Sam felt very sad. The dead man had to be Simon Brown, the guy who she had met in Suffolk — the man in possession of the only stash of Super D. He’d obviously taken it to London and tried to get rich from it.
“You realize that the drug is really dangerous?” asked Sam. “It can give people heart attacks. And don’t you think it’s risky giving it to a whole bunch of people you don’t know? What if they went crazy and started hurting people?”
“Doesn’t work like that. A car is dangerous in the wrong hands. So is the internet. You can’t just ban those things, can you? In the end, people will learn how to use it properly. I don’t agree with the nanny state telling me what to do, and I don’t think it’s my place to tell other people what to do.”
Sam was surprised by his passion and vehemence. There followed another uncomfortable pause.
“I think I need to get back to school,” mumbled Sam.
Al looked disappointed, as though he realized he’d said the wrong thing.
“I’m really sorry. This has been a bit heavy for a first date, hasn’t it?”
Sam looked up sharply. He’d called it a date. Did he mean it?
“Is that what this is?” she asked.
“Well, yeah,” he said, surprised. “I hope so. I didn’t mean to come over all serious. I like you and I want to get to know you. Just fun stuff. Us both having powers was the elephant in the room and I just wanted to get that out in the open from the start, in case you started wondering why I keep giving you gold teaspoons.”
Sam laughed.
“Can you make chocolate, too?”
It was Al’s turn to laugh now, and he took her hand. Sam felt a frisson of excitement at his touch.
“I’d like to see you again. How long you grounded for?”
“I’d like to see you again, too,” she replied. “I’ll text you.” She was determined not to let him think he was in charge.
Al smiled, knowingly.
“Cool.” Then his eyebrows shot up and he pointed over Sam’s shoulder. “I think that girl knows you,” he said.
Sam’s contented smile died. Lolly Rosewood was standing on the pavement outside the cafe, looking in through the window and wagging her finger in an exaggerated gesture of disapproval.
“You naughty girl, Sam!” called Lolly through the glass, unable to contain her delight. “What will mummy and daddy say?”
Sam panicked and snatched her hand away from Al. Of all the bad luck.
“Is that your sister?” asked Al, stunned.
“I’ve got to go,” stammered Sam, collecting her bag and tripping over the leg of her stool. She stumbled forward two steps and knocked a cup of tea over the lady on the next table. The lady swore at her.
“Call me. No, I mean, I’ll call you,” Sam managed to say to Al, picking herself up and bumping into a businessman as she pinballed towards the door.
Out in the street, Sam looked all around her. Lolly was sauntering in the direction of the house. She looked impossibly glamorous in her Prada flats, short shorts and a Burberry heart-print shirt. She was carrying two shopping bags of clothes and wasn’t even bothering to look back. Sam’s heart was racing. If Lolly told Mum and Dad about this, which of course she would, then Sam would be for it, big time.
She ran up to Lolly.
“Oh, hi, Sam,” said Lolly, in a friendly tone.
“Ok, ok, let’s cut the unconvincing sweet sister routine. Are you going to tell Mum and Dad about this?”
“Not necessarily,” considered Lolly. “I’ll let you know.” She started walking again.
“What does that mean?” called out Sam to Lolly’s retreating figure. She looked at her watch. Lessons were due to start again in three minutes.
***
Sam was in a no-win situation. She would have to get back to school and risk the consequences of Lolly’s blabber mouth. Being late for lessons would only compound her misdemeanours.
When Sam looked back in the direction of the cafe, Al was emerging onto the street. As he did so, a car pulled up right next to him. Two men got out of the car. Big, tough-looking men with dark hair. Sam thought they looked North African, maybe Egyptian? One had a full-on beard while the other had a big moustache. Both wore smart, black suits.
Sam started walking back towards Al. As she got closer, she could hear what the bearded man was saying.
“Look, son, you’re wanted. I’m not going to debate what it’s about. A business proposal, all right? Just get in the car.”
“I ain’t going anywhere with anyone,” protested Al, starting to walk off.
The bearded man grabbed Al’s arm and pulled him towards the car.
“Let him go!” demanded Sam, marching up to the man and pulling his hand away from Al’s arm.
The second man grabbed Sam by the hair. She was about to elbow him in the stomach when she felt the cold muzzle of a gun pushed into her cheek. Superpowers or not, there was no way she would survive a bullet through the head, so she went limp.
She could see that the bearded man also had a gun and was prodding it in Al’s ribs.
“Everyone in the car,” ordered the second man.
Al was made to sit in the passenger seat while the bearded man got in the driver’s seat. Sam had an even worse deal. She was bundled into the back of the car and made to lie down on the floor behind Al. Her face was centimetres away from a discarded burger. Gross. The other guy got in, told her to shut up, even though she had said nothing, and the car drove off.
Despite the danger she was in, Sam’s overriding thought was that she was going to be very late back to school.
Chapter 17
Lolly Rosewood had watched the kidnap with interest. So Samantha Blake was attracted to bad boys — who’d have thought it?
