Every Second Counts

by Sophie McKenzie

But as I reached the bottom of the stairs, Gracie was bustling about, the front door was open and, from the look of the large car being loaded up outside, the entire household was on the move.

  ‘Ah, good, you’re up,’ Gracie said.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Everyone’s leaving,’ she said breathlessly. ‘You and Spider. The mission is tonight.’ She disappeared into the kitchen.

  Tonight?

  My heart skipped a beat. So it was starting already. Now I really was running out of time. Perhaps I’d be able to sneak a go on someone’s phone while they were distracted with the mission.

  I ventured outside. Uchi and Spider were already out there, standing in a patch of bright sunlight.

  ‘Please get your things together, Charlie,’ Uchi said as I appeared. ‘We are heading out in fifteen minutes.’

  Spider raised his eyebrows, his eyes sparkling with excitement. I went inside, packed up my few changes of clothes and the small items I’d brought with me and hurried back outside. We got into the car straight away: Uchi and Taylor up front where the windows were darkened; Spider and me in the back.

  Spider was quiet for most of the journey. I imagined he was worrying about our mission. Well, let him. I barely thought about the underwater swim that lay ahead. I was totally preoccupied with how on earth I was going to get a warning to Nat.

  After about an hour and a half, the van stopped round the back of a disused service station on a busy road. The brick wall where we parked was crumbling and stained, the windows all boarded up. Both the back and side doors were hanging off their hinges. The side door was sprayed with graffiti and labelled toilets. The air was hot and humid. Even from here I could smell the stench of rot and drains.

  ‘Where are we?’ I asked.

  No one replied.

  ‘Over there! That’s got to be Dad.’ Spider pointed to a black car turning into the back of the service station.

  ‘Good,’ Uchi said. He hobbled towards the car, which had slowed to a stop.

  I watched as Roman Riley got out.

  ‘Uchi.’ He threw his arms around the older man, ruffled Spider’s hair, then turned to me with a smile. ‘Charlie, how are you?’

  I shrugged. I knew that I should try and make more effort to make Riley think I was under his spell, but it was hard. I suddenly remembered the moment months ago when he’d stood in front of me, unarmed, and I’d held a gun in my hands. I hadn’t shot him. If I had, Riley would be dead now and none of this would be happening.

  I still didn’t know if that had been the right choice or not. Nat had said that it was good I wasn’t capable of killing anyone. But surely Riley deserved to die. I shook myself, unable to work it out, as Riley turned back to Uchi.

  ‘Come on,’ he said, pointing to the service station. ‘We can talk in there. I can give you ten minutes.’

  ‘Alright, Mr Important,’ Uchi grunted. ‘Just remember I knew you when you were a question without an answer.’

  Riley chuckled. ‘Hurry up, old man,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a rally to get to.’

  As they disappeared inside the shabby building, Martina emerged from the car. She was wearing a fitted green suit and looked as pretty and elegant as ever. She waved at me, nodded at Spider, then went over to Taylor. The two of them bent their heads over a smartphone, discussing what they were looking at in a low mumble.

  I fantasised for a second about wrenching the phone off them and using it to call Nat, then forced myself back to reality.

  I wandered along the side of the service station towards the toilets. The air was still and heavy. Behind me, Martina and Taylor were deep in conversation; Spider was lounging against the side of the car, gazing up at the clear blue sky.

  No one was watching me. Maybe there would be a door through from the toilets into the station and, maybe inside, there would be a payphone. I called out to Taylor. ‘I need a pee, sir,’ I said.

  He waved his permission and I headed for the toilet door. Inside, I went straight across to the interior door which must lead through to the service station on the other side.

  It was locked. I was just about to try to prise the catch open, when I heard Riley and Uchi talking just metres away on the other side.

  I froze, then eased myself closer to the door.

  ‘In the car, all on schedule.’ That was Riley.

  Uchi said something I couldn’t make out. I pressed my ear against the door, its wood warm on my skin, straining to hear.

  ‘That’s not realistic, Uchi.’ Riley sighed. ‘Not in that time-frame, but Charlie will be fine. Just like Spider. And the casualties will be extreme.’

