Molly Moon Stops the World by Georgia Byng

Author:Georgia Byng [Byng, Georgia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-203404-5
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2003-10-20T07:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Six

Molly’s wits went on strike, and she didn’t know what to do. She found herself looking in the fire’s log basket to see whether she could hide there. Luckily, Rocky kept his head and tugged her toward the open curtains. They each took a side of material and pulled the dark-green velvet about them, letting it settle so that the drop of the curtains looked natural. Molly concentrated on quieting her breathing. As she looked up inside the green tube of material around her, she felt like a caterpillar in a cocoon.

The door clicked open and then shut as the two people entered. Molly immediately recognized Primo Cell’s liquid-velvet voice.

“So here’s where I make it all happen,” he was saying. “My home study. This is where I think and relax. Oh—and where I write checks.”

Molly heard Primo, agonizingly near to her hiding place, turning a key and opening a drawer in his desk. She swallowed—inside her head it sounded like water sluicing down a drain.

“Ah yes, my charity checkbook. Here it is.”

“This really is very kind of you, Mr. Cell,” said another man’s voice.

“Not at all, General. It really is my pleasure. Please, call me Primo.”

Molly’s chest tightened. As far as she could remember, general was the highest rank in the army.

“Thank you, and you must call me Donald.”

“Donald, it’s nothing. My own mother was a widow, so I myself never grew up with a father. I know firsthand how much it will help these families if they get help from your charity. Please sit down.”

Molly heard a leather chair give way under the general’s bottom, and then a creak as Primo Cell sat too.

“Who should I make the check out to?” asked Cell.

“The U.S. Army Widows’ Fund,” came the reply.

“Will ten million dollars be sufficient for now?”

The general gave an audible gulp.

“Er, absolutely. More than enough. I’m stunned by your generosity.”

For a moment Molly wondered whether she, Rocky, and Lucy Logan had Primo figured all wrong. Perhaps he was using his hypnotism to do good.

There was silence, and Molly pricked up her ears. The sound of a nib on paper scratched the air. There was a long pause, and then she heard a noise that sounded something like this:

“Bdeughhhh.”

It came from the general.

Molly knew at once what was happening. Now they were going to find out how Primo Cell locked his hypnotism in.

“Good,” said Cell as if he was talking to a child. “Now you, Donald, are totally under my power. You will forget that I promised your charity a gift. You won’t remember our meeting here. Instead, you will remember a wonderful lunch party at my house. In a minute, you will return to the other guests, thinking that you have merely been to the bathroom. From this moment on, you will do my bidding. And your obedience will be firm and unmovable. You will stay under my power, always … always … always.”

Behind the curtain, Molly shivered. A chill as cold as a breeze from the heart of a glacier rose through her, and her diamond suddenly froze.

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