“Well,” Darryl said. “Looks like he took it.”
“What did you do?” Nina asked.
“While you were making the fake vitamins, I was mixing up an a new batch of G-17. The first batch was ten parts saline solution to one part compound. This one was full strength. I switched vials when I went up to his room last night. He must have taken his after-dinner dose, and a couple of hours later … well, I guess it kicked in.”
“What on earth are you talking about, child?” Mrs. Walker said.
“It’s kind of complicated,” Darryl said.
“You mean that baby was Mr. Masterly?” Greg squeaked.
Darryl nodded.
“You’re kidding me,” said BJ.
“Nope.”
“Way to go!” cried Billy, slapping Darryl on the back.
“Hooray!” Paul and Suki cried in unison.
“Good thinking, Darryl!” said Ruthie.
Mario held up his hand for a high five, but when Darryl showed him his raw palm, Mario contented himself with giving him another smack on the back.
“I wonder if the MasterPlan was in the briefcase,” Ruthie said.
“Whether it was or not,” said Nina, “I don’t think we have to worry about Mr. Masterly anymore.”
“I don’t understand a single word of this,” said Mrs. Walker.
“I don’t either,” said BJ.
“Me neither,” said Boris. “But if Neen’s happy, I’m happy.”
“Excuse me, Hedderly,” Nina said.
Hedderly moved aside so Nina could get to Darryl. As Darryl’s eyes flicked back and forth between her good lens and her broken lens, his mind flicked back and forth between now and the night she’d shown him the vent: the night they’d seen the moon.
“Looks like we made it, huh?” he said.
Her face broke into a bright smile, making it quite pretty; then she leaned forward and gave him a kiss, making his face as hot as his rope-burned hand.
About the Author
TOR SEIDLER
is the author of National Book Award finalist MEAN MARGARET as well as THE DULCIMER BOY, TERPIN, BROTHERS BELOW ZERO, THE SILENT SPILLBILLS, THE TAR PIT, A RAT’S TALE, THE REVENGE OF RANDAL REESE-RAT, and THE WAINSCOTT WEASEL. Mr. Seidler lives in New York City.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Darryl moved to the desk chair and hit a key. The colorful word MondoGameMaster comforted him. He made it through the maze, and when the game list appeared, he again clicked on StarMaster 3. This time his opponent was called NABATW. NABATW was nothing like the preprogrammed opponent Darryl was used to. Every time he devised a new strategy for securing wormholes and star gates, NABATW absorbed it, so if he tried it again, the Controllers were ready.
Then the screen went black and dark-red letters bled onto it, forming the name of a game he’d never heard of. It remained there alone, the only choice—DeathMaster—till it was replaced by the image of a face: a hairless, skull-like face with milky eyes and skin as wrinkled as an old paper bag.
Also by
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The Dulcimer Boy
Mean Margaret
A Rat’s Tale
The Revenge of Randal Reese-Rat
The Silent Spillbills
Terpin
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Mean Margaret
Hc 0–06–205090–7 • Pb 0–06–441039–0
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
A tyrannical toddler named Margaret turns the lives of a woodchuck couple, a squirrel, a testy bat, a skunk, and a family of humans named Hubble completely around.
The Silent Spillbills
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When the silent spillbills that Katrina discovers are blamed for causing two airplane crashes, she must stand up to her fears … with the help of an unexpected ally.
Brothers Below Zero
Pb 0–06–440936–8
When Tim Tuttle discovers he has a talent for painting, his younger brother, John Henry, hatches a plan to undermine his glory.
Terpin
Hc 0–06–623607-X • Pb 0–06–443755–8
Terpin Taft is always willing to stretch the truth until one day he meets a stranger and tells him a consoling lie. The results are so disastrous that Terpin resolves never again to speak or act except by the truth in his heart.
A Rat’s Tale
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When Montague Mad-Rat falls in love with Isabel Moberly-Rat, he discovers that she lives on a wharf, in a spacious crate, among rats that look down their snouts at rats who make things with their paws.
The Revenge of Randal Reese-Rat
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The sequel to A Rat’s Tale.
www.torseidler.com
Laura Geringer Books
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Copyright
Harper Trophy® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Brainboy and the DeathMaster
Copyright © 2003 by Tor Seidler
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-02829-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Seidler, Tor.
Brainboy and the DeathMaster / Tor Seidler.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When Darryl, a twelve-year-old orphan, is adopted by a technology genius, he finds himself the star of his very own life-threatening video game.
ISBN 0–06–029181–8 — ISBN 0–06–029182–6 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 0–06–440935-X (pbk.)
[1. Orphans—Fiction. 2. Video games—Fiction. 3. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S45526 Bp 2003 2002033918
[Fic]—dc21 CIP
AC
Typography by Alicia Mikles
First Harper Trophy edition, 2005
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