As the red brick buildings of Old Town came into view, Reena shifted forward on her scooter. She and Mica had only done this once or twice, and it really hadn’t worked great either time. But one day they would perfect it. Maybe this was the day.

Up ahead a few more blocks, a stoplight hovered threateningly above the intersection of Central and Washington. They’d have to hit it just right.

Her visor flashed, and the screen displayed a photograph of an older blond teenager with blue eyes making a terrible face at the camera.

Because of course Jim would call her right now.

Is he okay? Shouldn’t he be on his flight by now?

She nodded one quick nod to accept the call, and Jim’s voice greeted her faintly in the Bluetooth earpiece she’d soldered into her helmet.

“Hi, Jim!” Reena forced herself to sound cheerful and calm. “Are you on your plane?”

“What’s wrong?” Jim went deadpan immediately.

“Nothing!” She squeaked and stifled a groan as she hit a pothole that nearly threw her. “I’m cheerful and calm.”

“Reena.”

And now he was pulling the big brother voice. Jim didn’t really know how to be a big brother, since he’d only ever been a little brother, but at least he was trying.

“Everything’s fine, Jim. You just caught me in the middle of something.”

“Are you—driving?” His voice took on the same tone her mother’s voice did when she found her husband in the kitchen making dinner.

Knowing Jim he was already running a satellite scan of her location.

“Reena, your scooter isn’t rated for city driving!”

Wow, that didn’t take him long at all.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re really not. You need to get off the street right now.”

“I will, I will.” She dodged another pothole. “I just really need to pick up something, and I’ll go right home. I promise.”

He sighed heavily.

He must have been practicing his authentic-sounding big brother sighs, because that one was pretty convincing.

“Did you forget something?” She forced the cheerful and calm tone again.

“You’re going to make me old, Reena.”

“You’re already old.”

The trolley was turning. She adjusted her stance on the scooter and followed it around the corner as the light turned yellow behind her.

“Okay,” Jim started, “I was getting ready to board the plane, and I remembered something I forgot to ask you.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So remember a couple weeks ago when we kind of opened a door into an alternate dimension?”

Reena rolled her eyes. “No, Jim, I completely forgot about that.”

“You did?”

“Jim, how is it you speak twenty languages and you don’t understand sarcasm?”

“So you do remember?”

“Yes, I remember falling into an alternate dimension, Jim,” Reena huffed as she scooted roughly over a patched crack in the road. “I remember the talking fox people and the centaurs and the random alien people who eat Indian food.”

“Oh, good, you do remember.”

They were really going to have to work on that. He understood his sister, and Barb had a doctorate in sarcasm. So this shouldn’t be difficult for him and his very literal brain.

“I had you running a keyword search in the Peregrine archives for any reference to the Mitchell case back in the late 90s, or the 2000s,” Jim said. “Did you get that started?”

“Yeah, right away.” Reena guided her scooter up on the sidewalk as the road turned to bricks. No way was she driving her scooter over bricks. She’d break her teeth.

“Okay, I need you to put a halt on that,” Jim said, his voice turning just a bit sharp. “Kind of fast.”

“Why? Did something happen to Meg or Danny or Jenny?”

Jim cleared his throat. “Oh, just found some new information.” His voice sounded a bit higher than normal. “Not a big deal. We don’t need the Peregrine archives anymore.”

Even as she shot down Washington street in pursuit of the Q-Line trolley with the wind blasting her face and the whir of her engine ringing in hear ears, she could hear the lie in his voice.

Jim was lying to her.

She dodged a person who was standing on the sidewalk talking into a cell phone.

Jim never lied to her. Ever. 

No wonder he’d waited to ask me over the phone. He couldn’t have lied to my face.

But she didn’t have time to think about it right then. She’d think about it later.

“You got it, Jim,” she said.

“And you can do it today?”

“Sure can.”

“Great.” He sounded relieved. “And you’re going to get off the street, right?”

“Already am!”

She neglected to mention that she’d be back on the street again in a few moments, but what Jim didn’t need to know wouldn’t hurt him.

“Okay. Just be careful, you little punk.”

Reena smirked. “I will if you will, you big nerd.”

Jim laughed. “Later.” And he hung up.

Reena blew out an exhausted breath and gunned the engine. She’d figure out what Jim was talking about later and made a mental note to discontinue the keyword search as soon as she survived this current crisis.

Second Street was approaching. Things were going to get real hairy real fast because the trolley wasn’t going to stop, and Reena had to. Or at least, she had to divert slightly to pick up Mica.

