Caged

by Theresa Breslin

  ‘Eddy told me he’s trying to toughen you up,’ she said. ‘He thinks that because we’ve been on our own together for so long you’ve been too sheltered. That as you grow older, you might not be able to cope with the big bad world.’ She paused. ‘Kai, could you make an effort to get on with him? When your dad died I never thought I’d find anyone else. Eddy says he loves me and wants to take care of us.’

  ‘Do you love him?’

  His mum blinked several times before replying. ‘Uh-huh,’ she said. ‘I think I do.’

  After his mum had gone Kai lay back on his bed. Slow tears gathered behind his eyelids. He hadn’t dared ask his mother the next question that was in his head: Do you love him more than me?

  Kai came back to himself, aware that Bird Girl was crying – a strange muffled sound that frightened him more than if she’d begun screaming.

  ‘Thank you,’ she sobbed, ‘for…earlier. I thought your friend was going to stab me. I was petrified.’

  ‘So was I,’ said Kai.

  Bird Girl gave a nervous laugh.

  Kai laughed too then, and the tension between them lessened.

  ‘It’s mad that I’m laughing,’ said Bird Girl. ‘It’s not funny.’

  ‘Raven has…issues,’ said Kai. ‘Whatever happened in her past has made her very jumpy. I don’t know everything about her ’cos we all keep ourselves to ourselves.’

  ‘Sounds as though there are more than two of you?’

  ‘Uh.’ Kai gave a noncommittal response. He’d need to be more watchful. This girl was plenty smart.

  ‘Look,’ said Bird Girl, wiping her face on her sleeve. ‘I don’t know what’s going down with you guys. And I don’t want to know. You probably think I’m a journalist after a feature, or a private detective. I’m neither of those things. Truly I’m not.’

  Kai held up his hand. ‘Best save your story for when Spartacus arrives.’

  ‘Who is Spartacus?’

  ‘He’s just…Spartacus.’

  ‘I’ll be honest with you,’ Bird Girl went on. ‘I’m scared you’ve called on some thug to beat me up.’

  Kai laughed out loud at the thought of Spartacus deliberately hurting someone. It wasn’t in his nature, and anyway Spartacus was a small man who walked with a limp. The bones of one leg had been shattered when he was fighting with the army in the Middle East, and his condition made worse by post-traumatic stress disorder. He was intensely bitter about the way society treated disabled soldiers after discharge. He’d bitten the head off Tech when he’d mentioned Help for Heroes. ‘I don’t want charity! Ex-soldiers shouldn’t have to rely on charity if they’re injured when doing their duty and serving their country!’ Then he’d clammed up and refused to discuss it any more.

  ‘Spartacus couldn’t beat anybody up,’ said Kai. ‘When he was in the army he had an accident which left him lame in one leg.’

  ‘So he won’t come into the skip?’ she asked.

  ‘Nope,’ said Kai. ‘And although he’s a straight-talking guy, he won’t harm you either. I see why you might not trust me, but—’

  ‘Actually,’ Bird Girl cut in, ‘I do trust you.’

  The words hung in the air. In the fading light from the open door her eyes had changed to a deeper shade of grey.

  Kai’s breath caught in his throat. He steadied himself. ‘But then, you really have to trust me, don’t you? The question is; do I trust you?’

  They had to wait until early evening before Kai heard someone calling his name outside the skip.

  Raven had returned.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Within a minute Kai and Bird Girl were outside.

  Dressed in a long coat, Spartacus was standing behind Raven. His head was covered with a floppy cap concealing his hair and crammed down over his forehead. Dark glasses shaded his eyes and a thick scarf muffled his neck and chin.

  He disregarded Bird Girl and spoke to Kai. ‘This is a mess!’ he said. ‘A total mess!’

  ‘What else could we do?’ Kai asked. ‘There was someone behind the bricked-up Underground station and she…Bird Girl, took a photograph of whoever it was.’

  ‘I put a note on the bulletin board saying to avoid the tunnel near Langsdaine.’ Spartacus’s voice was strained with suppressed anger.

  ‘We did,’ Raven chipped in, ‘but you didn’t say any­thing about the park opposite.’

  Spartacus scowled at her.

  ‘It’s just as well we went there, because if that photo goes public then we’re finished.’ Kai walked forward to give Spartacus the rucksack. ‘We had to take Bird Girl’s camera and laptop so we could check it out.’

