Waiting in the Shadows

by Trish Moran

  ‘Ben and the others will take care of two more new houses in their area. It is too late for the newcomers to apply for university courses, but we have enrolled them on a short course in office skills, and some in catering, so they are occupied,’ Dette explained.

  ‘We want you and Keith to visit all the Labs in London; make sure everything is OK,’ Celia said.

  Ruby and Keith found the Labs in all houses had settled in to their new lives. The students in Ben’s and Sophie’s houses were still very politically active.

  ‘We are arranging a petition to be presented to the Prime Minister on the inequalities in education around the country,’ Sophie told her.

  ‘Without access to a decent standard of education, many young people cannot rise from poverty!’ Megan added.

  ‘You must not participate in anything that may lead to you becoming involved with the police,’ Keith warned them. ‘Your ideals are to be admired but the safety of the Labs is paramount!’

  Ben nodded, ‘Yes, we are aware of our restrictions at the moment. Our own people must come first.’

  Keith decided to stay an extra day in London to view possible future properties.

  ‘Why don’t you and some of the others go and see some of the sights?’ he suggested to Ruby.

  Lucy and Helen eagerly agreed and persuaded Ben and Dylan to join them. Sophie, Megan, and Joseph decided to come too.

  ‘We can start at the Tower of London,’ Helen said, spreading out a visitor’s map of the city.

  ‘Then go on to the London Dungeon!’ Ben and Dylan suggested eagerly.

  ‘No! I think I’d prefer to visit Madame Tussaud’s,’ Megan said. Her brother and sister nodded.

  ‘Well, we could start at the Tower of London; then we can split into two groups,’ Ruby said. ‘Then in a few weeks’ time you could take some of the newcomers around yourselves. None of them wanted to join us today.’

  ‘London is a busy place after the Caves!’ Lucy said.

  Ruby felt as excited as the Labs as they walked around the Tower. She had never visited London in her old life. She was wandering around admiring the huge suits of armour when she heard a familiar voice.

  ‘Ruby, what are you doing here?’ Isaac was standing beside her.

  ‘Just a bit of sightseeing, in between jobs,’ she smiled. ‘And you?’

  ‘I’m staying with my uncle for a few days. He persuaded me to look after a friend of his today as he’s busy. So we’re doing the sights, too!’

  At that moment Sophie, Megan, and Joseph appeared, followed by Ben and Dylan.

  ‘Are you ready to go now, Ruby? Ben and Dylan are impatient to get to the Dungeons!’ Megan laughed. ‘Oh, hello,’ she added, turning to Isaac.

  Ruby noticed Isaac’s expression as they were joined by Helen and Lucy.

  ‘What’s this? A twin’s convention? And triplets, too?’ he looked bemused.

  ‘Something like that!’ Ruby decided not to try to explain. ‘Well, goodbye, enjoy your day!’

  She mulled over it for the rest of the day and told Keith of her meeting as they drove back home that evening.

  ‘Twins and triplets are not so strange, are they?’ he asked her.

  ‘Not really, but it does strange that we should be involved with so many,’ she replied. ‘How can I explain the situation?’

  ‘What did he say? A convention? Tell him he was right!’ Keith suggested.

  Ruby wasn’t convinced.

  She felt ill at ease when she bumped into him in the main street near his newspaper office.

  ‘Oh, hi, Isaac,’ she said brightly.

  ‘Hi. I haven’t seen much of you lately,’ he said.

  ‘I’ve been pretty busy,’ she replied.

  ‘How come you know so many twins, and triplets, too?’ he said.

  Ruby looked away, ‘Multiple births aren’t as rare as you’d think these days, with IVF treatments. Did your uncle’s friend enjoy the London sights?’

  ‘And I looked up the list of former pupils at Sherwood High. No mention of any of your names!’ Isaac continued, ignoring her question. ‘What did you say the name of the company you work for is called?’

  ‘What is this?’ Ruby knitted her eyebrows, ‘The Spanish Inquisition?’

  She started to walk past him, but he caught her arm.

  ‘Where are you all from?’ he said, his face near hers. ‘What have you got to hide?’

