so loud it was hard to tell.
‘This was inevitable!’ he bellowed. ‘We have strayed too far from the natural order with our tolerance of these abominations, and now the true nature of the beast is exposing itself. We must protect ourselves and our families, and we must have the RIGHT TO DO SO. But those in power would DENY US that right!’
The man slammed his fist repeatedly in the air with every sentence, as if striking an imaginary gavel. His face was such a deep shade of red it was nearly purple. If he wasn’t so obnoxious, Morrigan might have been mildly concerned he was about to keel over.
‘Mark my words, there is a cover-up afoot! You read the newspapers, you’ve seen the violent outbursts and mysterious attacks. And that’s just the ones we know about! I believe the Wundrous Society is concealing important information that the public has a RIGHT TO KNOW. I have it on good authority that right now inside the lavish, private, taxpayer-funded and unscrutinised Wundrous Society campus, they are sheltering not just one or two, but scores of KNOWN WUNIMAL ATTACKERS!’
Morrigan shared a nervous glance with Cadence and Hawthorne. Their W badges gleamed golden in the sunlight. She resisted a sudden urge to reach over and tuck their collars inside their shirts.
Could there be a leak at Wunsoc? All it would take was someone with a big mouth, and the Society didn’t exactly have a shortage of those. Or perhaps someone outside Wunsoc had simply figured it out. She supposed the truth was bound to come to light sooner or later.
Morrigan felt someone grab her upper arm so hard it was sure to leave a bruise.
‘OW! What are you – Lam?’
‘Let’s go.’ Lam’s face was stricken. She began to round up the others, ushering them away from the crowd. ‘All of you, let’s go. Brollies out.’
Morrigan and the rest of Unit 919 followed Lam around the corner at a pace. Nobody questioned her, and nobody was surprised when they made it to the nearest Brolly Rail platform with perfect timing. They hooked their umbrellas on to nine empty loops in a row, just as the rail came whizzing past.
On their return journey to Wunsoc, they soared above the crowd gathered in Grand Boulevard to find that the rally had devolved into an all-out street brawl and the Stink were arriving to break it up. Lam the oracle had – of course – got them out of there just in time.
Things were still tense between Morrigan and Thaddea when they got to Hometrain later that afternoon. Morrigan couldn’t forget the way Thaddea had hissed Wundersmith at her, and Thaddea was positively seething over the other teams’ successful thefts. (Cadence’s group had swiped a diamond necklace from a heavily guarded jewellery shop, and Arch’s group came back with their pockets full of pilfered items and a long list of where to return them.)
But if the others picked up on the friction, they didn’t say anything. All their chatter since jumping off the Brolly Rail had been about the man with the megaphone and the spontaneous riot. Arch thought he’d spotted a lynxwun in the crowd, and Hawthorne swore up and down that he’d seen a furious-looking goatwun head-butting someone.
‘Do you think they were infected?’ he said. ‘Or just—’
‘Angry?’ Morrigan finished. ‘Don’t know.’
‘I’d be angry if someone called me an abomination,’ said Mahir. ‘Very shoddy.’
Miss Cheery arrived then, bang on time as always, and leapt breathlessly from the carriage.
‘Did you hear?’ she asked them. ‘Tomorrow’s lessons are cancelled! The Elders have called a senior summit and announced that junior scholars get the last day of term off as a treat, to do something fun with their units.’
‘What’s a senior summit?’ asked Cadence.
‘Oh, just a slightly more urgent C&D meeting. About all this Hollowpox business, you know,’ Miss Cheery said, in what sounded to Morrigan like a practised breezy tone, with a carefully careless wave of her hand. Morrigan glanced at Cadence, who raised an eyebrow back at her. She knew they were both wondering if this had something to do with the rally on Grand Boulevard. ‘Society members will be returning from all over the Seven Pockets, and the Gathering Place won’t be big enough to fit all those extra people, so it’s a day off for us. We can go anywhere we like!’
The announcement was met with cheers from most of Unit 919, but Morrigan was less than excited. She dropped into a beanbag and peeked inside