Two More Turtles (TMNT Book 1)

What You Don't Expect

As we head back, Naomi comes and meets us halfway. She looks troubled again. I look at her as we go in the manhole. Naomi closes us in and then heads off toward the dojo as we walk in the lair.

I look at Donnie and he motions me inside his station. “Do you have the tracker done?” I whispered.

“Yep.” Donnie said happily, getting a cube-like object. “It has some data that can track where she goes and records it, while also having a voice recorder so we can also hear what she’s saying.”

“That’s brilliant, Donnie!” I exclaim. “Thanks!”

I look at the cube and take it from him. He sighs, “But it may have an issue of silent beeping when on.”

“She’ll think’s it just the thing keeping record of her steps.” I tried. “Besides, she’s not that smart.”

“Say what?” Naomi says from the doorway. I breathed in and I hid the tracker behind my back. Instantly, her blue eyes follow my hands, “And what do you have?”

“Nothing…” I lied.

Donnie sighed and explained, “She made me make you a present so you can always keep track of your steps.”

“So it’s a pace maker?” Naomi summed it up and came up to me. “May I see it?’

“Sure.” I said, giving it to her.

Naomi took it and turned it on. A slight beep started coming forth. She didn’t look like she knew what it actually was, but then again, she could hide her expressions so well. “Thanks. I’ll be off now to test this thing out.”

“Have fun.” Donnie and I waved her off.

She turned and left through the subway tunnel. Donnie got out his laptop and headed for the main room. Leo was watching Space Heroes without me, but for once I didn’t care. Naomi will be busted!

He clicked on a box and instantly a map of the sewers popped up and a red dot with a smaller red line. “Is that Naomi?” I asked.

“Yep. You can tell right here is the lair.” Donnie nodded, pointing at the screen where a large free space cube was. “And then right here is the subway area.”

Raph heard us and came up behind Donnie. “What’s this?”

“We’re tracking Naomi.” I replied without looking at him.

“Tracking Naomi?” Leo repeated, coming over to sit by Donnie.

Mikey came up, feeling alone and sat by me. He didn’t ask anything. He just stared at the screen like it was connect-the-dots.

“She just turned into a tunnel.” Donnie announced.

We watched the screen. The red dot seemed to move in a swift yet graceful way.

“Is she running?” Leo asked.

“Seems like it.” Donnie answered. “But the problem is, how far is where she’s going? And she’s not heading up to the surface…”

I blinked. “I eavesdropped on Sensei and her talking before you brought Metalhead up. They were talking as if Naomi was seeing two things instead of one.”

They all looked at me. “And you’re just now telling us this?” Raph asked.

“It didn’t seem important till now.” I snapped. “Besides, I think one might be only at the surface level and the other one in the sewers.”

“So how come we haven’t seen the one in the sewers?” Leo asked.

Donnie was looking at the screen. “Because it’s nearly a mile away from where we’re hiding.”

“A mile?” Raph repeated. “Naomi ran all that way?”

“It’s in an area where more people are common.” Leo said, looking at the screen carefully. “We don’t ever go in that direction.”

“Then whoever hid that one seemed very smart when they hid whoever Naomi’s going to see.” I nodded.

“Naomi’s visiting someone?” Mikey asked.

We all looked at him. “That’s what we’re talking about Mikey.” I said nicely. “You know how Naomi sneaks off?” he nodded. “Well I asked Donnie to make a tracker to find out where she’s been going.”

“Oh. Okay.” Mikey nodded. “Wanna play a video game?”

“Not now.”

“Guys!” Donnie said, his eyes glued to the screen. “She’s stopped.”

“How do you know?” Leo asked.

“Because she’s been paused like that for a minute.”

I remembered the voice recorder. “Turn on the speaker.”

Donnie nodded, minimized that screen and opened a new one. He typed some information in before turning the volume up on it too. “Here we go… Shh.”

We all listened carefully.

“--Smart…” Naomi’s familiar voice said statically.

“How?” a voice said, one I don’t know. We all glanced at each other as Donnie put the volume the highest it could go.

“Well, my partner gave me this.” silence and I could imagine Naomi showing the person she was speaking to. “And, it’s unique because it beeps even when I’m not running.”

“Why do you always run, though?”

“It’s just quicker, and I get to come and go later.”

“I get it.” the voice said with a pause. “So, Naomi, where’s Sensei? She hasn’t been here for at least a week.”

“Busy keeping Mikito off my tail.”

“But you said about that pace maker…”

“And it ended today.”

“Because of that pace maker.”

“The so-called pace maker.” Naomi said. This made my spine stiffen. Donnie looked at me and we listened more carefully. “So, would you like to practice?”

“Practice what?” the voice asked.

“Scaring the living wits out of everyone listening to our conversation.” Naomi chuckled. Then her voice was heard closer. “Hi, Raph, Mikito, Leo, Donnie, Mikey.”

“GAH!” all of us screamed. Mind reader!

“I’m not a mind reader!” Naomi snapped and with a quick movement, we heard her smash the tracker. We all breathed out and looked at the tunnel like she would appear any moment.

“Donnie,” I said. “Pull the map back up.”

He didn’t argue and opened the window. I looked at the map carefully before heading out.

“Where are you going?” Mii-wa asked me as I nearly got out of view.

I looked her right in the eyes. “To find Naomi.”

Sensei paused then nodded in approval. With quick movements, I ran down the tunnels. The map seemed easier on Donnie’s laptop. Although I wasn’t that smart with geography, I tried my hardest to remember where I should turn.

Finally, I gave up running because it was nearly a mile of turning and twisting through tunnels. Soon, I turned left and came to a dead end. I looked up at a manhole cover and moved it aside.

Now, I thought I was going to head to the surface, but strangely, I was in a higher level of sewer. It was brighter than it was down where I was.

“Mikito.” I heard a familiar voice say my name. “Thought you might come.”

Looking to my left, I saw a crouching Naomi and then something moved behind her. I poked its head out from behind my creepy partner and smiled with bright white teeth. It had a blue-green bandana and brown eyes.

Another turtle.