  My stomach screwed into a tight knot. Extreme? What kind of bomb were we planting?

  Uchi said something I couldn’t catch. And then the door to outside opened. Taylor appeared behind me.

  ‘I thought you were using the bathroom?’ He raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Keep your hair on, sir.’ I followed him back to the car, still feeling shaken. Up until this point, I’d only thought in terms of trying to protect the people at the party – but suppose the bomb Spider and I were carrying was more powerful than the one that had exploded at the market. Even the four deaths inflicted there were four too many, of course, but what if London itself was the target?

  How many people was Riley planning to kill this time?

  Nat

  I stopped in my tracks. Above me, the sun burned high in the sky. Around me, traffic hummed and late commuters hurried past to the tube station. My phone, pressed to my ear, felt hot against my skin.

  ‘Parveen?’ Her voice had shocked the tears right out of my eyes. ‘Where are you? Are you alright?’

  ‘Never better,’ she said breezily. ‘If you don’t count being pursued by Roman Riley, just about getting away with my life, and spending the past three weeks lying low in the middle of nowhere with no access to the internet.’

  ‘Riley came after you?’ I asked, my head spinning. ‘How did he know where you were?’

  ‘It was a mess,’ Parveen said crisply. ‘I was with the guy from Resistance Two. His girlfriend was killed in one of Riley’s bombs – an early bomb, before the one that left your brother in a coma. The guy from Two has been working against Riley for nearly a year. Anyway, you know how the League of Iron said they did the House of Commons bombing but only ’cause Riley made them?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘What’s that got—?’

  ‘Listen. I’m telling you. The guy from Two thought he knew where the League of Iron leader – you know, Saxon66 – was hiding out. The resistance had heard Saxon wanted to join us, so they went to make contact and I got caught up in—’

  ‘The League of Iron leader wants to join the resistance?’ I asked, shocked.

  ‘Yes, in fact as of last night he has joined. And that heinous Goth woman he hangs out with, WhiteRaven. If you ask me, she’s even worse than he is.’

  ‘But we can’t let them be part of the resistance, they’re as bad as Riley.’

  ‘I know.’ Parveen sighed. ‘It sucks. But the point is that trying to find them I almost got captured by Riley and that’s why I’ve been out of contact. Nightmare.’ Pareven paused. ‘Hey, Nat, you sound weird, have you been crying?’

  ‘No. Course not.’ I sniffed, rubbing my face with the back of my sleeve.

  ‘Good,’ she went on, ‘because yesterday I finally made it to the main London safe house and everyone’s there.’

  ‘Including Saxon 66 and WhiteRaven?’ I said, still unable to believe that two such violent racists had been allowed to join the resistance.

  ‘Yeah, we’re all just one big happy family at resistance HQ,’ Parveen said drily. ‘Apart from the League of Iron couple – who are now Resistance Pair Seventeen, by the way – there’s me and the guy from Two and the people from Six, Eight and Ten, plus Julius and Lennox in Nine, who you met the other day. We’re having a meeting later. Apparently the Mayor of London’s coming along. He’s been supplying the guys in Lo
ndon with all sorts of tech and a few tasers. We’re hoping he’ll be able to give us some muscle, maybe even proper weapons, as well.’

  ‘Really?’ This tallied with what Latimer himself had told me earlier. I felt some of the tension inside me ease. I was starting to believe that perhaps he really was on our side.

  ‘Julius and Lennox have news about Charlie, by the way,’ Parveen added.

  My heart leaped. ‘Really? Is she okay? Where is she?’

  Parveen chuckled. ‘Ah, I heard you guys were an item. About time.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Nothing, it was just obvious between the two of you, though both of you were too pigheaded to see it.’

  ‘What’s the news, Par?’ I asked pointedly. A gaggle of schoolkids headed past. They were laughing, not a care in the world. I had been like that once a million years ago. Avoiding the group, I headed for the shelter of a boarded-up shop doorway. The street was full of them. When Lucas had first been brought to this hospital, this street had been thriving and busy. Now hardly any of the shops were even open.

