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  Had all this occurred with a visible thirteen-year-old boy, someone somewhere would have stopped the men in funkydoodle glasses. And it became clear to Sticky that biting Angelo in the neck, or shoving his tail in Pablo’s ear, or tickling Tito into letting go would not save Dave.

  But something else might.

  Although it would, no doubt, make Dave mad.

  But as the Brothers muscled Dave off the curb and into the street, Sticky realized he had no choice.

  He scurried across Dave’s chest.

  Down his arm!

  To the wristband!

  And, using the awesome grip of his gecko hands, did a quick click-twist and removed the Invisibility ingot.

  POOF! Dave appeared.

  “HELP!” Sticky shouted at the top of his (surprisingly powerful) gecko lungs. And since he was still inside Dave’s sweatshirt, it sounded for all the world like the cry was coming from Dave.

  Across the street, Damien jumped to his dastardly feet and moved toward Dave.

  Traffic slowed, then stopped.

  And Damien might simply have charged the boy, snatched the powerband, and escaped if two things had not occurred nearly simultaneously.

  First, the first thing:

  Pablo and Tito (having, presumably, switched eyes a few times) had released their hold on Dave, but Angelo was not about to let go until his boss ordered him to. So Sticky, realizing that Angelo was all that was standing between Daveand his escape, bit Angelo’s hand. Hard.

  Unfortunately, the bite made Angelo’s hand jerk so hard that he knocked poor Sticky, not just off of Dave and onto the street, but out.

  The poor little lizard never even saw stars. No twittering tweety birds.

  He just blacked out.

  As Sticky was being knocked out, his amazingly sticky fingers released the Invisibility ingot, which went flying in the opposite direction, then rolled in a little circle before clinking to a very shiny stop on the ground.

  Suddenly everything in the street went still as Damien faced off with Dave.

  This was, without question, a showdown.

  Three paces to the left was a talking (although presently unconscious) kleptomaniacal gecko lizard.

  Three paces to the right was the magic ingot of any boy’s dreams.

  The Bandito Brothers might have helped Damien, but Damien didn’t trust them not to bungle the whole situation. “Back off,” he growled at them. “Don’t move a muscle.”

  Damien’s dark, glinting eyes watched for Dave (still wearing his dark, not-so-glinting glasses) to make a move. And in the treasure hunter’s dark, devilish heart, he knew that the boy could not resist the ingot.

  What boy could?

  Damien’s face sneered into a silent bwaa-ha-ha, for the instant Dave moved toward the ingot, he would pounce on him, rip the powerband off, click in the ingot, and disappear.

  This face-to-face showdown appeared to be in slow motion, but in reality, it lasted only a few seconds before the second thing happened.

  The second thing being, someone shouted.

  And it wasn’t just that they shouted.

  It was what they shouted.

  “Stop that monkey!”

  Out of the coffee shop charged a rhesus, a to-go cup of coffee in one hand, a vacuum pack of premium-blend beans in the other.

  “Eeeeeek,” he cried, skidding to a halt at the sobering sight of Damien Black. “Eeek-creeeeek?” he said, taking in Dave and the funkydoodled Bandito Brothers.

  Dave jolted toward the ingot.

  Damien lunged for it.

  But Dave had only faked a move in that direction, and with Damien now going the wrong way, Dave went the other, scooped up Sticky, and did what any kid without the power to disappear would do.

  He ran.

  Dave did not see what happened after he made his escape.

  He did not see the monkey fly at Damien as the villain was lunging for the ingot.

  He did not see the monkey rip at Damien’s oily black hair and pounce up and down on his head.

  He did not see the monkey scramble all over him, causing Damien to spin in circles and cry, “Stop him, you fools! Get him off of me!”

  And he did not, I’m most sorry to report, see that hyped-up monkey pour what was left of the to-go coffee all over Damien’s head.

  No, for all Dave knew, Damien Black had snapped up the ingot and was chasing after him for the powerband.

  So Dave was worried.

  Very worried.

  But he was most worried about Sticky.

