by D. J. McCune
Dan gave a squeal of delight, then clapped his hand to his mouth when they turned and glared. ‘Sorry. I just can’t believe he’s actually doing it!’
‘I can’t believe how much you sounded like a girl there,’ Archie grumbled, rubbing his ear.
‘No need to wait,’ Spike said cheerfully. ‘I know where he’s going and based on his current speed it’s going to take him a while to get there.’
They followed him until they reached the main foyer. It was right in the centre of the school and always packed with students heading into the assembly hall and dinner hall or just hanging out away from the cold. Half the school seemed to be there – including Melissa.
To Adam’s horror she wasn’t alone. Her friends were over near the assembly hall but Michael Bulber was standing beside her. They were talking – or rather he was talking. His face was intent and one enormous hand rested possessively on her shoulder. Adam wanted to go over and punch him.
Spike was talking. ‘He’s going to do his usual walkabout for maximum exposure. He told the sensei he wasn’t afraid to inspire his pupils so he wanted everyone to see him.’ He sounded cheerful but maybe that was because he was looking at the Beast and Melissa.
Something odd was going on in Adam’s chest. His heart was curling up, like a snail retreating into its shell. Maybe it was the Beast’s hand on Melissa’s shoulder. Maybe it was the way she was looking up at him like she was really listening. He was probably telling her that Adam was a loser and she would be better off going out with him instead.
And then, just when Adam might have started to howl with despair, two separate miracles occurred. First, Melissa shrugged Michael Bulber’s hand off her shoulder and snapped something at him. His face changed but she had already turned her back on him. Turned towards Adam.
Secondly, The Bulb hobbled into the centre of the foyer and came to a standstill. The conversation around him ebbed and died as students turned to stare. A murmur passed through the throng. As The Bulb lurched forward the pupils around him parted silently. As he approached Adam held his breath.
The last pupils cleared the way and The Bulb was revealed in all his glory, tottering towards them with a beneficent expression on his face and bright red high heels on his feet. Archie swore softly under his breath while Dan simply stared slack-jawed with wonder. Adam stood frozen beside Spike, both of them taking in Michael Bulber’s face as he watched his father approach.
The Beast thundered past them and grabbed his father’s arm. ‘What are you doing?’
The Bulb frowned. ‘I’m having my lunchtime walkabout. Nothing for anyone to worry about.’ He seemed perfectly at ease – at least until Miss Lumpton hurried towards him, did a comedy double take and turned on her own (rather more subdued) heels, fleeing into the assembly hall. His expression faltered a little but he gave his son a brave smile. ‘You’ll thank me later.’ He hobbled away with surprising dignity.
Needless to say, the moment he disappeared from view it was like some kind of spell was broken. The air rang with howls and shrieks of laughter. Pupils fell to the ground clutching their stomachs. The Beast stared around him like a man possessed. His face was truly psychopathic but there were so many targets for his rage that it seemed to have flipped a switch in his brain and turned him to stone. As his huge head swivelled from side to side his eyes locked on Melissa, who was laughing but trying hard not to. Clearly this was the final straw. He stormed out of the foyer, first years bouncing off him like ping-pong balls.
‘Gentlemen, our work is finished.’ There was something almost priest-like in Spike’s countenance. ‘I’ll wait for his inevitable boasting email to the sensei but I think we can all agree that he’s done enough.’
There were nods of agreement. Adam didn’t really notice. He was too busy watching Melissa, who looked over, smiled and rolled her eyes, pointing in the direction of The Bulb’s exit. He smiled back, torn between ferocious joy and terrible guilt. The Bulb was a monster but maybe they had gone too far. ‘I think he’s done plenty. In fact, we should find him a real sensei to teach him actual ninja moves. He’s earned it.’
Spike shrugged. ‘Japan is a big place. There might even be a real live ninja sensei who’s mental enough to take The Bulb as a pupil. Who cares? All I know is that in a few months’ time I’ll be sitting in Tokyo surrounded on all sides by supercomputers!’
