The Hunted by Gloria Skurzynski Read Free Book Online Page B

explained.
    â€œThat’s impossible,” Jack protested. “No one could have got into that trailer when it was already folded down.”
    â€œWell, Miguel did. Can you imagine, Jack? He rode all those miles squished almost flat inside the trailer on that bumpy road that made me sick just sitting in the backseat of the Jeep. He’s got to be pretty darn tough to have handled a ride like that.”
    â€œWait a minute.” Jack smacked his forehead. “That ‘baby deer’ you said you saw when we were setting up the trailer….”
    â€œUh-huh, it was Miguel.” Ashley giggled. “That was when I was mad at you because you squealed to Mom about the book, so I wasn’t going to tell you anything.”
    â€œI knew that wasn’t any deer. So you were covering up all along. But what—who—”
    Her smile got bigger; she was enjoying this, he could tell. “There’s a big piece of the puzzle you’re missing. Think a minute. When we left Ulm Pishkun…in the car….” She waited, challenging him to figure it out.
    What did she mean? Jack frowned, forcing his mind to go over everything that had happened since they left Ulm Pishkun, trying to visualize it like a videotape running backward.
    â€œThe newspaper…,” Ashley hinted.
    Suddenly he got it. “He’s the Mexican kid they wrote about!” Jack exclaimed. “The one who sneaked across the border all by himself. Three times!”
    â€œBingo,” Ashley said quietly, and raised Miguel’s hand, which she was still holding, lifting it up like he was a champ.
    Through all this talk Miguel had been peering from Jack to Ashley, back and forth, his eyes bright and interested, his expression curious.
    â€œYou’ve got to be kidding. This is him?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œCan he talk?” Jack asked.
    Ashley turned to Miguel. “This is my brother, Jack, I told you about,” she said. “He wants to know if you can talk. Say something to him.”
    Miguel grinned, his teeth large and white in his brown face. “Hey, dude,” he said.
    It was so unexpected that Jack burst out laughing. “Hey dude? You know English!”
    â€œUmmmmm, un poco,” Miguel nodded, holding his thumb and forefinger close together. “Little bit.”
    â€œMiguel told me all about his escape from Mexico,” Ashley said. “That’s why I had to sneak out and meet him this morning. All last night you wouldn’t let me go anywhere alone for more than five minutes.”
    â€œThat was because of the bears,” Jack said, trying to remember what had seemed so important about their feud less than 12 hours before. Nothing much, he realized.
    â€œForget bears. This,” Ashley said, wiggling her eyebrows, “is bigger than bears. This is rescuing somebody who needs us. Are you going to help?”
    Jack didn’t know what to say. Standing there, in the sun-dappled clearing, it seemed impossible that he was actually in front of a Mexican runaway, one who had been reported in the papers and who was even now probably being hunted by the police. Even more impossible was the fact that his sister had managed to keep a secret this big from both his parents and him.
    All he could think to say was, “You must be hungry, right, Miguel?” He tried to remember any shred of Spanish he’d learned in school, but the only words that came to mind were sí and no, and those weren’t going to get him very far. “Hungry,” Jack said again, bringing his fingers up to his lips as if he were taking a bite. Again, more slowly, he said, “Eat. Food.”
    â€œHe’s not deaf, Jack.”
    Miguel nodded, patting his flat stomach. The sound it made was as hollow as a stick beating a drum. “Sí, eat. Food. Bueno.”
    â€œLast night I told him how to get into the Jeep and take the hot dogs,” Ashley said, “but I