s really Rance Reed!”

“Rance Reed!” James lit up and lowered his fists.

“Rance Reed!” the others cried as they stashed their Boomerang Bang, Snooze Vapors, and other gadgets in their fanny packs, then helped him up.

Rance Reed was the friendly, underemployed actor they had first met—and accidentally had arrested—on Foggy Island. Now, whenever the Misfits needed an adult for cover, Rance Reed was hired to play a role and told that he was part of a reality TV show with hidden cameras. This strategy kept him from learning the truth about NOCK.

“What are you doing here?” Theo asked, holding him steady.

“Working!” Rance Reed’s voice echoed inside the costume. He struck several impressive whale poses. “I’m just about to head to my break. Want to join me?”

“Sure!” James said, speaking for all of them. Without hesitation, the Misfits followed Rance Reed toward an employees-only area. They loved being in places where they weren’t supposed to be.

Once they were through the door, Rance Reed struggled to remove the Wally the Whale head, revealing his familiar ginger hair and beard. “Gotta rest for a spell. It gets hot in there!” He attempted to take a seat on the bench but slipped right off. Clearly, his costume was not designed for sitting. “It’s been extra busy around here since Odious, the boss man, started showing up all of a sudden.”

The Misfits perked up at the mention of Odious.

“Does he come to watch the shows?” Theo asked, feigning confusion. “I didn’t know he was a sea-life fan.”

Rance Reed scoffed. “No, he’s never even seen me on the stage with the seals. He goes straight to SMURF.”

“SMURF?” Olive repeated, unsure if she had heard correctly.

“S-M-U-R-F,” he tried to clarify. “It stands for Secret Marine Unexplainable Research…something. Maybe, Food?”

“Facility?” Phil suggested.

Rance Reed’s eyes lit up. “Yes, that’s it! It’s Odious’s private research facility. There’s been a lot of action going on there!”

“Can you please be so kind as to take us to SMURF?” Iggy asked sweetly. Her smile was so big that it looked like she was in pain. “Or maybe you could at least tell us about it?” she said, ignoring James, who was trying not to laugh at her attempt to be charming.

“Nope.” Rance Reed attempted to sit on the bench again, but rolled off and onto the ground. “I’ve probably said too much as it is,” he continued as Theo and James hoisted him to a standing position.

Iggy helped him put his whale head back on. From inside he could be heard griping, “Odious is so arrogant that employees aren’t supposed to look at him, much less talk about him.”

Wally the Whale pointed a dorsal fin at someone on the opposite side of the employees-only area. “If you want to see SMURF, that’s who you should be asking. She’s the marine biologist in charge.”

The sturdy build, friendly face, and hair in dark brown corkscrew curls looked familiar—it was Professor Howser!

“That’s the scientist who came to Foggy Island to investigate the ghost,” Theo said brightly. “I remember her. She’s from the Caribbean!”

“The non-ghost,” Iggy corrected him. “No ghost was ever found. How do you know where she’s from? Did you talk to her?”

Theo shook his head. “I could tell from her accent.” Of all the Misfits, he spoke the most languages and could tell a lot about a person just by listening to them talk.

Rance Reed clapped his whale fins. “Kiddos, I gotta go, I star in the Silly Nilly Wally the Whale Show! You can see yourselves out?”

“Good to see you, Rance Reed!” Phil said as Rance toddled toward the door.

They waited until he was gone before Olive waved and called out, “Professor Howser? It’s me, Olive, from Foggy Island and RASCH.”

Fable Howser looked up from her notebook, surprised. “This area is off-limits,” she warned, glancing around nervously. “What are you doing here?”

Iggy’s lower lip began to quiver. “We’re lost! We just wanted to see the baby dolphin.”

James picked up on the ploy. He nodded as his eyes welled up with tears. “We’re not in trouble, are we?”

Fable’s face softened. “You’re on the wrong side of the theme park for that. You kids really shouldn’t be here.”

Olive saw her opening. “Well, now that we are, can I ask—”

“Do you believe that Frannie is real?” James blurted out.

Fable closed her notebook and tucked it away. “The ocean covers seventy percent of Earth’s surface, and we’ve only explored five percent of that. Which means—”

“Ninety-five percent of the ocean is still unknown,” Theo jumped in, finishing her sentence.

Fable looked pleased. “That’s right!”

Before Olive could ask about SMURF, a young man in a white lab coat ran up to them. “Professor Howser! I have Oscar Odion on the phone for you in your office. He says it’s urgent!”

Olive thought she saw a flicker of panic cross Fable’s face. Or was it fear?

“It was nice to see you again,” Fable said as she jogged toward her office. “But it’s time for you kids to leave.”

“Thanks for chatting, Professor,” James called out after her. “Hope to see you again sometime!”

As they exited, Phil bumped into Theo. “Oh, sorry!” Her attention was on one of her computer rings. “Hey, let’s find someplace to sit and regroup,” she said. “I’ve got some interesting intel coming in, but need to confirm it.”

Olive was sipping a watermelon frozen slushy served in a mug shaped like a penguin. Spitting out her drink, she exclaimed, “$999,999.99?!”

“Hey!” Iggy yelled, looking down at her shirt.

“Sorry,” Olive apologized. “It’s just that…it’s a lot of nines for a reward.”

They were sitting in the Marine World stands watching the seals balance beach balls on their noses. Theo was doing the same thing, but with peanuts.

Phil handed over her napkin and Iggy wiped her shirt, making the stain worse. “He’s talking up the Frannie reward all over his Pompous podcast, and it’s trending on the news,” Phil said.

“Why would Odious even put that out there?” Theo wondered. “And why $999,999.99 and not just a million dollars?”

“One penny away from a million makes it memorable,” James figured. “If he captures Frannie, he gets attention. If he doesn’t, then the $999,999.99 will put him in news headlines no matter what.”

Olive had to admit that as odious as he was, the billionaire was smart. “Why does he even want Frannie?”

James’s face clouded with concern. They all fell silent.

A clown pushing a wheelbarrow of penguins ran on stage. Rance Reed winked and waved to the Misfits, then tripped over his oversized clown shoes. The audience roared with laughter.

“This is so wrong!” Theo protested. “Animals shouldn’t be put on display for entertainment.”

“Maybe they like it,” Iggy said.

Theo’s calm face grew tense. “Maybe they don’t,” he shot back, and Iggy shut her mouth.

An alarm went off on one of Phil’s rings, breaking up the awkward silence. “Misfits,” she said, “time to go to our next stop.”

Quickly, they left Marine World and headed to Golden Gate Park.

Unsurprisingly, the park was packed when they arrived. It seemed even more people were trying to watch the bay now that Odious had announced his huge Frannie reward.

As Vana pulled up to the parking lot, they spotted the Skeptics Society under a huge white tent, where George Hinky was wearing his badly fitted tweed suit and waving an unlit pipe in the air. A splashy banner above him read: Frannie Is Fake!

Standing on a rickety platform, George Hinky thundered, “From the Loch Ness Monster to Bigfoot to the Tree-Dwelling Octopus, and now an elusive sea monster nicknamed Frannie? I think not!”

Many in the audience cheered, though an equal number booed.

“Where is the proof?!” George Hinky’s cheeks puffed up like two red balloons. “Show me a real sea monster, not some grainy photos! Show me a real sea monster, not some doctored video! Show me a real sea monster, not some—”

“Hot air?” James quipped into his ComChom. Even Iggy laughed at this.

Their next stop was at the Frannie Fan Club meeting, led by a small woman with a big personality. Pollyanna Matsuko’s gray hair was fashioned in a bun that sat lopsided on the top of her head. She wore a colorful tie-dyed shirt under denim overalls, and had a warm, wide smile. Many attendees were decked out in “Frannie Lives” T-shirts, and they all nodded when Pollyanna tapped her chest and said, “I can feel it in my heart…. Frannie lives!”

At once, almost everyone put their hands over their hearts, including James. A long round of applause followed and several people waved Odious’s flyers featuring a picture of him and Frannie, with the headline “$999,999.99 REWARD!”

Iggy picked up a flyer off the ground and studied it. “You’d think with all his money, he could afford a better haircut.”

Pollyanna concluded her passionate speech with, “Maybe it’s time to confront those skeptics!”

“Uh-oh,” Theo said as the crowd streamed toward the white San Francisco Skeptics Society tent, chanting, “Frannie lives! Frannie lives!”

“I’d better call this in to the police chief,” Phil said, chomping three times.

As the opposing sides met, there was a whole lot of yelling. Meanwhile, the Misfits kept an eye on Pollyanna as she strode up to George Hinky. They were befuddled when the two rivals greeted each other warmly and walked together toward the corn dog booth, deep in discussion.

“Strange,” Iggy said.

“Yes, you are,” James agreed, then started laughing when she chased him through the crowd.

The chaos began to wane as evening approached, and the setting sun left behind a beautiful purple-and-orange glow that illuminated the Golden Gate Bridge.

As the Misfits headed to the dock, Phil warned, “It’s only going to get worse with Odious’s new reward.”

The others nodded solemnly—except for Theo, who was staring out at the ocean.

“The whales are at it again,” he said.

“At what?” Olive asked.

“Their swimming patterns are weird. Look.” He handed her his binoculars. “Sometimes when they gather like that, it’s called ‘mobbing.’ They do it to harass predators and protect their families. I wonder if this has anything to do with Frannie….”

Olive thought of her friends. Though the Misfits weren’t related by birth, they had become a tight family. And, like the whales, even though Iggy and James, and sometimes the others, didn’t always agree, they always looked out for each other, no matter what.

16.

NOCK’s New Creature Division

The next morning’s dance and defense lessons were challenging and fun, as always. With an overabundance of exuberance, Modest was demonstrating Irish step dancing in the gymkhana. His upper body was perfectly still while his legs and feet moved so quickly you could barely see them.

Lined up, the Misfits did their best at doing the same, with mixed results.

“Let’s try again, only double speed!” Modest shouted gleefully. “Watch me and follow along.”

Once again, Monica placed the needle on the record player.

“Get ready…” Modest boomed, raising both hands above his head.

Olive saw Phil’s shoulders slump slightly. No matter how many times she had saved the day, Phil was still insecure about her coordination and physical abilities.

But then, one of her rings flashed, and Phil jumped up higher than even Modest.

“ALERT!” she shouted, startling everyone, including herself. “I have my computer rings set to a Frannie alert…and Frannie has been caught!”

The group gasp practically sucked all the air out of the room.

In an instant, Phil projected the news onto a nearby wall. The newscaster with the swoopy hairdo was reporting from a motorboat.

“This is an SFTV exclusive! The San Francisco sea monster known as Frannie has been caught,” he said excitedly as the ocean spray smacked him in the face. Removing a starfish that had stuck to his forehead, the newsman went on. “We received an anonymous phone call about the capture of this dangerous sea monster. It may still be alive, so we are staying a safe distance away.”

The camera panned away from the reporter and toward a barge chugging toward land, towing something large behind it. It looked like the images people had posted of Frannie…and Frannie wasn’t moving.

Olive covered her mouth. Phil let a small gasp escape, and James cried, “Oh no!”

But then Theo yelled, “Wait—look closer!”

It wasn’t Frannie after all. Instead, it was a poorly made imitation of a sea monster, cobbled together with chicken wire, plastic tarp, and rope, with beach balls for eyes—and it was falling apart in front of the cameras.

Iggy started laughing so hard, she held her stomach and doubled over before rolling on the floor.

“It did look a little real, just for a teeny tiny moment,” Modest admitted, “from a distance. It had scary eyes.”

“That thing has no DNA,” Monica said. “If the real creature is captured and its DNA doesn’t match anything in our database, that would mean a new species has been discovered. Should that happen, we’d immediately report it to NOCK’s New Creature Division.”

Theo’s face lit up. “NOCK has a New Creature Division?”

With an arch of an eyebrow, Monica managed to look mysterious and excited at the same time. “There is much about NOCK that you don’t know.”

“We don’t even know most things about NOCK,” Modest said sheepishly.

“To answer your question, Theo, yes,” Monica confirmed. “There’s a New Creature Division, but it’s brand-new.”

“In the meantime, Frannie is still out there.” To everyone’s delight, Modest began doing his kraken interpretation again. “Wouldn’t that be cool?” he said in a gravelly voice. “If we were part of the discovery of a legendary sea creature?”

17.

Something’s Fishy

“And here I thought we had a reprieve.” Ruby Lopez was striding purposefully around the Laundry Room. As tall as Modest, but probably half his weight, it didn’t take her long to get from one end of the room to the other, where a platter of Poppy’s mini muffins beckoned.

“May I?” the police chief asked as she held up a blueberry muffin with a lemon sugar drizzle.

Monica and Modest nodded in sync. As Ruby ate, she addressed the rest of the room, ignoring the crumbs. “Something’s fishy about this sea monster business. People are flocking to the Bay Area, and the city is starting to swell up, causing a crowd control situation. Plus, Odious—er, Oscar Odion—has announced on Pompous that he’s pulled the reward off the table.”

“He’s not offering $999,999.99 anymore?” James sounded suspicious.

“No more reward is a good thing, right?” Phil asked, rubbing her eyes. She had been up late working on new gadgets.

“Not sure. Could be Odious captured Frannie.” Ruby reached for another mini muffin. “I had a talk with the billionaire hoo-ha himself just a couple days ago.” It was hard to understand her until she finished chewing. “Told him that according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, it is illegal to kill, hunt, or harass all species of marine mammals, regardless of their population status. So, if there was only one Frannie, or one hundred Frannies, or even a wayward walrus, Mr. Oscar Odion would have to stay away or risk breaking the law.”

Monica triple punched the air. “Like that would stop that entitled bully from anything! He breaks the law every ten minutes, then he has his teams of lawyers clean up his mess.”

“Odious acted quite graciously,” Ruby Lopez reported with an excess of snark. “Said he only wanted to gaze at Frannie, should she be real. Then he offered to help us with crowd control and the chaos that’s cropped up around the sea monster.”

“Misfits.” Monica narrowed her eyes. “The case is heating up. If Odious does have Frannie, he’s breaking the law. But this time, we’re not going to let him get away with it.”

Theo ran his hands through his hair. “I’ll bet it wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart that he agreed to stop looking for Frannie.”

“I’ll bet he already has her,” Olive guessed. “That’s why he’s not offering the reward anymore…he probably already paid it!”

Iggy groaned. “Okay, okay, you may be on to something. On the off chance he does have her, I’ll bet we all know where she’s being kept captive!”

That afternoon, after lunch, Modest pulled Olive aside. “I’ve got a lead on a swimming pool we can use for lessons,” he said in a hushed whisper. “I’m still working out the details, but didn’t want you to think I forgot.”

Olive thanked him, though part of her wished he hadn’t remembered. Right now, swimming lessons were the least of her worries. With all the Frannie business, she hadn’t even told anyone that she and Queenie saw another ghostly figure in the Donut Trespass! area. Or did they?

As for Frannie, Theo kept reminding the others that the sooner captured animals are released back into the wild, the better chance they have for survival.

“Our job as NOCK secret operatives is to help prevent chaos, assist in catching lawbreakers, and protect the citizenry. I interpret that as animals, too,” Theo said passionately. He waved his arms around for emphasis, but only succeeded in looking like he was doing one of Modest’s modern dances. “We are all citizens of this planet, including Frannie!”

“Attention, class!” Monica was doing spider-crawl deep leg lunges back and forth across the Laundry Room. “Today’s lesson is a competition.”

Olive and the others stood at rapt attention in front of their SUCCESS Simulators. SUCCESS stood for Speed, Unity, Confidence, Creativity, Endurance, Strength, and Smarts, something every Misfit strove for.

“Your goal is to come back alive,” Monica said, now standing upright. “It’s either you or your adversaries. You must learn to trust yourself. One, two, three…go!”

Olive pulled the curtain back on her kiosk and entered the familiar space. It was like being in a high-tech photo booth, only instead of taking your picture, images surrounded you, top to bottom. Sounds and smells were piped in, too.

From her simulator Olive could hear the other Misfits shouting. Suddenly hers began to shake, and before long, Olive was shouting, too.

Ninety minutes later, she staggered out, her usually messy hair even messier. Iggy and Phil were sprawled out over chairs, and Theo was curled up in a ball in the corner.

“THAT was a hard one!” Olive said, stating the obvious. “The raptors almost ate me. Who was the first one out?”

Phil raised her hand. “I figured that short of time travel, the dinosaurs couldn’t be real, so it was just a matter of disabling their joint access structure, which didn’t take long.”

“Didn’t take long for you,” Iggy said flatly.

Unrolling himself, Theo chimed in, “I didn’t want to hurt the dinos, even though clearly they wouldn’t have minded making a meal out of me. To escape to the Safety Zone, I decided to give them an alternate meal and scavenged for cycads, ginkgoes, and ferns.”

“Where’s James?” Olive asked, looking around. Usually, he was the first one done.

Phil motioned to the lone kiosk that was still aglow and shaking from side to side.

“Okay, okay.” Iggy got up slowly. “Let’s go rescue the kid.”

It wasn’t considered cheating if one Misfit helped another in the SUCCESS Simulator, on a test, or in life.

“Teamwork,” Modest would insist, jumping on a desk, trampoline, or whatever was nearby that could hold his 275-pound ballet dancer–bodybuilder frame, “is what we are all about.”

“True that!” Monica would chime in. “That’s how we met. I battled three World’s Most Wanted criminals at the same time and saved his life during a particularly dangerous mission.”

With all the Misfits in their assigned kiosks, they logged in, asking permission to join James, which he instantly accepted. Olive was surprised to discover him surrounded by fire-breathing dragons. They looked real, and they looked angry.

Via a simulator merge, Iggy put herself right next to James, and tossed a sword to him while still gripping her own. As they battled the dragons, Phil located the power source for their fire, and Theo set up a distraction, creating a giant white rabbit that Olive controlled using a software program she accessed called Big Bunny. With the dragons’ fire extinguished and the rabbit distraction working, they retreated into the woodlands, giving Iggy and James time to escape.

The Misfits all pulled back the curtains of their simulators at the same time and exited. “Thanks, you guys.” James sounded sincere. “Bank robbers, avalanches, crimes of the century, I can handle. But I’ve never faced a quad of dragons in the kiosk before.”

“We all had dinosaurs and mythical creatures, too,” Olive told him.

Phil looked down at her rings, and then projected the newscaster delivering an update from Fisherman’s Wharf.

“Another sea monster sighting has been reported….”

18.

Marine World

“It makes perfect sense that Frannie is there.” James adjusted his ocean waves bow tie as Vana sped toward Marine World. “He probably wants to add Frannie to OOZOO and make himself the envy of billionaire big shots around the world who collect not only art but rare animals, too.”

Olive looked over at Theo, who was frowning so hard she feared his face might crack.

“Odious tried to buy Buckingham Palace,” Iggy chimed in. “But the family living in it wouldn’t sell it.” She cracked her knuckles. “I say we send in a team led by me to scope out SMURF. Then, assuming we find Frannie, we rescue her.”

“Yeah, like it’ll be that easy,” James scoffed. “We just waltz in and carry her away.”

Theo spoke up. “Sea creatures are heavier than they look when they’re out of water. I say we mark this as an exploratory mission.”

All agreed, and Phil pulled up a miniature Frannie hologram for them to study as it floated around the van.

“She looks like the length of a beluga whale—about fourteen feet,” James noted. “How much would one of those weigh?”

“Maybe 2,100 pounds?” Theo said. He knew as much about nature as James did about ships and oceans, which was a lot.

