Tears streaming down her cheeks, the girl – about the same size and build as Zoe – let go of her friend and walked fearfully down the hall in front of him.
Left behind, her friend sobbed brokenly. Meeting Allie’s shocked gaze she held up her hands. ‘I don’t understand… what’s happening?’
‘Bloody hell,’ Allie whispered to Rachel.
The girl’s long blonde hair was tied back with a blue bow – she was skinny, with a light dusting of freckles on the bridge of her nose. She looked somehow familiar, but Allie couldn’t place where it was she’d seen her before.
Crouching down until her gaze was on the girl’s level, she took her by the shoulders, her hands gentle but firm. ‘Listen to me. Do you see that door right there?’ She pointed at the door to her own bedroom. The weeping girl nodded. ‘Go in there and do not come out until the cars are all gone. Not even if someone calls your name. Not even if it’s someone you know.’ Clearly terrified, the girl nodded. She’d stopped crying, and she stared at Allie as if she were a rescuer, descending from a helicopter to pluck her from a flooded house.
Her eyes were the same cornflower blue as Jo’s.
Allie’s throat had gone so tight she could hardly speak. Jo didn’t have a little sister – it must just be a coincidence. But the similarity was so striking…
‘What’s your name?’ she whispered.
‘Emma.’
‘Your last name.’ But Allie’s tone was too insistent and the girl began to cry again.
‘Hammond,’ she said, sobbing.
Rachel had crouched down next to her too, now. She took the girl’s hand. ‘Emma Hammond, how old are you?’
‘T-twelve,’ the girl replied.
Rachel nodded seriously as if twelve was a very good age to be. ‘Will you be OK for a little while by yourself? While we go and try to help some other girls?’
The girl nodded, although it was clear she wasn’t at all sure.
Allie had control of herself now. She wasn’t related to Jo. Her eyes were just blue.
People have blue eyes.
‘There are biscuits in the top right drawer of my desk,’ Allie said. ‘I expect you to eat them all. Now go.’
They watched as the girl ran into the bedroom. Their eyes met for a second as the door began to close and Allie again saw a resemblance to Jo that made her shudder.
Swallowing hard, she nodded at the little girl. The door latched with a sturdy click.
‘I wish those doors had locks,’ Rachel muttered.
‘Me too.’ Allie squeezed her hand.
Rachel caught her gaze. ‘You did the right thing,’ she said, answering the question Allie was afraid to ask.
‘But she’s too young,’ Allie said. ‘Too young for us to include her in our plan. Nobody under sixteen could stay without their parents’ permission, remember?’ She kicked the wall next to her with such force a feather-sized piece of plaster floated down to rest on the floor next to her foot. ‘Why don’t we have a better plan? Why are we so stupid?’
Rachel’s jaw was tight. ‘We did the best we could.’
But at that moment it felt like they’d failed.
Looking at the bizarre scene around them, Allie said, ‘Are you OK to be up here alone? This is worse than I expected.’
Some part of her expected Rachel to tell her not to go – she didn’t really want to be alone right now herself. But, to Allie’s surprise, Rachel just squared her shoulders.
‘I’ll be fine. But, Allie?’ The look on her face gave Allie an idea of what was coming next. ‘I’m not going to leave the young ones. I’m going to hide them, too.’
Allie couldn’t ever remember being more proud of her.
‘It was a crap plan, anyway,’ she said, a smile quirking up her lips.
Rachel held up her fist. ‘Stay safe.’
As Allie raised her own fist a sudden thought made her hesitate. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Rachel really behave as if she was in Night School.
Before Rachel could notice the pause, though, Allie recovered and bumped her fist with her own. ‘Always.’
Downstairs, the scene was even worse than the girls’ dorm. As students wept and struggled, and uniformed men shouted, Zelazny stood red-faced near the door bellowing, ‘Please return to your normal activities! Do not linger in the hallway. If you are collecting students, do so in an orderly fashion. School must not be disrupted!’
No one was listening.
‘There’s no need to be so grabby!’ A tall, bookish-looking boy said, wrenching his arm free from a uniformed muscle-man’s grip. ‘I’m cooperating. You can tell them I cooperated.’
Allie recognised the stressed-out boy from the study carrel – the one who’d snapped at her the other day. But now he looked young and frightened – his glasses had been knocked crooked on his face as he tried to walk with elaborate dignity, just out of the man’s reach.
‘Hey!’ Running to his side, Allie touched his shoulder and he spun round to look at her. Behind his dark-framed glasses, his eyes looked afraid. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Oh, I’m just fine,’ he said with false bravery. ‘I’m going home, though. Pete here won’t have it any other way, eh, Pete?’
The dark sarcasm in his voice was not missed by the man, who shot him a threatening look.
