Revenge (15 page)

‘I don't like this, Boges,' whispered Winter. ‘I
feel like we're just waiting for something bad to happen.' She opened her clutch bag and pulled out a packet of gum. Squeezed into her bag was that bible again. ‘What?' she snapped, noticing me looking at it.

‘You brought that ratty bible with you?'

‘Is that a problem, Boges? I feel like it could be important.'

‘Divine intervention?'

‘That's not what it's about. I just have a feeling … that this belonged to Sligo,' she said. ‘And that maybe there's something that we're missing.'

‘We're cool, Winter,' I said, even though I was hating sitting still. ‘Just relax. Look at all the cops in here.' I motioned with my eyes to the officers lining the walls.

‘Something's not right.' She tightened her hold on the small, fat bible. ‘Every cell in my body is warning me.'

I had to admit I agreed. I sat on the edge of my seat and looked around.

All the glass-topped tables in the hall were glowing purple from some sort of lighting
underneath
. In the centre of each table stood tall glass cylinders filled with white flowers.

On the side of the stage, in front of the
curtains
, a string quartet played softly.

‘Cal, how are you going?' I whispered into my bird pin, perched on my collar.

‘Hmm-hm,' I heard in my earpiece. I reached into my waistband and turned the volume up on my receiver. I could hear someone talking to Cal about signalling when it was time for him to come on stage to present the Queen's pendant. He was supposed to step out, hand over the Phoenix Pendant in its velvet box, then everyone would ooh and ahh and clap him, and he'd step off the stage and join us, taking the empty seat across the table.

Tons of other pieces had been donated for the auction, mostly artworks, antiques and
sculptures
. After the auction, there was going to be a formal five-course dinner, followed by some entertainment and dancing (no, thanks) into the early hours. We were in for a long night.

I turned around and looked at the faces filling the room. The city's richest and most influential people were gathering. The guy sitting on my left was some art expert who I was sure I'd seen in the paper before. He nodded at me and I pulled my sneakers in tight under my chair.

I'd never seen so much sparkling bling, fur, freakishly white smiles, make-up, shiny suits and big hair in one place before. Some people I
recognised—the mayor, council members,
politicians
, local celebrities, business tycoons, and a slick-looking guy who I suspected, from
newspaper
pictures I'd seen, was Murray ‘Toecutter' Durham's son. Anyone who was anyone was gathering here tonight. They stood in circles, laughing over crystal glasses of champagne. Oh, how Vulkan Sligo had wished to be one of them.

I thought of him, lying comatose in his
hospital
bed. He'd boasted about screening Cal's death and bringing the house down. I recalled his vengeful words. Of how he planned to go out with a …

bang
.

Sligo's threat would not leave my mind. The police had insisted they'd covered every
centimetre
of City Hall searching for explosives. They were thorough. There was nothing to worry about, right? The note sent to Cal was nothing but a coincidence.

A hoax and a coincidence.

If everything really was OK, then why was sweat building up on my forehead? And why did Winter look uneasier by the minute?

The lights dimmed and the music stopped. A spotlight shone down on an old dude in a suit and bow tie, standing behind a podium. He cleared his throat.

‘Welcome, distinguished guests, to this
wonderful
evening of art and altruism. I am Alistair Oates, the curator of the City Art Gallery and the co-founder of the Four Walls for the Children initiative.'

Winter squirmed beside me. She looked as uncomfortable as I was feeling.

‘Our guests of honour tonight are generous in innovation, intellect and spirit. They're the city's finest.' He continued on and I tuned out, on the lookout for trouble.

My gaze kept returning to something
hovering
high above us, some type of small annoying insect.

Alistair introduced the guests. When Cal's name was spoken, the hall erupted into full-on applause. A few ladies in ball gowns even raised their perfectly manicured hands to their mouths and whooped for him.

I subtly ran my hands through my hair, leaned back in my chair and squinted up at the aggravating insect.

I nearly choked when I realised what it was. I bumped the table with my knee. The tall
centrepiece
vases rocked. I coughed as a distraction.

‘Boges?' Winter whispered. ‘What's wrong?'

I pointed up to the aerial drone with my eyes.

She looked at the ceiling, confused.

‘The insect!' I hissed. ‘It's
my
Hummingbird Hawk-moth! Someone's using
my
surveillance scout to watch us!'

‘The hawk-moth?' Winter repeated in
disbelief
. ‘We're being watched right now?'

‘What's going on?' piped up Ryan, leaning over the table.

The woman sitting next to him glared at us. ‘Shh,' she said, through a gash of red lipstick.

We sat back, rigid in our chairs. I was frantic, trying to figure out what this could mean. Who was controlling it, if not Sligo? Why were they watching us here?

‘Boges,' I heard Cal whisper in my earpiece. ‘What's going on on? I can see you squirming out there. Everything OK?'

I couldn't answer. People were staring at me.

Back on stage, Alistair Whatever had
finished
his spiel and the curtains were opening. The string quartet started up again.

On either side of the stage, two thick white pillars towered, just like the columns out the front of City Hall. The pillars began sinking into the stage flooring, slowly revealing two huge stone sculptures presented on top of them. As the sculptures, two ancient warriors standing guard, descended, everyone stared at them, bright-eyed.

Once they stood proudly positioned on the stage, the audience applauded.

‘What are they?' I whispered to the guy on my left.

‘Oh, aren't they exquisite?' he answered. ‘Apparently they arrived here just in the nick of time. Only about an hour ago! They're called “The Twin Pillars of Society” by the sculptor Philippe Dioscuri. They're the reason I'm here tonight!'

Only arrived an hour ago?
Twin pillars
? Where had I heard that before?

