She took a step towards him but didn’t dare go any further. He seemed suddenly so out of reach.
‘Sylvain, please,’ she said.
He nodded as if she’d just confirmed all his suspicions.
‘I knew before I left things weren’t right between us. I guess I was hoping that – after everything…’ His voice trailed off. His hands clenched and released. ‘But I was wrong.’ He lifted his piercing blue eyes to meet hers. ‘Wasn’t I? You want to break up with me. Don’t you?’
How do you even answer that?
It’s a trick question. The answer is already inside it.
Allie felt as if the floor was shifting beneath her feet.
This couldn’t be happening now. She’d planned to deal with it all later. After everything was resolved. When Carter was back and…
When she was ready.
But when was that going to be? She’d never be ready to break Sylvain’s heart.
The school had gone horribly quiet. Nothing stirred. It felt as if the whole building was watching them fall apart.
His question still hung in the air. Unanswered.
Don’t you?
‘Yes,’ she whispered.
He let out a quick breath, as if she’d punched him.
‘At last,’ he said. ‘The truth.’ He held her gaze. His eyes were unnervingly steady. ‘Is it Carter? Did something happen with you two?’
‘Yes,’ she repeated, sorrow in her voice.
He flinched then, although he tried to hide it.
‘I always knew,’ he said. ‘But it still…’
He never finished the sentence. He didn’t have to. She knew what he was going to say.
It still hurts.
Tears burned the backs of her eyes.
‘You know,’ she said, ‘you told me a long time ago that I had to figure out who I was and then I’d know what I wanted. Well, I figured it out. The thing is, I wanted to be in love with you.’ Her voice grew unsteady. ‘But I wasn’t. I just… wasn’t.’
He kept his eyes on his hands, letting her talk. When he finally looked up, the pain on his face cut her heart like broken glass.
‘You’re in love with Carter.’ He said it flatly.
Allie couldn’t bear this. She couldn’t hurt him anymore.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
‘Don’t.’ He held up his hand as if to physically stop her words. ‘I don’t want…’
A tear slipped down his cheek. He swiped it away with a look of utter disbelief.
Without another word, he turned and walked away – his steps fast but even – across the landing and into the shadows beyond.
Away from her.
Allie almost made it to her room.
She was on the stairs to the dormitory wing, tears streaming down her face, when she heard angry voices from downstairs. She turned back, hurrying down to the landing.
She leaned over the banister, trying to make out words.
Suddenly Zoe shot out of Isabelle’s office and hurtled up towards her, her ponytail bouncing with each rapid step. She spotted Allie when she was halfway up.
‘Isabelle says for you to come quick.’ She squinted at her. ‘What’s wrong with your face?’
‘Nothing,’ Allie wiped her cheeks with her sleeve. ‘Just… nothing.’ She cleared her throat. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I don’t know.’ Zoe motioned for her to hurry. Before Allie knew what was happening, she was following her down the stairs. ‘She just came out of her office in a bad mood and called for you. And you weren’t there and then she shouted.’ She paused. ‘Isabelle never shouts.’
Side by side, they sped down the curved staircase, hitting the ground floor at a run, skidding to a stop in front of the common room door. Zoe went in first.
‘Where’s Isabelle?’ she said, looking around. ‘I found Allie.’
Rachel and Nicole were waiting by the door.
‘In her office. She said for us to all come.’ Rachel’s eyes scanned Allie’s face, missing nothing. Her eyebrows arched up. Allie hurriedly turned away.
Zelazny stood just inside Isabelle’s office.
‘In,’ he growled. ‘Now.’
The two guards Nathaniel had returned earlier that night sat nervously in the chairs in front of Isabelle’s desk.
Isabelle and Eloise stood behind the desk, looking at something on a laptop screen – it was turned away from the girls, so Allie could see nothing.
Isabelle’s cheeks were pale, her lips set in a thin line.
Zelazny closed the door behind them.
