SuperZero (school edition) Read online

  “As you know, tonight is the annual talent show. Many of you have been working very hard on it, but I warn you: if any more incidents are reported, I’ll cancel the show.”

  Zed saw the look that crossed Ulric Chilvers’s face when Mr Minardi said that, and it surprised him. It was a look of alarm. But why?

  After assembly Zed took Katey aside: “Katey, what’s been going on?”

  “Oh,” Katey shrugged. “Nothing much.”

  “There’s something weird happening,” said Zed. “And it has to do with Ulric …”

  “Ulric?” Katey seemed surprised. “No. I like Ulric. He’s fine. We’re all fine.”

  It was like a bad dream, where no one sees what you see, no one hears what you say.

  “We’re not fine,” he said. “This isn’t fine. And he’s not fine. Can’t you see that?”

  There was something wrong with her eyes. They were the same colour, but there was something wrong with the pupils. They were … fuzzy, some­how. The edges were blurred.

  “Zed,” she said, “if anyone’s acting weird, it’s you …”

  “Ah, Katherine.”

  Zed turned at the sound of that low, purring voice. Ulric Chilvers ignored him entirely, as though Zed were just a shadow on the ground.

  “Katherine, I was planning another rehearsal in the music room at big break. Are you available? Yesterday’s rehearsal went so well.”

  “Katey,” said Zed, “I need to see you at big break …”

  “I think Katherine woud rather rehearse with me,” said Ulric Chilvers smoothly.

  “Her name’s Katey!” Zed burst out. “And you don’t even know her …!”

  “I would love to, Ulric,” said Katey. “Thank you.”

  Zed felt the breath knocked out of him. “Katey …” he pleaded.

  “Good then,” said Ulric Chilvers. “I look forward to it.”

  Then Katey started humming again, that same melody, and she smiled, and skipped away. For the first time, Zed and Ulric Chilvers were alone together.

  And Ulric, still watching Katey, said in that same purring voice: “Oh dear, Zachary. Things aren’t going well for you, are they? You really don’t know what you’re up against.”

  “I know who you are,” said Zed, his voice higher than usual. “I know what you are.”

  Ulric Chilvers put his arm around Zed’s shoulder and walked with him, as though they were old pals. “Come,” he said. “I think it’s time we had a chat.”

  He steered Zed into the alleyway behind the bicycle sheds. Overhanging branches blocked out the sun. Dim fragments of light danced in pale patches on the grey concrete. There were three boys there already, inspecting something on the ground.

  “I sensed it when I met you,” said Ulric Chilvers. “The energy. I was intrigued. Oho! I thought. A rival! What fun! But actually, you’re quite disappointing.”

  The boys were untying the knot on a brown burlap sack. One of them reached in and and Zed heard a frightened mewling sound. It was a kitten, small and white and fluffy, eyes wide with alarm.

  “What are you doing?” said Zed. He had a very bad feeling about this.

  One of the boys fetched a high-sided cardboard box from the bushes. It seemed empty but he carried it gingerly, making sure his fingers didn’t curl over the rim. They placed a brick for Ulric to stand on and peer inside.

  “Everyone likes kittens, Zachary,” he said, like a teacher talking to a class, “but they’re actually very cruel killers. Most animals only kill to eat, but not cats. They torture their prey. Cats are one of the few animals that kill for the pleasure of it.”

  Zed stared at him, wondering – seriously – whether he was insane.

  “And yet consider another creature: a shy creature that avoids trouble and kills only for its own survival. And yet so many people hate snakes. Why is that, do you think?”

  Standing on tiptoes, Zed peered into the the box. At first he couldn’t make it out but his eyes adjusted and there it was coiled in the corner, dark and grey and as thick as his arm. Its tiny black eyes glinted close together, like drops of motor oil. Zed jumped back.

