[Sarah Jane Adventures 08] - The Day of The Clown Read online

  BBC CHILDREN’S BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa

  Published by BBC Children’s Character Books, 2008 Text and design © Children’s Character Books, 2008

  109876543 2 I

  Sarah Jane Adventures © BBC 2007

  www.thesja.com

  BBC logo ™ & BBC 1996. Licensed by BBC Worldwide Limited All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978 I 40590510 7

  Day of the Clown

  Written by Phill Ford

  Based, on the script by Phil Ford

  ‘I saw amazing things, out there

  in space. But there’s strangeness

  to be found wherever you turn.

  Life on Earth can be an

  adventure, too.

  You just have to know

  where to look.’

  SARAH JANE SMITH

  Table of Contents

  Face

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter One

  Monday morning news

  There are worse things than aliens,’ said Sarah Jane Smith as she tossed the morning’s newspaper onto the kitchen table. The front page glared at her…

  THIRD CHILD GOES MISSING.

  Sarah Jane had been a journalist practically all her adult life and she had been dealing with aliens — good and bad — for almost just as long, but there were some headlines she had never got used to, and there were things that humans did to each other that sometimes made them worse than anything else in the galaxy.

  Three children had gone missing in the Ealing area in less than two weeks. The latest, according to the newspaper, was a 14-year-old boy called Tony Warner. He’d been playing football with his mates in the park when the ball had been kicked into a patch of bushes and trees. Tony had gone in to find the ball and had never come out.

  As with the others, there was no trace of him. The police, it seemed, had next to nothing to go on. But Sarah Jane hoped they would catch whoever was responsible before another child disappeared, and she prayed that the two boys and girl whose pictures were now in the morning paper would be found safe and well.

  Her eyes fell on the tall dark-haired boy at her kitchen table and she felt her heart beat faster at the thought of anything happening to her son. Not that he couldn’t take care of himself. He may have been just a boy, but Luke had faced some nasty situations in his short life — he had, in fact, saved the world more than once. He, Sarah Jane, Clyde Langer, and Maria Jackson. Only Maria was gone now. And Luke missed her.

  Maria and her dad, Alan, had moved in across Bannerman Road from Sarah Jane a little less than a year ago. In those days there had been no Luke, and Sarah Jane lived alone and got on with her life and the strange things that she did, and no one knew or even cared much about her. To her neighbours Sarah Jane was the slightly odd woman who lived in the big house, spared barely a smile for them, and seemed to be constantly rushing all over the place in her funny little car, or burning the midnight oil up in her attic. And then Maria had seen an alien in Sarah Jane’s garden. And everything had started to change.

  That was when Bubbleshock was sweeping the country — a sickly sweet drink that was actually part of an invasion plan by an alien race called the Bane. As part of their strategy to turn humans into slaves and food they had also grown the perfect human being from synthesized DNA, and that had been Luke — who Maria and Sarah Jane had helped escape the clutches of the evil Bane leader, Mrs Wormwood.

  Luke had been born with the body of a young teenager and the mind of a genius, but when he escaped from the Bane’s headquarters he was only a matter of hours old. He could speak and read, he was instinctively brilliant, but he didn’t have a clue about the world that he now found himself in. Sarah Jane adopted him (with a little help from the alien supercomputer she kept in her attic called Mr Smith) and had since brought him up as her own. It hadn’t always been easy for Luke to find his place in this strange world, sometimes his intelligence made it all the more difficult, but he had come on a long way. Friends like Maria and Clyde — who had later earned his place in the gang with cold chip sandwiches that had exposed the weakness of another alien, the Slitheen — had helped Luke more than Sarah Jane ever could. But, as with even those of us who were born with a belly button, there were still times when something new shook your world.

  Four weeks ago Maria had left Bannerman Road with her dad for a new life in America. Maria was special to Luke in a way that not many people would understand — she was the one who had found him in the Banes Bubbleshock factory, and she was the first person he ever spoke to.

  Now he sat at the kitchen table reading an email from her on his laptop computer. She had been keeping in touch since she left, but Sarah Jane could see that he was missing her badly. He hadn’t glanced up from the email when she came in with the paper. And she knew he had read it at least three times before.

  Sarah Jane poured herself tea from the yellow pot standing on the work surface and tried to put some lightness into her voice, despite her worry for him. ‘How is she? Does she like Washington?’

  Luke still didn’t look up. Sarah Jane noticed that his cereal had been barely touched.

  ‘She says it’s awesome,’ he told her.

  Awesome? How American.

  ‘It sounds like Maria’s going to fit in perfectly,’ she said, and took her cup of tea to the table and sat down, facing Luke. It was time to talk about this.

  ‘I know it’s hard when a really good friend — someone you really care about — moves out of your life, Luke, but you’ll see Maria again. She’s going to come back for her mum’s wedding, isn’t she? I’m sure we’ll all meet up then.’

