Excerpt from AN INCREDIBLE CASE OF DINOSAURS
by Kenneth Oppel
Illustrated by Sam Sisco
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Miss Frost looked up as they burst into her office.
"You've got something, all right!" Kevin blurted out, skidding across the floor.
"A creature!" said Giles. "There is definitely a strange creature living in your pool!"
"I see," Miss Frost replied calmly. "You're quite sure about that, are you?"
"Sure?" said Kevin. "You should have seen the teeth on that thing!"
"Thank you, Kevin," said Tina firmly, "that will be enough. Miss Frost, I am please to report that I have made visual contact with the creature in question, and have managed to make an identification."
"Go on," she said.
"Unless I'm mistaken," Tina began, "and I so rarely am, the creature is actually a very rare species of Hydrosaurus."
"Are you telling me I have a dinosaur living in my pool?"
"Yes, I am, Miss Frost."
Giles had never seen anyone take such extraordinary news so calmly.
"How did it get there?"
"Through a crack in the bottom," said Giles. "It must swim in from some underground river. After we saw it, it darted back down through the crack."
A telephone rang. Miss Frost picked it up, said, "Not now," and hung up.
She looked back at the three of them and smiled. "Excellent. A remarkable job."
"Well, I think that about wraps things up here," said Kevin eagerly. "It's been a real pleasure, Miss Frost. We'll send you our bill and — "
"No, no," said Miss Frost. "You're not finished yet."
"We're not?" said Giles.
"I wonder how much a dinosaur is worth?" Miss Frost said quietly, turning towards the flashing wall of television screens. "It's one of a kind. I'd be the only person in the world to have one." She looked sternly at the three of them. "I want you to catch it for me."
From An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs, copyright © 1994, 2001 by Kenneth Oppel.
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