Iggy examined the sea creature from all angles. “Yes, but Frannie is not a whale. Assuming her length is fourteen feet, but her diameter is twice that of a beluga, and adding extra poundage for the crowns and possible multiple dorsal fins…I’d estimate she weighs about 4,700 pounds.”

“We need to infiltrate SMURF and befriend Fable,” Olive said, thinking out loud. “If Frannie is there, she’d be the first to know.”

“How exactly do we do that?” Iggy asked.

“Algae! Seaweed!” Olive cried, remembering when she first met Fable. “When she was on Foggy Island, we talked about the island’s plants and their unique smell. That’s our in!”

When they arrived back at Marine World, the Misfits were ready. As usual, Phil was staying back to oversee Command Central.

“Take these,” she said, tossing each Misfit more of her newest gadgets, including a Bubble Cam. It looked like an orange gumball, but when submerged in water, the casing dissolved to reveal a camera, which Phil could operate remotely.

As they entered the theme park, digital billboards featuring Odious’s large head, with his arched eyebrows and signature pointy mustache, touted upcoming events like the “Sea Monster Costume Party!” “Synchronized Swimming Contest!” and “Penguin Playtime Experience.” Immediately, James and Theo headed to the Marine World show stages, while Iggy and Olive slipped into the employees-only area. Over her EarBuzz, Olive could hear Theo chatting with theme park workers: “So, hey! Anything weird going on lately?”

A woman’s voice came in. “Lately? Listen, kid, always is more like it! There’s always so much happening here that if you don’t check the schedule, you’re bound to mess up.”

“Schedule?” James was using his curious-little-kid voice. “I guess grown-ups must use those. Do you keep them in your pocket?”

“Pocket? No, honey.” The woman sounded amused. “They post them in the break rooms. Oops, gotta go soon. I’m Salty Sally in the See the Sea Seals show.”

“Why do the seals look so sad?” There was genuine concern in Theo’s voice.

The woman sighed. “Most of the mammals here have been in captivity for years. Some for their entire lives. They’re aging, and they do five shows a day, seven days a week. But at least they get fed every day!”

Even though she couldn’t see him, Olive knew that the seals being sad made Theo sad as well.

Before long, she and Iggy snuck through an employees-only door and walked out to the backstage area of Marine World that wasn’t open to guests. Away from buildings was a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire guarding a huge unmarked white domed building near the shore. Nearby was a smaller dome that looked brand-new. Heavy machinery sat by the boat dock, where a huge fishing vessel was parked. Iggy and Olive gave each other a silent nod when they saw that there were no signs or guards in sight.

A couple of people in white lab coats ran in and out of the building. “That’s got to be SMURF,” Iggy said into her ComChom. “I count three security cameras.”

“Tapping into them now,” Phil reported through their EarBuzzes. “Proceed with caution.”

As Olive and Iggy strolled toward SMURF, Phil’s voice came in again: “James has spotted Fable in the employee break room.”

“Heading there now,” Olive said, as she and Iggy backtracked.

With its folding tables and wobbly plastic chairs, the break room looked a bit like Olive’s old school’s cafeteria. Only, instead of motivational posters on the walls like Dream Big! and You Are Special! there were warnings like Don’t Be Late! and Sell, Sell, Sell!

Fable Howser was staring at a frozen burrito going around and around in the microwave. Her bouncy dark brown corkscrew curls were pulled back into a tight ponytail.

Over in a corner, James and Theo had somehow managed to change into Marine World uniforms. They sat eating pizza, heads down, trying not to attract attention. Iggy occupied another table, keeping an eye on the room.

“Professor Howser?” Olive said, approaching Fable. “Hi, it’s me again! Olive, from RASCH.”

Fable looked up from the burrito. “Olive, it’s nice to see you again, but as I told you before, this area is off-limits to guests.”

Olive checked out a nearby table, where a couple of kids were doing their homework. “I’m meeting my cousin who works here,” she said.

Fable relaxed. “Oh! Well, then.” The microwave buzzed.

“You’re a cryptozoologist, right?” Olive asked, as Fable reached for her lunch. “Is that where you look for mythical creatures, like the Loch Ness Monster and Frannie, the San Francisco sea monster?”

“I’m open to the possibility of discovering a previously unknown life. That’s why I was on Foggy Island. Those ghostly apparitions could have been caused by unique plants.” Fable bit into the burrito, then fanned her mouth. “I’d need to take an eDNA sample to confirm that, but I’m swamped here, and haven’t had a chance to look at the results yet.”

“What’s eDNA?” Olive asked.

Fable carried her burrito to an empty table, gesturing for Olive to sit. “It’s noninvasive and can detect a wide variety of marine life, including bacteria that may be on plants or vertebrates.”

“Come on over to Foggy Island anytime!” Olive said. “Or when you’re less swamped with—what did you say you were working on?”

Fable wiped her mouth with a napkin. For the first time since Olive met her, a giddy smile spread across Fable’s face. “I can’t say. And even if I could, there’s no way you would believe me…. I can’t even believe it myself!”

19.

Penguin Escape

“Her expressions pretty much confirmed it,” Olive said into her ComChom as she watched Iggy get up and follow Fable out of the break room. Immediately, James and Theo scarfed down the rest of their pizza, then snuck out a different door.

“Fable’s heading back to SMURF,” Iggy reported. “There’s a security guard checking credentials, so I can’t get in through the main entrance. Let’s meet at the Penguin Palace.”

Soon, the four Misfits were hurrying past penguins playing in a giant aquarium that looked like it could use a good cleaning. Wally the Whale was bounding toward them when he tripped—“Whooooa!”—and fell on his back.

Olive and the others promptly pivoted to head in the opposite direction, but not before seeing a little boy bouncing up and down on Wally the Whale’s stomach while his father took a video.

“We have the Marine World schedule,” James said as they gathered in a quiet corner of the exhibit. “Phil, I’m sending you a photo. This was posted on a bulletin board. Everything looks normal except for one day earlier this week. Clearly, something out of the ordinary was happening.”

“Got it,” Phil said from Command Central. “It’s weird that they haven’t computerized their schedules. Someone must not want a record of what’s going on.”

They waited in silence as Phil typed at light speed. Then she said, “Looking at this, I’m seeing lots of extra maintenance people. Plus, I’ve just pulled up footage from traffic videos that show multiple construction trucks were here on the same days.”

Theo tugged on his ill-fitting Marine World shirt. It didn’t help that he was wearing it inside out. “I’ll bet the construction workers weren’t coming here to see the penguins.”

Iggy stared at his uniform. A Marine World hat that resembled a dolphin rested atop Theo’s mop of hair. “Hey…” she said slowly, as if an idea was forming. “Where’d you get those ugly clothes?”

Fifteen minutes later, Olive and Iggy exited the employee locker room wearing matching Marine World outfits. Courtesy of the supplies they carried in their fanny packs, they had added extra layers of disguise. Iggy wore a sassy blond wig and heavy eyebrows that made her look startled, while Olive had a perky new nose, oversized tinted glasses, and lifts to add seven inches to her height. The stilt-walking lessons Mimi gave her were coming in handy. On their way toward the domed buildings, they swiped a couple of security passes that were hanging on a hook.

Striding purposefully, as if they were late for an important meeting, Olive and Iggy waved their security passes at the guard.

“Hey!” He raised his hand inches away from Iggy’s face. “Whoa, slow down, little ladies. I need to see if you’re on the list.”

Iggy grabbed the guard’s clipboard, stabbed it with her finger, and yelled, “We’re on the list! How many times do we have to go through this? I’m going to tell my uncle Oscar Odion that you’re being mean!”

Then she threw the clipboard over her shoulder, storming off as the befuddled guard yelled, “Sorry, I was just joking! Please don’t say anything to your uncle!”

Olive ran to keep up with her. “Was that necessary?”

Iggy shrugged. “Not sure if it was necessary, but it was fun!”

Nearing the giant dome, they slowed. There was a lot of commotion surrounding the building, with people running left and right, bumping into each other like second graders learning a square dance.

Iggy motioned to the large fishing vessel in the water. “That’s a trawler. James says they’re used for catching fish.”

“And maybe Frannies,” Olive said, her heart beginning to race.

Nearby, a tall crane and a big forklift sat empty. A large net was pooled on the ground. Iggy knelt and stared at the dirt. From the dock all the way to the smaller SMURF dome were deep grooves in the ground. “Probably from the forklift. Let’s follow the tracks.”

Soon, they found themselves at the brand-new dome. Its giant industrial steel door was designed to rise to let vehicles in. Only, it was padlocked, but there was a regular door right next to it. A security guard was leaning against it, talking on her phone. “Yeah, yeah, I have two more hours here. Gonna try to take a nap. I can sleep standing up, you know….”

Olive got on her ComChom. “James, Theo, we need a distraction. The plan is a go!”

“Copy that,” they said.

“I’ve got eyes on all of you,” Phil confirmed. “I’m deleting all streamed footage but watching live. Ready, set, go!”

Suddenly, the security guard’s walkie-talkie began to crackle. Through it, someone yelled, “All staff on site—that means YOU. Penguins on the loose!”

The guard abandoned her post and ran toward the Penguin Palace, where Theo and James had managed to release the birds.

“They’ll need the whole staff to herd them back into the tank,” Theo said, sounding jubilant.

With SMURF left unguarded, it didn’t take long for Iggy to crack the door’s keypad code by drilling a pinprick hole into the side, then using a titanium wire and manually overriding the system by picking the lock. Once inside, she and Olive split up to cover more ground.

“You have about eight minutes before security returns,” Phil said. “Stick to the plan, find Frannie, do a video confirmation, and get out!”

Given her task, Olive hurried down the unfamiliar corridors. The white hallways were blinding and smelled like chemicals and fresh paint. There were hammers and other tools strewn all over the floor.

After making two turns down empty hallways, Olive saw an unmarked door and pushed it open to find an office. Furniture was still wrapped in plastic, but there were heads mounted on the walls—deer, rhino, a large fish called a marlin, and a few animals she didn’t recognize.

On the desk was a computer with a commercial playing. A mesmerizing woman’s voice was narrating over scenes of ocean waves, “Welcome to Blue Wave Enterprise, an Oscar Odion Company.” A photo of Odious came up, his eyes glinting with greed. The voice went on, “As we continue to explore outer space, we are also colonizing and monetizing our planet—and most specifically, the ocean, where potential and profit are undeveloped. Led by our talented founder, Mr. Odion, we are your pathway to the future.”

The screen changed to the words “Insert video of sea monster here” as the woman’s voice intoned, “Meet Frannie, our Blue Wave mascot!”

Olive gasped. She leaned forward to see if there was more, but the video began to repeat.

“Olive, get over here, quick!” came Iggy’s shaky voice over her EarBuzz. “You’re not going to believe what I’m looking at.”

20.

Frannie

Olive stood stunned. She could hear Mimi’s words echoing: “The unknown is not to be feared, but embraced.”

In the absence of fear or hesitation, Olive felt awash in awe.

The room was almost empty except for an aquarium, and inside it was the real Frannie.

The sea creature’s body was bigger and rounder than Olive had imagined. Frannie was pale pink and smooth, and she had four large flippers. Five feathery green crests crowned her head. Her mouth was wide and her eyes were round and expressive. Olive clenched her hands together as her heart squeezed.

Frannie looked…sad.

Beside her, Iggy made a choked-up sound, tears streaming down her face.

“She’s not a monster.” Iggy’s words were caught in her throat. “Frannie is beautiful.”

Olive looked from Iggy to Frannie, and suddenly she began crying, too. If only they could rescue Frannie at this very moment! But both knew that would be impossible.

Flooded with emotion, Olive somehow managed to get hold of herself and said, gently but urgently, “Come on, Iggy. We don’t have much time. We’ve got to get the DNA.”

The tank that held Frannie was so small that she could barely turn around. When her fins brushed the bottom of the tank, Olive was reminded of the snow globes her parents used to bring her from their “business trips.” She had dozens of them at home—little scenes trapped in glass bubbles forever. Olive didn’t want Frannie to end up like that.

Iggy allowed a few more big, loud gulps of air, then wiped her face with her sleeve. Phil’s steady voice came through their EarBuzzes. “There are no security cameras inside SMURF, only on the perimeters. Odious has been spotted at Marine World.”

James’s voice came on. “He just walked by Theo and me. Said he was going to see his ‘catch.’ You can’t miss him. He’s shaped like a potato with toothpick legs and is wearing a red cape—only, Odious is no superhero.”

Olive and Iggy locked eyes. Unblinking, they nodded and braced themselves, their NOCK training taking over. They had to hurry.

“You have six minutes to get the DNA and get out of there,” Phil told them. “Leave the Bubble Cam in the tank.”

Scanning the area, Olive spotted a large metal bar hanging over the top of Frannie’s aquarium. She nudged Iggy and pointed at it.

Iggy ran off to one side of the room, where a tall ladder leaned against the wall. She grabbed it and pushed it over to the tank. Wordlessly, Olive climbed up it.

When she reached the top, Olive leaped and grabbed on to the metal bar, swinging herself up and sitting on it. Then, with ease, she hung upside down as if on a trapeze in Mimi’s backyard. Removing a vial from her fanny pack, Olive extended a telescopic stick toward the water.

“You won’t hurt her. Frannie is so big, she won’t even feel it,” Phil reminded Olive, as if reading her mind. “Three minutes left, maybe less, before Odious arrives.”

Determined, Olive reached down toward Frannie….

Just then, there was a loud grinding noise as the huge industrial door began to inch up. Iggy’s head swiveled toward it. Several feet, then legs, appeared as it rose and sunlight spilled into the dome.

“Olive, get down now!” Iggy hissed through her ComChom.

“Wait, wait, I’ve almost got the sample!” Olive stretched farther into the tank. She was so close to Frannie….

“Now!” Iggy ordered. “He’s here!”

But it was too late.

SPLASH!

Olive fell headfirst into the water.

21.

My Monster

When Olive hit the water and brushed up against Frannie, a tiny kernel of panic in her belly exploded.

Would Frannie attack?

Would she be crushed?

Immediately, Olive felt transported back to when she fell into the ocean and nearly drowned. Would she drown now?

Olive flailed, splashing at the surface and gasping for air, her head bobbing above the water. Then the strangest thing happened: Her thrashing suddenly slowed, giving way to a peaceful calm. She could almost hear Mimi’s reassuring voice saying, “You got this, Olive.”

As she steeled her nerves, Olive’s all-consuming panic was pushed aside, and adrenaline and determination took over. She held her breath as she struggled to keep her head above water, focusing on staying alive. Pressed up against the far edge of the tank, Frannie was mere inches away.

Peering above the sea creature, Olive saw Iggy diving behind a pile of boxes just as a group of people entered. “Put both hands on Frannie and push hard if she starts to crush you by accident,” Iggy advised. Not for the first time, Olive was grateful that all of Phil’s gear worked underwater. “Come up for air only when you need to. Your side of the tank faces the wall, so whoever’s coming in can’t see you.”

“Iggy! Are you okay?” Olive asked when she surfaced to take a breath.

“I’m hidden,” Iggy assured her. “I’ve set my EarBuzz to the group setting so you can hear—”

“WHY IS MY MONSTER ALONE?!”

Odious’s rant rang throughout the dome, and instantly Olive ducked back underwater. Still, through her EarBuzz, she could hear him, loud and clear.

“I didn’t hire you to be an idiot! I hired you to take care of my sea creatures!”

“Sir,” came Fable’s shaky voice. “The penguins got loose and we had to round them up—”

“STOP!” Odious demanded. “I can buy hundreds of those stupid birds in tuxedos. But a sea monster like this is one of a kind.” His laugh had a diabolical edge to it. “She’s going to make me even more rich and famous than I already am, and that is hard to do!”

“Sir,” Fable began again. “I really do think we should report to NOAA that Frannie is here, safe and alive.”

“Noah! Who’s that?” Odious bellowed. “I don’t know any Noahs!”

“NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” Fable explained patiently. “It’s against the law to—”

“It’s against the law for you to argue with me!” Odious snarled, pointing his finger only inches from her face.

“And this is why his nickname is Odious,” Iggy muttered. “He’s an angry, oversized spoiled brat!”

“Listen.” As Odious continued his tirade, Olive tried to peek from behind Frannie. “You’re supposed to be one of the best cryptozoologists in the world. Just seeing this sea monster is a gift I have given you. And now I’m giving you the chance to take care of it and move it to my personal zoo.”

When he swung around to point at Frannie, Olive quickly ducked behind her. She was used to people not noticing her, only this time Olive hoped she wouldn’t be seen.

“The monster is clearly sick,” Odious complained. “Look at that big lug just floating there. I can’t afford to have another ailing exotic creature. You wouldn’t believe how many animals are sick at OOZOO, or have perished. If you don’t make this one better, then that’ll be on you!”

Fable was quiet. Olive could feel her misery and pain.

But Odious wasn’t done yet. “Do you want that on your conscience? You can either do what I say and have the job of a lifetime, or argue with me, and I’ll personally see that you never work again. Is that clear?”

Olive could barely hear Fable say in a small voice, “Yes, sir.”

“What a jerk!” Phil yelped, to Olive’s surprise. Of all the Misfits, she usually had the most self-control.

“Don’t just stand there! I have companies to buy, and people to fire,” Odious said. There was a scuffle of feet exiting the dome. “Fable, do your job, or Frannie will pay the price!”

The industrial door groaned as its steel ground, and when it slammed shut, Olive poked her head back above water and gasped for air.

Fable was still there, staring at Frannie. Her shoulders slumped as she walked over to the tank and pressed her hands and face up against it.

“I won’t let him hurt you, Frannie,” Fable said, her voice quiet and determined. “I have to go now, but I’ll be right back!”

When the professor left through the side door, Iggy emerged from her hiding place. With great speed, she climbed up the ladder to help Olive out of the tank. But first, Iggy tossed a Bubble Cam in.

Before leaving, both girls stopped to gaze at Frannie, who seemed to be looking back with big, solemn eyes, as curious about them as they were about her.

“We’re going to save you from that awful man,” Iggy promised the sea creature as they left.

Back in Vana, Olive was still trying to process what had just happened.

“I’m so sorry!” she told Phil, wringing out her wet clothes and hair. “I didn’t get the DNA.”

Phil laughed good-naturedly. “What do you mean? You were inside the tank with Frannie!”

Olive began to moan. “But I dropped the vial in the tank along with the telescopic stick when I fell into the water!”

“You’re a walking DNA and eDNA repository, Olive! Sit still while I take some samples off you,” Phil said, grabbing another vial. “We’ll send these off to NOCK’s New Creature Division.”

“Wait, what?!” Theo exclaimed as he entered the van. “You fell in the tank? You saw Frannie?!”

“She’s REAL?!” James croaked as he followed Theo inside.

As Phil swabbed Olive, Iggy showed them all the photos and footage they took of the sea creature, to a chorus of “WOW,” “INCREDIBLE,” and “OOF!”

By the time Iggy was finished, Phil was typing quickly in front of Vana’s screens, her fingers flying as if she was a concert pianist.

James turned his head toward the screen. “What are we looking at?”

“Bubble Cam,” Phil said. Iggy patted herself on the back. “Only, the tank is so small that I can’t get a good look at Frannie. We’re only seeing extreme close-ups.”

Everyone leaned forward and saw a giant eyeball staring at them.

“This is monumental!” Theo gasped, awestruck.

James looked at Iggy. “Now do you believe me?”

Olive braced for an explosion, but instead, Iggy softened. “I do,” she said quietly. “Frannie lives.”

