Grandfather Read Online Free Page B

of
Edgar’s voice as I said, “They have returned.” Edgar wasn’t amused.
Good.
    “ I’m afraid so,” Belladonna
said, ignoring my manners toward Edgar. “Most people only see it as
a conspiracy as of now. But after the death of the president, I
imagine more will realize.” Edgar and Robert nodded in
agreement.
    “ How did you guys know that
was going to happen?” I asked. “could’ve stopped it.”
    She placed a hand on the
placemat in front of her and straightened it up. “Trust me, if I
could’ve, I would’ve,” she said. “But we only knew that something
big was going to happen last night.” Satisfied with the placemat,
she returned her gaze to me.
    “ You see,” Robert began
slowly. “We’ve known Grandfather has been back for several years
now. But they had such a low profile; we couldn’t tell who was
involved for sure. And even then, we couldn’t tell the officials
for fear their leader would have us killed.”
    Edgar, who had been eating
his sandwich, spoke, pieces of bread flying out of his mouth. Eww.
“I was the one who figured it out.”
    “ What do you mean?” I asked
him.
    He finished his sandwich
quickly. “Believe it or not, I used to work with the government. I
was one of the suits within the wall.”
    I examined him again: his
filthy clothing, his missing tooth, the dirt on his skin.
“ You ?” I asked.
“ You lived within
the wall? You look like . . .”
    “ Dammit, I know what I look
like,” he barked, glaring at me. I didn’t think this guy liked me
very much. “Ya think I do this on purpose?”
    “ Well . . . how am I
supposed to know?” I asked. “Don’t forget that I have no idea who
you people are.”
    “ You’re right,” Belladonna
said. “But let him explain.”
    Edgar gave her a nod, as
if to thank her. “I don’t always look like this,” he said. “This is
just for show. I have to blend in when I go out to gather
information. When I travel inside the wall, I wear a
suit.”
    I tried picturing Edgar in
a suit like Robert’s. Nope. Couldn’t do it. “Oh,” I said, looking
at the hole where a tooth once was. I was about to ask, but I
didn’t know what he would do to me if he got too angry. It was as
if Edgar could read my thoughts.
    “ Except for the tooth, of
course,” he said. “I got caught once. Couple of guards gave me a
good beatin’”
    “ Oh,” I said again. There
was one mystery solved.
    “ Now, as
I was saying,” he continued, no longer glaring at me. “I
intercepted a letter by accident a few years ago. It was an
invitation, and signed at the bottom . .
. Grand Imperial, Leader of
Grandfather .” Edgar was about to continue,
but I interrupted with another question.
    “ Grand Imperial? You’re
sounding crazier by the minute.”
    Edgar’s teeth grinded
together, making me wince at the noise. He looked at Belladonna,
who, with a nod, urged him to continue. He took a deep breath and
exhaled slowly.
    “ I had concerns,” he
started again, pacing himself. “which is why I went to the meeting;
at least close enough to the room to hear it take
place.”
    “ And?” I asked.
    “ And I heard them mention
Grandfather. Couldn’t really recognize any of the voices. Too far
away. But I’m sure that Cornelius was there – Their Grand
Imperial.”
    I was about to ask yet
another question but, as if foreseeing it, Belladonna started
talking before I got the chance to even open my mouth.
    “ To make a long story
short, Edgar found another letter with the date of the president’s
assassination on it.”
    “ Last night’s date,” Robert
added.
    “Didn’t know what the date
meant, though,” Edgar interrupted. “Just knew it was something big.
That’s what they said in the meeting.”
    “I ran into Edgar not long
after,” Belladonna said, smiling. “We were both spying on the
government. After combining our resources, we created
this.”
    She made it sound as if
they had created some magical place. Yeah, the room was enough