Adam grinned. Spike was right. In a few months’ time he might well be in Japan. But before that, Adam would be on a real-life Valentine’s Day date with Melissa. Things were definitely looking up.
Chapter 16
The big night had finally come. Adam had made all the usual preparations – showered, changed, pinched Aron’s aftershave, blocked all premonitions and sent up a desperate prayer to the Fates that no global catastrophe would occur in the next six hours. He was as ready as he was ever going to be.
He felt nervous. He’d been thinking about Melissa a lot, not just because he didn’t want to mess things up. She had started to steal into his thoughts at the oddest moments. He’d even dreamed about her the night before. She had been walking up a long flight of stairs holding a bunch of flowers, her face tight with misery. At the top of the stairs was a long corridor and suddenly nurses appeared, passing on either side of her like silent ghosts. Melissa turned into a side room and sat down beside a woman lying on a bed. The woman had Melissa’s pale skin and dark hair but her hand lay on the pale blue sheet, thin and wasted.
Adam had jerked awake then in the darkness, overcome by the same sick, sweaty feeling his premonitions gave him. Clutching his keystone helped settle his stomach – but what was that all about? It felt a little like his doom sense but that only kicked in right before someone died unexpectedly. The woman in the bed looked like she’d been ill for a long time. If she died she wasn’t going to be a sudden death – any Luman could look after her. Some Lumen were specialists in hospital work. The woman wouldn’t need a fast-response Luman so why was Adam even thinking about her?
Even now, hours later, Adam shivered at the memory. Who was she? Could she be Melissa’s mum? But if she was … then she had bigger problems than missing work to see a doctor. It was probably just a freaky dream – nerves about his date. He pushed the woman out of his mind and tried to focus on the evening ahead. It was going to be the best night of his life – and for once he wasn’t going to ruin it thinking about death.
Luc was already waiting for him in the garden, pacing up and down like a caged tiger. He grabbed Adam’s shoulder and propelled him up against the wall. ‘We need to talk.’
Adam gulped. Surely he wasn’t going to back out now! ‘OK, I’m listening.’
Luc hadn’t loosened his grip. ‘There are some ground rules for tonight. Number one, whatever I tell you to do you do it, without asking questions or crying like a girl. Number two, once inside you do not approach me under any circumstances. You pretend not to know me. That means no looking at me or leering at me or popping over to say hello.’ He gave a simpering girlie wave by way of example. ‘Number three, you never ask me to do this again but you will pretend you’ve been out with me as required. You are now my official alibi.’
Adam thought about the last one. It could work out well if he was going to be seeing Melissa again. ‘OK, deal.’
Luc gave him a long stare, then nodded, apparently satisfied. ‘Good.’ He disappeared into the bushes and emerged holding what looked like a bowling ball. ‘Now put this on.’
Adam stared down and gulped. He was holding a motorbike helmet.
Half an hour later, he staggered off Luc’s motorbike, jelly-legged and resisting the urge to fall to his knees and kiss the ground. Luc rode a bike the same way he did everything – with a mixture of gleeful abandon and supreme arrogance. Adam’s ears were still ringing from the blare of a thousand car horns. ‘You’re … mental!’ he spat.
Luc shrugged. ‘It’s faster than the bus. Pity I can’t stash a Keystone round here somewhere and then we could have swooped. Mother
counts them every day though …’ He took Adam’s helmet and stashed it with his own behind a row of commercial dustbins. They were in an alleyway. Adam didn’t recognise it, although that was hardly surprising; he’d kept his eyes screwed shut for most of the journey so they could have been anywhere. But as his hearing returned he became aware of a low, bass thud that seemed to come up out of the ground itself. ‘What’s that noise?’
Luc held up one finger with a beatific smile. ‘That, bro, is Cryptique.’ He pulled out a dust sheet from behind the bin and threw it over the bike. Clearly this was just one of its many hiding places. ‘If we get a call-out I’ll meet you back here. Just keep your fingers crossed that the Fates are smiling on us. Well, on me anyway.’ He led Adam through a maze of small alleys until they emerged into a larger road.
