Every Second Counts

by Sophie McKenzie

  ‘Course I was.’ Spider drew himself up. He glanced at me. ‘I’m not an idiot.’ He said the words in such a way as to imply that I probably was one.

  I gritted my teeth.

  ‘What’s the address?’ Charlie asked.

  As Spider gave her the information I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. Had I left it on? I thought I’d turned it off last time I’d checked for messages. Was getting forgetful a sign of the virus taking hold? No, that was surely just tiredness too. I turned away and took out the mobile.

  It was Aaron.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Nat?’ Aaron sounded desperate. ‘Listen, it’s Jas. She’s really ill.’

  Charlie

  I glanced at Nat. He was hunched over his phone, muttering in a low, intense voice. Was he really alright? His face seemed very pale and his eyes looked strained. Still, that could just as easily be because of our situation as because of the virus inside him.

  ‘Charlie?’ Spider’s voice was sharp.

  I looked back at him. Spider, on the other hand, was glowing with health. His cheeks were flushed from running and his hair, swept back from his face emphasised those amazing cheekbones of his.

  If I was judging objectively, I would have to say that Spider was more conventionally good-looking than Nat. His wild dark hair and dark eyes made him look like a teenage model, as did his designer clothes. As for that white-toothed smile of his . . .

  But, to me, Nat was ten times more attractive.

  I tore my eyes away from him, back to Spider.

  ‘Thank you for telling us all this,’ I said. ‘We’re going to have to move fast. Nat doesn’t have much time. Jas even less.’

  Spider reached for my hand. I glanced at Nat again, but he was deep in his conversation, an agonised frown on his forehead. He was probably talking to Jas, telling her she was infected. My heart went out to him.

  ‘I don’t want a thank you.’ Spider tugged at my hand, pulling me towards him. I looked up into his dark eyes. Brown instead of Nat’s ice-chip blue, but every bit as intense. ‘I want to see you again.’

  I hesitated. Part of me felt I owed Spider, that I should say yes. After all, he’d just risked his neck to bring us information. But Spider and I were, in the end, on opposite sides of the battle. Quite apart from how complicated it would make things with Nat – or that Spider might even think I was into him if I agreed to meet him again – it just wasn’t possible for me to be friends with someone who thought it was okay to murder and lie to get into power.

  ‘Do you still support your dad?’ I asked.

  ‘Of course.’ Spider frowned. ‘I mean, it’s like he’s always saying. You have to be ruthless to make a difference.’ He looked up at the memorial behind us. ‘Dad brought me here a lot when I was little, told me about the soldiers and how they gave up their lives. He’s always talking about how you have to keep remembering the big picture, that a noble goal justifies all the sacrifices that have to be made to achieve it.’

  ‘Like the sacrifice of Nat and his sister?’ I shook my head. ‘How do you justify that? And what about Aaron’s dad, Mayor Latimer? Riley’s just taken him prisoner. What noble goal did that achieve exactly?’

  Spider shrugged. ‘I get they’re your friends. And, look, I’ve helped you over Nat. I’d feel bad if he died, if anyone dies, but it doesn’t change the fact that you belong with me and Dad and Uchi and all the other senior EFA people.’ He pulled me closer still, his hand now on my waist. ‘You’re special, Charlie. You’re beautiful. You’re—’

  ‘No,’ I said, pulling away.

  ‘Come on, we’re made for each other.’ Spider tugged me back towards him.

  ‘She said no,’ Nat snarled, appearing suddenly beside us.

  Spider spun around. Seconds later the two of them were squaring up again, foreheads locked, fists clenched.

  ‘Enough.’ I pushed my way between them and stood in front of Nat, facing Spider. ‘I’m really grateful you’ve given us a location for the antidote Spider. But I’m with Nat. And – and anyway, your dad organised the bomb that killed my mother. If you can’t see how terrible what he did was, if you insist on standing by him, I can’t support that.’

  Spider’s face flushed. ‘Fine,’ he said, backing away. ‘That’s just fine.’ He ran off.

  I turned to face Nat, expecting him to smile or hug me, but he just stared at me, his expression unreadable.

  ‘What is it?’ I said.

