The Mortal Knife (9 page)

‘It doesn't matter. Blood and tradition are everything.' Auntie Jo sounded weary – and bitter. ‘It doesn't matter how totally unsuited someone is to being High Luman. If that's their fate, then that's their fate.'

Adam looked at her curiously. ‘Yeah, but Father
is
a good High Luman.'

‘I wasn't talking about your father,' Auntie Jo snapped. She sighed. ‘Don't listen to me. I'm tired. All that talk at dinner about what we have to do for the ball. I'm exhausted even thinking about it!' She pulled at the silver locket round her neck, moving it from side to side the way she did when she was upset. ‘Now, are you going to watch this with me or shall I just tell you tomorrow's horoscope and get it over with?'

Adam raised an eyebrow. ‘Like there's any way of stopping you!'

Auntie Jo grinned and put on her horoscope voice. ‘We all want to know what the stars reveal, Adam. What the future holds.'

Adam tried to smile – but when he thought about Morta and that knife he wasn't so sure that he
did
want to know the future after all  … 

The next day Adam arrived at school with mixed feelings. On the one hand he was looking forward to seeing Melissa, especially if she was going to kiss him again. On the other hand Michael Bulber would be thirsting for revenge, which could only mean bad things for Adam.

Worse still, he was going to have to eat humble pie with Spike and the others. He knew he'd been out of order but the problem was he kind of meant what he'd said. Spike
was
always snooping about and sometimes it did annoy Adam. Still, Spike did have a point. Without his help Melissa would probably never have spoken to Adam again. Usually Spike was on
his
side but this time they were on opposing teams. It was just that Spike didn't know it.

In registration Adam at least got a proper smile from Melissa, which seemed like a good omen for the day. He sat surreptitiously finishing his chemistry homework while listening to their form tutor's latest rant. This one was on poor punctuality being to blame for most of the world's evils, including underfunding of the space mission. Adam felt a new pity for his form tutor, not knowing he was a thwarted astronaut turned teacher. Maybe that was why The Bulb had given him a job. After all, he was a former wrestler turned head teacher. Rumour had it that he'd paralysed an opponent in a dirty fight, hence his fall from wrestling grace.

Eager to share this new titbit with his friends he scuttled off to the library as soon as the bell for break rang. Spike was the only one there which made the whole apology thing easier, at least until he opened his mouth. ‘Didn't think you'd want to sit with a snooper like me. Why don't you go off and hang out with your
girlfriend
?'

Adam sighed. ‘Don't be like that. I was out of order yesterday.'

Spike was focusing intently on his laptop. ‘Yeah, you were.'

It was clear he wanted more. Adam gritted his teeth. ‘Look, I was a nob, OK? I was just stressing. I know that's hard for you to understand because you never seem to get stressed about anything but us lesser mortals worry about stuff.'

‘Yeah, you were definitely a nob,' Spike said but he looked slightly mollified. ‘And getting stressed doesn't do anything so why bother?'

Adam sat down. ‘So did you get any further with the picture?'

Spike shook his head. ‘Nah, still need to catch my CIA guy. The time difference is a pain. He'll be getting up soon though. I've tracked him to the Midwest somewhere so he's six or seven hours behind – but he's an early riser. He reckons he can sleep with one eye open.'

Adam snorted. He could imagine this contact all too vividly, some loony living in an underground bunker with assault weapons on the wall and booby traps under every stone, imagining it would keep him safe; not knowing Morta could simply flick the tip of her knife and he would fall down the stairs or choke to death on a piece of steak. He was Spike's kind of guy all right  …  He was saved from having to say anything more by Archie and Dan arriving. Dan bounced an almond off his head by way of greeting.

‘So you're still alive,' Archie said. ‘Heard you had a run-in with the Beast. You like living on the edge, don't you? Maybe you'd be better
not
having a girlfriend if it's going to get you killed.' He looked a little pleased. It was obvious he hadn't forgiven Adam either.

Adam grimaced. ‘Yeah, you're probably right.'

Dan sat down and gnawed an almond, squirrelly with nervous energy. ‘He'll never let you have her! The great white is unstoppable.' He shook his head, looking gloomy. ‘It's unfortunate but maybe you need to find a new hunting ground. There's only room for one apex predator!'

Adam blinked. Clearly Dan had spent more time on his biology homework than Adam had. ‘She doesn't even like him. I mean she definitely doesn't fancy him but she doesn't even
like
him. She thinks he's a tit.'