‘Think you’re funny? I am allowed to subdue you, boy. You do not want me to subdue you.’ With that, Pete shoved the boy so hard he took an involuntary sprawling step towards the door.
‘See?’ he said despairingly as he caught himself. ‘Everything’s just fine.’
As they walked out the door, the driver turned to look at Allie with appraising eyes – something in his gaze made her blood chill in her veins. He knew who she was.
Suddenly afraid, she ran across the entrance hall to where Zelazny had given up shouting and now muttered at a clipboard in his hand. He seemed to be ticking names off as students walked out, dragging their suitcases behind them.
‘Mr Zelazny —’ Allie began, but he cut her off without looking up.
‘Not now.’
But she was not going to be put off. Not today.
‘Mr Zelazny.’ This time she said his name with such authority the teacher looked up, his mouth open in surprise.
When she had his full attention, Allie spoke clearly, enunciating each syllable: ‘Where is Isabelle?’
For a moment he looked at her as if he’d never seen her before. As she studied him with a frown, she noticed the clipboard quivering very slightly.
Blustering, raging, fearless Zelazny was frightened. But if he was the spy… wasn’t this what he wanted?
‘Isabelle?’ she said again.
He rubbed a weary hand across his face.
‘Great hall.’ His voice was hoarse from shouting, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.
Without waiting for more information, Allie fought her way back through the noisy, frightened crowd, across the polished oak floor, past the tapestries where ladies in long, medieval gowns looked upon the chaos but passed no judgement, under the sparkling crystal chandeliers.
The door to the great hall stood open. Clad in a dark skirt and crisp, grey blouse, a silk scarf draped around her neck, Isabelle stood on the low platform she used for induction days, surrounded by a crowd of worried teachers and a handful of students.
She appeared as calm and unruffled as Zelazny had looked panicked. But Allie knew her well enough by now to know it was an act. She could see her tension in the way she held her hands, in the high set of her shoulder and the tiny lines around her eyes.
‘There is nothing more we can do right now,’ she was saying as Allie walked in. ‘We must wait for them all to go before we know how many we have left.’
The teachers grumbled, clearly not satisfied.
‘It’s not just students leaving,’ one of the science instructors said. ‘Sarah Jones is gone.’
Someone gasped and a whisper swept the room. Allie had to think for
a moment before realising they must be talking about the biology teacher. Rachel had mentioned her before.
‘Are you certain?’ Isabelle’s face betrayed no emotion.
‘Her room was cleared out when I stopped in on my way here.’ The woman looked shaken. ‘We were friends. I didn’t know she was one of Nathaniel’s supporters.’
Isabelle didn’t pause to comfort her. ‘Does anyone know of other teachers who are missing?’
‘I haven’t seen Darren Campbell,’ a voice called from the back, and the crowd murmured restively.
‘What about Ken Brade?’ a maths teacher asked.
But someone quickly said, ‘I saw him out front helping August Zelazny.’
A sigh swept the group like a breeze as the teacher’s loyalty was confirmed.
‘I need specifics,’ Isabelle said. ‘Will two of you volunteer to verify all the teachers who are missing?’
Allie waited as the volunteers were chosen and Isabelle stepped down from her platform. The headmistress was instantly swamped in a sea of anxious instructors but she moved through them with steady determination.
‘I don’t know,’ she kept saying. ‘We’ll discuss this at the seven o’clock meeting. I’ll have all the facts then.’
As she emerged from the crowd her steely gaze met Allie’s. Her eyebrows winged up, and she motioned her closer. ‘With me.’
As they moved out into the hallway, Isabelle took her arm, pulling her swiftly through the crowds. Two of Raj’s guards materialised as if she’d conjured them, flanking them protectively.
‘Did Jules get away?’ Allie asked urgently. ‘Did Katie?’
Isabelle turned to face her. ‘I need you go to the agreed place until this is over,’ she said. ‘I can’t protect you right now. There’s too much happening at once.’
‘I can’t just hide while this is happening.’ Even as she said the words, Allie realised how much like Zoe she sounded. ‘I have to help.’
‘You cannot help. No one can help us now.’ Just for a moment Isabelle’s guard slipped and Allie saw anguish in her eyes. Her voice sharpened. ‘Just go back to the agreed place. Raj has guards all around it. I need you there. If you see the others on the way send them back, too but do not go looking for them. Not anyone.’
Allie opened her mouth to protest, but Isabelle grabbed her arm. The strength of her grip caught Allie off guard; Isabelle’s nails dug in like blades.
‘Allie, listen to me. Do you think for one moment all those drivers,’ she spat the word out, ‘are who they say they are? They have all the right paperwork but… look at them. Those are highly trained security personnel. Those are Nathaniel’s guards and they are all over my school.’ For a brief angry second, she shook Allie so hard her body quivered. ‘I need you all in a safe place. Now. Any of you could be taken and I wouldn’t know until it was too late. I cannot protect any of you right now. The plan is off until this is over. Go now.’
