Before reading

1.	What has your experience at school been? How easy is it for some children to have a bad influence on other children?
While reading
2.	What evidence can you see of disturbing behaviour in the learners?

7. A supervillain reveals himself

The next day came too soon. Zed needed time to think about everything Grandma had said, but when he walked through the school gates, things had changed. His skin tingled with it.

A row of windows on the second floor had been broken and jagged bits of glass still clung to the frames like a row of open, angry mouths. Kids stood in small groups, talking low, looking nervous. Others drifted through, their eyes darting slyly, hooded expressions on their faces, like wolves circling a field of sheep.

Zed found Katey. She was humming a tune that seemed strangely familiar, and she didn’t really look at him. He hardly had time to start explaining what had happened at the circus before the morning bell rang for morning assembly.

Something was troubling Mr Minardi. He kept looking round the hall, as though looking for some clue to what was happening to his school.

“I don’t understand,” he said at last, “what’s been happening in this school. Windows broken, toilets smashed, graffiti … if anyone knows anything, please come forward.”

There was silence in the hall. Someone sniggered quietly. Mr Minardi glared.

“As you know, tonight is the annual talent show. Many of you have been working very hard on it, but I warn you: if any more incidents are reported, I’ll cancel the show.”

Zed saw the look that crossed Ulric Chilvers’s face when Mr Minardi said that, and it surprised him. It was a look of alarm. But why?

After assembly Zed took Katey aside: “Katey, what’s been going on?”

“Oh,” Katey shrugged. “Nothing much.”

“There’s something weird happening,” said Zed. “And it has to do with Ulric …”

“Ulric?” Katey seemed surprised. “No. I like Ulric. He’s fine. We’re all fine.”

It was like a bad dream, where no one sees what you see, no one hears what you say.

“We’re not fine,” he said. “This isn’t fine. And he’s not fine. Can’t you see that?”

There was something wrong with her eyes. They were the same colour, but there was something wrong with the pupils. They were … fuzzy, some­how. The edges were blurred.

“Zed,” she said, “if anyone’s acting weird, it’s you …”

“Ah, Katherine.”

Zed turned at the sound of that low, purring voice. Ulric Chilvers ignored him entirely, as though Zed were just a shadow on the ground.

“Katherine, I was planning another rehearsal in the music room at big break. Are you available? Yesterday’s rehearsal went so well.”

“Katey,” said Zed, “I need to see you at big break …”

“I think Katherine woud rather rehearse with me,” said Ulric Chilvers smoothly.

“Her name’s Katey!” Zed burst out. “And you don’t even know her …!”

“I would love to, Ulric,” said Katey. “Thank you.”

Zed felt the breath knocked out of him. “Katey …” he pleaded.

“Good then,” said Ulric Chilvers. “I look forward to it.”

Then Katey started humming again, that same melody, and she smiled, and skipped away. For the first time, Zed and Ulric Chilvers were alone together.

And Ulric, still watching Katey, said in that same purring voice: “Oh dear, Zachary. Things aren’t going well for you, are they? You really don’t know what you’re up against.”

“I know who you are,” said Zed, his voice higher than usual. “I know what you are.”

Ulric Chilvers put his arm around Zed’s shoulder and walked with him, as though they were old pals. “Come,” he said. “I think it’s time we had a chat.”

He steered Zed into the alleyway behind the bicycle sheds. Overhanging branches blocked out the sun. Dim fragments of light danced in pale patches on the grey concrete. There were three boys there already, inspecting something on the ground.

“I sensed it when I met you,” said Ulric Chilvers. “The energy. I was intrigued. Oho! I thought. A rival! What fun! But actually, you’re quite disappointing.”

The boys were untying the knot on a brown burlap sack. One of them reached in and and Zed heard a frightened mewling sound. It was a kitten, small and white and fluffy, eyes wide with alarm.

“What are you doing?” said Zed. He had a very bad feeling about this.

One of the boys fetched a high-sided cardboard box from the bushes. It seemed empty but he carried it gingerly, making sure his fingers didn’t curl over the rim. They placed a brick for Ulric to stand on and peer inside.

“Everyone likes kittens, Zachary,” he said, like a teacher talking to a class, “but they’re actually very cruel killers. Most animals only kill to eat, but not cats. They torture their prey. Cats are one of the few animals that kill for the pleasure of it.”

Zed stared at him, wondering – seriously – whether he was insane.

“And yet consider another creature: a shy creature that avoids trouble and kills only for its own survival. And yet so many people hate snakes. Why is that, do you think?”

Standing on tiptoes, Zed peered into the the box. At first he couldn’t make it out but his eyes adjusted and there it was coiled in the corner, dark and grey and as thick as his arm. Its tiny black eyes glinted close together, like drops of motor oil. Zed jumped back.

“Oh, what a surprise!” said Ulric sarcastically. “You’re afraid of snakes. That’s the problem with being a superhero: always afraid. At least supervillains know there’s nothing around that’s more frightening than us.”

The words sent a thrill running through Zed. Superhero! Supervillain!