‘Thank you for coming.’ Isabelle’s raised her eyes from the screen. ‘I’m afraid there’s something you need to see.’
Allie’s chest felt tight. She couldn’t breathe in this room. Everyone was scaring her.
He can’t be dead. God, please don’t let him be dead.
She couldn’t speak. Her lips felt nerveless.
‘What is it?’ Rachel asked, frowning.
The headmistress nodded at the two guards. ‘Tell them what you told us.’
Allie turned to them. Outside they’d just been shadows. This was the first time she’d got a good look at them. The one on the right had blond hair, cut short, and freckles. The one on the left had dark skin and short dark hair; he had a similar athletic build but looked a little older – more like Raj’s age.
‘He said to give you a web address,’ the older guard said hesitantly. ‘He said you should see what you’d done. He said… if you don’t give him the school the boy dies. He said “The clock is ticking.”’
A strange fuzzy sound filled Allie’s ears. She could see the others talking, but it was all muffled, distant.
The headmistress held up her hand, and the room fell silent.
Then she turned her laptop so they could see the screen.
Allie saw a body in a chair, chained, dark head slumped forward. At first, because of how the body was placed, she couldn’t make out his features. But she still knew. She recognised those shoulders. The line of his back.
Then he shifted on the hard wooden seat and looked up.
It was Carter.
16
Allie ran from Isabelle’s office to the girls’ bathroom down the hallway. Crashing through the doors of the first cubicle, she threw herself down on the cool tile floor, her stomach heaving.
When she’d finished vomiting, she didn’t get up. She just stayed where she was, her forehead resting on her crossed arms on the toilet seat. She kept seeing Carter in chains. It had been dark, and the picture was grainy but there was no question. It was him.
She wanted to weep but she had no tears left. This day had finished her.
First Nathaniel, then Sylvain. Now Carter.
She’d never felt more defeated.
She just wanted it to stop.
She didn’t know how long she’d been there when the bathroom door opened with a faint creak. ‘Allie? Are you in here?’
It was Isabelle.
Vaguely, Allie considered saying nothing. Maybe she’d just go away.
But she knew that wouldn’t work. The headmistress would search every cubicle.
Still, it took all of her strength to respond. ‘I’m here.’
There was a pause. ‘Are you OK?’
Allie didn’t want to talk to her. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. But she couldn’t hide forever.
With slow reluctance, she dragged herself to her feet and opened the cubicle door.
‘I’m fine.’
Isabelle ignored the lie. Her golden brown eyes scanned Allie’s face.
‘We’ve been monitoring Carter for nearly an hour now,’ she said gently. ‘He has water. He doesn’t look starved or drugged. We had the doctor take a look at the footage and she sees no signs of dehydration or catastrophic injury…’
‘He’s in chains, Isabelle.’ Allie cut her off. ‘He’s been there for days.’ Saying those words made it all real again. Her hands trembled. She cros
sed her arms tightly to hide the shaking. ‘He’s tied up like an… an animal…’
‘I know.’ Isabelle pulled her into a tight hug. Only when she felt the warmth of her body did Allie realise how cold she was.
‘We’re going to figure this out,’ the headmistress vowed, still holding her close. ‘We’ll get him back. I promise.’
Allie didn’t want promises now. She wanted facts. And the truth.
She extricated herself from Isabelle’s arms.
‘How though? We don’t even know where he is. And Dom’s tried and tried.’
Isabelle studied her thoughtfully for a moment. Then she turned the water on and soaked a hand towel in the stream.
‘Here’s the thing.’ Turning back to Allie, she dabbed the warm, damp cloth against her cheeks and forehead. ‘Nathaniel just made one huge error. Until now all we had was his comms system. He just gave Dom a poorly protected computer system and an open web cam. She can use it to track his location.’ She leaned forward, holding Allie’s gaze; excitement glittered in her golden eyes.
‘We’re going to get him back.’
