The Boxer and the Spy
- Автор: Паркер Роберт Браун
- Год: 2008
- Язык: английский
- Год: Philomel Books
- ISBN: 978-0-399-24775-0
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Boxer and the Spy». Краткое содержание книги:
“Yeah.”
“And you block it with your left?”
“And hit him with my right, straight on.”
“Broke his nose.”
“Yes.”
George smiled.
“Fight over,” he said.
“Uh-huh.”
George smiled more.
“Just remember,” he said. “You fight somebody knows a little something, won’t be so easy.”
“Thanks, George,” Terry said.
“For what? Teaching you left block, right punch?”
“Including that,” Terry said.
George picked up the big round punching mitts.
“Come on,” he said. “You gonna be street fighting, may have to teach you some other things.”
“You’ve already taught me a lot,” Terry said.
“You learned a lot,” George said. “Which ain’t always the same thing.”
Chapter 22
They were on the rocks at the beach, in their place, on the point of an outcropping where the waves broke beneath them and left lacy patterns of foam on the surface of the water. Abby had her big notebook on her lap.
“I’ve been organizing,” she said.
“I bet you have,” Terry said.
“I got Otis,” she said. “Tank, Nancy Fortin, a friend of Jason’s that Nancy got, Perry Fisher.”
“Don’t know him,” Terry said.
“Me either,” Abby said. “But Nancy says he wants in. I got Bev and Suzi. Steve Bellino says he’ll help.”
“Bellino?” Terry said. “He’s a really good ballplayer.”
“I know,” Abby said. “I think he hates Kip Carter All-American.”
“Not a bad thing,” Terry said.
“And I think he’s going to get some other guys,” Abby said. “Maybe Mitchell, maybe Carly Clark.”
“Carly Clark?”
“The basketball player,” Abby said. “The guy who just transferred in.”
“I know who he is,” Terry said.
“So we already got a pretty good spy system set up.”
“Thanks to you,” Terry said.
“Can I be known as the Spymaster,” Abby said, deepening her voice as much as she could.
“You bet,” Terry said. “Think they’ll keep quiet about this?”
“I think so,” Abby said. “They all hate Bullard, and they all hate Kip Carter All-American, and I think this is their chance to do one or both of them some damage.”
“Any of them doing it for Jason?” Terry said.
“Nancy, probably,” Abby said. “Probably Perry Fisher. The rest of us are doing it for you.”
“You too?”
“Of course, me too,” Abby said. “I’ll do anything you want to do, you know that.”
“Anything?” Terry said.
“Except that,” Abby said. “Yet.”
“Yet,” Terry said.
“Yet,” Abby said.
“What are we waiting for?” Terry said.
“I don’t know,” Abby said. “It just seems too soon.”
Terry was quiet for a moment and then he nodded.
“I think so too,” he said.
“Do you know why?” Abby said.
“No. You?”
“No,” Abby said.
Terry shook his head. They were quiet, watching the foam patterns slide backward out of the inlets in the rock. It was the first time they’d ever spoken seriously about it. It made him nervous. Kind of exciting, though!
“They going to, ah, report in to you?” Terry said after a time.
“Yes,” Abby said, “and I’ll write it down and try to like find a pattern or something. And we’ll talk.”
Terry smiled at her.
“Will we ever,” he said.
Chapter 23
Terry saw Gordon in the corridor between classes. Gordon was wearing sunglasses, which didn’t fully succeed in covering his two black eyes. His cheeks were puffy too. Gordon either didn’t see him or pretended not to. In the cafeteria, Kip Carter looked right through Terry. When he went to English class, he saw Mr. Bullard standing by the door.
“I want to talk with you,” he said.
Terry stopped and waited. Mr. Bullard took his arm and steered him away from the door and into a stairwell.
“You are getting a pretty bad reputation around here,” Bullard said.
Terry nodded.
“I understand you got into a fight,” Bullard said.
“Not at school,” Terry said.
“Don’t give me any smart mouth,” Bullard said. “You got into a fight.”
“Yes sir,” Terry said.
“You start it?”
“No sir.”
“I heard you did,” Bullard said.
“No sir,” Terry said.
“What’s your story?” Bullard said.
“Gordy wanted to see if I could box,” Terry said.
“And you broke his nose?”
“Yes sir.”
“He says you sucker punched him,” Bullard said.
“He swung on me,” Terry said. “I blocked it and countered.”
“Kip Carter supports Gordon’s story,” Bullard said. “You think he’s lying.”
“Yes sir.”
“Well,” Bullard said. “I don’t think so. And I’ve already given this as much time as I’m going to. The next time you step out of line, you’re suspended. You understand that?”
“Even if it’s not my fault?” Terry said.
“You’re a troublemaker, Novak. You’ll keep your nose clean or I’ll lower the boom on you.”
Hulking before him, Mr. Bullard reminded Terry of some kind of animal. A rhino, maybe. Thick and short and massive and ugly and mean. His eyes were kind of small, and they looked even smaller because his face was so wide. Made him look sort of dumb. Terry smiled to himself for a moment. Maybe he is dumb, Terry thought.
Bullard saw the smile.
“There’s nothing funny going on here,” Bullard said.
There’s a lot funny going on here, Terry thought. But he kept his face blank. There was no point taking Bullard on direct. What was it George said? Something about deciding early in the fight whether it was one you could win or one where you mainly tried to avoid getting hurt. He knew that this was that kind of a fight. He wasn’t going to win, right now, at least. And he wasn’t going to win alone. But on the other hand, the fight wasn’t over. And every day he seemed a little less alone. Pick your spot, he said to himself. Pick your spot. Right now he knew that he was in a position to get kicked out of school anytime Bullard wanted to. He got kicked out, he got kicked out. He wasn’t going to stop. He was in too deep. It wasn’t even about Jason anymore. Something bad was going on, and he wasn’t going to be chased off by a pig like Bullard until he found out what it was.
Things were developing.
Chapter 24
Abby was sitting in a booth in the Coffee Café with her legs tucked under her. There was a book bag open in the seat beside her, a green manila folder open on the tabletop. She had a ballpoint in her hand and was drinking coffee with the same hand and talking on her cell phone. She grinned at Terry as he slid in across from her. She put the coffee down and wrote in her green folder and nodded and wrote some more.
“Okay,” she said. “Thanks, Otis.”
She broke the connection and looked at Terry.
“AIA headquarters,” she said.
“AIA?”
“Abby’s Intelligence Agency,” she said.
Marcia the waitress brought Terry some coffee and freshened up Abby’s.
When they were alone, Terry reached across and took the green folder and pulled it to him and turned it around so he could read it.
“What have you got?” he said.
“My spy log,” Abby said.