A Sprinkle of Sabotage by Fiona Leitch (bill gates book recommendations TXT) 📗

scrawled my name on the delivery sheet, and then began tearing at the sealing tape.

Inside, packed in ice, were two fish of a type I didn’t think I’d seen before; I certainly hadn’t cooked them. I looked at Gino’s menu list, but other than a couple of salmon fillets put aside for Faith and a few nondescript white fish portions in the freezer in case Kimi wanted them, there was nothing on the list about seafood.

‘All right?’ Zack stood at the counter, looking hot and sweaty.

‘Blimey, what’ve you been up to? You look all—’

He laughed. ‘You were gonna say ‘red in the face’, weren’t you? I’m black; we don’t go red. We just sorta glow. Sexily.’ He winked at me and I laughed too.

‘Yes, I was, and yes, you do.’

‘We just did this big fight scene,’ he said, pouring himself a glass of water from the jug on the counter. ‘Well, it’ll look like a big fight scene, but we’ll shoot most of it in the studio in front of a green screen later. You know what that means?’

‘They superimpose the background and that afterwards?’

He nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s right. All we shot was the end bit, with the house in the background so they can copy it into the CGI. I just beat this dark knight bloke in a sword fight and I’m standing there with my foot on his body and my blade drawn…’ He drew his sword – which was ornately carved and set with a red jewel in the handle – and brandished it, clearly enjoying himself. ‘And I’m like, yeah, I’m the man, and in the background on the horizon this massive dragon monster appears.’

‘Cool.’

‘Yeah.’ He put his sword back in its sheath, sighing in exasperation as the jewel fell out of its setting. He bent down and picked it up. ‘Bloody thing keeps falling off. Plastic tat. Sam made me run around for half an hour like a nutter, to get me looking like I’d just beaten the crap out of the evil horde. I’m knackered now.’ He nodded to the insulated box. ‘That my fish? I got a text from Gino saying he got a text from the delivery company…’

‘This is yours?’ It made sense now. ‘Of course, for tonight. What is it? I don’t think I’ve cooked it before.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be preparing it. It’s fugu.’

‘Fugu?’

‘Pufferfish.’

I stared at him in amazement. ‘Pufferfish? But that’s poisonous, isn’t it? Unless you know what you’re doing.’

‘I do know what I’m doing.’

‘But…’ I shook my head. ‘We had a talk from a sushi chef on my course, and he said that chefs have to study for like two years before they’re allowed to prepare it. Restaurants won’t take on a fugu chef unless they’ve got this specific qualification.’

‘I know, and I’ve got it,’ he said. ‘I lived in Japan for nearly a year when I was filming The Black Samurai, and while I was there I learnt how to do it. I trained under a fugu master.’ He did a mock kung fu pose. ‘Seriously, I’m a black belt in fugu.’

‘Really?’ I was sceptical. Well, I ain’t eating it, I thought, but then I wasn’t going to anyway, was I? The star of the movie, Kimi, was. A massive THIS IS A BAD IDEA!!! klaxon went off in my head. ‘Um, you do realise this shoot is cursed, don’t you?’

He laughed. ‘Ah, come on, I thought you had more sense. I know the others think that, but I’m not superstitious. I grew up in South London, I had enough real stuff to be afraid of without jumping at shadows.’

‘I know, and no, I don’t really believe in curses. But you can’t deny that weird stuff keeps happening. Faith getting locked in, Kimi’s dog, Gino’s accident…’

Zack looked uncomfortable. ‘Yeah, I know… But I wanted to do something really nice for Kimi and Aiko. Now Kimi’s famous they spend most of their time in America, and I know Aiko misses Japan.’ He didn’t meet my eyes and, despite what he’d said about not going red, I could tell he was blushing. So it was Aiko he’d been trying to impress with his dog-sitting skills, not Kimi. Bless him. He shook his head. ‘Anyway, if it is cursed it’s already gone wrong, because it was just supposed to be the three of us, and then Kimi invited Faith and Jeremy along too, because she said she goes to bed early and she thought I’d be bored if I got left alone with Aiko.’ Poor Zack. Getting left alone with Aiko had obviously been his plan, but now he’d been roped in to cook for all of his co-stars. I smiled at him.

‘We’ll make it a really nice night for Aiko and Kimi,’ I said, deliberately putting Aiko first. He blushed again. Aww, sweet. ‘I’ll help out and do some Japanese rice and veggie dishes or whatever you want me to do, and you concentrate on the fugu. But if I have any doubts over the safety of what you’re serving, I’m putting a stop to it, okay? I’m the qualified chef here, and it won’t look good on me if something happens.’

He looked like he was going to protest for a moment, then stopped. ‘Okay.’ He looked around at the sound of someone calling his name. ‘Gotta go. Monsters to kill and all that. Laters.’

Chapter Eleven

I was still unconvinced that serving potentially poisonous pufferfish was a good idea, but I could see why Zack wanted to do it; he was desperate to impress Aiko. Well, I’d make sure he impressed her with a proper Japanese banquet, so if I managed to convince him not to serve the fugu it wouldn’t be obvious that a major part of the meal was missing. I put a cauliflower pasta bake (a cauliflower cheese/mac ’n’ cheese crossover, made with vegetarian cheddar) in the oven and left a chicken casserole simmering on the stove, then grabbed my phone and went down a Google