The House on Willow Lane (Secret Gateways Book 1)

by John Moralee

  In the warehouse, one giant plasma screen had been set up with military-quality satellite pictures of Hobley. The screen updated every second with real-time pictures so detailed road signs and the faces of people could be seen whenever they looked up at the sky. Using a computer, Morgan outlined the area under investigation on the satellite map. He highlighted it in red. He called his entire team together for a debriefing session. They were dressed in street clothes like the ordinary citizens of Hobley.

  “Okay, my brothers, so far we know very little. Unfortunately, Hobley was not on our proverbial radar until after the event, which means we do not have a location for the enemy. But we know Lucas Ravencroft and the unidentified girl travelled somewhere within 1.4 miles of the station. That helps – a little. We need to reduce that area to an exact location. Team A, check all CCTV for the taxis. Find the direction they went after leaving the station. Team B, track down the girl through the local schools. Leave no stone unturned. Find her. Team C, keep analysing the data, looking for clues. There must be some record of where Ravencroft has been living for the past hundred years. Remember, my brothers, our success will destroy the Alliance once and for all. Just do not tip our hand to the enemy. Do not let me down, my brothers. Now, let us pray for success in our holy mission.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Ryan was alarmed when he discovered a new teacher at their school called Mr Kennedy. The change was exactly the sort of thing Lucas Ravencroft had warned them to look out for. Mr Kennedy had a soft Scottish accent and an odd sense of humour that made the class groan. He wore a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches that looked like it had seen better days. He was replacing a maths teacher who’d been regularly off sick for some months, so Ryan wasn’t absolutely sure if his sudden appearance was a coincidence or something more sinister. When he and Saffron attended his class that afternoon, they kept a low profile, sitting at the back, not calling attention to themselves. Saffron normally volunteered answers to as many questions as possible, but she didn’t want Mr Kennedy noticing her. Ryan saw the strain on her face when she knew answers nobody else did. She desperately wanted to say the right answers, but she steeled herself against it and endured the awkward silences in the classroom.

  The new teacher wasn’t very good at teaching. He liked bad puns about pi and relied too much on the boring textbook – exactly like someone unfamiliar with the subject. Somehow, every time he used the chalk on the board it made a screeching noise. Mr Kennedy seemed deaf to the effect he was having, chuckling to himself at his weak jokes. Being a bad teacher wasn’t proof against him, Ryan knew. There were plenty of bad teachers at their school who were definitely not Brotherhood agents. Mr Kennedy could have been a real teacher - just a bad one. Ryan watched him closely, looking for some clear sign of subterfuge, but he didn’t get one. They left his lesson bored - but not sure if he was a spy for the Brotherhood.

  Ryan knew what he had to do and discussed his plans with Saffron. After school, he was on a bike outside the gates, wearing a crash helmet that hid his face. The bike and helmet belonged to Saffron’s older brother, who never used his bike any more. Ryan waited a long time for Mr Kennedy, but his patience was rewarded when the new teacher came out at five o’clock, carrying under his arm what looked like a box of personnel files. The new teacher owned a blue Ford and drove out of the car park without looking back. Ryan followed on his bike, making sure he wasn’t seen in Mr Kennedy’s rear-view mirrors. Ryan would not have been able to keep up with the car if the roads had been clear, but the traffic was heavy. Mr Kennedy drove through the middle of Hobley and down several streets towards a housing estate. But he didn’t stop there. His car continued along a road leading nowhere except an industrial estate of factories and warehouses.

  Why would an innocent schoolteacher come here?

