Trials in Walls of Ivy (Triskelion Trilogy Book 1)

by Deborah Jayne Pye

  Mendel barked. His piercing sharp snap, cut through the anchor of fear which was dragging me down. Cold wetness rubbed against my cheek. His whine, willing me to move, cried through every nerve ending I still possessed. His strangled whimper was what drove me to my feet against the wash of panic. Mendel was relying on me.

  We had to move with the crowd, it was the only way to avoid the crush. With a gulp, I held my elbow out slightly and jarred my way into the wave. Mendel pounded beside me as we ran with the panicking wave of people. We ran as one through the campus. I twisted to see behind as we moved. The smoke was higher, spreading in every direction. It was like it was following us, hunting us from above. I edged my way to the side of the crowd as we approached my row of houses. People weren’t slowing. I got the impression some of them were planning on running through the ivy walls themselves.

  My outstretched arms slammed open the door, where I found Owen and Bree waiting for me. I jumped as Warwick slammed the door shut behind me, only just missing Mendel.

  “Oh, thank god you got back here. Where were you?” Bree shouted. She was handing plastic bags to Owen and Warwick. I looked behind to see they were placing them along the crack of the door and taping them in place.

  “Bree! I was hoping you’d come back soon.” I pulled her away from the guys. “We need to talk about last night. We need to report whoever it was who drugged you. Never mind what Llamp thinks, we should go to the police.”

  She shook her head and began to walk back to the door. “No Roz, this isn’t the time.”

  “But, you can’t let them get away with it.”

  “I won’t.” Her voice was stern, as if daring a challenge. I flinched back and she pulled me into a hug. “Look, I know I have to report it. And, I will. But Roz, I don’t remember what happened. So either way, it’s going to take time.”

  “But.”

  “Later. Thank you for caring so much. But, right now, we’re dealing with a bomb, okay?”

  I watched her face, searching for a sense of doubt, a pause of hesitation. There was none.

  “Okay. But as soon as this is over, we get the guy who drugged you.”

  “Deal.” She leaned in and hugged me again.

  How was it that I was the one needing comforting?

  “Come on. They need our help.”

  We stepped back into the hallway where Owen and Warwick were putting the finishing touches on their makeshift plastic seal.

  “You guys did a great job,” I said, stepping back to give them room.

  Warwick glared at me. “Dirty bombs? You knew they were dirty bombs, and you didn’t feel the need to tell people?” He forced down another bag while Owen taped over it.

  “They’re not technically dirty bombs,” Owen said, “they’re biological.”

  “Sound dirty enough to me. Why the fuck didn’t any of you tell me?”

  “Hey, don’t shout at us,” Bree yelled, standing between Warwick and me.

  I shrank back. “I’m sorry. We were just researching it for the task. The police hadn’t told everyone, so we didn’t think to either.”

  “But you knew they were carrying something. You should have warned us,” Warwick shouted. He got to his feet and shoved passed me and Bree into the living room.

  I unlocked Mendel’s lead and he loped off into the kitchen. I watched him stand on his back paws against the counter, stealing whatever had been left on a plate. Owen put his arm around my shoulders as we walked into the room behind Warwick.

  “Look mate,” Owen said, “we don’t even know what the bombs are carrying. Roz here was at the last explosion, and she’s fine.”

  I couldn’t hold back the shiver at the thought of being infected by something. So far, nothing had happened and I was too scared to look into it further.

  “And you guys are investigating this?”

  “Yes, but it’s not that easy,” I said.

  Warwick pointed to Owen. “That guy is a hacking genius. He’s on your team. Are you seriously telling me that you haven’t asked him to hack into the investigation files to find out what the hell we might all be breathing in?”

  “Of course he has, but it’s not in the police files.”

  “Then where else have you looked?”

  I looked to Owen, my mouth unable to form words. Warwick was right. Why hadn’t I asked Owen to hack into somewhere else? The military? MI5? The reports we had seen so far all stated there was a biological element. Why hadn’t I pushed to delve deeper? Why hadn’t I told him to break into every department to find the truth?

  Owen left the room and headed for the stairs. We followed him. Silently.

  In his room sang the familiar hum of computer engines. I sank into the corner of his bed without word. I knew why I hadn’t asked him, why I didn’t want to know what the bombs contained: I was too scared to find out. Mark and I had been too close to one of these bombs. Who knows what we could have been infected with? Although we got the all clear, there was still a lingering doubt in my mind. How could a person be so close to so much death and not be even slightly infected? I wrapped my arms around my legs and watched him work.

  It took over an hour. Warwick paced the room; Bree gave herself a pedicure on the edge of the bed. We all tried to ignore the sounds of shouting and sirens outside. Each of us peeked through the window intermittently, checking the progress of the explosions. From where we were positioned, paths leading toward the East of the campus were barricaded off. In the darkness, I could just make out the silhouette of figures guarding the perimeter. Blue lights reflected off the landscape of houses which now doubled as bunkers. Smoke lingered in the air, hovering like a thick, smothering blanket.

  “Think I’ve got it,” Owen said, not taking his eyes away from the screen. The three of us leaped to our feet and crowded behind him.

