Wild Thing (15 page)

'Wow, that is one great laser blaster!'

But Faith
yipped
again, shone her red dot into the crater in the rocky hillside, and even popped her laser pod out and then back in, and finally resorted to looking at her like she was stupid.

It was only then that she noticed the flashing blue light on Faith's collar.  It looked kind of insistent somehow.

'Is that… a signal from Mr Shanahan?'

Faith yipped. 
Yes
.

'Because you fired your laser.  Because it means you found an enemy in the grounds.  So Mr Shanahan will want to know what you shot at.'

She thought some more.  'And he knows where you are.  So he's probably on his way right now.  And if he thinks you fired at me, I'll get in big trouble for trying to Pounce you.  And they might stop us from playing together.  Oh, no!'

She plunged down to hug Faith again, just to reassure her.  'Gosh, you are
so
clever!  But don't worry, I won't let them find out!'

At the pain from her burns, and the stinging pains in her side and back, she also realized she couldn't ask Keepie to heal her, either.  He was pretty smart.  And he didn't like them playing together.  He said Faith was too dangerous.

Which was just stupid.  Even when she'd almost Pounced her, Faith had aimed aside!  But she didn't like the idea of trying to explain that to her uncle.

Faith suddenly pricked up her ears, and Sara heard a faint sound, so with one last hug, she got ready to climb back up over the rocks and away.

Quickly.

Faith looked up at her.

'I know,' she whispered, 'you've gotta stay here for Mr Shanahan, haven't you?'

After one last shared look, she darted up the rocks and out of sight.

It took weeks for the burn to heal up fully.  The other scrapes and punctures got better much faster.  It would've been much nicer to be healed by Keepie, but it served her right for hunting her friend.  Faith was, after all, a proper guard dog, who kept everyone safe.

It had been super hard keeping her face all innocent when Mr Shanahan sat her down to warn her not to roam the grounds for a few days while he checked out “an intrusion.”  He said it looked like Faith had been tracking a wild animal.  It was possible a coyote or even a mountain lion had somehow got inside the grounds.

He spent a week searching the grounds with his drones, and Faith too, of course, before things had gone back to normal.  She felt a bit guilty about causing them so much more work.  But it was probably good for him to have some extra practice exercises to make sure everything was working properly.

She explained that to Faith.  Faith just grinned. 
She
was getting heaps more time hunting and patrolling with Mr Shanahan, and that was good for them both.

Though not quite as good for
her
, since she wasn't allowed out to continue her own hunting while the “wild thing” was loose.

Hardest of all was letting not the faintest hint, not the tiniest thought even cross her mind, whenever Mr Shanahan discussed the hunt with her uncle at dinner times.  The first time they'd started talking about it in front of her, she'd wanted to just sneak quietly away.  But then she'd decided it'd be better to beg to be allowed to join the hunt.

'I've already got my own bow and arrows, too, so I could help!'  Plus, it would've been nice to go with them.

It had been kind of strange, arguing to be allowed to hunt herself while pretending at the same time she didn't know what was going on.  It almost made
her
confused!

After several ages, though, things eventually quietened back down and everyone decided that the animal must've got out the same way it had got in.  Or died.  Maybe it'd just been a rabbit, or something, they decided, and Faith had let her “in-stinks” run away with her.  Mr Shanahan increased the sensitivity on the sensors on the walls, and that was that.

She hadn't even known there
were
sensors on the walls.  So really, she'd learned quite a lot from trying to Pounce Faith.  Like the fact that Faith had a radio “inplant.”  Plus, sharing the secret had made her and Faith even closer.

But when Faith had her other work to do and Sara had to Hunt on her own, at least it meant she didn't have to stay quite so alert for danger and thinking up special missions all the time, and could just play.

Out in the woods a few weeks later, she was imagining talking to Her again.  If it
was
just imagining.

I should give you a name if you're going to be my little sister
.  I think-

«Lily.  I should name her Lily.»

Lily?  No, I think “Mirella,”
’coz-

«
No!  Lily!  And soon I'll be your
big
sister.  That's how fast I'm growing!
»
  She giggled, inside, though she wasn't sure why she did.  Or if it was really even
her
that giggled.

«Godsson will go ballistic if you tell him you talk to an invisible sister whose name is Lily, trust me.»

But why would I
want
Godsson to go bull-istick?

«Because he'll get very scared and do lots of exciting magic.»

But I don't
want
to scare Godsson.

«It'll be good for him: teach him a lesson.  Why are you always such a little baby?  Look, let me show you.  All you have to do is give me a ride.  Just imagine I'm on your shoulders, steering you.  It'll be easy-»

She felt
Her
, Lily,
kind of slide behind her, then a sudden surge of hate – except it wasn't pointed at her, but at something behind her.

She spun around even as a wave of kind of cold, “w
ant-you-dead”
sort of seriousness washed over her.  She had a bare moment to see a bunch of straight line movements of ferns and leaves right in front of her, then Robo was on top of her.

Things got very confusing very quickly. 
She
shoved forward against her, an awful heat pressing down like Lily thought
Sara
was hurting her.  Lily pushed down so hard Sara went all swimmy in her head, swaying on her feet.  But it was Robo pressing into Lily
,
squashing them together.  She gritted her teeth, scrinching her eyes up real hard and
grabbing
Lily
.
  Instantly, Lily went crazy: twisting and whipping at her, and Robo went all, well, a sort of
Ending-with-a-capital-E
kind of determined.  But then Lily slipped free, and Robo was all super-fast stompy-dodging around her, chasing after Her.  The two disappeared
much
faster than she could follow, on foot.

Of course, she was partic'ly careful not to tell her uncle anything about the Big Fight.  Was careful not even to think about it in front of him.

To be honest, it was all just a bit scarier than she liked.