  “Oh, what a surprise!” said Ulric sarcastically. “You’re afraid of snakes. That’s the problem with being a superhero: always afraid. At least supervillains know there’s nothing around that’s more frightening than us.”

  The words sent a thrill running through Zed. Superhero! Supervillain!

  “You admit it?” he gasped hoarsely.

  Ulric was still peering inside, fascinated. “Do you understand binary code, Zachary?”

  Zed considered shouting for help, but the rest of the world was not going to be of any help. Not to him. Not any more.

  “Binary is from olden-day computer-programming,” said Ulric, poking a long twig into the box. There was a sudden heavy movement inside and a hard, dry, brushing sound. “In binary code the whole world can be rendered as a combination of ones and zeros. The zeros are worthless – they have no meaning in themselves. They need ones to give them meaning.”

  The kitten mewed as Ulric Chilvers took it into his arms. It buried its head in his armpit. Ulric Chilvers tugged gently on its pointed white ears.

  Zed’s throat was tight with fear. He couldn’t trust himself to speak.

  “Zeros are nothing,” said Ulric, “but the ones do whatever they choose. If I decide it would amuse me to find out what happens when one killer confronts another …”

  He held the kitten out over the cardboard box.

  “No!” shouted Zed.

  Ulric’s eyes burned a frightening green in the gloom. The kitten began to struggle in his hands. It could smell the snake and it squirmed in fear, its tiny paws clawing at the air.

  “Please,” said Zed, reaching out a trembling hand. “Please don’t. Please …”

  “Look at you,” sneered Ulric Chilvers. “Pleading. Begging.”

  “Yes,” said Zed. “I’m begging. I’m begging you, Ulric. Give me the kitten …”

  “And if I do?” said Ulric, the corner of his mouth twisting. “Will you swear allegiance to me? Will you follow me?”

  “I will,” said Zed. “I will, I’ll do anything …” The kitten was crying now, a terrified high-pitched mew, calling for its mother, for anything to take it away from that evil-smelling darkness and the black glittering eyes below.

  For a second Zed saw something almost human in Ulric Chilvers as he looked at the kitten. A look of softness came into his green eyes. But then he turned back to Zed.

  “Do you know what my father taught me, Zachary?”

  Zed stepped forward toward the box. He reached out his arms. “What?” he said.

  “That only the strong get what they want.”

  And Ulric Chilvers dropped the kitten into the box.

  “NO!” shouted Zed. “NOOOOOOO!!!!!”

  He threw himself forward but he was too late. The kitten fell, its claws scratching the cardboard as it scrabbled for a hold.

  As Zed leapt they tackled him from the side, but still his momentum drove him into Ulric Chilvers and they both slammed into the box. It buckled under their weight and for a moment they hung over the crumpling edge, their shoulders and heads low inside.

  The kitten cowered in the corner, ears flat with terror. With the jolt of the impact the snake reared and swelled and made a confused half-strike be­tween the kitten and their heads.

  For a terrible moment Zed thought the cardboard would tear and they would both collapse on top of the snake, but then the other boys pulled Ulric by his blazer.

  Zed tried to struggle upright too, but he was pinned face-down. They held his arms twisted behind his back and pushed him down so that the cardboard buckled and Zed sank lower and lower, face first, into that dark space that smelt of dank, waiting things and death.

  The snake was puffed and ready, its spade-shaped head poised, its black bright eyes.

  “You pathetic little shadow,” said Ulric. “You’re nothing. You’re just a zero
, like all the rest.” He paused, as though struggling with a decision. Then he said, in a more controlled voice, “Let him up.”

  They pulled him upright and dragged him against the wall. From the quadrangle came the clang of the school bell. Ulric peered down into the box and began to kick the sides.

  “That’s the problem with snakes,” he snarled. “Lazy. You need to shake them up.”

  Inside there was a rush and a dull thud like the blade of a shovel being driven into damp ground. There was a high-pitched keening – not a mew but a single note, like air escaping from a puncture. Like a kitten dying. Then there was silence.