She could cut across the intersection and zoom into the parking lot where Mica would be waiting, and then they could follow the trolley as it continued down Washington toward Douglas.

Except—

The trolley suddenly veered sharply across traffic and then back again, wobbling and wiggling as it came up to the intersection. Reena could hear screaming inside.

“Oh no.”

Sure enough, the red panda clambered out of the back window, wide-eyed and frantic to escape the inside of the trolley.

“No, no, come on!”

The panda leaped off the trolley and landed in the bed of a passing pickup truck. The truck turned on Second Street and zoomed west toward the river.

“Okay, doesn’t change the plan.” Reena sped up and gauged the oncoming traffic. It wasn’t going to be a problem.

She sailed across the intersection diagonally and aimed for the parking lot of Senjumin sushi restaurant.

Out front of the restaurant, Mica bounced up and down in the parking lot, waving her hands over her head like a maniac. Her golden yellow leggings blurred vibrantly in the shade of the brick restaurant, topped off with denim shorts and a slouchy forest-green Henley that was probably two sizes too big.

Since it was Mica she probably had a paisley print duster somewhere too, but fortunately she’d left it behind. And, as promised, she was already wearing her helmet—a lime green job plastered with vinyl bumblebee stickers.

Reena glided past her and Mica broke into a run, picking up speed until she was able to leap off the sidewalk and land on the back of the scooter platform, holding on to Reena for support.

“Hey, that worked!” Mica laughed.

“Yeah, for once.” Reena gunned it and chased after the truck.

“Did you see that?” Mica took hold of the steering bar under Reena’s arms and held on. “That little critter? It jumped right off the trolley.”

“I saw it.”

“That’s what we’re after, right?”

“It’s in the blue truck up ahead.”

“Awwww.” Mica cooed. “What’s her name? She’s so fluffy and pink.”

“She’s a menace.”

“You’re just grumpy ‘cause you’ve been chasing her all this time. I bet she’s scared of you. I bet she’ll like me just fine.”

Reena checked the traffic before scooting across the next intersection. The speed limit on Second Street was slower than Washington, and the old blue truck ahead of them kept belching out smoke. So maybe they would actually be able to catch it.

“Why did your dad have a red panda in his safe?”

“I have no idea,” Reena glanced back at her.

“You’ll have to tell me what he says when you ask him.”

“Who says I’m going to ask him?” Reena wheezed. “We’re going to catch that little troublemaker, and I’m taking her home and shoving her back in the safe, and Dad won’t know the difference.”

Mica made a tsk-tsk-tsking noise. “Your dad always knows. It’s those highly tuned alien senses of his.”

Reena rolled her eyes and got them across another intersection.

Mica knew about her family’s unusual heritage. Of course, she knew. She and Reena told each other everything, even the awkward stuff. Mica had been her friend when no one else wanted to be around her.

Reena had every possible strike against her on the Friend Scale. Her dad worked for the FBI, as far as anyone knew, and for some reason that intimidated everybody. Reena was smart enough to have been hired by the Peregrine Agency, which meant to everybody else that she was too smart to be normal. And Reena herself just wasn’t cool. Cecilia got all the looks. Her older brother Tayvian got all the athleticism. Sure, she got all the smarts, but that was the least useful skill in having friends when you were fourteen.

But that’s not how Mica made friends.

Mica just looked for whoever seemed lonely and attached herself until you pried her off with a crowbar.

“Hey, Reena?”

“What?”

“We’re going to go past Epic Center.”

Reena blinked at her and then at the tall building up ahead of them.

“Oh no.”

Of all the buildings they were going to pass, why did they have to go past Epic Center?

Ahead of them, the blue truck stuttered and coughed, and the little red panda in the bed poked its furry head up over the tailgate.

“What’s she doing?” Mica gasped.

Reena increased the speed. “I think she’s jumping out.”

The little pink red panda gathered itself and leaped out of the truck bed. She sailed through the air and hit the sidewalk at the intersection of Second and Main in a rolled up ball of striped fur. She crashed into one of the bushes and scrambled out the other side.

“Reena.” Mica caught her breath.

“I see it. I see it.”

Reena poured on the speed.

This was the worst possible scenario. It was one thing when the creature was loose in the house. It was something else when it was wreaking havoc in bookstores or on the Q-Line or even in Old Town. It couldn’t go into the Epic Center. It couldn’t.

That’s where her Dad’s office was.

Reena popped the scooter up on the curb just as the red panda darted through the revolving doors into the atrium of the tallest building in Kansas.