  I wanted him to hold me and to talk to me, but instead he pulled away.

  ‘Nothing,’ he said.

  ‘Right.’

  There was an awkward pause.

  ‘So who was that on the phone?’ I asked, trying to hide my hurt.

  ‘Aaron.’ Nat’s face creased in another frown. ‘Jas is really ill, apparently. They didn’t understand why . . .’ His voice wobbled. ‘Her vision had got a bit blurry, but that was all . . . then she collapsed. I – I just had to explain why.’

  ‘Oh, God . . . Nat, that’s awful.’ I forgot my own hurt feelings and squeezed his hand.

  He squeezed my hand back, his mouth trembling with emotion. ‘What did Spider say?’

  I explained what I’d just learned.

  ‘Spider says the institute is big, but that it should be empty right now. Just a security guard on reception.’

  ‘Right,’ Nat said. ‘I’ll call Aaron and tell him. He can meet us there.’

  After he’d given Aaron the institute’s address near Trafalgar Square, I took the phone and told Aaron in detail how I’d seen his dad being taken away from Riley’s house in a van. Aaron sounded distraught, but determined to help find the antidote.

  ‘Once we’ve got that, it should be easier to expose Riley – and get help for Dad,’ he said.

  We arranged to meet within the hour, then Nat and I set off. Nat kept his nose and mouth well covered with his scarf again. As we hurried through the side streets, towards the institute, all thoughts of how Nat and Spider had almost come to blows faded from my mind. What mattered now was getting that antidote. If Riley had been telling me the truth about the virus, Jas wouldn’t survive beyond the night and Nat would be dead by the end of tomorrow.

  I wasn’t going to let it happen.

  Nat

  The sun was still shining as Charlie and I waited in the doorway of a boarded-up shop for Aaron to arrive. Almost an hour had passed since Spider had brought us the address of the Silvercross Institute. Charlie had already scouted around the building and was confident that – as Spider had claimed – it was empty. So far, so good, though I still didn’t trust that he wouldn’t have gone straight back to Riley and given us away.

  My vision wasn’t any worse. That is, it still grew blurry every now and then but not so that it was a problem – and not so as Charlie had noticed. At least I was sure I hadn’t infected anyone on the way over here. I’d crossed the road to avoid the few people we had passed and kept my scarf over my nose and mouth.

  Charlie was keeping a look out for Aaron while I checked my phone for any last-minute messages. There had been a distance between us since Spider had left. I knew I should have said something to her after she’d said all those things about being with me . . . I should have told her that I chose her too. But somehow the moment had gone and I didn’t know how to get it back. I was useless at stuff like that.

  ‘There he is.’

  I followed Charlie’s pointing finger. Aaron had turned off the main road and was hurrying along the alley towards us. I stared, aghast. Lucas was beside him. What on earth was he doing here? He certainly looked a lot better than he had done last night, though still very pale and thin. But surely he wasn’t well enough to be out on a mission like this? Plus, he was infected with the Qilota virus, just like I was, which meant he was spreading it just by walking around.

  Lucas strode straight up to me. ‘Nat, I’m so, so sorry,’ he said. And then he flung his arms around me.

  Startled, I let him hug me.

 
; ‘Are you feeling alright?’ Lucas pulled away, an anxious frown creasing his brow.

  ‘Yeah, not bad, considering,’ I mumbled. ‘Er, what are you doing here?’

  ‘I came to help,’ Lucas said. ‘Listen, Aaron here and Jas have told me everything. About Riley, the EFA, the truth about what’s really going on. I’m sorry I didn’t get it earlier.’

  I nodded, feeling relieved. Despite how ill I was feeling, it was good to see Lucas looking more like his old self and great that he properly understood the terrible situation we were in at last. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Aaron and Charlie watching us. Charlie was tugging on a black jumper that Aaron had, presumably, brought her from his home. Her sharp eyes were fixed on Lucas, an expression of curiosity on her face.

  ‘You do realise you’re infected too, Lucas?’ I stammered.

  Lucas nodded. ‘I know. I’ve tried to keep my distance from everyone we’ve passed. Anyway if we can find this antidote, it won’t be a problem soon.’ He gave my back a firm pat. ‘Never mind me. I’ve only been infected for a few hours, I’ve got no symptoms yet. It’s you and Jas I’m worried about.’

