S.E.A.R.Ch

by Harrison Davies

  Surprisingly it took quite a time to work out the direction to the labs, because, as a government installation, it wasn’t marked on the map.

  Finally, he folded up the map and placed it in his backpack. As an afterthought, he made sure the cell phone he had received as a gift from his stepmother was in his pocket.

  Just have to wait for Allie now, he thought.

  Jack sat there a few moments, and then realized he had forgotten an important task. He decided he would leave a letter for his stepmom. He didn’t want her worrying.

  He found his father’s headed notepaper and then thought about what he could say in the note to her.

  Natalie,

  By the time you read it, it’ll be too late for you to do anything, and I’m sorry if it upsets you.

  I was told not to tell anyone about it. I got a phone call from Dad. I’m sorry I lied to you about who called. But Dad told me not to tell you.

  He asked me to deliver a package to a Doctor Kymes in Middleton, and if the man gets it, Dad say’s the kidnappers will let him go.

  I couldn’t tell you because you’d have stopped me.

  Dad needs my help, so please don’t worry.

  Jack.

  Jack slipped into his parent’s bedroom and placed the note on his father’s pillow. He gently gave Natalie a peck on the cheek, and quietly left the room.

  Eleven-fifty, the clock in the hallway read.

  Good. Allie should be here any minute now.

  Collecting his backpack, and making sure the policeman who was guarding the house was on his patrol, he slipped outside. Jogging as quietly as he could, he made his way down the grove and sat on a neighbor’s wall, anxiously waiting for Allie.

  When twenty minutes passed, Jack began to worry. Where is she?

  He walked to the end of the grove. Faced with an empty street, and through sheer impatience, he decided to go and look for her. Making sure he had everything he needed; he set off in search of his girlfriend.

  *

  Allie paused a few moments, making sure that she hadn’t been heard. Satisfied, she quietly opened the door that had been locked tight a minute ago.

  It was very dark in the room, and she had to wait a while for her eyes to adjust. Carefully she moved across the room towards what appeared to be a pile of clothes, and suddenly, the heap moved.

  ‘What? Who is it? What do you want?’ said a sleepy, fearful, but familiar voice.

  Surprised, Allie’s heart began to beat faster.

  ‘Professor Simpson, is that you?’

  ‘Yes, who is this?’

  ‘It’s me, Alison Richards.’

  ‘Allie? What are you doing here?’

  ‘Same as you. They abducted me too.’

  ‘What for? You don’t know anything about my work.’

  ‘Professor, can we talk about this later? I think we can escape if we go now.’

  ‘Okay. But I’m feeling pretty weak. I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and I’m hurt.’

  ‘Fine, I’ll help you, but let’s go.’

  Allie helped Professor Simpson to his feet. He winced with pain as he was lifted up and they slowly made their way to the kitchen, with Joe leaning on Allie for support.

  Arriving at the kitchen, professor Simpson gasped at the sight of the body lying on the floor. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I knocked him out. Come on; we need to get away from here as quickly as possible,’ she said.

  They stepped over the body and Allie dashed over to the kitchen door. It was locked.

  ‘What now?’ Joe said, raising his eyes to the ceiling.

  ‘What about the window? It’s not barred,’ Allie stated.

  ‘Good, can you open it?’

  She stepped to the window above the old crock sink and reached over to lift the catch. It was a little stiff at first, but she managed to raise it in the end, although opening it sounded like a litter of cats singing a midnight chorus.

  They waited with bated breath, listening for any sound. When they were sure the man on the floor wasn’t going to move, and with no sign of his side-kick, they both sighed in relief.

  Allie giggled at the thought of outwitting their captors. ‘Ok, So far, so good. Let’s get out of here before we’re caught.’

  It was an enormous struggle for Allie to help Joe out of the window. The pain in his side was terrible, and once or twice he had nearly called out in agony. After five minutes of careful exertion, they were finally on the outside. Allie took a huge sigh of relief, letting the clean and crisp air fill her lungs.

  ‘We’re okay now.’

  ‘We’re not out of the woods yet,’ Joe said as he scanned the horizon, looking for anything that would indicate a town. With the rising dawn, he could make out a hill in the distance, and once or twice he thought he saw a flicker of light.

  ‘Right, we’ll make our way over there,’ he said, pointing to the hill. ‘It’s going to be slow going I’m afraid.’

  ‘Don’t worry; I understand. Are you ready?’ Allie asked.

  The Professor nodded. ‘You’re a very brave girl for helping me. Thank you.’

  Allie blushed with pride, which was lost in the darkness.

  ‘We’ll have plenty of time for that. Let’s go.’

  The Professor couldn’t help smiling. ‘Come on, then.’

  The pair slowly made their way away from the deserted farmhouse, towards the hill in the distance.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jack, frustrated, made his way to Allie’s house, all the while trying to work out why she had not turned up. She was usually such a reliable person. He took what he thought would be the most likely route she would use and walked briskly through the empty streets.

