The Big Sting

Contents Cover Books by Rachelle Delaney Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Acknowledgments Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Table of Contents Start Copyright Print Page List i ii iii iv v 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright © 2023 by Rachelle Delaney
 Tundra Books, an imprint of Tundra Book Group, a division of Penguin Random House of Canada Limited
 All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher—or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.
 Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
 Title: The big sting / Rachelle Delaney.
 Names: Delaney, Rachelle, author.
 Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220173656 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220173664 | ISBN 9780735269309 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780735269316 (EPUB)
 Classification: LCC PS8607.E48254 B54 2023 | DDC jC813/.6—dc23
 Published simultaneously in the United States of America by Tundra Books of Northern New York, an imprint of Tundra Book Group, a division of Penguin Random House of Canada Limited
 Library of Congress Control Number: 2022933335
 Edited by Lynne Missen
 Designed by Emma Dolan, adapted for ebook
 Cover design by Emma Dolan
 Cover art © 2023 by Morgan Goble
 www.penguinrandomhouse.ca
 
 a_prh_6.0_142459014_c0_r0
 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
 
 As always, I have so many people to thank for working with me on The Big Sting and helping get it out into the world.
 First and foremost, to Lynne Missen for the thought and care she puts into every single book and for generally being a wonderful person.
 To the marketing and publicity team at Tundra Books, who work tirelessly to promote books for young readers and deserve all the praise.
 To Yvette Ghione for her sharp copyedit and Catherine Marjoribanks for proofreading, and to Bharti Bedi, production editor extraordinaire.
 To Morgan Goble for the amazing cover illustration and to Emma Dolan for designing a beautiful book.
 To the Inkslingers—Stacey Matson, Tanya Kyi, Holman Wang, Kallie George, Kay Weisman, Lori Sherritt and Sara Gillingham—who gave excellent feedback early on. And to Eric Simons, who read early drafts, helped me work through the stickiest problems and listened to me drone on about hive heists for years (puns very much intended).
 To my beekeeping pal Jode Roberts for answering many, many questions about bees and how one might steal 
 
 Books by
 RACHELLE DELANEY
 Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster
 Clara Voyant
 The Bonaventure Adventures
 The Metro Dogs of Moscow
 The Circus Dogs of Prague
 The Ship of Lost Souls
 The Guardians of Island X
 The Hunt for the Panther
 
 
 CONTENTS
 
 Cover
 Books by Rachelle Delaney
 Title Page
 Copyright
 
 
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Chapter 19
 Chapter 20
 Chapter 21
 Chapter 22
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER 1
 Leo woke to the sound of a grumble. Or maybe a huff. A grumble-huff? Blinking in the early morning light, he wondered if there were such a thing as a grumble-huff.
 He lay very still, holding his breath, until he heard the noise again. It wasn’t Lizzie snoring, though that wouldn’t have been unusual. His sister was sleeping quietly for once, in the twin-sized bed across the room from his.
 Could it be an