‘Balls,’ Allie muttered, as the earpiece tumbled out again.
‘I think you’ve got it backwards,’ Alec suggested after a while.
Muttering to herself, she tried flipping it around as he demonstrated.
It fit perfectly.
‘Thanks,’ she said, looking at him properly for the first time. Something about him was familiar.
‘I’ve seen you before.’
Spots of colour appeared on his thin cheeks. ‘That night,’ he mumbled. ‘I got lost. You guys brought me back.’
Instantly Allie recalled the boy shoved forward by the guards on the dark night a few days earlier. Glasses crooked. Face pale and terrified.
‘That was you?’
He shrugged, eyes on his feet. ‘Zoe’s too fast.’
‘Can’t argue with that.’ Allie’s tone was dry. ‘Haven’t you been working with Dom, too?’
‘A little.’ He glanced up at her from beneath thick straight brows. ‘When I’m home I like hacking. You know, for fun. Games and stuff.’
Allie tried to imagine herself at his age, hacking for fun. It was inconceivable.
The last group of remaining students struck off into the woods reminding Allie that they needed to get moving.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘We’re Zone Six, which is down by the chapel. We’ll take it slow and steady. Don’t leave my side. Don’t get lost.’ She shot Alec a look. ‘If we’re lucky, we’ll all come back in one piece. We just have to get through the next two hours.’
As inspirational messages went, even she knew it wasn’t brilliant. But, under the circumstances, it would have to do.
They headed out across the broad expanse of lawn at a steady jog.
It was a clear night, and cool. The nearly full moon hung low on the horizon. A silvery dusting of stars shimmered above the trees as they headed across the lawn towards the forest.
‘It’s dark,’ Charlotte said.
‘Your eyes will adjust,’ Allie replied. But she slowed down a little to give them time to get used to the night.
As they ran, she kept an eye on her charges.
Charlotte wasn’t slim – her chubby cheeks made her look even younger than she was – but she handled the pace well. She had a smooth, natural gait as if, like Allie, she was born to run.
It was Alec who got winded easily. He was gasping for air within minutes.
‘Try to breathe from your diaphragm,’ Allie advised him, running alongside him.
‘What does that even mean?’ he groused.
‘It means,’ she said, ‘breathe deep. Use your entire lungs. They have a lot of space. Unless you have asthma. Do you have asthma?’
‘I don’t have asthma.’ He wouldn’t meet her gaze. He seemed embarrassed. Actually, everything seemed to embarrass him. He was hopelessly awkward.
Allie forced herself to be patient. She tried to think about how she ran.
‘Get a rhythm going. Breathe in and then out, every second step. So in, left foot right foot. Then out, left foot right foot.’ She ran alongside him, watching him critically as he tried the method with obvious reluctance.
Even though her own running was going well, Charlotte joined in, breathing rhythmically as Allie had demonstrated. Keeping an eye on Alec.
Allie was starting to like her.
‘Does it help?’ she asked.
The boy shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
But he looked better. Some of the purple tinge seemed to be fading from his skin.
‘Good.’ Allie pretended he’d thanked her. It made it easier not to hit him. ‘Now work on your foot placement. It’s not thump, thump. It’s heel toe, heel toe.’
‘Jesus,’ he muttered.
Allie, who had now used up all her patience, moved until she was running alongside Charlotte.
‘How are you doing, Charlotte?’
‘Everyone calls me Charlie,’ the girl said, apologetically. ‘Only my mum calls me Charlotte.’
Allie, who had said virtually the same thing a million times in her life, smiled.
‘Charlie it is.’
The cool glow of the moon disappeared the second they entered the woods. It was much darker here. The only sound was the thudding of their footsteps, and the harsh burn of Alec’s still imperfect breathing.
Allie ran a little ahead looking out for any sign of danger. They were running much slower than her usual pace and she longed to move faster. But she didn’t want Alec to collapse or Charlie to break an ankle. Because of all that, it took them a good fifteen minutes to reach the chapel wall.
They were well behind schedule now, but Allie tried to keep her tone positive.
‘This is our zone,’ she announced quietly.
The junior students exchanged puzzled looks.
‘Uh… What happens now?’ Alec asked.
‘We move quietly through the zone, looking for anything out of the ordinary.’
‘Like what?’
‘Murder and carnage, Alec. Use your imagination.’
‘God,’ he muttered. ‘Attitude.’
I will never be a teacher, Allie promised herself.
When they reached the chapel gate it was closed and secure, but she decided they should search it anyway. Just in case.
The latch opened with a metallic jangle, and the gate creaked open.
Inside, the churchyard was still. It no longer smelled of fresh cut grass. Allie didn’t let herself look at Lucinda’s grave.
With cool discipline, she scanned the yard for anything amiss, but all was in place.
With the other two right behind her she headed up the path to the front door of the church, and tried the handle. It turned with effort.
Inside, the darkness was complete. There was no electricity out here – no light switch to flip.
Allie pulled a torch from her pocket.
‘Oh my God. You had a torch all this time?’ Alec’s voice was too loud.
