Read Online Hurricane Power by Sigmund Brouwer - Free Book Online Page B

all Carlos had needed was the computer information to know where to find my doctor father and me. But it still didn’t tell me how he had gotten into the computer.
    Halfway down the page, I found out what the secretary had meant by her little insult about me not being a rocket scientist.
    The printout listed all my high schoolgrades. None of the grades were from McKinley; I hadn’t been here long enough. They were all the grades that had been transferred from my old high school.
    And the grades were all wrong
.
    I was a B+ student.
    All these grades showed me at D-.
    Someone, somehow, had entered the computer system and changed them.

chapter twenty
    Ten minutes later, I was staring at a black rose inside my locker, trying to figure out how it had gotten there. That’s when my nightmare began to come true. I didn’t see it coming in time to stop it.
    My locker is at the far end of the school on the second floor. To reach it, I had to go down a narrow hall off the main hallway. Lockers lined both walls. I was completely alone when I found the rose.
    I looked closer. It was a regular red rose,but someone had spray-painted it black and put it inside my locker. In a weird way, it made sense. Whoever had read my computer file could have gotten my locker combination from it too.
    But a black rose?
    Behind me, I knew the narrow hall was empty, just like in my dream. Half an hour had passed since the final bell had rung. The school was like a tomb. Which wasn’t a good setting for a nightmare.
    I heard footsteps, just like I had in my dream.
    When I made myself look up, they were there. The two guys who had threatened Carlos. The two guys with black roses tattooed on their arms.
    Suddenly the rose in my locker made sense. Too much sense.
    They walked toward me slowly, as if they had all the time in the world. Which they did. No one else was around.
    They smiled. Not Welcome Wagon smiles. These were the smiles of wolves checking out a sheep who has wandered into a trap.
    I began to back down the hall, away from them.
    â€œNot so fast,” the biggest one said. “Look behind you.”
    â€œNice trick,” I said. “Like I’m going to fall for that?”
    â€œNo trick, loser,” a voice behind me said. “It’s time to teach you a lesson.”
    I turned my head quickly.
    Two more guys. Big. Leather vests. Ragged jeans. Black rose tattoos on their left biceps. They were blocking my way back to the main hallway. They too were walking toward me, moving slowly, smiles on their faces.
    One of them had a cell phone. The other waved a switchblade.
    â€œI don’t get it,” I said. “How do you guys get weapons into the school?”
    â€œEasy,” he said, kissing the blade with mock sweetness. “Someone tossed this one to me from outside. All I had to do was wait at the window we’d agreed on. Then I just hid it in my locker until I needed it.”
    â€œGood to know,” I said, trying to sound brave.
    The other guy spoke into his cell phone.
    â€œWe’ve got him here in the
A
wing,” he said. “We’ll bring him down the back stairs. Meet us there.”
    There were others?
    My face must have shown my surprise.
    â€œWe have guys all over the school,” the one with the knife said, answering my silent question. “Call it a network. A secret network. You can’t get away from us.”
    This is what I knew from a self-defense course: The best time to resist is right away. If someone comes up to you in a parking lot and tries to force you into a car, the first thirty seconds are crucial. Once someone gets you into a car, you’re in more trouble. Once that person gets you out of the city, you’re in even bigger trouble. And so on. Resist loudly and publicly, and nine times out of ten, the bad guy will run away.
    So I screamed as loud as I could.
    Nobody ran away.
    â€œSecurity guard’s at the other end of the school,”