  Spartacus searched inside the rucksack. ‘Camera, notebook, laptop…’ He listed the items as he found them. He looked at Kai and Raven. ‘Where’s her phone?’

  ‘Her phone!’ Raven let out a squeal. ‘Kai, we forgot about her mobile!’

  Kai’s stomach spasmed. In the confusion of trying to control Raven he’d not thought of Bird Girl’s mobile. One of Spartacus’s biggest rules was no mobile phones. At all. Ever. He’d taken the Cage Fighters’ phones and locked them in the safe inside the storeroom.

  Spartacus clicked his fingers at Bird Girl. ‘Give me your phone,’ he ordered.

  Bird Girl hesitated. ‘I don’t have a—’

  ‘Yes you do,’ said Spartacus. ‘Please hand it over with­out a fuss.’

  Bird Girl fumbled a phone from inside her shirt.

  Duh! Kai struck his fist to his forehead. What an idiot he was! He should have realized she would have a phone.

  Spartacus took the phone. ‘She’s sound-recorded something recently!’

  A sense of betrayal swept through Kai. He turned to Bird Girl. ‘You were recording what I was saying?’

  She blushed. ‘Look at it from my side,’ she said. There was a plea in her voice. ‘I’m kidnapped off the street. Threatened to be stabbed with a knife, and—’

  ‘A knife!’ Spartacus broke in. He addressed Raven. ‘You swore that you wouldn’t ever carry again.’

  Raven dropped her head. ‘I feel safer. You know why.’

  ‘Yeah, I know why. I also know that, for you, carrying a knife is an offence in itself. If you were stopped and searched that would be enough to have you sent back. Do you hear me?’ Spartacus raised his voice. ‘Sent back, Raven. Back where you came from!’

  Raven hunched her shoulders and began kicking at a clod of earth.

  ‘Someone might hear us.’ Kai plucked at Spartacus’s sleeve. ‘This place isn’t so very far from the main canal path.’

  Spartacus waved Bird Girl’s phone in Kai’s face. ‘She’s got the emergency services on speed dial!’

  Kai’s heart flipped. Behind him he heard Raven give a strangled sob.

  ‘But I didn’t use it.’ To Kai’s surprise Bird Girl stepped right up beside him and spoke quickly. ‘I did not phone the police.’ She paused. ‘I could have. I had an opportunity to call the police, but I didn’t.’

  ‘That must be true,’ said Kai. ‘We’d be surrounded by blue lights by now if she’d done that.’

  ‘Two nights!’ Spartacus was quieter but still angry. ‘Only two nights to go,’ he repeated, ‘and we’d be in the clear.’

  ‘I’ll stay with you guys for two nights or longer,’ Bird Girl offered. ‘Then you’ll have a guarantee that I can’t tell anyone whatever it is you’re doing.’

  ‘Someone will miss you. Someone will report that you’ve disappeared,’ said Kai.

  Bird Girl shook her head. ‘No they won’t. I’m a photography student and I’ve got my own place. I’ll text my college friends and tell them I’ll be away and out of contact for a bit.’

  ‘That might work,’ Kai said to Spartacus.

  ‘It would. Definitely,’ Bird Girl agreed. ‘It will be you that sends the text,’ she added, ‘and sees the replies.’

  ‘Not from here then,’ said Kai. ‘Let’s do it from somewhere else so that it’s picked up on a different phone mast.’
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  ‘Where is “here”, exactly?’ Spartacus glanced at the skip and then at Kai.

  ‘Just somewhere I thought of that would get her off the street and wouldn’t compromise what we’re doing,’ said Kai. His breath began to quicken. He didn’t want Spartacus becoming too interested in the skip. It was his private place which he’d discovered by chance. He’d been sitting on the opposite bank watching the water one afternoon when he’d seen Sarema and Gita climbing out via the plank which they had then shoved under some bushes. He’d followed them about the city and saw how they shopped in different areas of London. Always in big supermarkets and wearing scarves to hide their faces, they bought the cheapest of food.

