Every Second Counts

by Sophie McKenzie

  Spider’s face split with another huge grin.

  ‘You should smile more often,’ I said, drily, before diving under the water and attempting the hoops again.

  This time as I emerged into the air, I caught a glimpse of Uchi watching me from the locked downstairs room that Spider had said was his office.

  I adjusted my mask and dived, a new plan resolving itself in my head. Apart from Spider, Gracie and Uchi, I’d only seen two young EFA soldiers since I arrived. But Spider had said Taylor was coming tomorrow – and Taylor was both ruthless and very experienced. That meant my best chance for finding out the details of whatever underwater operation Spider and I were being sent on, was tonight.

  Later, when everyone had gone to bed, I would sneak into Uchi’s office and get proof about the mission for myself.

  Nat

  I paced across the room. Hours had passed since we’d seen Riley, and our only visitor had been a guard who’d brought us water and sandwiches which we’d eaten long ago. It was already dark. I couldn’t see Riley keeping us here much longer. To be honest, I had no idea why Jas and I weren’t already dead. Whatever the reason, we were going to have to make our move soon.

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Jas and Aaron watching me from one of the thin mattresses on the floor. I was going to need both of them to play their parts if my plan was to succeed.

  ‘Could we go over it again, Nat?’ Jas said, her anxious voice quiet in case the room was bugged.

  I stopped pacing and turned to look at her. My sister’s face was pale and strained. For a moment I had a powerful wish that she was more like Charlie, properly trained to fight and always ready to kick ass. Then I pushed the thought away. People were who they were. Jas was gentle and soft. And my job was to protect her.

  Play to your strengths. Guard your weaknesses.

  This was one of Taylor’s maxims from our months of training for the EFA and I hoped I had followed it in making my plan for our escape. I crouched down beside Jas and Aaron and went over what they had to do again. Aaron seemed confident about his role, though Jas was still terribly nervous. I had just finished when footsteps sounded outside.

  Jas clutched at me arm. ‘Now?’ she whispered.

  ‘Now.’ I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring nod. We were only going to get one chance at this.

  Jas lay back on the mattress. Aaron knelt beside her. I hurried over to the door. As the key turned in the lock, I flattened myself against the wall behind the door so that when it opened, I’d be hidden from view.

  Jas let out a tentative groan as the door opened. I chewed on my lip. She was going to need to sound a lot more convincing than that.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Aaron bent over her. He, at least, sounded genuinely concerned.

  ‘Aaaah.’ Jas groaned again, this time with more conviction.

  The door opened fully, blocking my view of the others.

  ‘What is it?’ The speaker was one of the guards.

  I held my breath. Any second he was going to notice I wasn’t in view and look around for me. I just needed him to take another step into the room.

  ‘She’s in pain.’ Aaron’s voice rose with what sounded like real worry. ‘I think it’s her stomach, but—’

  ‘Where’s—?’ The guard stepped forward.

  Before he could finish his sentence, I rushed him from behind. My fists drove into his back, one after the other: punch, jab, punch. The guard staggered sideways. I punched him again, this time locking my foot around his ankles, bringing him to the end of Jas’s mattress with a dull thud. He lay there, winded, his face screwed up in pain.

  Jas scrabbled away across the floor, hands over her mouth. I hurled myself on top of the guard, pinning him down. His legs thrashed on the floor behind him. I knelt on his arms and pressed my hand over his mouth as Aaron sat on the man’s legs.

  ‘Cloth,’ I ordered.

  With a shaking hand, Jas passed me one of the strips of torn-off sheet we had tied together earlier. I shoved it into the guard’s mouth.

  ‘Again,’ I ordered.

  Jas handed me another strip. Behind me, Aaron was grunting with the effort of tying the guard’s ankles together.

  ‘Help me with his arms,’ I demanded.

  Jas crawled over. Aaron, having finishing binding the guard’s legs, turned towards me. As soon as he got off the man’s legs, the guard banged them on the floor.

  ‘Sit on his legs, Jas,’ I ordered.

