fluffy without being too dry and just enough vanilla to stop it from being dull. But once her commented on the cake he couldn't think what else to say and the perfect sponge somehow made the presence of the grinning Gaynor even more dismal.
Her seen more than his share of dying kids over the years, but still felt as uncomfortable as when her encountered the first, eighteen years earlier. What were you supposed to say? Hey Johnny, howt the whole dying of cancer thing coming along? But ignoring the presence of death and talking about something else seemed impossibly awkward: like taking a swim while trying to ignore an alligator at the other end of the pool.
Eooooooo,?Nick said, sucking air through his teeth as he helped himself to another magnificent cake. Did you come here by car? Was the traffic OK??
Then he glanced at his $16,000 Patek watch and wished that Amanda ?a master of small talk ?would hurry back with the tea.
*
After an edgy night sleeping on bare boards, James had been woken up at 5 a.m. Kyle helped him dye his hair brown and spike it up with gel, while they discussed the possibility of ambushing the AFA operation before it got underway. But there were eleven AFA members, several of whom carried guns; the two cherubs had no idea where they were and no way of communicating with the outside world. They decided to play along with the operation and hope that an opportunity arose to stop it before anyone was seriously hurt.
After another hour stuffed in the windowless rear compartment of a van, James ended up in the front row of a studio audience, getting slowly cooked by the lights hanging over his head. Mark and Adelaide sat on either side of him.
The AFA had taken every reasonable step to make James unrecognisable. His usual tracksuit and football shirt was replaced with a punkish look: tatty black boots, drainpipe jeans with rips over the knees and black hoodie with The Ramones written across the back. Mark and Adelaide had received a similar makeover for the benefit of live TV.
Nick Cobb grinned at the cameras from a smart blue couch, while husband and wife presenters Wendy and Otis Fox fed him easy-to-answer questions. The excitable audience lapped up every word from the local lad made good.
Eo, Nick,?Wendy Fox grinned, as James marvelled at the quantity of make-up plastered over her face. Toure written this mammoth biography ?eight hundred and fifty-six pages of it ?why did you feel that now was the right time in your life to do it??
Nick smiled yet again. Tre sold a lot of cookery books and Ire had publishers chasing after me to write an autobiography for many years. But when I first spoke with my co-author, Penny Marshall, I realised that Ir finally met a person with the talent to help me get my life down on the page.?
Tell it is an absolutely fascinating read,?Wendy Fox grinned. Sow, I understand that the proceeds from the book are going to charity??
Absolutely,?Cobb nodded. T hit fifty a couple of years back. The wives have all left me and my boys are at college, so I decided it was time to work on something other than my own bank balance. The royalties from sales of Word on the Cobb are going to support a basket of organisations, including Oxfam, the Red Cross and the Cheft Trust. Thatt a local charity here on Tyneside that runs a catering school for underprivileged youngsters.?
Cobb lapped up a round of applause as James?watch ticked over to 11:54. James pushed his sunglasses up his nose, pulled his hoodie over his head and drew on the string to tighten it around his face. At the same instant, Adelaide and Mark were going for the guns hidden inside their jackets.
Sobody move,?Adelaide screamed, pulling her gun as she leapt out of her seat.
There was an air of disbelief amongst the audience ?a student prank maybe? But Mark cleared away the doubts by shooting at the ceiling.
The round tore through one of the giant lamps on the overhead gantry. Members of the audience screamed beneath a shower of hot glass, as James and Adelaide charged on to the stage.
T need your radio mic,?Adelaide demanded, as she waved her gun at Wendy Fox.
James took the little microphone from Wendy and clipped it to Adelaidet bomber jacket.
T'll sorry to interrupt your daytime viewing,?Adelaide said, her voice trembling. But the Animal Freedom Army will not stand by