Free The Mortal Knife by D. J. McCune Page B

thing, including the girl earlier that day. The trouble was, how could you just stop doing it when you knew the consequences were so huge? He had the chance to keep people on earth, alive and well. It had seemed worth the risk but now that he had seen the Mortal Knife he had a feeling he needed to lie low for a while.
    Adam sighed. It was time to switch his head from the life and death of people to the life and death of earthworms. Biology homework was always a riot.

Chapter 7
    The following day Adam spent a nervous morning in school. Melissa had been absent at the start of registration, only to slip in towards the end. Adam’s heart did its usual flip-flop at the sight of her but once again she played it cool, giving him the merest hint of a smile. It seemed she didn’t want to make a big thing of meeting up with him later.
    The first two periods dragged by. When the breaktime bell rang Adam could have wept with relief. His concentration was shot to hell that morning. As he headed towards the library he ran into Dan, who was mooching along looking pensive. At the sight of Adam he jerked his head in greeting. ‘All right?’
    Adam nodded. ‘Yeah. You all right?’
    Dan shrugged. ‘Yeah.’ He hesitated and looked around to make sure no one was listening. ‘I had to go and see that counsellor last night.’
    â€˜Oh right.’ Adam paused, not sure what to say. To his shame he really wanted to know what they had talked about. It wasn’t any of his business but he
did
have a vested interest in knowing what Dan had said.
    Luckily Dan was only too happy to tell him. ‘Yeah, it was all right. She was OK. There weren’t any dolls though.’
    Adam grinned. ‘Don’t tell Archie. He’ll be really disappointed.’
    Dan was looking thoughtful. ‘I didn’t tell her about the photo. Spike said not to tell anyone about it yet until he tries to clean it up and gets a look at the faces.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Do you think he got away? Not the bomber, the other guy?’
    Adam groaned inwardly. He picked his words with care. ‘Well, he must have done, if they didn’t find any bits of him.’
    Dan nodded. ‘I hope he did. Only – I just don’t see how he could have. He was really close.’
    Adam shrugged, trying to sound bored. ‘Maybe he ran past the bomber. And then when the bomb went off you couldn’t see him because he was behind it.’
    â€˜Maybe.’ Dan didn’t sound convinced. ‘He must have been a really fast runner. The bomb went off about five seconds after I took that photo.’
    â€˜Look, just forget about it, will you? Stop going on about it! It’s over and done with. It’s like Spike said – some nutter blew himself up. Just be happy
you’re
alive.’ Adam’s tone was sharper than he had intended.
    Dan looked wounded for a second. ‘I’m just saying.’
    Adam felt a pang of guilt. Just because he was used to death and dismemberment didn’t mean everyone else was. ‘Yeah, I know mate. Sorry. It’s pretty crap seeing that on your holiday.’
    Dan shrugged. ‘Yeah, it was.’ He paused. ‘Although it would be kind of cool if the other guy got away. Because he’d
have
to be a ninja then. Or have some kind of weird power. That would be amazing – if we found proof that ninjas existed.’
    â€˜I guess.’
    â€˜I like thinking about it. That there’s more to the world than what you can see here.’ Dan waved a hand around the bustling corridor. ‘If we found ninjas were real there could be loads of other stuff real as well. Vampires and werewolves and the Loch Ness Monster. At least it wouldn’t be boring.’
    â€˜There’s nothing wrong with this world. Boring is good,’ Adam said quietly. Sometimes he envied Dan and his friends, living safely in the ‘real’ world. Not knowing that