Her ferocity had the intended effect. As soon as she was released, Allie ran. But it wasn’t herself she was thinking about and, despite Isabelle’s words, it wasn’t the cellar she headed for. Instead, she vaulted the stairs two at a time, one word ringing in her panicked mind like an alarm bell.
Rachel.
THIRTY-TWO
I
left her completely alone. If anything happens to her…
As she hurtled up to the top floor, Allie’s breath came in short gasps. At first she thought it was from the exertion of moving so fast but then, to her horror, her vision began to darken. Her throat had narrowed until she felt as if she were choking.
No please. Not now.
She fought to stave off the panic attack – breathing in through her nose and letting the air whoosh out through her mouth as she’d learned to do. Even as the walls closed in on her, she forced herself to keep moving.
I will not give in to this, she thought. I will get to Rachel and then I will have a nice, quiet nervous breakdown in the cellar with my closest friends.
At the thought she tried to laugh but it came out as a sob. Still the action served to loosen the constriction on her lungs and she took a welcome gulp of air as she crested the top of the stairs to find… nothing.
The long, narrow corridor lined with plain white doors was empty. The crowds from earlier had dissipated. There were no crying girls, no angry men in terrifying uniforms. There was nobody at all.
‘Rachel?’ In the emptiness the word echoed back at her mockingly.
She looked around in bewilderment. All the doors were closed. Would she have to go through each one?
‘Rachel?’ She tried again louder.
Halfway down the hallway, one white door swung opened with a quiet click.
A rush of relief made Allie dizzy. It was her own bedroom door.
Of course! Rachel must have gone in there to hide with Emma.
She hurtled down the hallway to the open door.
‘Rach!’ she called as she skidded through the doorway. ‘I was freaking —’
But it wasn’t Rachel waiting for her. It was Emma. And she was covered in blood.
Whirling, her heart hammering inside her chest, Allie searched the room for an attacker but, other than the blood-covered girl, it was empty.
She crouched down in front of her, resting her hands gently on shoulders as delicate as a bird’s wings, and looked for wounds. The girl appeared to be frozen with fear.
‘Emma!’ She turned the girl round and back again but could find no cuts. ‘Who hurt you?’
‘A man came.’ Emma’s big, frightened eyes stared up at her. ‘He was looking for you.’
Allie swallowed hard. ‘What did he say?’ Her voice sounded as if it came from far away. ‘Emma, where did the blood come from?’
Tears streaming down her face, the girl held up a folded piece of plain white paper, stained with bloody fingerprints.
‘He said to give this to you.’ As Allie took the page from her hands gingerly, a tear rolled down Emma’s cheek, tracing a path in the gore.
With her heart pounding out no recognisable rhythm and her head beginning to swim, Allie knew she couldn’t stop to read the note. Clutching it in her hand she turned back to Emma.
‘Can you run?’
The girl nodded.
Standing, Allie grabbed her hand – it felt so small and fragile.
‘As fast as you can, Emma.’ She was surprised by the steadiness of her voice.
They ran down the hall to where a door hid the old servants’ staircase. As the door swung open revealing the winding stone staircase, Emma recoiled.
‘It’s dark.’
But Allie wasn’t about to stop now. ‘Don’t be afraid of the dark, Emma. Be afraid of that man.’
Then she pulled her on to the stairs.
Emma’s broken sobs and the scuffing of their footsteps were the only noises that accompanied them down for what felt like eternity. Around and around the staircase twisted and turned until Allie was certain they must be halfway to Hell.
But she held back the rising tide of panic until she saw Zoe waiting for her near the foot of the stairs.
‘She’s here!’ Zoe called over her shoulder. Then she looked back at Allie and her eyes widened. ‘Who’s that with you? What happened?’
Carter and Sylvain appeared behind her as Allie stumbled into the room, still clinging to Emma’s hand. She could see their shock as they saw the blood-covered girl.
‘Rachel.’ Allie gasped, trying to breathe. But she couldn’t get any more words out. There seemed to be no oxygen down here.
Moving quickly, Carter grabbed Emma and examined her for wounds.
Realising she was about to fall, Allie put one hand on a stone column. It felt cold as ice under her fingertips.
‘Is she here?’ she wheezed. The walls moved rapidly towards her, as if they were about to attack her. ‘Rachel… is she here?’
‘Rachel?’ Sylvain’s voice seemed to come from far away. ‘She was with you. Allie…?’
He caught her as she fell, his arms warm and strong around her.
‘Sylvain…’ She struggled for air.
‘I’ve got you,’ he said, lifting her from the earth.
‘We must find Raj Patel.’ Nicole sounded frightened. It was the first time Allie could ever remember her sounding scared.
Sylvain said something to her in French before switching back to English. ‘It’s not safe yet.’