by Pam Harvey
‘Hannah, you really ought to read some better magazines,’ Gabby said, shaking her head at her friend. ‘How about I loan you some of my fashion mags?’
Hannah looked up to see whether Gabby was joking. She wasn’t. Hannah waved a hand impatiently. ‘But don’t you see, Gab? People in Australia don’t have this type of system yet. It’s too advanced and they haven’t been put on the open market.’ She looked around at the dusty shelves lined with boxes.
Gabby shivered. ‘Han, that means we’re in big trouble. If those guys turn up and we’re trapped in here, they aren’t going to like it.’ She tried her phone again. ‘No signal! And this was expensive, too. I’ll have to get another one. What’s your phone like?’
Hannah put her hand in her pocket. She knew her phone wouldn’t work; it was models behind Gabby’s. Her hand touched something else. Slowly, she pulled it out. ‘Of course!’ she said. ‘God, I’m stupid.’
‘What, Han?’ Gabby was looking at her anxiously.
‘This ear-piece that you found, Gabby. It isn’t an ordinary one. I took it home and studied it. It’s a type of communication system that tunes in to any frequency you like. We can use it instead of a phone.’ Hannah turned the ear-piece over. ‘Gab, have you got something sharp?’
‘You can thank E.D. for this. I picked them up on the way out of my place.’ Gabby took a paperclip from her pocket and passed it over to Hannah. Deftly, Hannah opened it out and inserted the sharp end into a tiny hole at the rear of the device.
‘Perfect,’ she said. There was a clicking sound and Hannah pulled out a tiny panel.
‘What are you doing?’
‘This is great,’ Hannah said. ‘I’ve got the microphone and speaker on. Now we just need to tune in to someone who’s listening.’ She pressed a button on the panel and a small digital screen lit up with numbers. ‘That’s the frequency.’ She paused it at 778.
They all froze as a tiny voice suddenly filled the room.
‘And I’ll tell you another thing, Carol. At the party last week, you know, over at Barbara’s. That nice boy David was there and you’ll never guess who he was dancing with?’
‘What?’ Gabby started laughing.
‘We’ve picked up someone’s phone conversation,’ Hannah said. ‘But I don’t think they can hear us.’ She tried another number. A light in the corner of the panel glowed a soft green.
‘Does green mean we can talk?’
Hannah put the device to her ear. ‘Hello?’ she said. ‘Is there anyone there?’
She almost died of fright when a voice suddenly answered.
Teagan was on her motorbike, riding in small furious circles around the backyard. She’d worn a groove in the dirt from all the other times she’d ridden here and was trying to cut it as deep as she could. When the voice came over the ear-piece she had in her ear, she almost lost control. She stopped the bike and activated the microphone attached to her helmet. ‘Angus, is that you?’
‘No. We’re friends of Angus’. Who are you?’
‘Teagan Proctor. Have you got Jack’s ear-piece?’
‘So it was his. Yes, we have. And we’re stuck in the tunnel at the cement yard.’
‘The tunnel?’ Teagan paused for so long Hannah thought they’d lost her.
‘Teagan?’
‘I’m coming.’
She revved her bike, sped out the gate and swerved around two rubbish bins, narrowly missing her brother Jack as she went into the lane.
‘Teagan, where the hell do you think you’re going?’ Alan Proctor was in the shop’s yard. ‘Jack, get the hell after her. Stop her from doing anything stupid. If she comes off that bike, she might hurt herself again. She isn’t meant to go anywhere without me watching her.’
It only took Jack a moment to get his own helmet on and soon he was in the laneway too, speeding after his sister.
Mr Proctor watched him go, a worried expression on his face.
‘What can you see?’ Angus whispered. E.D. was standing by the window, holding aside a torn and shredded curtain. Angus was huddled down near an old desk.
‘Trouble with a big T,’ E.D. groaned, looking around for an escape. ‘Let’s go.’ He darted for the door, Angus close on his heels. The boys entered a narrow corridor, with openings on either side. E.D. sprinted down its length, coming to another entrance at the end of the passage. He tried the handle.
‘Locked,’ he gasped, turning.
Suddenly the door behind him crashed open and a huge black motorbike appeared in its frame, the engine throbbing menacingly. The rider cranked the accelerator and sped through the gap. E.D. and Angus hurled themselves to one side as the bike sped past them, its back wheel just missing Angus’ foot.
