Читать книгу The New Kid - Temple Mathews - Страница 7

Chapter Three: Will’s Sanctum

Will got off the bus with Natalie and a few of the other kids but didn’t look back at her as he walked toward home. He knew that just being in her orbit was a bad idea; he was pulled toward her like the planets to the sun. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to handle the feelings he was beginning to have for this stranger but he knew he would have to keep his distance. Even if she did have a smile that cut right through him.

His house was two stories and constructed of brick with ivy crawling up the front and had a large porch jutting out like a big strong jaw. It had green shutters and a gray slate roof and an attached two-car garage. Will anticipated his mother’s singsong voice asking him how his first day of school had been. Well, gosh, Mom, let’s see, the bus was attacked by demonic crows, I made the toilet in the boys’ room flood while saving some skinny kid I don’t even know, I inadvertently blew up the homecoming float, forever alienating myself from the head cheerleader and her gang of pretty faces, and now the whole school thinks I’m some kind of whacked out arsonist. How was your day? Of course Will would say none of that, he would smile and nod or grunt some monosyllable answers like all teenagers. Sometimes being sixteen came in handy—you could gloss over tons of bizarre behavior and have it all chalked up to being a teen and going through “those awkward years.”

He called out as he entered the house, “I’m home.”

No answer. Good. Will slouched off his backpack, made a quick raid of the refrigerator and scarfed down a couple of brownies with a cold glass of milk, and then, after locking the front door, went down into the basement. Flicking the lights on he saw that all his crates had arrived intact. The basement itself was huge and as such suited Will’s purposes perfectly. He pretended to be an old-school photographer, shooting on film in addition to digital, so he could construct a “darkroom” and thereby restrict entry and keep his real work away from prying eyes. He would get around to building the false wall later. For now all he really needed to do was unroll some thick black plastic and staple it to the overhead floor joists to seal off the first phase of his workspace construction from his mom and Gerald. The basement was always Will’s domain. His mom backed him up unequivocally on this and Gerald, though he grumbled, went along with the edict. Will was sure it was because as long as Will wasn’t anywhere to be seen or heard, Gerald was happy. Out of sight, out of mind. That’s the way it worked. If only it worked that way with everything, thought Will.

Two hours later Will heard his mom and then Gerald come home and, rather than risk an awkward intrusion, went upstairs and shared perfunctory greetings with them. While Gerald opened one of his homemade beers and extolled its taste, Will nodded like he gave a crap, had a quick bite of chicken and biscuits, mumbled something about homework, and then went back down into the basement. Two hours after that he had the darkroom set up in the first chamber. Anyone trying to enter had to do so by means of a “light lock,” which meant completing an S turn and then moving through a flap door so that by the time you were in the amber-lit room you were completely turned around, a fact that worked entirely to Will’s advantage. Any parental unit snooping around would surely miss the fact that Will had put up a false back wall, creating a secret chamber that only he knew about.

Now that his secret chamber was in place, at least with temporary walls, Will went about setting up his futon and unpacking his crates of equipment. He had geological sensor probes and infrared motion detectors and spelunking supplies. He had a well-stocked chemical lab setup and another for weapons design. He had a crate that held his cache of weapons, which he unpacked and inspected. The pulse generator pistol had shifted in transit, but he examined it and it looked fine. And of course he had his computers. Lots and lots of computers; enough computing power, in fact, to service a small university. He was wired in and dialed in to the max. He had to be. His survival was at stake.

He set up his largest monitor, connected to his most powerful XTC 9000 computer, and fired up his Demon Hunter game. He fed in some data and the hero on the screen came to life, charged down a hallway, and using a microartillery bracelet, unleashed a barrage of firepower that blasted a horrifying winged demon. He glanced at his kill count. 642. Will smiled. The microartillery bracelet kicked ass, but was nothing compared to his power rod.

Turning his attention away from the game program, Will opened several more crates and set up his chemical analysis and modification lab. Once it was operative he concocted a cleansing healing potion. Rolling up his shirt sleeve, he applied it to his forearm where the Goth punk had sunken in his rusty screw teeth. The salve stung at first but as it began to simultaneously disinfect and heal, the pain lessened. Will watched as his skin repaired itself, the wounds pussing, then scabbing, then smoothing over in a matter of seconds instead of the usual days. It said a lot about how much he had to use it that he’d recalled his precise formula off the top of his head without having to consult the data on his mainframe.

He was rolling his shirt sleeve back down when he heard a noise. His head jerked up to the right and he saw the barest flash of an image. Eyes, a pair of eyes. Silently cursing himself for leaving a small corner of one of the basement window wells exposed, he grabbed a boltdriver and sprinted out of his secret warren. He took the stairs three at a time and burst up into the kitchen and out the door.