  “What is it then, what are they trying to infect us with?” Warwick asked. He gripped the back of Owen’s chair.

  Owen scrolled through the screen and pointed to a line. “It doesn’t say what people are infected with.”

  “Then what does it say?” Bree asked. I could tell she was intentionally forcing her voice to appear calm.

  Owen shook his head. “It’s strange. It says here, the first bomb was the one in Bournemouth.”

  “Yes,” The three of us said, as one.

  “Well, according to this, it exploded right on the sea front. Right in a tourist area.”

  “It was out of season, there wouldn’t have been many there,” I said.

  “Yes, but there was some sort of convention going on at the time, so the place was packed.”

  “But, what were the people infected with?” Warwick shouted.

  “That’s what’s confusing. Not all of them were. Some people were injured in the blast. But, of those who died, only a handful were killed by the biological weapon.”

  “How?” I asked, searching for the answer over his shoulder on the screen.

  “They don’t know. According to this report, the people seemed to have some sort of sudden implosion.” Owen leaned back in his chair, like he wanted to distance himself from what he was reading.

  Warwick stood and paced the room. “What the fuck does that mean? Implosion? How the fuck can a person implode?”

  Owen pointed to the screen. “That’s what it says. I don’t think the police have a clue what’s going on.

  “That ties in with what Teresa said.” I sank back onto the bed.

  Warwick stood over me. “I thought you said you didn’t know what it was?”

  “I don’t. But, when I spoke to Teresa, she said the people were suffering from an extreme case of something called necrosis. She said it was a full cellular breakdown. That’s more or less imploding, right?”

  “Anything else you forgot to tell us?”

  “Hey!” Owen pulled Warwick’s arm back. “Leave her alone. This isn’t her fault and blaming her isn’t going to help.”

  Warwick shrugged and folded his arms. “Well, where
do we go from here then?”

  I sat back on the edge of the bed. A plan was swirling around my head, forcing itself to form.

  “Okay, Owen, you keep digging. See what other information you can find from these reports. Print everything off. Bree, you and Ash go through everything Owen prints up. Look into similarities between the explosions. Were they the same kind of explosive, same size blast, or same biological weapon?”

  Bree nodded and grabbed a pad of paper from Owen’s desk. “I can’t get Ash until we can leave the house, but will get to it on my own until he gets here.” She scribbled down notes as she spoke.

  “What about me?” Warwick asked. He still stood facing me, his arms folded.

  My brows furrowed in confusion. “But, you’re not on our team.”

  He laughed. “I am now. I think this is more important than finding out what happened to the Mary Celeste.”

  I looked at him puzzled. “The deserted ship?” I asked. “But why would you be researching that?”

  “Because, Spring asked me to be in her group, and that’s what she wanted to research.”

  I gulped, forcing back the irritation from the mention of her name. “I don’t mean to be blunt, Warwick. But, you’re not exactly friendly with me. Why would you want to be on my team?”

  “I don’t have to be your best friend to work with you. What’s important is stopping these bombings. If working with you will do that, then I’m in.”

  I ignored Bree sniggering from across the room. He was right; this task was bigger than friendship or university grades. The bombs had to stop. And, if the police couldn’t figure out who was setting them, we had to. I stood to face him.

  “Alright, Warwick. You’re in. But, we already have one of you Spiders on the team, so you’ll have to work alongside each other. What area do you specialise in?”

  “Electronic surveillance.” He replied. “Monitoring activity on electronic devices, recording online behaviour, that sort of thing.”

  Owen stood and slapped him on the back. “Fantastic. Jay can cover the visual and audio, you can work with me on the digital.”

  The two guys sat together by Owen’s computer. I held my hands up, waving for an explanation. “Meaning?”

  Warwick twisted in his chair. “Owen can hack into a system, while I plant a replication virus. It will copy everything they do on their end and send it to us.”

  “If Warwick can do this, I won’t have to keep hacking in. It will just keep updating the reports to us,” Owen said, excitedly.

  “Like, copy and paste?” Bree asked.

  “Exactly. I can plant it so they won’t know,” Warwick said.

  “Can you do it to all the places we’re collecting information?”

  “Yep, no problem. Well, most likely, anyway.” Warwick twisted back to the screen.

  I paced the room, running through the events in my mind. My friends mumbled to each other, talking through information they were finding as they researched. I couldn’t keep up with it all. I knew I needed to get my head clear on everything as a whole if I was going to lead this investigation successfully.

  “I’m going to contact Ash, Jay and Fern. I’ll tell them we’re having a team meeting tomorrow afternoon. That should give me enough time.” I said, as I headed to the bedroom door.

  Bree lowered the paper she was holding up to her nose. “Enough time for what?”

  “As soon as we get the all clear, I’m going to talk to Levins again.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The all clear didn’t come until nine in the morning, when a man in a yellow vest banged on our door. Bree and I rushed to rip the plastic bags free. Paint splintered away from the wood and I grimaced at the idea of having to repair it. The man told us that the danger was over and we were free to leave the house. He ticked off a box on a clipboard. From the look of the list, he still had a lot of houses to get to. We asked him what had happened, and if everyone was safe. He shrugged and told us that was all he knew. As he walked back down our path, I ripped my coat from the peg, grabbed my bag and ran from the house.

