Read Online Hunter Moran Saves the Universe by Patricia Reilly Giff - Free Book Online

leans forward. “They’ve cut up my bushes, put them in piles.”
    Zack stares at me. What is he trying to say? And then it comes to me. We’re the maniacs she’s talking about. Imagine. Spies like the Diglios worrying about things like that.
    I glance down at the pad in front of me. Mrs. Diglio has terrible handwriting, even for a spy. There’s a pile of Z s and X s; she may have added a new letter to the alphabet.
    I try to read without her noticing. Nead , it begins. Then a list. Alarm cluck, big hands to see in dark. Earploogs to miffle sound.
    Miffle? Muffle the sound of a bomb going off as they speed away? And what about that alarm cluck? Don’t they use clocks as timers for bombs? Didn’t I see that on some program? Maybe Death on Planet X , Thursday night, nine o’clock?
    I snap my fingers trying to think. Then I realize everyone is staring at me. I go mmm, mmm with my mouth filled with cookie, as Mrs. Diglio talks about the neighborhood being overrun with noot cases.
    Whatever that means.
    There’s more. All strange things. And at the bottom …
    At the bottom …
    Is Olyushka !
    That’s it. We’re toast.
    Mrs. Diglio moves as fast as an iguana. She scoops up the pad and puts it in a drawer. Then she clears her throat, so I look up quickly, innocently. Steadman’s mouth is full and wide open. It’s a cement mixer in there. I give him the zipped-lip signal, and the cement mixer snaps shut.
    He takes that moment to spill his lemonade across the plate of cookies, the plastic tablecloth, the chair, the floor, and himself, of course.
    Zack and I jump out of the way, saying, “Sorry.”
    Then, like a St. Dorothy miracle, I hear Linny’s screechy voice in the background. “Get in the house, Hunter! Zack! It’s time to eat!”
    Perfect.
    â€œWe have to go,” Zack says, his eyes the size of Lester’s soup kettle.
    To our great relief, Mrs. Diglio opens her forty locks and we head out toward freedom.
    â€œWait!” she yells, but we don’t stop. Of course not.
    â€œYou forgot,” she goes on. “The concert tickets.”
    â€œWe’ll be back,” Zack shouts.
    But that’s not going to happen, we both know that. It’s a miracle we’ve escaped with our lives.

HERE WE ARE—DAY THREE OF SUMMER.

    It’s hot, sticky, and time is running out.…

Chapter 13
    Breakfast may never be over. Pop keeps talking about computer hackers ruining the world.
    Zack and I agree.
    He’s also a little irritable, maybe because drops of water from the ceiling plink and plunk down on his head.
    He leaves for work with his hair plastered to his scalp.
    â€œSo what’s the plan?” I ask Zack.
    He crunches down on a lump of granola. “I have to compose a sonata. A symphony.” He waves his hand. “A something. It’s hard to think about it when Newfield may be coming to an end.”
    I clatter upstairs to sit on the edge of my bed for a while. What can I do to save us all? Then I smell chocolate two inches from my face.
    Steadman, of course.
    â€œHow about I show you some pictures?” he says. “You’ll be so excited.”
    Can I just find one secure place to think of how to dismantle a bomb?
    Steadman dives onto the bed. “I took one of you and Zack on the roof.”
    â€œNice.” I back away from him.
    â€œI have a picture of the bomb, too,” he says.
    I look up. “You don’t have a camera.”
    He pokes his nose up close. The odor of chocolate is intense. “William’s cell phone,” he whispers.
    â€œWilliam’s cell phone with me on top of St. Ursula’s? A picture of the bomb?”
    Steadman nods. “And one of the two of you working on Dad’s computer.”
    I’m off the bed as if I’ve been shot out of a cannon. William will blackmail Zack and me forever.
    Steadman jumps off the bed, too. He rocks back and