Project Integrate Series Boxed Set

by Campbell, Jamie

  “What am I then?” I didn’t know whether it was the blow or the late hour, but I was suddenly so tired I just wanted to lie down again. Perhaps it was whatever they had injected me with.

  “You’ve got the mark. You’re an alien,” he sneered the words at me, like they were made from poison.

  “I’m human. Do I look like a little green man?” I braced myself for another blow. He didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t as hard as the first one but still hurt like hell.

  “How about I try these methods on your little friend?” The man stood, looking ten feet tall when he stared down at me. “How do you think she’d take a punch? Will she cry? Because I really like it when they cry.”

  “No, don’t,” I answered quickly. The thought of him touching Lola like that was horrifying. “Don’t hurt her, please. Hit me, not her.”

  “She might be more willing to tell the truth. After all, she’s a human. Not a lying, filthy, alien.”

  I let the comments go over my head, I wasn’t going to take his bait and bite. Not when there were much more important issues at hand. “Please don’t hurt Lola. She doesn’t know anything either. I promise it’s the truth.”

  He left me there, taking the chair with him. The door slammed shut, the noise of it making me jump. I refused to cry, I wasn’t going to give in. Now more than ever I needed to stay strong and keep my head about me. I needed to work out how to get Lola out of there and find Lochie.

  Yet before I could do anything, the door opened and another man entered. He held a syringe and I knew exactly what that meant. As much as I squirmed and begged him not to, the needle slid into my arm and everything went fuzzy before I passed out again.

  CHAPTER 16

  “Amery, wake up.” The voice was distant, like they were speaking through cotton wool. Or maybe the cotton wool was in my ears, that would make more sense.

  My head floated in a sea of pain and nausea. I wanted to stay asleep where everything was just a void of nothingness. It was safe there, quiet and peaceful. And there was no pain in the black expanse. Waking up now, being unconscious was definitely preferable.

  “Wake up, come on. I need you to wake up.”

  “Lochie?” I whispered. Even just the single word made my jaw hurt. It felt like I had been run over by a truck. And then they backed over me for a second go – just to make sure I was well and truly crushed.

  “That’s it, come on, get up sleepyhead,” Lochie teased. He couldn’t fool me though, I could still hear the strain and worry in his voice. He helped me sit up and lean my weight against the wall. My hands and feet were free, unbound from the rope that had been holding them all together. In its place, however, was a single set of handcuffs.

  I held up my wrist. “Is this a joke?”

  My action made Lochie’s wrist go up too. We were handcuffed together, my left wrist with his right one. “At least the ropes are gone.”

  I shrugged, I guessed I should have been happy for the small reprieve. But seeing my triangle exposed for him to see filled me with a new type of panic. I prayed he wouldn’t notice it.

  I didn’t want to admit how relieved I was to see that Lochie was okay. He had a few bruises, he’d obviously put up a fight at some stage. All kinds of scenarios had run through my head when I didn’t know what had happened to him. To see him safe was like a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I just needed to find Lola and somehow escape. Easy, right?

  Lochie noticed my cheek, it probably had a nice bruise starting to form. It was probably a lovely shade of blue too. He touched it gently, brushing my cheek as if to take away the pain. I winced as he touched a tender spot.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled, taking away his hand. “You must have taken some hit.”

  “It looks like you did too.”

  He grinned which quickly turned into a wince with his split lip. Dried blood spotted his mouth. “He might have got a few blows in. But you should see the other guy.”

  I tried to smile but there didn’t seem to be any reason to. “We should try to find a way to get out of here. We need to find Lola and leave.”

  “I agree.” Lochie helped me to stand. We had to move together because of the handcuffs. It seemed like every time I wanted to go one way, he wanted to go the other. Even in the tiny room with a single window, we found ourselves wanting different things.

  “Hold my hand,” Lochie finally ordered me. He held his fingers open, waiting.

  “I’m not holding your hand,” I replied. Was he seriously trying to get close to me? I couldn’t believe his gall.

  “Right. So the cuffs aren’t digging into your arm every time you move? Must just be me then.”

  My face started to burn when I realized what he meant. When we moved, the cuffs rubbed. Already my wrist was starting to look like it had a severe sunburn. I shoved my hand into Lochie’s. At least by holding us together with our hands instead of the cuffs, they wouldn’t pull anymore. That would make being attached to him slightly more bearable. Of all the people who I could be stuck with, the last I would have chosen would be Lochie. It was like the world was playing a practical joke on us.

  “I see you’ve still got your mysterious triangle,” he started casually. Lochie was the only one who had accidently seen my mark. It happened at my first and only summer camp. I had managed to get out of explaining about it then, just like I hoped to do now.

  “It’s just a birthmark.”

  “Hmm, why don’t I believe that?”

  “Because you never believe me.” That shut him up for the moment as he started to search the room with his eyes.

  “There is no way to get out this window,” Lochie said, examining the glass and its enclosure carefully.

  It was higher than my eye line, I couldn’t even see out if I stood on tiptoes.

  “It’s bolted shut from the other side,” he added.

  “What’s outside?”

