Ruby Redfort 1 - Look Into My Eyes (24 page)

All in all, Ruby got quite an earful, but despite the rap on the knuckles, she thought she could see something different in LB’s eyes, something approaching respect perhaps. But all she said was, “Nice going, Redfort.”

Then she turned, picked up her phone, and started issuing a million orders.

Ruby guessed she had been dismissed.

It was strange for Ruby returning to Twinford Junior High the very next day. She felt a sense of elation as she biked the short distance to school, but once she walked into her homeroom and sat down at her desk, she felt a steady lowering of her spirits. She had a lurking sense that whatever thrill had come her way was most probably over. Yesterday she still had something, something she had to solve to convince Spectrum she was worth the trouble, but now that she had, what was there?

“‘Nice going’? That’s all she said?”

Clancy had been pretty indignant when Ruby met up with him that evening. He couldn’t believe that his pal, the smartest person he had met in his whole entire life, Ruby Redfort, was being treated like a nobody.

“You have to remember, Clance, it isn’t like normal life. LB does this kinda thing every day — for her it’s probably no biggie.”

“No biggie!” said Clance. “You save the Jade Buddha of Khotan and it’s ‘no biggie’?”

“Well, my folks will be pleased, anyway,” said Ruby. “Not that they will ever know, of course.”

“Yeah,” said Clancy, “that’s the problem with being a superhero, no one ever knows how super you are.”

When Ruby got home she went to find Hitch. He was packing up his room.

“Leaving already?”

“Not right away but soon — just waiting to get my orders.”

Ruby looked around — there wasn’t a lot to pack up, yet somehow, as he moved his things into boxes and trunks, the soul seemed to disappear from the room.

“So what’s happening at Spectrum? You must be lining up some heavy-duty security for this whole museum launch.”

“Apart from the laser lockdown system we are about to install, we also have the whole security team that
was
assigned to the bank,
and
of course Spectrum agents will infiltrate the guests — oh yes, and Ambassador Crew has generously loaned the museum his personal security staff.”

“Clancy’s dad is lending his security staff? Wow, this Buddha must be important.”

“Well, kid,” said Hitch, lightly punching her on the arm, “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it is the
Jade Buddha of Khotan.
”

“Oh yeah, now that you come to mention it, I think my folks might have said something about that.”

He winked and continued to slip shirts from hangers.

“Anything you need me to do?” asked Ruby hopefully.

“I think you can consider yourself off the payroll, kid. You did what needed doing, somewhat unconventionally it must be acknowledged, but we folks at Spectrum are grateful to you. Now you can go back to what you do best.”

“Yeah, and what’s that?”

“Bugging the heck out of poor Mrs. Drisco.”

“Oh, sure. That’s what I live for.”

Ruby went upstairs to the kitchen and whistled — from nowhere Bug was by her side, wagging his tail.

“At least I still have my old pal Bug. I don’t suppose you’ll ever dump me, right? At least, not while there’s food in the refrigerator.” Bug licked her on the cheek.

“Your breath could be fresher but thanks anyway.” She scratched him behind the ears.

Ruby and the dog made their way down the back stairs and left the yard by the back gate. It was a beautiful evening. The sun was getting ready to set and the breeze that touched her face was warm — but for Ruby it might as well have been thunder and hail, for she felt nothing but cold stinging disappointment, a feeling Ruby Redfort was simply not used to.

Just like that, Ruby’s life in the fast lane had hit a dead end.

RUBY WAS GLOOMIER STILL
when she arrived at school the next day only to find Clancy out sick.

“Toothache,” said Red.

“But they extracted it. How can he have a toothache?”

“Infected,” said Mouse. “That’s what I heard Mrs. Bexenheath saying to Mrs. Drisco.”

“Tooth decay: one of the top-ten reasons for all absent days,” said Del.

“So what, now you’re some kind of tooth statistics expert, Del?”

Del put her hands on her hips and looked hard at Ruby. “Redfort, what’s your problem? You’ve been acting sorta weird for a while and now you seem to have a bug in your behind.”

Del liked to use last names when she was making a point.

Ruby was annoyed. She was annoyed with Del and she was annoyed with Clancy. No one was saying that was fair, ’cause it wasn’t, but that didn’t stop her from being annoyed. As far as Ruby Redfort was concerned it wasn’t fair that she had managed to work out what eight top undercover agents hadn’t been able to work out — yet where had it gotten her? Back in junior high, where every day was the same.

After class Ruby walked out of the gates and saw her mom parked across the street.
Why is she here? Darn it!
Ruby had planned to head over to Clancy’s.

“Hey, Mom, what’s going on?”

“I thought we could go shopping — I want you looking pretty at the museum do,” said her mother. “And it wouldn’t hurt to get something for
our
party tonight — heaven knows what you are planning on wearing.”

“What are you saying? What’s wrong with my clothes?” said Ruby indignantly.

Sabina looked at Ruby’s attire. “Where to start?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh honey, do you
have
to wear those T-shirts? You could look like a regular girl if you tried.” Today Ruby’s T-shirt bore the words,
a bozo says what.

Ruby got into the car.

“
What?
” said her mother, staring hard at the words on Ruby’s shirt.

“Exactly,” said Ruby.

“What does that even mean?” Sabina sighed as she pulled away from the curb and into the traffic. “I have the prettiest daughter in town and all she wants is to look ‘different.’”

“Why would I wanna be the same?” said Ruby.