My mind started spinning.

Sligo's words hit me like a head-on with a truck.

Twin pillars of society …

My power returning …

It was the sculptures! They'd arrived
after
the security sweep!

‘Cal!' I whispered into my swallow pin. ‘The bomb! It's in one of the sculptures!'

‘What?' he whispered back. ‘How do you know?'

‘Shhhhh!' the woman with the red lipstick hissed.

‘Boges, what's going on?' said Winter, gripping my arm firmly. Ryan leaned forward again, a worried look on his face.

I panicked. Before I even realised what I was doing, I was up and out of my chair. My body just took off before my brain had a chance to stop it!
I crash-landed onto the stage, ignoring the chaos I was causing around me.

‘Cal!' I said into my pin. ‘The bomb! We have to stop it! Where are you?'

Cal ran out from backstage to join me,
pushing
and shoving other people out of his path.

‘Boges!' I heard Winter shout from our table. ‘What on earth ..?'

People looked stunned and stood up in shock. No-one had any idea what I was doing.

Before anyone could stop me, I'd snatched up the auction hammer from the podium, dodged a gasping Alistair and swung at the first statue.

‘Stop him!' people shouted. I ignored them. ‘Arrest that vandal!' someone yelled.

But I was already working my way down the body of the warrior statue, banging with my hammer. It sounded hollow. The hammer easily broke through. It wasn't marble, it was plaster!

Feet thundered towards me. The cops? A loud alarm sounded, throbbing through the hall.

‘It's hollow!' I shouted to Cal. I stood back and with another big swing, I cracked the sculpture wide open and clawed inside the crumbling figure.

People shouted in horror and protest. Any second now I'd be grabbed by security. Inside the hollowed-out sculpture I saw exactly what we had feared.

Rectangular and mustard-coloured. A
blinking
timer on top. A web of wires.

‘
Bomb!
' I yelled at the top of my lungs. ‘
Everyone
out! There's a bomb!'

People screamed, running for the door. Cops dived at me, but I managed to scramble past them—the other sculpture was in my sights. What if it also harboured explosives? The nun's cries from my nightmares echoed in my head.
There's another one
, she'd said.

Another bomb? I had to get over there and check!

I pounced on the other sculpture. I swung the hammer in the exact same spot.

It was hollow too, and cracked open easily under the hammer. I pulled away the rocky
casing
and looked inside as a cop grabbed my legs and started dragging me away. I dropped the hammer, trying to get him off me.

‘It's empty!' I shrieked, searching around me for Cal. ‘The other one's empty!'

But it had clearly been hollowed out—I didn't get it!

Winter and Ryan appeared on the stage, and they were staring into the second sculpture. Winter reached her hand in and felt around.

‘Get the bomb squad back in here!' I heard a police officer yell.

Winter grabbed the auction hammer, and swung at the guy who had my legs.

He screamed in pain, grabbing his back.

I dropped to the floor, legs freed. Cal and Ryan raced to help me up.

‘The bomb,' I panted, ‘in the first sculpture. It's on a timer! It's due to go off at …'

But I had another concern. I craned my neck, scanning the space above the last of the
departing
crowd, trying to track down my hawk-moth.

‘What are you doing?' yelled Cal. ‘We have to get out of here!'

Now my friends were dragging me out.

‘Look!' I said, pointing directly above me. ‘There it is! It's been turned against us.'

They looked up at the hawk-moth.

‘Who are you?!' I shouted at it.

‘Come on, let's go!' said Winter.

I could hear sirens blaring outside. Finally, the place was completely clear of guests, and the bomb squad would be here in seconds. We ran out, dodging and leaping over toppled tables, abandoned coats, smashed glasses, plates and wine bottles.

We ran out the doors, into the dark and down the stony stairs of the building. And just before we reached the chaos that awaited us outside on the street—the flashing lights, the
panicked, flustered, fleeing guests …

City Hall exploded.

In the nanosecond before I hit the ground, I saw the huge building split open against the night sky. Tall pillars, masonry, bricks and timbers burst apart in the massive fireball.

The impact floored us. It slammed against our backs, forced us off our feet and propelled us into the air. We dived down and down and down …

I opened my eyes.

I was sideways. Dirt, gravel, smoke and debris lined my vision. Beyond, the world was lit up by a hellish light.

I couldn't hear anything but a thick buzzing.

I jerked my head up and looked down at my body. I was intact. My legs were OK, they were moving when I was telling them to.

But what about everyone else?

Shaking the thick fog from my mind, I crawled to my hands and knees. ‘Cal? Cal!'

‘Boges,' I heard him reply, ‘I'm here. I'm OK. You?'

‘OK, I think,' I said. ‘Where are the others?'

‘I'm here,' Winter's voice murmured.

‘Here,' added Ryan.

Slowly the warbling of ambulances and cop cars became louder again and I found the strength to get up. I helped my friends to their feet. We were covered in dust, cuts and scratches, like we'd just stepped off a post-apocalyptic movie set.

‘The hawk-moth,' I said. ‘He set the bomb off early!'

‘What do you mean,
early
?' Cal asked. ‘Who are you talking about?'

‘The timer,' I said, looking at my cracked watch and trying to ignore the ringing in my ears, ‘it was set to go off at midnight, when the party would have been in full swing. But
someone
was watching us.'

‘But who?' asked Winter, brushing gravel from her hair.

We scrambled over some of the debris, trying to see if anyone nearby was injured.
Miraculously
, we couldn't see anyone badly hurt, just people like us, whimpering and moaning,
crawling
to their feet, shocked and covered in grey dust. The four of us stumbled away from the wreck of City Hall and sought cover in a small park nearby.