Outside he ducked into a crouch and quickly scanned the yard for movement. There! A figure was darting through the shadows. Fortunately the guy didn’t look too big or strong so Will pocketed the boltdriver and took off running across the dark yard, his feet slipping on the wet grass. The interloper was fast and evasive but Will had experience, lots of experience, not to mention time-bending speed, so when the guy zigged Will zagged and leapt into him, knocking him sideways and taking him down with a flying tackle. The guy was slender and strong and had arms taut with muscle, but Will swiftly overpowered him and flipped him over. Then his jaw dropped. It wasn’t a guy, it was a girl. It was her. Natalie.

“Back off, you freak!” she shouted.

“Whoa! Um, it’s Natalie, right?” he stammered.

“Yeah, that’s right, it’s Natalie. I don’t think we really met properly before.”

Will was stunned and didn’t see the punch coming. But he sure felt it. Not only was Natalie strong, she had one heck of an uppercut. Will blinked up at the stars, and now she was looking down at him. She looked pissed. “Do you always go around tackling people?”

Will got up rubbing his jaw. He couldn’t help but notice again how she seemed even prettier when she was mad as a hornet.

“Why are you in my yard?” he asked.

“I was out walking, and I was . . . curious. This is my neighborhood, too, you know.” Natalie’s eyes sparkled with life and Will was again flummoxed, this time by his attraction to her.

“What were you doing spying on me?”

“The question is, what were you doing in your basement that you didn’t want anybody to see? And what is that thing?” She pointed to the boltdriver, which had fallen out of Will’s pocket.

“It looks like some kind of taser or something. Are you a hood?”

“It’s just a . . . prop. Sometimes I make videos.” Will hastily shoved the boltdriver back into his pocket.

“Uh-huh.” Her tone said she didn’t buy it. “And that goopy stuff you were putting on your arm?”

Will couldn’t answer immediately; he had to think about this. He decided that sometimes the best defense was a good offense.

“I should turn you in for being a peeping Tom,” he said. He started walking back toward his house but stopped at her next words.

“Fine, do that. And I’ll tell everyone I know about your secret little mad scientist laboratory in your basement.”

A voice suddenly blurted from the hedge, “What secret mad scientist laboratory?”

Both Will and Natalie jumped at the sound but relaxed as Rudy emerged from the shadows, crawling out of the hedge, brushing debris off himself.

“What are you doing here?” demanded Will. This was not good. Things were quickly getting out of control.

“What’s it look like? I’m snooping, eavesdropping, detecting.”

“Well, you can cease and desist now, and depart,” said Will.

“No way, José!” said Rudy. “I have as much right to know what’s going on here as she does.”

Will looked to Natalie for help.

“He’s not mine,” she said, then added, “So what’s it gonna be, you show-and-tell, or we tell and then you show?”

He would have to make some kind of concession or he’d never get rid of them. He thought quickly. “What do you want?”

“Well, for starters, you could slop some of that magic goop on this,” she said, holding up her elbow. Her long-sleeved T had torn and her elbow was bleeding.

“Magic goop? Cool! Oh, she’s bleeding, I think I’m gonna faint.”

“Please do,” said Will. “That would definitely be your best move.”

“Nobody’s fainting and nobody’s leaving, not until you share, cowboy,” said Natalie.

Will looked around at the trees, which were gently swaying in the night wind. The area looked secure, at least for now. And he couldn’t risk Natalie following through on her threat. These two seemed relatively harmless and he didn’t have to really show them much, just enough to get them off his back. Part of him wanted to show them, wanted to let them in on his secrets. He couldn’t, of course, but surely them seeing a few things wouldn’t hurt. He’d take them down and put on a little dog-and-pony show and be done with it. Shaking his head, he motioned for Natalie and Rudy to follow.

“All right, come with me.”

Entering Will’s house they ran smack into April, whose face lit up with delight. Rudy’s jaw dropped. This woman was so retro, she looked like June Cleaver from that old black-and-white show Leave It to Beaver. She wasn’t wearing pearls or anything, but she did have on a cotton dress and the way she smiled made him think of old-fashioned moms, not modern ones like his own mom, who wore workout clothes most of the time. Rudy smiled right back at Will’s mom as she spoke.

“I see you’ve already made friends. How wonderful. I’m April, Will’s mother, and that’s Gerald.”

Gerald was in the adjacent room, wearing the world’s ugliest mismatched terry cloth shorts and shirt outfit, complete with ketchup stains. He was glued to the TV, watching the golf channel and chugging his homemade beer, and didn’t even bother grunting in their direction. He did, however, treat them to one of his fire-cracker farts, which delighted Rudy to no end.

“I’m Natalie,” said Natalie, hiding her wound and extending her other hand, which April took. She was about to go on when Rudy butted in.

“I’m Rudy, and your son, Will, I mean, he really stepped up to the plate and saved my butt today, let me tell you!”