  He’d thought the skip as a den was a terrific idea. At first he hadn’t disturbed them. It was theirs and he wasn’t going to frighten them off. When he’d checked up on them in a few days he’d noticed only one girl, Sarema, going in and out; the amount of food she was bringing back was becoming smaller and smaller. He guessed their money was almost gone and the girl didn’t look street-wise enough to be any good at shoplifting. Kai crept closer. When he heard the other girl coughing he knew they needed help.

  He left food along the towpath – a carton of sandwiches, a bag with pastries – trying to make it look as if someone had let them fall accidentally. But then the sick girl’s cough got worse and he realized they must leave the skip before she became seriously ill.

  Once Kai had forced Spartacus to take the girls underground he still had to persuade them that it would be dryer and warmer there, and explain about Tech and his box of medical supplies. Kai contrived a meeting with Sarema on the towpath. He told her that it was he who was leaving food for her to find, and made her realize how bad her situation was.

  When Sarema finally brought Gita to meet Spartacus in an empty lock-up, you could see that the girls were scared witless. But Spartacus had Raven with him, and underneath the twitchy aggression Raven could be kindly. She spoke to the twins and explained about the Cage Fighters for Freedom project. How there were seven street kids – three girls and four boys – who were fighting each other in a special tournament to raise money for the young homeless and put pressure on the government to increase youth welfare programmes. The fights were being posted on the Internet – plus information to show that, with no jobs and no affordable accommodation available, young people were caged for life. Spartacus was their leader and Tech an IT expert who’d set up a pay-per-view website where each fighter would earn a percentage of the takings.

  With the Cage Fighters dressed in their character costumes and the polished steel bars of the Cage glowing in the single spotlight, it was an instant Internet hit. Through the training fights and the qualifying bouts of the tournament they’d built a dedicated fan base. Now, in the lead-up to the finals, their online audience was growing even larger. Raven persuaded Sarema and Gita to come underground and abandon the skip.

  Except the skip hadn’t been abandoned. For when Kai had gone back to collect the twins’ belongings he’d made it into this secret den of his own. A place he wanted no one else to know about…

  Spartacus moved past Kai and went closer to the skip. ‘This’ll be where the twins were living when you rescued them.’ He tapped the rusty metal. ‘It’ll be filthy with vermin by now?’

  Kai nodded, not trusting himself to speak the lie.

  ‘It’s full of crap!’ said Bird Girl.

  Kai started at the interruption.

  She wrinkled her nose. ‘I don’t know what your tunnels are like,’ she said, ‘but they have to be better than that.’

  Spartacus swung round. ‘You don’t talk until I say you can!’ he rasped. ‘I need time to think about this. Raven told me you had some story of a missing sister. I want the details before agreeing to you being with us. Not at this moment,’ he said as Bird Girl began to speak. ‘We’ll go somewhere else.’

  ‘Where?’ asked Kai.

  ‘The Rail Depot. You guys go on ahead and I’ll follow.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Rail Depot wasn’t actually a rail depot. It was a basement lock-up near a train station. It wasn’t a tunnel access either – Kai expected Spartacus to treat Bird Girl the same way as the twins and not take her anywhere near the tunnels before she’d told him her story. This empty lock-up was where Spartacus had interviewed Sarema and Gita before allowing them to join the Cage Fighters. Bird Girl would have to convince him that she was trustworthy before he’d let her underground to live with them.

  Spartacus put on a dull overhead light. The lock-up was small enough for Kai to see that it was no longer empty. Boxes were now stacked in one corner.

  ‘Equipment for Mole,’ Spartacus said quickly as he noticed Kai looking at them. ‘Tools and such-like. That lad always wants to dig deeper and deeper. I do believe he’s daft enough to think he’ll reach the centre of the Earth. But I’ve got to keep him sweet so that he’ll let us stay in his tunnels until we finish the tournament.’

  So what Raven had said was true, thought Kai. It was Mole who’d shown Spartacus the tunnels he’d discovered, not the other way around.

  Spartacus took out Bird Girl’s phone. ‘From the point when you were chased from the park did you call or text anyone at any time?’

  Slowly Bird Girl shook her head.

  ‘Why not?’ And as she didn’t answer Spartacus said, ‘Are you stupid? Or crazy? Or both?’

  Bird Girl flushed. ‘I’m not stupid. Possibly a bit crazy. Worry can do that to people, you know.’