22.

Trust Yourself

Back in the gymkhana, as their NOCK instructors watched footage of Frannie, Monica tried to remain impassive. However, once it was over, she ran over to her punching bag and muttered “Odious” as she pummeled it.

Meanwhile, Modest’s eyes were filled with tears. “Poor beautiful creature,” he said, pressing his hands against his heart. “We must save her. We must!”

“What do you need from NOCK?” Monica asked the Misfits, giving the punching bag a rest. “Tell me.”

“Two mini-subs,” Phil began, pulling out a list and handing it over. “And this equipment, plus Bee needs a major tune-up.”

“We should re-create Frannie’s SMURF tank in the gymkhana,” Theo suggested.

“SUCCESS Simulator exercises with boats and sea creatures would be beneficial,” James added.

“Swimming lessons,” Olive reminded Modest, almost reluctantly. If they were to free Frannie, chances were that the ocean would be involved. And if the ocean was involved, chances were that swimming might be as well.

Modest gave her a double thumbs-up and then called out, “Gather around! Since your NOCK assignment is leading to the ocean, we felt it best that all Misfits take part in official swimming lessons.” Olive knew he was saying this for her benefit, and wondered if it was possible to appreciate her instructors any more that she already did.

Monica had disappeared into the storage room, but reappeared with her arms full. “Here are your uniforms!”

“Uniforms?” Iggy asked. “I thought we were swimming.”

“You will also be taking synchronized swimming lessons!” Modest beamed, then cleared his throat. “It was the only way we could reserve the city pool, by saying we were a sports team.”

Monica held up red board shorts and RASCH T-shirts. Olive breathed a sigh of relief. The thought of having to wear a bathing suit had been causing anxiety.

James raised his hand. “The Olympics committee now calls synchronized swimming ‘artistic swimming.’ ”

“Yes, well, it is artistic and synchronized,” Modest noted. On the floor of the gymkhana, he launched into a one-man artistically synchronized routine that included lots of arm waving and handstands with his feet in the air, doing complicated ballet moves.

Watching him, Olive was actually starting to get excited about the lessons. It would be a chance to use some of her acrobatic and gymnastics skills!

“Synchronized swimming is also known as water ballet,” Modest said, as he pretended to swim across the room while executing jetés.

“Such pizzazz!” Monica whispered reverently as he dove behind a table, and doing a handstand, he lifted his legs steadily in the air as he did butterfly kicks.

“Now, Misfits,” Modest said, still upside down, “we’ll practice some basics here, then head to the pool!”

After a quick refresher on some splashy dance moves, the Misfits headed into the city on BoBu. Modest and Monica had reserved a public pool in San Francisco, and it was midafternoon by the time they made it into the locker rooms.

As Olive changed into her uniform, she began to feel on edge—but not in the good way. Sure, she had walked a tightrope carrying her grandmother’s antique tea set, and fought off career criminals, but she had never done anything like this before.

“We’ll all be right there with you,” Phil assured her best friend. “C’mon, we don’t want to be late.”

Olive took a deep breath, held it, then exhaled and marched out of the locker room with Phil. But when they reached the pool—

“Oh, it’s you guys,” Primrose said, faking a yawn. Her minions, Ethel and Enid, stood behind her, arms crossed and scowling. Unlike the fashionable clothes they usually wore, the trio was dressed in the same uniform as the Misfits. Somehow, Primrose appeared chic, while everyone else looked dorky.

Olive chomped down three times to activate her ComChom. “What are they doing here?” she said under her breath.

As if listening in, Modest called out from the high diving board, where he was hanging and doing leg lifts. “There are eight swimmers on an artistic swimming team. We needed three more to qualify for pool time, and Ethel, Enid, and Primrose were suggested by Sunny. Welcome, all!”

Modest let go and plunged into the water, drenching all eight of them standing at the pool’s edge.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad?” Phil said into her ComChom.

Phil was right—it wasn’t that bad.

It was worse.

To start, Theo could not get his swimming cap on over his big hair. Iggy accused Primrose of splashing her. Ethel was an even worse swimmer than Olive. Then Primrose accused Iggy of splashing her. And everyone had problems swimming in sync, especially Olive, who kept sinking to the bottom of the pool.

When Modest cut the group session short, the swimmers looked relieved.

“All of you are excused except Olive and Ethel,” he said. The two girls looked at each other warily as everyone else made their way back to the locker rooms.

A distressing sensation threatened to drown Olive. What was she in for now?

Modest looked solemn, but when he winked, she relaxed. Instead of chiding them for their awkward attempts at swimming, he gave them both private lessons, starting with the basics, like how to breathe while staying afloat.

“It’s good that you’re nervous,” Modest assured Olive and Ethel as they lay floating on their backs. “Acknowledge your fear, then take charge of it by replacing it with trust. You girls have got this! Do you trust me?”

Both nodded, and Olive almost sank again. She was glad to be wearing her nose clamp and FoggyGogs.

“You know who else you need to trust?” Modest struck a dramatic pose, with one hand on the top of his head, the other raised to the sky. “Yourselves! Trust yourself, Olive,” he declared. “Trust yourself, Ethel.”

With renewed determination, Olive practiced proper breathing, floating, kicking, and swimming strokes. As a trained aerialist and acrobat, she already had great hand-eye coordination. Now it was just a matter of putting it all together.

Later, as she and Ethel were toweling themselves off, Ethel turned to Olive.

“I…I almost drowned when I was little,” Ethel mumbled. “I’m scared of water.” When Olive looked at her in shock, she glanced away, ashamed. “Please don’t judge me,” Ethel said weakly.

“I’m not!” Olive was quick to reassure her. “I almost drowned when I was little, too.” She didn’t add that she had almost drowned off Foggy Island recently.

Ethel looked relieved. “Oh,” she said. “I’m sorry that happened to you.” They were both quiet for a moment as they walked out of the locker room. Then, to Olive’s surprise, Ethel told her all about her swimming mishap. It was very similar to her own. Without Primrose around, Ethel was downright chatty, and much nicer, too.

She’s not that bad, Olive mused while they talked, and wondered if Ethel thought the same thing of her.

23.

Free Frannie Headquarters

With a unanimous vote by the Misfits, the top of the lighthouse had been renamed Free Frannie Headquarters.

The five of them crowded inside, all intent on rescuing the sea creature. Using Iggy’s images from SMURF, Phil added the finishing touches on an update of Frannie’s hologram. Soon, an exact, small-scale version swam overhead as a constant reminder of their mission.

Having spoken to Fable on three previous occasions, Olive volunteered to befriend her and get more information on Frannie’s condition. They needed to make sure the sea creature was even healthy enough to be transported to the ocean and escorted to the open sea. What if she was sick or injured? The last thing the Misfits wanted to do was endanger an already endangered animal.

Earlier, in the Laundry Room, Monica had delivered good news. “I’ve talked to the procurement department at NOCK, and they have a couple of Wahoos we can borrow.”

James perked up. “Really? Wahoos?” When the others looked confused, he explained. “A wahoo is one of the fastest fish on the planet. I’ve heard a rumor that there was a prototype submersible called the Wahoo that’s superfast and easy to maneuver. Is that what we’re talking about?”

To James’s delight, Monica and Modest gave him four enthusiastic thumbs-up.

While waiting on the Wahoos, Phil had more time to do digital recon and prep Bee for the mission. The drone had been integral in past NOCK assignments, but Phil worried about the stress and strain on her. In her workshop, Bee’s charging station looked like a tiny bed—for her birthday, Olive had stitched together a miniature blanket for Bee, which delighted Phil.

“I hope when Bee gets back from her NOCK tune-up, she’ll be perfect!” Phil said, pointing to a photo of the two of them that she had taped to the computer screen dedicated to the tiny drone.

Meanwhile, James was pulling together a report on Odious’s business holdings, including Marine World and OOZOO. Theo was studying the tides, the ocean and its creatures, and the impact that Frannie’s escape might have on the environment. With a free-flowing overlap of ideas and suggestions, the Misfits worked tirelessly, stopping only for meals, Butter Bakery pastries, sleep, and updates to and from NOCK.

It wasn’t long before the team had their next lead, courtesy of Phil. She had managed to hack into multiple local banks and found a deposit for $999,999.99, by a man named Brodie.

Iggy called Brodie and left him an ominous message: “You are authorized to meet with one of Mr. Odion’s emissaries. If you fail to show up, you have to give the money back. The password is…”

With that, the Misfits quickly made their way back to the city, where the Skeptics Society was still out in force, though the gathering was smaller than when the Frannie mania first started. As the skeptics waved Frannie Is Fake posters, George Hinky yelled through a megaphone, “Frannie! Fake! Frannie! Fake! I demand proof!”

Just then, Pollyanna Matsuko, head of the Frannie Fan Club, pushed through the crowd.

Olive nudged Phil. “Look,” she said, pointing at Pollyanna. The two of them watched as Pollyanna handed George a sandwich.

“You’d think they’d be sworn enemies,” James said curiously.

One of Phil’s rings flashed, grabbing her attention. “I just got word that our DNA test came back,” she announced as the Misfits continued their walk to a nearby park. “Dr. Charles Littnan, head of NOCK’s New Creature Division, confirmed that Frannie is a previously unknown species!”

Olive was smiling so much, her face hurt. She had helped Frannie go from myth to reality! The Misfits were so busy congratulating each other that they nearly forgot who they were here to meet.

“There he is!” Iggy motioned to a young man wearing a fancy suit. The price tag was still on the sleeve.

“You go.” Olive nudged Theo. “If anyone can get him to talk, it’s you.”

24.

Annie, Thannie, Frannie

Sitting on a nearby bench, trying to look casual, Theo called out “Brodie?” as the others listened in.

The young man loosened his collar, eyes darting around. “Who wants to know?”

“Hi, I’m…Dusty.” Theo offered Brodie a stick of gum. “Mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

Brodie put the gum in his pocket. “I didn’t think I would be meeting a kid. What’s the secret password?”

“Frannie, Frannie, Annie…uh.” Theo paused until he heard Iggy in his EarBuzz, then finished with, “Thannie, Frannie!”

Brodie nodded quickly, straightening. “Okay, what do you want to know? I get to keep my money, right?”

“Yes, it’s all yours,” Theo assured him. “We just need to take an official statement, for Mr. Odion’s records. I like your suit, by the way. Is it new?”

Brodie lit up and touched the lapel. “It is! I wasn’t sure if blue was my color. The other suit I looked at was orange.”

“Looks great! It matches your shoes,” Theo said. Olive always marveled at how easy it was for Theo to put strangers at ease.

After discussing clothing and the weather and their favorite donuts, Brodie was much more relaxed when Theo asked casually, “So, was it weird when you saw Frannie?”

The young man looked momentarily shaken. “Well, yeah, totally. I mean, everyone was looking for it. I was sailing near Foggy Island.” He pointed to the bay. “You know of that place? There’s a school there.”

Theo scratched his head. “I think I’ve heard of it…but that’s not as interesting as seeing Frannie! How was that?”

Brodie leaned back on the bench, getting comfortable and folding his hands behind his head. “I was just sailing around, and then suddenly the water started churning. At first, I thought it was a whale—but a big pink something came up, and I saw the green crowns on the top of its head! That’s when I called the number on all those flyers from Oscar Odion. They immediately asked for a video recording and my coordinates. Next thing you know, I’m a penny away from being a millionaire!”

“Wow, that’s really something!” Theo looked genuinely excited.

“Ask him if there’s anything else he can tell you about Odious or Frannie,” Phil said through her ComChom.

“Anything else you can share about the experience, or Frannie?” Theo wondered out loud.

Brodie nodded. “Yeah, I asked if I could get $999,999.99 times two.”

“Why double?” Theo asked.

Brodie hesitated. “I didn’t want to appear greedy…but I did see two Frannies, after all. A big one and a little one!”

25.

Professor Fable Howser

“Two Frannies?!” Theo whooped again.

Olive didn’t think she’d ever heard him be so loud. To be fair to Theo, it was almost too much to comprehend. The Misfits were at Ghirardelli Square Ice Cream Shop and no one had even picked up a spoon, instead letting their ice cream begin to melt.

“But Frannie was alone at SMURF,” Iggy pointed out.

Olive nodded. “There was no second tank in that dome.”

“Maybe there’s a tank in the other dome?” James mused.

“We need to do a thorough inventory of Marine World.” Phil began tapping into her computers and sending a site map to everyone’s phone. “Bee is gathering footage of the theme park now. That way we can figure out if there’s another secret tank hidden on the property.”

James and Theo finally started in on their sundaes. Olive plucked the cherry off the top of hers and handed it to James, and Phil did the same. The Misfits believed that hot fudge sundaes had the power to give them strength and help them focus.

However, another table was focusing on the Misfits. They were the recipients of hard stares from an older couple wearing matching red argyle sweaters. The woman pushed her chair away from her table and galumphed over to the Misfits.

“Shouldn’t you children be in school?” She made it sound more like a statement than a question. “Where are your parents?”

“Flibbertigibbet,” James said calmly into his ComChom.

Immediately, the Misfits put on bright smiles and began talking at once, making no sense whatsoever.

“Hornswoggle deBoopBoop.”

“Chicken nugget biggleswamp?”

“Wiggle waggle whomp!”

The more flibbertigibbetsy they got, the farther the woman backed away, until she and her husband grabbed their sundaes and retreated to the far side of the ice cream emporium.

“Brodie said there were two Frannies?” Iggy said, getting back to business. “We don’t know if the one we saw is the big one or the small one.”

“Assuming the other Frannie is still alive,” Theo said softly, stating what the others could not.

The table was quiet for a moment, then quickly they formulated their next steps. After polishing off their ice cream sundaes, the Misfits hopped into Vana and sped back to Marine World. Olive’s assignment was to get Fable away from Frannie, allowing Iggy to sneak into the small dome.

As Olive marched up to the administrative office of Marine World, her brain was on overflow. Saving one Frannie was already nearly impossible, but saving two?!

Opening the glass doors, Olive announced, “I’d like to see Fable Howser.”

The receptionist at the front desk was sharpening pencils. Without stopping or looking up, she asked, “Are you lost?”

“No,” Olive said. “This is a matter of life and death.”

The young woman put the pencil down and raised her eyebrows. “Wow! I thought people only said that in movies. Let me call Professor Howser right now!”

While she waited, Olive stared at the framed photos that lined the walls. Odious with a penguin on his lap. Odious riding a whale. There was even a photo of Odious on the moon. Leaning in, Olive could tell the image had been photoshopped.

“Fable has left SMURF,” Iggy said into Olive’s EarBuzz. “I’m going to check on Frannie….”

A short time later the door to the administrative office opened, and Fable poked her head in.

“Olive, from RASCH?” She sounded surprised. “Are you okay? I heard this was a matter of life and death!”

“Professor Howser, you’re going to want to come with me,” Olive said, trying to sound mysterious. “Trust me.” With that, she led Fable toward one of the show areas.

They sat in the stands while the dolphins and seals rehearsed their show. Rance Reed was wearing a clown costume and sliding around on the stage, pretending to fall. Or maybe he really was falling. It was hard to tell.

Fable looked at her watch. “Now, what’s this about, Olive? I really need to get back to work.”

Olive took a deep breath. “I know. Thank you for seeing me. This is about Frannie,” she said. “I know she’s here.”

Fable was speechless, then sputtered, “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You told me you’re a marine biologist and a cryptozoologist. Frannie is a previously unheard-of sea creature. Your boss offered a huge reward for her capture before suddenly taking it off the table. Plus, there’s a secret SMURF area with a brand-new second dome, and Oscar Odion was spotted here the other day.” Olive paused. “I figured you’d know something about all of this.”

Fable stared straight ahead, not looking at Olive at all. “I can’t confirm or deny your claims. Who sent you here?”

“I’m here on behalf of Frannie, as an advocate for her,” Olive answered honestly. “Because Frannie should be free, not kept captive, and especially not by a man as odious as Oscar Odion.”

When Fable didn’t disagree, Olive continued. “I know you have a kind heart and that you’ve dedicated your life to making sure sea creatures flourish. I’m not asking you to do anything other than give me information so I can pass it along to people who can help.”

Onstage, Rance Reed and a couple of seals were all balancing beach balls on their noses.

Fable was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know what to say.” She spoke haltingly as her eyes widened. “Why should I trust you? Did Mr. Odion send you? Am I being tested?”

Suddenly, Olive wished Theo was the one talking to Fable instead of her.

“Who are you?” Fable pressed, her eyes narrowing. “You seem pretty invested in Frannie’s safety. And, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a kid.”

Olive appreciated that she didn’t say “just a kid.” She recalled that Mimi said sometimes the truth is the best answer to hard questions.

Facing Fable, Olive felt her voice break. “I’m a student at RASCH, and I’m devoted to helping Frannie. I can’t tell you much more than that, other than I’m working with others who are in a position to save her.”

Placing her hands over her heart, Olive tried not to tear up. They really needed the cryptozoologist’s help.

Fable’s face softened. “I thought as much. I’m trained to explore and accept situations out of the mainstream. As a scientist I work with facts. But I’m also human, and trust in my instincts, and they are telling me that we’re on the same side.”

“Frannie’s fading,” Iggy said as she climbed back into Vana. “She looks even paler and sadder now. I was able to install a Stick-Up video camera on the far wall so we can monitor her.”

Wordlessly, Phil turned on the camera. Iggy was right. Frannie was curled up, her head pressed against her tank. Fable stood next to her, with only the glass between them, looking just as sad.

“Fable’s on our side,” Olive confirmed. “She said that it makes sense Brodie saw a second Frannie, but Odious didn’t catch that one. The one at SMURF is a new mom!”

“So, the baby is still out there?” Theo’s voice lifted. He nervously shuffled a deck of cards, pulled another ace of hearts from behind Iggy’s ear, and handed it to her. She now held five aces of hearts.

“Hopefully the baby is still alive.” Olive tried to sound optimistic. “Monica is having Dr. Littnan from NOCK’s New Creature Division contact Fable directly so they can talk, expert to expert. But Big Frannie doesn’t have much time. Fable said she’s scheduled to be transported to Odious’s zoo very soon.”

“Does Fable know how much danger she’s putting herself in?” James asked. “Odious is a despicable person. Who knows what he’s capable of?”

Olive nodded. “She’s willing to take the risk. Frannie was injured when Odious hauled her in. Fable feels responsible, even though she didn’t have anything to do with the capture.”

“I feel the same way,” Iggy admitted. “From the first time I saw Frannie, I was horrified that she’s being held captive, and I felt so guilty. What does that mean?”

Theo handed Iggy another ace of hearts. “It means,” he told her, “you’re a good person who cares about others.”

James opened his mouth to say something, and Olive held up her hand to silence him. “Not now,” she whispered. “There will be time for jokes later.”

26.

OOZOO

It was unanimous. The Misfits agreed that their next stop should be OOZOO. By the time Vana was rumbling down the unmarked dirt road leading to where Odious kept his illegal animals, Theo was in disguise behind the wheel. His cowboy hat was tall enough to hide his big hair, and his fake beard covered most of his face.

Slowly, Theo lowered his sunglasses. “Howdy,” he said to the security guard at the entrance. He had programmed his ComChom to give his voice a deep Texas drawl. “I’m here to deliver the food for them felines.”

