Free The Golden Thread by Suzy McKee Charnas Page B

eyes to keep quiet.
    â€œSure, it’s baloney,” I said to Peter. “And Bosanka’s just another transfer student, right? So how come she’s quit going to classes but nobody seems to notice? She wanders around Jefferson just as she pleases, and nobody says a thing.”
    â€œSo what?” Peter said. “She’s got special clout because her family’s rich Russian gangsters with great crime connections, or something. So she gets to do what she wants, and what she wants is weird because she’s weird.”
    Mimi wrinkled her nose. “She wears the same clothes all the time, did you notice? I don’t mean she’s actually dirty or anything, but she’s not exactly pristine, either. Sort of junior Earth Shoes.” Whatever that meant. Mimi was an air-head.
    â€œYou can sometimes spot foreigners by their clothes,” Lennie said. By the look in his warm brown eyes I could see that he was thinking hard in that solemn Lennie-way that made some people think he was a little slow in the head. “Maybe she just hasn’t figured out how to fit in yet.”
    Mimi frowned. “But something is going on with her, too. There’re these thefts from the lockers, just in the past couple of days. Since she came .”
    Theft was not exactly the major thing on my mind in connection with Bosanka.
    â€œWell,” I said cautiously, “the school has broken out in rashes of locker-break ins and missing money before, usually because of Sandy Mason and her friends. On the other hand, Bosanka did pay for her jeans with a lot of small bills, and she had no wallet. She carried her money just stuffed into her pocket. I guess a person who would turn another person into some kind of an animal wouldn’t be above a little light theft to keep herself in jeans and Jell-O.”
    Peter jeered, “The only person she’s turned into an animal is you, Val—a donkey, get it? A horse’s ass! Well, don’t expect us to go galloping after you.”
    â€œAll I’m trying to do is warn you,” I said. “This is something a little special, okay?”
    â€œA little special!” Peter said. “Don’t make me laugh. A spy, maybe, or some kind of Jihadist. They have muslims in east Europe, you know, from when they were part of the Ottoman Empire. Maybe she’s a terrorist agent checking out targets to blow up. She could be a suicide bomber. She looks like a suicide bomber, with that stone face of hers!”
    â€œOh, come on,” I said. “Would a spy or a terrorist tell a story like this, about how our Comet Committee has supernatural powers she wants to use?”
    Peter said, “Listen, I’ll believe all this junk when I see her turn somebody into an animal right in front of my eyes, okay? Without that, forget it. And she better show up in the next five minutes to do it, too, or I’m taking off.”
    â€œTurn who into an animal?” Mimi asked nervously. “Are you volunteering, Peter? But look, if she doesn’t show up soon I’m out of here too. This room stinks.”
    It always smelled in the chem lab. Today’s fragrance was hydrochloric acid.
    Lennie said, thoughtfully, “How did she know about the Comet Committee at all?”
    â€œVal told her, of course,” Peter said, pausing to swear at something extra hard to reach inside the remote unit. “You probably don’t remember, Val. You were just yakking, you know, trying to break through the Great Stone Face there, and you said a few things.”
    â€œI didn’t,” I said.
    â€œYou did,” Peter said, with his usual charm. “You must have.”
    I said, “Peter, I know what I’ve said to her, and I never mentioned the Comet Committee. Why would I?”
    Peter said loftily, “How should I know, I’m not a girl.”
    Bosanka walked in wearing her usual: soft boots, jeans, baggy sweater. No books, no purse,