Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 Page 5

  “This is scary,” Lala said. “We’ve never been out by ourselves before.”

  “Don’t you want to be real Chihuahua warriors, like the ones in Dad’s stories, instead of just make-believe?” Papi Jr. asked, looking at his sisters.

  “Yeah!” the girls cheered.

  The puppies squeezed under the fence to get closer to Delgado’s sons. Suddenly, a call for help came over a walkie-talkie. “Attention all units, attention all units. We have a robbery in progress at Southcoast Bank. All units respond.”

  “We’ve got a situation, everybody!” the officer shouted to the group. “Round up the dogs and let’s move out!”

  The police officers grabbed their gear and rushed to their vehicles. Delgado’s sons ran toward the parking lot along with the officers.

  “Hey, those dogs have the same scent as Uncle Delgado!” Papi Jr. exclaimed, spotting two young German shepherds. “That must be them!”

  Papi Jr. and his sisters raced after the dogs and into a police van. As soon as they stepped inside, Alberto, one of Delgado’s sons, looked up. “Hey, what are you doing in here? This is police property,” he said sternly.

  “We’re friends with your dad, and we’ve got something to tell you,” Papi Jr. said.

  Before the dogs could say another word, the van sped off to the crime scene. Minutes later, the door opened and the officer ordered the police dogs to track the scent of the criminals.

  Alberto and Antonio leaped out of the van, ready to get to work. Alberto looked back over his shoulder. “We’ll talk more about this after,” he told the puppies. “Stay here. We don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “Oh, no!” Pep cried as the dogs ran off. “We didn’t tell them Uncle Delgado is leaving LA soon. Come on!”

  “Then let’s tell them now,” Papi Jr. said. He took off after the brothers with his four sisters following him.

  Back at the mansion, Mrs. Cortez sat on the couch with Chloe. She was organizing flyers to hand out about the lost puppies while Sam spoke on the phone.

  He paused and then frowned. “Well, if you see them, give us a call,” he said.

  “Any news?” Mr. Cortez asked as Sam hung up the phone.

  Sam shook his head.

  Mr. Cortez moved closer to the television. The news was on, and he squinted at the screen to get a better look. “Hey! Isn’t that our bank?” he asked. He leaned over to turn up the volume.

  There on the news was the Southcoast bank! Policemen surrounded the building, and a newscaster stood in front reporting from the scene.

  “And according to police, the robbers are still inside,” the newsman said. “At this time, there are no hostages.”

  As the man reported the news on-screen, the five puppies snuck behind him. Sam pointed to the television.

  “Did I just see what I think I saw?” Sam asked in amazement.

  Chloe sat up and barked. “Yes! It’s them!”

  “I’m off to the bank!” Sam shouted, grabbing his car keys. “Mom, Dad, you stay here in case anyone gets to them first and calls.”

  “Of course,” his father responded.

  As Sam opened the front door, Chloe, Papi, Pedro, and Delgado rushed out ahead of him.

  “I guess this is a family affair,” Sam said. Everyone piled into Sam’s car and they took off.

  There was a large crowd around the front doors of the bank. The five puppies scanned the crowd.

  “I don’t see Delgado’s sons,” Papi Jr. said worriedly. “Where’d they go?”

  Ali nodded toward the bank. “I bet they went that way,” she suggested.

  “Nah, I bet they went that way,” Rosa said, spotting an alley across the street. “I’m always right. Follow me!”

  “Oh, no! What if we never find them?” Lala asked. She looked at her siblings and saw their worried faces. “I mean, of course we’ll find them,” she said, trying to remain positive. “We’re warriors!”

  “Antonio? Alberto?” Papi Jr. called. “Are you here?”

  Suddenly, a manhole cover on the ground popped open. A heavy bag flew out, landing right in front of the puppies.

  “Presents!” Pep cried out. “Oh, boy! Is it Christmas?”

  Papi Jr. cautiously approached the bag. He sniffed it and then stuck his head inside. When his head appeared again, his mouth held a wad of green bills! “Hey, look!” he cried. “This is what everyone’s been saying we need. We can save the house with this!”

  Before his sisters could respond, two more bags were tossed out of the manhole.