Straight ahead of them was what looked like Dracula’s mansion plonked onto a normal city street. It had a massive stone front and huge wooden doors, arching to a Gothic point. There were no windows on the ground floor and only a few on the floor above. Already there was a huge queue snaking along the front of the building and halfway down the street. The same bass thud reverberated through the sharp night air.
Luc gripped Adam’s arm painfully. ‘Now, this is the bit where you follow me and you don’t say anything.’ They crossed the road and sauntered straight to the front of the queue. Luc ignored the mutterings of the people around them and grinned at the bouncer. ‘All right, Ripper?’
Adam stared in disbelief at the man mountain before him. He wasn’t much taller than Luc but what he lacked in height he more than made up for in girth. He was basically the size of a small car – a small car with a black leather jacket, a shaved head and piggy eyes.
As Adam watched, Ripper grinned through a mouthful of broken teeth and exchanged some kind of complicated thirty-second handshake with Luc. There was a lot of fist bumping and palm sliding. ‘All right, mate? Knew I’d see you here tonight – I know your MO.’
Luc grinned. ‘You know me too well. This is my brother.’
Ripper’s tiny eyes narrowed until they became squint lines. He jerked his head but thankfully didn’t offer his hand. Adam had tried to follow the sequence but he had lost track after the first seven moves. Ripper turned to Luc and his face was less friendly. ‘We’re not running a playgroup here, mate.’
Luc sighed. ‘I know. Thing is, I promised I’d bring him out tonight so I have a little proposition for you.’ He leaned in closer and muttered something in one of the bouncer’s cauliflower ears. Ripper’s eyes widened until they were almost half the size of a normal human eye and he bared his scary teeth in another trademark smile. ‘All right then. Just this once – and only cos it’s you.’
Luc step back and grinned. ‘I owe you, mate.’ There was another endless handshake and then Adam watched Ripper step aside and wave them in the door. He tried to act nonchalant but it was impossible. He was in Cryptique! He was actually inside!
He watched Luc greet the girl in the booth and she waved them through without paying. Luc murmured something to her and she laughed and kissed him. Adam stared at his brother, flushed with something between pride and envy. Luc just … had something. He didn’t know what it was. He just knew that Luc had it and he didn’t. He waited for Luc to finish and muttered, ‘Thanks.’
‘That’s OK,’ Luc said cheerfully. ‘I now own you, simple as that.’
‘What did you tell Ripper you would do?’
Luc’s face darkened. ‘That is something you really don’t want to know.’ His eyes widened. ‘Holy crap, who’s this?’
Adam turned and felt his heart skip a beat. Melissa was walking towards them beaming. She was wearing some kind of white knee-length dress with puffy, lacy sleeves. It looked really old, like something from a black and white film. Her hair was pulled to one side and pinned in some kind of knot. She looked amazing. ‘Hey,’ she said and kissed him on the cheek. ‘So you made it.’
Adam’s cheek was burning. He gave her a lunatic grin. ‘Yeah, sure did. You look like –’ He tailed off, struggling to find the words.
‘He’s trying to say you look fantastic,’ his brother cut in and stepped forward. ‘I’m Luc.’ He held out his hand with his most charming smile.
Great. Now Luc would work his magic. Adam took a moment to wallow in bitterness. In his mind’s eye he pictured Melissa throwing herself into Luc’s arms and staying there.
Instead she shook Luc’s hand, smiled and said, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa.’ Then she turned to Adam. ‘You should see it inside! They’ve gone mad with sparkly things. It doesn’t even look like Cryptique.’
Luc cut in before Adam got the chance to speak. ‘You come here a lot, don’t you? I think I’ve seen you here before.’
‘Have you?’ Melissa said politely. ‘Yeah I do come here but I don’t recognise you to be honest. Nice to meet you though.’ She turned back to Adam and smiled. ‘So – you ready to show me what you’ve got?’
‘What?’ Adam swallowed hard. What exactly did she want to see?
Melissa grinned. ‘On the dance floor, Adam. Show me what you’ve got on the dance floor. Your funky moves.’
