Secret Weapons Read online

  “Aurora,” Ari called softly. And then a little louder, “Aurora.” No answer. Getting to his feet, Ari pushed his way back through the underbrush in time to see the gleam of headlights and the dark bulk of a large, slow-moving van. As he watched, the van slowed even more, switched its lights to dim, turned into the Andersons’ driveway, and disappeared.

  Ari crept forward. Down the Dragoland driveway and out to the edge of the Andersons’ property. The moon was higher now and he was able to see that the van had disappeared behind the Andersons’ house. Moving slowly forward, he inched his way toward the house. Once or twice he stopped and whispered, “Aurora,” but there was no answer. When he was almost to the house he stopped and stood for what seemed a very long time, biting his lip and clenching his fists, and asking himself what he should do.

  He could, of course, run home for help. But there was no one there except Diane and Athena, and Ari couldn’t imagine what either one of them could do to help. Still, that would have to be it. He would run back home and tell Diane and … Just at that moment he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and found his right hand clutching something hard and flat and bumpy. Bucky’s beeper.

  Ari took off for home running at top speed, straight down across the cul-de-sac, up the driveway, through the back door, and right to the kitchen telephone. Without even waiting to catch his breath he began to punch in all the numbers written on the back of his beeper.

  Chapter 17

  WEB WAS STILL BEING very secretive about his science-fair project. Even though he’d already told everybody that it had something to do with rubber bands, he still didn’t want to let anybody see it. Not even his own brother. Eddy started asking as soon as they left Dragoland but it wasn’t until dinner was almost over that Web finally said okay.

  “All right” he said. “You can see it. Just don’t go telling everybody all about it. We want it to be a surprise.”

  But then, just as Eddy was about to see what all the fuss had been about, something started beeping. It happened right after Web unlocked the workroom door, and for a moment Eddy thought it must be some kind of a burglar alarm Web had rigged up.

  “Hey, cool,” he said. “Does that go off whenever the door opens?”

  Web shook his head and pointed to Eddy’s pocket. “It’s a beeper. Where’d you get a beeper?”

  “Oh yeah.” Eddy pulled out Bucky’s beeper and pushed the button that turned it off. “You know, it’s the one Bucky …” But then he remembered. Bucky had passed out the beepers before Web and Carson got to the tent.

  They both stared at the beeper. “I wonder what … who … why—” Eddy was saying when Web interrupted.

  “What’s it for?” he asked.

  “Well, see these phone numbers? Bucky gave us all these beepers so if we saw something fishy going on, like those two terrorists—” He grinned. “That’s what we were calling them, the ‘terrorists.’ If anybody saw them hanging around again they should call these numbers, and we all get beeped. Then we’re all supposed to meet at the tent. Immediately.”

  “So that signal means those two guys have come back?” Web asked.

  Eddy shrugged. “Yes, I guess maybe it does.”

  Web nodded slowly. “Well, we’d better go then. But we have to ask first, I guess.”

  “Well, okay.” Eddy didn’t feel too enthusiastic. Somebody had probably just phoned the number to see if it worked, and besides it was pretty late already. Not to mention dark. But Web seemed eager to go. “Well, I guess we could just tell Dad that Bucky wants to see us and—”

  “Why don’t you say Carlos?”

  Eddy frowned at Web and then grinned. Web was right. Dad liked Carlos a lot better than Bucky. It was kind of a pain having a genius for a little brother but it did come in handy from time to time. “Yeah, I’ll do that,” he said and headed for the house.

  Two or three minutes later they were on their way out the front door, when Web suddenly stopped. “Wait a minute. I want to get something,” he said and took off up the driveway.

  “Get? Get what?” Eddy yelled after him but Web didn’t wait to answer, and in a minute he was back carrying a big canvas bag.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready now. Let’s go.”

  Kate was in her room practicing her karate when something in the middle of her chest began to make a strange noise. She’d been working hard on her blade kicks and her heart was pounding, and for just a split second she thought she might be having a strange kind of heart attack. But then she knew. It was Bucky’s beeper. She pulled it out, stared at it, and then headed for the family room, where her mother was watching television. It wasn’t going to be easy. Her mom would probably say it was too late to go visiting. But she was in luck. Mom, who was crazy about tenors, was listening to “The Three Tenors” concert so she wasn’t as curious as usual.