“I’m not saying exactly the
same
— just a bit the same.”

“A
bit
the same?”

“More normal, like other people want to look,” said Sabina firmly.

“You want me to look more like her?” said Ruby, pointing out Vapona Bugwart’s best friend and sidekick, Gemma Melamare, a glossy girl with shiny blond hair and more makeup than a department store cosmetics counter.

Sabina shivered. “No siree, Bob.”

They drove in silence for about fifteen seconds, before her mother perked up again. “Oh yes, Ruby, I have to tell you — turns out there is a rumor going around that there was a big conspiracy to steal the Jade Buddha of Khotan. Can you believe it?”

“Are you kidding?” said Ruby.

“Yes, it wasn’t the bank at all.”

“So, what, will they be bringing in some top security staff?”

“Oh, yes! Only Ambassador Crew’s top expert people, that’s how important this —”

“Yikes, Mom!” screamed Ruby as a maroon car overtook them at great speed and swerved into the gap in front of them.

“Jeepers!” screeched Sabina. “Some people’s driving! What was the point of that?” She honked the horn to show her displeasure. “Anyway, as I was saying, it is absolutely impossible to break in to the museum now they have all these lasers and the lockdown system. Isn’t that something?”

“Yeah,” said Ruby.

“I’m so excited! Your father’s going to bid for a chance to look the Buddha in the eye at the stroke of midnight. It’s the chance of a lifetime — imagine, not only the opportunity to halve his age but the chance to double his wisdom. What do you think, Rube?”

“Will we even notice?” said Ruby.

Sabina looked in the mirror — there was a black car edging closer and closer to their bumper. “What’s that nut behind me doing? She’ll end up in our trunk if she gets any closer!”

The black car started honking.

“Heavens!” exclaimed Sabina. “The standard of some people’s driving is just criminal!”

“You can say that again,” said Ruby.

Suddenly they felt their car jerk forward as the black car rammed into them.

“I’ve got nowhere to go, lady!” shouted Sabina loudly. The maroon car had them boxed in.

“Mom! We’re gonna end up inside that parked truck if you don’t get us outta here fast!”

It was true: they were heading straight for the open back of a large green truck. It looked like it was deliberately waiting to swallow them up.

Ruby grabbed the wheel and screamed, “Step on it!”

Her mother floored the gas pedal and they shot through a gap in the traffic — her eyes closed, expecting the worst, as the car careered across the freeway, tires screeching, vehicles honking, and . . .

. . . somehow they made it safely off at the next exit.

“I would suggest that crazy redhead remove her enormous shades and take a proper look where she is going!” said Sabina, gulping in air.

Ruby glanced in the mirror, but the black car was nowhere to be seen. Yet she had a strong feeling the woman’s poor driving had nothing to do with her eyesight.

“So now they’re dropping you?” Clancy was having a hard time taking this news in stride. He had come over as soon as he got Ruby’s message. “First of all they
barely
thank you, and now they drop you?”

“They haven’t
dropped me
, they just needed me to figure something out and now that I have that’s that.” Ruby was trying to put a brave face on it but Clancy wasn’t giving up.

“Oh fine, so you work out the whole thing and they just give you your marching orders like they never needed you in the first place.”

“No, Clance, you got it all backwards . . .” argued Ruby, but Clancy was just warming up.

“I can’t believe they would just use you like this, pick your brains and kick you out.”

“Clance, it’s not really like that.”

“You must feel terrible, Rube, all wrung out like an old dishrag.”

“Clance . . .”

“Dumped in the trash with all the rotting garbage.”

“Thanks, Clance,” said Ruby. “I feel a whole lot better talking to you.”

“Sorry, Rube, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, it’s just I hate to see this happen to you.”

“I know,” said Ruby. “I guess I thought they might keep me on, get me to do other things . . . it woulda been fun.” She sighed. “Look, let’s forget about it — let’s just hang out, OK?”

“OK, but how about we get some pizza?”

“I thought you had a tooth infection?”

“Nah, I was faking it. I haven’t done my French assignment, so I skipped school. My dad’s gonna kill me if I flunk again.”

“Clance! Why didn’t you say? Look, I can help you with that this week sometime.”

“Really?”

“Sure I can — do it in my sleep.”

“Thanks, Rube, let’s go find Ray’s Pizza Van — I’ll even pay.”

“Friend, you got yourself a deal,” said Ruby.

CLANCY CREW AND RUBY REDFORT
were hanging out in Twinford Square eating two slices of sausage, anchovy, and cauliflower pizza they had just purchased from Ray’s Roving Pizza Van.

“Good combination, Clance, weird but yet, somehow, good,” mumbled Ruby through a mouthful of pizza.

“Yeah, well, you know, I thought the crunch of the cauliflower would perfectly complement the saltiness of the anchovy, and the sausage would give it a sort of sausagey flavor.”

“And you’re not wrong, my friend,” said Ruby. These highbrow pizza discussions could go on for some time, but today something else had caught Clancy’s attention. As he ate he was watching a red-haired woman taking photographs of the square. It was a nice spring evening and the square was looking particularly pretty, but this woman was taking
a lot
of photographs and they weren’t just of the trees and the flowers. She had a camera with a long lens and she was slowly moving around photographing every single building in the square — almost like she was documenting them.

“Hey, Rube, that lady with the red hair — the one taking pictures — I swear I’ve seen her somewhere before.”

“Yeah, you could have seen her anywhere, lot a people in Twinford, Clance.”