Caged

by Theresa Breslin

  ‘The roof caved in a day or so ago,’ said Boudicca. ‘Well,’ she said defiantly as a few people tutted at her, ‘Bird Girl had to find out sooner or later. Better she knows what the situation is.’

  ‘There’s been a rockfall!’ Bird Girl sprang to her feet. ‘And my little sister is in there! She’s probably trying to claw her way out right now while we sit around chatting.’ Her voice rose higher. ‘I don’t care what you guys are involved in, but basically you seem like decent people. You can’t leave her trapped in there to die.’

  ‘Let’s calm down while we think how to approach this situation.’ There was a warning note in Spartacus’s voice. He made a small signal and Boudicca and Leo got up and stationed themselves on either side of Bird Girl.

  Kai’s pulse began to accelerate. He glanced at Raven. Her face registered alarm. Was she in tune with his thoughts – that perhaps Spartacus had pre-arranged that Bird Girl would be detained and had organized Leo and Boudicca to help him?

  Bird Girl didn’t seem to notice the fact that she had two guards beside her. She was tilting into hysterics. ‘I’m going for the – the police right now! And, and, and, the fire brigade and, and…’ She fell back onto her chair as she ran out of energy.

  ‘There’s one person who could sort this situation better than the emergency services,’ said Tech.

  ‘Who is that?’ Bird Girl looked at Kai. ‘Is it you?’

  Kai shook his head.

  ‘Who then?’ asked Bird Girl.

  ‘Mole,’ Tech said softly.

  ‘That weirdo,’ said Leo. ‘Mole the Mad? He’s been underground so long he’s beginning to look like his pet rat. Hair so blond it’s almost white and those pink eyes. Gives me the creeps, so he does.’

  ‘Mole is one of the most valued members of our group,’ said Spartacus, glancing over his shoulder.

  Kai knew why Spartacus was nervous. Mole had the habit of appearing and disappearing soundlessly without warning.

  ‘Where is his den?’ Bird Girl asked. ‘I want to talk to him.’

  ‘No one ever knows where Mole is,’ said Kai. He had become quite friendly with Mole and knew that he never rested in the same place twice.

  ‘That’s right,’ said Spartacus. ‘Not even me. He lives separate from us. I’m not sure where.’

  ‘Probably in some rats’ nest,’ said Leo.

  Spartacus gave Leo a hard look. ‘Without Mole we wouldn’t have found these tunnels or be able to survive in them. But I do have a way of contacting Mole – and after I refereed the girls’ fight I went into one of the deeper tunnels he uses and left him a note asking him to come and see me whenever he could. I also asked him to investigate Langsdaine Station and explained why.’

  ‘Oh.’ Bird Girl sounded mollified. ‘So you were trying to help me.’

  Spartacus grimaced. ‘I am not an unfeeling monster,’ he said. ‘But there was no point in raising hopes, when they might be dashed.’

  ‘Why did you not tell us that at least?’ asked Kai. ‘That you’d sent for Mole?’

  ‘Because I was trying to prevent a mood of hysteria.’ Spartacus glanced at Raven with a disappointed ex­pression. ‘You should have handed over the SD card to me when we met up at the skip.’

  ‘Forgot I had it.’ Raven met his gaze and it was difficult to tell if she was lying.

  ‘Hmm…’ said Spartacus. ‘In any case I believe we’re all agreed that the best person to reconnoitre Langsdaine is Mole.’

  ‘How can you be sure this person, Mole, will get the note?’ asked Bird Girl.

  ‘Mole’s hearing is uncanny,’ said Spartacus. ‘He’ll know I’ve been down in his sections and he’ll go and find the message in our dead-letter box.’

  ‘When will we see him?’

  ‘Generally Mole turns up when we need him,’ said Kai.

  ‘Will he go to Langsdaine Station first, before he comes here?’

  ‘You know what?’ Boudicca broke in. ‘She asks too many questions. She’s only been here five minutes, and already she knows more about our set-up than some of us who’ve been here since the beginning. I think this whole thing is one big act. It’s all too neat.’ She shoved her face at Bird Girl. ‘You faked that photo. You’ve come here to find out what we’re doing and all this about a little sister is a load of guff.’

  ‘I swear it’s true.’ Bird Girl looked frightened.

  Boudicca loomed over her. ‘She’s lying about seeing a kid in that tunnel.’