  “Everyone get as much of it as you can,” Papi Jr. instructed.

  The puppies all dove inside the bags to get the cash. Just at that moment, one of the robbers popped out of the manhole.

  He took off his mask and looked over at the bank, which was surrounded by police. “Good work in there, boys,” he said to his cohorts. “Let’s move out!”

  The three crooks grabbed the bags full of money—with the puppies inside—and threw them into a truck that was waiting in the alley.

  In a flash, the truck sped off with the bank’s money—and the five puppies!

  “What’s happening? Where are we going? Who turned out the lights?” the puppies asked each other.

  As the van sped off, a police officer shouted into his walkie-talkie. “Gone?” he cried. “Are you sure? But that’s impossible!” He turned to the other cops. “The robbers got away somehow. Let’s move in!” he ordered.

  Sam’s car pulled up to the curb in front of the Southcoast Bank. He jumped out of the car. “You guys wait here,” he said to the dogs. He closed the door and headed over to the crowd of police.

  “No way!” Papi cried. “Those are my kids in there! Come on, let’s go!” He leaped out of the car window with Chloe, Delgado, and Pedro right behind him.

  As Sam walked up to the crowd, the television reporter was interviewing Mr. Kroop.

  “There were at least fifteen to twenty of them,” Mr. Kroop said, still frazzled from his ordeal inside the bank. “They were fast.”

  Sam walked past Mr. Kroop, making his way to the bank. A police officer noticed him and went running over.

  “Sir, I have to ask you to step back,” the officer said. “This is a crime scene.”

  “Right. Sorry,” Sam told him. “It’s just…did you happen to see five Chihuahua puppies around here?”

  “Puppies?” The officer asked in a tone that suggested he clearly thought Sam was crazy.

  Meanwhile, Chloe, Papi, Delgado, and Pedro were not wasting any time. With Delgado’s keen sense of smell, he led the others across the street into the alley. “I got their scent. Come on!” he called. Delgado sniffed the air as he walked around the alley. “They were just here.”

  Pedro found the mask that one of the robbers had thrown off when he escaped from the manhole. He carried it over to Delgado.

  “It smells like…” Delgado began, sniffing.

  “Pepperoni!” Papi shouted.

  “But what does that mean? Where are the kids?” Chloe asked.

  “I know who can help us,” Delgado said seriously. He led his friends inside the bank where he knew they’d find Alberto and Antonio. The two dogs were hard at work, sniffing for clues.

  Chloe noticed that Delgado looked a little nervous about approaching his sons. She walked up to her dear friend. “I’ll be right behind you,” she told him.

  Delgado walked toward the dogs, with Chloe right near him. Antonio looked up, surprised to see Delgado. He had immediately recognized him as his father.

  “Dad, what are you—” Antonio began to ask.

  “I know you don’t want to see me right now,” Delgado cut in. “But I’ve got some missing puppies and I’m following a lead.”

  “We told them to wait in the van!” Antonio cried.

  “Well, they didn’t, and we have to find them. We found this mask—smells like pepperoni. Any ideas?” He placed the ski mask in front of his son.

  Alberto came over and smelled t
he clue. “Pepperoni…” he said, thinking.

  “Of course!” Antonio cried as he remembered something. “There’s a pizza factory not far from here.”

  “How do we get there?” Delgado asked.

  “It’s pretty close. Just head north until you smell soap, then make a left at sweaty socks and cross the street. You get a big waft of pepperoni on that corner. If you smell doughnuts, you’ve gone too far,” Antonio replied.

  Delgado shook his head. “I have no idea what you just said.”

  “He said go north until you hit the Laundromat. Make a left at the gym and then cross the street. If we hit the bakery, we’ve gone past it,” Chloe translated.

  “Wow! Impressive, kid,” Delgado told her.

  Antonio sprung into action. “We’ll grab the humans and meet you there!” he announced.

  Delgado and his sons looked at each other for a moment with understanding. And then the police dogs ran off to find the officers.

  “Follow me,” Delgado said to Papi, Pedro, and Chloe. And with that, the four dogs raced out of the bank toward the pizza factory.

  Sam saw his dogs run off. “Where are they going?” he asked out loud. Then he raced to follow them.

