The Mortal Knife Read Online Free PDF

keep his tone casual. ‘So what’s this software you have for zooming in on pictures?’
    Spike shrugged. ‘It’s the same kind of thing the police use to enhance images. I’ve modified it a bit though. Plus this image is better quality than CCTV, even though it’s pretty far away.’
    Adam frowned at the figures on the laptop. Now the initial shock had subsided he wasn’t as worried. After all, the bomber and he were both blurs – plus Adam was mostly turned away from the camera. He’d been wearing giant sunglasses and had his baseball cap pulled down over his face  … 
The baseball cap!
A sudden shockwave ran through him. Dan had brought him the baseball cap back from a holiday in America – and had brought the same hat for Spike and Archie too. If Spike actually managed to zoom in on the logo  …  would the others recognise it? Adam stood up, feeling rattled, just as the bell rang for the end of break. Trying to play it cool, he shrugged. ‘Well, you’re wasting your time. If the police haven’t managed to find anything I don’t see how you’re going to.’
    Spike glanced up and his eyes gleamed. ‘I’ll take that as a challenge.’
    Adam tried to smile but as he walked away he had a horrible feeling getting Spike off this project would be like parting a starving Rottweiler from a steak.
    Adam could hardly keep his eyes open on the bus on the way home. His teachers, apparently incensed at a week’s holiday, had cracked the whip all day and given him enough homework to keep him going until he was forty. He yawned, trying not to nod off on the shoulder of the girl beside him. Now she was out of the school grounds she had replaced all her facial piercings and if Adam slumped towards her he was likely to end up impaled.
    As he trudged the short walk from the bus stop to his house, he thought about Melissa and felt a rising sense of excitement – followed almost immediately by a wave of terror. The thing was, he’d gone to see her and kissed her just after the bomb had gone off, riding high on a wave of adrenalin – the courage of the damned and all that. But what was he going to do tomorrow?
    Adam sighed. Having a girlfriend was a big no-no in the Luman world. Betrothals were semi-arranged by well-meaning parents, although never against the will of the parties involved. Because of this Lumen didn’t really do the whole dating thing – which meant Adam was completely clueless about the art of seduction.
    His brother Luc had managed to overcome this particular hurdle – but that was just Luc. He had the gift of the gab and an easy charisma that filled Adam with a potent blend of envy and admiration. In fairness to Luc, he
had
attempted to help Adam on Valentine’s night – and had also brought him safely home after Michael Bulber’s stealth attack.
    There was no point asking his friends for help either. None of them had girlfriends and they weren’t likely to have in the short term. Archie liked girls with the kind of impossible proportions that existed only in his sketchbook (and what could kindly be described as ‘niche’ websites). Dan burned with hopeless passion for the elf maidens on the pages of his fantasy books and Spike was too intent on world domination to ever admit to anything as petty as actual
emotions
.
    So, for now, Adam was on his own when it came to wooing Melissa. She’d told him he needed to practise kissing, so he’d taken her at face value and tried to practise on his own hand. The trouble was it tasted revolting – kind of warm and salty. Maybe he should have smeared some lip balm on it first.
    He reached home and pressed his palm to the electronic scanner pad on the stone pillar beside the wrought-iron gate. The house was hidden from view behind a high iron fence, dense shrubbery and lots of old trees. The electric gates opened smoothly, then