Apocalypse - Keith R. A. DeCandido [10]
Angela didn’t like it when Daddy was upset.
She didn’t hear everything, because she was upstairs and Daddy was downstairs in his study, but she heard enough to make her scared.
“…you’ve perverted my research,” Daddy had said. “The T-cell could eradicate disease worldwide!”
Angela didn’t know what “perverted” meant, but she could tell that it was something bad.
“Then who would sign your paycheck, Doctor?” one of the other men had asked.
Later that night, she had heard Daddy crying in his room.
But Daddy still helped her. He had made her better.
For this year, Angela’s homeroom teacher was a stupid man named Mr. Strunk. He had fake hair on top of his head that he kept saying was real, and he had a big moustache that was all gray and black. All the other kids called him Mr. Stunk, but that was because all the other kids were also stupid. Angela didn’t like Mr. Strunk very much because he never made Bobby Bernstein and the other kids stop pulling her hair, but she didn’t think it was very nice to call him Mr. Stunk, either.
Mr. Strunk was making the morning announcements. Angela tried to pay attention to them, but Dana Hurley kept whispering to Natalie Whitaker right behind Angela, so she couldn’t hear a thing.
She’d liked it better last year in Ms. Modzelewski’s homeroom. Ms. Modzelewski sat them in alphabetical order by last name, so Angela was always up front in the first row, right behind Carl Amalfitano and in front of Tina Baker and next to Anne-Marie Cziernewski. Carl and Tina were always quiet, and Anne-Marie was nice to Angela. Bobby Bernstein sat in the back of the row, far away from Angela.
Suddenly, the front door opened. This startled Angela.
It apparently startled Mr. Strunk, too, since he dropped the clipboard he was reading the announcements from. It hit the floor with a clatter that made Angela jump a second time.
She grabbed her Spider-Man lunchbox. Daddy had given her the lunchbox right after he made her better. Angela liked Spider-Man because he always won in the end even when he wasn’t supposed to or when bad things happened to him. Daddy said when he gave it to her that he got it because she was his little hero.
He didn’t put her lunch in it, though. It was something much, much more important.
The last thing her father said to her every morning before she got onto the school bus was always the same:
“Don’t ever lose track of that lunchbox, sweetheart.”
She always said the same thing back:
“I won’t, Daddy.”
And she never did.
So when the two men in the gray suits walked into the classroom, the first thing she did was go for the lunchbox.
“I’m sorry, sir,” one of the men in the gray suits said, “but I’m afraid I need to take Ms. Angela Ashford out of class.”
“Whadja do, Angie?” Bobby Bernstein asked. He stretched out the word “do” so it sounded like a dirty word.
A bunch of the other kids laughed.
Angela really hated Bobby Bernstein.
She was also scared that something had happened at home. The men in the gray suits looked just like those other men in the gray suits.
The ones who worked for the company Daddy worked for.
Angela didn’t like them very much.
“What’s going on here?” Mr. Strunk asked. He bent over to pick up his clipboard.
“We were sent by Angie’s father’s employer, sir. We’ve been instructed to pick Angie up.”
“Is something wrong with my daddy?” Angela asked.
One of the men in the gray suits looked at Angela, then held out a hand. “Please, Angie, you have to come with us.”
Angela hated being called Angie, especially by grown-ups.
“Is Daddy okay?” She refused to get up from her desk until the man answered her question.
Bobby Bernstein put on a stupid voice and repeated, “Is Daddy okay?” His stupid friends laughed some more.
“Your father’s fine, Angie, but you need to come with us right now.”
She got up, gripping her Spider-Man lunchbox.
The other man in the gray suit said, “You won’t need your lunch, Angie.”
“I’m not goin’ without my lunchbox.”
“Fine, whatever,” the first man said.