  She drew back, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Isaac! You’re getting a bit carried away with your big news story ideas!’

  She shook his hand off her arm and walked away. As soon as she had turned a corner she leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. She must go home and speak to the others immediately.

  ‘Things could become dangerous if he continues to investigate our lives,’ Celia pointed out.

  ‘Abel would send him to the Centre!’ Dette said vehemently.

  ‘A murder enquiry would not be beneficial to our cause,’ Keith told her. ‘He does not know anything about us yet, and we do not have to give him any more information.’

  ‘Yes, we must all remain calm. Give him nothing to fuel his ideas,’ Ruby agreed.

  Over the next few weeks Isaac found Ruby’s household polite, but very distant from him. He was never able to talk to one person without several more joining them.

  Isaac felt increasingly frustrated. There was something mysterious about that household. And he had to find out about it.

  He spent the next few weeks secretly surveying the house, until one day his patience was rewarded.

  First the twins left for college with Dette and Celia. Half an hour later, Keith drove off. And finally he gave a sigh of relief as Ruby stepped out, locking the door behind her, and walked off in the direction of the supermarket. Crossing the road, he silently slipped around the back of the house.

  His hand shook as he tried the back door of their house. Locked, as he had expected it to be. He glanced around but could see no windows left open. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a bunch of skeleton keys. A friend of his at university had shown him how to break into his own flat when he had accidentally locked himself out and he had used this method on one or two occasions since. He had never thought he would use it for illegal purposes, but he told himself that this was justified.

  He took a deep breath as he felt the lock give and the door open. He stepped inside and pushed it closed behind him.

  ‘Hello?’ he called and satisfied the house was empty began a quick search.

  There seemed to be nothing of interest in the kitchen. The lounge had two laptops, but he knew it would take him too long to work out passwords to gain access to any useful information, so he headed up the stairs. He made a quick search of each room and was finally rewarded when he reached into the pocket of a jacket hanging in Ruby’s wardrobe.

  It was a list of names and addresses. ‘Zaf – Sophie, Peg – Megan, Ben – Benjamin, Dil – Dylan …’ his eyes narrowed, the girl with Ruby in London had referred to Ben, and Dylan. There were two London addresses underneath. He let himself silently out of the house.

  Isaac spent the next three days in London. He visited the addresses and found that the people he had seen with Ruby were living there. From the neighbours he learnt that they were quiet, kept themselves to themselves, and were always polite.

  He followed Ben and Dylan to two political meetings and also followed them one evening to the house where Sophie lived. They seemed to be living a very similar life to many other students in London. On his last day in London he decided to follow the girls. They left university at lunch time and headed in a different direction on the tube than they normally did. They arrived at a house and were let in by a young girl. Isaac was unsure what to do, but soon the door opened and Megan and Sophie emerged, with two more girls, twins again! Isaac followed them along the road to a small park. They sat on a bench near a duck pond. Isaac sat on a bench nearby and opened a newspaper.

  ‘I
t is so different after the Caves,’ one girl was saying.

  ‘It is at first, but you get used to it, Lily!’ Sophie told her.

  ‘Our course finishes next week and then we will be required to take up a position in a workplace! It is worrying!’ the girl shook her head.

  ‘Yes,’ a second girl said. ‘We must fit in fully with Non-Labs! What happens if we make an error and are unmasked?’

  ‘Milly and I could endanger every Lab!’ the first girl looked near to tears.

  ‘Have you spoken to Ruby or Celia?’ Megan asked them.

  They shook their heads, ‘We feel as if we have failed them. Their plan was working so well until we left the Caves!’

  ‘You must not feel like this!’ Helen told them, ‘If you are not ready for the workplace, you must not go! Ruby and Celia will arrange things.’

  Lucy stood up, ‘She is right. We must phone them immediately!’

  Isaac watched as the girls walked out of the park and headed back home. Then he opened a notebook and jotted a few sentences down. He gave a satisfied sigh and stood up. Time to return to Castlewell.

  It was nearly a week before he spotted Ruby alone in the supermarket. He hurried after her.

