The Superpower Project (2 page)

The best hunt was in the summer holidays a few years ago, when she had Megan searching all around the garden for clues. Each clue led to a trickier one, sending her through the bushes and behind the sunflowers, past where the goldfish were buried, until finally, under the garden shed she'd found the prize: a kite. Megan's gran had made it herself from green and purple silks and some old bamboo cane. It was beautiful. They went up into the hills behind the town for a picnic and flew the kite all afternoon.

I wonder what she's hidden this time.

The letter and the map made some sort of sense to Megan, but the newspaper page was a complete mystery. There was a story about a weird fish washing up from the river, an advert for Golden Syrup, and a photo of a scary-looking old building. She folded it back up and put it with the letter in her China-print keepsake box under her bedside cabinet. The map she put in her schoolbag.

Excited, she did her best to fall asleep, because unfortunately, none of those mysterious things were going to stop her having to go back to school tomorrow.

A pale thin man in a suit stood at the front of the class beside Miss McCue. He was completely bald, in that really shiny way, and the fact that you could see his whole head meant you could see how bumpy it was.

“Maybe he's got a really big brain or something,” said Cam, not even all that quietly.

Cameron and Megan sat together in most classes and had done since Primary 1. Even then he was the tallest in class. He pretended he wasn't, though, always hunching up or curling in on himself, like some massive spindly legged spider constantly trying to hide under the nearest rock. Except there were no rocks big enough. Sometimes, when he said rude things far too loudly in class, Megan really wished there were.

“Right first year!” Miss McCue looked at Cam very briefly before beaming her award-winning smile across the class. “Today we have a real treat for you. Mr Finn is here from Waterworx, the people who are regenerating the old parts of town and building all the modern sculptures you've been looking at in art class. We've been given the opportunity to help design the next one! Isn't that great?”

Cam had his hand up, always a danger when a visitor came.

“Yes Cameron,” said Miss McCue, looking like she was trying to send him a telepathic message along the lines of,
Please remember how upset that fireman got last time
.

“Are they going to pay us?” asked Cameron.

Miss McCue did her best charming laugh. “No Cam, we're helping design a sculpture because we'll all learn something and it will be good fun.”

Cameron had his hand up again, even though Megan had just elbowed him.

“Yes Cameron,” said Miss McCue through gritted teeth.

“It says in the paper Waterworx have millions and millions of pounds.”

Miss McCue smiled nervously at Mr Finn, who thankfully seemed to be taking it all in his stride.

“That's actually true, Cameron,” said Mr Finn, “but most of it is to spend on regenerating the town to make it better for everyone. I tell you what, though, I'll do you all a deal. You want to make a deal?”

The class perked up a bit, now there was a potential opportunity for free stuff.

“This is an old building you have here. Your head teacher was telling me you have a very leaky roof… is that right?”

Stacey's hand went up this time.

“Yes?” said Mr Finn.

“There was a big bulge in the ceiling in French class and it burst and all this water poured out onto Steven Barclay and there were drowned pigeons in it.”

Everyone laughed.

“Dear me. Well, if you help us with a new sculpture, we'll make sure your leaky roof is no longer a problem. How does that sound?”

The class was unimpressed.

“And, of course, the person with the winning design will get a new Playstation,” Mr Finn added quickly.

Result.

“Ok everyone,” said Miss McCue quickly. “Mr Finn is going to take us to see one of the new sculptures being built at the shipyard in Port Glasgow. Yes Cameron?”

“How much can our sculpture cost? Can ours be made out of platinum?”

“No,” said Miss McCue.

***

Megan and Cam sat in the middle of the bus, far enough away from the snogging at the back, but not near enough the front to be involved in rehearsing songs from the school show. It was the first time they had properly talked since the day of the funeral.

“Gran left me a letter.”

“That's nice. My gran left us lots of out-of-date cat food and an old handbag full of raffle tickets.”

“It had a map with it.”

“I did get fifty quid, though, so I bought a new game,” said Cam, drifting off.

“Cam, are you even listening?”

“A map. Your gran gave you a map.”

“Yes. A map of round here. It's marked with numbers. I think she wanted me to find something.”

“What? Treasure?” Cam laughed.

“I don't think so. This is something else, just for me.”

“Right.”

“And I want you to help me find it.”

Megan saw a smile flicker briefly across Cameron's face. Right now, she wasn't totally sure how to get Cam to help her find the secret of why she could fly without actually telling him that she could fly. But she knew she could trust him and that she needed his help.

“Let's see it then,” said Cameron.

Megan took the map out of her bag and unfolded it. “There are five places she's picked out. Number one is in Port Glasgow.” Megan pointed to the tiny red circle. “I think I'm supposed to go to each place in order. That's the way her treasure hunts used to work.”

Cam traced his long fingers across the streets. “This is a really old map. Some of these places aren't there any more.”

“But I bet you still know where to find them?”

“Maybe. I'm pretty sure that one is the old hospital, and that's the tobacco warehouses, which have been empty for years.”

Megan smiled. “See. I knew you'd be able to do it. What's this one?”

“Behind the new flats in the ropeworks? It's just a supermarket I think. Wait…” Cam took out his phone. “Map app, I'm gonna save them all as locations,” he explained and started tapping and swiping as the coach they were on pulled up outside the shipyard. Cam ignored everyone else undoing their seatbelts and filing off the coach as he stared from the map to his phone and back again. “The first one is really close! An old bomb shelter apparently.”

