A Karma Girl Christmas Read Online Free Page B

again, my little voice murmured in the back of my mind, and I didn’t know why. Everything was still and quiet, and there hadn’t been so much as a whisper of trouble so far, except for Lulu sneaking inside the store and scaring me half to death.
    So why did I feel like we weren’t alone? And that the worst was yet to come?
    We sat there sipping our hot chocolate and talking for a while, but eventually, Lulu got up and started wandering around the first floor, saying she wanted to see what was left on the racks for the after-Christmas sale. I got to my feet as well. It was almost midnight now, which meant it was time for me to do a walk-through of the store.
    I headed to the front of the building and made sure the revolving doors were secure and the bars and shutters were in their proper places over the plate-glass windows. Then, I went around to all the various exits on the first floor and did the same thing. Everything was locked up tight, but my inner voice kept whispering to me, warning of danger … danger … danger ...
    I walked back to the windows at the front of the store and stood there, peering out through the bars, but all was calm, all was quiet. The entire city had shut down for Christmas, and not even a taxi could be seen driving down the street. A light snow had started to fall, coating the street lamps and sidewalks in a powdery coat of crystalline holiday cheer.
    Still, my inner voice kept right on murmuring.
    I shook my head and turned away from the door, ready to head back to the toy tree—and that’s when I first heard the smash-smash-smash .
    Uh-oh.
    #
    I froze, wondering what the noise was and where it had come from.  
    Smash-smash-smash!
    It took me a few seconds, but I realized the sound was someone very determinedly breaking the glass on one of the building’s side doors. I stood there, waiting for the store’s alarms to start blaring—but nothing happened.
    No alarms, no sirens, no flashing red lights—nothing.  
    Whoever was forcing their way inside must have disabled the security system just as Lulu had earlier. Now, no alarms would be tripped, and nothing would alert the police or the Fearless Five that someone was breaking into the department store.
    Which meant it was up to me to stop them—and for Karma Girl to come to the rescue.
    I hurried toward the toy tree as fast as I could, running through racks of clothes and then past the makeup counters. I got back to that same cardboard cutout of Swifte, stopped there, and slowly peered around the side of the superhero’s grinning face.
    A man stood in front of the Christmas tree, staring at all the toys just as I’d done, but instead of wonder, an expression of disgust curled up his lips. He wore a pale green costume, with matching boots, gloves, and a utility belt. A long, flowing white cape swirled around his rather thin, bony body. His mask also was white, with a faint, sparkling sheen. A symbol shimmered in dark green sequins in the middle of his chest. I squinted, trying to make out what it was in the glow from the tree’s lights.
    Was that—could it be—a spearmint leaf?
    Weird. Even for Bigtime.  
    I quickly flipped through my mental dossier of all the male ubervillains in the city, alive, missing, and presumed dead. Captain Sushi, Frost, Scorpion … it was a pretty long list, and it took me several seconds to figure out who he was—the Mintilator.  
    That made things even weirder. The Mintilator was a germophobe more than anything else. Usually, he lurked outside of public restrooms and either berated or physically dragged folks back inside to make them wash their hands if they hadn’t already. Occasionally, he’d make them floss too. Which, really, weren’t bad things, especially compared to what the city’s other villains cooked up. Every once in a while, he’d hatch some elaborate plan to kill Halitosis Hal, because the superhero’s exceptionally bad breath went against all the minty goodness that the Mintilator