  ‘How is she?’

  Lucas shook his head.

  ‘Really bad,’ Aaron said miserably. ‘She’s so weak she’s had to go to bed. Your parents have taken her home; they’re sending us updates every thirty minutes.’

  Something shrivelled inside me; I couldn’t bear the thought of Jas suffering.

  ‘Oh, that’s awful,’ Charlie said.

  At this Lucas turned towards her, as if noticing her for the first time. Feeling a little awkward, I introduced them, then watched Lucas’s frown transform into a smile.

  ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Good to meet you.’

  ‘Hi.’ Charlie smiled back. ‘We should get going.’

  We set off towards the institute entrance.

  ‘I’m really worried about my dad,’ Aaron confided as we walked. ‘Riley could be doing anything to him. I called a couple of his colleagues and they said they knew people in the police they think they can trust, but . . .’ He tailed off, not needing to finish the sentence we were only too aware of: that it was virtually impossible to know who in the police could be trusted at all.

  ‘I’m sorry about your father, Charlie,’ Lucas said. ‘I mean, I’m sorry that he’s behind so much of what Riley has done. That must be difficult.’

  Charlie flushed, then threw me a hard stare. ‘Nat? You told him?’

  ‘I told him,’ Aaron said quickly.

  ‘How did you know?’ Charlie demanded.

  ‘Er, my dad said,’ Aaron stammered.

  ‘And how did he know?’

  Aaron glanced at me, then looked away. Charlie raised her eyebrows.

  ‘I told Mr Latimer at the resistance meeting,’ I said, feeling uncomfortable.

  ‘Right.’ Charlie rolled her eyes. ‘Was there anyone you didn’t tell?’

  I met her gaze. ‘It just came out.’

  Charlie opened her mouth as if to say more, then shook herself. ‘It doesn’t matter now,’ she said. She pointed across the road to the Silvercross Institute, a large brick building built over several floors. ‘I took a look around earlier,’ she explained. ‘It’s mostly offices, as far as I can see – though it says online that they do chemical research here, that there are labs in the basement. The best way in is going to be through the front door, then overpower the security guard before he has a chance to call for backup.’

  ‘I’ll go in first and pretend to be a courier,’ I said, explaining the plan we had discussed. ‘I’ll leave the front door open so you can rush in while I’m distracting him. Then we search the building. You two as one team, me and Charlie as the other. Okay?’

  Aaron nodded.

  ‘Sure,’ Lucas said, ‘except I should pretend to be the courier. I’m older, it’ll be more convincing.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Fine,’ I said, feeling rattled. It was stupid, of course, Lucas was right. But I didn’t like being told what to do. Especially by him.

  A few moments later we were all in position. Lucas rang on the front door, while the rest of us hid out of sight of the entry-cam.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Delivery,’ Lucas said into the intercom.

  The door buzzed. With a final glance at us, Lucas disappeared inside. I held the door.

  ‘Will he be okay?’ Aaron whispered.

  I nodded. ‘Lucas was trained by the EFA, just like me and Charlie. Come on, let’s go.’

  We burst through the door. The security guard sprang to his feet as I ran in, but Lucas was already behind the desk. Charlie and I raced over. In seconds, the security guard’s hands and feet were tied. Lucas wound a gag around the man’s mouth. Charlie took the bunch of keys that hung from his belt.

  ‘Wow.’ Aaron’s eyes were wide with awe. ‘That was fast.’

  ‘We need to search the place,’ Lucas said, brushing back the hair that had fallen over his face in the struggle with the guard. Apart from his rather gaunt appearance, there was no trace of the pale, sick victim I had helped from the hospital just a few hours earlier. His eyes were clear and bright and he wasn’t even panting that much more than the rest of us.

  ‘Charlie and I will take this floor and the basement,’ I said pointing to the stairs behind the guard’s desk. ‘You two try upstairs.’

  We set off. As the others disappeared up the stairs, Charlie and I explored the ground-floor rooms. We moved in silence, passing through four or five meeting rooms, each one set with a semicircle of tables and chairs.