  “To see Aurora?” she mumbled. “Half an hour then. Remember, Kate. Only half an hour.”

  Kate was almost to the Pappases’ front door when suddenly she stopped and thought. What she thought was that since she’d stopped to ask permission and the Pappases never did, they were probably way ahead of her on their way to the Pit. Turning around, she headed across the cul-de-sac at a karate expert’s speedy jog.

  When Carlos shut off his beeper and shot out of his room Susie was shooting out of hers at exactly the same time. In the hall they stopped for a second and stared at each other.

  “Did your beeper? …” Susie asked.

  Carlos nodded. “Yeah. What do you suppose … I mean, who called the number? You didn’t, did you?”

  Susie shook her head hard.

  “Well, I guess we’d better—” Carlos looked at his watch. “Or I’d better at least. Why don’t you stay here and when I come back I’ll—”

  Susie glared at him. “Fat chance, buster. I’m not staying unless you do too.”

  Carlos thought fast. He didn’t want to take his little sister with him for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it might be dangerous. If the beeper really meant that the terrorists, or whoever, had come back, what happened next might not be entirely safe. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ll start on over to the Pit and you go get Lump and come too. After you get Lump.” Getting Lump, Carlos knew from experience, would take time. Waking him up after his dinner and getting him on his feet, and finding his leash … He figured Susie might not show up for half an hour.

  Susie nodded reluctantly. “Okay. But aren’t we going to ask? Aren’t we going to ask if we can go?”

  “Ask Rafe?” Carlos grinned. Both of their parents were at the restaurant tonight, as they often were, and Rafe, their seventeen-year-old brother, was in charge. Rafe wouldn’t be any problem.

  Susie grinned back. “Okay. I’ll be there in five minutes,” she said as Carlos started toward the stairs.

  “Yeah,” he said, “five minutes.” But what he was thinking was, Five minutes to get Lump going? Fat chance!

  When Bucky’s beeper started sounding off he was in the Brockhursts’ family room and his sister Muffy was right next door in the kitchen. Bucky was watching TV and Muffy was pawing through the refrigerator looking for something to eat. Bucky was watching a police-thriller movie, with gunshots and sirens going off all the time, and for just a second he thought the beeper noise was part of the show. By the time he’d pulled it out of his pocket and shut it off it was too late. Old “big ears” Muffy had heard it too. Chomping on a chicken bone, she strolled around the counter and stared at the beeper in Bucky’s hand.

  “Hey, Bucko,” she said. “What’re you doing with that thing?” She always called him Bucko when she was trying to make him mad, which was practically all of the time.

  “None of your business.” Bucky jumped up and ran out of the room and down the hall. He was a fast runner, the fastest in the Beaumont fifth grade, but Muffy was fast too. Particularly when she was following somebody. Bucky dashed through the living room and dining room, back through the family room, out the s
ide door, and across the backyard. After jumping the Garcias’ hedge, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled out to the sidewalk. Just before he started across the cul-de-sac at a dead run, he glanced back and there was no sign of Muffy. He’d given her the slip again. He was pretty sure of it.

  Athena woke up and sat straight up in bed. Something was making a funny noise. Something very near. Climbing out of her bed, she ran across the floor, stood on tiptoe, and turned on the light. Then she went back to look around—and there it was. The little black box that Bucky called a beeper was right there where she had put it, around the neck of Ursus, her favorite teddy bear. But now it was making a funny noise. Picking Ursus up, she stared at the noisy black box. She remembered that Bucky had said something about what to do if the box beeped, but she had been petting Lump at the time and hadn’t really listened. Aurora would know what to do. She put Ursus and the box carefully back in the bed and went to find Aurora. But Aurora wasn’t in her room.