Luc sniggered. ‘He’ll be right in. I just need to have a word with him first.’ He watched her walk back into the main room and grabbed Adam’s arm. ‘OK, I have no idea how you got her to come here tonight but Do. Not. Mess. This. Up!’
Adam shrugged his hand off and scowled. ‘I’m not planning to.’
Luc eyeballed him with uncharacteristic sincerity. ‘I’m not joking. She’s hot. What did you do, use some kind of Jedi mind control?’
There was no way Adam was going to admit that he was just as mystified as Luc. ‘We just like each other.’
Luc clutched at his heart and pretended to swoon. ‘That’s lovely. I give it an hour tops before you make an arse of yourself. But that’s not my problem. It’s time for us to go our separate ways. I’ll meet you back here at the end of the night. I’ll ignore your tears and you’ll ignore the lipstick all over my body.’ He waggled his eyebrows and leered.
Adam made vomiting noises and watched his brother swagger away. ‘I will not arse this up,’ he muttered. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath and marched inside.
Cryptique was even better than he had dared to imagine. The main room was dark and cavernous with strange little niches and side rooms. It was oddly like the crypt underneath his garden but the bright lights and occasional puff of dry ice took away the creepiness. There was an endless bar running the length of the room and a DJ booth on a stage at the front. Seats were few and far between; this was a place where people came for a serious dance.
The thought of dancing made Adam nervous. He was a competent ballroom dancer – like all Lumen – although he would eat his own arm before admitting this to his friends. But club dancing was different. He tried to surreptitiously observe the crowd but most of the dancers so far were girls.
He found Melissa at the bar perched on a stool and chatting to the guy behind the counter. She had somehow managed to keep another stool for Adam. He hopped on, suddenly feeling shy.
Melissa seemed perfectly at ease. ‘So you made it then. You haven’t really been here before, have you?’
Adam considered lying for about a millisecond, then realised he would only cave in under the laser eyes. ‘No, I haven’t. But I’ve always wanted to come.’
She took pity on him and didn’t press him on why he’d lied. ‘Who was the guy you were with?’
‘My brother, Luc.’ Adam watched her closely, waiting for some flicker of interest but there was nothing obvious. Heartened he continued. ‘He got me in. He knows one of the bouncers – Ripper.’
Melissa shuddered. ‘God, Ripper’s such a creep. What’s your brother doing hanging out with that psycho?’
The question bothered Adam. Luc was just Luc – but what did he do all day when he wasn’t on call? Aron mostly hit the gym in his time off but Luc was different. As far as Adam could see he spent mo
st of his free time out and about, probably with people like Ripper. What other unsavoury characters did he know? The thought was unnerving.
He shared some kind of fizzy red concoction with Melissa and tried to chat over the music. It was hard. The dance floor was filling up and the DJ seemed to have made it his mission to send everyone home with perforated eardrums. Adam found himself getting fidgety. Somehow it wasn’t very romantic in spite of the Valentine’s theme …
Thinking about Valentine’s reminded him of something. He scrabbled in his pocket, pulling out a slightly battered and bent pink envelope – although thankfully it wasn’t one of Dan’s offerings. Adam slid it along the counter towards Melissa, trying to look casual. ‘I brought you a card.’
Her eyes sparkled. ‘Thanks. I should have brought you one but I haven’t got a bag with me. I hope you don’t mind. I’m sure you got plenty of other cards.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Adam muttered. Auntie Jo was very reliable like that. Another thought occurred to him. ‘I thought girls always had bags. Where do you keep all your stuff?’
Melissa arched one eyebrow. ‘Do you really want to know the answer to that?’
Adam choked on the fizzy red stuff and Melissa laughed. She took his hand and pulled him off the stool. ‘Keep the card in your pocket for me, will you? Go and hit the dance floor. I’ll meet you in a minute.’
The dance floor had filled up while they were talking. Adam took his time, sliding between dancers, watching what they were doing. No waltzing or foxtrotting here, that was for sure. He made his way into the centre of the dance floor, reasoning that if he was going to make a fool of himself it was better being hidden by the crowd.