  ‘She’s with Riley. Successfully undercover,’ Parveen said, suddenly sounding very businesslike.

  ‘How do you know? Did she get a message out?’

  ‘Nah. The guy from Resistance Ten managed to hack an email Riley was sent from a guy called Uchi. It was encrypted, but we’ve got this new software, thanks to Latimer, so—’

  ‘What did the email say?’

  ‘I’m getting to that.’ Parveen tutted at my impatience. ‘It was basically an update on how Charlie is training for a mission. Something called Operation Neptune. There’s a film of her actually in training.’

  ‘Can I see it?’

  ‘It’s in the draft email box,’ Parveen said. ‘We got it this morning and we’ve been trying to work out what it means, what kind of mission they’re planning.’

  ‘I see.’ I leaned against the boarded-up door. The wood felt cold against my back. ‘But Charlie hasn’t been in touch herself?’

  ‘No.’ Parveen hesitated. ‘But from the email it looks like the guy who sent it – Uchi – is her dad, so she’s obviously found him. That’s all we know.’

  ‘I’ll take a look at the film,’ I said.

  ‘Good,’ Parveen said. ‘The safe house address is there with it. Come here as soon as you can.’

  She rang off. Filled with a new purpose I opened the browser on the smartphone Latimer had given me. I logged on to the resistance email address and checked the draft email box. I found Parveen’s message easily enough. It was brief and to the point, simply giving me the South London address of the safe house where she and the other Resistance Pairs had gathered.

  The video attachment was a grainy colour film. It looked, as Parveen had said, as if it had been taken on a mobile phone, and it showed the back of a house, a patio and a swimming pool, its waters disturbed. I peered closer. Two smudged figures in wet suits were visible, slipping through a series of narrow hoops set to the bottom of the pool. I couldn’t be a hundred percent certain, but one of the figures looked a lot like Charlie. The other was definitely a boy.

  Was that the training session Parveen had referred to? I frowned. EFA training normally involved guns and bombs, not underwater party tricks. I watched the two people swimming. After a couple of minutes they got out. I stared, transfixed, as Charlie removed her mask. She looked amazing in that skin-tight suit. She said something to the boy with her. He was about our age: tall and slim, with a shock of curly black hair.

  As I watched, the boy’s face broke into a huge smile. Man, he was really good-looking. I felt a stab of jealousy as the two of them walked around the pool. The boy was standing too close to her. He pointed to something in the water and touched her shoulder.

  ‘Get off her,’ I found myself growling under my breath.

  Who was that guy? The film ended as abruptly as it had begun. I played it again. Swimming through hoops? What was that about? It didn’t make sense. I closed my browser and hurried to the tube station. I knew, as I got on to my tube train and headed to meet Parveen, that whatever Riley was planning must be going to happen soon, that with the election just four days away everything was coming to a head, but as I made my way towards south London, all I could think about was the guy with the black hair putting his arm around Charlie and how jealous it had made me feel.

  Charlie

  The streets of London gleamed from the rain as the large car glided silently along the busy road. I peered through the window, wondering where on earth we were going. We had been driving for hours since the meeting with Riley, who had sped off in his own car with Martina after just a few minutes.

  It struck me that apart from a quick ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’, Riley hadn’t really spoken to his son at all. Maybe I could use the fact that he paid Spider so little attention to help make Spider question his views and his plans.

  Up front, Uchi and Taylor were talking in low voices. I leaned across the back seat and tapped Spider’s arm.

  He looked up.

  ‘So, do you see much of your dad?’ I asked quietly.

  ‘Not really.’ A self-conscious flush spread over Spider’s cheeks. ‘He’s so busy, plus he doesn’t want people to know about me, says they’ll just come snooping around. He wants to protect my mum from all that, too.’

  I said nothing. Privately I suspected that Riley was more concerned with protecting his privacy than his family, but I didn’t want to antagonise Spider.

  ‘That must be hard,’ I said. ‘It’s a shame you don’t see more of him.’

  Spider scowled. ‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘Dad’s busy with important stuff. It’s all cool.’ He turned away and looked, pointedly, out of the window.