Allie motioned urgently for him to shut up.
Stepping into the chapel, Allie squinted into the glow of the flashlight. She could see the wall paintings – the dragon, the Tree of Life. The pews lined up in neat rows, waiting for the next service.
The next death.
A faint scent of lilies hung in the air. Reminding her of the hundreds of flowers that had filled this room not long ago.
Still. It was empty now.
‘All clear. Let’s go.’ She switched off the light.
They all heard the faint scuttling sound at the same moment.
A chill ran down Allie’s back. She’d seen nothing in there.
She heard Charlie gasp.
Hurriedly switching the torch back on, Allie swung the light at the back of the room. The church was completely empty.
The sound came again. It sounded like hands beating the walls, very softly. Or like nails against stone.
It didn’t sound… human.
Suddenly something shot out of the darkness directly at Allie’s light. She jumped, dropping the light.
Charlotte stifled a scream. Alec grabbed her, pulling her out of the way.
The thing fluttered past Allie’s face, brushing her hair with its webbed wing.
Her heart hammered in her chest – for a split second she couldn’t catch her breath.
Seeing that the other two were terrified, she forced herself to breathe.
‘It’s just a bat, you guys,’ she said.
‘Just a bat?’ Charlie hissed with such disbelief, Allie might as well have said it was just a triceratops.
For some reason this struck Allie as hilarious, and she found herself shaking with silent laughter.
The two junior students stared at her.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, regaining control. ‘We’re safe. I promise.’
Retrieving the torch from the ground, she pulled the door shut behind them. In a straight line, with Allie in the lead, they headed down the path towards the gate, which they’d left open.
The
re’s something about the aftermath of a frightening moment that makes you let your guard down. That exhilarating sense of survival takes away all fear, just for an instant.
Maybe that was why she didn’t see him until they reached the gate.
He stood just on the other side, in the shadows. The moonlight caught his hair and turned it blond.
‘Allie,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe it’s you.’
Charlie squeaked and scrambled backwards, running hard into Alec who caught her before she could fall.
But Allie didn’t run. She just stared at the man in the gateway.
‘Christopher?’
20
Allie felt dazed. Like she’d stepped into a dream. He looked good – his hair was a little shaggy, but he looked strong. He was casually dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, Converse trainers on his feet.
The suit he’d worn when he was working with Nathaniel was gone.
‘What… What are you doing here?’ She stumbled over her words.
She’d forgotten about Charlie and Alec. Forgotten what her role was here. All she saw was her brother. Standing where he should not be.
His nervous smile disappeared as quickly as it arrived. ‘Looking for you, Allie-cat,’ he said.
‘How did you get in?’ Allie looked around, as if the dark woods around them might hold the answers. ‘How did you get over the fence?’
‘Um… yeah.’ He stuffed his hands in his pockets, and rocked back on his heels. ‘We should probably talk about that. For now, let’s just say I got in.’
Something about his stance reminded her so strikingly of Nathaniel, it acted like a slap in the face. Allie suddenly realised where she was. What she had to do.
‘You shouldn’t have,’ she said.
She pressed the button on the radio mic connected to the neckline of her top.
‘This is Allie. I’m at the chapel.’
‘Allie, don’t.’ Christopher looked at her pleadingly.
But she couldn’t protect him. Not this time.
‘There’s an intruder.’
Christopher took a nervous step back, glancing around furtively as if he thought SWAT teams might spring from the forest.
‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘I’ve left Nathaniel. I saved you in London. I sold everything I had to get here without going on the grid.’ He held out his hands – his wrists bare. ‘The watch dad gave me. It’s gone.’
He seemed genuinely upset, but Allie could no longer say for certain if she knew her brother well enough to know when he was faking an emotion. He’d run away a long time ago. She’d been a child the last time they’d had a real conversation.
She wasn’t a child anymore.
‘If you’re really not working for Nathaniel, we’ll figure that out, and you won’t have any trouble.’
Her voice was cool and dispassionate. Like she was talking to a stranger.
Christopher shot her a look of pure disbelief. ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. I’m your brother. They’ll tear me apart, Allie. They think I’m on Nathaniel’s side.’
In the distance, footsteps pounded towards them out of the darkness. Dozens of them. Allie could see torch beams bobbing and dancing firefly-like through the trees.
Everyone was coming.
She turned back to her brother, who was backing towards the fence as if he might, foolishly, decide to run.
She couldn’t blame him. It sounded like an army was coming for him.
Too late, Allie questioned her decision.
‘I’m sorry, Chris,’ she said, panic fluttering inside her chest. ‘I had to.’
At that moment, the first guards sprang into the courtyard.
‘Get back.’ A muscular, dark-skinned man clad all in black leaped in between Allie and Christopher, pushing her away from her brother.
Around her, voices shouted rapid-fire commands.
‘Down on your knees. Now.’
‘Hands behind your head.’
‘Move.’
As the guards surrounded her brother, Allie backed slowly away.
Holding her gaze with desperate eyes, he did as he was told, lowering himself to the ground and bracing his hands behind his head.
