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Hornet's Plan

Hornet's plan was simple. She remembered how the Counte had them contact him the first time. They used a carrier pigeon. And, as it turned out Ida knew a man who trained carrier pigeon's just outside the city. Ida went to visit him.

Once they got the pigeon trained to come back to Ida's house, (which took about a week, which was decent. Scipio might be able to pick up what they were doing, and get the note. Maria, and the other hand, might not. They'd just have to pray it worked.

Hornet set the pigeon loose beneath Maria's window. It was seven in the morning. Hopefully Maria would be there.

Up in her room Maria was laying on her bed. Her nanny had left the room to take a shower and do her hair and whatever else nannies do. She stared at the ceiling.

Tap, tap, tap, went a noise at the window. Maria glanced over and saw a pigeon. She ignored it, but it kept tapping. It was enough to drive someone mad.

She got up and walked over to the window to scare it away. Tap, tap, tap, it went. Maria came to the window and saw it had a piece of paper stuck to its leg. Maybe it was trash. But it had a legging holding it on. That's what carrier pigeon's wore when they were carrying notes. Intrigued, she opened the window and grabbed the pigeon. She pulled the little paper from his leg. She recognized the handwriting. It was Hornet's. In little tiny letters Hornet had wrote:



I want to help you escape, (again). Tell me all the

important details that would affect your rescue.

(locks, guard dogs, and so on)

Your friend,

Hornet

Maria flipped the paper over. She grabbed a pencil and wrote:

I have my nanny staying in my room.

She takes sleeping pills at night though,

so she's out cold. Also, my doors locked,

and there are guard dogs outside but they get

drowsy after they eat big meals.

Your friend,

Maria

Maria put the note back onto the pigeon's leg. It flew away.

Hornet was reading over Maria and Scipio's notes. Scipio said the bars on his window weren't on tight, but he couldn't reach the screws holding them up.

Interesting.

It was two in the morning. Prosper, Hornet, Mosca and Riccio were ready to help Scipio and Maria escape. Bo wanted to come too, but they wouldn't let him. Ida promised not to let him run away.



They went to Scipio's house first. They had a latter to get up to his window. Mosca brought some tools, and, trying to make the least amount of noise possible, he unscrewed the screws on the bars.

Scipio was awake by the time that the bars were off. He didn't know when they were coming. He pulled his hair back into its usual ponytail. He climbed down the latter and the five people went to the Romano's house. On his bed there was a note that Scipio wrote to his father.

Riccio had a few slabs of meet in his bag, which, when you think about it, wasn't the smartest idea. He certainly attracted the attention of all the local dogs, that's for sure.

Prosper left meat around the house, and the dogs found it immediately. Luckily, there were only two.

The dogs fell asleep. Hornet almost had a heart attack when one of them opened a drowsy eye toward her when her and Prosper were moving the latter under Maria's window. The latter was too short. Mosca (since he was the tallest) climbed up it and knocked on the window, gently.

Maria lifted her head. The woman in the bed next to her didn't stir. Maria came to the window and opened it.

An alarm went off inside the house. "Come on," Mosca said. He helped her down from the window. The alarm blaired in the ears. All of them ran away into an alley and were gone before anyone in the house had a chance to do anything.

Scipio, Maria, Prosper, Hornet, Mosca and Riccio ran separate ways to confuse anyone who could be fallowing them before meeting back up at Ida's.



"We're going to have to leave for a while," Scipio told Maria, a half an hour later. Hornet, Prosper, Riccio, Bo, and Mosca were all asleep and warm inside. Scipio and Maria were sitting alone in the garden. "We can't stay here. The police would know where to find us."

"Only for a month or two. Then we could come back."

"Yes. I wonder where we should go?"

"What about Isola Segretta? Renzo and Morosina left, and there's that big house there." She didn't say that they were sure to have moved the merry-go-round, but they both knew it. "Mosca and Riccio could come, too. The house is much nicer than that warehouse they've been living in."

"Sounds good."

They sat in silence for a while, and it was still dark outside. "Hey, Maria?" Scipio said.

"Yeah?"

Scipio kissed her.

From the window Ida and Victor were watching them.

"Finally," Victor said.

"It didn't take him as long to kiss her as it did for Prosper to kiss Hornet," Ida remarked, just as Prosper was coming down the stairs from his room. They couldn't see him, but he could hear them. "Poor Hornet. When is Prosper ever going to get a clue?"

Prosper walked back up the stairs. Ida and Victor heard him go up. "You knew he was there, didn't you?" Victor asked Ida.

"Of course," she replied.

Prosper knocked on Hornet's door. "Prop, I'm tired, can't you let me rest?"



And he kissed her, too.

The next day, after Scipio, Maria,Mosca and Riccio went to Isola Segretta, Dottore Massimo was on his son's bed, reading the letter Scipio left him.

Dear Dottore Massimo,

I won't be coming back. You should have been a better father. Don't try and tell yourself it wasn't your fault. You could have made time in your busy schedule for me. But you ignored me. Apparently I wasn't more important than your work. It's not all you, though. Mom only saw my three or four times a year. Thank-you for feeding me, giving me an education, and giving me a place to live for the last thirteen years. I wish I could thank you for more. Maybe I'll visit you in five years of so. Maybe I won't. I'm sorry to tell you this, but tonight you've lost your son.

Sincerely,

Scipio

As Dottore Massimo read this, he cried. He actually cried. He knew he had messed up his life. When he read the first line, where his own son addressed him as 'Dottore Massimo', it was enough to break his heart. He hadn't loved Scipio until he was gone. If given another chance at fatherhood, he would do a much better job. He wished he could tell Scipio he was sorry.

Wow. I didn't know this could happen, but I actually feel bad for Dottore Massimo. And I didn't know carrier pigeons wore leggings until yesterday. Okay, one more chapter left, it's (sort of) the epilogue. Also, I might not write another story, it depends on how I feel. Please review this chapter, seeing as the story is almost finished. I have to know what you think.

Signed,

timetofly116