Read Online The Beast of Seabourne by Rhys A. Jones - Free Book Online

lab. The tank was exactly where they’d left it and looked intact, despite Jenks and Skinner having been alone in the lab.
    The atmosphere buzzed with nervous excitement, and at one forty-five sharp, Mr Skelton walked to the front of the room, raised his arms, and called for quiet.
    â€œRight, well, here we are,” he said, looking around at the expectant, fidgety class. “The year eight science project presentations. Just to recap the rules. Each of you will get five minutes to present your project to our adjudicators, myself and…” He beckoned to the first of two men standing to the side. “May I introduce the Vice Chancellor of Seabourne University, Dr Lorenzo Heeps.”
    Heeps wore a pinstriped suit with a striped blue shirt and a yellow tie. He had a trimmed, grey-flecked moustache and beard and a crow sitting on his head. At least, it looked like a crow whenever Oz saw it, though he knew it was really a coiffured hairstyle.
    â€œMay I say what a great pleasure it is to be here,” said Heeps, and beamed at them all.
    Everyone applauded politely, everyone, that is, except Ellie, Ruff, and Oz, who exchanged knowing glances. Heeps was someone none of them trusted. For one thing, they knew that, despite his respectable and affable appearance, he was a Puffer, and Gerber’s man through and through. In the months leading up to Soph’s appearance, he had tried to convince Mrs Chambers to sell Penwurt, and he had secretly obtained photographs of the library panels, so he could decipher the alchemical code carved into them.
    Luckily, Ruff had beaten him to it. Nevertheless, Lorenzo Heeps was also Pheep’s dad, and, as Ruff had so aptly put it, she must have inherited her “evil toe-rag genes” from somebody…
    â€œThe other gentleman you see is Mr O’Flynn, who will be reporting on today’s competition for The Echo .” Mr Skelton consulted a clipboard. “We will proceed in alphabetical order. Those of you in teams, may I ask that the spokesperson only be out front? First, then, with a ‘novel way to feed a cat,’ are the Anchor Angels.”
    Oz sat back. He was too nervous to take in much of what was happening, but he did note that everything he saw was amateurish and poorly constructed. There were a few exceptions, of course; Dilpak’s working model of a wind turbine involved blowing up a balloon, positioning it in a holder, and letting the air rush out to drive the turbine. His first attempt resulted in the balloon slipping through his fingers and zooming around the room making gross raspberry noises, like a windy poltergeist, much to the delight of the class, who batted at it and roared with laughter. The propulsion, when it did work, sent a little voltmeter’s needle flickering, and the tiny bulb he’d attached glowed impressively. But it only lasted a few short seconds before Dilpak had to blow the balloon up again.
    The water clock that followed wasn’t much better; it leaked all over the floor, and the spokesperson, Bernice Halpin from 2B, was so nervous she called it a “clotter wock” twice.
    When it came to Jenks and Skinner, who called themselves “The Geniuses,” things went downhill. Entitling their project “dungpower” should have been enough of a clue, but if anyone had any doubts that Jenks had somehow turned over a new leaf, the smell emanating from the sealed container he carefully opened soon put everyone right. Their plan was to place a funnel over a sizeable lump of dung and light the “gas” effusing from it at the stem of the funnel. Unfortunately, the rotted manure Jenks had asked his brother to provide ended up being fresh and steaming from the nearest field. Thus, even though the room filled with stink, no flame burned at the funnel.
    But what got Jenks hot under the collar was the large dollop that Skinner managed to drop onto his shoe halfway through the demonstration.