  “Grass. We’re below street level. This must be some kind of basement or something.” That was going to make it more difficult to escape. If we were underground, then there was probably only one way up and no doubt it wouldn’t be an easy route.

  “What about the door?” I asked, moving toward it. Lochie followed, with no choice but to. We examined every part of the entryway, looking for any hint of a weakness. It looked solid to me. “Can you see anything?”

  “The hinges are standard, there’s a lock on the other side. We don’t even have a handle. Short of knocking it down, it’s not budging.”

  “We really are trapped then.”

  “It looks that way.”

  “I need to sit down,” I said, feeling the walls caving in around me. We slumped to the floor in unison. It was cold and hard, just like everything else in the room. “We have to work out a plan. They’re going to come back eventually and we need to be prepared when they do.”

  “Agreed. Got any ideas?” He asked, looking at me expectantly.

  “If we had the element of surprise, do you think you could knock them out?”

  “Maybe if it wasn’t my right hand in the cuffs.” He held up our still linked hands. He couldn’t hit anything with me still attached to him.

  “Maybe I can get my hand out,” I replied. He let me go and I started to pull my hand through the cuffs. I twisted it in every direction possible, trying to make my hand as small as it could get. The bones in my wrist wouldn’t let it through. I gave up when my hand started to be ringed in red. I linked my fingers back through Lochie’s. “Looks like we’re stuck together.”

  He shrugged. “There’s worse things in the world.”

  I looked up at him, waiting for the smart aleck remark that would surely follow. But it didn’t come. Instead, Lochie was staring at me seriously. I’d never seen him look at me quite that intensely before. I didn’t know how to take it.

  Our eyes locked and I think my brain had completely skipped out on me because I didn’t hate Lochie. All the annoyance I usually felt at seeing him completely vanished into thin air. In
stead, it was replaced with a pull. A desire to be closer to him.

  Lochie started leaning in, our lips dangerously close to colliding. I was moving closer too, making sure it could happen. What the hell was I doing? I closed my eyes, waiting for the sweet moment of impact.

  He was so close I could feel his breath on my skin. I yearned to feel the warmth of his lips on my own. I reached up, silently begging for it to happen.

  Suddenly the sounds of Don’t Stop Believing by Journey filled the room. I snapped back to reality, whatever spell he cast over me completely gone.

  I looked around, trying to work out where the song was coming from. “Is that your phone?”

  Lochie quickly sprang for his pocket. He pulled out his cell phone as the song stopped. “It went to message bank.”

  “You had a phone? This entire time?” I asked incredulously. Seriously, his incompetence never ceased to amaze me.

  “I forgot I had it,” he tried to defend himself. “I wasn’t even thinking of my phone. I was thinking of a way to get out of here.”

  “Uh, like calling for help?” He had the decency to look sheepish. “Give me that.” I snatched the phone and started dialing my home number.

  With every beat of my heart, I hoped my parents would answer. According to the time on the phone, it was five a.m. I would be getting them out of bed but they would forgive me.

  The phone rang out. We didn’t have an answering machine so I couldn’t even leave a message. I was ashamed to admit I didn’t know my parents’ cell phone numbers off by heart. They were programmed into my phone, I didn’t need to remember them. Until now, anyway. I was completely useless without my own phone.

  “They aren’t answering,” I said, handing back the phone. “I’ll have to try again later. Turn it off so we don’t waste the battery.” He turned it off, just like I instructed him too. That was twice now he had done as I had asked, that had to be some kind of a record.

  My mind raced, trying to think of anyone else I could call for help. The police would ask way too many questions, which would only get me into trouble with the Department. Rob? He was an option but I had no clue what his number was either. It wasn’t like I could call Information and ask them for the number of the secret Department headquarters. I seriously doubted it would be listed.

  The anger I felt at Lochie was nothing to the growing worry I felt for Lola and now my parents. They should have been home to answer the phone, they wouldn’t have a reason to be out of the house at this time of the morning. If the men in suits had got to them too, I didn’t know what I would do.

  I slumped back against the wall, wishing it was all a nightmare I could wake up from.

  “I’m sorry about the phone,” Lochie whispered.

  “It’s okay,” I replied. It was just a stupid mistake after all. I guessed it would have been easy to forget about it considering everything else that was going on. “But Journey? Seriously? That’s your ringtone?” I smiled, trying to make him feel a bit better. I don’t know why.

  “It’s the Glee version.”

  “And that makes it any better?”

  He shrugged and smiled that adorable lopsided grin he had. The one where his cheeks dimpled. “I’m a Gleek, what can I say?” I nudged him in the ribs. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine Lochie racing home from basketball practice just to watch the television show. Perhaps he was a closet choir member and I never realized?

  I didn’t get a chance to ask before the door swung open. One of the men stood there, it was a different one to whom I had spoken with earlier.

  “What’s the noise in here?” He demanded. We didn’t move from the ground, neither willing to jump up to attention. They would only knock us back down again.

  “Nothing,” I replied. “But I have to pee. Can you please take me to the bathroom?” He glared at me. I discreetly tapped Lochie on the leg, hoping he got the hint.