  ‘No, she ain’t,’ said a voice from the door. ‘Whatever else she may be lyin’ ’bout, she ain’t lyin’ ’bout that.’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ‘Mole!’

  Spartacus made his way across the room to where a skinny lad stood in the shadows of the door frame.

  ‘I hate how he does that,’ said Leo. ‘It freaks me out the way he pops up without warning and it’s obvious he’s been secretly listening and spying on us.’

  ‘People in glass houses…’ murmured Kai, thinking of how Leo had wormed his way unseen into Tech’s den after that morning’s fight.

  ‘What did you say?’ Leo demanded.

  ‘I’m saying people who find a new passageway’ – Kai opened his eyes wide and copied Leo’s earlier fake innocent tone of voice – ‘are supposed to share that information. Not just appear in Tech’s den by some mystery manner.’

  Leo’s reaction surprised Kai. Instead of being embarrassed he laughed in delight. ‘You’ve not checked the Main Map as often as you should, Brainbox Boy! ’Cos if you did, you’d see a new line there. It doesn’t lead outside, so not much use to claustrophobics like yourself.’

  ‘Rein it in, you guys,’ said Beowulf. ‘We’ve got other stuff to sort out now.’

  ‘Hi there, Mole.’ Spartacus was speaking in a friendly manner. His voice was always pleasant, almost deferential, when he was with Mole. He never gave him orders like he did the others. ‘Can you help us out here? Do you know anything about what’s going on up at the closed-off Langsdaine Station entrance?’

  Mole raised his scrawny arm and pointed at Bird Girl. ‘What she says be true. There be a someone on the inside of the wall at Langsdaine.’

  ‘Is it my sister? Have you seen her? Have you spoken to her? Is she OK?’ A stream of questions fell in a gibberish flow from Bird Girl’s mouth.

  ‘Quiet!’ Spartacus said in a low but firm voice. He addressed the Cage Fighters who were chattering amongst themselves. ‘All of you. Please be quiet.’ As they fell silent he went on, ‘I will ask the questions. Don’t anyone, anyone,’ he repeated, staring at Bird Girl, ‘speak or move until I say they can. Otherwise I will take Mole to my den and interview him myself.’

  While Spartacus was speaking Mole reached into his breast pocket and took out a large white rat which he placed on his shoulder. Mole stroked the rat as it nuzzled at his ear.

  ‘Would you like to come into the room?’ Spartacus asked Mole. ‘Then we can hear more clearly what you have to say.’

  Mole inclined his neck towards the rat as if listening to it. ‘Albert says “no”. Albert says there be folks here who don’t like Albert.’ He squinted his eyes at Leo.

  Leo stared back at him.

  ‘OK, OK,’ Spartacus said. ‘I appreciate bright light hurts your eyes so you remain where you’re most comfortable.’

  ‘Albert and I be doin’ that,’ said Mole.

  Spartacus waited, and then, as Mole offered no more information, he asked, ‘When did you discover that there was someone on the inside at Langsdaine?’

  ‘Yesterday, but wuzn’t sure.’

  ‘And now you are sure?’

  ‘Set out some bait so I did. Just back from checkin’ on it. Choccy bikkies all gone.’

  ‘Don’t rats eat biscuits?’

  ‘They do. But no rat I know does take the paper off choccy bikkies afore eatin’ them.’

  ‘Darcey adores chocolate biscuits,’ Bird Girl whispered.

  ‘That I do ken,’ said Mole. He smiled at
Bird Girl. ‘For she bin eatin’ six of them already.’

  ‘So she’s not starving then?’ Bird Girl asked.

  ‘She be not hungry,’ said Mole. ‘She bring good supplies for camp-out. She be makin’ herself a neat ickle den up there.’

  ‘Thank you for looking after my sister,’ said Bird Girl. ‘And…and Albert too.’

  Mole moved from the shadows and pushed his shoulder forward. ‘Would thee like to stroke Albert?’

  ‘Yes, I would.’ Bird Girl slowly approached Mole. Without hesitating she reached out a finger and rubbed the rat gently between his ears.

  Kai saw Spartacus ball his hands into fists. Bird Girl had disobeyed his command to neither speak nor move until he said so. But Mole was content talking to her and Spartacus couldn’t interfere without the risk of upsetting him.

  ‘Your sister she do like birds,’ said Mole.

  ‘Yes, she does.’ Silent tears coursed down Bird Girl’s cheeks. ‘Ever since she was small, she loved watching birds.’