Mica jumped off the back of the scooter as Reena parked it and turned the engine to idle. They ran after the panda. The cafe inside the atrium wasn’t open, so no one was visible at the tables or waiting for the elevators, fortunately.

But one of the stairwell doors were propped open, and that’s where the red panda went.

“Are we taking the stairs?” Mica groaned.

“We have to!” Reena raced after the red panda.

“There are a million stories, Reena!” Mica followed her as they hit the cement steps and began the trek upward toward the twenty-second floor.

Their hurried footfalls echoed in the cement stairwell, and the cold cast iron banister railing felt icy under Reena’s hand.

Just get past the fourth floor. Just get past the fourth floor.

She and Mica dashed up the stairs on floor four and kept going, and Reena breathed a little easier. If her father or one of his FBI coworkers had come out into the stairwell, they would have had a lot of explaining to do.

They circled and circled and circled. Ahead of them the panda did the same until slowly they all began to falter.

Halfway up, the jumping red panda ahead of them wasn’t jumping anymore. Even from a floor and a half behind it, Reena could hear the little creature grunting and gasping.

“Maybe–we’ll get lucky and–it’ll run–out of steam.” Mica gasped.

“We’re not that lucky,” Reena panted.

They climbed.

And climbed.

And climbed.

Reena stumbled up the stairs, refusing to quit. Mica dragged herself behind her.

Floor twenty.

Floor twenty-one.

Floor twenty-two! Finally!

“Won’t the door be locked?” Mica struggled for air on the half stair leading up to the top landing.

Reena pointed to the propped open door that led to the roof. “I told you. No luck. At all.”

Mica groaned and followed Reena onto the roof.

Epic Center’s roof had a narrow ledge that ran the perimeter of the building, and the triangular shaped covering on its top was made of copper. It practically glowed in the bright sunshine.

Reena shaded her eyes.

It was possible to get to the peak of the roof, but it wasn’t easy. And hopefully the panda hadn’t figured it out because Reena wasn’t sure how to get up there.

“Reena.” Mica grabbed her arm and pointed.

In the corner of the roof, the little red panda curled into a ball, gasping and shivering against the ledge. Reena lifted her visor and approached the animal softly, with her hands spread.

“Hey, little one.” Reena crept toward it. “I know you’re scared. Come on. With me. I’ll take you home, okay?”

The animal went wide-eyed again, bristling and posturing.

Mica stopped Reena with a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe we need to prove that we’re friends.”

Reena sighed. “How are we supposed to do that? I’m talking to it, aren’t I?”

“You can’t always convince someone you’re friendly by talking.” Mica beamed. “Sometimes you have to bribe them.” She shoved her hand into her jeans pocket and pulled out a plastic sack of pickled ginger. “See?”

Reena wrinkled her nose. “What are you going to do with that nasty stuff?”

“It’s pickled ginger.” Mica frowned.

“I know what it is.”

“It’s delicious.”

“That’s a matter of opinion.”

Mica harrumphed. “You don’t know what’s good, you heathen.” She stepped around Reena and inched toward the panda.

“Hi.” She knelt. “I’m Mica. You don’t know me, but I think we’re going to be friends. Even if you’re pink. Pink is an okay color, but I like yellow better.”

The red panda tilted her head at Mica’s voice, pink irises showing a bit more color than before as its pupils began to retract.

Reena held her breath.

Did red pandas like pickled ginger? What was this madness?

Well, if that was the case, maybe they could lure it close enough for her to touch it. If she could grab it and get it in her backpack, they could get it home in one piece and back into the safe.

Mica opened the plastic bag of ginger and smelled it. She pulled out a tiny sliver of the obnoxiously scented pinkish colored root and waved it at the red panda.

“See?” She ate the piece of pickled ginger and grinned. “It’s yummy. And so good for your digestion too.”

“Yes, we want to make sure the marauding red panda is getting all her probiotic fiber.” Reena rolled her eyes.

The red panda began to sniff the air, bristled tail bushing out behind her.

Incredible.

This might actually work.

But how to catch the creature?

Reena peeled her backpack off. “You keep doing whatever you’re doing.” She backed away. “I’ll go around and come up behind her.”

Mica gave her a thumbs up.

Reena turned on her heel and started jogging around the roof’s ledge. It was a large building, but it wouldn’t take her too long to make the whole circuit and come up the other side behind the red panda.

They could do this.

She could still catch it and get it home before her dad found out. This was going to work. It had to work.