𝕄𝕒𝕩
The little animal that Riley found was apparently super rare. I had no idea this thing even existed but it was used for certain things. The men who I assume took it stole it. The poor thing was terrified, Tracker came to pick him up was going to take him back to Africa. At least he was going home, the task of finding the men who took him was assigned to the police. However Klea, Titan and I were going to launch our own investigation. Thankfully we had a license plate and Adam looked it up for us. We were going to go to this persons house and pray he didn't have more of this animal.
We made it to the house, did it surprise me that the police weren't here no. "What do you think?" I asked Klea. "We need evidence, maybe get Titan to check it out" she said. "Ok Titan we are looking for anything illegal or strange smelling animals" I said. Titan licked me and he went to the house, Klea and I watched. The van was cleaned out there was no sign of anyone around. Titan sat at the door I knew he found something. I mean what was our plan here knock and be like are you doing anything illegal. We were just teens not like they would tell us anything. Klea and I walked up to the door and she knocked. "What are we going to say?" I asked, "not sure yet we will improvise" she said. This had bad idea written all over it. I knew we were in for trouble. The door opened, Titan immediately went defensive, I knew he didn't like this guy he was bad news. There was also a kid he looked to be about 6 or 7 he was poking at the pangolin and it looked scared.
I knew these guys stole them at this point, "can I help you?" He asked. "We are here on behalf of endangered species, we are collecting funds" Klea said. The man laughed and slammed the door, "I expected that" I said, we called the police and told them what we found. I was glad when my aunt Callie came, I knew she would help. "You are sure they are in there?" She asked, "yes we saw 3 at least, and Titan can confirm" I said. Callie nodded as her partner and her walked up to the door and knocked. The man was arrested poaching endangered species was a crime, they were going to be returned to Africa. The little boy was taken into custody of child services. I felt bad for him but something about him was so familiar. I couldn't place it, his face or his eyes.
"That little boy does he look familiar to you?" I asked, "no " Klea said, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was like I knew him. I also felt like this was too easy, things like this should be hard. "Did that seem to easy to you?" I asked, "a little something doesn't feel right" Klea said, As we started to head home we were stopped by a large man in a van similar to the one we just tracked. "You two cost me my money and my kid!" He yelled at us Titan at this point was going nuts. Klea tried to run but he grabbed her, I of course wasn't going to let him hurt her. "Let her go!" I said kicking him. That of course just pissed him off more. He shoved Klea into the van and then grabbed me I wasn't going to let Klea go alone. I made sure I had Titan he was small, we were going to need him. The van drove to another location. I quickly texted Adam told him to track us and call police. At this point we had no idea where we were going, "I am sorry" Klea said, "not your fault, he had a gun. We will figure this out. Plus we have Titan" I said. "I guess but he is small what is he going to do?" Klea asked, "I am not sure" I said, "you said that boy looked familiar?" she asked, "yeah I am not sure, I can't place him. His eyes for sure I just don't know where I have seen them" I said. The van stopped and the door opened, "hope you both can swim, if not well see you later" he said slamming the door shut. "What?" Klea said as the van started rolling, "fuck" I said, "Max!" Klea said, "breathe Klea we can get through this, help me" I said trying to find anything to break a window. The van fell and splashed into the water, Klea was more panicking then anything we didn't have time for that, I needed her to focus, "KLEA! Find something to break a window" I said as the van slowly filled with water; this man wanted to kill us. "Right okay" Klea finally, jumped into action and we found a crowbar, I was able to break pry the door opened, and we all jumped into the water. Titan was struggling he was to small and I didn't know if he could swim. I had to hold onto him and keep myself floating.
"Max I can't" Klea said, "Try please I can't keep us all swimming" I said, I was a good swimmer but keeping Titan from drowning was hard enough, Klea was not a good swimmer. "Damn it" I said as I grabbed onto her too, "hold Titan" I said as I pulled her along with me, I was getting tired but we were a long way away from the shore. Then I heard it a boat, it was coming right for us, oh god was it going to stop? Then it pulled up alongside it, it was the coast guard, "ZUMA!" I said, "hey bud, not a good place to be" he said, as he pulled us all in. "Thanks, how did you know?" I asked, "well your friend was tracking your phone and said the last ping he received was over the bridge. He lost the signal and we just assumed" Zuma said. "I am so glad you are here" I said as we were all checked over other than being cold we were all okay. I knew my dad was waiting for us. "Who did this?" he asked, "the father of the little boy, this man here in that photo" I said pointing to the ones we had. "Ugh, I was afraid of that" dad said, "why?" I asked, "he has been on our radar for a while. He is just really bad news, if he stole those little pangolins there is only a matter of what else he has done. He wanted to sell them I am sure" dad said. "Yeah said we cost him a lot of money" I said, "alright you two up for a little undercover?" my dad asked me and Klea we both looked at each other and said, "hell yeah" at the same time. My dad laughed, this was going to be fun, "I will make sure that Mr. Ruzek knows and he put it towards your grades, I have no doubt the 2 of you will go far" dad said. I smiled at him this was exactly what we wanted, now I had no idea what this undercover operation was going to be but I was ready for anything and I knew Klea was too.