  He couldn’t really tell … was Sticky dead?

  Dave’s heart was pounding and breaking at the same time as he snatched up his bike and pedaled home. He held the handlebars with one hand and Sticky with the other, blinking back tears as he talked to the lizard. “I’m so sorry!” he choked out. “I should have listened! Please wake up. Please be all right. Sticky? Sticky, can you hear me? You saved my life, you know that? I couldn’t have gotten away from them without you.” His eyes welled as he pedaled harder. “What have I done!”

  The whole trip home, Dave talked.

  The whole trip home, he begged Sticky to wake up.

  The whole trip home, Sticky just lay there, still.

  Until, that is, they rounded the corner onto Dave’s street. “You can zip it now,” the little gecko groaned. “I’m awake.”

  “STICKY!” Dave cried, skidding to a halt.

  “Shhh!” Sticky said, holding his head. “Ay-ay-ay. That was one bad bonk.” He looked at Dave. “What happened, señor? Last I remember, I was taking a big juicy chomp of Angelo’s hand.”

  So Dave told him what had happened, and when he was done, Sticky was up on all fours, looking at him with his head cocked.

  “Why are you staring at me like that?” Dave asked.

  Sticky looked at him another moment, then simply shook his head. He was, for once, at a loss for words. And no “Ay-ay-ay” could begin to convey what he was feeling.

  So I will do my best to translate:

  What makes a real superhero is not the powers they have, it’s the way they choose to use those powers.

  Dave had chosen Sticky over power.

  (And, anyone would agree, a really super power at that.)

  How could the little gecko explain that no matter what he wanted to call himself, Dave was, indeed, a superhero and that in his heart he held the greatest power of all.

  Well, he simply couldn’t.

  So he did the next best thing:

  He got on Dave’s shoulder.

  When they were at last in front of their walk-up, he said, “Hey, hombre, aren’t you supposed to be bringing home some milk?”

  “Oh!” Dave said, doing a quick U-turn. “Right!”

  Unfortunately for Dave, his parents didn’t exactly buy the story about his pet lizard falling off his shoulder and rushing downtown to try to find a reptile veterinarian. His mother wagged a finger at him and scolded, “You tell us you’re going to get some milk, then you disappear for an hour and expect us to buy some wild story about your lizard getting hurt?”

  Sticky drooped like he was sick and gave her a look that conveyed complete and utter agony.

  Dave’s mother sized him up. “He looks fine to me.”

  “But it’s true, Mom!”

  “Dave-y’s got a girlfriend, Dave-y’s got a girlfriend!”

  “Shut up, Evie!”

  “You shut up!”

  “If you have a girlfriend, just tell us,” his dad grumbled. “Is it the girl next door?”

  “No!”

  “Then who? Tell us, or you’re grounded.”

  “Dad! I don’t have a girlfriend!”

  “Dave-y’s lying, Dave-y’s lying!”

  “Ay-ay-ay,” Sticky grumbled, covering his ears.

  “What was that?” Mr. Sanchez asked.

  “I’m not lying!” Dave said, doing his best to cover up for Sticky.

  “Just stop with the disappearing act, okay, mi�
�jo?” his mother said.

  With a heavy heart, Dave agreed. “Not a problem,” he said, thinking that his disappearing days were, indeed, over.

  Ah, but how could he predict what the future would hold?

  He couldn’t. And it’s a future that I would happily tell you all about, but, really, it’s a story for another time, another place, and …

  Oh, all right. I suppose I could tell you a few more things …

  Like that Dave ran into a very excited Lily Espinoza on the stairs later that day. “He’s back!” she cried. “The Gecko’s back!”

  “What?” Dave asked.

  “It was on the news! He stopped a bank heist!”

  “Wait a minute,” Dave said, and he (very uncharacteristically) grabbed her arm. “Who says it was the Gecko?”

  “They showed his sign. His signature! It’s amazing! He’s amazing.” She broke away, saying, “Gotta go, bye!” and raced down the stairs.