  Zed stopped struggling, and slumped to the ground while the boys stared blankly into the box, no emotion on their faces.

  “Well, you would have expected a little more of a fight,” complained Ulric Chilvers.

  Zed couldn’t be another moment in that narrow, dim, mottled place of cruelty and death. He scrambled to get away, stumbling and nearly falling as he ran.

  Behind him came Ulric Chilvers’s voice, like a terrible combination of a hiss and a purr: “Keep running, Zachary. Keep running, and don’t look back.”

  After reading

  3.

  What changes can Zed see in some of the other learners?

  4.

  The pupils of Katey’s eyes are fuzzy around the edges. What do you think has happened to her? (Note that she keeps insisting that everyone is fine, except for Zed.)

  5.

  What does Mr Minardi threaten to do? Notice here that Ulric seems very worried about this.

  4.

  What does Zed mean when he says to Ulric, “I know who you are and I know what you are”?

  5.

  What is a rival? How did Ulric recognize Zed as his rival?

  6.

  What does Ulric do to try to make Zed change from superhero to supervillain?

  7.

  As far as Ulric is concerned zeros are worthless. Why are Zed, the kitten and many other people, seen as zeros in Ulric’s eyes?

  8.

  What does Ulric do after he states that “only the strong get what they want”?

  8. a)

  What is your view of his action?

  8. b)

  How does Ulric’s action prove Grandma’s point that “supervillains don’t play by the rules”?

  9.

  What literary device does the author use in describing the world in terms of binary code?

  Before reading

  1.

  What ways do you use to organise your thinking, especially when you are a bit stressed?

  While reading

  2.

  What are the signs that Ulric is gaining more and more power?

  8. A view through a high window

  Zed sat through the first classes shivering with the horror of it. How could anyone do that? He wanted to tell, but who would listen? Everywhere, faces turned away from him.

  Ulric Chilvers didn’t come to class, nor did several of his cronies. They seemed to move around as they pleased and no one said anything. Zed forced himself to slow down, to breathe deep. Whatever was happening, he had to find out. There was no one else. He made a list. Lists calmed him down.

  Ulric Chilvers is a supervillain.

  Somehow, Ulric Chilvers is trying to take over Wentville Primary.

  Daniel Dundee is probably his second-in-command, looking after business at Bighton while Ulric Chilvers takes over Wentville.

  Ulric Chilvers seems to have the power to change people’s personalities.

  Zed paused, and thought about that. Katey had changed since he’d seen her at the circus. What had happened? He thought back to the conversation that morning. The music rehearsals. She and Ulric had started music rehersals. There was another at big break.

  Three flights of stairs led up to the third-floor corridor, and the music room was at the end. Zed paused near the top, listening to the music. It sounded like a tune hammered out on an electric organ. The same tune that Katey had been humming that morning.

  Now Zed recognised it. His mother sometimes played classical music, and this was one of the pieces she played. He started on up again but around the corner stood two boys with arms folded: Tony Shezi and Clarence Kirkhoff. They stood there like sentries.

  Zed drew a deep breath. “Hi,” he said. “I’m just coming to rehearsals …”

  Clarence and Tony didn’t speak. Clarence just waited until Zed was near enough, then he kicked him in the chest. Zed tumbled back down the stairs, coughing and retching. Clarence and Tony just stood looking at him.

  Clutching his chest, Zed limped down to the ground floor. He circled round the front of the building and stood in the flowerbed, looking up. Three floors above was the music room. A drainpipe ran up to the gutter­ing, attached to the wall with metal brackets.

  For the first time in his life Zed felt grateful he was small. There was enough space between the pipe and the wall for his fingers, and by placing his feet on either side and moving hand-over-hand, step-over-step he could make it up from one bracket to the next.