  Athena was on her way to see if Aurora was in the kitchen, when she heard a door close. No one was in the kitchen or on the back porch, but when Athena ran to the back door and opened it, she saw who had just closed it. It was Ari and he was running. Running fast, down the driveway and up the sidewalk toward Dragoland. Athena went back to put on her shoes and coat.

  Chapter 18

  EVEN WHILE ARI WAS running frantically back toward the Andersons’, his mind was racing in several directions at once. Asking itself questions and trying to find the answers. One question had been, Did all the beepers really go off when he dialed the numbers? The answer to that one was probably yes, because his beeper certainly had when he dialed one of them.

  But that left another question unanswered, and that was, Would they all come? Would Bucky and Carlos and Eddy and Kate and the others all show up to help him? To help him find out why the terrorists, or whoever, had come back. But most of all would they come to help him find out what had happened to Aurora?

  Gasping for breath, Ari ran even faster. He had passed the Wongs’ and Dragoland before he slowed to a trot, to a walk, and then to an experienced investigator’s tiptoeing slither. Silently slithering, he crept through the Andersons’ gate, darted behind the nearest bush, and crouched down on his hands and knees.

  The moon was higher now, and by leaning forward he could see quite a way down the Andersons’ driveway. Moonlight gleamed faintly on the cement drive and the high white wall of the old house. But the drive was empty. There was no sign of the black van.

  Where had it gone? Had they left already? Ari bit his lip, trying not to gasp with horror. What if they’d gone away and taken Aurora with them? Or maybe they’d just driven farther back on the Andersons’ property, to where tall trees shadowed the dirt road that led toward the hills. Ari crawled frantically forward.

  Under the next bush he stopped again to catch his breath, and suddenly froze in terror. There was a sound. A strangely familiar sound was coming from somewhere very near. The sound was a steady beep, beep, beep. Ari gasped, caught his breath, and asked his brain why a beeper should be right there, under the same bush where he was hiding. And the answer was that it was probably Aurora’s. Following the sound, and feeling with both hands, Ari crept forward until his fingers closed over a beeper.

  “Aurora?” Ari whispered, but there was no answer. He turned off the beeper and, getting to his feet, moved on between the bushes that lined the driveway. Moved on until, suddenly, he froze again. Someone had grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

  “Shh,” Aurora said. “It’s just me.”

  “Aurora,” Ari gasped in relief. “Wha-wha-who … who … where are they?”

  He didn’t have to explain who “they” were. “Shh,” Aurora said again. “They drove on down that way. Back toward the well. They’re doing something to the water tank. I saw them. But then I came back here to wait for you. I thought you’d be back soon.”

  “But your b-b-beeper?” Ari was pointing back behind them.

  “Yes. It started beeping, just a few minutes ago. I couldn’t find the right button to turn it off, so I threw it over there.”

  “Oh yeah,” Ari whispered. “It went off because I called all the numbers. I guess that means all the beepers went off. So maybe …”

  He stopped and Aurora nodded. “So the others might be coming,” she said, nodding slowly, and even in the dim moonlight Ari thought he could see her eyes go woozy and out of focus. “Yes. They’re coming,” she said. “Let’s go look for them.”

  Eddy and Web were in Dragoland, heading back toward the Pit, when somebody called, “Hey, Wongs.” It was Kate Nicely jogging up the sidewalk from one direction, and only a second later Carlos Garcia appeared from another. Bucky showed up next, and only a minute later, Susie Garcia leading Lump.

  “Hey, man!” Bucky said loudly. “They worked. The beepers really—”

  “Shh,” everybody said at once.

  Bucky shushed. “Who called?” he whispered. “Who dialed the beeper numbers on their phone?”

  “Not me,” everyone said. “Not you?” They all stared from one blurry moonlit face to the other, wondering.

  Bucky was staring at Web. “Hey, twerp,” he said in his usual loud voice. “Yeah, you, Webby. What’s in the bag?”

  “Shh,” everyone said again, but then they all turned to look at Web’s big canvas bag. Some other people were starting to ask, “Yeah, Web? What is—” when Lump barked.