  Sarah Jane had always suspected that there was still a torch burning between Maria’s estranged parents, Alan and Chrissie, but news of the new job in Washington and their decision to go had obviously blown out any last hopes of them getting back together. As Maria and Alan had said their goodbyes on Bannerman Road, Chrissie had told them that she was going to marry her boyfriend Ivan. Maria and Alan had welcomed the news. It was, perhaps, the new start that the family had always needed. But the parting of families had always saddened Sarah Jane — it was the legacy of her own tragic family history, she supposed.

  But Luke wasn’t convinced by Sarah Jane’s comforting. Maria’s return for the wedding wouldn’t be the same, he said. She might be there for a week, and then she would be gone again.

  ‘It won’t be the same. It never will be.’

  Sarah Jane ached for his hurting, and reached out and took his hand: ‘Maybe not, but, you know, that’s not always so bad. One of the best things about life is that it’s always surprising us.’

  And that was when Clyde Langer bounded through the back door, school bag over his shoulder.

  ‘Morning people,’ he beamed — Clyde always beamed, even sometimes when he was being chased by an alien intent on eating him. He grabbed a piece of toast lying untouched by Luke. ‘
This is Clyde Langer reporting live from Bannerman Road where, at this precise moment, a new family is moving in at Number thirty-six.’

  He took a bite out of the toast and grinned,

  ‘Come see!’

  Outside, Sarah Jane saw a removal truck parked outside the house that used to belong to Maria and Alan Jackson. There was no sign of the new family, but a squad of thick-chested removal men were hefting furniture along the path and through the front door.

  Clyde shook his head as he finished off the toast. ‘Boy, they have no idea what they’re moving in over the road from!’

  Sarah Jane whirled on him, ‘No! And they’re never going to find out, do you hear?’

  Luke was joining them now; he had grabbed his school bag and was slipping it over his shoulder as he reached the bottom of the drive.

  ‘Both of you,’ she said, ‘promise me you’ll never breathe a word about what we do, Mr Smith, any of it.’

  Maria finding out about the aliens had been an accident. The arrivals of Luke and Clyde had, in their way, been a result of that accident. Looking back now, Sarah Jane wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, but in the old days she didn’t have to worry about anyone apart from herself. She didn’t need history repeating itself, and she didn’t need someone else to watch out for.

  The arrival of a new family in Maria’s old house had done nothing for Luke’s mood.

  ‘Why would we say anything,’ he said. ‘It’s not like it’s Maria, is it? Come on, Clyde. We’re going to be late.’

  And Sarah Jane’s heart broke a little as she watched Luke begin to head off up the road. Clyde exchanged a glance with Sarah Jane. He missed Maria, too, but not like Luke.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he told Sarah Jane, ‘he’ll be all right. And we won’t say anything about what goes off over here. That’s for Our Eyes Only. We’d just better hope Maria never left anything lying around over there when she moved.’

  What do you mean?’

  Clyde shrugged, like it was obvious: ‘Well, we’ve been hanging with some pretty random intergalactic sorts. Who knows what might have rubbed off and dropped off over there?’

  And Clyde hurried off to catch up with Luke, leaving Sarah Jane watching the removal men carrying things into Maria’s old house, and worrying about what might lurk there, waiting for the new owners.

  Chapter Two

  Rani

  Monday morning at Park Vale School.

  Just the same as any Monday morning. A thousand kids making a lot of noise about what they’d done over the weekend, and about how they so did not want to be here today. Among them, Clyde and Luke were heading for their lockers, and Luke was on the defensive.

  ‘I did not fancy Maria!’

  But Clyde was grinning; Luke couldn’t lie to him and get away with it. Clyde prided himself on having played a significant part in Luke’s development as a human being, and that was mainly down to ‘Clyde’s Cool Rules’.

  ‘Boy I taught you well, didn’t I? Clyde’s Cool Rule Number Two — deny all emotion, especially where involving girls.’

  But Luke was defiant. ‘I just miss her, okay? Don’t you?’

  Clyde had to admit, he had a point there.

  ‘Course I miss her. But people move on, Luke. Ask my mum and dad.’

  Clyde’s dad had run out on him and his mum when he was five years old to live with Melba — his dad’s sister-in-law. Clyde knew all about losing someone: he hadn’t laid eyes on his dad since and he never wanted to.

  ‘I’ve never lost anyone before,’ Luke said.

  And he might have only been five years old, but Clyde could remember like it was yesterday how that felt.

  ‘It’s not going to be the same without her, that’s for sure,’ Clyde said, and felt the old emotions coming up from the place where he had them locked away.

  He slammed the lid down on his feelings with Cool Rule Two. ‘I mean, who am I going to have to save from Sontarans, the Slitheen and Gorgons, now?’

  And as he pulled a bunch of books out of his locker and turned back to Luke he was almost knocked over from behind.

  ‘Hey,’ he snapped. ‘Watch where you’re —’

  Only Clyde kind of forgot what he was going to say. The girl that had almost knocked him over, and was now collecting her books off the floor, was quite a looker. As she stood up, he saw that she was tall and slender, with deep dark eyes. Just for a moment the Cool Rules were forgotten.

  The girl flashed a slightly nervous smile, ‘Sorry. I’m looking for Mr Cunningham’s form.’

  ‘That’s our class.’