Megan grinned.

“No,” said Cam, “absolutely not. We're here to appreciate some rubbish art. I was grounded for a month after we got caught skidging last time.”

“But how good were those monster trucks?”

“Cameron! Megan! We haven't got all day!” Miss McCue called from outside.

Mr Finn led them into a big warehouse. There were bits of scaffolding and old boats in the far corner, and random traffic cones were scattered around, presumably warning about some unseen health-and-safety issue. In the centre of the warehouse was an enormous metal egg. Mr Finn was pointing at it, looking very proud.

“This sculpture is called Phoenix Egg. It's going in the new town square beside our offices. Can anyone guess why we've chosen the name Phoenix Egg?”

“Do you really like eggs?” asked Scott Malcolm.

“I do really like eggs,” said Mr Finn, “but that's not the reason.”

“Could you just not think of anything better?” asked Cam.

Mr Finn was a very quick learner, so he was already ignoring Cam. “The sculpture represents rebirth and the future of the town,” he said, “because a Phoenix rises from the ashes to live again.” He paused dramatically, as if he was waiting for a round of applause.

“Our town hasn't been burnt to ashes though,” said Megan.

“No,” smiled Mr Finn. “Of course it hasn't. Shall we take a closer look at the sculpture?”

Cam took out his phone.

“Sorry,” said Mr Finn, “no photos yet. We don't want to spoil the surprise for everyone.”

“It's for my collection,” said Cam. “I took photos of the other ones.”

“Really?” said Mr Finn, unsure whether Cam was being truthful or rude – or both. “Which is your favourite?”

“I like the round one near the old dam,” said Cam.

“Evolve,” said Mr Finn, making it sound more like an instruction than a name. “What do you like about that one?”

Miss McCue had zeroed in on their conversation and was now hovering nearby waiting to calm things down when Cam said something cheeky. It would only be a matter of time.

“I like how curved all the bits are,” said Cam. “It's like a hollow snowman that's fallen over or something.”

Megan was probably the only person who could tell that this was genuinely heartfelt appreciation from Cam. He did actually like that statue; they sat on it all the time.

“Perhaps you could tell the class more about the other sculptures, Mr Finn,” said Miss McCue.

“Well, we've all heard that Evolve is Cameron's favourite,” said Mr Finn. “And you can see Phoenix Egg here, but does anyone know about the others?”

“There's Resilience,” said Cam, ignoring looks from both Megan and Miss McCue. “It's all jaggy. Don't like that one.”

“I will be sure to pass that on to our designer, Cameron,” said Mr Finn. “Can
anyone else
think of the other sculpture?” Mr Finn squinted towards the back of the class. “Yes. You. I didn't see you there.”

“Come on! Speak up Kevin!” said Miss McCue.

“It's the one down near the college that looks like a giant with a clock for a face.”

“Don't like that one either,” said Cam. “Gives me the creeps.”

“Yes, that one is called Chronos,” said Mr Finn, attempting to speak over Cam. “Those are our four, but
you're
going to design the fifth and final sculpture.”

Led by Mr Finn, the class wandered off towards the other sheds. Megan put her hand on Cam's shoulder to hold him back and pointed outside into the grey morning rain.

“So you think that's the spot Gran marked on the map, over there?” she whispered.

There was a steep slope just visible behind the super-market, entirely covered in untidy bushes and trees.

“Pretty sure. I'll double-check.” Cam rifled through his pockets for his phone. “Not here! I must have dropped it back when I took a photo of the egg.”

“Cam! You're so careless with that phone,” said Megan.

“It's fine.”

“It's not fine! Normal phones aren't wrapped up in Sellotape to stop them falling to pieces!”

“Extra padding when I do drop it though,” said Cam.

The rest of the class were still wandering round the yard listening to Mr Finn.

“Come on then,” said Megan, “before someone notices.”

The lights were all out in the warehouse now, making it more difficult to find phones or avoid industrial accidents. Megan and Cam tiptoed through the shadows towards the sculpture, careful not to stand or slip on anything that looked dangerous.

“Here it is,” said Cam, picking up his phone, dusting it off and pushing the cracked screen to check it still worked.

“Shh!” said Megan. “What's that?”

“What's what?”

There was a tapping and hissing from inside the egg.

“Can you hear that too?” asked Megan.

“Uhhm. Yeah,” said Cam. “Let's go.”

Then the tapping got louder, more urgent, and between tiny gaps in the riveted plates, they could see a red glow, more obvious now in the darkness. It was as if there was something inside the metal egg, waiting to come out.

The lights flickered back on, silencing the tapping instantly. Startled, Megan and Cam turned to see Mr Finn at the doorway, staring.

“Your class is leaving,” he said, “you'd better catch them up.”

“Dropped my phone,” said Cam, waving it by way of explanation.

“Yes. You should really be more careful.”

Mr Finn stood motionless, waiting for them to leave. Both of them were only too happy to get out of his way.

It took Megan all day to convince Cam that following the map into the old bomb shelter behind the supermarket was a good idea. Probably because it wasn't a good idea. It was a terrible idea. A terrible idea with a very good chance of rats.

“Hah! You aren't scared of rats are you Cam?” she'd said, not even fooling herself.

“No. I'm scared of the Black Death and Lyme disease.”

Megan had to google that. It was pretty scary. So many scabs.

Eventually she gave up trying to convince him and announced she would go alone. That's when he agreed to come. Megan made a mental note to remember that for next time.