  I could also, I suppose, tell you that since nobody could figure out what the ruckus in the street was about, Damien Black simply drove his Eldorado back up to Raven Ridge.

  Alone.

  And that the Bandito Brothers, being no strangers to walking, set off on the long trek back to the mansion to help their boss recover from his traumatic ordeal. (And that, as you might imagine, Damien was less than overjoyed to find them clacking the eyes of his skull door and yelling, “Boss, we’re home!” through the mail slot.)

  I could also tell you that a certain caffeine-crazed monkey did return to the Sanchezes’ apartment a few days later (this time, with his own supply of premium blend) and that he slipped a hard metal object into the bottom of the cup he served to Dave.

  A key.

  A key that was strange in both shape and color.

  A key that went to … Dave had no idea.

  However, when Sticky saw it, he …

  Ah, but I really must stop. As I said, these are stories for another time, another place.

  For now, the money is back at the bank, as it should be.

  For now, the ring is back on Ms. Kulee’s finger, where it belongs.

  And so, my friend, for today, the time has come to say …

  Adiós!

  adiós (Spanish / ah-DEE-ohs): goodbye, see ya later, alligator

  ándale (Spanish / AHN-duh-lay): hurry up! come on! get a move on!

  asombroso (Spanish / ah-sohm-BRO-so): awesome, amazing

  ay-ay-ay (Spanish and a Sticky favorite): depending on the

  inflection, this could mean oh brother, oh please, or you

  have got to be kidding!

  ay caramba (Spanish and a Sticky favorite / ai cah-RAHM-bah): oh

  wow! or oh brother! or I am not believing this!

  bobo (Spanish / BO-bo): dumb, foolish, silly

  bobos banditos (Stickynese / BO-bohs bahn-DEE-tohs): crazy bandits,

  stupid thieves

  caballero (Spanish / cah-buhl-YAIR-oh): gentleman, knight, nobleman

  creeping creosote (Stickynese / CREE-uh-soht): literally, oozing,

  thick, oily stuff derived from coal. But in Stickynese, holy

  smokes! easy-sneezy (Stickynese): piece of cake, no sweat

  freaky frijoles (Stickynese / free-HO-lays): literally, weird beans.

  But for Sticky, oh wow! or how strange!

  gaucho (Spanish / GOW-cho): herdsman, cowboy

  holy guaca-tacarole (Stickynese / gwah-cuh-tah-cuh-RO-lee): holy

  smokes!

  hombre (Spanish / AHM-bray): man, dude

  hopping / hurling habañeros (Stickynese / ah-bahn-YAIR-ohs): literally,

  hopping hot peppers. But for Sticky, oh my gosh!

  loco (Spanish / LO-co): crazy, loony

  loco-berry burritos (Stickynese): literally, crazy-berry rolled tortillas.

  But for Sticky, extra-specially crazy

  mi’ja (Spanish / MEE-ha): dear, darling, my daughter, my love.

  For a boy, you’d say mi’jo (MEE-ho)

  señor (Spanish / SEN-yohr): mister

  sí (Spanish / see): yes

  vámonos (Spanish / VAH-mo-nohs): let’s go!

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2009 by Wendelin Van Draanen Parsons

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Stephen Gilpin

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at

  www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Van Draanen, Wendelin.

  The Gecko and Sticky : the greatest power / by Wendelin Van Draanen;

  illustrations by Stephen Gilpin. — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (The Gecko and Sticky)

  Summary: When the diabolical Damien Black robs a bank and steals a tiger-eye of great sentimental value, he is pursued by thirteen-year-old Dave Sanchez and his sidekick, a talking gecko named Sticky, who are armed with a magical Aztec wristband.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-85382-1

  [1. Bank robberies—Fiction. 2. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction. 4. Geckos—Fiction. 5. Lizards—Fiction. 6. Hispanic Americans—Fiction.] I. Gilpin, Stephen, ill. II. Title. III. Title: Greatest power.

  PZ7.V2745Gec 2009

  [Fic]—dc22

  2008049794

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