  It seemed to take forever to arrive, and turning into Allie’s street he could see immediately that the front of her house was in darkness. He peered up at her bedroom window wondering if she had perhaps fallen asleep, but considering the circumstances and her insistence on joining him, he knew it was unlikely. Quietly, he crouched down at the front door and looked through the side window. In daylight, he would have been able to see right down the length of the hallway and into the kitchen at the back of the house, but he saw nothing. Without a single strip of light in the whole house, he knew she wasn’t in there.

  Sitting on the wall outside her home for a few moments, he considered his options. Should he wait? But what if they had somehow missed each other and Allie was waiting for him at his house? And that’s when it hit him. Allie was the most methodical person he had ever met, and if she had said for them to meet at his house, then that’s where she would be. He stood up, shook out his legs, and feeling rather stupid, began the twenty-minute journey back to the other side of town.

  *

  As Joe had predicted, the going was slow due to his injuries, but with Allie’s support, he found it easier to make some headway. Nevertheless, he was growing tired.

  ‘I think I need to rest for a while. It’s getting light, so it would be best to find some shelter. We don’t want to be spotted.’ he said.

  ‘Good idea. There’s some trees over there.’

  Allie led the injured Professor in the direction of a grove of conifer trees at the top of a small embankment. She was anxious herself to get undercover as quickly as possible.

  The gradient of the embankment was quite steep, and it was a time before they reached the top. Pushing their way through was difficult, the closeness of the trees suggesting that these particular ones had been planted in manmade rows, rather than the result of natural growth.

  Finding a small clearing in the middle of the grove, Allie helped Joe to the ground and sat down next to him.

  ‘We can’t rest for long. They’ll come looking for us. They know I’m injured and can’t move very quickly.’

  ‘Don’t worry; we’ll get out of this. Something’ll turn up, it always does.’ Allie said.

  ‘Whatever it is, I hope it’ll be soon. I think I’m more injured than I first thought
. You know, I think we’re quite close to Brunswick, I remember those hills.’ Joe pointed into the distance. ‘I was up there last year sightseeing with Jack.’

  ‘If we’re close to a town, we’re going to have to get you to a doctor.’

  ‘No, we can’t risk it. They’ll track us down. I think they were foreign agents.’

  ‘As in spies?’

  ‘Yes, It’s all to do with my work. A rogue country would do anything to get their hands on my work, and if they did, it could mean disaster for this or any other country.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘My work has always been about bettering mankind. However, it could be used for harm.’

  ‘Not good.’

  They sat in silence, and as Allie gazed across at the rising sun, a thought struck her.

  ‘My dad has a vet friend who’ll fix you up good. He lives in Brunswick, we can trust him. I worked in his stables last summer.’

  ‘We don’t have time. I have to let Jack know I’m safe. We must get to a phone.’

  ‘We would have to find a town to use a phone, and Brunswick has a fair few.’

  The Professor conceded defeat. ‘Okay, okay, Brunswick it is then.’

  The heavyset man heaved himself up, using a low swinging tree branch as leverage.

  ‘The town shouldn’t be more than three or four miles over the hill. If I’m correct, we should see the river on the other side.’

  ‘Are you fit enough?’

  ‘I’m feeling a little stronger now, yes.’

  Allie linked her arm through his, and with the growing light, they made their way steadily towards Brunswick.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Jack had searched up and down Bridewell Grove and had even crept back into his house in the hope that Allie would be sitting there and waiting for him. But it was a pointless exercise; she didn’t even possess a key.

  He left quietly and stood there pondering his next move and found himself starting to run, just running, not knowing where, nor caring. His chest began to heave, and his legs burned with pain, sweat poured from his brow and stung his eyes. Where is she? What’s happened to her?

  He finally came to a standstill, exhausted, gasping for breath, almost bent double with the burn. A memory flashed through his mind: he and his father stood on a cliff edge, with Jack harnessed up ready to try abseiling for the first time. His father reminded him to use his emotions instead of succumbing to them.

  At that moment he firmly resolved to calm down and to focus on the task ahead. Ok, Allie was missing, and he had no idea where she was. He could worry about it and chase around the town until morning looking for her, but that was not going to help his father. Delivering the package was his top priority and time was running out. He had to make his way to the station.

  Although his mind was beginning to clear and he knew exactly what he had to do, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he forgot something. And then suddenly it came to him. Looking up to the sky, he slapped his forehead. Dammit! The money.

  It only took him a few seconds to make a decision, and getting his bearings and readjusting his backpack; he set off down the road towards Phil’s house.

  Fifteen minutes later he turned into an alley at the rear, picked up a handful of pebbles from the roadside and jogged up to Phil’s rear gate. Thankfully, Phil’s parents weren’t particularly security conscious and the gate, as usual, was unlocked. He slipped into the yard; sidestepping junk collected by Phil’s dad and took aim at Phil’s bedroom window. He lightly tossed a pebble at the glass, and apart from a pinging noise, there was no response. A second stone met with success as eventually, the bedroom light came on, and the window creaked open. Phil’s bleary-eyed head popped out. He rubbed his eyes in an effort to focus.

  ‘WHAT?’

  ‘Phil. I haven’t time to explain, but I need some money.’

  ‘What the hell for? I was in bed, you know.’