  A pigeon was on the ledge below the music-room window, dirty, fat and grey, eying him beadily. There wasn’t enough room for Zed to crouch on the ledge, but with one foot on the metal bracket and the other on the narrow parapet, clinging to the drainpipe with one hand and the sill with the other, he could raise himself slowly till he could see in.

  Ulric Chilvers stood behind a table with his gang around the walls. In the middle stood Katey, eyes wide and unblinking. The music was still playing – the same melody repeating over and over. The sound seemed to come from a black briefcase open on the table.

  Inside was what looked like a control panel, with knobs and switches and slides, and as the music played – that same snatch of classical music, render­ed in electronic beeps and whistles – Ulric Chilvers fiddled with the panel, looking up to examine the face before him.

  He kept twisting, touching, looking up, adjusting, until finally he saw something that satisfied him. He brought his face close to hers, studying her eyes. Katey didn’t react at all.

  Ulric straightened up and smiled. “That’s it. That should do it …”

  The pigeon on the ledge stretched its wings and made a sudden peck at his fingers. The beak struck the nail of his thumb and Zed snatched his hand back off the ledge. For a moment nothing was holding him up. He seemed to hover in the air, then the world started spinning, and Zed started to fall backward.

  But his left foot was still wedged in against the wall, and his left hand scrabbled at the brickwork. He regained his balance and pulled himself tight against the pipe.

  “What was that?” Ulric Chilvers’s voice was sharp.

  Zed grabbed the pigeon and overarmed it through the open window. There came shouts and flapping and the thud of the bird colliding with walls. He hoped they would think that the noise had been the pigeon bungling its way in.

  Above the noise Zed heard Ulric Chilvers: “Fools. Leave it to me.”

  Zed couldn’t help it. He had to take one more look. Ulric Chilvers stood quite still in the centre of the room as the poor crazed pigeon ricocheted past. He shot out a hand.

  Ulric Chilvers snatched the bird from the air. He brought it close to his chest and hummed something to soothe it and make its little heart stop thudding. And then, casually, Ulric Chilvers broke its neck. Slowly, deliberately, without even looking in that direction, he held out the dead pigeon towards the window and said: “I believe this is yours, Zachary.”

  After reading

  3.

  What makes it impossible for Zed to tell anyone at the school what Ulric and his cronies did to the kitten?

  4.

  What do the words, “Ulric Chilvers seems to have the power to change people’s personalities” tell us about his powers? Name someone who does appear to have changed?

  5.

  Why is it so important for Zed to get into the music rehearsals?

  6.r />
  What kind of music is Ulric playing over and over again? Why is he doing this?

  7.

  Zed has to climb up the drain pipe to see into the music room.

  7. a)

  Why is it an advantage to be small at this point?

  7. b)

  Explain what Zed sees Ulric doing when he looks through the high window.

  8.

  How does Zed try to cover up the noise he makes when he almost falls from the window ledge?

  9.

  What is particularly cruel about the way that Ulric kills the pigeon?

  Before reading

  1.

  Things have been going in Ulric’s favour. What do you think “the tide begins to turn” means?

  While reading

  2.

  What evidence against Ulric does Zed actually have?

  3.

  Why is Zed’s mother so upset with him?

  9. The tide begins to turn

  Zed didn’t climb down the drainpipe: he dropped like a stone. He bounced over the metal brackets and landed in a stunned heap in the flowerbed. Way up above, faces stared down.

  He lurched to his feet and started running. He had to get to Mr Minardi’s office. The dead bird was still up there. The machine was still up there, what­ever it was. There was evidence – evidence of something. Mr Minardi would listen. The school secretary looked up as Zed dashed through reception and threw open the door of Mr Minardi’s office.

  Mr Minardi looked up in surprise. “Zachary Watson. I’ve been looking for you.”

  “Sir,” said Zed, gasping for breath, “I know who’s been vandalising the school …”

  “Yes,” said Mr Minardi. “So do I. And I assume you’re here to confess.”

  Zed stared at him in bewilderment.