‘Did you ring the cops?’ E.D. yelled, trying to kick open the door in front of him. It didn’t budge.
‘What?’ Angus shouted, glancing at the bike. It had turned and was now facing them again.
‘The front door,’ E.D. screamed, making a dash for the broken door. But he pulled up short. Another bike had just arrived and was idling right outside.
Slowly the rider slipped off his helmet.
‘So, it’s you,’ Peter Proctor said, kicking the rest of the door off its hinges and striding into the passageway. ‘Give me that,’ he yelled, snatching the phone out of Angus’ hands. He threw it to the ground and crushed it beneath his powerful black boot.
‘What did you do that for?’ yelled Angus.
Peter glared at him. ‘We don’t need kids hanging around. You boys don’t belong here. I think it’s time you went home.’
‘W-we like it here,’ Angus said, staring at the pieces of phone scattered all over the floor. The other rider turned off his engine and sauntered into the small office where Angus and E.D. had been hiding.
‘We got company, Pete,’ he called, stepping back outside.
‘Who is it, Joe?’ Peter demanded.
‘Your nephew and niece.’
‘We don’t want them to know we’re here!’ growled Peter. ‘They might be with their father and we certainly don’t want my brother to know anything about what we’re doing. We wouldn’t be able to use his crates, then.’
‘Teagan! Jack!’ Angus yelled, as loud as he could, his hands cupped around his mouth. ‘In here!’
‘Shut up,’ Joe snarled, stepping forward and swinging his arm across Angus’ head. The boy reeled back into the wall behind him and sank to the floor.
‘Leave him alone,’ E.D. said, stepping forward. Peter moved quickly and pushed him against the wall.
‘Watch them,’ Joe grumbled, moving into the side office.
‘Angus?’ A girl’s voice called from the front door. As quick as a flash Peter’s arm wrapped around E.D.’s mouth, preventing him from calling out. He glared at Angus, drawing a finger slowly across his throat. Angus knew what he meant.
‘Angus, is that you?’ Teagan’s voice called from outside the shattered front door. Joe appeared suddenly and he and Peter quietly dragged E.D. and Angus towards the little office room.
‘Ow!’ Peter yelled suddenly, wrenching his arm away from E.D., who’d managed to bite the fleshy part of his forearm. Glaring at E.D., he stood up and walked out into the corridor.
‘Teagan, what are you doing here?’ they heard Peter call.
‘Hello, Uncle Peter,’ Teagan said warily, stepping into the corridor. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I just asked you the same thing. Your dad doesn’t like you anywhere near the Graveyard.’
Teagan was quiet for a moment. ‘I thought I heard Angus,’ she eventually said.
‘Angus? That friend of yours we met near the shop? Yeah,’ Peter laughed. ‘He and his mates were here but they’ve gone. They were making a bit of a nuisance of themselves up here so we sent them on their way.’
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘You’d better go,’ said Peter. ‘You don’t want your father to find out you were here. Come on.’
Their footsteps faded.
<
br /> ‘Joe, the police are coming,’ said E.D.
‘Bulldust.’ Joe spat the words out.
‘I made the call before my phone was smashed,’ Angus said.
‘If you wanna get away, you’d better go now,’ E.D. continued.
‘Shut up, both of you,’ Joe growled.
‘We’re going, Joe. Move it.’
Joe stood, gave E.D. one last, withering look and followed Peter out the doorway. Angus was about to speak, but E.D. held up his hand.
They heard the bikes start up. For a brief moment their raucous noise drowned out everything else but then it quickly faded as the bikes disappeared away to the east.
‘Are you sure they’ve gone?’ Angus asked, glancing out the window. The concrete yard was deserted.
‘Yep. Let’s go!’ E.D. shouted, sprinting down the corridor. They raced across the open space towards the rear of the holding bay.
‘Where was that lever?’ Angus yelled, running his palms along the left hand wall.
‘Got it!’ E.D. exclaimed, pulling it down. ‘Yeah!’ The two boys watched impatiently as the concrete wall slowly lifted.
‘About time,’ Gabby gasped, stooping low to manoeuvre herself under the wall. Hannah followed closely behind her.