“Oh, he helped you with your schoolwork?” asked April.

“No, I was practically in the jaws of death when he—”

Will saw Gerald’s head bob up like he couldn’t wait to hear what a screw-up Will had been on his first day as the New Kid. Will cut Rudy off.

“Yeah, Mom, schoolwork, something like that. Listen, I’m gonna show them my darkroom real quick and then they’re gonna leave.”

“I can bring you some—”

“We don’t need any milk and cookies,” said Will.

Rudy frowned.

“We don’t?”

They clomped down the basement stairs and then Will led them through his maze of black plastic and into his secret chamber where they were visibly impressed. Rudy let out a low whistle.

“Something tells me this isn’t just some science project. Whoa, your computers, your database, it’s all so . . . massive!” Rudy marveled at the bank of flat panel LCD displays and the whirring servers and modems twinkling with dozens of lights. “Hey, that’s Demon Hunter! But what version is it? I haven’t seen this one yet!” Rudy was just about jumping out of his skin with excitement as he stared at a game loop going on one of Will’s monitors.

“It’s an old version,” he said.

“No way, I have them all and I haven’t seen that one.” Then Rudy’s eyes went way wide with shock. “Six hundred and forty-two kills? Are you KIDDING me?”

“It’s just a glitch in the program.”

“I WANT that glitch, dude! How’d you do it? Come on, tell me!”

Sometimes not saying anything at all was the best way to deal with inquiring minds and Will just simply dumped the subject, ignoring Rudy and turning his attention to Natalie.

“Let’s have a look at that arm.” He touched Natalie’s hand gently, without thinking, and they both blushed. He ignored that and focused on her injury. Her wound was minor, just a scrape, and he knew he would have to do a little sleight of hand here so she wouldn’t freak out watching the rapid healing process. He applied some of the ointment and then looked into her eyes and asked her to do the same.

“Who do you think you are, Count Dracula? Why should I look in your eyes?”

“Because I want to check your pupils, this is very important.”

“You can be one very intense guy, you know that?” she said.

“I get that a lot. The eyes? Look into my eyes?”

Natalie obeyed him and they locked eyes. It was instinct for any animal, including the human animal, to want to examine its wounds; and Will just had to keep her distracted long enough to put a bandage over the already healing scrape. Once he’d succeeded, it finally occurred to him the position he’d put himself in. He was standing right in front of Natalie, their faces close together, as he held lightly onto her arm. His face burned again. They quickly looked away from each other.

“Keep it totally covered and don’t take the bandage off for at least three days.”

Will was so distracted he didn’t even notice Rudy picking up the boltdriver that he had set down on the workbench earlier. KABLAM! The shot rang out like a thunderbolt, which of course it was, albeit a mini one. All three of them stared at the smoking hole in the wall.

“Give me that!” Will snatched the boltdriver out of Rudy’s shaking hands.

“Whoa! That is soooo cool! Fire that sucker again!”

“I’m not going to fire anything! And please don’t ever touch anything in here again.”

“What IS that thing?” demanded Rudy.

“It’s just a little electro-magnetic voltage stimulator, a stun gun I made some minor modifications on.”

“Minor modifications?” asked Natalie, waving away the smoke from the smoldering hole in the wall. She stared hard at Will. “Hunter, isn’t it? Will Hunter?”

“Congratulations, you got my name right.”

“Well, Mister Will Hunter, who exactly are you and what are you doing in Harrisburg?”

“What do you mean? My mom got a new job, so we moved here. I’m just a guy, a junior in high school, the New Kid. That’s about it.”

Will caught an image on one of his huge plasma screens behind Natalie and Rudy, an unmarked grid of Harrisburg. A yellow glow emanated from one of the sectors. Will cleared his throat and purposefully knocked over a canister.

“Whoops!” He bent down to pick it up and secretly hit a switch for his equipment. Everything went dim and on standby. Will smiled a friendly guy smile, his best “Hey, I’m just a normal kid like you” smile, and began to herd the two snoops out of his domain. “If you don’t mind, I’m like totally slammed with homework and could use some me time.”

He escorted them out and stood watching them walk down the street, Natalie shooting wary looks back over her shoulder at him and Rudy weaving down the sidewalk, engaged in some game of chase happening entirely in his own mind. Will couldn’t help but smile. He liked the kid. Even though Rudy was roughly the same age as he was, Will couldn’t help thinking of him as a kid. He himself had been made older by experiences, few of them the kind a sixteen-year-old kid should have. He wished he’d had a different life, a life in which he could fall for a girl like Natalie and be friends with goofy Rudy. But that just wasn’t possible. Not with the quest that awaited him each and every day of his life.

Natalie turned and looked at him one last time before turning the corner, and he remembered. He had seen that face before. Only the name attached to it wasn’t Natalie.