My eyes flashed to Pierce. There must have been something in my expression because he quickly said, ‘I wanted to tell you, Bremy. I just … couldn’t. I—’
‘Couldn’t what, Pierce? How did you know that was Jenny?’ I asked, stepping back from him. The way he had said her name. It was almost like he expected her to be here. ‘It’s not like that. It’s—’
Suddenly my father’s voice interrupted us. ‘I believe you all know my daughter,’ he said as my twin landed gracefully at his side, ‘Jennifer.’
Oh, my brain felt hot. So many thoughts. Jenny. Jenny who had lived most of her life in a wheelchair up until a few months ago had just parasailed down from the ceiling of a museum. In a cape.
‘Hey Jenny,’ Big Shot said, giving her a one-handed gun, ‘been a long time. How’s your sis?’
I whipped my head around to catch my sister’s reaction. Except I couldn’t. A hard glossy white mask covered half her face.
‘Better than you’ll be if you don’t hand over that little book,’ she said with a pretty stunning level of authority.
‘Sorry, babe. It costs money to keep this party going.’ He gestured to his entourage. ‘And I’ve got a product the people want.’
Emotion welled up in my chest. It wasn’t like the dread I had felt earlier. No, this was hot. I felt people gather close around me. I figured it was Bart and Queenie, and I knew Kevin was with them because a shadow fell over our group.
‘Bremy?’ Bart whispered. ‘Are—’
I grabbed at his face without looking. I wish I hadn’t. I had forgotten about all that greasepaint, but at least he couldn’t ask me if I was alright, because I … was … fine.
‘This is your last warning,’ my sister said, ‘hand over the book and leave peacefully, or I promise you, you will be sorry.’
Now she was talking like the movies. Talking like the movies was my thing. ‘Again, my apologies, but the party machine gots to be fed.’ He shrugged. ‘But if you have your daddy’s credit card number, maybe we can talk.’
‘I warned you.’
My sister suddenly took two running leaps forward then soared into the air, fist outstretched straight for Ricky’s chest.
I screamed and scurried forward. What was she doing? And how could she leap like that? She covered the twelve-foot distance in a single bound. When she hit Ricky, they both flew another good ten feet backwards before they smashed into the champagne table that exploded into a cloud of broken glass.
I looked at Pierce, and then Bart, then swung around to Queenie and Kevin. Yup, they had seen it too. I knew because we all had fish mouth. Suddenly a storm of Ricky’s men scattered the crowd, heading for the busted champagne table. They were going for Jenny!
Despite everything that had happened, she was still my twin, and there was no way I was going to stand there while a scrum of men landed on her.
I let out a battle cry and took off after them, fist in the air.
I couldn’t see Jenny or Ricky anymore, just the backs of the men surrounding them, so I did the only thing I could. I jumped into the air and landed on one of the suited backs.
The man roared as I wrapped my arms and legs around him.
‘Get off my sister!’ I yelled into his ear.
‘You get off of me!’ the man yelled back.
This talk was obviously getting us nowhere. I needed to take him down.
I rocked his head back and forth between my arms, attempting to throw him to the floor, but he wasn’t moving. Actually, that’s a lie. He was starting to spin in circles, trying to throw me off with centrifugal force.
My stomach lurched up to my throat as I had flashbacks to the wrestling ring. The man also groaned from underneath my arms.
‘Hey!’ I shouted. ‘Can we agree on no spinning?’
The man stopped and nodded … and then he bit my arm!
‘Son of a b—’ I was interrupted by the floor knocking all the air out of my lungs. I forced myself up to a crab position. People were running and screaming now, making for the doors, and I guess all the chaos sent something careening towards my hand. I grabbed it. I needed a weapon against the big dude looming over me with his fist clenched. What did he have to be so mad about? He bit me! ‘Back off!’ I said, jumping to my feet and whipping the object in front of me. ‘Or you’ll be sorry!’
We both looked down at what I was holding. It looked kind of like a flare gun slash firework launcher with one still in the hole.
I repointed it at him with a quick thrust. ‘I said back off!’ He put his hands up.
I hopped up on my tiptoes to look for Jenny. Again my jaw dropped. She was throwing men around. Literally throwing them! Okay, so she obviously didn’t need my help, but that didn’t solve the problem of what I was going to do with the dude I was holding up with a firework.
I licked my lips. Might as well just go with it. ‘Now here’s what’s going to happ—’
Suddenly he dropped to the ground and gripped the edges of a strip of red carpet I hadn’t realised I was standing on. He jerked it into the air taking my feet with it.
At some level, I heard my sister’s voice shout, ‘Bremy, don’t—’
But it was too late. ‘—Shoot!’
A rocket shot from my hand straight into the air with a high-pitched whine. As I followed its trail, I thought, What’s the big deal? The entourage had already fired rockets, but then, just as the rocket lodged itself into the skull of an enormously tall dinosaur skeleton, it occurred to me that they had probably aimed. Uh-oh.
The skull exploded in a dazzling starburst of green and pink. So pretty. So terribly, terribly bad for those of us below. I shouted the only word that seemed appropriate.
‘Timber!’