Doctor Who_ Warchild - Andrew Cartmel [76]
And they didn’t like it.
In particular, Wolf Leemark and his cronies didn’t like it.
They were like spectators at a play who had been happily ignoring the action on stage, talking loudly among themselves, with their feet up on the seats in front of them.
And then suddenly an actor had walked out on to the stage whom they couldn’t ignore.
For years Ricky had been able to fool everyone, perhaps even himself, into believing he was just some shy geeky kid.
It was a nice comfortable little niche that he could hide in.
Sometimes his carefully fostered disguise would slip, and those were the times when he had to be careful. But now, his disguise seemed to have slipped so badly it was beyond repair.
In the past when he found himself being noticed by people he always managed to shed their attention, or at least break the spell somehow. Normally he would have tripped, or dropped his books, or just managed to look so damned awkward and uncomfortable that the other kids would have begun to snicker and make insulting remarks. And then they would laugh and dismiss him. Move on and notice something else, forget the frightened gawky kid walking to the principal’s office.
But Ricky didn’t walk like a frightened kid. He walked like a holy man summoned to see a king, or a general leading his troops into battle, not even bothering to glance over his shoulder to see if they were following him. He was lost in the seriousness of his thoughts, the crumpled note still wadded in his closed fist.
As he left the lunchroom he could feel Wolf Leemark staring at him. He knew that this was going to lead to trouble, but there was nothing he could do about it and all his concentration was focused elsewhere. He was caught up in the problem of the note. And the subsidiary problem of why Mr Pangbourne wanted to see him again so soon.
On the way out of the lunchroom he saw Sad Girl sitting near the foot of the central staircase. She looked up from her book. She’d obviously heard the PA announcement and now she was watching him as he climbed the stairs. Ricky looked back at her and for an instant their eyes met. It was as if Sad Girl had forgotten, for a moment, that she never looked anyone in the eye. But then she quickly looked away, dropping her gaze back to the tattered pages of her book.
Ricky climbed the long staircase, the tightly folded note now cutting into the palm of his hands. He watched his feet on the stone steps, not wanting to exchange stares with anyone else.
‘Hello Ricky.’
Ricky looked up. He’d reached the ground floor now and was hurrying towards the principal’s office, still staring at the floor of the corridor. So of course he hadn’t noticed the woman. She was standing by the drinking fountain, in an alcove between two rows of lockers; standing there as if she was waiting for someone.
‘Sorry to drag you out of the lunchroom like that,’ said the woman. She was one of the teachers; Ricky knew that because he’d seen her coming out of the staffroom that morning. He could hardly help noticing her; she looked far too lovely to be a high-school teacher, and perhaps a little too young as well. She was carrying a canvas shoulder bag and wore a plaid skirt with a plain white blouse, but no ornamentation or jewellery except for the small silver earrings half concealed by her blonde hair. The silver looked nice against her tanned smooth skin.
Her blue-green eyes were looking directly into his.
‘My name’s Amy Cowan,’ she said. ‘I’d like to talk to you.’
Chapter 26
The woman was wearing an airline stewardess’s uniform.
Creed watched her on the screen of the armoured car.
She was moving through the moonlight like a sleep-walker.
Or maybe like someone deep in shock, he thought. She walked among the mass of dogs that poured out from the houses, weaving a little from side to side.
At first Creed had the eerie impression that she was in command of the dogs, leading them like some kind of Pied Piper. It was a natural reaction. Seeing a human being among a mass of animals