Secret Weapons Read Online Free PDF

the guys in the black van looked kind of sick. “What kind of bad?” he asked cautiously, because he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the answer. And then, because Aurora’s eyes had gone woozy again, he repeated the question. “What kind of bad, Aurora?”
    “Evil,” Aurora whispered. “They looked evil.”
    Ari gulped. He’d been afraid she was going to say something like that.

Chapter 7
    O N TUESDAY KATE ARRIVED at the Pappases’ old studio on time. Exactly on time. If anybody had tried to make her late on that particular day it would have been karate time for sure. Hard karate. Kick and chop, and elbow-lock time. Or whatever it took to convince them she was in a hurry and they better not get in her way.
    For one thing, after being so humongously late the day before, she wasn’t about to let it happen again. But that wasn’t the main reason. The most important reason was that Aurora had been acting very strangely all day. At every recess she had been cloudy-eyed and distant, and even in class her mind seemed to be somewhere else. And when Kate asked her what the matter was, she would say only, “I can’t talk about it yet. I’m still thinking. We’ll talk at the studio.” Something was wrong, and Kate was going to find out what it was. As soon as possible!
    So Kate was already waiting at the door to the old studio when Aurora came out of her house and started across the backyard. Watching her come, Kate would have known that something was wrong even if she hadn’t noticed anything before. Aurora’s eyes were blank and inward-looking, as if she were seeing something, but not in the way that ordinary people see. Kate quickly spun the dial on the combination lock and turned it to the first number. By the time Aurora had crossed the yard the door was open.
    As soon as they were inside and the door was locked behind them, Kate said, “Okay, what’s the—” She gasped then and clapped her hand over her mouth and nose. The smell tended to do that to you, until you got used to it. Still holding her nose, she turned to Aurora and said, “Okay. What’s up, Aurora? What’s the matter?”
    “I’m not sure.” Aurora’s voice was soft and breathy and her mind seemed to be far away. (So far away she didn’t even seem to notice the smell.) “I’m not sure,” she murmured again, “but Susie called last night and told me that Ari said there were some terrorists here yesterday. And they were here to steal Web and Carson’s science-fair project.”
    Kate forgot all about holding her nose. “Terrorists?” she gasped. “Web and Carson’s science-fair project?” Then she laughed. “I don’t believe it. I mean, that is really funny .”
    Aurora didn’t say anything. Then Kate laughed again and said, “Oh ho! I get it. I bet I get it. Did he also tell Susie that the ‘terrorists’ or whoever, tried to climb up on this roof so they could spy on us yesterday? I’ll bet he did.” She laughed. “Wow! I’ve heard Ari come up with some pretty wild excuses before, but this one is definitely a winner. Terrorists! Holy cow!”
    Aurora smiled faintly and shook her head. “I thought of that. No, he didn’t tell Susie that. Or me either. But he did tell me that he had seen the same black van that Susie saw. And the same two men.”
    Kate stared at Aurora. For someone who could see through walls, almost, and could see through most liars without even trying, Aurora was certainly a sucker when it came to her own little brat of a brother. Kate did a karate-type grunt. “Don’t you get it?” she said. “Don’t you see it’s just another one of Ari’s stories? Just something he cooked up to make it look like he wasn’t the one who tried to climb up on the roof and spy on what we were doing.”
    Aurora nodded. “I thought so too—at first. But then when he was telling me about the van, the one that he and Susie both saw, I …” She stopped and her big eyes seemed to grow larger in her pale,