There was nowhere to run.
The police cars were bearing down on me on the road behind, while in front of me, the SWAT officers were advancing at a lethal rate. I’d saved Rafe from a fatal bullet, but stopping the wedding had put me in the line of fire.
I continued to run, squinting, trying to escape the relentless ring of the spotlight on me.
All of a sudden I remembered the third canister Boges had given me—Special FX! His new experimental noise-and-flash creation!
It was my only chance. I wrenched it out of my bag and threw it.
The canister rolled up in an arc, then back down again—a small, black silhouette against the unnatural bluish light streaming from the police chopper above.
It landed. Nothing happened.
The SWAT officers ahead stormed closer, as cops jumped out of their cars, ready to attack from behind.
I skidded to a halt. I had nowhere to go.
I stared at the canister, lying still on the ground. Boges’s latest invention, Special FX, hadn’t worked!
It was dead. Just like me.
Copyright
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Text copyright © Gabrielle Lord, 2010.
Illustrations copyright © Scholastic Australia, 2010.
Illustrations by Rebecca Young.
Cover copyright © Scholastic Australia, 2010.
Cover design by Natalie Winter.
Graphics by Nicole Leary © Scholastic Australia, 2010.
Cover photography: boy’s face by Wendell Levi Teodoro (www.zeduce.org) © Scholastic Australia 2010; close-up of boy’s face by Michael Bagnall © Scholastic Australia 2010; officers chasing suspect © Radius Images/Corbis; dog 1 and dog 2 © Zelenenkyy Yuriy/Shutterstock; house on fire © James Pierce/Shutterstock; explosion © Gershberg Yuri/Shutterstock.
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited in 2012.
E-PUB/MOBI eISBN 978 192198 862 2
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