  Groups of people were headed in the same direction: toward the science blocks. I passed the Keep and the coffee shop, still able to see clouds of smoke hovering over the campus.

  The first science block I approached was grey with dust. The broken windows were boarded up with sheets of rough looking ply wood. I rounded the first building and stopped with a gasp.

  The far lab, the furthest from the other science labs, was in ruins. The entire roof and upper walls were missing. Rubble of broken bricks and glass scattered the ground. Yellow tape prevented me from getting closer, but I could see that there was nothing left from the inside of the lab. I gulped back the thought of Mark heading toward this warzone. A twisted sheet of metal lay close to where I stood. I sucked in a breath as I realised it was a lab table. It was twisted like a piece of tin foil. No person could have survived this if they were in the building.

  “Bit grim, isn’t it?”

  I jumped as Karissa spoke from behind me.

  “Karissa! We were wondering where you were last night. You okay?”

  “Me? Yeah, I’m fine, was staying in tower block C.” She winked at me, though I had already guessed what she was implying.

  “Oh, good.” I looked back to the rubble. “This is terrible.”

  “Yeah. Wonder who left the gas on? Bet they’re going to be in for it.”

  “Gas on?”

  “That’s what I heard. Gas explosion apparently.”

  “But, there was more than one explosion.”

  She screwed her face up in confusion. “More than one gas leak?”

  I shrugged, not wanting to insult her by explaining the fault in her logic. My mind raced to change the subject.

  “So, how’re you getting on with your task? Who’s on your team?”

  She smiled at me sweetly, like I was confused. “Team? Where am I supposed to get a team from?”

  “But, you are researching something for your task?”

  She shrugged again. It seemed to be her fall back expression. “Course I am.”

  “You mind if I ask what?”

  She beamed a wide grin at me. “The true story of Robin Hood.”

  I laughed, then fumbled to straighten my face when I saw she was serious. “But, Robin Hood wasn’t real. It’s a made up story.”

  “I know that.” She shoved my shoulder playfully.

  “Then, how can you research it?”

  “By proving it was made up. Good idea, eh?” Her bright smile shone wider, glowing against the destruction beside us. “Anyway, I have to get moving. I need to get changed and sorted for tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “Party at E block. You coming?” She was already walking away.

  “Not tonight, sorry. But, you have a good time,” I called, after her.

  My heart sank as I watched her almost bouncing along the path, her red hair floating behind like a halo of flames. She waved and hugged her many friends as they passed; a human ray of sunshine.

  I felt like a thunder cloud who wanted to ruin her day. How could Llamp agree on that subject? It didn’t make any sense. We had to show every area. But, what if she was being allowed to fail? Would Llamp actually tell us if our work wasn’t good enough?

  My stomach churned at the thought.

  I backed up and ran to the doors of the closest lab, a new surge of determination driving me forward. I was going to solve this mystery. I was going to pass uni and stop these bombs.

  The rooms were empty. I pushed my way through door after door, searching for some sign of life, any sign of Mark or Levins. I slammed open another connecting door when I heard a yelp from the other side. I forced my way through to see a girl holding her nose.

  “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” I said, as I rushed forward to see if she was okay.

  “It’s alright,” she said, muffled from behind her hands, “I don’t think it’s broken.” Teresa pinched her no
se.

  “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t find anyone, is everyone okay?”

  “We’re all through here.” She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. “Here, come on.”

  I followed her through to the next room, relief lifting from my shoulders. She pushed open the doors to reveal three white lab coats milling around metal work benches.

  “Someone’s here to check we’re still alive,” Teresa said, sarcastically. She winked at me and grinned.

  The three coats turned to reveal Levins, Mark and Fern.

  “Thank goodness you’re all safe,” I said, feeling suddenly formal.

  “Hey Roz, where’s Mendel?” Mark asked. He was holding a small glass flat dish, scraping a stick around its insides.

  “He’s fine. I left him back at my house.” I stepped forward into the room. “Is everything okay? With the explosion, I mean.”

  Levins handed Fern a file as he spoke. “Now’s not the best time, Miss Grove.”

  I was about to agree and back away when my resolve shifted. This investigation was needed and I was the one who had to push to get answers.

  “I realise that Doctor Levins, but my investigation has progressed and I need to speak to you.” I stood ridged, my words lingering in the air.

  He twisted and looked at me curiously. “Your investigation?”

  “Would you like me to talk to her again?” Teresa asked.

  Levins held up his hand. “No, no I will speak to her. This way, Miss Grove.”

  I followed Levins from the lab. Mark didn’t look up as I left the room.

  We entered a dark room. I blinked as Levins clicked the light switch and the fluorescent lights flickered to life. We were in what must have been his office. There was a wooden desk, bowed under with piles of paper work. Every surface of the walls were filled with overflowing shelves. Books, folders and papers looked like they were teetering on the edge of collapse as they hung over at every angle. He indicated to a worn chair beside his desk. I sat and waited for him to seat himself. Instead, he began rummaging in a filing cabinet.