  ‘Oh, I do know that,’ said Spartacus. He moved closer so that his face was only centimetres from hers. ‘What’s making you crazy, Bird Girl? Eh? Tell me why you allowed yourself to be kidnapped off the street by people you’ve never met before, managed to keep your phone hidden from them, had the opportunity to use it, and yet you did not dial the emergency services.’

  Bird Girl moved so that her feet were apart. Without backing away from Spartacus she replied steadily, ‘Because I want to find my sister. She’s the most important thing in my life.’

  ‘Why do you think your sister is in the closed-off Langsdaine Underground Station?’

  Bird Girl sighed. ‘It’s hard to explain.’

  ‘Then we need to hear your story,’ said Spartacus.

  ‘There’s no “story” as such. I had this very strong feeling that’s where my sister was. Now’ – she gestured at her rucksack – ‘I think I’ve got proof that I’m right. Please, please can you help me?’

  ‘Your story?’ Spartacus repeated.

  Kai felt a flash of pity for Bird Girl. She was being evasive and that wouldn’t work with Spartacus. Kai recalled when he’d told Spartacus his own story. Spartacus had locked eyes with him, his gaze boring into the depths of Kai’s soul. Unnerved, Kai had glossed over the events that had caused him to run away, masking unpleasant things with half-truths and outright lies. But it only took a few brisk questions from Spartacus before Kai was blurting out stuff about Evil Eddy, stuff he’d vowed never to think about again.

  Bird Girl was scared, that was obvious, but her voice was firm as she began to speak.

  ‘My name is Maxine—’

  ‘No. It isn’t,’ said Spartacus. ‘Stop right there. We never use our real names.’ He glanced at Kai. ‘I thought she’d agreed on being Bird Girl?’

  ‘Not exactly.’ Kai squirmed at Spartacus’s irritation. ‘I thought of that name for her because of the way she was calling to the birds when we first saw her in the park.’

  Spartacus switched his gaze back to the girl. ‘You get to choose your own name. Let me know when you decide, ASAP.’

  ‘I like being “Bird Girl” – I’ll stick with that name.’ She gave Kai a tiny smile. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

  A fizz of pleasure shot through Kai and he smiled in return. From the corner of his eye he saw Raven pout.

  ‘So,’ Spartacus addressed the girl in a kinder tone, ‘you are Bird Girl. We all have pseudonyms so that no one knows who a
nyone else is.’

  Apart from you, Kai thought suddenly. Spartacus knew everyone’s identity and probably every secret they owned and wished to keep hidden. But no one knew Spartacus’s real name.

  ‘It makes it safer for us,’ Spartacus went on by way of explanation.

  ‘Uh. OK,’ said Bird Girl. ‘I can see the sense in that. And I guess “Bird Girl” suits me.’

  Spartacus nodded encouragingly. ‘Tell us why that name is so appropriate.’

  ‘I was genuinely taking photos of the birds in the park.’ Bird Girl pulled something from her pocket. It was a long bird’s feather. ‘This feather is from the wing of a goose. Look!’ She held it to her lips and blew so that it ruffled. ‘It’s a genius of design,’ she said. ‘In the spring and autumn, when they migrate, Darcey and I used to watch them fly across the sky. We always said that, one day, we’d go with them.’

  ‘Darcey?’

  ‘Darcey, my little sister. That’s why I’m here. Darcey went missing and—’

  ‘We need a name for Darcey,’ Raven said brusquely. ‘Even though she’s not here. If you’re speaking about her, then you have to give her a new name.’

  ‘OK,’ Bird Girl thought for a second. ‘Let’s call her “Dove”.’

  ‘That’s a lovely name for your sister.’ Spartacus moved away from Bird Girl to give her more space. ‘Why don’t you tell us about her?’ he suggested in a soft voice.

  Kai saw Bird Girl’s own stance relax, and the atmosphere of hostile suspicion in the room lessened – and it struck him how adeptly Spartacus had managed that.

  Bird Girl took a deep breath. ‘A couple of days ago my little sister…’ She paused. ‘Dove went out and didn’t come back. Dove is…different; she doesn’t see the world the way we do. And so, even though she wrote me a note to say she was going away and I’d not to worry about her as it wouldn’t be for long, I am worried, very worried. I – I—’ Bird Girl broke off, tears shining in her eyes.

  ‘Go on,’ Spartacus prompted.