  ‘She be feedin’ some nestlings. To keep them alive.’

  ‘So Darcey was right! A nest had fallen down inside the wall and the chicks were trapped inside?’

  Mole nodded.

  ‘I must go and speak to her,’ said Bird Girl.

  ‘Not good.’ Mole shook his head. ‘Not good.’

  Bird Girl bit her lip. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Albert tell me she will not leave there until the chicks do fly. Only Albert must come. If anyone else, she will run off and never come back. Not ever.’

  ‘Jeez-oh!’ muttered Leo. ‘Now he thinks his rat can talk.’

  ‘How do you know this?’ asked Spartacus. ‘How can you have given her biscuits? I myself went up and had a look at this side of the collapsed section. The rubble is so densely packed that there’s no space for anyone to get in or out of there.’

  ‘No space for a human.’ Mole gave Spartacus a cunning look. ‘Plenty space for a rat.’

  ‘Albert?’ Bird Girl looked more closely at the white rat. ‘Oh!’ she said. ‘There’s a tiny camera on Albert’s collar!’

  ‘Albert be the best tunneller. He show me the way through when I do dig.’

  ‘He’s very clever,’ said Bird Girl.

  ‘Albert do carry messages too.’ And from his trouser pocket, Mole produced a crumpled sheet of paper.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Spartacus ground his teeth in frustration as Mole handed the note to Bird Girl.

  ‘Read that out so that I know what it says,’ he said.

  Bird Girl avoided Spartacus’s gaze.

  ‘Please,’ he added in the nicest voice he could muster. ‘To keep us safe underground it is our policy to share all information.’

  Raven sniffed loudly, but even she wasn’t bold enough to mention the fact that Spartacus hadn’t been sharing everything.

  There was silence while Bird Girl read and re-read the note to herself.

  ‘Our normal procedure has been disrupted,’ Spartacus said in a placating tone. ‘In these exceptional circumstances I decided it wouldn’t be wise for me to let the Cage Fighters know that I had inspected the Langsdaine tunnel and couldn’t see a way through the blockage. I didn’t want anyone organizing a search party and running up there to tear at the stones. It might have brought the whole roof in. I viewed all aspects and came to the conclusion that, before we did anything, Mole should be consulted.’

  ‘And you were right.’

  To Kai’s surprise it wasn’t Leo or Boudicca who had spoken up for Spartacus. It was Bird Girl.

  ‘By asking Mole for help Spartacus did work out the best plan to help my sister.’ Bird Girl held up the note. ‘You’ll see what I mean when I read you what’s written on this piece of paper.’

  ‘Was it you who wrote that?’ Bird Girl asked Mole. When he nodded she went on. ‘My sister has written her reply below Mole’s question.’

  When she’d finished, Bird Girl looked at Spartacus. ‘You don’t need to lock me up,’ she said. ‘I’m not leaving here until my sister agrees to come with me.’ She wiped her face with Sarema’s scarf to dry off her tears and sweat. ‘I’ll wash this before I return it to you,’ she told Sarema.

  Sarema glanced at Spartacus before replying. ‘It is my gift to you. We rejoice that your sister is found.’

  ‘How did she get to where she is?’ Spartacus asked Mole.

  Mole tapped his forehead with his finger. ‘She be smart,’ he said.

  ‘But,’ Spartacus addressed Bird Girl, ‘I thought you said your sister had special needs?’

  ‘She has, but she’s clever in her own way,’ said Bird Girl.

  ‘We all be clever in our own way,’ said Mole. He touched his rat on the nose. ‘Albert be clever in his own way.’

  ‘Darcey loves secret places,’ Bird Girl explained. ‘When she was small her favourite place to play was inside a cupboard or under the table. She could find her way out of a maze in minutes and would crawl among the bushes in the park for hours on end.’

  Bushes in the park! Kai suddenly remembered the trainers near the manhole cover in the park bushes.

  ‘Ah!’ The same thought had occurred to Raven. She waved her hand at Spartacus. ‘I’ve just realized that there was something different in the bushes when Kai and I went out through the manhole cover in Langsdaine Park. A pair of trainers that had been lying about there were placed neatly together.’

  ‘That’s exactly what my sister would do!’ Bird Girl exclaimed. ‘She can be obsessively tidy.’

  ‘Dove must have found the manhole in the bushes in Langsdaine Park and worked out how to get to the other side of the wall,’ said Kai.