They turned suddenly at the sound of handclapping, the noise echoing spookily around the enormous concrete cavern. Angus groaned. Standing behind them, with his arms folded, was Peter. Next to him, Teagan stood holding her motorbike, looking shocked.
‘Give me that,’ Peter said, holding his arm out towards Gabby. ‘Anyone else here got a phone?’ Hannah pulled out hers. Peter took it. ‘You didn’t tell me that you had other friends here—other friends that discovered something they shouldn’t.’
‘I’m sorry, Hannah,’ Teagan said quietly. ‘He made me tell him.’
Everyone turned as a large van drove up to the entrance of the tunnel. Three men stepped out, Joe among them.
‘Oh my God,’ Gabby whispered. ‘W-who are they?’
‘Uncle Peter, what’s going on?’ Teagan asked, her face pale. Angus could see her lip trembling. ‘And where’s Jack?’
‘Never you mind.’ Peter stepped towards E.D. ‘The real question is what are we going to do now? You know things you shouldn’t. Maybe I should lock you in that tunnel after we’ve gone.’
‘That tunnel’s the start of the Graveyard course,’ said E.D. softly.
‘You know about the Graveyard, eh?’ Peter laughed harshly. ‘I bet you don’t know Teagan’s Graveyard story.’
‘What do you mean?’ Angus looked at Teagan, who stared down at the ground.
‘Tell them about the Graveyard, Teagan,’ Joe said. ‘It’s going to take the boys a couple of minutes to clear the room down there. I hope you little punks haven’t been fiddling with anything. You’ve got time to tell them the whole story about how dangerous it is here.’
Hannah brushed a hand through her hair, feeling the listening device tucked firmly behind her left ear. She glanced furtively at the man dressed in black leather, but he was looking at Teagan. Hannah bunched her hair up thickly around her ear to disguise the ear-piece.
‘I tried the Graveyard,’ Teagan whispered, nodding towards the tunnel. ‘Jack and I had a bet. And I broke my pelvis in there.’
‘Louder, Teagan. I don’t think they heard you.’
Teagan pursed her lips as the colour drained from her face.
‘I broke my pelvis and had to have my spleen removed because I was stupid enough to try the Graveyard.’
‘You were the kid that got hurt?’ said E.D.
‘And that’s why you aren’t allowed to race.’
Teagan looked up at Angus. ‘Dad’s scared that if I fall, I’ll hurt myself again. Jack’s been riding for me to get my points up for the season.’
‘Why?’ said E.D. ‘You could’ve just stopped.’
‘Because I’m going to race again before the end of the season. Dad said I could.’ She shook her head, looking down. ‘He promised.’
‘Winning isn’t everything,’ Gabby said. ‘It feels like it is when you’re racing, but it isn’t.’
Teagan looked at Gabby and blushed. ‘It means a lot in our family.’
Two of the men appeared with a stack of boxes, which they loaded into the van.
‘Got it all?’ Peter asked.
‘All loaded,’ one man replied, nodding.
‘We need time to get away now.’ Peter poked E.D. firmly in the ribs. ‘So you lot go back in the tunnel until we’re clear. And maybe we’ll ring someone to get you a bit later in the day. Or,’ he laughed, ‘maybe we won’t.’
Chapter 14
The Graveyard
Monday, 17 January
‘Uncle Peter, you can’t put them in there,’ Teagan yelled, holding her bike.
‘You’ll have to go with them, Teagan,’ Peter said, harshly. ‘Just until we get out of this town.’
‘No,’ Teagan said. ‘You can’t do this.’
‘We’re taking Jack with us. We’ll drop him off at the next town and he can ring whoever he likes.’ Peter held up Gabby’s phone.
From outside the tunnel, Jack appeared, looking a bit shocked at what he was seeing.
‘Jack’s been a very good boy, helping his Uncle Peter.’ The man laughed.
‘Jack!’ said Teagan. ‘How could you?’
‘Shut up.’ Jack refused to look at his sister. ‘After all I’ve done for you!’
‘All you’ve done for me? It wasn’t my idea—you riding in my races. I didn’t want you to but it was what Dad wanted. He said it was good for business if we both were winners in our groups.’
‘That’s crazy, Teagan!’ Angus said.
