En Garde by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks

7

A Whiff of Danger

DeLyn fumbled frantically with the Velcro straps securing her twin brother’s fencing mask. Bela Kovacs gently pushed her aside, undid Damon’s mask in one swift motion, and lifted it free. Damon’s eyes were screwed shut and his face was contorted with pain.

Bela handed me the mask. An overpowering smell hit me. A sweet perfumy odor—but underneath, the piercing chemical scent of ammonia. I recognized it from the strong cleaners Hannah sometimes used. But what was ammonia doing on Damon’s fencing mask?

“Quick, get him to a sink so he can run water over his face!” I said. I knew that if the ammonia came into contact with his skin, it could irritate or even burn him. Flushing it immediately with cold water was the only solution.

Bela already had a firm grip on Damon’s elbow and was pulling him to his feet. Hunched over and stumbling, Damon let himself be guided to the restroom. George had already run back there to start filling the sink, so by the time Damon got there, the basin was full of fresh, cold water. He bent over and plunged his face in.

“Aarghh!” Damon raised his head and cried out, as if the cold water hurt his skin. But he plunged it in again.

A circle of anxious fencers had gathered, crowding around the bathroom door. “Show’s over, folks,” Bela called out, clapping his hands. “Get back to your drills!” But he kept a hand on Damon’s back, patting him and reassuring him.

“It’s nothing, really, Bela,” Damon said, lifting his dripping face from the sink. “I guess I just got a little too much cleaning fluid on my mask. Could you give it here?”

I looked down and realized I was still holding Damon’s mask. He snatched it away from me.

DeLyn frowned. “Cleaning fluid?”

Damon hiked up one shoulder defensively. “The wire mesh was getting crudded up. I needed to scour it clean. By accident, I must have used too much. No big deal!” He tucked the mask behind his back.

I’d had a split second to look at the mask, and in that moment I’d seen that the name, written in black marker on the mask’s white canvas straps, was DeLyn’s, not Damon’s. Odd.

If Damon claimed he had put cleaning fluid on his own mask, how come DeLyn’s mask was the one that smelled like ammonia?

Somebody wasn’t telling the straight story. And I had to find out who.

I walked back to the front of the studio, to where the fencers piled their belongings during class. My eyes swept the pale, polished wood floor in search of clues.

“Can I borrow a mask from the cupboard, Bela?” I heard Damon ask behind me. “Until this one airs out?”

“You’re not going back on the floor, Damon,” Bela replied gruffly. “You take the rest of the evening off.”

“But Bela—,” Damon began to protest.

“No argument,” Bela said curtly. “You’re finished with class for tonight. DeLyn, you go too. Take your brother home.”

That’s when I spied a tiny scrap of something shiny and wet-looking on the floor.

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