  The robbers pulled up in front of a large brick building. The men jumped out of the truck and quickly carried the bags inside. One man dumped his bag on a table—and wads of money fell out. The men were so intent on counting the cash in that bag, they didn’t even notice that the other two bags were squirming on the floor.

  “Better get back into uniform before the foreman sees we’ve been gone,” one of the crooks said.

  The other two slipped on their jumpsuits so it would look as if they had been at work the whole time.

  “Like he’d ever notice. How many of these jobs have we pulled off the last few months?” one of them said, cackling.

  “Yeah!” his partner said, laughing. “We just press the on button, and the machines do all the work. It’s the perfect cover for our little extracurricular activities.”

  Proud of themselves for another bank heist, the men laughed as they counted their cash.

  At the front entrance of the factory,

  Delgado sniffed the air. “This smells like the place,” he announced to his friends.

  “Pepperoni!” Papi, Chloe, and Pedro shouted.

  “Let’s go get your kids!” Delgado ordered and headed into the factory.

  Pedro paused. “Those guys in there could be dangerous. Do you have some kind of plan?”

  “Don’t I always, hermano?” Papi replied confidently.

  Inside, the robbers continued to divide up the cash from the first bag. Then one of them unzipped the second bag. Suddenly, Papi Jr. jumped out!

  “Huh?” the man yelped, surprised to see a puppy leap out of the bag.

  Papi Jr. stood bravely, barking at the men. “Back off, mister! You can’t kidnap us and get away with it! Don’t mess with us! We’re Chihuahua warriors.”

  The three men stared at the yapping puppy. Then they realized there was more barking coming from the other bags. They opened the sacks and four puppy heads peeked out.

  Papi Jr. growled, trying to look fierce. The three crooks jumped back.

  “Wow! I’m really good!” Papi Jr. boasted. What he didn’t realize was that Pedro was right behind him, showing off his ferocious grin. The men were staring at Pedro standing in the doorway.

  “Back away from the puppies,” Pedro growled. “And in case you were wondering,” he added, “this isn’t a smile!”

  Papi Jr. spun around. “Uncle Pedro?” he shouted. “You found us!” He stopped for a minute and added, “I mean, not that we needed help or anything.”

  Pedro growled at the crooks again. Papi Jr. ran over to him and tried to make his tiny growl just as mean.

  “Calm down now. Nice doggy,” one of the crooks said.

  “Who are you calling nice?” Pedro said, and charged into the room.

  The crooks quickly scooped up the three bags of money with Papi Jr.’s sisters still inside.

  “Help!” the girl puppies cried.

  “Now for phase two,” Pedro said confidently to Papi Jr.

  “But they’re getting away!” Papi Jr. protested.

  “They won’t get far,” Pedro promised.

  He knew that Delgado and Chloe were hiding out behind some boxes. With their teeth, they each held on to one end of a long string of pepperoni.

  “Here they come! Ready?” Delgado said as he saw one of the robbers rush toward them.

  “Ready!” Chloe replied.

  “Pull!” Delgado commanded.

  The two friends each yanked on one end of the string. As the robber came running toward them, he didn’t have time to stop and he tripped right over the line. He hurtled forward and crashed into a huge vat of tomato sauce!

  “Never mess with a Chihuahua!” Chloe cried.

  “Hey!” Delgado said defensively.

  “Right,” Chloe said, nodding. “Or a German shepherd!” she added.

  The bag of money that the man was carrying fell near them. Rosa’s and Lala’s heads popped out.

  “Thank goodness you’re okay!” Chloe cried when she saw her pups.

  “Mom! Delgado!” Rosa and Lala called as they came rushing forward.

  Chloe showered her girls with kisses. She looked up at Delgado. “Looks like our partnership still works,” she said with a little grin.

  “Yeah,” Delgado agreed. “But let’s not make a habit of this rescuing thing. It’s exhausting.”

  While Chloe and Delgado were talking, the other two crooks were racing toward the factory exit. Just as they reached the door, they were pelted with tomatoes! As they turned to see where the tomatoes had come from, they spotted Papi high in a tomato crate, digging with his paws at superspeed.

