Secret Weapons Read Online Free Page B

noises too. Several seconds went by before Web’s voice said, “Who’s that?”
    “Just me,” Ari said. “Just Ari. Can I come in for a minute?”
    “No,” the voice said quickly. “Nobody can come in.”
    “Oh yeah? Why not, Web? Why can’t I come in?”
    “It’s a secret.” This time it was Carson’s voice. “A big secret. Isn’t it, Web?”
    And that was it. Even though Ari knocked two or three more times, and tried out several other techniques, nothing worked. Not even the sneaky secret-agent approach, which might have worked if someone hadn’t pulled down the blind on the workroom window. Finally Ari had to give up and go on home.
    On the way home he did quite a lot of thinking about the terrorist thing. What he thought was that the chances that a bunch of terrorists were hanging around Castle Court, for whatever reason, probably weren’t too great. However —and this was a very large however —a terrorist rumor might come in pretty handy.
    First of all as something to talk to Susie about. Remembering her wide-eyed stare and her “Wowee!” it occurred to Ari that Susie had a special interest in terrorists. And having something that Susie would talk to him about was always a good thing.
    But, even more importantly, a good “terrorists who were interested in science-fair projects” rumor might also come in handy if Kate and Aurora started giving him the third degree about the ladder thing. Which they might very well do.
    At home that night Ari tried not to let Aurora catch him alone. One thing he’d learned a long time ago, when he was about two years old, in fact, was that his older sister was not a good person to be around when you had something to hide. That was because one of the things she sometimes knew, without having any good way of knowing it, was when a person wasn’t exactly telling the truth. So if she got a chance to come right out and ask him if he’d been the one who dropped the ladder on the roof, he knew he was going to be in deep trouble.
    But he also knew she wouldn’t ask him that kind of question if anyone else were around. He couldn’t go to his room and lock the door, because it didn’t have any lock, so what he had to do that night was spend a lot of time with the other members of the Pappas family.
    Right after dinner he went into the studio to watch his mother paint, until she said he was making her nervous, and didn’t he have any homework to do? And after that he read to his little sister, Athena.
    Athena, who could write really well for a four-year-old, had been busy in the kitchen writing her name in red crayon on all the paper napkins. But it wasn’t too hard to talk her into listening to a story. So the two of them sat on the living-room couch, and Ari read a lot of Athena’s favorite books. He went on reading and reading, until Athena finally yawned and asked him to hurry up and get to the good part because it was past her bedtime.
    Aurora had been reading, too, curled up on the window seat in the same room, so when Athena headed for her bedroom Ari was about to be alone and defenseless. Except right at that very moment the phone rang. It was for Aurora, so he was saved, for the time being. He was just sneaking out of the room to see if his father, Nick, needed any help with the enormous metal sculpture he was working on, when Aurora caught up with him.
    “Ari.” Aurora’s whispery voice had a worried sound to it, and her gray eyes looked even cloudier than usual. “Ari, I need to ask you something.”
    Uh-oh, he thought. This is it. “Well … I was just leaving,” he said quickly. “I have to … I have to go to the bathroom.”
    Aurora didn’t even seem to have heard what he said. Or else she probably knew he was lying. “It’s about the terrorists,” she whispered. “Susie says she’s seen them. Have you seen them too?”

Chapter 6
    F OR A MOMENT AFTER Aurora whispered that Susie had seen the terrorists, Ari just stood there with his mouth