  As we headed down to the basement, Charlie asked again if I was alright.

  ‘Seriously, I’m fine,’ I said.

  We reached the basement and turned on to the main corridor.

  ‘Lucas seems really nice,’ she went on.

  ‘Yeah, he is,’ I said. ‘Everyone loves Lucas.’

  Charlie fell silent. I shivered. Was it cooler down here? Or was I cold because of the virus? I pushed the thought out of my head and glanced at Charlie. The black jumper Aaron had brought her was slightly too big for her and she had rolled up the sleeves. In the dim light her eyes shone, huge and brown. She looked unbearably beautiful.

  I turned away. Even if we found the antidote and I somehow managed to survive the Qilota virus, there was no way I’d hang on to Charlie.

  ‘What the hell is your problem, Nat?’ she demanded suddenly.

  I stopped in my tracks, shocked.

  ‘Why won’t you talk to me?’ she said, stamping her foot. ‘I know you’re upset about Jas and about getting ill yourself and about Spider hitting on me, but you won’t talk to me about any of it – though you didn’t seem to have any problem telling the entire world about my birth dad, even though I specifically asked you not to.’

  ‘I don’t . . . I didn’t . . .’ My voice fell away. I didn’t know what to say. Which was, of course, part of the problem. Guys like Spider and Lucas and Aaron, they always knew what to say and when to say it.

  Charlie’s eyes flared with exasperation. ‘You didn’t what?’

  I latched on to the easiest thing to explain.

  ‘I didn’t like the way Spider acted like you owed him something,’ I muttered. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’

  Charlie looked me in the eyes, her expression as hard and as bright as I’d ever seen it. ‘You didn’t upset me, not over that. But you see, if you don’t talk, I don’t know how you feel, or how to tell you how I feel.’

  ‘How you feel?’ I stammered, feeling uncomfortable. How had we got on to the subject of emotions so quickly?

  ‘Yes.’ There was a long pause, then Charlie jutted out her chin. ‘You see I love you,’ she said defiantly. The way she spoke the words made them sound like a challenge.

  My mouth gaped. My head spun. I had no idea what to say.

  ‘Now come on,’ she said, suddenly grabbing my hand. ‘We need to find this antidote.’

  I felt bewil
dered as we raced along the corridor, opening each door in turn. There were three labs, all kitted out with gleaming metal pipes and bottles of chemicals, plus a kitchen with an old-fashioned dresser and a dumb waiter in the corner. We scoured these thoroughly, using the keys Charlie had taken from the security guard upstairs to open the various cupboards we came across, but could find no reference to the Qilota virus.

  I kept hearing Charlie’s words in my head.

  I love you.

  I had never said those words to anyone. Now I thought about it, I wanted to say them back to Charlie, but how? I’d already let the moment pass. Again. My vision blurred and, for a few seconds, I was completely blind. Then the floor came back into view. I didn’t have many more moments to tell Charlie anything. I didn’t have many more moments at all.

  ‘There’s nothing here,’ I said, pushing my thoughts away along with an empty packing crate. ‘Shall we go back upstairs?’

  ‘I want to take another look in the kitchen first,’ Charlie said. ‘It looked like it was all just catering stuff, but maybe there’s some info in the dresser, behind the pots and pans.’

  I shrugged. I couldn’t believe information about an antidote to a deadly virus would be stored in a basement kitchen, but I didn’t have a better suggestion. Charlie left the office. I heard her padding into the kitchen and opening and closing a cupboard door.

  I rifled through the papers stashed in the corner of the biggest lab. Again, there was nothing that obviously related to the development and weaponising of the Qilota virus, though that was surely what had gone on in these very rooms. Most of the paperwork consisted of academic research documents – not a million miles away from the essays I used to write for school. Everyone there would be gearing up for exams. I should have been taking plenty of them myself. I was predicted a whole bunch of top grades. How pointless did that seem now?

  I wondered how Aaron and Lucas were getting on upstairs? It was time to find them. I hurried along the corridor. There was no sign of Charlie in any of the rooms we’d examined. She must still be in the kitchen.

  I peered around the door. The room was empty.