Invasion of the Dognappers by Patrick Jennings Page B

we have to go to my house and you have to return the dogs, like you promised.”
    “How will we get there?” the alien said. “Your little friend here has the transmitter.”
    Aggy patted her pants pocket, the one with the rusty nail in it. “I still have it,” she said.
    “That’s true, sir,” Logan said, thinking quickly. “Aggy will bike back to my house.”
    “I’m afraid we cannot go to your house before I transport the dogs to the ship,” the alien said.
    “Why not?” Logan asked.
    “Because I’m going to transport them to the ship now.” The alien opened his mouth wide.
    “No!” Logan screamed. “You promised, sir! We shook hands and tapped noses….”
    The alien vanished, as did the barking from the shelter.

34. Giving the Boss the Business
    “I say we call nine-one-one,” Aggy said to Logan, who was sitting on the handlebars of her bike as she pedaled.
    “No one will believe us,” Logan said over his shoulder. “No one can help us. We don’t have any other choice but to go to my house and hope he keeps his promise.”
    “Why would he?” Aggy said. “He has everything he wanted. He has all the dogs.”
    “But he tapped noses with me.”
    “Stop with the tapping noses, will you?”
    “So far he’s kept his word. The deal was the dogs and I get sent home and he takes the shelter dogs. He took the shelter dogs, but he left me here. Now he’ll return the dogs.”
    “They’re probably shooting across the universe in their spaceship as we speak!”
    “I disagree.”
    “Will you stop tipping?” Aggy yelled as the bike started to wobble. “You’re going to make me crash.”
    “I’m not trying to! Stop hitting bumps!”
    “I can barely see the road ahead of me, with you in my face! And it’s dark!”
    “Just hurry up, will you?” Logan said. “Nothing can happen till we get the transmitter there.”
    “I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying. I can just imagine how freaked out my parents are right now. Your mom sure is.”
    “Everything will be fine when we get home,” Logan said, though he wasn’t at all sure this was true.

    The alley was darker now, due to the kitchen lights along it having been turned off, dinnertime having come and gone. Logan walked quietly beside Aggy, who walked her bike. The lights were on in Logan’s living room. The rest of the house was dark. Logan assumed this meant his mother had returned, but he couldn’t be sure she was still there. If she was, he thought, she might not be alone. There might even be police officers in the house, investigating his disappearance.
    He wished he’d arranged a different drop-off point.
    “Maybe we should just go in,” Aggy whispered to him as they hunkered down behind the back-yard fence.
    “Don’t scream,” a robotic voice said from the other side of the fence, amid a golden, glowing light.
    Aggy almost did, but Logan clamped his hand over her mouth.
    “It’s the alien,” he whispered, then released her.
    “Which one?” Aggy whispered back.
    Logan slowly swung the gate open, and they stole into the backyard. They found the female alien hidden in a dark corner, hugging a tree. Logan leaned in close.
    “It’s her,” he whispered to Aggy, then to the alien he said, “We have to be careful, ma’am. There are people in the house. You don’t want anyone to see you.”
    She nodded.
    “Did your boss send you here, ma’am?” Logan whispered. “Is he going to send back the dogs?”
    The alien shook her head.
    “No?” Aggy gasped.
    The alien shook her head again, then hung it in shame.
    “Can you beam the dogs here yourself?” Logan asked.
    “I could, but he would simply transport them back again.”
    “Why are you here then, ma’am?” Logan asked.
    The alien placed her hand over her neck, over the light. Golden light streamed between her fingers. “He’s preparing to leave your planet.”
    “See?” Aggy said to Logan.
    “But I told him I was coming here,” the alien went on, “and I would stay