  She vanished behind me. I felt her back against mine as she sat. The banging stopped. I glanced at the open doorway. Had anyone heard us? All I could see out on the landing were the three bottles of water the guard had been bringing us.

  With Aaron’s help, I got the next strip of sheet around the guard’s wrists and tied it tightly. He was attempting to buck me off him. As soon as Jas and I got up off him, he would kick against the floor and the wall, and the other soldiers in the house would hear. I looked around. We would have to tie him to something solid to prevent him from moving.

  Taking another length of sheet, I fastened one end around the guard’s bound wrists and told Aaron to tie the other end tightly around the bars on one window. Once this was done, Aaron took another strip and, at my instruction, wound it around the guard’s ankles. I ordered Jas to get up, then took the end of the second strip and dragged the guard along the floor until he was stretched out between the two windows. I fastened the end of the second strip on the bars of the second window. Now the guard lay stretched on the floor between the two windows, unable to move at all. He turned his head violently, trying to spit out the cloth I’d wedged down his throat, but it was too far in.

  I stepped back and brushed my hair out of my eyes. The guard was secure and it had only taken thirty seconds or so, but we surely only had a couple more minutes before someone realised he was missing. I turned to Aaron and Jas. They were watching me, open-mouthed.

  ‘Wow, Nat—’ Aaron began.

  ‘Come on!’ I raced out of the door. There was no sound from the landing. I crept to the top of the stairs. The house was quiet.

  I beckoned to Aaron and Jas to follow me down the steps. Sweat trickled down the back of my neck as I reached the hall. I could hear voices coming from a nearby room. I tiptoed over to the front door. Normally there was a guard posted here. Two phones sat on the table by the door, SIM cards resting on top. One was mine. I snatched it up and reached for the front-door handle. Aaron picked up the other mobile.

  ‘This is mine,’ he hissed.

  ‘Shh.’ I turned the doorknob, my heart thumping. Outside, the area was clear. The back of my neck prickled. This was too easy, surely. No guards. Our phones just lying there waiting to be collected.

  I slipped outside, turning to make sure Jas and Aaron were right behind me. I took Jas’s hand. ‘Run,’ I said. ‘Run hard.’

  And we set off, over the grass, heading for the trees.

  Charlie

  I waited until the middle of the night to make my move. Breaking into Uchi’s office was not going to be easy, but I had to get evidence about what he and Riley were planning and the office was the most likely place where I’d find it. Hopefully there would be a phone in the office that I could use to tell Nat about the operation. Even if I couldn’t supply him with actual proof right now, I should at least be able to give him enough information so that he and the resistance could prevent whatever was planned.

  The lock on the office door would be no problem, but the room itself was in the centre of the house, opposite the kitchen and at right angles to the stairs up to the first floor. I was going to have to be supremely careful not to disturb everyone else. I didn’t want to think about the consequences if I was caught.

  I checked the time. Almost two a.m. I would wait just two more minutes, then I’d go. I paced silently across the bedroom in my bare feet, thinking about everything that had happened earlier.

  Our swimming training had finally come to an end when Gracie had called
us inside to wash for supper. It had been a surreal moment, as if I was here with Spider on some sort of bizarre teenage playdate. But as I’d headed, shivering, upstairs for a shower, my thoughts had turned to Nat again. I missed him like he was a part of me. Before, I’d known I liked him a lot. But now the strength of how I felt almost scared me. I prayed that wherever he was, he was alright.

  I had just showered and dressed when Gracie called up to say dinner was ready. I headed down to the kitchen to find her and Spider already sitting at the wooden table in front of their bowls of pasta. Gracie had evidently made Spider wait until I arrived before beginning, because he scowled at me as he shovelled a huge spoonful of food out of his bowl and into his mouth.

  I didn’t think I’d be able to eat a thing but the food – pasta with a sausage-and-tomato sauce – was delicious and, once I started, I realised that I was starving and ended up wolfing down two portions. Uchi didn’t eat with us, though the dark-haired guard I’d seen earlier made a brief appearance. He glanced quickly at me as he picked up the plate Gracie had served for him and took it outside.