  ‘Hi, Ruby! Been busy lately?’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Just the usual,’ she leaned past him and started to fill a bag with apples.

  ‘Aren’t you going to ask me what I’ve been up to?’ he continued.

  Ruby shrugged, ‘Tell me if you want to.’

  ‘I do!’ he stood in front of her. ‘Have you heard from Megan? Her friends, Lily and Milly – also twins, as it happens – are worried about working with the Non-Labs.’

  Ruby froze for a moment. She had had a phone call the previous week.

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about, Isaac,’ she said.

  ‘I think you do, Ruby! It would make a good news story, wouldn’t it?’ he said evenly, watching her face closely.

  He pulled the piece of paper he had taken from her jacket from his own pocket.

  ‘This is just the start!’

  ‘Where did you get that?’ Ruby asked him angrily, making a grab for the paper. He moved it out of her reach.

  She pushed her trolley to one side and headed out of the shop with Isaac hurrying after her.

  ‘Wait!’ he called.

  ‘Why don’t you just go away? Your cheap newspaper story may end up costing people’s lives!’ she hissed at him.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone. But I do want answers,’ he said.

  She stopped, looking flustered.

  ‘OK,’ she nodded. ‘Come to the house tomorrow evening, at nine o’clock. But you must not breathe a word of this to anyone, you must promise!’

  He nodded his head solemnly, ‘Then you will give me some answers?’

  ‘It’s not up to me!’ she cried, hurrying away from him.

  Keith sprang up as Ruby burst into the house a short while later.

  ‘Ruby! What is it?’ he asked.

  ‘We must talk! All of us! Now!’ she whispered.

  Soon they were all sitting in the lounge. Ruby sat white faced.

  She took a deep breath and blurted out, ‘Isaac knows something about us! I’m not sure how much!’

  ‘What does he know? How did he find out?’ several people said at once.

  ‘Start from the beginning, Ruby,’ Keith patted her arm, ‘Calm yourself.’

  ‘Somehow Isaac got hold of a bit of paper. I’d written down the names and addresses of Megan and Ben and the people in their houses. I’d taken the details from Celia,’ Ruby could not meet the eyes of the others around her. ‘I really don’t know how he got hold of it! I did mean to destroy it as soon as I got home!’

  There was a deathly silence.

  ‘OK. We must get Isaac to come around here and find out what he does actually know,’ Keith said.

  ‘I told him to come here at nine o’clock tomorrow evening,’ Ruby told them.

  ‘What if he has already prepared a newspaper story about us?’ Dette cried. ‘Maybe we should get him round here right now!’

  ‘Wait!’ Celia urged her. ‘Ruby was right to give us some time to think about this, before we see him.’

  ‘Let us discuss our plan of action before he joins us tomorrow,’ Keith said. ‘And we must ask Abel to come immediately.’

  By midnight Abel had joined them. He turned a scornful eye upon Ruby, who, though pale faced already seemed to blanch even further.

  ‘So we’ll have to get rid of Isaac. He will have to meet with an unfortunate accident!’ he said as he strode into the room.

  ‘No!’ Ruby cried out. ‘No! You can’t harm him!’

  ‘You have left us no choice!’ he swung around to face her.

  ‘No, Abel,’ Keith said. ‘Ruby is right, we cannot harm him. We cannot harm every Non-Lab that becomes aware of our background.’

  ‘Not every Non-Lab,’ Abel countered. ‘But any Non-Lab that puts us in danger before we have established ourselves in a secure position.’

  ‘Keith and I have given the matter some thought. We need something to bargain with,’ Celia ventured. All eyes were turned hopefully to her.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Johnny asked her.

  ‘If Isaac has important information about us, how can we be in a position to bargain with him?’ Leon looked puzzled.

  ‘What does Isaac want?’ Celia continued.

  Ruby looked at her and nodded slowly, ‘A big news story to get him noticed in the media world!’

  ‘And you have given it to him!’ Abel said as Ruby cringed again.

  ‘No she hasn’t, not yet! I see what you are getting at, Celia!’ Dette began to smile, ‘I think it might just work!’

