CHAPTER THREE: JUMBA AND FINDER'S JOURNEY

That night, Lilo was in bed looking at her photos sadly. The elevator rose, and Nani walked into the roof-top dome.

"Lilo?"

Lilo looked up. "Nani?" She jumped up, excited, and ran to her sister. "Well? What happened? Did you…"

Nani sighed. "We… we couldn't find him, Lilo," she said softly.

"Oh." Lilo was worried. "But… Jumba said Finder could find anyone or anything. Why couldn't he track down Merwin and Dean?"

"He could," said Nani quietly, "only Stitch wasn't with them."

"He wasn't?" Lilo was confused. This didn't make any sense. "Then why couldn't Finder just find where he was, then?"

"He did," said Nani quietly, again, "but… well, the man was heavily armed, it seems, and…"

Lilo gasped.

Jumba came upstairs sniffling, carrying a motionless, red body. Finder.

"Jumba!" Lilo was terrified. "What… what happened!"

"1-5-8… I am meaning Finder…" Jumba sniffled. "…and Jumba followed fake alien hunters. When we were cornering them, we were not seeing 6-2-6. They were saying that they had been robbed of the precious specimen."

"Stitch!" cried Lilo.

"Yes," said Jumba. "1-5-8 picked up new scent and we were following… it was leading us to laboratory. Finder was telling Jumba to wait outside. And then…"

Lilo wanted to hear more, but Jumba was sniffling hard now and she decided to let him pause.

"It had been long time since experiment went in. Jumba went inside to be seeing 1-5-8 and Stitch. And found… this." He held out the lifeless body of Finder.

Pleakley, who had been hiding in the closet the whole time, gasped and ran out. "The poor thing! What do you think hit it?"

"1-5-8 does not die…" Jumba stopped there. "…get – get hurt easily." He sniffed. "Must have been very advanced weapon that… that was doing this."

On the roof, Pepri snickered. "Humerous, a very advanced weapon? Sheesh, these guys really… OW!"

Shamus had hit him on the head. "You don't make a good spy, Pepri. You can't keep your big mouth shut." He grinned. "Do I have to call in Pidgeon? He can keep quiet."

"No!" said Pepri, but Shamus had already blown a whistle with the number 15 on it. He had twenty-seven whistles; one for each of his creations.

Soon Pidgeon arrived.

"How can I be of assistance, Sir Shamus?" he asked quickly. "I would like to be very much, Sir Shamus."

"That's more like it," said Shamus. "Pidgeon, I'd like you to have a little talk with Humerous. Tell him that 1-5-8 is fatally injured, thanks to him. We needed 1-5-8 for… for some experiments."

"Yes, Sir Shamus!" said Pidgeon.

"Ooooohhhh!" laughed Pepri. "What kind?"

Suddenly, Lilo heard somebody laughing. "Okay – who's laughing?" she demanded. She didn't think Finder dying was the least bit funny. But nobody answered.

"No one's laughing, Lilo," said Nani.

"Except me," whispered Pepri. "OW!"

Shamus had hit him on the head again. "Be quiet!" he hissed, as Pidgeon flew off. "We'll talk to the little girl later."

"Fine," grumbled Pepri, but he still wasn't completely quiet.