  Three hundred metres ahead of Ryan, the car passed through a gateway into a car park outside a large L-shaped warehouse protected by tall wire fences. The business advertised its name on the sides of several white vans. It was called Fix-it-4-U, a plumbing and electrical company. Ryan noticed security cameras posted on the corners of the building and on the fences, covering every angle. The security seemed extreme for a warehouse. Ryan had to have a closer look, but knew it was risky. He cycled past the warehouse, keeping his speed up, not wanting to appear interested in it. He sneakily studied took pictures with his phone and looked at everything in the corner of his eye. Mr Kennedy had parked between a row of Fixi-it-4-U vans and a dozen cars. The teacher had got out with the box of files. He met two men standing near an unmarked door with a security camera over it. The two men wore grey overalls and tool-belts, but did not look like workmen. They stood with their feet askance like soldiers guarding something important. Both men had cell phones with tiny earphones plugged into their ears. Mr Kennedy nodded to them, showing some form of identification, then slipped into the building using a key card. The two men returned to their duties – observing the street. For an uneasy moment, Ryan felt the eyes of the men on him. He felt certain they knew what he was going. But – luckily - they dismissed him because he was just a boy. Ryan cycled to the next roundabout before turning around and heading back into Hobley via a different route, avoiding the warehouse.

  He found Saffron at Mr Lee’s Arcade, their agreed meeting place. It was loud and dark inside except for the glow of flashing video screens. Saffron was waiting in the small rest area drinking an overpriced Coke. She had several carrier bags with her. While he had been spying on Mr Kennedy, Saffron had been shopping for Ravencroft. Looking at the bags, Ryan knew she had visited Hobley’s only indoor market, which was always busy and crowded with people hunting for bargains. Ravencroft had instructed them not to use the local supermarkets because they had good security cameras and kept records of everything purchased on their computers - unlike the indoor market, which had not changed significantly in fifty years. The stalls were set up on a sawdust-covered floor, the strong smell of fresh fish coming off the displays. It had probably taken Saffron about an hour to collect everything on Ravencroft’s list. Mr Lee’s Arcade was the perfect place to meet because nobody over the age of eighteen went inside. Strange adults would have been easy to spot.

  “You can see I got all of the shopping,” she told him. “What did you find out about Mr Kennedy?”

  “Mr Kennedy isn’t a teacher unless it’s normal for teachers to live in warehouses,” he said. “The Brotherhood are definitely here. They’ve taken over a place called Fix-it-4-U.”

  “I saw one of their vans when I was shopping! Come to think of it, I saw one earlier, too! It was parked in front of the town hall. They seem to be everywhere today like a bad rash.”

  “Come on – let’s get going.” Ryan picked up some of the shopping bags. “We’d better get this stuff to Ravencroft and tell him the bad news.”

  *

  Ravencroft was alarmed by Ryan’s discovery. The professor demanded to know every detail. He looked at the pictures Ryan had taken and recognised one of the warehouse employees. “Yes – I remember seeing this man. He was one of the men guarding Jonah in the well. So, they have come to Hobley after all these years. This is indeed terrible news.”

  “What are you going to do?” Ryan asked.

  “Now we know the Brotherhood has arrived, we have to be extremely careful. Avoid the teacher. Don’t let him touch you. Don’t go back to the warehouse ever again, either. What you did was foolhardy, Ryan. They could so easily have captured you.”

  Ryan was tired of the professor’s criticisms and felt the need to defend himself. “At least I found out where their headquarters is based, Professor.”

  “Yes – that was good work. But your luck shouldn’t be tested too much. One day your luck will run out and -”

  Another criticism? He was sick of the professor’s attitude. He had been hiding from the Brotherhood for over a hundred years! “Can’t we do something to get rid of them?” Ryan interrupted. “Since we know where they are, we could att
ack them. We could set fire to the warehouse or something, perhaps making it look like an accident?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Mira said.

  Saffron nodded. “We have to do something.”

  “No, no, no!” the professor disagreed. “That would do no good. Even if I blew up the warehouse killing all of their agents – which I could given my knowledge of explosives and incendiary devices - that would not stop them. The Brotherhood is too powerful. Too big. Only a small number of their agents will be in Hobley. The rest would react to such an attack with fury, probably hurting many innocent people, merely making the Brotherhood more determined to find us. No - hiding and doing nothing is the only safe option. We must convince them there’s nothing to find here so they’ll go away. We must be like a rabbit hiding from a fox.”

