Benworden by Neal Davies

stunned by its technology that I had trouble stringing a sentence together and I said, “How the? What the? Where...?”
    Harry looked at me like a genius would a simpleton and said, “Elementary, dear Dylan, elementary. This little thing is a 24 megapixel video recorder with an automatic inbuilt zoom and microphone and has adaptors for any DVD, iPod or digital TV you can find.”
    The meeting had been very productive and when it eventually came to an end we had more than enough plausible ideas with which to hang Wally and his crew out to dry. All that remained was for Gerry and me to develop a plan on the best way to put those ideas into action.

13
    S OME L EARN S LOWER T HAN O THERS

    T he big day for action arrived and Peter “Tap Out” Lew was walking up the path towards the school when he spotted Bungles and Roo.
    As he drew closer to them he could hear Roo saying to Bungles, “Go on, mate, take your best shot. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
    Bungles said, “All right then, here goes.”
    Bungles pretended to hit Roo as hard as he could in the midriff but Roo stood there without flinching and said, “I told you I’ve been working on my abs. What do you think?”
    â€œIncredible!” replied Bungles, an astonished look on his face.
    Peter was keen to get a piece of the action and walked up to Roo with a snarly look on his face and said, “Let me have a go, fool.”
    Roo replied in a quivering voice, “No way! You’re going to hurt me.”
    Peter put a patronising grin on his face and said, “Hey, come on. I won’t hit you that hard, and it’s only fair I get a shot too.”
    Roo was looking very sheepish at this stage and replied, “Do you promise you won’t hurt me?”
    Peter shrugged his shoulders, showed Roo the palms of his hands and said, “Of course not, mate. I wouldn’t do that toyou. Now tighten up those abs of yours and you won’t feel a thing.”
    Roo frowned and replied, “Are you sure this won’t hurt?”
    Peter was now growing impatient and snapped back, “Just do it!”
    Roo stood rigidly upright with his eyes shut. Peter gave out one of his stupid piercing screams and then let rip with the hardest punch he could. His fist thundered into Roo’s gut and made a sickening thud.
    â€œAh! Oh! Ah!” Peter cried as he dropped to his knees while grasping his fist with his other hand.
    Roo stood there looking down at Peter and said, “You’re right, mate. I didn’t feel a thing. Thanks for being gentle with me.” Roo walked off with his arm straddling Bungles’ shoulder and said, “Well, I guess my abs are better than I thought they were.”
    Bungles smiled at his good mate and replied, “Very impressed, old mate, very impressed indeed.”
    They quickly rounded the corner of the school building and Roo lifted his shirt revealing a solid metal plate which was designed to look like a midriff. He removed it and placed it in his bag and then looked at Bungles with a grin.
    â€œWell, that worked a treat. Did you get all the action?”
    Bungles pulled the pen out of his top pocket and waved it gently in the air.
    â€œYes mate, it’s all here.”
    Bungles was so excited he forgot to watch where he was going and almost went head over heels after getting one of hisfeet caught behind the other one. Roo grabbed him by the arm before he completely went over and said, “Good, mate, but maybe you might consider me taking the camera for now.”
    â€œNo worries,” replied Bungles as he handed it over.
    Peter went to the First Aid room and was later sent for x-rays where they found he had a fracture in one of his knuckles. He was way too embarrassed to tell anyone the truth about how it happened and he didn’t return to school for a few days.
    The lunch bell rang and it was Brian and Sean’s turn to spring into action. The