The next morning, Dom’s office was packed. Rachel, Dom, Zoe and Shak were at the table with Allie, all working furiously. Across the room, Nicole, Eloise, and several security guards milled around maps and photos of enormous rural houses. Isabelle and Zelazny hovered around Dom’s desk in a tight cluster.
Outside, rain tapped a staccato beat against the windows. Inside, the room buzzed with energy. Everyone believed they had a chance now. They had the information they needed to beat Nathaniel, and he didn’t even know he’d handed it to them.
He’d be undone by his own arrogance.
The mood was contagious, and Allie could buy into it now and then, for a few minutes. Until her eyes fell on the wall-mounted screen.
And there was Carter, chains fixed to his wrists and ankles.
He wore a grey, ill-fitting t-shirt and oversized trousers. His hair was a mess. He didn’t look like he’d been beaten. Mostly he just looked bored. And furious.
Nathaniel had left the feed live for hours now – a boon to Dom, but excruciating at the same time.
‘He thinks he’s torturing us,’ Isabelle had told her earlier. ‘But he’s giving us the weapon we need to kill him.’
To Allie, though, it just felt like torture.
There was a clock on the bottom of the screen. She’d missed it last night in her panic, but she was very familiar with it now. The red, digital numbers glowed like dragons’ eyes: 72:45:50
The last number was going down.
49, 48, 47, 46…
Those numbers were all the time they had left. Seventy-two hours, forty-five minutes.
Three days.
If they weren’t out of the school by then, Nathaniel swore Carter would die. The returned prisoners had explained it all, in tones of regret and muted outrage.
It was Nathaniel’s ‘little flourish’, Isabelle said bitterly. ‘He’s trying to scare us.’
The only problem was, it worked.
Allie couldn’t keep her eyes off the numbers. Her gaze strayed to them, over and over again. Their inexorable decline fuelled a constant sense of borderline panic. Her heart never stopped racing.
Faster, she kept thinking. We have to be faster.
She was exhausted. Isabelle had thrown her out of Dom’s office at four in the morning – ordering her not to come back until she’d rested. But her attempts to sleep had been plagued by nightmares of bombs with clocks on them, ticking down, down, down…
She’d been back in the office at seven.
She wasn’t alone. Dom, Shak and Zoe were working to hack into Nathaniel’s computer systems. Raj and his guards were out systematically identifying and searching mansions owned by Nathaniel’s supporters – looking for signs that Carter was being held there.
With one last, long look at Carter, she slid the headphones back on her head. All she could do was listen to Nathaniel’s guards.
And hope they made a mistake.
‘Another day in the salt mines, eh Five?’
Nine sounds tired today, Allie thought. She sat at the table, her feet propped on a nearby chair, munching on a granola bar. The headphones blocked all sounds except the guards’ voices; she kept forgetting anyone else was in the room.
‘It’s the glamorous life,’ Five replied, his voice thick with irony.
‘Isn’t it just?’ Nine replied. ‘How’s the boss today? He’s been in a good mood ever since the last excursion.’ He paused. ‘Gives me the creeps.’
‘Christ, Nine.’ Allie could almost hear Five rolling his eyes. ‘Does anything ever make you happy?’
‘Shagging your wife cheers me right up,’ Nine replied without missing a beat.
Five responded with a creative string of expletives.
‘You’re a company man, Five,’ Nine said when Five’s enraged sputtering ended. ‘You don’t see the truth because you don’t want to. Our boss is a nutter. And we’re all looking at ten years if he loses this thing. Hard time.’
Allie nodded in agreement.
‘Don’t be so wet, Nine.’ Five scoffed. ‘He’ll win. And if he doesn’t… So what? You get three squares a day at Her Majesty’s pleasure. I’d be happy with that.’
‘You would, too.’ Nine didn’t sound like he thought it was funny. ‘I bloody well wouldn’t.’
They exchanged insults for a while. Allie was reaching for a cup of tea when Nine said, ‘You see that girl, last night? At the school? The one in the uniform?’
She froze, the mug halfway to her mouth.