Archie smirked. ‘Yeah, she seems to have a thing for tits.'

Adam counted to ten in his head, reminding himself that he probably deserved it. ‘I don't even think he
does
like her, not really. He just wants her because he can't have her and there's nobody he likes more.'

Dan rolled an almond between his fingers, looking thoughtful. ‘It's a pity there isn't someone else he likes. Someone really amazing.' He glanced up and added quickly, ‘You know, because Melissa is a fantastic fish but maybe he just needs an even better fish. One he can really show off to everyone.'

Archie was looking interested now in spite of himself. ‘The ultimate fish. The stuff of legends.'

Dan nodded. ‘Exactly. Like those stories you see on the news because someone's caught this gigantic fish people said didn't exist. Like the Loch Ness Monster. And then a beardy guy catches a megafish and it takes ten men to get it out of the water. And then they stuff it and put it on a pub wall and it's bigger than a boat.' He stopped and looked sheepish. ‘My dad made me watch a documentary about the Crestwick Carp.'

‘Another fun-filled evening with the Dark Lord,' Spike muttered.

Dan was warming to his theme. ‘So what we need is bait. A fish so hot that it makes Melissa look ugly. Like putting a nice little goldfish beside  …  a barracuda!'

‘Eels are pretty ugly,' Archie said helpfully. ‘My uncle used to drag me along eel fishing in Norfolk.' He shuddered at the memory.

‘The blobfish is officially the world's ugliest fish,' Spike added, turning the laptop so they could recoil from a close-up of a gelatinous bottom-dwelling mutant.

‘OK, yes, I get the point, ugly fish!' Adam said, feeling desperate. He was afraid he might actually go mad if they didn't stop talking about fish. ‘So, who's going to be the good fish? The bait.'

There was a long silence. ‘Hmmmm,' Dan said. ‘And therein lies the problem. Not only do we have to
find
this hot fish but we also have to convince her to swim into the Beast's jaws. And she'd have to be a bit thick to do that.'

‘Unless she wasn't real.' Spike glanced up at their startled faces and raised an eyebrow. ‘Come on, we invented a fake sensei, a fake wrestling tournament and a whole new imaginary martial art. How hard can it be to invent an imaginary fish? Or girl for that matter.'

‘I could make her!' Archie leered around the table. ‘Seriously, I'd be brilliant. You have no idea how much thought I've given this.' He pulled out his sketchpad and his pen flew furiously over the pages. ‘Lips  …  like this. Hair  …  like this  …  And of course the rest  … '

There was a long pause as they contemplated the bizarre top-heavy image before them. It looked like some kind of alien with enormous breasts. Dan squinted at the picture. ‘I don't think even the Beast is weird enough to find
that
attractive.'

Archie frowned. ‘Whatever. I can tone it down a bit. We have a programme in the art room that can convert drawings to photo images.'

‘So how's she going to know about the Beast?' Adam loved the idea of distracting his nemesis from Melissa but unfortunately Michael Bulber wasn't quite as stupid as his father.

‘We could pretend she's going to come to this school. Say that she's overseas. There's a girl in my form class who just left to go and live in Australia. So we download an application form, fill it in and pretend she's legit. Then we pretend she isn't coming for a few weeks. We can just keep dragging it out.'

‘But sooner or later the Beast will want to meet her.'

Dan grinned. ‘Yeah, but by then he'll have gone off Melissa. It's basic psychology. He'll spend weeks comparing Melissa to the new girl and decide Wonderfish is a better catch. So Melissa will never look like a good catch again.'

Adam frowned and thought about it. Could Dan be right? Could a Wonderfish really distract Bulber from Melissa? It would certainly take the pressure off a bit if he didn't have to concentrate on impressing Melissa
and
not getting killed by the Beast. ‘I suppose it might work.'

‘Of course it'll work,' Spike said airily. ‘Since when do my plans not work?'

Archie was squinting critically at his drawing. ‘You know you're right. She needs a bit of adjustment. I'll work on some drawings this evening.'

Dan grinned. ‘Operation Wonderfish is go!'

Adam rolled his eyes but he couldn't help smiling. After all, they had fooled the Bulb. Fooling Michael Bulber too was just keeping things in the family. ‘OK. Let's do it.'

‘So when are you going to see the fish again?' Archie was still sketching out the Wonderfish, frowning with concentration.

‘At lunchtime,' Adam said, trying hard to sound nonchalant. ‘I was talking to her this morning in registration.'