  One sharp warning bark—and they all whirled around in time to see two ghostly figures emerge from the Andersons’ driveway and head in their direction. It took a second, a gasping, scared-stiff second, before the two figures creeping through the dim, shadowy moonlight were close enough to be recognized. It was only Aurora and Ari Pappas.

  Confusion. Everyone was asking whispered questions all at once while Ari and Aurora tried to talk too.

  “Shut up!” It wasn’t loud but it was fierce. Karate Kate fierce. “Shut up and listen. Aurora wants to say something.”

  Chapter 19

  SO EVERYONE FINALLY SHUT up and listened and Aurora explained. In her soft, breathy voice she told them how she and Ari had been on their way to water Mrs. A.’s African violets when they saw the black van turning into the Andersons’ driveway.

  “And now they’re way back there,” she finished, “by the well. And one of them is climbing up on the tank.”

  “On the tank?” It was Eddy’s voice. “Why would they fool around with a water tank in the middle of the night? Unless …” His voice trailed away and for just a moment there was silence.

  “Poison?” It was Carlos who said it first, in a shaky, questioning voice, but as soon as he did people began nodding. Ari was thinking, Yes, I thought of that too. Poisoning people’s drinking water was the kind of thing terrorists might do. So maybe they really were terrorists and not just one of Carson’s imaginary-monster types. “Poison” they all said again, almost in unison. And then someone, in a high, wailing voice, said, “But what can we do?”

  It was Web who answered. “Here,” he said, “we could use these. And marbles. The projectiles are marbles.”

  Web had opened the canvas bag and he was handing out—slingshots.

  “Hey, my slingshots,” Kate said. And they were. The same old king-sized slingshots that Kate’s side had used in the Diamond War. “Where’d you get my? …”

  “Carson,” Web said. “He just loaned them to me. For our science project. See the rubber bands. The rubber bands are of differing widths now.” For a moment Web seemed to lose his train of thought, admiring the carefully measured and tested straps of rubber. But then he came back to reality. “But they all shoot very well,” he said. He began to hand out slingshots then, and handfuls of marbles. Bucky and Carlos and Eddy first, and then Kate and Aurora each took a slingshot and filled their pockets with marbles. Web kept the last one for himself. “There are only six,” he told Ari. “You can stay here and help Susie with Lump.”

  Ari was j
ust as glad. As he recalled, he hadn’t been much good with slingshots.

  “But what do we—” Carlos started to ask, when Bucky cut in.

  “I got it. I got a plan. We sneak up on those dudes and surround them and then, on the signal, we start shooting. All at once when I whistle. When I whistle we all shoot. Got it?”

  Bucky and Kate led the way up the Andersons’ driveway, with Carlos and Aurora on one side and Eddy and Web on the other. Right behind them came Ari, and then Susie and Lump. The moon had risen higher, and out in the open it was quite light. But where a narrow dirt road led on under tall trees toward the water tank at the foot of Castle Hill, the dark still waited, solid and deep. They were so close to the black van they could almost touch it before they even saw that it was there. Kate and Bucky stopped and then the others.

  They were all close together now. Ari could hear heavy breathing all around him, and now and then, from directly behind, the slurping noise that Lump made when he licked his slobbery jowls. And then, from somewhere up ahead, there was a different sound. A harsh, rasping, metallic noise.

  “There!” It was Aurora’s voice. “Hear it? They’re trying to get the lid off the tank.”

  And then Bucky’s voice. “Okay, spread out, everybody. You two go that way, and you two over there.”

  Footsteps moved away but Ari stayed where he was, not far from the black van. He knew Susie was still there. Susie and Lump, too, because he could hear Lump’s snuffling. But no one else. Just the two of them and Lump. Then suddenly Aurora was back beside him. “Here,” she whispered, “hold this. I can’t shoot the marbles and hold this.” She pressed something into Ari’s hands and then moved away again into the darkness.

  For a moment Ari didn’t know what he was holding, but just for a very short moment. Then his nose got the message. His nose and, obviously, Lump’s too. Lump crowded closer, snuffling and slobbering. Ari tried lifting the bag of rotten fish up out of reach but Lump was too tall. Ari backed away, holding the bag up as high as he could—right into the side of the black van.