Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack Read Online Free Page B

I mean ma’am! I mean miss! Justice Jack exists because of you!”
    Well, this is all a little much. So I take
another
step back and go, “Uh … we’re just here to return a bird?”
    “Just like Justice Jack!” the nutcase cries. “See?” he calls to the army of Big Nets. “Crime fighters to your rescue!” He swoops in on me again and drops his voice. “I can’t believe you don’t wear hero gear—at least a mask! What if someone recognizes you? What if the evildoers of the world return for revenge? What if—”
    “Here,” I tell him, shoving the bird into his arms and snatching back Billy’s jacket. “This is the only thing that’s getting returned.”
    “A pea
hen
?” he exclaims, like I’ve just handed him a pot of gold. He turns to the Big Nets and cries, “Your supply problem is over!”
    “We don’t have a supply problem,” one of the Big Nets growls. “We have an
escape
problem.”
    Suddenly Justice Jack snatches a buzzing cell phonefrom the back of his tool belt. “A security breach on McEllen!” he cries as he reads the text. Then he gasps, “Scoundrels!” and turns to Officer Borsch. “Urgent situation at City Hall, Commissioner—some hooligans have made off with the statue!”
    “What stat—” Officer Borsch squints at him. “The
softball
statue?” Then he puts his hand up and says, “Never mind!” and you can tell there’s no way Officer Borsch is going to get his news from a wannabe superhero.
    Justice Jack seems to take no offense. He just re-holsters his phone, then forces a business card on me:
    JUSTICE JACK
    It’s a Good World. Let’s Take It Back!
    It lists three different ways to reach him to report “crimes in motion that need to be stopped!”
    “To the High Roller!” he cries, then charges to his tricked-out dirt bike, where his sidekick is sneaking swigs from a flask. “Farewell, citizens!” Justice Jack shouts as he fires up his rig and roars off with his flag flapping through the air.
    “That dude is
awesome
,” Billy squeals after he’s gone. “I finally know what I want to be when I grow up!”
    Marissa looks at him like he’s a Nibbles nugget gooshed on the bottom of her shoe. “Are you
serious
?”
    He gives her puppy dog eyes. “I’d let you be my sidekick …?”
    “This is not a joke!” one of the Big Nets calls. “Now, are you going to take a report, or what?”
    “Please,” Officer Borsch says to me, “take your friends and go,” and I’m happy to do just that.
    Now, the whole time we’ve been there, eerie peacock cries have been meowing through the air. And when we join up with Holly and Dot, Holly kind of shivers and says, “I would not want to live out here. Those cries are creepy!”
    Casey nods. “Maybe that’s why somebody cut them loose.”
    “Well, it sure didn’t shut them up!”
    “I’m glad we can finally go,” Dot says, yanking hard on Nibbles’ leash. “He’s after something in those bushes, and I can’t get him to quit.”
    “Couldn’t be a bird,” I tell her with a laugh.
    She laughs, too. “Or a cat or a mouse or any other animal.” She yanks hard, dragging Nibbles along. “The only thing he goes after is—”
    She stops short, then turns to look at the bushes that Nibbles is trying to get to.
    “Is what?” I ask her.
    Slowly she turns to face me, and her eyes are huge.
    “People.”

FIVE
    Casey shines a light at the bushes and takes a few steps toward them.
    “No!” Marissa says, grabbing his sleeve. “For once, just once, can we go somewhere without
looking
in, or
hiding
in, or
falling
in bushes?”
    “I’m just going to shine a light,” Casey tells her. “It’d be pretty hard to fall in.”
    “No!” she says, pulling him back. “Someone will fall in. Someone always falls in!”
    The rest of us stare at her.
    “Why?” she squeals. “Why do
we
have to go investigate when Officer Borsch is right there!”
    “What if it’s just a lizard?” Casey asks. “You want the