‘Yeah,’ Five said, dismissal in his tone. ‘So what?’
‘It ain’t right,’ Nine said. ‘That’s all I’m saying.’
‘What ain’t right?’ Five’s tone was not encouraging. Like he only half-wanted to know. Or like he wanted Nine to shut up.
Even though he must have got that, Nine kept going.
‘What he’s doing… She’s just a kid. My own kid’ll be that age in a few years. It’s one thing when he’s fighting with his sister. But that kid, or the one upstairs… It ain’t right.’
There was a pause. Then: ‘You should mind your own business, Nine,’ Five warned him. ‘Keep your nose out of this.’
For a second Nine didn’t reply. When he spoke again, all he said was, ‘I don’t like what I don’t like.’
Elation flared in Allie’s chest.
For the ten thousandth time, she thought of that one little gesture. The hand pressing back at the air. The warning in his eyes.
She was certain now it had been him. That was Nine. He’d saved her.
Now she just had to figure out how to reach him.
17
For the rest of the day Allie stayed glued to the headphones, hoping Nine would say something more. But he was quiet after that. When he did speak, he seemed subdued. She was still at the table, male voices filling her head, when Eloise tapped her on the arm. Allie pulled off her headphones and glanced up at her.
‘Isabelle wants you downstairs.’ The librarian held out her hand for the earpieces. ‘I’ll take over. You need a break anyway.’
It didn’t feel like Allie had been sitting all that long but when she stood, her muscles protested. She glanced at her watch, surprised to discover it was already four o’clock in the afternoon. She’d been here for hours.
As she left the room, Allie glanced up at Carter. He sat in a wooden chair, looking down at his hands. It was hard to tell if he was awake or asleep.
The clock in the corner of the screen glowed red: 64:12:31.
The numbers were falling so fast.
The school was quiet – all the activity was in Dom’s office or outside in the school grounds. Allie was mostly alone in the wide hallway. When she reached Isabelle’s office, the door was closed.
She could hear the low rumble of quiet voices inside.
She knocked lightly.
‘Come in,’ Isabelle said.
I
sabelle was at her desk. Two men in expensive looking grey suits sat in the leather chairs facing her; both had turned so they could see Allie standing uncertainly in the doorway.
‘Oh good, Allie,’ Isabelle said brightly. ‘We’ve been waiting for you. Please shut the door.’
A chair had been set next to Isabelle, and the headmistress gestured at it. ‘Have a seat.’
The men didn’t hide their curiosity. They were both middle aged, one was a little younger than the other, with sandy brown hair and designer glasses. The other had greying hair and kind blue eyes. He smiled when their eyes met.
It was a fatherly smile but Allie looked away quickly.
‘Allie, these gentlemen worked for your grandmother,’ Isabelle explained. ‘They’ve come here to talk to you about her will.’
Allie stared. ‘Her… will?’
Until that moment she’d entirely forgotten the conversation with her parents at Lucinda’s wake. Her father’s words came back to her now: Lucinda’s lawyers have been in touch.
‘Yes.’ Isabelle was using her most pleasant voice, and it made Allie anxious. ‘Lucinda included you in her will. And these men are here to explain this to you.’
Now Allie noticed the briefcases at their feet – the stack of documents the older one held.
‘My name is Thomas Granville-Smith,’ he said. ‘This is Will Ainsworth. We work for a firm of attorneys employed by Lucinda Meldrum.’ He glanced at Isabelle. ‘Is it fine if I just explain the situation?’
Isabelle inclined her head.
He turned his attention back to Allie. ‘Your grandmother left strict instructions for what should happen in the unfortunate event of her death.’ He paused. ‘And, if it would not be untoward of me, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you how sorry we are for your loss.’ His eyes darkened with what looked to Allie like genuine emotion. ‘I worked closely with Lucinda for many years. I cannot conceive of this world without her in it.’
Allie, who’d found it hard to accept sympathy from even her closest friends was, for some reason, touched by this.
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