  Spider and I swapped information on our training. My experience in combat situations and with guns was all that he appeared interested in. At least he was talking enthusiastically now and even smiling from time to time. His smile was dazzling – not that I had any intention of telling him so.

  ‘I can’t wait to go on a proper mission,’ Spider said.

  I stopped, my fork halfway to my mouth. ‘Haven’t you been on one before?’

  Spider stared at me defiantly, his cheeks pinking.

  ‘What actual combat experience do you have?’ I persisted.

  ‘I’ve done loads of simulations,’ Spider said defensively.

  ‘Great.’

  ‘At least I believe in what we’re fighting for,’ he snapped.

  ‘What?’ I glared at him but bit back the retort that sprang to my lips: that using violence to scare people into electing a would-be dictator was nothing to be proud of. I had to maintain my cover, to keep pretending that I was coming around to supporting Riley’s and Uchi’s aims. ‘I believe in what we’re fighting for too.’

  ‘No you don’t,’ Spider went on. ‘You’re just here to meet your dad.’

  ‘I think that’s enough, both of you.’ Gracie laid a hand on Spider’s arm. ‘Remember that Charlie lost her mother in a bomb blast. This isn’t easy for her. Of course part of her reason for being here is to get to know her father, but it’s wonderful that she’s also open to our cause – and there’s a lot of information about all that to process.’

  She sounded so patronising I had to dig my fingernails into my palms to stop myself from telling her to get lost. I especially hated hearing her mention Mum. I’d pushed all thoughts of my mother out of my head since hearing about her affair with Uchi seventeen years ago. I couldn’t bear the idea that she’d been so irresponsible. Even worse was the knowledge that she’d lied to me about my father. It was like she had left me all over again. Tears pricked at my eyes. I blinked them angrily away. I finished my food, then pretended that I was tired and went up to my room to wait for everyone else to go to bed.

  And now it was two a.m. at last. This was it.

  I crept to the door, unlocked it and peered out into the first-floor landing. The house was dark and silent. I already knew Gracie and Spider slept downstairs, at the back of the property. The upstairs rooms were reserved for Uchi and his bodyguard.

  I tiptoed on to the landing and out of the front window. The shadow of a guard – presumably the man I’d seen earlier – was cast across the brick wall. A wisp of smoke from his cigarette trailed up through the air. I knew EFA soldiers were stoical, but when on earth did he sleep?

  The stone floor was cold under my feet as I crept downstairs and into the kitchen. I took a short-bladed knife from the block on the counter and headed over to the study door. It was locked, but I’d been expecting that. I slid the knife along the crack in the door, feeling for the catch. I’d been good at this trick when I’d trained for the EFA before and, much to my relief, I hadn’t lost my touch.

  I found the catch and pressed it back. With a tiny click, it gave way. Wiping away the sweat that beaded on my forehead, I replaced the knife and walked into Uchi’s office.

  It was smaller than I expected. I was guessing it was normally a living room, as a large-screen TV and the two sofas had all been squashed up against one wall leaving just enough room for a large desk, on which sat two computers. There was a rickety old chair and a wooden bookcase set against the far wall, laden with books on politics and philosophy. There were absolutely no papers or files on either the desk on the shelves. And no phone. I checked the desk drawers. The larger bottom one was locked, while the shallow top drawer merely contained bits of stationery: pencils and pens, a ruler and a pad of thick creamy writing paper which looked like it had never been used.

  I turned to the two computers. Clearly Uchi kept all important information on these. I switched them both on. As I expected, both screens immediately showed a request for a password.

  I tried a few obvious passwords – some of the places Uchi had said he had lived, my name and Mum’s, a couple of the philosophers he’d mentioned earlier – but nothing worked. Dispirited, I sank down into the chair behind the desk. This was hopeless – as I should have guessed it would be. With its window on to the back of the house and its door opening into the main hall, this office was fairly exposed – and Uchi was too smart and too careful to leave any revealing information lying around within easy reach of anyone snooping.

