Ruby Tanya
Page 16
They are coming towards the bus. I know that if a fight starts, the bomb will explode before the police have time to break it up. There is one thing to do, and one girl to do it. I get up and run down the bus. The men are almost to the door. I push past Mr Shofiq, jump down and run as fast as I can towards the hall. The other men ignore me, but Mac and Cedric break away to chase.
In the entrance a man sits behind a table. Stop her! yells somebody in the queue. The man jumps up and comes round the table, arms spread like a goalie. Again I am the ball. I roll under his table and bounce up facing a long aisle, with row after row of wooden seats to both sides. Most seats have bottoms on them, the place is almost full. At the far end is a platform with a long table. Behind the table are sitting two men. One is Sefton Feltwell, the other must be Ruby Tanya’s father. On the wall behind them is a huge banner with the words, BRITAIN FIRST: ALIENS OUT.
People hear the scuffle, turn in their seats, mutter at the alien. If Mac and Cedric are not behind I think so I will run away, but they are close. I run down the aisle; there are five steps to the platform. I clatter up.
Feltwell is on his feet. He recognizes me but not sure what to do. He can’t kill me in front of a hundred people. He signals to Mac and Cedric, but they also are not sure. I face my hundred enemies. There is a bomb, I cry, same like our school. You must go at once.
Everybody goes quiet, but nobody moves. They are thinking, This alien thinks we just got off the boat. I am thinking, If there’s a bomb, why is Feltwell here?
Ruby Tanya’s father stands up, starts to speak. Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow villagers. He looks to me. You see what happens when we let aliens flood in? They don’t understand our culture, our traditions, our democracy. They think the way to deal with a meeting they don’t like is to break it up by scare tactics. By lies. By verbal terrorism.
While Mr Redwood is speaking, Feltwell rises quietly and leaves the stage through the curtain. There is clapping, shouts of Yes. All of these people will die, I don’t know what to do. I turn to the speaker. Why has Sefton Feltwell left the hall? I ask.
He looks to the empty chair. He is so happy with the shouts and clapping he did not notice. He has no explanation. His silence succeeds where my warning failed. People start looking to one another, murmuring. She should know, says a loud voice. It’ll be her lot planted it.
This works. Within seconds people are up. Pushing others in their hurry to reach the aisle, which quickly becomes blocked. Chairs fall over, there is jostling, fists fly. Police at the door are trying to get in but the crowd surges, forcing them back. Keep calm, cries an officer. You’ll get out quicker. Nobody believes this.
I am watching from the platform, happy these people will not die, unhappy because they think my people are bombers. A hand grips my arm. I cry out, try to pull free. It is Ruby Tanya’s father. Come on, he cries. This way. He is pulling me, we go through the curtain and down some wooden steps. It is dark here. I think so he will kill me.
He does not. We hurry along a dim corridor to an open door. He pulls me through the door and we are outside, on the path behind the village hall. There are not many people here. I look to him. Cleaver’s got Ruby Tanya, I say.
What? He is hurting my arm.
At the farm. We heard them talking about the village hall. A bomb. We tried to get away but Cleaver came. He grabbed Ruby Tanya, I ran.
Oh, my God! He pulls me towards a corner of the building. Church Lane is full of people hurrying under an orange street lamp. He squeezes my arm, hisses, Don’t fight me: if they see you they’ll tear you to pieces. In front of us is the car park. We move quickly among the cars. Some are starting up in clouds of exhaust, some moving. People are hurrying to their vehicles. Mr Redwood is hiding me with his body as we pass.
His car is a Volvo. It beeps and flashes as we come near. He opens a door, bundles me in. Keep your head down, he mutters. Some of the people recognize him, he wants to avoid them. He slides in behind the wheel, starts the motor, slams the door. I am lying on the back seat. We move out onto Church Lane. It is stop and start because of other cars. We reach the end, wait, swing right onto the Danmouth road. The driver puts his foot down, the Volvo leaps forward. I hope so we will save Ruby Tanya, and that he does not mean to murder me.
We are almost to the school when the bomb goes off.
- Ninety-Six
Asra and Ruby Tanya
IT KILLS NOBODY, the bomb. The hall empties, then pouf! it is gone. Sefton Feltwell does it from the white van, radio signal. He drives away with Mac and Cedric: they think so they have killed everybody.
Yes, and the plan went wrong in other ways too. Like they’d left clues at the scene to make it look as if asylum seekers planted the bomb. Snag was, the guys who saved me from Cave-Troll Cleaver put the frighteners on him and he told them everything: how they broke into the village hall, planted the bomb and scattered the clues; how Feltwell meant to lie low at the Eagle’s Nest till the police found the explosives at the camp and lifted the road blocks.
But they can’t go back to Eagle’s Nest because me and Ruby Tanya knows about it. They think Ruby Tanya is dead but what about me? Did I die in the explosion or not? They are bad men; they don’t even go back for Cleaver. They drive the white van into some thick woods to wait till fuss will go away.
Even that didn’t work: they picked the wrong woods. Turned out it was a bat sanctuary, with a warden and everything. He noticed the van and phoned the police, who picked the three of ’em up less than an hour after the explosion. Unfortunately they came for Dad too. Well, he’d got himself mixed up with those losers, they thought he was one of them.
Monday night I sleep at Ruby Tanya’s gran’s house. Tuesday is TV peoples everywhere. Me and Ruby Tanya is heroes, they are filming us at school. We go in a van to the ruins. Ruby Tanya has to get in the chest. We miss rehearsals all day.
Wednesday’s papers were full of it. NAZI BOMB PLOT FOILED was one headline; BF FRAME-UP FAILS was another. No prizes for guessing who came up with KIDS’ KOOL KOURAGE KRACKS KONSPIRACY. Dad was released without charge that day too, which was a relief to all concerned.
