Never Say Genius by Dan Gutman Read Free Book Online Page B

crazy?”
    “Please rise,” the public address announcer said. “Today, Coke and Pep McDonald of Point Reyes Station, California, will lead us in the traditional singing of ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’”
    An organ played the familiar introduction to the song. Coke and Pep looked at each other. Mrs. Higgins pushed the microphone closer to them with one hand and the gun closer to them with the other.
    “Sing!” she ordered.
    “ Take me out to the ball game ,” the twins croaked out the first line.
    The crowd began to boo. Pep had her eyes closed in terror. She could barely speak, much less sing another line.
    “I said sing! ” Mrs. Higgins ordered.
    “Take me out to the crowd…”
    “Keep singing or I’ll blow your heads off!” Mrs. Higgins sneered, brandishing the pistol.
    “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack…”
    “Those kids stink!” somebody shouted.
    “Sing!” Mrs. Higgins ordered. Tears were rolling down Pep’s cheeks.
    “I don’t care if I never get back…”
    “Those kids sing worse than Ozzy Osbourne!” somebody yelled.
    “Sing!” Mrs. Higgins said, sticking the gun into Coke’s ribs.
    “Root, root, root for the home team. If they don’t win it’s a shame…”
    “Now finish it!” Mrs. Higgins ordered. “It’s the Cubs … or you !”
    “For it’s one … two…”
    At that point, Coke grabbed the microphone. “There’s a bomb in the Cubs dugout!” he shouted quickly. “Under the bench! Get out! Evacuate the dugout! Evacuate the stadium! This is not a joke! There’s a bomb!”
    Down on the field, the Cub players came running out of their dugout. In the stands, people got out of their seats and rushed for the exits.
    Quickly, it became bedlam at Wrigley Field. Hot dog vendors were getting knocked over. Little kids and old ladies were getting trampled.
    In the booth, Mrs. Higgins threw back her head and laughed. Then she took a bite out of her gun.
    “It was fake?” Coke yelled. “You mean to tell me there’s no bomb in the dugout?”
    “Mmm, I am such a chocoholic,” said Mrs. Higgins as she took another bite out of the gun.

     
    Down on the field, a bomb squad in full protective gear was tearing apart the Cubs dugout, throwing bats, gloves, and seat cushions every which way. The game had been officially called on account of a bomb scare. The Cardinals had won. The Cub fans, who were already angry, were now furious as they streamed out the exits.
    “Why did you do that?” Pep asked.
    Mrs. Higgins glared at her with a look that sent shivers down Pep’s spine.
    “Herman Warsaw was the kindest, gentlest, most loving man I ever met,” she spat. “We were going to spend the rest of our lives together. So now I’m going to make the rest of your lives a living hell, until the day that you die. And you can count on that being very soon. Let’s see if you can make it out of this ballpark in one piece.”
    She opened the door with a key, and the twins ran out of the booth. They located the first exit sign and headed down the ramp, along with hundreds of Chicago’s beloved bleacher bums.
    “Hey!” somebody shouted. “It’s them ! The kids who made the bomb scare!”
    “We forfeited the game because of them!”
    “Let’s get those kids!”
    “Yeah!”
    Pep turned around.
    “What do we do now?” she asked her brother.
    “We get out of here,” Coke replied.
    The twins dashed down the ramp, passing throngs of disgruntled fans heading for the parking lot.
    “Kill them!” somebody shouted. “Kill those kids!”
    “These people are angry way out of proportion to what happened,” Pep said as Coke grabbed her hand and started running full speed. “It’s just a game.”
    “Not to them!”
    Hundreds of people were chasing them out Gate K, some of them waving foam fingers and miniature wooden baseball bats.
    “Run!” Coke yelled, sprinting down West Waveland Avenue. “These people are crazy!”
    “We have to find Dad!” Pep yelled back.
    Coke’s