  I switched off the computers and rested my head in my hands. Missions and bombing campaigns surely didn’t get organised without something being written down.

  My gaze settled on the keyboard in front of the nearest computer. It didn’t sit properly on the desk, as if the slant at which it was naturally set had been artificially raised a fraction. I turned it over. There, wedged under the plastic frame of the keyboard with Blu-tack, was a slim, silver key.

  I peeled the key off. My fingers trembled as I fitted it into the desk drawer lock. It turned with a click. I pulled open the drawer and peered inside. A pile of notebooks met my eyes: each one was black and bound with leather at the edges. Underneath was a stack of plastic folders. I hauled them all out and started rifling through. The notebooks were crammed with Uchi’s sprawling writing, with his name at the top. I couldn’t make out much of what was written inside but it seemed to be a collection of jottings on his political philosophies, the dates going back seventeen years. Well that made sense. Uchi was old, and older people were often more comfortable writing on paper than electronically. I turned to the plastic folders. Several were empty, others carried names and dates. My eyes flickered over the names:

  Operation Crossbow

  Operation Guy Fawkes

  Operation Market Trader

  Struck by the title on that last one, I opened the folder. It contained just a few sheets of paper: a typed summary of the Canal St Market bomb and its effects, both immediate – in terms of casualties and press coverage – and long term – in terms of government response and political capital gained for Roman Riley’s Future Party. My mouth gaped as I read:

  . . . the resulting total of four deaths and seventeen serious injuries was within acceptable limits for the operation, serving to strengthen and build on public fears for their safety and doubts in the efficacy of the police force. The people’s faith in known authority is measurably eroded. See data below and compare with that from Op Crossbow for validation of this assertion.

  There followed a chart outlining research findings into public perceptions of government and police competence.

  I closed the folder, feeling sick to my stomach. These cold statistics made no mention of the real impact of the bombing. It had killed Mum – the mother of Uchi’s only child, me, leaving me all alone. How dare Uchi and Riley write that up as ‘within acceptable limits’?

  Angrily, I reached for th
e fattest folder, entitled Operation Neptune.

  As I scanned the top page I realised that this mission hadn’t happened yet. That, in fact, the date for it was set just two days from now. Was this what Spider and I were in training for?

  Yes. There was a clear reference to our underwater manoeuvres, right here in the first paragraph.

  My heart in my mouth, I read on.

  Nat

  We reached the cover of the trees. No one was following us, but it surely wouldn’t be long before someone realised we were missing and raised the alarm. I ran to where Aaron and I had left our bags earlier. Everything was still there. I shoved my mobile and SIM card inside my rucksack then hauled it on to my back, as Jas and Aaron crashed up alongside me.

  ‘Shh, you two are like a couple of elephants,’ I hissed. As I spoke, an image of Charlie speeding through these same woods without making a sound flashed into my head.

  ‘Are we safe?’ Jas breathed.

  ‘Yes, babe.’ Aaron pulled her into a hug. ‘The road’s just a few minutes from here.’

  Babe? Give me strength.

  I looked away. We weren’t safe by a long way. If only I had someone from my old cell group with me to help us escape – like Charlie. Or George: a big guy with an easy smile; he had been the rock that our group was built on. And Riley had killed him. Or, more precisely, used him, then had him murdered. He was gone, and Parveen was missing, and Charlie was goodness knows where doing goodness knows what.

  A terrible wave of desolation washed over me. The fact that Riley had manipulated us so easily only highlighted just how much more powerful he was than the resistance. In my rush to follow Charlie, then rescue Jas, I hadn’t really thought about how weak we really were – and how badly we needed, and lacked, a strong leader to help us make a stand against Riley. Without someone who had the energy and the character to turn the resistance into a proper force for good, there was little chance we would ever be able to replace Riley and his English Freedom Army with a more honest and democratic party. None of the other existing politicians were anywhere near as charismatic as Riley; most of them were too scared to stand up to him anyway.