The wary guard checked her clipboard. “I don’t have a food delivery on the list,” she said, studying him. “Are you new?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Theo said. “I’m the new guy, Colt Carter, and, well, I’d hate to be you when the boss man finds out you wouldn’t let me in. Those big cats of his have to be fed, or else…”

The security guard chewed nervously on a fingernail. “They keep messing up around here, and no one keeps me in the loop! Last week, a bunch of trucks came in to build a big pool, and none of them had clearance!”

“Wow, your job is impossible,” Theo said kindly.

“True!” The guard sniffed. “Okay, go on in. You know where you’re headed, right? You got two more gates.”

“Yup, and thanks, ma’am.” Theo rolled up the darkened window, then took his hands off the steering wheel as Vana drove herself toward OOZOO. They went over more dusty roads marked with signs that said No Trespassing!, Danger!, and Toxic Waste Treatment Plant!

At both guard gates, Theo lowered the driver’s-side window and said with his Texas drawl, “Mr. Odion says it’s big-cat chow time!”

Both times, he was waved through.

Once inside the OOZOO compound, the Misfits pressed their noses against the windows. It was as if they were in another world. There were a few familiar animals, but even more that were extremely rare. Some roamed free, though many were in pens and enclosures, staring out. Theo winced when he saw several crammed into tight cages.

“Lions, tigers.” James began listing them aloud as they drove through tropical grasslands. He pointed to a brown antelope with white stripes. “A bongo? There’s a bongo here?”

Theo shook his head in disbelief. “Those are endangered!”

“Rhinos!” Phil cried out. “Giraffes! A family of elephants—look at the baby!”

The landscape shifted, divided by tall metal electrified fences and sturdy gates that opened automatically when Vana approached. Now it looked like they were in a jungle.

“Capybara! And is that a sloth up in the tree?” Olive craned her neck to see better. She loved sloths. Mimi used to jokingly say Olive was a sloth sometimes, especially in the morning.

“What’s that?” Iggy pointed at an animal with the body of a brown pig, but with hooves like a horse and a face like an anteater.

“That’s a tapir!” Theo could not stop taking pictures. “They’re extremely rare, and—” Before he could finish his sentence, he let out a rattling gasp.

Olive swiveled her head around to make sure he was okay. In an enclosure with a big tree in the middle were about a dozen tiny creatures running around and swinging from the branches.

“Those are golden lion tamarin monkeys,” Theo whispered, in awe. “There are less than eight hundred of them left on the planet!”

“It looks like about a hundred of them are right here,” Iggy said, doing a quick estimate.

“A pangolin!” Theo’s eyes widened as he motioned toward a small scaly mammal. “It’s the most illegally trafficked animal in the world—more than rare tigers and other felines.”

James frowned, dutifully adding it to the database he was keeping about OOZOO.

As Vana drove slowly past an aviary, Theo’s voice became strangled. “Laughing owl, ivory-billed woodpecker, passenger pigeon…They’re all supposed to be extinct!”

“Where are all the people?” Iggy wondered.

“Up there.” Phil pointed to tall poles with boxes mounted on them. “Accessing security cameras now,” she said, leaning in to her computer screens.

“Why don’t you just use Bee?” James asked. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”

“If there’s any way I can avoid running down her batteries, I do,” Phil said, still tapping on the keyboard. “When her power is low, it can take up to two full days to recharge. Hold on…. Okay, there, got it!”

At once, Command Central lit up with live feeds from across OOZOO. They could even see Vana driving along…before poof! Vana disappeared from the screen entirely.

“How did you do that?” Iggy asked, impressed.

“I’ve activated the transitory electronic shield that surrounds Vana. It scrambles any camera activity and instantly erases all images.”

“Look!” Olive pointed to a screen where a digger was excavating land to create what looked like a huge pool.

“That’s where we need to be!” Phil said.

Quickly, she navigated Vana to the site, and soon they pulled up alongside a fleet of trucks. Theo and Iggy got ready to sneak out and assess the construction, while Olive and James surveyed the land, with Phil monitoring from Command Central.

Decked out in dusty work clothes, Theo swapped his cowboy hat for a hard hat. Iggy put on a matching one, and James sculpted an extra inch to her chin using putty. Then, both Theo and Iggy slipped tinted safety glasses on before the four Misfits exited Vana.

Olive and James stayed hidden as the other two strolled toward a trio of construction workers sitting on boxes, guzzling bottles of water and debating whether Frannie was real or fake.

Theo wiped his brow. “Phew! This is taking longer than I thought.”

The construction workers looked up. “Yeah,” one said. “But at least they promised overtime pay.”

“How long have you guys been working here?” Iggy asked, making her voice sound raspy. The hole they excavated was smaller than the pool where they had synchronized swimming lessons.

“We just got called in. This is an emergency job,” the shortest construction worker said. “I ain’t lyin’. Get it? Lyin’? Lion? Did you see they got lions here!”

Everyone cracked up, including Iggy, even though Olive knew she hated wordplay jokes.

As the two continued to ask questions, Olive and James listened in while sneaking over to a dome that looked identical to the ones at SMURF. It was full of supplies to build a saltwater pool, like tile lining to prevent corrosion, a water filtration system, and vats of minerals that, when added to water, created man-made ocean saltwater.

“We know who that’s for,” James said solemnly.

“I figure we’ll be done in about a week,” a construction worker was saying to Theo and Iggy over Olive’s and James’s EarBuzzes. “They’ve got crews working twenty-four-seven. Not sure what the big hurry is.”

“We have less than a week to free Frannie,” Phil said. “If she makes it to OOZOO, it will be nearly impossible to break her out.”

Olive and James walked briskly toward the dome entrance, ducking behind construction vehicles, tarps, and other equipment as Theo and Iggy kept the workers distracted. They pressed close to the chain-link fence nearby, careful to stay out of sight as they listened in.

“I think it’s a pool for the rhinos,” another construction worker was saying. “Oscar Odion came here himself to look at it. I got his autograph!”

He reached into his pocket, then held up a piece of paper that had a big O written on it.

Just then, Phil warned, “James! Olive! People approaching the dome—get out of there now!”

The two glanced at each other, then bolted away from the entrance. To avoid running toward the construction workers, Olive climbed over the fence and ran toward the nearby woods, with James right behind her.

“No, wait!” Phil yelled into their EarBuzzes. “James, Olive, stop! Go the other way! Turn around!”

But it was too late.

27.

Dinosaur!

Olive was hiding in an overgrown thicket when Phil’s command came in. Then she heard something else, only this wasn’t in her EarBuzz. From her position frozen on the other side of the fence, away from the dome and construction workers, it almost sounded like…

“What’s that noise?” James’s voice quivered as he crouched down next to her.

A dull thudding reverberated in the air—one that was getting louder and louder. The ground began to vibrate as Olive slowly turned around. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

What looked like a dinosaur out of Jurassic Park came rampaging toward them, teeth bared, with daggers of saliva dripping down!

Instantly, Olive pulled out a Startle Starter, snapped her fingers, and threw it as hard as she could, releasing a loud bang! The sound stopped the dino in its tracks—but Olive was already on the move. She ran full speed ahead, executed a jeté, and grabbed on to a tree branch. Using sheer momentum fueled by fear, she swung upward and executed a flip so that she was sitting on the branch, then Olive stood.

From high in the tree, Olive spotted James, still on the ground. His face was etched in panic as he fled from the prehistoric-looking creature.

The dino roared, enraged. Swiftly, Olive reached into her fanny pack. She tossed her Mini-Tramp toward it. “James, jump!”

James screamed in terror as it neared, and Olive’s hands shook when she attached one end of a Power Pulley to her fanny pack, then flung the other side over a high branch. The weight at the end of the wire quickly wound around and around the tree, securing the pulley. Olive tugged hard before hanging upside-down, her legs hooked over the branch as if she were on the trapeze. James was fast, but the angry dinosaur was faster—and catching up to him.

Was that sound the dinosaur approaching or Olive’s heart pounding? She couldn’t tell as she readied herself for the catch of a lifetime. James’s feet hit the mini-trampoline without even time to scream again.

“Grab my hands!” Olive shouted. “You got this, James!”

Catapulted into the air, James flew toward her, his arms stretched forward.

“Got you!” Olive caught him in midair, the way Mimi had caught her hundreds of times in her backyard. Instantly, Olive activated the Power Pulley. With less than a second to spare, it reeled the two of them up to safety as the creature roared in anger below.

James had tears in his eyes, and Olive was still trembling.

“We’re safe now,” she reassured James. Olive chomped down three times. “Phil, can you see us?”

“I can only hear you,” came Phil’s reassuring voice. “You’re out of the security camera range, and Bee is back at Foggy Manor recharging. I’ve tracked your coordinates through your ComChoms. Sounds like you had some excitement.”

“That’s an understatement,” James confirmed.

“Theo, Iggy, get back to the van. Olive, James—we’re coming your way,” Phil told them. “Stay where you are.”

“I’m not going anywhere!” James promised, clinging tighter to the tree.

Moments later, Vana came screeching up the road and skidded to a hard stop. Using the periscope camera to determine that the creature was no longer in the immediate vicinity, Phil ordered, “Now! Evacuate to safety now!”

That was all Olive and James needed to hear. Quickly, they scurried down the tree.

“Seat belts,” Phil ordered as the door slid open and Iggy and Theo helped pull Olive and James inside. Then, with lightning speed, they zoomed off to safety.

“Did you really see a dinosaur?” Theo asked excitedly.

“YES!” James yelled, still in panic mode. “IT WANTED TO EAT ME.”

“You’re too scrawny to make a good meal,” Iggy said, hardly hiding her smile of relief.

“We don’t know for sure that it was a dinosaur,” Olive said as she retracted the Power Pulley and slipped it back into her fanny pack. Her heart rate was starting to return to normal. “But I haven’t seen anything like it before.”

“There’s a lot of that around here,” Theo confirmed. “This place is a collection of the rarest animals on the planet.”

“And Odious wants to add one more!” Iggy spat.

Everyone nodded somberly as, once again, their thoughts turned back to Frannie.

“One week,” Theo reminded them.

With less than seven days to put their plan in play, the Misfits lost no time. Synchronized swimming lessons were wrapping up, and Olive was feeling more and more confident with each class.

“Remember to remain calm,” Modest reminded Olive and Ethel during their after-swimming swimming lessons. “Take a deep breath when you can. A deep breath is not the same thing as a frantic gulp. Control is the key here!”

Later, in the lighthouse, Olive was on the phone. “Frannie is depressed and fading fast,” Fable reported glumly.

Olive put her on speaker and waved the rest of the Misfits over. Trying to keep worry out of her voice, she asked, “Do you think she’ll be strong enough to swim away?”

“Hard to say,” Fable answered. “Physically, she’s doing okay and healing nicely from her wounds. But we don’t know how Frannie feels. Studies have shown that whales and other sea mammals can communicate through ‘songs.’ Though she’s definitely not a whale, I wouldn’t be surprised if Frannie has her own unique sound. When she first arrived, I was able to record low songs, but lately, she’s been silent.”

The Misfits looked at each other gravely.

“Thanks for letting us know, Fable,” Olive said quietly.

Fable sighed. “As I told Dr. Littnan at the New Creature Division: I’m all in. Anything to save Frannie.”

28.

You Are a Professional

The Misfits were exhausted. Despite their recon and research, they still hadn’t nailed down a working plan to free Frannie. Per Theo’s suggestion, Modest and Monica even had a full-sized aquarium installed in the gymkhana—an exact duplicate of the one that Frannie was being kept in.

“To figure out how to safely transport Frannie from the tank into your rescue vehicle,” Monica exclaimed, “the part of the sea creature will be played by Modest Cusak!”

On top of everything else, the Misfits were also practicing freeing Modest/Frannie from the tank employing a hoist and crane, bungee cords, flotation devices, tires, and more. They tried so many times, and in so many ways, that at one point Modest cried out, “Being Frannie is hard!”

At which Monica scoffed, “If Frannie can be Frannie, then Modest Cusak can be Frannie! Remember your training! You are a professional!”

Bowing his head, Modest chanted softly, “I can be Frannie. I will be Frannie. I am Frannie.” Then he slowly submerged himself under the water.

There was still the matter of which plan would actually work. The Misfits set about Blue Skying, reminding each other that they weren’t allowed to dismiss anyone’s ideas.

“Odious got her into the tank somehow,” Phil reasoned. “We should be able to get her out.”

“Bee?”

“A crane?”

“She’ll need to be in a carrier of some sort—”

“A forklift?”

“A sling…”

“—with foam padding that’s drenched in seawater…”

“—using a hoist…”

“I’m getting all wrinkly!” Modest called out. He was dog-paddling in the water using his Irish dancing techniques along with synchronized swimming movements. “Are you any closer to rescuing me?”

The Misfits waved to him, then went back to their discussion as Modest floated on his back. In the end, Iggy compiled a list of what they would need. Unlike Olive, she had very good penmanship that was surprisingly loopy.

Monica reviewed the list and promised to run it past both NOCK’s transportation department and the New Creature Division. All would, it was understood, have to rehearse this repeatedly before putting the plan into motion, because “something this detailed cannot afford a glitch!”

With input from all the Misfits, Monica programmed their SUCCESS Simulators. Their equipment would take days to arrive, but this way they could continue to practice crating the sea creature in a foam sling soaked in saltwater using the hoist and crane, loading her onto a custom-designed vehicle, and whisking Frannie away from SMURF to the open ocean, where she’d be led to freedom via a submarine.

However, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

The simulators were programmed to throw roadblocks at them—literally and figuratively—like police barriers, helicopters, malfunctioning transportation devices, sloppy drainage pools, angry walruses, and more. After hours spent in their simulators, it became uncomfortably clear…the Misfits weren’t ready. It was exhausting and frustrating, but the one thing that kept them going was that Frannie needed their help.

Run-down, the Misfits retreated to Free Frannie Headquarters, where they chugged chocolate milk and munched on peanut butter toffee caramel chunk cookies while reviewing their assignment.

“Okay.” Olive still had half her cookie, but held it tight, knowing that James or Iggy would take it if she put it down. “Phase Two. Say we’ve broken Frannie out of the tank. Then what? How do we get her into the ocean?”

Mid-munch, Iggy informed the group, “I’ve sourced a dump truck that we can use.”

James jumped up. “No way is Frannie going in a dump truck! What are you thinking?!”

“I’m thinking you need to be more creative,” Iggy said, stealing his chair and leaving him standing. With space for only four seats in the lantern room, it was like a constant game of musical chairs.

“Phil and I are redesigning it to have a state-of-the-art aquarium hidden inside. This one is eighteen feet long and can transport up to twenty thousand pounds,” Iggy explained. “Monica is forwarding our specifications to NOCK so they can build it. To the outside world, it will look like a tired old dump truck.”

Begrudgingly, James conceded, “Okay, fine. But how do we get Frannie into it? And why do we even need a truck, when SMURF is next to the ocean?”

“Try to follow along, Einstein,” Iggy said impatiently. “Once we break her out of the dome, Odious will be expecting us to immediately put her in the ocean. He’ll use that trawler that he captured her with to try to find Frannie again.”

“However,” Phil joined in, “if we drive up the coast unnoticed and release her in a concealed area, Frannie will have a better chance of getting away.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down,” Theo interrupted. “It’s one thing for all of us to try to figure out what’s best for Frannie, but we’re not sea creature experts.”

Olive unfolded her phone, which she had molded into a Frannie shape, and held it up, saying, “I’m calling Fable now!”

29.

18,000 New Species

From a distance, whales could be seen circling Foggy Island, and there appeared to be more dolphins than usual in the ocean. Unlike the sea life at Marine World, they were doing joyful leaps in and out of the water and seemed happy.

Fable showed up a couple minutes late at the top of Coit Tower where Olive was already waiting. Both agreed it would be safer than Marine World for a top-secret conversation.

When she saw the professor, without even a greeting, Olive began to lay out the Misfits’ elaborate rescue strategy. Fable listened intently and then said point-blank, “I see some holes in your plan.”

Olive deflated.

“Overall, you’re heading in the right direction,” Fable added, nodding slowly as if thinking it through. “But right now, you have a transport vehicle filled with water—”

“To replicate her tank, but on wheels,” Olive said.

“I see your logic,” Fable said. “However, when transporting someone as large as Frannie, water can be your enemy.” When Olive looked confused, the cryptozoologist explained: “The water could make her bump around and move in the vehicle. We want to stabilize Frannie so as not to cause her any stress. Since you’re not traveling too far, you could attach her harness to the insides of the truck so she’s suspended in air, and then keep her skin hydrated by other means.”

Olive blew out a sigh of relief. What would they do if Fable wasn’t on Team Frannie? All this information needed to get back to the Misfits and NOCK as soon as possible.

“Frannie will likely be scared or panicked when we try to move her,” Fable continued. “However, given her weakened condition, she won’t thrash about as much as when she was first captured.”

“I thought you weren’t there when he caught her,” Olive said.

They walked to the other side of Coit Tower and looked down to see a couple of toddlers running in gleeful circles.

“One week before Frannie was captured, I was heading up the Bonnelly Marine Biology Lab at Cannon College,” Fable said. “I had no idea Odious was even searching for Frannie when he offered me the SMURF job. I arrived at the same time she did and saw this poor sea creature struggling for her life in a massive fishing net.”

Fable shut her eyes as if trying to block out the image. “I assumed we’d study Frannie, make sure she was okay, then release her with a tracker. I had no idea he planned to keep her captive.”

When the professor looked pained, Olive was quick to say, “I believe you. We all want what’s best for Frannie.”

After an awkward silence, Olive asked, “What were you doing on Foggy Island when there was the ghost sighting?”

Fable smiled as if grateful for a momentary change of subject. “I’m just really nosy, especially when it comes to mysteries.”

“Me too!” Olive could tell that she and Fable were kindred spirits. “Do you think the ghost is real?”

“I’m open to that,” Fable answered. “However, every year, over eighteen thousand new species of plants and animals are discovered, and plants can emit greenhouse gases. When methane hits the air, especially during certain weather conditions, it can result in what looks like a ghost. Would you like to hear my theory?”

When Olive nodded, Fable continued. “I think that maybe the large patch of unique seaweeds on the far side of the island is the cause. Combine this with the possibility that a walrus or another sea creature ate them and farted, then poof! A ghost.”

Olive let out a good long laugh. “A fart can create a ghost?!”

Fable’s laughter was warm and deep. “I didn’t say it happened, I said it’s possible!” They had been so focused on Frannie for so long that it felt great to get silly.

When the laughter fell away, Fable’s smile faded and she got serious again. “Frannie has lost weight, and I have no data on how to care for her. I think she’s basically an herbivore—a plant eater. I’m trying to source different marine vegetation. That Foggy Island blue-green seaweed might be coated with cyanobacteria or even a rare kind of phytoplankton that’s high in nutrients. Frannie’s not eating much of the krill or plants I’ve been giving her, so maybe I’ll try harvesting some of that.”

“I’d be happy to bring you some,” Olive volunteered. “Anything for Frannie.”

Back at Foggy Island that night, Olive grabbed a wheelbarrow from the gardening shed. James and Theo had gone to bed hours earlier, and Phil and Iggy were still in Free Frannie Headquarters working out logistics. Even though the lighthouse was lit up brightly inside, from the outside it looked dark and ominous. Still, Olive felt a warmth knowing her friends were up there.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we saw a ghost?” Olive said to Queenie. The cat had leaped into the wheelbarrow as soon as Olive neared the Donut Trespass! zone. “Even if it was made from methane gas and sea-life farts—a fart ghost!”

Queenie yawned.