  Moving into his kitchen, the professor inspected what they had bought. He seemed pleased by their purchases, judging by the subtle nod he gave afterwards. He handed Ryan the money for the next week, telling him they could keep whatever was left over from the money as a tip for a job well done. Ryan thanked him. He and Saffron had just earned between them £29.50 for an hour’s work.

  “These supplies will greatly assist me,” the professor said. “As long as I can avoid going out of this house, I can wait them out. The Brotherhood will give up once they believe nothing important is in Hobley. They won’t want to waste resources on a little town like this forever.”

  “How long will that take?” Mira said.

  Her grandfather answered honestly. “I don’t know. But I have infinite patience. So must you, my dear.”

  “But I don’t!” Mira said. “I hate hiding in fear, grandfather. I’ve been hiding all my life. Can’t we contact the Alliance? They could do something, right?”

  “We can’t contact them now,” he said.

  “Why not?” Mira said.

  “It’s too risky. It’s the sort of move the Brotherhood will be looking for. The Alliance can’t help us. No, we must keep our heads down until we are sure the Brotherhood no longer thinks Hobley is worth investigating.”

  *

  Ryan and Saffron kept well away from Mr Kennedy. Luckily, he remained at their school for only a week before he was asked to leave by the headteacher. His teaching had been so bad several parents had complained. A young woman, fresh from teacher training college, replaced him. Her name was Miss Blitz. She seemed to be a genuine teacher interested in making maths fun. No other new teachers appeared. It appeared the Brotherhood had finished with their school, but Ryan and Saffron didn’t relax their vigilance. A reminder of the danger came whenever Ryan spotted a Fix-it-4-U van. The vans often cruised by their school and sometimes on his own street. Whenever he saw one, Ryan felt a band of tightness across his chest and stopped breathing until it had gone away.

  For weeks, Ryan and Saffron lived two lives. They lived their ordinary lives at school and at home. They also lived another secret life, visiting the house on Willow Lane. They tried hard to keep the two lives separate, but it wasn’t always possible.

  Unfortunately for Ryan, there was a try-out for Hobley United’s summer training programme scheduled for the end of the month, which he could not miss if he wanted to be a professional footballer like his dad. The training programme would teach him skills he didn’t learn at school – if he could get in. He knew there would be tough competition from hundreds of boys bigger and older. Last year, he had been too young to enter the try-out. He had been looking forward to his try-out before he met Ravencroft. Getting accepted would show if he had the right stuff to make it as a player. To impress the selectors, who only picked a handful of new kids from the whole county, he needed to practice football and fitness exercises several hours every day, but that was not possible when he had so many other things to do. Ryan felt guilty for caring about football when there were Brotherhood spies in Hobley - but it mattered to him. Professor Ravencroft asked him to behave exactly how he would have done normally, which meant he had to play football. His passion for football had not gone away, though it had taken second place in his life recently. Luckily, a solution presented itself when he was visiting Mira.

  When he happened to mention his impending try-out, she suggested he practice there in her greenhouse, using the pitch-like lawn. Mira had never played football or any other team sports, so she also wanted him to show her how to play. She asked him to show her some tricks on his next visit, so he brought his football. He was nervous and embarrassed when he showed her his favourite tricks, but Mira was impressed.

  “You’re really good, Ryan. I’m lucky you made a mistake kicking your ball over my wall - or we’d never have met. Can I have a go at keeping it up just to see how hard it is?”

  “Sure,” he said, passing the ball to her. “Always keep your eyes on the ball.”