  “No one messes with my kids!” Papi yelled heroically.

  The two men staggered backward and dropped the bags. Ali and Rosa peered out.

  Suddenly, Papi dove off the crate and flew through the air in a high arched jump. His paw reached out and hit a button on the wall before he gracefully landed. A vat of gooey pizza dough was dumped on the two men. “I have a feeling this isn’t exactly what these guys had in mind when they thought they’d be ‘rolling in the dough,’” Papi said, laughing at his own joke.

  “Wow, Dad!” Rosa exclaimed.

  “That was amazing!” Ali cheered.

  Papi looked at his daughters. “I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said, relieved.

  Just then, the police officers appeared with Alberto and Antonio in the lead. The policemen handcuffed the dough-covered crooks as the dogs looked on happily.

  “Great work!” Alberto told the group.

  “That was awesome!” Papi Jr. exclaimed. “We were just like the Chihuahua warriors, weren’t we, Mom?”

  “You did a very dangerous thing today, kids. I’d be upset with you if I wasn’t so proud. You’re my brave little Chihuahuas,” Chloe told her puppies.

  “The bravest!” Papi added.

  “They take after you, Papi,” Chloe said, looking at her husband. “You’re the most loving, loyal, and brave Chihuahua I know, and you’ve taught our children to be the same way.”

  “But I still have a problem keeping them in line,” Papi replied, shaking his head.

  “I think together we make a pretty good team,” Chloe said with a smile. “We kicked some butt in there today!”

  “Right!” Papi exclaimed, perking up. “Who needs a Chihuahua warrior when you have a Chihuahua family!”

  The whole family nuzzled together happily.

  “Got room for one more in there?” Pedro asked, then jumped in and joined the pile.

  Outside, Chloe saw Delgado standing far away from the pizza-factory exit. She knew that he was waiting for his sons and that he was nervous. Then she saw Antonio and Alberto coming out of the factory.

  Delgado spotted them and started to walk away. “Don’t turn around, don’t
turn around,” he said to himself.

  “Dad! Wait!” Alberto called, rushing toward his father.

  “I think we owe you an apology,” Antonio added.

  “The puppies told us why you left,” Alberto said.

  “We didn’t know it was to protect us. Thank you, Dad,” Antonio said.

  “I hope it’s not too late to be a family again,” Delgado told his sons hopefully.

  “Nothing would make us happier,” Alberto answered with a smile.

  Chloe sighed as she watched her friend and his sons.

  A police officer approached Delgado. “You’re quite the police dog, fella. Let’s see who you belong to.” He reached down to check Delgado’s tags. “Mexican police force?” he said. “I wonder if they’d let us borrow you for a little while. We could sure use your nose on a couple of cases.” He petted Delgado on the head. “What do you think of that, boys?”

  Alberto and Antonio started to bark their approval enthusiastically.

  “Let me give them a call,” the police officer said.

  Delgado looked at his sons. “You want me to stay?”

  “Yeah, I think we have a lot of catching up to do,” Alberto replied.

  “It’s great to have you back, Dad,” Antonio chimed in.

  Chloe stepped forward. “It looks like you’re going to be a Beverly Hills dog, Delgado!”

  “Thank you for everything, princessa,” Delgado said, full of gratitude. “You have a beautiful family. And thanks to them, I have my family back, too.”

  “I’m sure I’ll see you around, Delgado,” Chloe told her friend. “How about we meet up next year to do the dog show?”

  Delgado shook his head. “In your dreams, kid!” he cried. He turned and followed his sons.

  Chloe laughed and watched Delgado climb into the van. Papi, Pedro, and the puppies circled around her. And then they saw Sam!

  They all raced toward him excitedly.

  “Foiling a bank robbery! You guys are some kind of heroes, huh?” Sam said, overjoyed to have all the dogs back together.

  A moving van sat in front of the Cortez house, along with Sam’s gardening truck, which was filled to the brim with household goods, clothing, and furniture. It was moving day, and boxes and suitcases surrounded Sam and his parents. Even the dogs were helping with the huge task of packing up. Pedro nudged a box with his head, and Chloe placed a rubber bone into an open suitcase.