As they neared the weeded area Fable described, Olive pulled out a garden pruner to clear a path toward the ocean. She had never ventured this far by this part of the shore. But thanks to Modest’s lessons, Olive didn’t fear the water as much as before.

As Olive was cutting away the overgrowth, her feline friend let out a screech, then her body froze as she looked around as if listening.

“What’s the matter, Queenie?” Olive paused to put on her FoggyGogs and nose clamp before she bent down to nuzzle the butterscotch cat. She was glad for her gear—not just because of her allergies, but because the fog was thickening and there was a weird smell in the air.

The cat tensed, and then leaped out of the wheelbarrow before disappearing into the darkness.

“Queenie?” she called after her. “What is it? Did you see a ghost?”

Out of nowhere, an odd wailing sound wrapped itself around Olive. She was paralyzed by fear, until curiosity pulled her forward. Olive was anxious and excited—like when she was on the trapeze and about to release to fly through the air toward Mimi. Only here, there was no one to catch her.

Cautiously, Olive turned on the light on her FoggyGogs and made her way toward the sound, leaving the wheelbarrow behind. The plants cleared to reveal a small rocky cove bathed in moonlight. A gentle ebb and flow of the waves splashed against the shallow shore.

Through the fog, Olive could just make out a pod of whales breaching in the distance. The cry skimmed the water, and Olive’s heart began to race as her breath quickened.

The ghost?!

In front of her, a figure slowly rose from the ocean. Olive gasped and stared back, frozen and unable to speak. She was afraid to even blink for fear that it would disappear.

Voice shaking, she said into her ComChom, “Misfits, come quick! You’re going to want to see this!”

30.

Amazing. Incredible. Wondrous.

The Misfits stood slack-jawed as they stared out at the ocean through their FoggyGogs. Despite being roused from sleep, James and Theo were wide awake. Iggy and Phil were speechless.

Before them in the shallow cove was a mini version of Frannie. She stared back at the Misfits with her big round eyes before going underwater, then reappearing in the middle of the pod of whales who were floating a respectful distance away.

Babysitters? Olive wondered. Bodyguards?

The sound of sobbing broke through the silence. Iggy didn’t even bother to wipe away her tears or snot. Instead, she raised her arm and pointed.

“It’s…it’s Little Frannie!”

At once, the Misfits began to talk excitedly. Olive called Fable immediately to tell her the news. Phil began sourcing the area and collecting plant and water samples. James took photos and videos. Theo tried to talk to Little Frannie. Amid all the commotion, Olive found Iggy standing up to her waist in the water.

“You okay?” Olive asked. She adjusted her FoggyGogs.

Iggy nodded. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “Little Frannie is alive. She should be with her mother.”

Olive raised her arms to give Iggy a hug before stopping abruptly. She remembered what happened to Theo the last time he tried to hug Iggy.

So, instead, Olive promised, “We’ll do everything we can to reunite them.”

Iggy turned to face Olive. “What did Fable say?”

Before Olive could respond, the ocean waves began to churn. They looked up to see a giant metallic orb heading straight toward them, slicing through the waves like a sword through cheese. Slowly, what appeared to be a submersible rocket ship began to surface near the shore.

“It’s Fable!” James cried. “Look what she’s driving!”

The water vehicle pulled up to the beach and the hatch popped open, revealing a wide-eyed Fable with messy hair.

“How’d you get here so fast?!” Olive asked.

“I was already in Odious’s DeepSea Rocketship when you called,” Fable said in one breath.

“Dipsy Rocketship?” Theo asked.

“DeepSea,” she clarified. “But I like ‘Dipsy’ even better. Where’s Little Frannie?”

By then, the baby sea creature had disappeared again, perhaps even scared off by Dipsy? Luckily, the Misfits had plenty of footage of Big Frannie’s daughter.

As James played it back, Fable held her hands over her heart. “Amazing. Incredible. Wondrous.” There was no shortage of adjectives. “Play it again, please! And this time, increase the volume.”

“Wait,” Phil interrupted. “Let me clean it up. It’ll only take a few seconds to isolate the sound. We think it’s one of the whales…. There! Okay, done.”

Sure enough, there was a sad wail, the one that had spooked Queenie, before Little Frannie appeared onscreen. The same sound echoed when she splashed with the whales in the distance.

Fable began talking quickly, gesturing toward the ocean. “That’s not a whale. A whale’s cry above water sounds more like this.” She let out a long, deep rumble. “This sound is something I have never heard before. I think it’s Little Frannie singing!”

As they played the sea creature’s songs over and over again, Iggy listened intently. Softly at first, then louder, she tried to imitate it. Before long, she could do a pretty good impression of Little Frannie.

“Not bad!” James had to admit. “In fact, pretty good.”

But Iggy was too busy to hear him. She waded into the water and turned her ComChom on to broadcast mode.

“What’s happening?” Theo whispered to Phil.

“I think she’s calling to Little Frannie,” she whispered back as Iggy continued imitating the young sea creature.

By now, Fable was standing next to Iggy, both of them oblivious to the waves hitting their waists. “Try it louder,” Fable encouraged Iggy. “And faster.”

There was a loud gasp, then at once, everyone began to cheer.

Swimming back toward them was Little Frannie.

The sea creature raised her head and gazed lovingly at Iggy, who looked right back at her with affection. That’s when Olive noticed it.

“Phil,” she whispered into her ComChom, “do you see this, too? Iggy and Little Frannie remind me of each other.”

A smile alighted on Phil’s face. “You’re right! I think it’s the eyes. Or, more likely, the expression they are both wearing right now—it’s like some sort of mutual admiration society.”

Whatever the bond, it was tight. Even after Little Frannie swam away with the whales, Iggy insisted on spending the night at the cove in case she came back.

“I’d stay, but I need to check on Big Frannie,” Fable said. “Let’s be sure to keep in touch twenty-four-seven. You are all amazing, and Iggy, I think what I’m seeing is that Little Frannie and you have imprinted on each other.”

Iggy’s eyes grew big. “That’s not bad, is it?”

Fable smiled warmly. “Actually, it’s the best thing ever. It means that there’s a strong and loving attachment. Could be because Little Frannie has been without her mom for a while, or just because she trusts you.”

Iggy glowed so bright that it looked like there was a halo around her. Olive’s heart squeezed. She had never seen her friend so happy before.

31.

Little Frannie

The discovery of Little Frannie upended everything, but in a good way. Well, in a good way and in a scary way, since things could still go wrong. Very, very wrong.

Yet for now, San Francisco’s obsession with Big Frannie might have been more of a help than hindrance.

“Did you hear that the Silly Sail Boat Parade contest will only be judging boats decorated as sea monsters this year?” Olive was drawing pictures of Big Frannie and Little Frannie in her notebook. “It could be the perfect cover for freeing Frannie! All those boats decorated as her—”

She didn’t even have to finish her sentence before the other Misfits were enthusiastically on board.

“For the mission itself, I wish we had subs like the one Fable was using,” Phil said wistfully.

“Odious is a multi-multi-billionaire, thanks to all that Odion family money. His Dipsy Rocketship is a one-of-a-kind state-of-the-art submersible,” James griped. “At least we’re getting Wahoo submarines. Although, I’m not sure if any of us is old enough to pilot one without a license.”

Iggy smirked. “We’re NOCK. We bend the rules when we need to. Big Frannie is in danger, or have you forgotten?” She paused, then backed off when James tensed his jaw. “Anyway, Theo and I will be piloting the Wahoos. We’ve been practicing in our SUCCESS Simulators. If anyone gets in trouble, it’ll be us, not you, okay?”

James shrugged uneasily. “Whatever.”

“Hey, hey!” Theo jumped in. “We’re all worried about Frannie and her baby. How about we try some deep breathing exercises, or some meditation? What do you two say to that?”

“NO!” James and Iggy shouted at the same time.

“What did I do wrong?” Theo asked as James and Iggy stormed off in opposite directions.

It seemed like Olive had just shut her eyes when early morning foghorns blared, snapping her to attention. After a quick breakfast in the dining hall of lemon ricotta pancakes, fresh berries, and yogurt, she gathered breakfast for Iggy, who had camped out near the shore where Little Frannie had surfaced.

“Did you see her?” Olive asked hopefully. She handed over a plate stacked high with pancakes. Ignoring the utensils, Iggy folded one and ate it like a taco. Speaking with her mouth full, she said, “Little Frannie hasn’t come back yet, but I know she will!”

Iggy swallowed and then let out a series of long, low songs, but the water remained calm. Undeterred, Iggy tried again and again. “One more time and then back to my breakfast,” she said, before she made six more attempts.

On her seventh try, Iggy stared determinedly out at the ocean, then did some of Theo’s deep breathing exercises before releasing a long melodic song. Unlike before, this time the water began to churn!

A strange melodic cooing breezed across the ocean and toward Foggy Island. It filled Olive’s ears and her heart. Iggy started singing back, and the two engaged in the strangest, most extraordinary duet Olive had ever heard.

She pulled out her phone to start recording live video while simultaneously alerting the other Misfits through her ComChom. “She’s here! Little Frannie is back in the cove, and she and Iggy are singing to each other!”

“I’ve plugged Fable into the video,” Phil reported, giving her live updates. “Here she is.”

“This is astonishing. Stunning, really.” Fable’s voice was wobbly, but in a good way. “Little Frannie appears to be in good health, probably in part due to the Foggy Island seaweed and other nutrients in the area.”

“The whales have been protecting her,” Theo was quick to add. He and James had run all the way from the gymkhana and joined Iggy and Olive.

“Her vocal cords appear to be robust,” Fable continued. “Sea mammals rely on sound to navigate their underwater world. They’re ultrasensitive to the acoustics, and sound travels faster and farther in water than in air. However, the songs, in some cases, can be heard above the surface.” Fable paused. “I could watch this all day.”

After treating everyone to a couple more songs, Little Frannie slowly backed away and then dove under the water, disappearing.

Theo, James, Iggy, and Olive stood silent for the longest time. Then Phil’s voice came in. “Guys, we have work to do.”

Iggy stayed put, but the others joined Phil in Free Frannie Headquarters. Fable was now sending footage of Big Frannie. The sea creature’s skin, once a rosy pink, had paled, and she floated listlessly in the tank.

Phil shook her head looking at the screen. Little Frannie had looked so lively and healthy, but clearly her mother was ailing. “Is the equipment they used to transport her still at SMURF?” Phil asked Fable.

“It’s all in the parking lot,” Fable confirmed. “They’re planning to use it again to take Frannie to OOZOO once the pool is complete.”

“We’ll probably need it to help her escape,” Phil said, explaining, “I’m having trouble sourcing all the equipment we need, though the NCD has been a great resource.”

“The New Creature Division has been in touch with me, too,” Fable said. “I’m officially on board as adviser now. Signed all the paperwork and everything!”

“Congratulations!” Olive enthused. “The New Creature experts will help, but they’re overworked, so it’s really on us to lay the groundwork. Fable, you’re the expert here. If we map out an escape plan, can you work directly with them, but loop us in?”

“Absolutely,” Fable promised. “But can everyone be ready in three days?”

“We have to be,” Olive said. “If we want to free Frannie.”

32.

Birdie and Blight Beach

Three RASCH pods had entered the Silly Sail Boat Parade contest, and they were all having fun with the sea monster theme. One boat even resembled the Loch Ness Monster, except it was bright orange and wearing a tiny top hat. However, unbeknownst to the official school teams, there was a fourth, secret, unofficial RASCH entry.

Two days before the Silly Sail Boat Parade, Modest and Olive went to visit their friend Birdie at Blight Beach. Modest was excited to test-drive the gleaming red vintage motorcycle that Monica had gifted him for his birthday.

With great pomp, Modest put on his matching red helmet while Olive adjusted the strap on the dinosaur helmet her grandmother had given her and crawled into the sidecar attached to the motorcycle.

“I’ll mostly go the speed limit,” Modest assured Olive. “So we don’t attract attention.”

Blight Beach was just as Olive remembered. A once thriving resort community, the burnt-out beach now teetered on the edge of a dark, dank, smelly acidic sea. Over the years, starving artists had transformed the desolate area into a creative haven.

Five senior citizen bikers greeted Olive and Modest like the old pals they were. “Birdie’s waiting by the shore,” one old gent said, his two gray beard plaits swaying in the wind. “Follow us, you youngsters!”

As they approached the shore, Olive spotted Birdie in the distance, dressed in bright colors.

Though she was slightly built, Birdie was not inconsequential.

“Olive! Modest!” she yelled, practically flying across the dry cracked ground to greet them.

“Birdie!” Olive exclaimed before her eyes widened at the sight of what was resting on the shore of the murky water.

It had been Olive’s idea for the Misfits to unofficially enter the Silly Sail Boat Parade. She had sent her artist friend photos and the exact measurements and specifications for a lightweight, sturdy, hollow replica of Big Frannie.

Olive walked around it and nodded. It was perfect and would fit snugly over a Wahoo submersible to serve as a decoy. Not only was Birdie an excellent sculptor, but she was also a master at forging replicas.

“Whoa!” Modest declared. “That’s great! No, wait…it’s really, really, really great!”

Birdie’s cheeks flushed the color of her short, choppy hair. “Thank you. I kinda think so, too,” she said in a bashful whisper. “I’ve tested it, and if it can withstand the chemical waters of Blight Beach, then saltwater is nothing. This sea monster is seaworthy and ready to set sail!”

“I’ll go get the truck!” Modest shouted before racing off to Clunker Truck Rental Co. in town. Before long, he returned in a vehicle large enough to fit the real Frannie.

The fake Frannie was light enough that Modest could lift it over his head, like it was a prima ballerina. He did a few pirouettes and leaps before placing the sculpture inside the rental truck. As Olive and Birdie hugged goodbye, Modest secured his beloved vintage motorcycle to the back of the truck. Then the senior citizen bikers donned their dinosaur helmets and escorted Modest and Olive to the highway.

Just as the sun was starting to set, the two made it back to the Misfits’ meeting spot. Not only was it quiet, but the location had also been chosen because of its short, shallow shore. From there, it was a quick drop from a ledge into a deeper part of the ocean, making it perfect for releasing Frannie into the ocean—and freedom.

As Modest parked the truck, Olive could see Iggy test-driving a Wahoo in the water, while Theo and James were checking out the second submersible. Vana was parked nearby, with Phil at Command Central.

“It’s a beaut!” Theo exclaimed, gesturing toward a Wahoo. It looked like a squat glass spray bottle on its side, with a high-powered engine where the nozzle would be.

Modest carried Fake Frannie toward the gently lapping waves as Iggy pulled her Wahoo up. Wading into the water, he secured the sculpture over the top of the sub.

“Can you still see?” Phil asked Iggy over the EarBuzzes. The other Misfits helped Modest adjust Fake Frannie before locking it in place.

“My sight line is good,” Iggy reported. “Permission to go underwater.”

“Permission granted,” Phil affirmed.

Fake Frannie skimmed the water’s surface before going under. Olive listened to Phil count backwards: “And three…two…one…surface. Okay! Now, skim again and then go back under.”

“You’d think it was the real Frannie,” James said with awe.

“Let’s hope Odious thinks so, too,” Olive said.

33.

Sync or Swim

To finalize their strategy, both Fable and Police Chief Ruby Lopez met the Misfits on Hidden Beach, where Frannie would be released back into the ocean, to discuss what to expect. After Iggy went through the full plan, including showing off Fake Frannie, the police chief let out a long, low whistle.

“Lots of moving parts,” Ruby said. “NOCK giving you all that you need?”

Theo nodded. “The New Creature Division is assisting with the transfer of Big Frannie. Monica says they will be sending their entire department!”

“The whole department?!” Fable looked impressed.

“The transportation vehicle should be ready soon,” Iggy added, looking at Fable. “We’ve made the changes you suggested.”

“Okay!” Ruby surveyed the area. “I can get the roads blocked for you, but you’ll only have three hours when the time comes. The Coast Guard will already be monitoring the bay for the Silly Sail Boat Parade, and I’ll keep in constant contact with them while your mission is in play.”

Theo crumpled the collar of his “Frannie Lives” T-shirt. “Fable”—his voice was tentative—“are we…are we putting Big Frannie’s life in danger by trying to free her?”

Olive had wondered this herself.

“She’s very vulnerable right now,” Fable said cautiously. “But I’m afraid that if she stays captive, it’s not just her physical health that would suffer, but her emotional well-being, too. And that could trigger an even faster decline.”

“What about Little Frannie?” Iggy’s voice trembled.

“For now,” Fable said, “we’re assuming she’s being fostered by the whales and dolphins. They can be very maternal. But as she grows, if Little Frannie stays in this area and isn’t in the open ocean, chances are she will be targeted and caught, like her mother.”

Everyone was quiet.

“Odious knows she’s out there,” Fable said, though no one needed reminding. “For now, he’s content with Big Frannie, but he’s greedy. It’s only a matter of time before he goes after Little Frannie, too.”

With her fists and teeth clenched, Iggy warned, “If anyone messes with Little Frannie, they’ll have to take me on, too!”

Primrose was being her haughty self at their final swim session.

“We have a good chance of winning, and I don’t want you bringing me down!” she said, somehow turning her nose up even in the water.

“Just looking at you brings me down,” Iggy muttered into her ComChom. Olive laughed, splashing comfortably near one corner of the pool. She wasn’t nearly as scared of the water anymore and, to her surprise, had grown to like it.

It was Theo’s idea to sign them up for the Artistic Swimming Competition at Marine World. “It’s the same day as the boat parade, and would give us access to the back areas. If we get caught, we’ll just say we’re lost,” he reasoned.

“We can call our team Sync or Swim!” James suggested.

As much as Olive hated the idea of synchronized swimming in public, Theo’s logic was solid.

All eight of them had been practicing their synchronized routine for several sessions now. Olive’s favorite part featured combined spins of 360 degrees called eggbeaters, where leg kicks supported the upper body, leaving their arms free to wave about. Added to this was quick switching to a reverse combined ascending swim, immediately followed by a descending spin, and concluding with a rapid vertical leg split.

At the same time, they were all expected to project oversized smiles, elegant waves of the arms, and natural athleticism. Unfortunately, none of the Misfits could do all three at once. Despite his valiant efforts, Theo resembled a floppy fish. Phil and Olive were okay, but bumped into each other in the water. Iggy was very strong but not at all graceful, and every time James smiled, it looked like he had eaten a bad batch of pickles.

Good thing the Misfits’ main mission wasn’t to win the synchronized swimming competition. They had their sights on something else.

34.

Bad Corn Dogs

The morning of the Silly Sail Boat Parade, the Misfits gathered around the TV in the Laundry Room. On the news, George Hinky lifted his Sherlock Holmes cap to reveal tufts of yellow hair that looked like baby duck feathers.

“If Frannie is real, I’ll eat my hat!” George Hinky proclaimed.

Pollyanna Matsuko shoved him aside and looked directly into the TV camera. “And I’ll supply the ketchup! Frannie lives!”

The reporter attempted to wrestle his mic back from her strong grip. When he failed, he leaned over both George and Pollyanna to say, “Things are just getting underway at the annual Bay Silly Sail Boat Parade, which starts in three hours! This year’s theme is sea monsters, and more specifically, Frannie! Boy, do some of those boats look scary!” He wiggled his eyebrows in an attempt to appear frightened. “Take a look!”

Monica turned off the television. They had seen enough.

“Time to go!” Modest shouted, clapping his hands in the air. “Good luck, team. And I don’t mean at synchronized swimming. Well, I do, but you know what I mean.”

They did. They were going to free Big Frannie.