  ‘And then the roof came down!’ Bird Girl turned to Mole. ‘Is there a risk of another cave-in? How can we rescue her?’

  Mole hesitated for half a second. ‘Make roof safe first. Then she can get out.’ He pointed at the crumpled paper in Bird Girl’s hand. ‘I be writin’ her and tyin’ bread to Albert’s collar.’

  Reluctantly Bird Girl handed over the note, and Mole took a pencil stub from his pocket and spoke aloud as he wrote:

  ‘Tell her I love her,’ said Bird Girl. ‘That it doesn’t matter what’s she’s done. That I’m not angry with her. That—’

  ‘Mole can’t write that,’ Kai interrupted in a quiet voice. ‘Your sister said that if anyone told you where she was she’d go further underground. We know that she’s capable of doing that. Best let Mole deal with this.’

  Mole looked at Bird Girl. ‘Kai be right. Not good for Mole to write what you say.’

  Bird Girl hung her head. ‘OK,’ she said.

  ‘I’ve an idea.’ Tech held his hand up.

  Spartacus hesitated and then said, ‘Go ahead.’

  ‘We could run a line in there with another tiny camera and audio link and ask her to set it up so that she can talk to Mole. Then Bird Girl would be able to see Dove without her sister knowing she’s there. I could attach it to Albert’s collar, if that’s OK with you, Mole?’

  Mole leaned his head towards his rat. ‘Albert say “yes”.’

  ‘Do you think Dove would accept that?’ Kai asked Bird Girl.

  ‘We could tell her that it would help keep the birds alive,’ suggested Raven.

  Bird Girl shot her a look of gratitude. ‘Mole, if you mentioned the birds then she might co-operate.’

  Mole licked the end of his pencil and laboriously wrote out the message. Then he rolled it up and tucked it under Albert’s collar.

  ‘Need bread,’ he said. ‘And wood for roof props.’

  ‘Help yourself to whatever from the storeroom,’ said Spartacus. ‘I’ll lend you the key.’

  ‘Beats me why he gets the key and free run of the storeroom when the rest of us don’t,’ said Leo.

  ‘Don’t need no key to get into the storeroom.’ Mole tapped his finger on the side of his nose, before fading into the shadows by the door.

  ‘I’ll go and see if Mole needs a hand with anything and c
ome back in a few minutes to collect the film file of the girls’ fight,’ said Spartacus hurriedly. ‘One last thing before you leave,’ he added as the Cage Fighters started stacking their stools. ‘No one’ – he fixed his gaze on Bird Girl – ‘I repeat, no one, must go near that rockfall without my permission. If they do I will personally lock them up without further discussion.’ His face softened. ‘Please listen to me.’ He looked directly at Kai and Raven. ‘It’s for your own safety; we’re all in this together.’

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-ONE

  There was a tangible lifting of tension in the room as Spartacus went out of the door.

  Bird Girl loosened the scrunchie that held her hair. She gathered up the ends that had straggled free and swept the whole lot back off her face to redo her ponytail. Then she swiped Sarema’s scarf across her face once more.

  ‘I hope you are feeling better now, Bird Girl,’ Sarema said politely.

  ‘Yes, thanks…thanks very much.’ While she was speaking Bird Girl’s eyes roved the room and came to rest on Kai, Raven and Tech.

  Raven slithered her stool towards Tech’s worktop. ‘Ace idea about running the line in. What are you going to use?’

  Kai looked at her in slight surprise. Within the space of an hour Raven had made two positive remarks.

  ‘Dunno, exactly,’ said Tech. He grinned at Raven. ‘Felt I had to say something before Spartacus exploded.’

  ‘If anyone can get a sight and sound link in there, it’s Mole,’ said Kai.

  Tech was rooting in his boxes and shelves, assembling wire, cable and pieces of electronic equipment. ‘We need to set up lighting too so that we can keep watch on the area.’

  ‘Mole will have to be coaxed to do that,’ said Kai. ‘He hardly ever uses torches when he’s in the tunnels.’

  ‘Yeah, he’s well-named,’ said Leo. ‘Even looks like a mole with that snout of his twitching away.’

  ‘Why is Mole in the tunnels if he’s not a Cage Fighter?’ asked Bird Girl.

  ‘He be a-diggin’ fur gold.’ Leo mocked Mole’s speech as he answered her.