If you master others you are forceful If you master yourself you have inner strength Lao Tzu 6th century BCE China
CHAPTER ONE Someone had said the view from the top of the rollercoaster was amazing but Will Hopkins had only one thought as the carriage rattled its way up the steep steel incline I’m only thirteen I’m too young to die Beside him in the lead car Pollo di Nozi strained against the safety bar pointing excitedly Would you look at that bolt there Will It’s wobbling like crazy This rig needs a good going over with a welding torch if you ask me There’s another loose one Look Will stared ahead across the treetops and the Riddle Gully fairground to the clock tower of the town hall in the distance His eyes were like golf balls His knuckles as they gripped the bar looked like eight snow-capped mountain-tops Why had he ever listened to Pollo Didn’t he know that what Pollo called fun 5
most often nearly killed him Crick-et-y crick-et-y crick-et-y He could hear each cog ratcheting into place hauling them slowly upward to the crest Will slid his eyeballs sideways and down and spotted Mr Wrigley Riddle Gully’s oldest mechanic at the rollercoaster controls He was shading his eyes and looking up at them His bottom lip was jutting in a worried pout Will was sure Crick-et-y crick-et-y Will gulped down the rising lump in his throat Pollo jabbed him with her elbow Take a chill pill Will No one ever dies up here on these things She pointed to the ground below They all die down there In the dirt Splat Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha Crick-et-y Their carriage inched to the crest of the iron-girder mountain Will saw dotted farms and distant hills lumpy with trees that looked much nicer from the ground He saw the steely blue sky stretching around them perfect if you were an albatross He felt his heart hammer against his ribcage The carriage teetered at the peak Here we go yelled Pollo The fun’s about to Whoa-aa-aah Slowly irrevocably they tipped Suddenly Will 6
and Pollo were hurtling into a bone-shaking plummet toward earth Down they flew their bodies pressed back by centrifugal force or terror Will couldn’t tell which The car juddered on the narrow rail sending tremors through their insides down their limbs to their fingers and toes Will’s teeth jangled and his mouth gaped but just a terrified squeeze of air a scream so high-pitched only dogs could hear it escaped Beside him Pollo let go of the bar threw both arms in the air and hooted like a banshee No sooner had they bottomed out than the car swung hard right throwing Will against Pollo He was still trying to spit Pollo’s long springy hair from his mouth when it swung hard left flinging Pollo his way bringing their heads together with a clunk The tinny taste of blood filled Will’s mouth and his tongue began to sting Will could see it up ahead the twenty metre high gravity-defying Loop of Extinction the rollercoaster was named for looming against the sky Ten minutes earlier he and Pollo had laughed at the terror on the upside-down faces of the passengers their hair flying beneath their heads their pleading screams as they hurtled around the loop Now Pollo and Will flew at it 7
