Читать книгу Fuse - Sally Partridge - Страница 15

There had been a school killing in America that week. The news headlines had the story of three schoolboys in Massachusetts who opened fire on their fellow students.

Craig had been following the story religiously, pasting the newspaper cuttings in his journal that he carried around with him.

He and Kendall were reading the latest article at the back of the science class under the guise of studying a formula in their textbook.

“The latest death count is thirty-six,” Craig read. “Does it say what guns they used?”

“Semiautomatic,” Kendall replied. His mother had mentioned it that morning. He had been trying to keep up to date with the story to be on a par with Craig. His mother, an avid TV viewer, was his best source of information.

“No way. How did they get hold of those?”

“No idea.”

“The media are blaming our music for the attacks. Idiots!” Craig giggled. “They get it wrong every time.”

Kendall remembered the subheading of a story in the previous day’s paper: Kid killer’s home a haven of heavy metal.

“Don’t they get it?” said Craig, pointing to the students in the class. “They are causing school killings – not music or games or any of that crap! Man, if I didn’t have music to go home to after dealing with these psychos day in and day out, I don’t know what I’d do. Music is the only thing that gets me up in the morning, man. These people are soul destroyers.”

“Life’s little darlings,” replied Kendall bitterly.

“More like hell’s little darlings,” Craig scowled. “They think they can get away with anything. This lot deserve what’s coming to them.” He clenched his fists, a faraway look in his eyes.

“What do you mean?” Kendall asked slowly.

“Well, what about us, what about here? Nobody in South Africa has done anything like this before. Why can’t we teach them a real lesson for a change? We get put down every day of our lives, and they don’t even give us a second thought when they go home. Let’s fight back for a change.” Craig’s eyes were alight.

“What?” Kendall asked. “That’s crazy. We can’t get guns or stuff that those guys in America have.” He wanted to change the subject, but Craig’s eyes were on fire. Craig had light blue eyes, the iciest blue Kendall had ever seen on a person. He often wondered what had happened to Craig at his previous school that had been so bad and caused the light to go out in his eyes. Craig never spoke about it. If the subject was accidentally raised, he would get this odd twitch in his neck. It lasted only for the tiniest of a second, but Kendall had often noticed it. He imagined that whatever it was, must have been very, very bad.

“No, but we’re smarter than those kids in America, Kendall. We can do something better.”

Kendall was sceptical and a bit nervous too. Of all Craig’s weird notions, this was the weirdest. But kind of interesting.

“Like what?” he asked.

“We can build a bomb.”

“A bomb? What do you know about making bombs?” Kendall hissed, looking around frantically to see if anyone had overheard them.

“A pipe bomb. It’s so simple, you’ll laugh. And if we build it properly, we can kill a lot more than thirty-six people.”

“I don’t know, Craig. That’s pretty hectic,” Kendall whispered.

Craig leaned closer so there was no chance of anyone overhearing what he was going to say next.

“Wouldn’t you like to kill David? Wipe that smile off his face once and for all?”

Kendall had to admit that the thought did strike a nerve within him. David had been terrorising him for years. He bit his lip. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“Yeah, I’d like to kill David,” he admitted in a voice that didn’t sound like his own at all.

Craig smiled. “I can show you how.”

At break the friends sneaked into the computer science lab and looked up the making of a pipe bomb on the Internet. It was, as Craig had said, only too easy.

“I told you,” he grinned.

“Is it safe?” Kendall asked as he clicked through the various pages of information Craig had brought up onto the screen.

Craig shrugged. “I guess so, if we do it properly. Soldiers can assemble these in minutes; it’s like second nature to them. It’s all here. All we have to do is put everything together.”

Kendall had to admit that he was intrigued, despite his better judgment. He imagined himself building an instrument of destruction that would allow him to get back finally at the bullies. This bomb would make him visible and powerful. The thought of Justin popped into his mind, but he pushed it aside. Justin didn’t have to know everything.

“So, you’re game?” Craig asked.

“Yeah, why not,” Kendall replied, not taking his eyes off the screen. Craig was his only friend and he didn’t want to jeopardise the friendship just yet. If Craig thought the idea was cool he would go with it.

Craig grinned, but the smile did not reach his eyes.