The Misfits met up with Primrose, Ethel, and Enid in Foggy Manor’s massive lobby, then strolled toward BoBu. Olive and the others waved at the RASCH students who were putting the finishing touches on their colorful boat decorations, while Sunny wafted by, passing out Butter Bakery boat-shaped cookies and words of encouragement.

“Lovely!”

“Oooh, scary!”

“A bubble machine? So inspired!”

The boat decorations were great, cheerful, and fun, though they looked nothing like the real Frannie. But then, only a few people on the planet knew what she actually looked like.

As Yash motored through the crowded bay, she muttered, “Stupid boat parade. Clogging up the water with dumb decorations. Is that supposed to be a sea monster or a kangaroo? Can’t even tell.” When she leaned on BoBu’s foghorn, startling everyone in her path, Yash let out a defiant whoop.

Because non-NOCK operatives couldn’t know about Vana, the RASCH Sync or Swim team boarded a shuttle bus to Marine World. Once there, they merged with the other artistic swimmers from across the country who were flooding the theme park. Even though there was more than two hours before the competition, television cameras were trained on the pool, and large screens were set up for the overflow crowds.

All the RASCH swimmers carried duffel bags holding their swim costumes, though the Misfits had additional equipment of their own.

“Good luck!” Modest called out as he and Monica bolted toward the cotton candy stand, accidentally knocking down Wally the Whale.

“Why do we have to go to the dressing room so early?” Enid complained. She was hauling Primrose’s bag in addition to her own.

“Because I say so,” Primrose said, handing her pink sparkly phone to Ethel. “Take my picture with that weird animal!”

As Wally the Whale struggled to get up, Primrose pretended to punch him in the snout.

“Cool it, kid,” Rance Reed growled from inside the costume.

The dressing room was crowded with competitors. Before getting into the sparkly fire costumes that Primrose insisted they wear, Iggy, Phil, and Olive turned around and faced the lockers. Phil reached into her fanny pack and gave the others a small pellet each.

Then, one at a time, Phil, Olive, and Iggy crushed the Puke Pellets in their hands, brought them to their mouths, and let the fake vomit spew.

There was screaming and a stampede out of the dressing room, leaving only the Misfits behind.

Or so they thought.

“Are you all okay?”

Whirling around, Phil, Olive, and Iggy were surprised to see Ethel with a pile of towels.

“Yeah, bad corn dogs,” Iggy said.

“I don’t think we should swim.” Olive patted her stomach. “We don’t want to barf in the pool. Can you let Primrose and the others know, right away?”

Ethel nodded solemnly and looked at the puke on the ground. She handed each of them a towel, and with the last one, started cleaning the floor. “Okay. I hope you all feel better soon.”

“We…we can clean that up,” Phil insisted, taking Ethel’s towel from her. “But thank you.”

When Ethel left, Iggy looked after her. “Huh. She’s not awful.”

“Not everyone is,” Olive replied.

Then the three of them grabbed their gym bags, and Olive and Iggy immediately changed into their disguises while Phil slipped away to find Vana and oversee Command Central.

The clock was ticking, and all their training and rehearsals were about to come into play.

From the employees-only area, Fable strode purposefully into the restricted area, flashing her official SMURF badge as Iggy followed close behind.

“Excuse me, young lady,” the security guard said, stopping Iggy. “I’ll need to see your pass.”

Iggy stood inches from his face and stared him down. She was wearing an expensive-looking orange designer dress with a matching tower hat. Pointing to her face, which had layers of putty and makeup on, Iggy proclaimed, “This is my pass! Don’t you know who I am? I’m Oscolina Odion, favorite niece of Oscar Odion!” She held up her phone, which had his photo on the screen. “Do you want me to call Uncle Oscar and tell him that some idiot won’t let me into SCARF?”

“You mean…you mean SMURF?” the guard sputtered. “No, no, please don’t call your uncle.” He bowed and said, “Please, go right ahead!”

“They’re in,” Phil reported over the EarBuzzes. “I’ve got eyes on Fable and Iggy inside SMURF.”

Minutes later, to the security guard’s shock, Oscar Odion himself showed up at the building.

Theo, who was disguised as Odious, thundered, “Move aside!” When the guard froze, he snarled, “Don’t look at me, you underling!”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Odion, sir. Your niece was just here.” The guard averted his eyes, looking instead at Odious’s two nervous assistants.

“Ah, yes, dear sweet Oscolina!” Theo said, sounding and looking so much like Odious that Olive, who was dressed as one of his assistants, got goose bumps. “You two imbeciles, follow me, NOW!” he yelled.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Odion, sir!” James wore a hipster beard and carried a copy of Odious’s self-published autobiography, The Great Man, Me.

“Right away!” Olive said in a clipped voice. She had on a blond beehive wig and winged eyeliner, looking a bit like Sunny at the recent RASCH Groovy ’60s Days picnic.

As the three of them racewalked toward the dome that held Big Frannie, Theo turned off his Odious voice. “It’s so empty around here,” he said. It was even weirder to hear Theo’s friendly voice come out of Odious’s mouth.

“Everyone’s at the competition,” Olive reminded him. “Fable says that for big events, they make everyone from every department help out so they don’t have to pay for more employees.”

By the time the trio entered the dome, Fable and Iggy had already opened the industrial door. Three NOCK New Creature Division agents were inside attaching a beam to a hoist, having gotten past security earlier.

“I thought they were sending the entire New Creature Division,” James whispered.

“That is their entire department,” Olive said. She waved at the man with the close-cropped salt-and-pepper beard and baseball cap. “Hi, Dr. Littnan. Did you get the inflatable?”

He nodded. “Good to be here, Olive. And yes, the inflatable was a great suggestion!”

Olive pointed to Iggy. “It was her idea.”

Wordlessly, Fable, in full scuba gear, had slowly eased herself into the tank with Frannie and was comforting her, while Iggy unpacked a large nylon stretcher lined with fleece.

“Okay, Misfits,” came Phil’s calm, assertive voice. “You know what to do. Mission: Free Frannie is officially underway.”

35.

Stay with the Plan

It’s one thing to move a 7,200-pound sea creature when you are cocooned in the safety of a SUCCESS Simulator. However, it’s a whole other level of anxiety and stress to do it in real time, in real life.

Olive scrunched her eyes shut and tried to remember what Modest had told them in their early days as Misfits: “Every successful NOCK agent has a good dose of fear in them!”

Well, if that was the case, then Olive was living up to her calling as a NOCK agent.

Olive looked over at Iggy, whose jaw was set in the way it usually was when she was concentrating. However, Iggy’s eyes flickered with worry, something Olive was unaccustomed to seeing.

“We’ll save Big Frannie,” she told Iggy over her ComChom. Olive hoped she sounded confident. “We can do this. All of us Misfits, together.”

Iggy offered Olive a tentative smile, then returned to the hoist as it wobbled. “People, we need to do this faster!” she shouted.

As planned, they were repurposing the equipment that hauled Frannie into SMURF in the first place. NOCK’s trio of NCD agents were being assisted by the theme park workers who Theo—as Odious—had rounded up.

“Do whatever she says!” Theo/Odious boomed, and pointed to Fable. Then he stood to the side, arms crossed, and scowled, as if overseeing the operation.

James was stationed on the path leading to the SMURF dome that housed Frannie. He had set up Danger! Quarantine! signs, informing Marine World employees that “a deadly parasite has been discovered. Proceed at your own risk.”

No one did.

Meanwhile, Phil was also monitoring the swim competition, giving the Misfits occasional updates. “Primrose insisted that Sync or Swim must be allowed to compete. Wait! Modest is stepping in, making it a team of four instead of eight, and they are given the go-ahead. With the judging and awards, you have less than two hours to get Frannie into the sling, out of the dome, into the transporter, and on the road.”

“If I had known it would be this easy,” James deadpanned, “I would have brought a book to read in my spare time.”

With the hoist in place, Fable motioned for Iggy to join her in the tank as the harness was dropped in. Iggy, who had taken off her disguise, was now wearing a wet suit and scuba mask.

As the harness became soaked with saltwater, it grew heavy and sank to the bottom. Fable and Iggy dove under, each taking one side. Olive had seen Iggy do this back in the gymkhana—but this time, instead of Modest in the tank, it was Frannie. Fable and Iggy slipped the sling under the gentle sea creature and carefully pulled her fins through the openings. By now, Frannie was so listless that no sedatives were necessary, and Olive worried that she might be too weak for what lay ahead.

“Attention, Misfits,” Phil warned. “Odious has shown up at the synchronized swimming contest. Monica cornered him and flattered him into giving away the grand prize. You have approximately forty-eight minutes to get Frannie on the road.”

With Fable and Iggy in the tank with Frannie, the NCD agents attached the sling to the sturdy metal hooks that hung from the hoist above. Slowly, steadily, the crane operator began to lift Frannie as everyone held their breath. Water rushed out the sides of the sling as Frannie rose up and up and up….

Once she cleared the top, Theo guided the crane operator, helping her back up and out of the dome. Bee flew overhead, her camera monitoring the situation.

Nearby, an ordinary, unassuming dump truck was waiting. However, the inside was extraordinary. Tightly sealed, disinfected, and air-conditioned, the vehicle was cushioned on all sides, and had industrial hooks to secure Frannie’s padded sling. It was designed with extra shock absorbers, and there was a skilled driver behind the wheel.

Olive and the others walked behind the crane carrying the hoist that attached to Big Frannie’s sling. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as the clock ticked down.

“Sync or Swim is now on the stage,” Phil reported. “Primrose, Ethel, Enid, and Modest are all pirouetting into the whale pool…. In his signature move, Modest is holding both Enid and Ethel in the air…. The audience and Odious are cheering wildly….”

Meanwhile, the crane carrying the 7,200-pound sea creature continued at a steady pace toward the transport truck.

“Sync or Swim is now taking their bows,” Phil alerted the crew. “I’ve got eyes on all of you via Bee. Iggy, you’re doing great. Theo and James, I’m coming to pick you up and take you to Hidden Beach. Olive, you, Fable, and Iggy will ride with Frannie, and go with the New Creature Division team…WAIT! Change of plan! Odious is supposed to give the trophies to the winners, but it looks like he’s getting up to leave.”

There was a pause from Phil. Olive’s chest tightened as the crane reached the dump truck and began to lower its passenger.

“Modest, can you hear me?” Phil said through the EarBuzzes…just as the crane hit a glitch and stopped in midair.

Frannie began to sway.

“Modest,” Phil said from Command Central. “Detain Odious. The team needs more time. Modest, can you hear me?”

There was a crackling sound, and then, “Is this on? Can you hear me? This is Modest Cusak. Got it. Over and out…Hello, Mr. Oscar Odion! Let’s dance!”

“What are you doing?!” A brash voice rumbled into the EarBuzzes.

“Dancing, Mr. Odion!” Modest said gamely. “Join us!”

“I don’t dance!” Odious sniffed.

There was the sound of scuffling, then a huge splash!

“Oops.” Monica sounded delighted over the EarBuzzes. “Odious is in the whale pool with the Sync or Swim team. Oh! Now Modest is lifting him up out of the water and tossing him as the crowd goes wild with cheers….”

Outside the dome, the crane creaked before it began moving again. Olive exhaled. “Okay! Frannie is being slowly lowered into the transport truck…. She’s in. Fable and Iggy are securing her sling to the sides to prevent unnecessary movement.”

Iggy pressed the misting button and a light spray of seawater covered Frannie to make her more comfortable.

A new voice came in over the Misfits’ EarBuzzes.

“Police Chief Ruby Lopez here. Your police escorts are on standby to accompany Big Frannie to Hidden Beach. A water tank and your submersibles are there, waiting. Are we good to go?”

There was some crackling over everyone’s EarBuzzes, then Olive spoke into her ComChom.

“Our guest is safely in the vehicle. The driver is in place, and Operation Free Frannie is underway and on the road!”

36.

Looks Real

Rance Reed was delighted to trade in his whale costume for a dump truck driver uniform. The Misfits had been impressed to learn that their actor friend had once been a professional demolition derby driver, trucker, and chauffeur. There seemed to be no end to his talents!

Expertly, he maneuvered Big Frannie’s transport vehicle away from SMURF and onto the dirt road. Flanked by police cars, and following Dr. Littnan and the New Creature Division crew, Olive had the weird feeling that they were part of a parade. Meanwhile, thinking he was in another unscripted reality TV show with hidden cameras, this time featuring a lovable sea monster, Rance Reed ad-libbed, “Whoa, and wow me, mates! There be a sea monster ashore!”

Olive wasn’t sure why he was talking like a pirate. Maybe it was because the first time the Misfits met him, they were all dressed as scallywags. In any case, NOCK found Rance Reed to be dependable, and he was always willing to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Now on the highway, Rance Reed waved to passing cars. “They’re putting money into this show!” he said to Olive, who was sitting beside him in the passenger seat. “That sea monster”—he motioned to the back of the truck—“looks so fake that it looks real!”

“True.” Olive watched the passing cars. “Um, can you please keep your eyes on the road?”

She pulled her Dependable Trash Removal cap down over her eyes. The cap matched the fake Dependable Trash Removal logo and Danger! Toxic Waste! signs plastered on the outside of the truck. Inside, however, Frannie was securely cradled in the padded sling, with Fable on one side of her and Iggy on the other.

Rushing ahead, Vana took shortcuts to Hidden Beach, where two Wahoos were waiting, including the one Iggy would use as a decoy. Odious’s DeepSea Rocketship was there, too, for Fable to drive. Bee was flying overhead, followed by Phil’s new camera drone called Seagull because…it looked like a seagull.

While still on the road, Fable and Iggy began rubbing a blue lotion onto Big Frannie that Phil and Fable had developed. Not only was this soothing to her, but it had another purpose.

“It will allow Bee’s camera to track her even when she’s underwater,” Phil had explained. “Frannie will show up on the Command Central screens but won’t be seen by any other above-ocean surveillance devices.”

As they neared Hidden Beach, the police escort cars shut off their blinking lights and Rance Reed slowed the truck. As he slowly backed it down a makeshift ramp that tilted into the ocean, Olive jumped out and waded into the water. Theo and James were pacing off to the side as the truck got into position to release the sea creature.

“Hold off,” Iggy shouted. “Something’s wrong with Big Frannie!”

“Hold off!” Olive relayed to Rance Reed.

Over their EarBuzzes, Phil asked, “Is it the lotion? It’s nontoxic and made from organic sea matter.”

“No, it’s not that.” Though Fable’s voice was calm, Olive could detect an undercurrent of anxiety. “Big Frannie is very lethargic right now. Sustaining injuries, being hauled to SMURF, separated from her baby, held in captivity, and today’s transport have been hard on her.”

“What do we do?” Iggy didn’t even try to conceal the pain and panic in her voice.

“Now that we’re off the road, let’s give her time to settle down, and then reassess,” Fable said as she stroked Big Frannie’s side.

Bobbing in the bay was the life-sized duplicate of Frannie. “Is that real?” Rance Reed asked from the driver’s seat, looking around for the cameras before remembering to go back to his pirate voice. “I mean—there be another sea monster in the sea! Oooh, scary!”

Just then, on ComChom override, Modest reported, “Odious is out of the pool and heading to SMURF!”

“We have to get Big Frannie in the water now!” Iggy exclaimed. “If Odious tracks us down, she won’t be the only one whose life is in danger.”

Olive ran to Vana, joining Phil in Command Central, and watched the images that Bee and Seagull were broadcasting. Fable could be seen next to Big Frannie, leaning against her as if listening to her heart.

Outside, Theo and James were preparing to get into their Wahoo.

Phil switched over to SMURF’s outdoor security cams. “I see him,” she confirmed as they watched an angry and dripping wet Odious storming straight toward the small dome. “Sending Seagull back to Marine World for reconnaissance.”

The billionaire was now yelling and waving his arms like an out-of-control orchestra conductor. Instantly a half dozen assistants materialized and got on their phones, except for one who ran away crying and yelling, “I quit!” Seagull returned to SMURF just in time to capture footage of Odious exiting the dome and raging toward the ocean, where the trawler was docked.

“Is Big Frannie any better?” Olive asked over her ComChom, her voice wavering. “We’ve got to get her out of here!”

Iggy asked Fable, “Now?”

“Now!” Fable could be heard saying.

“Inflate!” Olive shouted into her ComChom to Iggy.

“Inflate!” Iggy called out to Dr. Littnan.

He gave her a thumbs-up and used a remote to inflate a kiddie slide that was fastened inside the base of the dump truck. As it ballooned, it cushioned the padded sling that had been holding Big Frannie in place. Iggy and Fable carefully detached the sling so Frannie was resting on the inflatable slide.

“Iggy, tell Dr. Littnan to activate the hose on the water tank truck,” Phil instructed.

Olive was keeping her eyes on Big Frannie. The sea creature was still hardly moving.

Dr. Littnan adjusted the hose so that it was above the truck as Iggy and Fable exited. Then, as seawater began to pour over Big Frannie, Rance Reed slowly backed the vehicle right into the ocean. With a great flourish, he pressed a big red button. The hum of the engine could be heard as the front of the dump truck began to rise and tip slowly via a hydraulic ram. Slowly, gently, with the stream of water guiding her, Big Frannie began to move down the slide and toward the sea.

“Everyone’s doing great,” Phil said into her ComChom as Bee flew overhead.

With an assist from the New Creature team, Big Frannie was eased into the ocean. Flanking her in the water, Fable and Iggy patted her sides lovingly, as if bidding her farewell. But instead of swimming away, Big Frannie just floated, unmoving except for an occasional flip of a dorsal fin.

“Iggy,” Phil said into her ComChom. “You need to get into the Fake Frannie Wahoo now. Odious is in the trawler and about to set sail looking for her. James, Theo, get ready. Olive, we don’t have time to wait.”

Iggy nodded and hugged Big Frannie, whispering something softly to her. James and Theo gave Bee a thumbs-up before climbing in their Wahoo and submerging. Then Iggy boarded the Fake Frannie sub, and Olive watched it go underwater to head back toward Marine World.

“It really, really looks real, unlike that fake one floating over there,” Rance Reed said, pointing to the real Frannie. “Ah, I mean—ahoy there, ye ol’ kraken!”

Phil spoke into her ComChom. “James, turn on the recording. Theo, head out to the open waters, but go slow.”

Suddenly, Big Frannie perked up and looked around. Then she began to swim toward the sounds of Little Frannie singing as Fable and the others cheered.

“She’s on the move!” Olive reported to Iggy over her ComChom.

“Oof!” Iggy’s voice was full of hope. “So am I! I’m nearing Marine World! You go, Big Frannie! Girl, you go!”

37.

Escaped

Whoosh! It was way faster to get back to SMURF by water than road, especially for someone as determined as Iggy. Hours spent training in the SUCCESS Simulator had paid off. She cut through the ocean, then maneuvered Fake Frannie into position, just below the surface.

“I’ve spotted Odious through the periscope. He’s at the dock throwing a hissy fit,” Iggy could be heard saying into Olive’s EarBuzz. Under her breath, she snarled, “We’re going to get you, you scuzzball! You’re never going to hurt Big Frannie again!”

After the Wahoos took off, Olive had joined Fable in Dipsy while Phil stayed to monitor everyone via Command Central in Vana, who remained at Hidden Beach along with the New Creature Division team.

“Big Frannie continues to follow the recordings of Little Frannie,” came Phil’s voice. “Keep Odious away! Theo, slow down, we don’t want to wear her out.”

“Copy that,” Theo said. “Sorry, I was just so excited.”

