Beyond the Chocolate War Read Online Free PDF Page B

ever forget that name or that kid. "Renault still refused to sell the chocolates. Despite . . . pressure."
    "What kind of pressure?"
    "The usual," Obie said. How to describe Archie's methods to a stranger? "Archie Costello doesn't like physical violence. But in this case—"
    "Violence was used, right?" Ray said, dismayed, head in a whirl. A couple of hours ago he hadn't known anything about Trinity, was a complete outsider. And now this kid named Obie was here in his home, telling him crazy things about the place.
    Obie shrugged. "A kind of violence. A boxing match. Between Renault and Emile Janza—"
    "The animal I just met at school?" Ray asked. Mimicking Janza's tight-lipped delivery: "Show me a card trick, kid."
    "Right," Obie said, a flicker of amusement in his eyes.
    "And the Renault kid got beat up, right?" Ray asked.
    "Right," Obie said reluctantly. "Look, the kid was hurt, but he survived. Actually, he was a tough little character. They say he went to Canada to recuperate." Obie paused. "Anyway, that's all over now. The chocolate sale was a success. The Headmaster retired. And Brother Leon became top man. . . ."
    "All's well that ends well," Ray Bannister said, wondering if Obie detected the sarcasm in his voice.
    "Right," Obie said heartily, slapping his hands against his sides. Then frowned. "But . . ."
    "But what?" Ray prompted.
    "The thing rocked the school," Obie said, putting into words what he had avoided for so long. "That night. The kids calling for blood. Renault's blood. The chocolates became more important than anything else, more important than a kid's blood. . . ."
    I wish we had stayed in Caleb, Ray Bannister thought.
    "And now," Obie continued, "it's as if those chocolates exploded last fall and we're walking around in the 'leftovers, the crap. See what I mean? Everybody being careful, playing it cool."
    "Like you've all got a guilty conscience?" Ray offered.
    "Right," Obie agreed. But uncomfortable now, wondering if he had said too much.
    "How about that club—the Vigils? They still playing it cool?"
    "Well, not exactly," Obie said.
    Which brought him to his reason for being here in Bay Bannister's house. To introduce him to the Vigils and how it worked.
    Poor Jerry Renault, Obie thought suddenly.
    And now poor Ray Bannister. About to learn the facts of life at Trinity High School.

I n this corner, Archie Costello, five feet nine and a half inches tall, one hundred forty pounds, unchallenged champion of Trinity High School. Champion of what? Of all he surveyed—the classrooms, the corridors, the campus, his power extending even into the residence where Brother Leon and the other faculty members lived.
    In that corner, the opposite corner, Brother Leon, formerly Assistant Headmaster of Trinity High School, now full-fledged Headmaster, ruler of the school, the faculty, the curriculum, the extracurricular activities, responsible for (and ruling) 387 students between the ages of thirteen and eighteen (with the exception of Richard O'Brien, who had turned nineteen on the fourth of April). Brother Leon of the pale face, the quick and sudden classroom movements in which a student was usually the loser, struck with a teacher's pointer or a piece of chalk flying across the room faster than a speeding bullet. Brother Leon. Whose eyes could flash with malice or quicken with a cold intelligence in which there wasn't an ounce of pity or mercy. Brother Leon of the swift short steps, who had gone moderately mod these days. His thinning hair threatened to cover his collar at the back. Sideburns dropped to his ear-lobes. He wore a silver chain, from which dangled a cross so fancy that you had to squint to make certain it was a cross. Brother Leon, who sometimes seemed a bit ridiculous to Archie. Which didn't deny the fact that Leon could also be dangerous.
    And now, gentlemen, step to the center of the ring. . . .
    There was no ring, of course, except in Archie's mind He often thought about Brother Leon as he