Chapter 14 

It was mid-summer when unusual things started happening at the Institute.  First, Uncle started getting cross easily.  That wasn't actually the unusual part; the unusual part had been that when she'd asked if she'd been bad he'd actually looked surprised, and sorry, and patted her on the head!  That had been nice.

He'd explained that there was a special thing happening soon, that happened every year at this time, and he was a little bit worried about it.

He actually asked her to forgive him!

He'd also explained that on the Special Day she'd have to stay in her room and not come out: “No matter what!”

She was super-extra interested, but she'd been careful to just nod, and shrug like she didn't really care.  'Well, it's too hot, anyway.  I'll just stay inside and read books.  Maybe Faith could come inside, for once?  I could keep her inside my room for the day.'

Her uncle had shuddered – just as she'd expected: he was always
so
worried by Faith's weapons.  And that was even though he didn't know about her mini-rockets!  But the real reason she'd asked was to find out if the Special Day was also a Danger Day, that needed Faith's help.

So that was how she worked out it was.  So when he'd said “No” she made sure she just humphed and looked annoyed but bored, and didn't ask her uncle anything more.  She made especially sure to
not
look like she'd already started planning her escape.

The next person she talked to in her investigation was Mr Shanahan, and straight away she could tell he was involved, too.  He looked almost as worried as Uncle, and seemed unsure about even letting her into his house, let alone his security
office
.  She'd had to sigh, and wave her hand at her forehead to make out like she was
so
hot and couldn't she just come into the cool for a little bit?  She'd asked if there was a secret security emergency he was involved in.  He'd instantly said “No, no, everything's normal,” and finally let her in.

But she couldn't find out anything more from him, and he'd even hesitated when she'd asked if she could take Faith on Patrol.  He'd thought and thought before finally relaxing and agreeing.  So that made her extra-double-sure that Faith would be involved in the Super Special Danger Day.

The
next
person she investigated was Godsson, and he was worse than Uncle or Mr Shanahan!  He'd looked
real
worried.  Maybe even a bit scared.  Which was a bit frightening in itself, since Godsson
never
looked scared.  When she'd stopped by, at first she'd thought he was going to put up his super magic shield.  He'd shook his head, and muttered something to himself, before he'd done his greeting-gesture so they could talk.

He had dark circles under his eyes, and his long brown hair was unusually scraggly and greasy-looking.  She thought maybe he hadn't washed in a while, either.

He looked sad, and strong, and brave, though, and promised he'd do his best for her.  For everyone.  That sure sounded serious.

But after talking to her for a while, he said he felt tired, and needed to sleep.  “To prepare himself.”  It all sounded real onimous.

So that was how she found out it involved Godsson, too, which meant that the Danger must be a Magic Danger.  Which made it a Super Special Magic Danger Day!  She wondered if the invisible monster was involved, and almost asked Godsson.  But at the last moment, she decided not to.

Instead, she decided to help.

She did more investigations, though.  Just like Miss X, as if she was in her very own eXtro episode!

She found out it was going to happen on the 21st, at the summer soul's-tess.  It'd been tricky finding out what that meant, but her net unit eventually told her it was spelled “solstice,” and it just meant the middle of summer.  But more important than that, she learned from Miss Nerida that the
Eff-Bee-Eye
would be involved, and that they'd bring
lots
of their people, with guns and everything, plus extra magicians – special ones called “battle mages” – as well as some kind of shaman team.  And that she had to be extra good, and extra quiet, and stay in her room.  For her own safety.

Well, she was certainly going to be extra
good.

She'd certainly been good by not bursting with excitement when Nerida said they'd have
battle mages
coming.  She'd just blinked, real fast, while she concentrated on keeping her expression still, and not exploding.  She'd tried to think of something clever to say to make it sound like she didn't care, but her thoughts had just started running round like a bunch of crazy squirrels, and all she'd managed to say in the end was “Oh.”

Nerida had looked at her strangely.

Battle mages.  She bet they'd be able to fly, and go invisible; and they'd be super strong and super fast, and shoot lightning from their eyes….  Then she wondered why they
needed
battle mages?

She talked it over with Faith.

'At first I thought,
monsters
, then I thought maybe
aliens?'

She looked at Faith, but Faith just grinned back, not giving anything away.

'Well, I know it's not invisible things ’coz you're not so good with them.'

But from the corner of her eye, she saw that Faith just ignored her gentle dig.  Which wasn't too big of a surprise – Faith was a trained security dog, and knew how to keep a secret.

That night, she heard a helicopter land.  She crept from her room in her pajamas.  From the top of the stairs she could hear her uncle and Professor Sanders talking together in low voices, below, and in bare feet she tiptoed down each flight until she could see them.  They were standing in the big area just inside, that the front doors opened onto.  They were just talking and waiting.

There was the sound of crunching gravel, then a bunch of soldiers in black stalked in.  They didn't say anything, just spread out, looking around. She ducked back to make sure they couldn't see her, but in the glimpse she'd caught, she saw they had guns and scopes and all sorts of gadgets.

She heard the doors swing open again, and when she next peeked around, a cross-looking man with a dark suit and medals and short, oily-looking hair was spitting out something about “Benson,” and money, and trouble, and facilities.

She'd peeped out a little bit further to see if she could see what Uncle or the Director thought, when one of the men with the gadgets spun round and shouted “freeze!”

She jumped back, and then they were all pounding up the stairs, and Keepie was shouting, and the Director was trying to calm everyone down, and the angry man started shouting about spies and stuff.

But she'd already made her eyes big and round, and looked scared – which was actually pretty easy, ’coz she kinda
was.
  She pushed her lower lip out and made like she might cry.  Just like Lily had told her to do, if she wanted to make men feel sorry for her.