Bestest bits come later though. I am still with Ruby Tanya’s gran. No police come to take me away. Friday, editor Hadwin of the Star is writing that I must not be sent to my country because I save many lifes. Next day, other papers are saying the same.
And it gets better. After Hadwin’s piece, people started bombarding the Star with letters and faxes and e-mails, demanding not only that Asra should be allowed to settle in England, but that her parents be brought back too. These were villagers, the same people who’d flocked to hear Dad speak out against asylum seekers. It was unbelievable.
The spirit of reconciliation even spread to school. The bullying stopped, and the name-calling. One break time Shazad Butt knocked on Ramsden’s door and confessed he’d stuck the blades through Allardyce’s trainers. The head gave him a terrific telling-off – you could hear him in the yard – but he didn’t expel him. Allardyce responded the same day, admitting he’d put Asif Akhtar in hospital. Amazing.
Amazing, yes, and I am every day having presents in the post from peoples I do not know. Gran says her house is getting like a shop. I think so it is because of Christmas, but Christmas comes and goes and the presents do not stop.
Halfway through January, a letter came to Gran’s from the government. It was for Asra, to say she might settle in England if somebody would take responsibility for her. Gran wrote straight back saying she’d be that somebody. She threw a party to celebrate, and Dad came. I could hardly believe it, and that wasn’t all. Bring fireworks, Gran said when he told her he’d be there, and he said, No: there’s been enough explosions in Tipton Lacey. You should’ve seen Mum’s face.
I’ve made it up with Millie, by the way. Told her I was sorry I’d used her as an alibi without asking. I was too, when I took the time to think about it. She didn’t exactly throw herself at me, but bit by bit it’s come all right betwe
en us. I’ve got two best friends now: no law against it, is there?
And they all lived happily ever after. Well, no, not all. Sefton Feltwell’s doing fifteen years in a prison his company built. It’s rubbish, four years old and leaks like a sieve. Hardly anything works. The staff hate it, but they know who’s to blame so that’s all right.
Anything else? Oh yes: the Sabers aren’t back yet, but the campaign’s gathering strength. Asra reckons her family’ll be together again quite soon.
Snug as a bug in a rug.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Swindells left school at fifteen and worked as a copyholder on a local newspaper. At seventeen he joined the RAF for three years, two of which he served in Germany. He then worked as a clerk, an engineer and a printer before training and working as a teacher. He is now a full-time writer and lives on the Yorkshire moors.
He has written many books for young readers. Room l3 won the l990 Children's Book Award. Abomination won the 1999 Stockport Children’s Book Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, the Sheffield Children’s Book Award, the Lancashire Children’s Book Award and the 1999 Children’s Book Award. His books for older readers include Stone Cold, which won the l994 Carnegie Medal, as well as the award-winning Brother in the Land. As well as writing, Robert Swindells enjoys keeping fit, travelling and reading.
Also by Robert Swindells and published by
Doubleday/Corgi Yearling Books:
ABOMINATION
BLITZED
HYDRA
INSIDE THE WORM
INVISIBLE!
JACQUELINE HYDE
NIGHTMARE STAIRS
ROOM 13
THE THOUSAND EYES OF NIGHT
TIMESNATCH
A WISH FOR WINGS
Robert Swindells
Imagine being alive before your parents were even born!
George is fascinated by World War Two - bombers, Nazis, doodlebugs. Even evacuation and rationing has got to be more exciting than living in dreary old Witchfield! He is looking forward to his school trip to Eden Camp, a World War Two museum. But he doesn’t realize quite how authentic this visit to wartime Britain will be …
A hand reaching out of the fake rubble, a slip in time, and George has to survive something much worse than boredom. The rubble is now real – he has slipped through time into 1940s London!
A thrilling drama from a master of suspense, Robert Swindells.
‘A first-rate time-travel story … Swindells is a powerful, thrilling writer … as good as Robert Westall’s classic,
The Machine Gunners.’ INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
‘Entertaining and thought-provoking … has a wonderfully satisfying ending’ THE BOOKSELLER
ISBN 0 440 86397 X
Robert Swindells
Martha is twelve, and very different from other kids. No TV. No computer. No cool clothes. Especially, no friends.
It’s all because of her parents. Strict members of a religious group, their rules dominate Martha’s life. But one rule is the most important of all: Martha must never ever invite anyone home. If she does, their terrible secret – Abomination – could be revealed …
‘A taut and thrilling novel from a master of the unpredictable’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
WINNER OF THE 1999 STOCKPORT CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD
WINNER OF THE 1999 SHEFFIELD CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD PRIZE, THE LANCASHIRE CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD and THE 1999 CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD
ISBN 0 440 86362 7
Robert Swindells
What would you do if you could become invisible?
Creep around, unseen? Listen in to other people’s conversations? Twins Carrie and Conrad, and their friends Peter and Charlotte do all these things, and much more, when a new girl at school – Rosie – shows them her secret: how to make yourself invisible.
It’s exciting, and it’s fun. It can also be frightening … and dangerous. Especially when Rosie’s dad becomes a suspect in a local crime and the gang go invisible to find the real crooks …
A gripping adventure from a master of suspense, author of the award-winning Room 13 and many other titles.
‘Robert Swindells writes the kinds of books that are so scary you’re afraid to turn the page’ YOUNG TELEGRAPH
ISBN 0 440 86363 5
RUBY TANYA
AN RHCB DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 10018 7
Published in Great Britain by RHCB Digital,
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This ebook edition published 2011
Copyright © Robert Swindells, 2004
First Published in Great Britain
Yearling 9780440863984 2004
The right of Robert Swindells to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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