Ghost Pepper, Locker 41

About this book

In the stacked city of Halverholm, flavour belongs to Palatine Foods, and tasting anything you haven't paid for is a crime. Twelve-year-old Mint Sarkissian doesn't care. From her grandmother's shuttered noodle stall on Ninth Shelf she brews Ghost, an illegal red sauce from three hidden pepper plants, and sells it through a battered tram-stop locker, overcharging everyone and saving every chit to get out alone. Then a note drops into Locker 41 that isn't an order. It's from Oskar Lund, a Palatine Junior Taster with a perfect tongue and a contract his family's home depends on, and he's been told to find whoever made Ghost. Mint decides to use him. He has his own reasons for writing back. In a city where every screen is watched, paper is the one place two prickly kids can tell the truth. Neither of them plans to.