  Keith nodded, ‘It’s a risk, but it gives us some hope!’

  ‘It may even work in our favour!’ Celia commented.

  ‘I don’t really understand …’ Johnny began as his twin shook his head, too.

  ‘Isaac wants a big news story. If we persuade him to wait, he will have the biggest news story ever!’ Celia explained.

  ‘So, we will take another Non-Lab into our confidence? And one who is an unknown factor to all of us? This idea is insane!’ Abel stood up clenching his fists.

  ‘He already in a position to put us all in danger!’ Celia insisted. ‘We need to have him on our side now!’

  ‘How can we trust any Non-Lab?’ Abel snarled, staring at Ruby. He stormed out of the door.

  Dette stood up and followed him, ‘I’ll go and talk to him. I’ll see if I can persuade him to consider your idea.’

  Abel’s face was still sullen as they sat with Isaac in their midst the following evening.

  ‘First tell us what you do know, and we will fill in the details,’ Keith spoke quietly to Isaac.

  ‘Well, I suppose I don’t know that much really, but I have a gut feeling that things aren’t what they seem with you people,’ Isaac looked less sure of himself surrounded by her friends than he had with Ruby on her own.

  ‘So …?’ Celia prompted him.

  ‘I know you are in contact with groups of students around the country. Many of them are twins, like you boys. I know these students are going under false names. And I know some of them are nervous, afraid of another group called the “Non-Labs” …’ He looked up as Johnny stifled a giggle. Celia silenced him with a glare.

  ‘And, I know you didn’t go to Sherwood High,’ he finished.

  ‘So you don’t really know that much at all, do you?’ Abel sneered.

  ‘I have addresses and enough to start an interesting newspaper story on the increase in twins and triplets among the student population! This is worth further investigation!’ Isaac turned to him, his face flushed.

  ‘Who’d be interested in this?’ Keith asked quietly.

  ‘My uncle, he’s a reporter for The Times, some of his friends, some of my own colleagues,’ Isaac continued doggedly.

  ‘How could you find out m
ore, if we don’t cooperate?’ Abel asked him.

  ‘I’d gain public interest by starting an article about twins and triplets. I’d start by interviewing some of these students!’ he took the paper from his pocket. In a flash, Abel had removed it from his hand. Isaac looked at him, ‘I do have copies, you know! I left some stuff with a friend, for security, before I came here today!’

  There was silence for a moment.

  ‘Isaac,’ Keith broke the silence, ‘your interference at the wrong time may cause the loss of lives; hundreds of lives! You will have to wait for your big story until the end of our plan.’

  ‘I knew there was more to this! I can wait! I swear I wouldn’t print anything that may endanger lives!’ Isaac looked at him eagerly.

  Keith looked around the room. The others nodded, except for Abel who turned away with a grunt.

  For the next hour Isaac listened with widening eyes as Celia and the others explained the situation and their plan to free the Labs, now and then asking a question.

  At one point Isaac turned and smiled at Johnny, ‘That’s why you laughed when I said a group called the “Non-Labs”! I’m one of them!’ Johnny grinned back and nodded.

  Finally there was silence.

  ‘Wow! What a story!’ Isaac gave a soft whistle.

  ‘A story that can’t be made public yet!’ Celia warned him.

  ‘I fully understand that! Look, I may be able to help you. I may even prove useful, you know,’ he said.

  Abel grunted again, ‘Our Non-Lab friend, Ruby, helped us by supplying you with crucial names and addresses!’

  Ruby blushed and looked down.

  ‘No, she didn’t!’ Isaac reached inside his pocket and pulled out the skeleton keys. ‘As we’re all revealing our criminal activities, I have to admit I looked around your house one day when you were all out.’

  He gave Ruby an apologetic smile. ‘Sorry!’ He opened his hands, ‘Hey, it’s a skill that you may find useful! And I also have useful contacts in the press, through my uncle.’

  Keith nodded slowly, ‘Yes, you may indeed prove a useful ally, Isaac.’

  Abel glared at him again, ‘But if you ever do, or think of doing, something that will put any Lab in danger, you will regret it!’