“We’re now heading toward Foggy Island,” James reported. “Fingers crossed Little Frannie is still in the vicinity—Wait, can you hear that?! Big Frannie is calling out to her baby!”

A cheer went up from the Misfits, and Fable and Olive high-fived.

“Has Bee spotted any whales or dolphins in unusual patterns?” Olive asked.

“Bee’s trained on Big Frannie,” Phil reported from Command Central. “The tracking lotion is working! I’ve also got Seagull in the air over Marine World. I’ll send livestreams to Dipsy so you and Fable can see what I’m seeing.”

“The bay is packed with Silly Sail boats,” Fable pointed out. “It’s likely the whales are keeping their distance.”

Phil came back on. “Iggy, what’s happening? I’m seeing Odious boarding the trawler.”

“Yeah, I’m tracking his direction before surfacing as Fake Frannie.” You could hear the glee in Iggy’s voice. “Brace yourselves for a chase like you’ve never seen before!”

Inside Dipsy, Fable kept a safe distance from Big Frannie so as not to spook her. Olive worried that the docile sea creature was slowing down.

“Most likely she’s exhausted.” Fable’s voice was even, but her jaw tensed. “Remember, she was trapped in that tank for a long time, unable to swim. Maybe we should tell Theo and James to stop for a while.”

Olive’s eyes went back and forth between Big Frannie and the computer screen. From above, Bee’s camera showed a glowing pink object in the water heading toward Foggy Island.

“Theo, pause,” Olive instructed. “Big Frannie needs to recharge.”

“I’ll send Bee on a sweep of the area looking for whale pods while she rests,” Phil told the others.

“Good idea,” Iggy answered. “Okay, team. Stand by. I’m surfacing in three…two…one…”

Phil’s livestreams came through on Dipsy’s screens just in time for Olive to see Odious aboard the trawler.

“Where is that stupid sea monster?!” the billionaire bellowed. He was so loud that his voice came in through Iggy’s ComChom, as Fake Frannie bobbed in the water just off the Marine World dock. “I want my sea monster!”

“LOOK!” one of his assistants screamed, clutching her hair with both hands so that she looked like a rabbit. “It’s the monster! It’s the monster!”

“Your boss is the monster,” Iggy muttered.

Olive watched as Seagull sent footage of Odious and his crew running to the side of the boat and pointing. He barked out orders as several assistants hauled the huge heavy net on board along with a weird contraption.

“It looks like a gigantic telescope on wheels,” Iggy said into her ComChom.

James clarified, “Most likely it’s a Sea Stunner—a device like a taser, only it’s used on big mammals to temporarily incapacitate—”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Phil said, not sounding sorry. Instead, she had a mischievous lilt in her voice. “Okay, Iggy, you’re good to go. Let’s get Fake Frannie up and out into the open!”

“Copy that!” Iggy shouted. “Engine revving, and we’re off to the races!”

With Odious’s boat slicing through the waves and leaving a wake behind, Iggy snaked toward the center of the Silly Sail Boat Parade. There were sure to be cameras everywhere, and the last thing Odious would want was publicity of him attacking a sea creature. Slowly, deliberately, Fake Frannie rose above the water. Instantly, a commotion ensued, and the race was on!

Fake Frannie led Odious on a wild chase. Repeatedly, Iggy’s Wahoo dove underwater, then surfaced several boats away. Every time she did this, the Fake Frannie riled up the boaters, garnering hoots and cheers and lots of selfies.

It seemed like the only person who wasn’t cheering was Odious. His big trawler wasn’t nearly as nimble as Iggy’s Wahoo and he was getting more and more agitated as she had him sailing in circles.

Meanwhile, after giving Big Frannie time to rest, James turned the Little Frannie audiotapes back on, and her singing began reverberating through the water.

“She’s following us,” James reported from the Wahoo as it slowly took off. “Has Bee spotted any whales? Dolphins?”

“None are showing up.” Phil hesitated. “Wait! Wait, I think I see what looks like a group of mammals east of Foggy Island.”

Theo’s voice came in. “Are they in a circular pattern?”

“Maybe…yes! Sending Seagull to confirm.”

“Little Frannie!” James began to chant, “Frannies! Frannies! Frannies!”

“Let’s not assume anything until we get a confirmation.” Phil sounded measured but upbeat.

Olive was finding it difficult to breathe. Her heart was racing so fast she had to hug herself to calm down. She looked over at Fable, who allowed a small hopeful smile to alight on her face, even though she was focused on Big Frannie swimming ahead of them. Olive was about to say something when, over their EarBuzzes, Iggy shouted, “Oh no!”

38.

The Real Deal

“What’s happening?!” There was a hitch in Phil’s normally calm voice. “Iggy, report in!”

Olive kept her eyes locked on Big Frannie swimming ahead, but her mind was running through a dozen possible scenarios. Misfits were trained to multitask and multithink. At Olive’s old school, her teachers called her distracted. But at RASCH, Modest and Monica praised her ability to entertain “concurrent thoughts.”

“There’s a drone trailing me.” Olive could detect tension in Iggy’s voice. “Whenever I surface, the same bird is overhead.”

“Oh, that’s just Seagull! It’s one of ours!” Phil sounded relieved.

“Uh, no.” Iggy was quick to correct her. “This bird is a pelican. A scary pelican.”

Immediately, Phil sent Seagull over to Iggy. “I’ve got my new drone looking at it now. You’re right, Iggy. The pelican’s eyes are glowing red, and it’s locked on Fake Frannie. It’s going to be hard to shake this one, since Odious probably dispatched it. Continue what you’re doing, surfacing and submerging. We want him to keep following you.”

Meanwhile, over a mile away, and about forty feet below the surface of the water, Bee was tracking Big Frannie’s movements.

“Based on my guess for her lung capacity, normally she might come up every hour or so,” Fable told Olive. “But she’s in such a weakened state, it looks like Big Frannie needs air every fifteen or twenty minutes. The good thing is that she can take a big gasp of oxygen quickly before going back under. Still, our friend is getting tired. Her constant singing to try to signal back to her baby also takes a toll on her.”

“Theo, keep guiding Big Frannie toward the cove at Foggy Island so she can get more rest,” Olive directed.

Meanwhile, Iggy positioned her Fake Frannie sub behind Odious’s giant boat as it plowed past all the Silly Sail vessels, leaving some upturned. Then, slowly, Iggy surfaced…and waited.

It didn’t take long for people to spot Fake Frannie. “Look over there!” they cried, pointing fingers and cameras. “That’s the real deal!”

Instantly, Odious’s huge trawler was surrounded by dozens of sea monster boats as even more tried to get closer.

“I’ve got him stalled in the bay,” Iggy said triumphantly. “Submerging now. There’s no way Odious can get out of this mess anytime soon. Okay to join all of you?”

“See you at Foggy Island,” Olive sang, thrilled that everything was going so smoothly. “If you happen to see Little Frannie along the way, let us know!”

As they all made their way to Foggy Island, Seagull captured the footage that they had been looking for. Not only were the whales swimming nearby but so were the dolphins.

With Bee trained on Big Frannie, the footage from Seagull allowed Fable to analyze other sea-life configurations as she piloted Dipsy. And now that Fake Frannie was underwater, Odious’s pelican drone couldn’t see it.

“It looks the same as the patterns they made when protecting Little Frannie earlier.” Olive’s heart fluttered with hope.

Fable pointed to Seagull’s footage. “The whales are swimming in sync, and the dolphins are jumping out of the water in playful configurations. But look! There’s an empty area at the center. Quite possibly it’s Little Frannie underwater.”

“Wait,” James interrupted. “Is…is this really happening?”

“I can’t believe what we’re seeing.” Theo’s voice was cracking. “It’s…it’s…”

“WHAT IS IT?!” Iggy implored. “Tell us! Turn your Wahoo camera on!”

In a flash, a blurry image of Little Frannie appeared on everyone’s screens.

Olive felt her heart swell. Keeping a respectful distance were the whales, though a couple of baby dolphin calves swam alongside and playfully nudged Little Frannie. She was floating upside-down, then did a twirl before going back under. Clearly, she would have won the artistic swimming competition.

The sound of Iggy’s gasp filled everyone’s EarBuzz. “Be there as fast as I can,” she said as cheers echoed in their EarBuzzes.

“Theo!” Phil said. “Return to Big Frannie immediately. I’m sending Bee to try to track Little Frannie, along with Seagull. We’re not going to lose sight of her. It’s time for a family reunion!”

As Theo and James raced back to the Foggy Island cove, they began blasting the recordings of Frannie’s baby underwater. When she heard this, Big Frannie perked up once again.

As she neared Foggy Island, the whales began to breach up out of the water, as if signaling. Big Frannie called out with a song so clear that it vibrated through Dipsy and the Wahoos. Almost instantly, it was returned by what sounded like an echo, only smaller.

“James, turn off your recording!” Phil shouted.

Big Frannie was hearing her baby sing live. She began to swim faster, stronger. Revitalized, and energized.

Iggy made sure her camera was on as she neared Little Frannie, who was surrounded by whales and dolphins. The baby looked at Fake Frannie, then at Big Frannie, momentarily confused.

Then, her mother called to her.

Instantly, the Frannies swam toward each other. Dipsy and the Wahoos waited in place as the other marine life parted to let mother and daughter circle, then brush up against one another.

“I can hear them crying,” James whispered, in awe.

“That’s me,” Olive, Iggy, and Theo said at the same time.

“I’m getting Big Frannie on video from above,” Phil told the team. “Everyone, keep your cameras on. We are witnessing history being made.”

“Yes, we need documentation from multiple sources.” Fable’s voice was reverent. “I’m so honored to be witnessing this.”

“Misfits,” Phil said. “Let’s stick to the plan. We have to keep moving.”

Dipsy began to surface so Olive could exit as they had rehearsed. She was to swim to Iggy’s Wahoo, then Fable would continue following the Frannies to the open ocean, with Bee and the Seagull tracking them.

Olive turned to Fable. “Thank you,” she said. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”

Fable looked surprised. “Me? It was all of you who helped save Big Frannie and her baby.” She gave Olive a hug. “We can talk later. Right now, there’s a pair of newly discovered sea creatures who need to get home.”

Dipsy rose to the surface. Swiftly, Olive opened the hatch. In the distance, as she adjusted her float coat, nose clamp, and FoggyGogs, she could see Fake Frannie surfacing.

“Looks like my ride is here!” Overjoyed, Olive signaled to Iggy, then did a perfect arched dive into the ocean.

39.

Danger!

The water was cold, but her swim lessons had paid off. Olive came up for air in time to see Big Frannie and Little Frannie surface before going back under. Immediately, whales encircled them, and nearby dolphins leaped high in the sky as if on the lookout. With her float coat inflated, Olive began to swim with strong confident strokes, fueled by happiness, toward Iggy, the Fake Frannie Wahoo, and the completion of a wildly successful assignment.

All was going exactly as planned…until the ocean had other ideas. Less than halfway there, the sea began to churn. Olive’s adrenaline spiked as the waters transformed from serene to angry. The waves rocked and roiled, shoving her beneath the surface and whipping Olive around like a berry in a blender.

“Danger!” Phil’s voice echoed in Olive’s EarBuzz. “Bee and Seagull have confirmed that Odious is in the area.”

Olive gasped, struggling to keep her head above the whirling water. The whales had turned around and were heading in her direction. They had abandoned the Frannies—but why?! Breaching up and smashing down in the sea, they created an avalanche of waves. Even though she was wearing a float coat, Olive was repeatedly shoved underwater.

Executing a synchronized swimming eggbeater, Olive was able to stand in an upright position in the water. With great effort, she executed a 180-degree pirouette and faced a trawler with Odious at the bow. Something was blocking a full view of him, and as the trawler approached, all became clear. He was standing behind the Sea Stunner, ready to aim. In a panic, Olive inhaled a massive amount of salty seawater. Gagging, she tried to spit it out as his boat headed toward her.

Odious’s face was bright red and he wore a wicked grin as his cape fluttered behind him. Meanwhile, the whales slowed almost to a stop and got in position, like a football team awaiting kickoff. It seemed the Frannies were being protected by the whales after all.

But no one was protecting Olive.

The ocean began to churn again as the whales plowed toward Olive in what seemed like slow motion—leaping out of the water and splashing down with earth-shattering slaps. As she tumbled over and under the ocean, terror started to take over. If she dove underwater, the whales would surely crush her. But there was no way she could swim away from Odious and his boat.

That’s when she heard it. Phil’s voice through her EarBuzz. “Theo, Iggy, Fable, dive down and out of the way.”

“What about me?” Olive wanted to say. Was this how she would perish, alone in the ocean?

But before she could call for help, Phil said, “Olive, look up. You know what to do.”

Olive tilted her head toward the sky to see Bee dropping a cable to her.

Oof! Muscle memory kicked in. With no time to waste, Olive grabbed the wire, tightening it around her fist, the way she did with an aerial silk. The whales drew close, and Odious even closer, when Bee began to lift Olive up and out of the ocean, causing her to swing in the air. Seagull was in the distance, probably following Fable and the Frannies. Wait, what was that? Seemingly out of nowhere, something menacing was flying toward her.

Olive’s head jerked around when she heard a whoosh flash past. She felt her heart stop, but was relieved to find out she wasn’t injured.

Instead, the Sea Stunner had hit one of the whales—stopping it only momentarily. But that wasn’t what Odious was aiming for. He reeled in his Sea Stunner, ready to take aim again, just as a bigger whale picked up speed. As it rushed toward Odious, Olive used her acrobatic skills to hoist herself up Bee’s cable. Giving it enough slack, she attached the wire to her fanny pack so that her arms were free.

Flying in the sky, she looked down just in time to see Odious aim the Sea Stunner—this time toward Big Frannie, in the distance.

“Got you, you ugly sea monster!” he yelled as the weapon sailed through the air. “No one plays me for a fool!”

CLANG!

Swaying from Bee’s cable, Olive couldn’t see past the thrashing waves as Big Frannie went under. But she could hear something in her EarBuzz….

It was Iggy. “Fooled you, you fool!”

Odious had hit Fake Frannie!

“Uh-oh,” Iggy said. “Looks like Fake Frannie is taking on water. We’re going to sink!”

“Abandon your Wahoo,” Phil ordered. “Now!”

“I got the sea monster!” Odious crowed. “Someone take my picture! Take my picture!”

Immediately, half his crew began to haul in his catch, while the other half documented what could best be described as a cross between a touchdown dance and looking like a lizard had fallen down his shirt.

“Iggy, report in.” Phil’s voice was rising. “Iggy, are you there?”

From above, Olive watched the real Frannies swimming away, accompanied by a stampede of dolphins and pods of whales. Then, all of them silently submerged without a trace, like they had never even been there, and the water was eerily calm.

Olive turned to her left to find Seagull flying nearby. But where was Iggy? Had she escaped from the Fake Frannie Wahoo?

“WHAT. IS. THIS?” Odious snapped.

“They are removing Birdie’s Fake Frannie from the Wahoo and are about to pry open the hatch,” Phil said, monitoring the situation. “Iggy, prepare yourself.”

Olive held her breath. What would Odious do to Iggy when he found her?

“It’s jammed shut,” one of his assistants said, cringing.

“So what?” Odious yelled. “Get it open. I want to see who thinks they can fool me with this fake!”

With the use of a crowbar, the Wahoo door was finally forced open. A brave assistant stuck her head inside, then after a couple of seconds reported, “Sir, there’s no one in there. It’s empty.”

40.

Are You Okay?

“Empty?! Then who was piloting this monstrosity?”

Odious shouted so loud that several of his assistants covered their ears. There was so much confusion on the boat that no one saw the giant whale silently swim under it.

“Olive,” Phil said in a measured tone. “Look to your left, and hold tight. Bee is going to speed up.”

Odious’s Pelican was circling, widely at first but moving in closer and closer. The enemy drone turned away as if retreating, then paused, turned around, and charged at Olive, its eyes flashing an angry red. It was fast, but Bee was faster.

Whoosh!

On their screens, the Misfits watched in horror as Seagull transmitted footage of Pelican chasing Bee, who was pulling Olive along with her. At superspeeds, the drones dove and dropped, making sudden turns and then quick stops. Through it all, Olive was yanked around, attached only by a thin cable that jostled her through the air like a kite during a storm.

It was a good thing that Mimi had trained her granddaughter to be a world-class acrobat. Anyone else would have been terrified, flying back and forth in the sky. But for Olive, it was like the trapeze, only two hundred times more exciting.

From her vantage point she could see Odious’s boat balanced atop…a whale? Where was Iggy? Some of the crew and assistants scrambled into a life raft, while others dove into the ocean as the whale gently tipped the trawler over, then swam away as quietly as it had arrived.

“The Coast Guard is on its way,” Phil reported.

Meanwhile, a passing motorboat, piloted by skeptic George Hinky, plucked several people out of the water.

“Keep hanging on, Olive,” Phil said. “Bee’s going to have to do some emergency maneuvers to shake Pelican.”

“Do whatever you need to do.” Olive searched the ocean. “Any sign of Iggy?”

“Iggy is very resourceful,” Phil reminded everyone.

Still, Olive worried. This wasn’t a SUCCESS Simulation; this was real life. And so much was happening at once. “How are the Frannies?”

“Fable,” Phil said, patching her in. “Update?”

“Big Frannie was energized when she was reunited with her baby.” Fable’s voice came in loud and clear. “There are nearby cliffs that look like they have patches of that seaweed they like so much. I’m hoping the Frannies can recharge before their big trek back to wherever they came from. For now, the sea mammals appear to be escorting them away from danger.”

“Will you be following them the whole way?” Theo asked.

“Dipsy’s capacity at sea is two weeks,” Fable said. “I think they’ll be traveling longer than that. Plus, I’d need to turn around in half that time or be stranded.”

“Once Bee is free from Pelican, she can help track the two,” Phil added confidently. “But first we need to get Olive on dry land and find Iggy.”

It went unsaid that they were all worried about Iggy’s safety. Bee flew Olive over Odious’s capsized boat as she searched for signs of the missing Misfit. Everyone on the ship had survived, and Odious and George Hinky were yelling at each other. In the distance, Olive could see something getting bigger. It was Pelican starting to rocket toward Bee. Before they had a chance to get away, Pelican opened its massive bill and, in one gulp, swallowed Phil’s tiny drone and flew off, dragging the cable—and Olive—behind it.

“BEE!”

The sound of Phil shouting filled everyone’s EarBuzz. Quickly composing herself, she asked, “Olive, are you okay?”

“I’m not sure where we’re going,” Olive answered as she rocketed through the air.

Finally, Pelican began slowing down, as if all its energy had been spent on capturing Phil’s tiny drone. Olive could see the wharf and some vessels from the Silly Sail, which had ended by now.

“Is Bee trapped in Pelican’s bill?” James asked. He and Theo had circled back to look for Iggy.

“Pelican is jerking back and forth. Bee’s probably banging around in there, trying to escape,” Olive guessed as she hung in the sky.

“Bee’s not transmitting.” Phil sounded worried. “Odious’s drone must be made of multititanium acretyrare that blocks her signals.”

Without warning, Pelican began sputtering and jerking. Even from below, as Olive hung in the air by a thin wire, she could hear Bee pinging inside the predator’s mouth. Then, at once, everything stopped.

It was eerily silent for a split second, as Olive swayed gently in the breeze.

“Phil?” she asked, her voice wary. “Phil, I think something’s about to happen.”

There was a slow, loud creak before the blast.