Dan frowned. ‘You don't make it easy to keep you alive, do you? I mean until the Wonderfish is perfected Melissa is still tempting prey – which makes you prey too.'

‘Don't worry. I'll be safe enough,' Adam said. ‘She wants me to meet her in the art room. You know, to help her with her coursework.'

Archie snorted. ‘She does know you can barely draw a stick man, doesn't she?'

‘I'm not going to be doing any drawing.' Adam cleared his throat and tried not to preen. ‘Actually
she
wants to draw
me
.'

Spike sniggered. ‘You're not my idea of a muse.'

Dan's eyes were like saucers. ‘When you say she's going to
draw
you  …  it's not
that
sort of drawing, is it?' He looked around nervously checking for eavesdroppers. ‘You know. The nudie stuff.
Life
drawing.' He nodded knowingly at Adam.

‘No!' Adam paused. ‘I mean, they don't do that in school  …  do they?'

Archie looked up from his sketchpad. ‘Dunno. I've got Donnelly and he's not into that stuff at all, but Melissa's got that hippy teacher. The new one with all the tattoos. Bet she's into all sorts!'

Dan choked on an almond and scrabbled through his pocket for his inhaler. Adam could have done with a quick puff himself. He stood up as the bell for the end of break rang. ‘Yeah, well, at least if the art teacher is there I won't need to worry about the Beast. And hopefully you'll have the Wonderfish ready for tomorrow.'

Spike raised an eyebrow. ‘I never knew having a girlfriend was such a team effort.'

Adam had the grace to blush.

When lunchtime came, Adam sloped towards the art corridor with deep trepidation. It was a part of the school he rarely visited; he'd dropped art as soon as he possibly could. It wasn't that he didn't
like
art; he just wasn't any good at it. He often envied Archie's ability to draw anything, even if he did sometimes use it for dubious purposes.

Melissa appeared a few minutes later, looking flustered and lugging an armful of heavy, hardback books. ‘Sorry. I had to go to the library first. I needed research books.' She pressed the door handle with her elbow and gestured to Adam. ‘Come on in.'

Adam hesitated, feeling like he was entering the lion's den. There were a few people there already, working away with headphones in their ears. Thankfully all of them had their clothes on too. The art room always smelled the same – that weird mixture of damp clay and paint.

Melissa scurried over to the far side of the room and dropped the books on the table with a crash. ‘They were killing my arms.' She rubbed the insides of her elbows and pulled a stool out from under the bench. ‘Sit here, will you? I want to get the light from the windows.'

Belatedly Adam realised he could have offered to carry the books in. He'd missed a chance to shine! He perched on the edge of the stool, feeling apprehensive but trying to look cool. ‘It's a nice room.'

Melissa smiled at him. ‘I'm not going to bite you.'

Clearly he wasn't being as cool as he'd hoped. Adam cleared his throat. ‘So  …  what is it you're doing?'

Melissa was flicking through one of the heavy books. The pages were a riot of colour. ‘We have to pick some artists and create a piece based on their styles. I haven't decided on the style yet but the theme is the same whoever I use.'

‘Oh right. What do you mean the theme?'

Melissa looked up at him and then quickly looked away. She seemed to be studying the book. ‘What the piece is about. What it has to express. So mine is on  …  passion.'

Adam stared at her for a second, then dropped his eyes to the floor, feeling his cheeks flame. Bloody
hell
! Dan was
right
! What the hell did they
get up to
up here? For a fleeting moment he found himself longing for the ether-scented air of the biology lab. ‘Oh, right.'

Now Melissa seemed embarrassed. ‘Look, it's a big topic. I'm just at the figuring stuff out stage. So today is just prep, if that's OK?' At Adam's nod she looked relieved. ‘Great. I'm just going to take some photos to start.'

Adam froze. With Spike scouring the internet for the unknown bomber now was
not
a good time for Adam to start posing for the camera. He tried to make his question sound casual. ‘What do you need photos for?'

Melissa looked amused. ‘Well, you can't be here all the time, can you? I need to be able to work when you're in your other classes. Unless you're going to come and be a full-time model.'

‘No, yeah, that makes sense. You don't put the photos up anywhere though, do you?'

Melissa gave him an odd look. ‘Well, just on the display board here when I show the finished piece. But it's mostly going to be shots of individual body parts. No one will even know it's you.'

‘That's great,' Adam said. At least his grinning mug wasn't going to end up plastered all over the internet. But his relief was short-lived. Body
parts
? Which parts exactly was she going to be taking photos of?