Lolly had assessed the two kidnappers. Professionals armed with handguns. Probably working for a gang, drugs perhaps. Sam, with her mighty superpowers, shouldn’t have had any problems overpowering them. That girl was so wet!
Lolly had been tempted to intervene, but a part of her was curious to see how it played out. There might be some advantage to be gained from the twins’ father.
She made a note of the registration plate of the kidnappers’ car, and then set off at a brisk pace to the Blake house.
***
When she was ‘home’, she started banging frantically on the front door.
Seconds later, Roger Blake yanked the door open. He looked genuinely worried about her.
She stood in the doorway, panting for breath.
“What’s the matter? Are you all right?” he asked, ushering her inside.
“I’m fine, I’m sorry Mr Blake,” gabbled Lolly as she stumbled into the house. Don’t overdo the acting, she told herself. “It’s Sam. I just saw her getting into someone’s car, I think she’s been kidnapped.”
“What?!” demanded Roger. The colour had drained from his face, his eyes were wide and there was a pulse visibly beating on his right temple.
Lolly relayed what she had just witnessed: she had seen Sam in the coffee shop with a boy; Sam had come running out after her; Lolly had walked away; two men got out of a car; then all four of them got into the car and drove away.
“Are you sure?” Roger asked. Clearly he was trying to reassure himself that Lolly, as an untrustworthy girl, had made it all up. “Sam is in school.”
“I promise, Mr Blake,” said Lolly, trying to look guileless. “She asked me not to tell you that she was seeing this boy. I probably wouldn’t have said anything because I didn’t want to get involved in your family decisions.” Lolly left that hanging for a beat, then carried on. “But when I saw her going off with those men, I dashed back here. I thought I saw one of them carrying a gun.”
“Didn’t Sam try and stop them?” asked Roger.
“Kind of. But even she isn’t strong enough to stop a bullet,” pointed out Lolly, trying to sound like she was on Sam’s side.
“You could have done something,” said Roger, a
ccusingly.
Lolly played her masterstroke.
“I didn’t know what was happening at first and I didn’t want Sam to get hurt if I did anything rash. And besides, Mrs Blake made me promise not to use my powers while living here, not for any reason.”
Roger took a deep breath and reached for his phone. He dialled Sam’s number. It rang for about 30 seconds before going to voicemail.
“James will be in class,” he muttered, “but I’ll text him to see if she is there.”
“I’m not lying, Mr Blake. Honestly, I know you don’t trust me yet, but I wouldn’t lie about something like this.”
Roger sent his text, then looked up at her. He looked like he had aged ten years in two minutes.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t, Lolly. But what would these men want with Sam?”
“I think they were after her boyfriend.”
“She doesn’t have a boyfriend,” said Roger.
Lolly didn’t reply, but gave him a look that said ‘she’s not your little girl anymore’. He looked so bewildered that she almost felt sorry for him. Time to play another trump card.
“I got the numberplate of the car that took them,” said Lolly, writing it down on the notepad next to the telephone in the hallway.
Roger picked it up, seemingly caught by indecision. His phone pinged. Roger read the text and the grave expression on his face told Lolly that James must have confirmed Sam wasn’t in school.
“I’ll have to call the police,” he said, hoarsely. “The school will ring soon.”
“The police will find her,” said Lolly, brightly, knowing precisely why Roger wouldn’t call them.
He sat on the stairs, rubbing his face while he agonized over his decision.
“You realize of course that if I call the police, I’ll have to tell them about you,” he said.
“I know,” said Lolly. “But I can leave. You’ve got to do what is right for your daughter.”
Roger let out a long breath.
“I would like to avoid calling the police if I can. I don’t want them involved directly. But, there is someone I could contact…” he tailed off.
“Is it somebody you trust?” asked Lolly.
“If I involve this person, there may be complications,” he replied, not answering her question. “If this person finds out about you, they’ll lock you up.”
“And that bothers you?” asked Lolly, genuinely surprised.
“Believe it or not, yes. I promised to look after you. I’m not just going to throw you under a bus. It’s the same people who are holding your father.”
“MI5?”
Roger nodded, not looking Lolly in the eye.
Lolly stood in silence for a moment, contemplating an ironic turn of events. This was why she was here at the Blakes’ house. She had known for some time that the Blakes had a contact within MI5 and that the contact knew where her father was being held.
Her plan involved two possible outcomes. The ideal was that she would convince the Blake family to trust her, whereupon she planned to discover who that contact was and then make that person reveal where her father was being held.
Or, the more likely outcome was that the Blakes would tell their contact that Lolly was staying in the house, whereupon the contact would try and capture her. Either way, Lolly would get to meet that contact and beat the truth out of him or her.
She hadn’t expected to get the opportunity to find out about that contact so quickly. But neither had she expected the Blake family to actually try and protect her. She’d been here less than a day, she’d done terrible things to them in the past, and here was the twins’ father risking everything, simply because he had promised to look after her. It didn’t make sense.