Teagan was crying now. ‘After my accident here, Dad wouldn’t let me race anymore. He said it was too dangerous. If I had another accident, he wouldn’t have been able to stand it. He said he stopped me because he loves me. I could race! But Dad makes Jack do it instead. He wears the two-way Dad made so Dad can tell Jack where to go after the race so he doesn’t get found out. He makes me wear mine so he knows where I am all the time.’
‘Enough!’ Peter shouted. ‘We have to get going. And you kids have to go into the tunnel.’ He gestured to an anxious-looking Joe and they started herding the group in. Peter didn’t bother hiding his frustration. ‘This was the last pick-up anyway, Joe. And don’t worry about these kids.’ He turned on Teagan, his finger pointing in her direction. ‘If you want your family dragged into this and your father to lose his business then go ahead—call the cops. But you’ll be ruining your father and his business because it was me and this little enterprise here that got him enough money to buy it in the first place.’
‘That’s not true and you know it,’ Teagan said angrily. Hannah watched Peter slowly shake his head.
‘I’m afraid it is, Teagan. Now take your bike in there. Someone might nick it if it stays out here.’
‘Yeah, there’s a lot of crooks around,’ E.D. said pointedly. ‘I’ll help you, Teagan.’ He took the bike from Teagan and wheeled it towards the tunnel.
When they were in the tunnel, Peter turned to them for the last time. ‘I don’t think I’ll be seeing you for a while, Teegs. Say goodbye to your dad for me.’
‘Wait,’ Gabby called. She ran to Peter and stood looking up at him. ‘You can’t lock me in there! I get claustrophobia.’
‘What—’ E.D. started to say before Angus elbowed him in the ribs.
‘I’ll start to panic,’ Gabby was saying in her best little-girl voice. ‘Sometimes when I panic I can’t breathe. The doctor said that last time it happened, I was lucky to be alive. And I was only locked in the sports store room at school. Please. I can’t stay in that tunnel.’
Hannah couldn’t see Gabby’s face but she could imagine what sort of expression it had on it. She’d seen Gabby use a variation of it whenever she wanted something from her parents.
Peter was quiet for a moment. ‘Alright,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’
ve got your phone and it will take you a long time to walk to town from here. You can stay out.’ He pulled the lever and the wall started to descend. Peter twisted the lever and it broke off in his hand. ‘You lot have to stay in now.’
‘No!’ Hannah said, but it was too late. She glimpsed Gabby’s white face and then the wall was closed. ‘Gabby!’
‘She won’t be able to hear you,’ said E.D.
‘It’s okay,’ Hannah said, still facing the solid wall. ‘Angus has rung the police. They’ll be here soon.’
Angus shook his head miserably. ‘I didn’t get to ring. There aren’t any police on their way.’
‘Oh, no,’ said Teagan softly. ‘If Uncle Peter gets away, they’ll never find him. We have to get out of here.’
‘I don’t know about you anymore,’ Angus said suddenly. ‘Your uncle is a smuggler and you cheat in bike races. And it’s your dad’s shop those GPS systems are coming from.’
Teagan shook her head. ‘Dad doesn’t know anything about this, I’m sure. Uncle Peter turned up when we got the new shop and asked Dad to get him stuff from Japan so it could be freighted in the crates when the new bikes come in. Dad’s been getting him stuff for his own bike.’
‘It looks like more is getting delivered in those crates than your dad bargained for,’ Angus muttered. ‘What about Jack?’
‘Jack has always got on well with Uncle Peter. That doesn’t mean I do. Please, Angus. I’m on your side.’
Angus didn’t know what to say. He turned to look at the tunnel behind him. ‘There’s no way out,’ he said.
‘Yes, there is,’ said E.D. ‘I can go through the Graveyard.’
‘What?’ Hannah shook her head. ‘If it takes ages on a motorbike, there’s no point walking it. Those crooks will be long gone.’
‘I’m not talking about walking it.’ E.D. pulled Teagan’s bike off its stand and started it. The noise was deafening. He slammed Teagan’s helmet on his head. ‘What’s the record? Fifteen minutes?’ E.D. clicked a few buttons on Tony’s wristwatch, revved the bike and took off down the tunnel.
‘E.D.!’ yelled Angus. ‘Don’t be an idiot!’