  Clyde heard Luke talking. He seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to speak, himself. She was new. A new girl on the block. And she was in their form. Clyde liked Mondays.

  ‘I start today,’ the girl said.

  ‘And you run into me. That’s what I call a start,’ Clyde beamed, glad that he’d recovered the power of speech with such a stunning line.

  The girl gave him a wry smile. ‘Yeah, like starting the hundred metres in the Olympics and tripping over your laces!’

  Had she chucked a bucket of water over Clyde, it couldn’t have been more effective — but at least it put a smile on Luke’s face.

  ‘This is Clyde. He thinks he’s cool. I’m Luke.’

  ‘Who isn’t?’

  The girl smiled, a little more relaxed, ‘I’m Rani.

  My family just moved in to Bannerman Road.’

  Bannerman Road?

  And Clyde looked at Luke. ‘Of course. Where else? Sarah Jane is right, the universe never stops weirding you out!’

  ‘Sarah who?’ asked Rani.

  ‘Never mind,’ Luke told her. ‘Come on, we’ll take you to class. It’s this way.’

  But as they moved off, Rani froze; her eyes locked for a moment somewhere off down the corridor.

  ‘Hey, are you all right?’ Clyde asked.

  ‘Did you see that?’ she asked, her eyes flashing from whatever had been along the corridor to Clyde.

  ‘See what?’ All he could see were dozens of kids putting off the inevitable of having to go to class.

  But Rani shook her head, dismissing the subject. ‘Never mind. Come on. I’d better not be late.’

  She flashed Clyde another smile, but he could see the nerves behind it again.

  Well, first day at school. Meeting Clyde Langer. Who wouldn’t have nerves?

  And by the time they reached the door to their form room Clyde had forgotten all about whatever Rani thought she had seen.

  Rani hadn’t though, although she tried.

  But the business of settling in at a new school at least gave her some distraction. And Luke and Clyde seemed nice enough. Their form teacher was all right, too. Mr Cunningham was in his late thirties, a broad man with thinning hair and a big smile. As Rani sat with Luke and Clyde Mr Cunningham took the form through the day’s notes — the school football team was out of the Inter-School Challenge Cup after a mauling by one of the other local comprehensives. It was news that the form took with a chorus of good-natured boos and hisses. But he was hoping for better success in the science competition that was coming up…

  ‘Anyone who wants to sign up for the team should see Miss Webster,’ he told the class. ‘Luke Smith, I’ll be expecting to see your name on the list.’

  And the class made their views known on that chanting, Lukey! Lukey! Lukey!

  Rani was impressed, ‘You a bit of a brain-box then, Luke?’

  Luke shrugged uneasily. He was smiling, but uncomfortable with the attention.

  ‘They haven’t got a box big enough,’ Clyde told her.

  But Luke’s raucous fan-base was abruptly cut silent by a command from the back of the classroom.

  ‘That’s enough! Silence, the lot of you!’

  Every head in there turned — even Mr Cunningham’s.

  Framed in the doorway was an athletic darkhaired man in his early forties. And he needn’t have said anything, just one look told them all that he
was hard as nails. His suit was perfectly pressed, without a crease, his shirt shone white against his dark skin, and his tie was pulled into a tight knot that looked so symmetrical you got the feeling he may have calculated the angles as he tied it.

  ‘This is a classroom,’ he barked as he made his way towards Mr Cunningham, ‘not the home end at Stamford Bridge!’

  At the front of the class, Mr Cunningham looked only a shade less stunned than the rest of them. ‘Class, this is Mr Chandra. Our new Head.’ Whoops!

  And every eye was trained on the new Head Teacher as he moved around the room. He moved like a cat. No, a panther.

  ‘So let’s get one thing straight from Day One,’ Mr Chandra told them, his voice now quieter, but laced with threat, ‘this is a school. You come here to learn, not to play about.’

  And Mr Chandra, the panther, leaped on a boy a couple of seats down from Luke, who sat slumped in his seat doodling on the cover of an exercise book. ‘You boy! Sit up straight and pay attention!’

  The boy jumped straight. Luke jumped, too. Clyde exchanged a look with Rani. He thought she looked almost terrified.

  ‘Now,’ Mr Chandra continued, as he joined Mr Cunningham, ‘it’s been a while since your last Head Teacher, Mr Blakeman, disappeared.’

  Oh boy, thought Clyde, if only this guy knew the truth about that it would knock the chip off his shoulder. Blakeman had been a Slitheen, part of a family of inter-galactic chancers that was set on robbing Earth of all its energy — including the sun.

  ‘It seems that some of the school’s standards vanished with him,’ Mr Chandra snapped, favouring Mr Cunningham with a withering look. ‘But, listen up! Park Vale has a new captain on the bridge now.’

  Clyde leaned across to Rani, ‘Oh, no. I’m getting a very serious sinking feeling.’

  And he saw Rani roll her eyes with disbelief as she watched the man at the front of the class.

  ‘I’m a fair captain,’ he was saying, ‘but believe me, I run a tight ship. And I expect every one of you on course for the same destination — top marks. Not just the exams. Every piece of work you do. And any slackers will answer to me!’