  ‘Yes, I know. Sorry. It’s a bit of an emergency. I need to catch a train in the morning, and I haven’t any money.’

  ‘How much?’

  ‘Twenty dollars should do it.’

  ‘That’s a weeks allowance. This had better be for something good.’

  ‘It is, trust me.’

  Phil stepped back and returned briefly with two notes, which he screwed into a ball and dropped down to Jack.

  ‘When do I get it back then?’

  ‘Soon. Listen, can I ask you one more favor?’

  ‘Depends.’

  ‘Can I borrow your bike for a few days?’

  ‘You don’t want much, do you? Yeah, take it.’

  ‘Thanks. I’ve got to go. I’ll see you soon.’

  ‘As long as it’s not at two am,’ Phil quipped. ‘By the way, sorry to hear about your Dad.’

  ‘Yeah, thanks.’

  Phil turned his head inside the window for a moment.

  ‘I’ve got to go. Mom’s on the warpath.’

  ‘Okay! Bye then.’

  ‘Bye,’ Phil said and closed the window.

  Jack groped around in front of him, moved aside a big blue plastic sheet that covered his friend’s mountain bike, and wheeled it out of the yard. As he did so, he heard a rustling to his right. He quickly turned to see what had made the noise, and although it was dark in the alleyway, he was sure he’d seen a shadowy figure slipping away. He shook his head, not sure if he imagined things. Perhaps it was just a cat? But then Jack had a frightening thought. What if I’m being followed? What if they heard me tell Phil I was going to catch a train in the morning? They might get the computer. I can’t risk that. I’ll have to catch the train from a different town.

  With that, he mounted the bicycle and started to pedal as fast as his legs could carry him, his destination firmly fixed in his mind.

  Although he knew where he was going, he wasn’t entirely sure how to get there. The last time he’d been to Mossfell had been a few years ago, but that was in the car. With his head down, and the wind picking up, he pedaled through the night, praying he’d see signposts on the way.

  Houses gave way to retail units, and an hour into his journey and thoroughly exhausted, he found himself in the countryside. I’ll have to find somewhere to stay soon. But where? With no lights to guide him, he became disorientated, lost. He pulled to the side of the road, trying to catch his breath when he noticed a light in the distance. A house? Maybe I can find a shed or somewhere to rest.

  He figured he would be able to see where he was in the morning, and noticing he had to cross a field to get to the light, he left Phil’s bicycle in a hedge and set off, unaware that he was being watched. In fact, a car had been tailing him at a distance since he’d left his house.

  The shape of the building Jack had spotted loomed closer, and was dark, except for a single light in a downstairs window.

  The wind started, light at first, and then it came in huge, freezing gusts, chilling him to the bone.

  Crossing the field was no easy task. The mud was wet and sticky from recent rain, and this slowed his progress. At each step, his shoes were nearly ripped off with the suction of the wet earth.

  After a time, he reached a stone wall and peered over it. It was a farm. But more importantly, a farm with a barn.

  *

  The three miles to Brunswick were quite grueling for Professor Simpson, and many times he had to stop for a rest. However, even though it was hard going, he did feel his strength slowly but surely returning.

  The beauty of the village of Brunswick was lost to Allie and Joe, who were more concerned with escaping their captors.

  ‘Doc?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘There’s a bench over there. Why don’t you sit down? I’ll go and call Jack. There’s a call box down the street.’

  ‘Good idea. And Allie? Don’t tell anyone where we are.’

  ‘Okay,’ she agreed as she walked away, down the street.

  The Professor lay back on the bench and contemplated his next move.
r />   I think we’ll have to meet up with Jack, he thought.

  His thought processes were disturbed by footsteps approaching, and sitting up he saw Allie.

  ‘Doc. I called the house; there was no answer.’

  ‘He must have already set off. Natalie has probably taken a pill to sleep. She must be worried out of her mind.’

  ‘Set off? I hope not, now that we’re free.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it; we don’t have the time. Did you try his cell?’

  ‘No. I didn’t think to.’

  ‘Let’s try it then. It’s all we can do.’

  *

  Jack, half-asleep, was puzzled by a distant ringing noise. It was only after he sat up and the cloudiness lifted from his mind that he realized it was his cell. Scrambling in his pocket, he found it and cautiously answered.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Jack.’

  ‘Dad!’

  ‘Yes, it’s me.’

  ‘I was worried.’

  ‘Jack call me back on this number. I only have twenty cents.’ The Professor hung up.

  Jack used the number in his memory and redialed, and was relieved to hear his father’s voice.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘They beat me for using my cell phone. They shouldn’t have left it where I could find it.’

  ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I’m okay.’

  Jack sighed with relief.

  ‘Dad, Allie’s missing.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘What? How?’

  ‘Because she’s right here.’

  Jack was stunned when he heard her voice. ‘Hi.’

  ‘Allie! What the hell -’

  ‘They kidnapped me. We escaped. It’s a long story. Jack, your Dad, wants you.’

  ‘Jack,’ his father asked, ‘where are you?’

  ‘Um …’ Jack thought for a moment, not wanting to sound foolish for getting lost. ‘I’m on my way to Mossfell Station.’