As Pelican shattered, Olive began to plummet into the waiting waves below.

She had never fallen out of the sky before without a backup plan. Oh sure, Olive had dropped from a missed catch on the trapeze. But that was different, and there was a net below her, and her grandmother was there to administer first aid, should she need it. Then there was that time when Olive had plunged from a moving helicopter—but Bee was there to save her.

This time she was 250 feet in the air and there was no Mimi, and no Bee, in sight.

41.

Sink or Swim

Calling on her acrobatic and synchronized swimming skills, Olive braced her mind and body. When what was left of Pelican swirled and whirled, then jerked and started to plunge—so did Olive. Only, she managed to flip in midair, feet pointed at the sun, head down toward the water, arms stretched out, and hands together aiming for the ocean.

SPLASH!

There was no bottom of the pool to push up from, so Olive saved her energy and didn’t fight the downward momentum from the sky-high plunge. Instead, she focused on unhooking the wire that attached her to Bee. If parts of Pelican were still working, Phil’s tiny drone might be dragged away, taking Olive along with her.

Learning how to hold her breath for Modest’s complicated routines came in handy. But the best lesson she had learned was to relax and not to panic.

“Trust yourself,” Mimi had said.

“Trust yourself,” Monica had said.

“Trust yourself,” Modest had said.

Now was the time for Olive to trust herself. Could she do this? Did she even have a choice? Olive shut her eyes and cleared her head to make room for calm. It was a long way back up to the surface and her lungs tightened so much that it felt like her chest was on fire. Swimming up and up and up, steadying her body, reminding herself not to flail, Olive could make out light illuminating the surface of the water.

“Just a little farther,” she kept telling herself. Aided by her float coat, she vertical flutter kicked and kicked, ankles down, toes pointed, and, using her core, she raised her arms and reached for the sun. “Keep calm and carry on….”

When her head finally popped up above the sea, Olive gasped, taking in big greedy gulps of air.

“Hey, save some for me!” a voice said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Olive touched her EarBuzz. Though she was exhausted, her legs were automatically doing eggbeaters.

“Iggy! Iggy, is that you?” Olive cried. “You’re okay!”

“I sure am. Turn around.”

Olive executed a hardscrabble pirouette in the water, then screamed with happiness. Iggy was doing a leisurely backstroke nearby, her head poking out of her float coat.

“I have eyes on both of you,” they could hear Phil saying. “Olive, stop moving—you’ll wear yourself out! Let your float coat do the work.”

Olive felt a rush of relief. “I’m so glad Bee’s camera has spotted us. I was so scared something bad might have happened to her.”

There was a long pause from Phil. “I still haven’t made contact with Bee.” Her voice was somber. “Seagull is livestreaming your whereabouts. Police Chief Ruby Lopez has contacted the Coast Guard. They are on their way to pick everyone up. However, Theo and James will bring you two back to Foggy Island. We don’t want any questions.”

By the time they neared Foggy Island, Monica and Phil were pacing, and Modest was on tiptoes. Finally, the Wahoo pulled into the Donut Trespass! cove, taking Iggy and Olive behind it.

“We’re so proud of all of you!” Modest did a horizontal body spin, and when he hit the water to swim out to them, he created waves. “You helped saved Big Frannie and her baby!”

The Wahoo hatch popped open to reveal James at the controls. Theo grinned and held up his fingers in a peace sign.

“James, you don’t have a license!” Iggy pretended to scold him.

“I won’t tell if you don’t tell,” he said, making sure the engine was shut off correctly. “Who knew that driving was so fun?”

Theo and Iggy raised their hands.

Later, once everyone was showered, dry, and warm, there was much cheering, celebration, and eating of Poppy’s Butter Bakery pastries in the lighthouse. Through it all, Phil’s hologram of Big Frannie swam overhead.

“Can you make one of Baby Frannie, too?” Theo asked.

Phil nodded, and Olive couldn’t help but notice that her best friend wasn’t nearly as happy as the rest of them. Plus, Phil wasn’t having any of the tiny double chocolate meringue tarts, crunchy lemon crinkle butter cookies, or apple pie cupcakes.

“You okay?” Olive asked as Phil was creating the Little Frannie hologram.

She stifled a sob. “Bee” was all she answered.

“She’s probably okay, right?” Olive asked hopefully.

Phil shook her head. “I can’t talk about it. I can’t even think about her right now.”

Olive didn’t know what to say. So instead, she gave Phil a hug, then backed away to give her some space even though the Free Frannie Headquarters was packed.

As they watched the last of the Silly Sail Boat Parade contestants sail off into the sunset, the mood moved from giddy to serious.

“What you NOCK agents did was remarkable.” Modest placed his hands over his heart.

“This was Fable’s mission as much as ours. Maybe even more,” Olive said as the rest of the Misfits nodded in agreement.

“Big Frannie and her baby are two of the rarest sea creatures in existence. One of the richest, most obnoxious men in the world wanted them for selfish, egotistical reasons,” Monica was saying. “We know what was driving him, but what was your motivation?”

Theo pulled a seashell out of his hair, examined it, and stuck it back in. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say we wanted to free a marine mammal who was being held against her will. And then when we found out about her baby…”

“Well, that was it,” Iggy jumped in. “They belong together. Mother and daughter. I knew that no matter what it took, I’d give it my all to reunite them.”

Olive watched Iggy, her face bright at the thought of the reunion.

“I am just so glad everything worked out,” Modest said, beaming at the Misfits.

Upon hearing this, Phil ran out of the room, unsuccessfully muffling her sobs.

Modest looked perplexed. “What did I say?”

“You guys forgot about Bee,” Olive reminded them. “We may have found Big Frannie and Little Frannie, but I’m afraid that Bee is lost.”

Modest’s massive shoulders slumped. “Not Bee!”

“Maybe Phil can make another one,” James suggested.

“You can’t just make another Bee!” Olive said, sounding harsher than she meant to. When James began to crumble, she added softly, “Bee was one of a kind.”

42.

Frannie Lives!

Later that evening in the Laundry Room, Olive wandered into the workshop, where Phil was staring blankly at the bank of computer screens. Multiple scenes from the city, news shows, and a documentary on famous inventors were playing. One screen remained dark.

“That was Bee’s,” Phil said softly.

Olive nodded. “Come on,” she urged, trying to get Phil’s mind off Bee. “It’s time for board games.”

Iggy and James were throwing tiny battleships and Monopoly pieces at each other, and Theo was trying to keep the peace when Monica rushed out of the faculty lounge. Her iced tea splashed out of her glass. “Quick, someone turn on the big TV!”

Modest followed close behind her. He was wearing glazed donuts on his fingers as if they were rings.

Phil lowered the ceiling screen and turned on the TV. The newscaster with the swoopy hair was reporting. “I’m here with George Hinky from the Skeptics Society!”

“I saw it!” George Hinky was flapping his arms, as if trying to take flight. “I saw Frannie!”

“Wait,” the newscaster said, arching an eyebrow. “I believe I have a scoop here. Mr. Hinky, head of the Skeptics Society, you are telling us that Frannie the sea monster lives?”

George Hinky kept nodding like a bobblehead doll. “Yes, I saw it, and I saw a big sea monster and a little sea monster, and a bunch of whales, then a girl started flying in the air, and then another sea monster surfaced, and then the boat was riding on the back of a whale, and then another girl appeared in the ocean, and the flying girl fell into the water, and they did synchronized swimming, and then…”

The newscaster was frantically signaling to the camera-person to stop filming George Hinky, before Pollyanna Matsuko stuck her head into the frame.

“Frannie lives!” she shouted. Then, in a kind voice, she said, “George, calm down, you’re embarrassing yourself.”

Smiling awkwardly, the newscaster pretended to smooth out his wavy hair. “What a day! What a day!” he said, winking. “And now, the weather!”

“So weird,” James commented. “Pollyanna and George Hinky always argued, and yet, you can tell they really like each other.”

“Yeah,” Iggy agreed. “What’s with that? Doesn’t make sense.”

Olive, Phil, and Theo burst out laughing.

James and Iggy scowled.

“What?” James asked.

“Yeah, what?” Iggy demanded, and the rest of the Misfits laughed even harder.

Without an active NOCK assignment, it was back to defensive fighting lessons, criminal mastermind studies, creative costuming, and undercover and stealth training. As fun as school was, Olive missed being out in the field on a case. She finally understood why her parents always loved their “business trips.”

A few days later, the Misfits were summoned to a video call with Police Chief Ruby Lopez.

“Phil, you there? Monica told me about Bee.” Ruby uncurled her fingers to reveal her turtle. “Gilbert and I are so sorry. We know what it’s like to have a special bond. Your drone really served NOCK in a huge way and was an incredible asset on so many assignments.”

Phil shrugged like it was no big deal, but Olive could see that she was struggling not to cry.

The police chief returned Gilbert to his aquarium and then announced, “Misfits, Modest, Monica, gather around. I got news you’re gonna want to hear. In the days since Big Frannie’s escape, Odious has been hit with several felonies and misdemeanors, including owning illegal and endangered species at his private unregistered exotic animal zoo, underpaying Marine World employees, exploitation of marine mammals, income tax evasion, and much more!”

Ruby unfurled a long sheet of paper that was taller than she was.

“YES!” Iggy shouted, and pumped her fist in the air.

The police chief went on. “The Department of Fish and Wildlife, Parking Violations Bureau, the Coast Guard, and the Internal Revenue Service are just a few of the institutions that would like a word with Odious.”

“Will he go to prison?” Theo asked hopefully.

Ruby fidgeted a bit. “We can only hope so. However, Odious is a billionaire with deep pockets. That means he can, and will, spend millions of dollars on his defense and drag this case out for years.”

Monica spoke up. “The good thing is that with Odious out of the picture, the animals at Marine World and OOZOO will now get the loving care they deserve.”

“Oof!” Theo cried.

The rest of the Misfits, Modest, and Monica joined in enthusiastically. “Oof! Oof!! OOF!!!”

That afternoon, the Misfits, Modest, and Monica were waiting impatiently at the cove when Police Chief Ruby Lopez emerged from the bushes, leaves poking out of her hair.

“Gathering a special treat for Gilbert,” she said, holding up fistfuls of the rare seaweed that the Frannies had liked so much. “But as for why we’re really here…”

A low hum of a motor sounded near the shore. Everyone faced the water in time to see Dipsy surface.

“Fable!” Olive cried.

Dipsy’s engine turned off, and their friend emerged, smiling broadly.

“The Frannies are okay!” she said as the Misfits cheered. “They’ve both been regaining strength, and other sea creatures took it upon themselves to serve as ocean escorts. There were schools of fish, manta rays, seals…I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was like a parade, and they were the special guests! I’ve got noninvasive trackers on them to make sure they’re safe. And I can’t be sure of this, but I think I detected others of their kind!”

“Of course, it only makes sense.” James’s eyes lit up. “If there’s a mom and a baby, there must be more. This species has probably been around for thousands of years, and we’re only just seeing them for the first time.”

“A whole colony of Frannies,” Theo whispered reverently.

Monica stepped forward, looking solemn. “On behalf of No One Can Know, a supersecret agency, aka NOCK, I am authorized to invite you to become one of us.”

The Misfits’ eyes widened. Olive looked from Monica, to Modest, to Ruby, to Fable. They were all beaming.

“We’ve heard from Dr. Littnan, director of the New Creature Division, and he’s officially requested that you join their team as the head of the Marine Sciences Cryptozoologist Division.”

Fable began to hyperventilate. “H-head of the whole division?” she stammered incredulously.

“Yes,” Monica confirmed. “However, you would be the only person in the division, at least to start.”

“I’d be my own boss!” Fable looked dreamy and her eyes were as wide as Big Frannie’s.

The police chief rooted around in her jacket and pulled out a bag of chips and handed them over. This was big because Ruby hardly ever shared her snacks. “Congratulations, and welcome to NOCK!”

“Welcome to NOCK,” the Misfits echoed, adding, “Oof! Oof!! OOF!!!”

As Modest danced ahead, toes pointed, arms aloft, Fable whispered to Monica, “Does he always do that?”

“Indeed!” Monica said proudly as she escorted the newest NOCK member toward the Laundry Room.

James and Iggy racewalked to catch up to them. “Fable,” James asked, “what about the ghosts? How is it possible that we were just seeing Frannie farts, when so many RASCHers saw ghosts?”

Fable smiled warmly. “Did you notice that no two people saw the same thing?” James nodded. “That’s because everyone saw what they presumed a ghost looks like. Maybe it was a ghost they saw. But sometimes we just don’t know, and that’s okay.”

Iggy poked James and whispered, “See, you don’t have to know everything.”

Then Fable added, “But finding out is half the fun!”

James poked Iggy back. “I like to have fun.”

Epilogue

A few days later, Olive was in Phil’s workshop, looking for her pen—the one with four different colors of ink. The metal tables were covered with prototypes of new gadgets and apps, and some of those grape lollipops with bubble gum in the center that Phil liked so much.

All the computer screens were lit except for one. Ever since Bee had vanished, Phil could not bring herself to use it. Olive felt a tug at her heart as she looked at the empty little bed Phil had made for Bee’s charging station.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Olive grabbed her pen and turned around to join the other Misfits in the Laundry Room. They were playing Jenga, Battleship, Operation, Twister, and Clue—all at once.

Just as Olive stepped out of the workshop, she heard a buzz. Jerking her head around toward the sound, she could not believe what she was seeing.

“Phil! Phil, come see this!” Olive shouted. “Hurry!”

Phil rushed in, followed by the rest of the Misfits. Bee’s screen was glowing, fading to black, then glowing green again. Immediately, Phil sat down and frantically tried to contact Bee.

“I’m getting a signal,” she said, sounding panicked and hopeful at the same time. “It’s weak, but I’m getting a signal. This monitor links directly to Bee. She must be trying to contact me!”

“What do we do?” Theo asked.

“We find Bee,” Iggy answered.

Later that day, Olive was running around Foggy Island doing tumbling routines, when Ethel stepped in her path.

“I was asked to give you this.” She slipped a folded note into Olive’s hand.

But before Olive could ask any questions, Ethel had disappeared.

Two hours later, the Misfits were leaving BoBu and heading to the city. Olive peeked at the note from Ethel again. It had very specific directions, the first one being: DO NOT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS, ESPECIALLY YOUR POD.

So, of course, she had immediately told the Misfits about it.

“Vana is waiting for us at the location indicated in the note,” Phil said.

“Maybe it’s a treasure hunt,” Theo guessed. “That would be kinda cool.”

“Primrose is probably going to prank us.” Iggy made a sour face. “She can’t be trusted.”

“I have to agree,” James said. “She’s a real piece of work. Ever since we bailed on Sync or Swim, she’s been calling me a loser.”

“Primrose called you that before we bailed,” Iggy pointed out.

“Well, to be fair,” Phil added, “she called all of us that, and worse.”

Laughing, the Misfits skidded around the corner, then froze. There, blocking the way to Vana, was a group of older kids who looked strangely familiar.

A teenage girl sporting red high-top sneakers scowled and pushed jagged dark bangs out of her eyes. An older boy with a neatly clipped Afro stood next to her, looking angry and bored, wearing glasses, a vest, and a bow tie. There was a shaggy-haired boy in a rumpled Woodstock shirt and torn jeans, who nudged another girl about the same age, who adjusted her headscarf and scowled at the rings on her fingers.

Olive’s anxiety levels shot off the charts when she came face to face with the teen in the middle. The surly-faced girl was about five years older than Olive, with black hair and messy bangs, dressed in a vintage T-shirt, jacket, and boots. Her incisor tooth was slightly crooked…exactly like Olive’s.

The girl cracked a wicked grin before running up the side of a building, balancing on the ledge, then executing a backflip and landing on her feet.

“What…” James said faintly.

Iggy’s usual bravado was nowhere to be seen. “Who are you guys?” she asked shakily.

The girl snapped her fingers. Instantly, the others gathered behind her in attack formation and smirked at the Misfits.

“We’re the MixFits,” she said smugly, “and we’re here to replace you.”

Agent Profiles

OLIVE COBIN ZANG

—Remarkably unremarkable

—Skilled acrobat

—Allergic to cats

PHILOMENA “PHIL” SAATCHI

—Tech specialist/inventor

—Wears her computers (what, you don’t?)

JAMES HARMON

—Too passionate about Battleship

—Certified genius

IGNATIA “IGGY” AMARA INZAGHI

—Combat specialist

—Not really a “people person”

THEODORE “THEO” WINTHROP III

—The mellowest of the Misfits

—Friendly and good-natured, excellent at talking to grown-ups

Gadget Profiles

FLOAT COAT

Inflates into a life jacket when submerged in water.

STARTLE STARTER

When snapped between fingers, creates a thunderous sound.

SPLATTER BALL

When thrown, the splat covers a window, blocking views.

BUBBLE CAM

Casing dissolves when wet to reveal a remotely operated video camera.

POWER PULLEY

Retractable wire that attaches to a rafter, beam, or branch. Can lift, lower, and reel in a heavy object.

MINI-TRAMP

Tiny device that unfolds into a medium-sized ultra-bouncy trampoline.

Acknowledgments

It was a blast writing A Sea Monster Conundrum! Of course, the Misfits and I had help. When researching the Frannie parts of the book, I called my friend, marine biologist Dr. Charles Littnan, the Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. “How would you transport a sea monster?” I asked, along with lots and lots of other questions. Thank you, Dr. Littnan!

Huge thanks to the Random House Children’s Books team, headed by Barbara Marcus, who has been a Misfits fan from day one. Tricia Lin, you are an amazing editor, and I love that no idea is too weird for you. Joey Ho, Alessandra Scarpaci, and Kris Kam, you guys are the best. Katie Halata, Adrienne Waintraub, Catherine O’Mara, David Gilmore, and John Adamo, your belief in the Misfits has helped bring the books to so many readers. Plus Carol Ly, Jen Valero, Clare Perret, Rebecca Vitkus, Tim Terhune, Lauren Stewart, Hilary Shrair, Caroline Abbey, Mallory Loehr, and Judith Haut—cheers to all of you!

Hey, Dan Santat, thank you for being a great illustrator and an even greater friend. Jodi Reamer, my agent—that final push that you always give me when I’m nearing writing the end of a book is much appreciated, even if I don’t always admit it.

To my fellow authors who help keep me afloat, your friendship means so much to me. Yes, talking about you, Grace Lin, Heidi Stemple, Molly Burnham, Jarrett Krosoczka, Mike Curato, and Mary Peterson. Amy Timberlake, being your pen pal is an honor, and Phil Baker, you are now officially in this novel.

To Benny, Kait, and my parents, you inspire me every day. And finally, to Rob, who never complains when I run wild and weird Misfit conundrums past him—all my love.

OOF!

About the Author

© Emi Fujii

LISA YEE has taken a private-investigator course, and it’s slightly possible that she’s a secret undercover operative. She’s also a Newbery Honoree and a National Book Award finalist for Maizy Chen’s Last Chance. Some of her other twenty-one novels are the groundbreaking Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time; and the DC Super Hero Girls novel series. A frequent contributor to NPR’s Books We Love, she divides her time between Western Massachusetts and Los Angeles.

LisaYee.com

@LisaYee1

About the Illustrator

DAN SANTAT is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of over a hundred books. His picture book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend received the Caldecott Medal. He also illustrated The Blur, Lift, and Drawn Together, all written by Minh Lê, which received critical acclaim. Dan is also the creator of the Disney animated hit The Replacements. He lives in Southern California with his family.

dansantatbooks.com

@DSantat

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