“You should ring that person,” said Lolly. There was a strange feeling in her stomach. She needed Roger to make that call and yet there was a small part of her that felt guilty about letting him do it.
Roger may not even have heard her, as he looked lost in thought. He appeared to come to a decision, scrolled through some numbers in his contacts list on the phone, and then selected an entry.
Lolly could hear the ringing tone and a person picking up at the other end.
“Roger? Is everything all right? We’re not due for a checkin for two weeks?”
It was a woman’s voice. And that one sentence told Lolly something very interesting. The Blakes had regular contact sessions with this person.
“There’s a problem. Sam has been kidnapped,” said Roger.
Lolly couldn’t hear what the woman at the end of the phone said next, but Roger replied: “I appreciate that. I don’t want a fuss. I don’t want the police. But I have a car registration number. The kidnapper’s car.”
The MI5 woman said something else.
“Jennifer, please. I just need that address. James and I can get in there and get her out with no fuss. You know we can.”
Lolly raised an eyebrow at that.
The woman on the phone, rather surprisingly, gave in. Roger read out the registration that Lolly had written on the notepad. A few seconds later and Roger scribbled down an address on the pad. “Thank you,” he said, woodenly. “I’ll be careful. I understand.”
He ended the call and remained sitting on the stairs.
“What happened?” asked Lolly. “Is she going to get Sam back?”
“She can’t, at least not right now” said Roger, with an empty look on his face. “It’s complicated. But she did give me the address for the registration plate. I’m going to find her myself. It’s better that way.”
“You and James?” asked Lolly.
Roger looked at her, then quickly looked away.
“No. Not James. Just me. I only said that because… Look, it doesn’t matter. I need to go and find my daughter. You’ll have to stay here.”
“You can’t,” said Lolly, instinctively, and immediately wondered why. What was it to her if the twins’ father went and got himself killed? What was wrong with her?
She tried to rationalize her emotions. Daddy had always taught her that compassion was a strength, but only if used wisely. Well, Daddy didn’t want Sam Blake hurt. Therefore, to keep Sam Blake safe, it made sense that Lolly be the person to rescue her. Roger wouldn’t stand a chance against professionals. Logical.
“Let me go,” said Lolly, trying to restore the tone of casual indifference that she liked to maintain.
Roger looked at her questioningly, but was busy putting his coat on.
“Sorry, Lolly, I appreciate that but this isn’t your problem. I’m Sam’s dad, it’s my job.”
The idiot! Lolly could picture the stupid man just turning up at the house of some dangerous criminals, asking for his daughter back and getting his head blown off.
“I’m going,” Lolly insisted and she snatched the piece of paper with the address out of Roger’s hand. “Please, let me do this. I owe your family. You can get hurt, I can’t. I’m good at this sort of thing, you’re not. Please.” Lolly surprised herself with her impassioned plea.
Roger looked like he was about to argue with her when the phone rang.
“It’s the school,” he muttered. “They’re probably wondering why Sam didn’t come back after lunch.”
Lolly had an inspiration.
“Tell them she had a panic attack and came home. You were just about to ring them. Don’t worry, I’ll get her back.”
Before Roger could argue, Lolly opened the front door and started running in the direction of the school. She looked at the piece of paper. The registered owner of the car was the New Cross Empire Casino on New Cross Road. That was south-east London. Sam was in a car, which meant that at this time of day it could take them up to an hour to get across the city. On public transport it could be double that. Lolly wanted to get there quicker, which meant she would need a lift. And she knew just how to get it.
Chapter 18
James couldn’t concentrate on his work. First, Sam hadn’t shown up to physics class after lun
ch and now Dad was sending him texts asking where she was. What did it mean?
Sitting in class was doing his head in. He wasn’t allowed to just get up and go and look for Sam and it made him want to punch something. If she was in trouble, he had to help her. A terrible thought struck him. Could it have something to do with Lolly? Had she hurt Sam? If she had, he would—. He didn’t know what he would do.
And then the fire alarm started ringing. There was a brief moment when Mr Panu the teacher looked around as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Then he ordered everybody to file outside in an orderly manner.
As soon as they reached the playground, it was obvious that this was no drill. Several shouts and screams rose above the hubbub of excitable chatter. Once clear of the science building, James looked back to see plumes of smoke belching from the chemistry lab.
James and his class were marshalled to a point close to the school gates. The wailing of sirens reached James’s ears.
He waited anxiously while the register was taken. He texted Dad to see if there was news of Sam. His phone pinged only seconds later, but the text wasn’t from Dad, it was from Lolly.
‘Look over at the gates. L’
James did so and there she was, Lolly Rosewood, looking hotter than any fire, beckoning him over. How the hell was he going to leave the assembly line and get to Lolly without drawing attention to himself?
Two fire engines cautiously entered through the school gates and provided the perfect opportunity. The teachers began moving the pupils out of the way so the big trucks could turn around in the centre of the playground. Inevitably, the ordered lines of children began to break up as they were all herded back against the wall.
London Belongs to the Alchemist (Class Heroes Book 4) Page 10