  Her first try lasted all of three seconds. But she quickly got better. Soon, Mira was able to balance the ball on her head like a seal for over a minute. She grinned broadly. Mira was so keen to learn more they spent hours kicking the ball around her garden, using two trees as goal posts. Saffron defended the goal while he and Mira had a one-on-one game. They had to be careful not to kick it into the greenhouse’s windows – he didn’t think Mira’s grandfather would appreciate any more broken windows – but they had fun. The next time he visited, Ryan brought his ball and showed her more tricks, which she tried to copy with an enthusiasm he had not seen in a girl. Ryan won with ease for the first few days, but Mira quickly learnt how to tackle him. In only a week, she played as well as the other boys on his team. She was lightning fast with the intelligence to predict his moves, forcing him to improve his own game. Each day, he looked forward to playing against her. Playing against her proved an interesting challenge and stopped him worrying about the Brotherhood.

  *

  Saffron didn’t love football like Ryan and Mira, but she was quite happy sitting in the gazebo for the first few times. She had things she could do while they were occupied, like her homework and her brother Neal’s homework. Saffron was pleased Ryan and Mira were having fun – playing with someone her own age was a new experience for Mira – but Saffron felt a little left out. Her own football skills were poor and it was embarrassing when she joined in. She had never been keen on PE. Honestly, she was happier letting them practice without her - but she wanted something interesting to do when she had no homework.

  One day, she slipped away when they were playing and went into the house. She knocked on the door of Professor Ravencroft’s study and asked him if he would mind if she read some of his books. With Ravencroft’s permission (reluctantly) granted, Saffron spent a great deal of her spare time reading in his vast library. His books were fascinating. Over the centuries, occult experts had studied the subject of the gateways deeply, publishing their findings in lavish works illustrated by incredible drawings. His books opened her eyes to the secrets of the gateways never read by the general public. While her friends played in the greenhouse, she became a reclusive bookworm, learning everything she could about the secret history of the world. She also got to know Ravencroft a little better. He was an intensely private man, initially distrustful of her, but she softened him up by bringing him cups of tea and biscuits. He loved tea and biscuits. After a week, she volunteered to help him with his research.

  Of course, he didn’t want her help. He had done without an assistant for over a hundred years. But he admitted he had an annoying problem with the cooling system for Jonah that he couldn’t solve. Maybe she could help with that? Somehow, the basement was leaking too much cold air into the garden. It wasn’t supposed to be doing that. He was reluctant to involve her, but she proved herself useful because she could reach places he couldn’t with her smaller hands. By crawling under Jonah’s tank, she helped find a leaking valve releasing coolant into the pipes. Once the valve was fixed, the temperature of the air pumped out into the garden normalised. It no longer felt like the Arctic from outside the house.

  Ravencroft was please
d.

  As a thank-you, he grudgingly let Saffron assist him in his research into Jonah. He was hoping to find a way to make all humans immune to the brain-controlling effect of the Jonah tapeworms, making the Brotherhood powerless to control minds. His research work was complex – harder to understand than anything that she had ever done at school – biology graduate-level material – but she studied hard, eager to prove she could be a valuable assistant. He had a laboratory equipped as well as any university research department. The work was so interesting she didn’t even mind Ryan and Mira were having fun without her. She loved the laboratory. She felt like she was a real scientist, an apprentice to a genius.

  Unfortunately, there was a problem that wouldn’t go away: her brother Neal. He was making her do all of his homework, which was wasting her time, as well as teaching her brother nothing. He was just getting further behind in his classes and asking her for more and more. When Professor Ravencroft saw her doing her brother’s homework for the tenth time, he was furious because he wanted her to be working on his research project.

  “No, no, no! You must stop doing it for him. You must end his blackmail.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “Your brother is lazy because he thinks there’s nothing to be gained by studying. He’s lost his enthusiasm for learning, which is a terrible waste in a person so young. You need to show Neal how he can do it for himself. Teach him how to study. Give him the confidence to do it alone. Then – I’m sure – he won’t need you to do it. He’ll want to do it himself because he’ll enjoy it.”