  He did. “I need to go too. Seriously man, like really bad. Can you please take us?”

  “I’ll get you a bottle,” the man grumbled. Even if I really did need to pee, there was no way I was going to settle for a bottle. Clearly the man didn’t understand how a female’s urinary track worked.

  “I can’t go in a bottle,” I said, panicked. “There is no way that could happen. Please, just take us. We will behave. Neither of us want to be hit again.”

  “Come on, she’s a girl, you know what they’re like,” Lochie added. I hoped he was just trying to build a rapport with the guy and not really insulting me.

  He finally sighed. “Fine. Both of you come with me.”

  We didn’t waste a moment in getting up and following him. The man in the perfectly pristine suit led us through a long corridor and to a set of stairs. As we reached the bottom, Lochie tugged on my hand. I was confused for a moment before he swung a mean left hook at the man’s head. He spun before falling to the floor.

  All I could do for a moment was stare, my brain not catching up to my eyes just yet.

  “Come on, we don’t have much time,” Lochie insisted, pulling me along. My instincts kicked in and I hurried after him. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice with our handcuffs. Wherever Lochie was going, I was going too.

  We raced up the stairs and quickly looked around. There was no sign of the other man or anyone else. We rushed through the house, desperately searching for a door that could get us the hell out of there. Even a window would do, although the noise from glass breaking might have been too loud.

  “There’s a door,” Lochie said, pointing ahead. We hurried for it, not stopping until we were outside. The first rays of sunlight were shining down on the street, just enough for us to see what we were doing.

  The house was in a suburban street, it could have been anywhere in Portview. Nothing belied the basement full of cells and the men keeping people hostage there.

  “We either run or try that,” I suggested, looking at the car parked in the driveway. “It might have a key in it?”

  “It’s not going to have a key,” Lochie replied. Still, he led me toward it and tried the door. It was unlocked but there was no key to be seen. “Get in.”

  “But we can’t-”

  “Get in,” he repeated. I knew with his tone of voice he wouldn’t wait around for me to obey if I didn’t. He would probably pick me up and throw me in.

  I climbed in through the driver’s side and crawled over the gearstick to get to the passenger’s side. Lochie followed, extending his arm over the gap.

  “I need your arm,” he said before yanking me over. He reached underneath the steering column and pulled out a bunch of wires I didn’t even know were there. He fiddled with them, my arm straining against the cuffs the entire time.

  The engine roared to life, much to my surprise. Lochie didn’t hesitate to back the car along the driveway and speed down the road.

  “Where did you learn how to do that?” I asked, still trying to work out that we were actually getting away from the men in suits.

  “I have lots of talents you have no idea about, Jones. You don’t know me nearly as well as you think you do.” That was probably a good thing. If he knew how to hotwire a car, then he probably knew of a multitude of ways to break the law. That would definitely be against the project rules.

  But I couldn’t think of Lochie’s possible delinquency at the moment. “We need to go back.”

  “I’m not going back there.”

  “Lola is still there. We shouldn’t have let her behind,” I said, in a panic. I so badly needed to turn back and find her. I shouldn’t have left without getting her first.

  “Firstly, Lola probably isn’t there. We would have heard her. Secondly, we will only get thrown back into that cell. And thirdly, we need help. Your parents are in the FBI, surely they know how to handle this better than we do?”

  He had a point, more than one really. Still, it was my fault Lola was in there. The moment they knew we escaped, they would hurt her. “We have to get her out of there.”

&n
bsp; “I know and the best way to do that is to get help. I’m not turning this car around. Considering we’re stuck with each other for the time being, that means you’re not going anywhere either.” He stared straight ahead, concentrating on the road as he sped along.

  He was right, there was no way we were any match for the men in suits. We had only seen two of them but Rob said they were organized. There would be many more than just two, no doubt. Who knew how many were in the house that we didn’t see? And now we had escaped and stolen their car, they would be extremely angry – to put it mildly.

  “So where are we going then?” I asked, a little grumpier than I had intended. I sounded like a sulking child and I was anything but that.

  “To your home so you can talk to your parents.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” I conceded. We didn’t say another word until we reached my street. He was driving well above the speed limit and I didn’t want to interrupt his concentration.

  As we rounded the corner, something didn’t feel right. There were too many cars in the street, way more than usual. A knot was starting to form in the pit of my stomach.

  “Lochie, something’s wrong,” I said. He slowed down slightly.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t-” I stopped mid-sentence. There were plenty of cars but not one of them belonged to my security police. There was no way they wouldn’t be at the house if my parents were there. There was a zero chance of that happening. “Lochie, don’t stop. Keep driving and don’t slow down.”

  He glanced at me anxiously but sped up a little as I ducked down. It felt like it took ages to reach the end of the street again. I wasn’t game enough to peek outside until we put some distance between us and my house.

  “Did you see anything?” I asked.

  “There were a few people on your lawn. They looked official.”

  “Like FBI official?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. They were just men in suits standing around. You told me not to look so I didn’t. I only got a glance in the mirror,” Lochie said defensively, like he did something wrong.