Read Online The Venetian Job by Sally Gould - Free Book Online

crept down without making
a noise. The hallway was clear. I got to the room without anyone
seeing me.
    My bad feeling told me my whole life was
about to change. I took a deep breath and lifted the blanket. My
hopes vanished. It wasn't a camera; it was nothing. Seven nothings,
actually. Seven silver tubes sat upright. As I picked one up to see
if I could open it, I heard footsteps.
    I put the tube back, threw the blanket back
over the tubes and looked round for a place to hide. There was a
door I hadn't noticed before. I tried it and it was unlocked. When
I stepped inside, I realized it was a small room like a storeroom.
I closed the door behind me, which meant I couldn't see a thing.
Everything was black. Lucky I wasn't scared of the dark any
more.
    The footsteps entered the room. There were
two men. They began to whisper in Italian. They sounded
excited.
    A million what
ifs raced through my head. What if they opened the
storeroom door? What would they do? What if Charlie and Santo began
to worry because I hadn't come back? What if they came to find me
when the two Italian guys were still in the room? I began to feel
sick. What if I ran out of oxygen?

6. A BAD
FEELING
    T he men stopped talking, so
I held my breath. I heard the sound of the blanket being taken off.
If I were Superman, I'd be able to see through the door and see
what was inside those silver tubes. They were like the cardboard
tubes you could buy at the post office to hold something you needed
to roll up. Mom kept old tubes to protect our school projects when
we carried them to school. I had to breathe again. As quietly as I
could, I breathed. Then I heard the sound of metal being placed on
the floor. The men began whispering again. The last time I'd used
one of those cardboard tubes was for a painting I did of a bunch of
aliens from different galaxies having a party in my imaginary Star Wars movie.
    A painting! Could that be it? My mind raced.
Surely not. I was just thinking that because Santo had told us
about that big art robbery. Then I heard the men return the blanket
and leave the room. I had to get back upstairs quick. But I just
wanted to see if there were paintings in those tubes. Real quiet, I
opened the door, stepped out into the light and tiptoed over to
where the tubes sat. I pulled off the blanket and grabbed a tube.
It had a screw top. I unscrewed it and noticed my hands were
sweaty. There didn't seem to be anything in it. I put my hand in to
make sure. It was empty! Were they all empty?
    In the distance, I heard Charlie call out,
"Max!"
    "Far out." I screwed the top back on,
returned the tube and put back the blanket the same way I'd found
it. Real casual, I walked out. Charlie was at the other end of the
hallway. He waved impatiently for me to be quick. I hurried and
followed him up the stairs to where Santo waited. The filming had
begun again.
    "Sorry," I said to Santo, " la toilette ."
    He replied, "Now we go, so we don't get in
the way."
    We followed him back to where Luca waited on
the police boat. Now I'd never get to check the other tubes. I sat
down and thought and thought. Should I tell Santo and Luca what I'd
seen? Would Charlie laugh at me? Would they all think I was a joke?
Yeah, definitely.
    Charlie would remind me for the rest of my
life what an idiot I was. Dad would tell all his golfing buddies as
though that story was the funniest thing that happened on the whole
trip ... well ... besides the trick Santo played on us when we
arrived at the hotel. Yeah, I'd already been mega-dumb. Mom and Dad
liked to say, You can't always trust your bad
feelings, Max!
    I should forget it; it was probably nothing.
Just my imagination.
    I tuned in to Luca, who sounded like a
tourist guide, telling us about every palace on the Grand Canal. I
wasn't interested in different kinds of arches, windows and
decorations. In between telling us about the palaces, Luca waved to
almost every boat driver and gondolier on the canal. He was just
like Santo. Lucky