Free Secret Weapons by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

guys?”
    Eddy shrugged. “Meter readers. They probably were just meter readers, or some kind of repairmen.”
    “Yeah, maybe,” or “Sure. That’s it,” everyone was saying, and some people were standing up and picking up the stuff they’d brought, getting ready to go home.
    Athena stood up, too, and waved her gavel in the air. “Hey. Sit down, everybody. I haven’t injured the meeting yet. Sit down or I’ll hammer somebody.”
    Ari grabbed Athena’s arm. “Shhh,” he said. “The club is already adjourned. For good. Right?” he asked whoever might be listening. “The A.T. Club is finished. Right?”
    Suddenly everyone was looking at him and then at each other.
    “Is it? Is the club finished?” Susie looked disappointed. “I was just getting used to it.”
    People nodded. “Yeah, it was kind of fun,” someone said.
    “Hey,” Kate said. “Maybe we can find something else to have the club do.”
    “Yeah.” Bucky’s face had that lightbulb-going-on look. Not an extra-bright lightbulb, Ari thought, but something was definitely going on. “We can be anti those guys down on Beaumont Avenue. And we could wear red bandannas because they wear blue ones, and stuff like that.”
    “You mean like a street gang?” Eddy was grinning. “Great idea, Brockhurst. That’s all we need. The Castle Court Gang War. Drive-by shootings and all that great stuff.”
    “We could just wait and see about those men,” a soft, breathy voice said, and everybody turned to look at Aurora. She so seldom said anything that when she did everyone was surprised into listening. “We could leave everything here, like this”—she gestured around the tent—“and then tomorrow we could come back and decide what to do next.”
    Everyone began to nod and say “Yeah,” and the way it turned out, that was what they did. They all seemed to be feeling a little disappointed that everything was solved and the mystery was all over. But right at the moment it was dinnertime. So they all split, saying things like, “Okay, tomorrow” and “We’ll decide tomorrow.”
    Ari felt let down too. At least he did until he was in his room that night, getting ready for bed. It was still early but he was planning to get into bed and read. So he was halfway into his pajamas when he remembered that there was one part of the mystery that wasn’t solved at all. And that was the part about how Aurora had “seen” the two guys in the black van without really seeing them. And how she’d had that mysterious feeling about them being evil. That part of the mystery still hadn’t been explained away.

Chapter 16
    H E HAD TO FIND out. As soon as Ari remembered Aurora’s mysterious feelings about the two guys in the van, he knew he’d have to do a little more investigating before he could go to sleep. And the first thing he needed to do was to talk to Aurora. So as soon as he finished getting into his pajamas he headed for her room. Only she wasn’t there.
    Aurora wasn’t in her room, or in the living room, or in Nick and Diane’s studio, or anywhere. Athena was sound asleep in her room, Diane was still working in the studio, and Nick had gone off to an Artists’ Guild meeting. No one was in the kitchen, either, but as Ari opened the door he heard a soft clicking noise that seemed to be coming from the laundry room. It sounded like the very quiet opening and closing of the back door. Tiptoeing across the room, Ari opened the back door and peered out in time to see a tiny beam of light and a small, shadowy figure crossing the backyard, heading for the old studio. It was, he was quite sure, Aurora carrying her pencil-sized flashlight. But what on earth was she going to do in the old studio at—Ari checked his watch—eight-thirty at night?
    Closing the door behind him, Ari started running across the yard, running barefoot on sharp pebbles and prickly dry grass. Something stabbed his left big toe and he was hopping around trying to get it out, when the