A Thief at the National Zoo (2 page)

At seven o’clock, KC and Marshall were back at the zoo. They came with the president and KC’s mom, Lois, in a presidential car. Two other cars followed. Each held four secret service agents.

The president was wearing a tuxedo. Lois wore a long white dress. A flower was tucked into her hair.

KC and Marshall wore their best dress-up clothes.

Dr. Tutu was waiting at the entrance of the zoo. He had dressed in a black tuxedo and white shirt. He carried his leather briefcase.

“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. President,” Dr. Tutu said. He escorted them, and the presidents secret service agents, through the empty zoo to a room near where KC and Marshall had played with the tiger cubs.

There were about twenty-five well-dressed people already there. Waiters carried trays of food and drinks across a thick red carpet. A crystal chandelier cast a soft light. Music came from a pair of speakers mounted on the walls.

When the president and Lois entered, everyone clapped. The secret service agents moved into the room and stood where they could keep an eye on the president and his family.

“Look, KC, there’s Sunwoo and her parents,” Marshall said.

Sunwoo and her mother wore matching yellow dresses. Sunwoo had a small purse with a thin gold chain slung over one shoulder. Her father was dressed in a tuxedo, like most of the men in the room.

“Let’s go say hi,” KC said.

KC and Marshall walked across the deep carpet. Sunwoo saw them coming and smiled.

“Mother, Father, these are my new friends,” Sunwoo said. “KC and Marshall, these are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chu.”

They all shook hands.

“I enjoyed my meeting with your stepfather,” Mr. Chu told KC. He winked. “And I like your big White House!”

Marshall glanced around the room. “Is the Tigers Eye here?” he whispered to Sunwoo.

Sunwoo nodded. “Father, I told them about it,” she said. “Can you show them?”

Sunwoo’s father was carrying a small black box with a tiger painted on the lid. Mr. Chu opened the lid and removed a square of red silk.

Nestled at the bottom of the box was a round yellowish object the size of a baseball. The roughly shaped emerald inside seemed to float in the amber.

KC stared at the emerald through the amber covering. The green gem appeared to glow. She had never seen anything so old or mysterious.

“Is it worth a lot of money?” Marshall asked.

“To the Chinese people, the Tigers Eye is priceless,” Mr. Chu said. “We would not sell it for all the money in the world.”

Dr. Tutu approached Sunwoo’s father. “If you’re ready, Mr. Chu,” he said.

Dr. Tutu led Mr. Chu to a corner of the room, where a table stood near the door. A velvet cloth lay in the center of the table. Mr. Chu placed the black box on the cloth. Dr. Tutu set his briefcase on the floor and nudged it under the table with his foot.

“Good evening, everyone,” Dr. Tutu said. “We are here tonight to accept a generous gift from this gentleman, Mr. Chien Chu. As you all know, many species of tigers are now extinct or endangered. Mr. Chu’s gift will help this zoo find more ways to protect the worlds tigers. Mr. Chu has also brought a surprise from his country.” All eyes went to the black box on the table.

“But first, Mr. Chu’s daughter, Sunwoo, will give the tiger cubs their official names,” Dr. Tutu added. He motioned for Sunwoo to join him and her father.

Everyone in the room smiled and looked at Sunwoo.

“Come up there with me,” Sunwoo whispered to KC and Marshall. “This is very embarrassing!”

KC looked at Marshall and nodded. They joined Sunwoo next to the table.

Dr. Tutu pulled a walkie-talkie from a clip on his belt and spoke into it. A moment later, the door opened and Dirk came in carrying Lucy and Ricky. He stood behind KC, holding the cubs so everyone could see their cute faces.

KC felt a sneeze coming on. Maybe she was allergic to tigers after all! She held
her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.
Please
, she thought,
don’t let me sneeze now in the middle of the ceremony
!

There were a lot of oohs and aahs as the guests admired the baby Sumatran tigers.

Dr. Tutu smiled at Sunwoo. “Have you picked names?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sunwoo said. “My family has chosen Indonesian names, because these are Sumatran tigers. The boy tiger will be Guntur. That is the Indonesian word for ‘thunder.’ We have named the girl Melati, which means ‘jasmine blossom.’”

Everyone clapped again.

“Those are fine names,” Dr. Tutu said. “Thank you, Sunwoo, for—”

Suddenly the lights went out and the room was pitch-black.

For a few seconds there was total silence, then everyone began talking at once. “I can’t see anything!” one woman cried. “What should we do?”

“Please remain calm,” Dr. Tutu called out into the black room. “We seem to have lost power, but I’m sure it will be back on in a moment.”

Just as KC turned to say something to Marshall, someone bumped into her, nearly knocking her off her feet. She reached out in the dark, trying to keep from falling.

She felt the table, then her fingers touched a human hand. Startled, she pulled her own hands back. Then she sneezed three times in a row.

Next to KC, Dr. Tutu began speaking to someone through his walkie-talkie. KC
heard people moving about, jostling each other in the dark. A few people were laughing, like this was a party game.

KC heard some of the secret service agents urgently talking to each other about POTUS.
POTUS
was their code word for her stepfather. The letters stood for “President of the United States.”

KC had a scary thought. What if the lights going out were part of a kidnapping plot?

“What’s going on?” Marshall said into KC’s ear.

“Beats me,” KC answered. “Just stand still or you’ll get trampled!”

The lights came back on.