The guard slipped plastic handcuffs on his wrists; another guard searched his pockets, finding only a phone, which he confiscated.
Straightening, one spoke into his radio. ‘Intruder in custody.’
The guards pulled Christopher roughly to his feet. He wasn’t looking at Allie now. He kept his gaze on some indefinable point in the distance.
The whole scene made her uneasy. Christopher’s placid acceptance of everything they were doing. The guards’ aggression.
She hated that it had come to this.
It was over in seconds. They hustled him out of the churchyard gate, and down the footpath towards the school building.
Then the night fell silent again.
Allie inhaled with gasping suddenness. Shaking herself as if waking from a nightmare, she looked around for the others.
Charlie and Alec were huddled together in the shadows by the chapel door, watching her with trepidation. As if she was the intruder.
Straightening her shoulders, she motioned for them to join her.
‘Come on. We need to get going.’
Emerging slowly from the safety of the sheltered doorway, they followed her down the footpath with clear reluctance.
It was a while before anyone spoke.
Charlie broke the silence when they were halfway to the school.
‘Who was that guy?’
‘My brother.’ Allie’s voice was flat.
‘Wait.’ Alec panted behind them, struggling with the pace. ‘Your brother just broke into our school?’
‘Yep. He used to work for Nathaniel.’ Allie kept her eyes on the dark woods ahead. ‘Any more questions?’
After that, Charlie dropped back to run with Alec.
When they reached the school building, Allie stopped and pointed towards a side door.
‘Go back down to the training room and let Zelazny know what happened.’
She was breathless, but not from running. With every step she’d grown more anxious. If Christopher had come here, he was either working for Nathaniel or he needed her help.
Which one is it?
Alec did as she said, but Charlie hung back. Her eyes watched Allie worriedly.
‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘What will you do now?’
Allie was starting to like her. She had potential.
But she didn’t say that. Instead, she turned towards the front door.
‘I’m going to find out what the hell my brother is doing here.’
Her footsteps were all Allie could hear as she sped to Isabelle’s office.
‘Isabelle?’ she called, knocking harder than was entirely necessary. ‘It’s Allie.’
The office door was locked – no light seeped from the crack around the door.
Trying to think, Allie walked slowly back into the corridor, pressing her fingertips against her lips.
Where would they take him? Eloise had been held in an outbuilding, near the pond at the fringes of the school grounds. Jerry had been locked up in a disused wine cellar deep in the school’s foundations.
Would they consider Christopher such a threat that they’d lock him up like that? She just didn’t know.
‘Allie. What’s happened?’ Sylvain appeared on the staircase, heading down towards her. ‘Isabelle said you found an intruder.’
Out of habit, Allie’s heart jumped, then sank again as he stepped into the light. His expression was cool; enigmatic. He stayed a safe distance away.
‘It was my brother.’ Her throat went suddenly tight. ‘It’s Christopher.’
‘What? On the grounds?’
He was shocked and she couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t decide which was worse, that she’d just turned in her own brother, or that somehow he’d managed to get into the school grounds
undetected.
She nodded.
‘I don’t know what he’s doing here or how he got in. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him. The security guards took him away so fast.’ She looked at him imploringly. ‘Sylvain, I have to talk to him. I have to know why he’s here.’
‘Allie…’
She could hear the conflict in his voice. The last thing he probably wanted to do right now was help her. She’d told him flatly she didn’t want that from him. And yet, here they were again.
‘He’s worked with Nathaniel for years,’ he said. ‘He was fully immersed in that world. There’s no reason to believe he’s somehow changed his mind.’
‘But in London he saved my life. He risked everything.’ It felt good to defend Chris, and she warmed to the cause. ‘Maybe Christopher really wants to be on our side now. What if he wants to help us? To help me? I can’t let them put him in the dungeon or whatever they’re going to do to him.’ Seeing the doubt in his eyes, she took a tentative step towards him. ‘Sylvain, he’s my brother.’
He raked his fingers through his wavy hair. ‘I know it’s difficult, but you have to think about this rationally,’ he said. ‘Pretend he’s not your brother. Perhaps, instead, he’s my brother. And he’s been on Nathaniel’s side throughout all of this. He was indoctrinated years ago. Then he does one thing to help me. One thing.’ He held up one finger. ‘Do I believe he’s changed all of his beliefs? Or do I suspect that’s what he wants me to think.’
Allie’s shoulders slumped. He had a point. But she wasn’t ready to give up. Not without talking to Christopher first.
‘I know it’s possible this could be a trick. But I still don’t want them to question him without me.’ He opened his mouth to argue and she spoke over him. ‘I know how they work, Sylvain. So do you.’
He held up his hands in tacit acknowledgement.
‘I just want to make sure he’s safe. That’s it.’ She held his gaze. ‘Will you help me?’
He didn’t answer immediately.
Allie wasn’t going to beg him. She was almost certain he’d know where Christopher was being held. He was very close to Raj and Zelazny, always involved in high-level decision making. It was just the sort of information he’d have.
But if he didn’t want to tell her, she’d find out on her own.