Read Online The Call by Michael Grant - Free Book Online

quickly down the hall. Stefan fell in beside him.
    â€œWhere are you going?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Mack said. “But you heard the guy. Anyone around me could be in trouble.”
    â€œYou got no worries,” Stefan said. “You are under my wing.”
    â€œDude. I seriously appreciate that. But you didn’t spend part of your morning grinding up poisonous snakes in a garbage disposal.”
    â€œYou scared of that old guy? Paddy Wacky, whatever his name was?”
    â€œYeah,” Mack said. “Maybe it’s just me, but I start getting kind of nervous when people violate the laws of physics, talking out of toilets and all. Not to mention the whole boy-made-out-of-clay thing. Call me a wuss, but my weird limit has been reached.”
    â€œWho’s made out of clay?”
    â€œThe golem,” Mack said. “It’s like a medieval creature, a sort of robot made out of clay. I have one.”
    Stefan nodded thoughtfully. “If I had a robot, I wouldn’t want him to be mid-evil. I’d want one that was, like, high-evil.”
    Mack decided against trying to explain further.
    â€œWhere are you going to go?” Stefan asked.
    Mack turned and walked backward, holding his hands out in a helpless gesture. “I guess I’m going to go save the world.”
    â€œYeah?” Stefan said. “Okay, then; I’ll go, too.”
    The assistant principal stepped out of his office as they passed. “Just where do you think you’re going, Mr. MacAvoy?”
    â€œSaving the world, sir.”
    They burst through the doors outside. Waiting in the driveway, where parents in minivans would later in the day be lining up to pick up their kids, sat a very long black limousine.
    Mack and Stefan came to a stop.
    The rear window lowered. Inside sat a woman.
    She did not appear to be armed. In fact, she was quite beautiful. Asian, Mack noticed, hair perfect, makeup perfect. Probably not dangerous. But by the same token, probably not there to pick up her kids.
    â€œCome,” the woman said.
    â€œYeah, I don’t think so,” Mack said, backing away. “I’m not supposed to take rides with strangers. And ifthere was ever a day for me to listen to that warning, this is it.”
    â€œI think you may change your mind,” the woman said.
    â€œNah. Not today. Ma’am.”
    â€œLook behind you,” the woman said.
    Mack did. So did Stefan, who said, “Whoa.”
    Running with strange, bounding leaps, impossibly fast, impossibly impossible, were two very large grasshoppers standing upright and carrying wicked-looking battle-axes in their middle pair of legs.
    â€œAaaahhh!” Mack yelled.
    â€œWhoa,” Stefan agreed.
    Both decided they would enjoy a ride in a limo. They snatched open the door and leaped, practically flying over the woman to land in a confused heap on the carpeted floor.
    The door slammed. The window rose. The engine gunned.
    One of the big insects was all over the car. It smashed its ax down on the hood. The car kept going and sideswiped the bug.
    Through the darkened window Mack saw theinsect thing spin, twist, fall, and bounce right back up.
    The second bug had managed to jam a hand, a claw, a whatever-it-was, through the window, which was closing with frustrating slowness.
    The limo burned rubber out of the school driveway.
    The window shut tight as the car took off. There was a snap like a not-quite-dry twig. The insect hand came loose and hung from the window.
    The grasshoppers chased the limo for a few blocks, and if there had been any traffic, they would have caught up.
    Fortunately the driver wasn’t too concerned with stop signs. The bugs receded and finally gave up the chase as the limo tore through the once-safe streets of Sedona and headed for the desert.
    They were well out of town before Mack lowered the window just enough to pull the bug’s arm into the car.
    â€œCan I have that?”