KC blinked in the sudden brightness. She looked up and saw Dirk holding Ricky and Lucy, one in each big hand.
They were squirming and hissing. Their little legs were clawing the air.

KC turned around and tried to find her mother and the president. She spotted them near a far wall, totally surrounded by secret service agents. KC’s mother waved.

Sunwoo stood between her parents. “What happened?” she asked her father.

“Just a power failure,” Mr. Chu said. He patted his daughter’s hand.

“Now you see why we need your donations!” Dr. Tutu joked to the crowd.

Everyone laughed.

“Before the lights went out, I was going to ask Mr. Chu to tell us about his special surprise,” Dr. Tutu continued.

Mr. Chu placed his hand on the black box. He told everyone how the amber-covered emerald had been found two
thousand years ago. “When visitors come to China, they want to see the Great Wall first. Then they go to the Imperial Palace to see this Tigers Eye.”

Mr. Chu placed his hand on the box. “I brought it to Washington, D.C., to bring luck to the people,” he said. “Then the people will bring luck to the tigers.”

Mr. Chu lifted the box lid, facing it toward the crowd so everyone could see the Tigers Eye.

KC looked at the box. Except for the small silk cloth, it was empty.

Someone giggled nervously.

Dr. Tutu and Mr. Chu stared into the box. To KC, they seemed frozen, as if they’d been playing statues.

“The Tigers Eye is gone!” Mr. Chu said.

Everyone started talking at once.

The president walked to the middle of the room. “Folks, may I have your attention?” he said in a loud but gentle voice. “Please, everyone, be calm. Please stay in the room until we get this sorted out.”

The president, Mr. Chu, and Dr. Tutu stepped into the hallway. The president leaned against the door, holding it open. KC watched them talking in whispers.

Soon the three men came back into the room. Dirk was still holding the wriggling tiger cubs. He mumbled to Dr. Tutu. KC thought she heard him ask something
about the cubs. Dr. Tutu nodded, and he and Dirk left the room together.

Before the door closed behind them, KC saw Dr. Tutu unlock door number 3 across the hall. In a couple of minutes, the two men came back without Ricky and Lucy.

“I know this is going to be annoying,” the president said to the group. “But this room and everyone in it will have to be searched.”

Several of the guests groaned. “I have a babysitter!” one woman said.

“This won’t take long,” the president promised. “The First Lady and I will be searched along with everyone else. Even my secret service agents will have to be checked. Please be patient. We’ll all be on our way home soon.”

The door opened as the president stopped speaking. Five people dressed in gray uniforms stepped inside. ID badges hung from chains around their necks. The word SECURITY was stitched into patches on their shirtfronts.

“What are we looking for, Mr. President?” a guard asked.

“Mr. Chu, please tell us,” the president said.

Mr. Chu described the Tiger’s Eye, and the guards went to work. They asked the men to line up on one side and the women on the other. The guards began searching everyone.

“Will we have to get undressed?” Marshall whispered to the president.

KC giggled.

The president laughed. “No, Marshall,”
he said. “They’ll just pat us all down. The Tigers Eye isn’t exactly tiny. If anyone has hidden it in their clothing, these folks will find it.”

KC and her mother joined the women being searched. The president and Marshall went with the men. They were in line behind Dirk and Mr. Chu. The secret service agents kept the president in sight at all times.

Twenty minutes later, every person in the room had been searched. The Tiger’s Eye had not been found.

One of the security guards made a list of everyone’s name, address, and phone number. Then the people were allowed to leave.

KC stood with her mom, waiting for the president. He was talking to Mr. Chu. The
president had his hand on Mr. Chu’s shoulder, speaking quietly. Sunwoo’s father looked very angry. KC would have given anything to know what was being said.

KC had a strong feeling that searching the guests had been a waste of time. No thief would be dumb enough to hide the valuable Chinese emerald in his clothing.

She glanced around, checking for a window. She’d read a book once about a robber in a jewelry store tossing a bag of diamonds through a window. His partner had been waiting outside to catch the loot.

KC saw a couple of sofas and chairs and a few small tables. Now that there were fewer people in the room, KC also noticed a fish aquarium standing against one wall. But there were no windows.

The president, surrounded again by his
secret service agents, walked over. “I guess we can go now,” he said. “After we leave, the security staff is going to search this room thoroughly. Dr. Tutu and I told them to take the walls down and the floor boards up if they have to!”

The next morning, Marshall got to the White House at eight-thirty The guards all knew him, so he was allowed upstairs to the presidents private residence.

KC was eating cereal when he walked into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Marshall,” Yvonne, the presidents maid, said. “Have you had breakfast?”

“No,” Marshall said. “KC told me to be here so early, I had to run out of the house!”

“Have some cereal,” KC said. She tapped her spoon against the box of Animal Fruiteez sitting in the middle of the table next to a basket of fruit.

Yvonne brought him a bowl and spoon and a glass of orange juice. Marshall poured cereal and milk into his bowl. He began poking through the little floating animals with his spoon.

“What’re you looking for?” KC asked.

“One shaped like a spider,” Marshall said.

Marshall loved any animal, but especially those with six or eight legs.

“Marsh, there are no spider shapes,” KC reminded him. “Fruiteez are all circus animals, remember?”

Marshall kept peering at the floating shapes. “Aha!” he said. He grabbed a
shape and held it up. “No spiders, eh? So what’s this?”