“You admit it?” he gasped hoarsely.

Ulric was still peering inside, fascinated. “Do you understand binary code, Zachary?”

Zed considered shouting for help, but the rest of the world was not going to be of any help. Not to him. Not any more.

“Binary is from olden-day computer-programming,” said Ulric, poking a long twig into the box. There was a sudden heavy movement inside and a hard, dry, brushing sound. “In binary code the whole world can be rendered as a combination of ones and zeros. The zeros are worthless – they have no meaning in themselves. They need ones to give them meaning.”

The kitten mewed as Ulric Chilvers took it into his arms. It buried its head in his armpit. Ulric Chilvers tugged gently on its pointed white ears.

Zed’s throat was tight with fear. He couldn’t trust himself to speak.

“Zeros are nothing,” said Ulric, “but the ones do whatever they choose. If I decide it would amuse me to find out what happens when one killer confronts another …”

He held the kitten out over the cardboard box.

“No!” shouted Zed.

Ulric’s eyes burned a frightening green in the gloom. The kitten began to struggle in his hands. It could smell the snake and it squirmed in fear, its tiny paws clawing at the air.

“Please,” said Zed, reaching out a trembling hand. “Please don’t. Please …”

“Look at you,” sneered Ulric Chilvers. “Pleading. Begging.”

“Yes,” said Zed. “I’m begging. I’m begging you, Ulric. Give me the kitten …”

“And if I do?” said Ulric, the corner of his mouth twisting. “Will you swear allegiance to me? Will you follow me?”

“I will,” said Zed. “I will, I’ll do anything …” The kitten was crying now, a terrified high-pitched mew, calling for its mother, for anything to take it away from that evil-smelling darkness and the black glittering eyes below.

For a second Zed saw something almost human in Ulric Chilvers as he looked at the kitten. A look of softness came into his green eyes. But then he turned back to Zed.

“Do you know what my father taught me, Zachary?”

Zed stepped forward toward the box. He reached out his arms. “What?” he said.

“That only the strong get what they want.”

And Ulric Chilvers dropped the kitten into the box.

“NO!” shouted Zed. “NOOOOOOO!!!!!”

He threw himself forward but he was too late. The kitten fell, its claws scratching the cardboard as it scrabbled for a hold.

As Zed leapt they tackled him from the side, but still his momentum drove him into Ulric Chilvers and they both slammed into the box. It buckled under their weight and for a moment they hung over the crumpling edge, their shoulders and heads low inside.

The kitten cowered in the corner, ears flat with terror. With the jolt of the impact the snake reared and swelled and made a confused half-strike be­tween the kitten and their heads.

For a terrible moment Zed thought the cardboard would tear and they would both collapse on top of the snake, but then the other boys pulled Ulric by his blazer.

Zed tried to struggle upright too, but he was pinned face-down. They held his arms twisted behind his back and pushed him down so that the cardboard buckled and Zed sank lower and lower, face first, into that dark space that smelt of dank, waiting things and death.

The snake was puffed and ready, its spade-shaped head poised, its black bright eyes.

“You pathetic little shadow,” said Ulric. “You’re nothing. You’re just a zero, like all the rest.” He paused, as though struggling with a decision. Then he said, in a more controlled voice, “Let him up.”

They pulled him upright and dragged him against the wall. From the quadrangle came the clang of the school bell. Ulric peered down into the box and began to kick the sides.

“That’s the problem with snakes,” he snarled. “Lazy. You need to shake them up.”

Inside there was a rush and a dull thud like the blade of a shovel being driven into damp ground. There was a high-pitched keening – not a mew but a single note, like air escaping from a puncture. Like a kitten dying. Then there was silence.

Zed stopped struggling, and slumped to the ground while the boys stared blankly into the box, no emotion on their faces.

“Well, you would have expected a little more of a fight,” complained Ulric Chilvers.

Zed couldn’t be another moment in that narrow, dim, mottled place of cruelty and death. He scrambled to get away, stumbling and nearly falling as he ran.

Behind him came Ulric Chilvers’s voice, like a terrible combination of a hiss and a purr: “Keep running, Zachary. Keep running, and don’t look back.”

After reading

3.	What changes can Zed see in some of the other learners?
4.	The pupils of Katey’s eyes are fuzzy around the edges. What do you think has happened to her? (Note that she keeps insisting that everyone is fine, except for Zed.)
5.	What does Mr Minardi threaten to do? Notice here that Ulric seems very worried about this.
4.	What does Zed mean when he says to Ulric, “I know who you are and I know what you are”?
5.	What is a rival? How did Ulric recognize Zed as his rival?
6.	What does Ulric do to try to make Zed change from superhero to supervillain?
7.	As far as Ulric is concerned zeros are worthless. Why are Zed, the kitten and many other people, seen as zeros in Ulric’s eyes?
8.	What does Ulric do after he states that “only the strong get what they want”?
8. a)	What is your view of his action?
8. b)	How does Ulric’s action prove Grandma’s point that “supervillains don’t play by the rules”?
9.	What literary device does the author use in describing the world in terms of binary code?