  I sighed inwardly. I was useless at this kind of thing, trying to talk to people about their feelings. Jas would have managed to get Spider to open up with her gentle, friendly warmth. And Nat would have found a way too.

  Nat . . . I’d have given anything for the chance to hear his voice, to find out if he was alright, to tell him I was sorry for running off and not contacting him straight away. Tears pricked at my eyes. I forced them angrily back. This was so not the time to get mushy. I was still no closer to warning the resistance about tonight’s bomb than I had been two days ago. And time was running out fast.

  I sat back in silence, trying to work out how I could make a call . . .

  About half an hour later Taylor pulled up outside a grungy-looking concrete block in Hackney. He got out, looked around, then pronounced that it was safe for us to leave the car. We headed straight into the basement flat. It was, like most of the EFA bases I’d been to, a mix of high-tech equipment and shabby décor. The paint was peeling from the walls, but the living room was set up with an entire bank of screens showing CCTV shots from around the capital. Three EFA soldiers, all with masks and guns were hunched over a set of photos pinned to the far wall. I tried to take a closer look, but Uchi hurried Spider and me through to the kitchen – another rundown room with rusting appliances and a chipped countertop. He left us sitting at the table in the centre of the room while a masked soldier made coffee, announced there wasn’t any milk, then went back to the living room. We stared at each other.

  ‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

  ‘The operation is a bomb,’ Spider said. ‘Taylor said I could tell you now. It’s tonight, we’re taking it somewhere – I don’t know where yet – and setting it to go off at seven-thirty.’

  This was confirmation of Operation Neptune. My heart lurched into my throat.

  ‘A bomb?’ I said, trying to look like I had no idea about what was planned. ‘What else do you know?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Spider gave a rueful shrug. ‘Sorry, I’d tell you if I did.’

  I stared at him. I was certain he was telling the truth. That was always how the EFA acted – no single individual in possession of too much information.

  ‘Okay, thanks,’ I said. I looked around. There
was no landline in the kitchen – and concertina shutters on both the windows and the back door. Despite the fact it was two o’clock in the afternoon and a bright spring day outside, it was gloomy in here. The dark, dampness of the place was like a physical presence, weighing down on me.

  A phone in one of the other rooms rang, then stopped. A few moments later, Uchi hobbled to the kitchen door and peered around. ‘Spider, it’s your mother,’ he said, holding out the handset. ‘You can take it in the cloakroom if you want privacy.’

  Spider got up without looking at me and took the phone. He vanished and Uchi gave me a gruff smile, then pulled the door to behind him.

  I sat back in my chair. I could hear everyone bustling about next door, but in here it was quiet. Spider had left his sweatshirt on the counter. As I glanced at it, I noticed the edge of his mobile peeking out from underneath the hood.

  I stared at it, my chest tightening. This was it, the opportunity I’d been waiting for. I grabbed the phone and swiped the screen, praying the mobile wasn’t set to request a password.

  It wasn’t. My heartbeat quickened as I checked the door. It was still shut. I punched Nat’s number into the handset and held it to my ear. A continuous tone sounded. Number unobtainable. What did that mean? That Nat had lost his phone? Had it forcibly taken from him? Or dumped it because it had been compromised?

  Footsteps sounded long the corridor. I just had time to shove the mobile behind my back, when the door opened. Taylor peered into the room.

  ‘Just checking you’re okay,’ he said. His green eyes pierced through me.

  ‘I’m fine.’ The phone felt clammy in my palm.

  Taylor gave me a curious look, then he nodded and withdrew. Hands shaking, I peered at the mobile again. I only had one more opportunity to make a call.

  The emergency services were out – thanks to Riley’s ability to control the police – and aside from Nat’s, the only other useful number I could remember was Parveen’s. We’d swapped them via the draft email system weeks ago, though agreed only to use them in absolute emergencies. It was probably hopeless; after all, the last I’d heard she’d gone off the radar. She was most likely a prisoner, or even dead. Still, it was my only remaining chance. I pressed the numbers in quickly.