The Squad

by Tom Palmer

  The large red-and-white Hurtigruten ship that had been dwarfing the harbour was now moving out under the bridge that spanned the fjord. Lesh, Hatty and Adnan sat in a cafe on the edge of the water, three Cokes in front of them. Blending in.

  Hatty was gazing out at the fjord, smiling as if she thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. In fact, she had her eyes on the ship, watching for Lily and Kester, who had radioed to say they were going onboard after Hawk, having stowed away in the luggage area of a bus, before boarding the ship as foot passengers.

  Adnan appeared to be playing a video game, twitching and flicking his finger across a SpyPad, which looked like a perfectly normal iPad. But actually he had hacked into Norway’s fjord sonar to scan the dozens of nearby fjords for unusual activity. And Lesh seemed to be checking his texts. In reality, he was looking up Sergei Esenin, the Russian. Desperately trying to find out more about their number-one suspect.

  ‘Nothing,’ Adnan said under his breath.

  ‘Hang on,’ said Lesh, adjusting his wheelchair so the light coming off the water didn’t cause a glare on his SpyPhone screen.

  ‘What?’ Hatty asked.

  ‘Esenin. He’s …’

  ‘Go silent,’ Adnan snapped, knowing the others would understand that there was a threat and that they shouldn’t talk about the mission.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Hi, Rio! Over here!’ Adnan shouted as much to warn the others that Rio and some of the others were approaching.

  Hatty and Lesh looked up to see what Adnan had already spotted: Rio, Georgia and Finn walking towards them from the direction of their hotel.

  ‘Hi,’ Rio said. ‘What are you up to?’

  ‘Nothing much. Just chilling before training later on,’ Adnan said. ‘You?’

  ‘Same as you. Looking around,’ Rio replied. ‘We got bored in the hotel.’

  Georgia glanced at Lesh’s SpyPhone screen and screwed up her face. ‘What are you looking at?’ Suddenly everyone else was looking at the screen too.

  ‘Baseball?’ Rio shouted. ‘Why are you reading about baseball?’

  Lesh shrugged. ‘I like it.’

  ‘I never knew,’ Rio went on. ‘It’s a bit of an American sport, isn’t it?’

  ‘I like American sport,’ Lesh lied.

  ‘Have you been up in the cable car?’ Hatty asked, pointing across the water at the tiny metal box that was descending the wooded slope, trying to deflect attention away from Lesh.

  ‘No, have you?’ Rio asked, looking half-interested.

  ‘Yes. It’s fab. Really wild and windy and the views are great.’

  ‘Urghh,’ Georgia said. ‘That’s the last place I’d want to be in the world.’ Then she smiled. ‘Now I see why your hair always looks so … you know, Hatty.’

  Hatty smiled back. ‘A least my hair is my hair. A natural blonde, are you, Georgia?’

  Georgia said nothing.

  As the conversation went on, Lesh continued to read his SpyPhone and Hatty could tell that what he was reading was not good news, maybe something that required them to act and act soon. She needed to get rid of Rio, Georgia and Finn.

  ‘The cable car goes on all night,’ Hatty said, her attention back on Rio. ‘Apparently, if you go up around this time, you can see the Northern Lights sometimes.’

  ‘Really?’ Finn was the one who sounded excited now.

  ‘Honestly,’ Hatty said. ‘And it’s a clear night. There’s a cafe up there. You can sit and have a drink. Eat. It’s supposed to be great.’

  ‘Come on.’ Finn, who was normally so quiet, was hopping about from one foot to another like a child asking his mum and dad if he could go.

  ‘OK,’ Rio said, then he looked directly at Hatty. ‘Are you coming?’

  Hatty smiled. She quite liked Rio, but she had other things to do right now.

  ‘We’d better stay with Lesh,’ she said, knowing that Rio wouldn’t question anything to do with Lesh and his wheelchair.

  When the other three had gone, Hatty looked across at Lesh.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I used you as an excuse not to go.’

  Lesh grinned. ‘Use me all you like. We needed to get shot of them. Anyway, there are more important things to worry about. Lily and Kester – have we heard from them?’

  ‘Not since they radioed from the coach, saying they were boarding the boat. And Lily said she was starting to suspect Hawk may be playing us. Even Esenin too. That we should bear that in mind.’

  ‘OK. We keep our options open. I just hope they made it onboard,’ Lesh muttered. ‘Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about that right now, so I might as well tell you about this.’

  Hatty and Adnan gave Lesh their full attention.

  ‘I’ve got some more info on Esenin,’ Lesh said. ‘He works in the oil and gas business and he has a good history of working with other countries. Most Russians have wanted to work alone to get at oil in their part of the Arctic, but Esenin appears to want to cooperate with countries like Norway.’

  ‘So that’s good, right?’ Adnan asked.

  ‘It is. But there’s a bad bit.’

  ‘Which is?’ Hatty pushed.

  ‘His dad was an explorer as well as a spy. And he took the young Esenin on a field trip to Greenland when he was a teenager.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Well, Russians weren’t allowed to leave their country very much in those days. Only if the government gave them permission.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So whatever they were doing must have been fine by the leaders of their country. Normally, whatever was fine by the Russian leaders was pretty dangerous for the rest of the world at that time. The location they went to was the very same spot where the Americans lost a nuclear warhead in the sixties.’

  ‘Ahh,’ said Adnan.

  ‘Oh,’ said Hatty.

  ‘And,’ Lesh continued, ‘Esenin and his dad, according to this, were rescued from Greenland by a Russian submarine. I’ve checked and it’s one that was quite capable of carrying such a warhead.’

  The three children stayed silent as an older couple settled down at the table right next to theirs, already studying the menu. When the couple were focused on ordering their meal from the waiter, Lesh leaned into the others.

  ‘So that leaves us to focus on Esenin?’ Hatty asked.

  Lesh and Adnan eyed Hatty and nodded. They were ready to go, ready to find out whether Esenin did have the warhead and, if he did, where it was and what he was planning to do with it.

  To the Top of the World

  The huge ship moved out of Tromsø harbour and – gradually speeding up – passed under the bridge that spanned the water between Tromsø and Tromsdalen.

  Lily and Kester had made it to the boat just in time, hot on the heels of the two Americans who had gone aboard with the other members of the coach party. A huge red-and-white vessel with HURTIGRUTEN written on the side.

  Kester gazed up at the ship and calculated that it had at least five storeys. It was larger than most of the buildings in Tromsø. He was amazed such a massive thing could float on water. But he felt the same when aeroplanes took off and he’d been in enough of them to know that they did.

  Onboard, they bought tickets at a large wooden desk. Tickets that would take them to a town called Hammerfest. They’d checked the last entry on the computer. It was Frank Hawk. A Tromsø to Hammerfest return. They saw his name on the screen, but not what room he was in.

  The journey would take about twelve hours; enough time to find the Americans and gather more intelligence, then reach the most northern town in the world. Here the European land mass stopped and all that was north of it was sea and ice up to the North Pole.

  Kester and Lily had rented a cabin with a view out across the water. A bunk bed, a tiny bathroom and barely any floor space. Kester stared out of the porthole that showed the sea speeding past.

  ‘So now what?’ Lily asked.

  ‘We search the ship,’ Kester sa
id. ‘Find the Americans. Listen in on them. Go through their room if we can. Find out where they’re going.’

  ‘Come on then,’ Lily said, standing up.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Kester. ‘I read a sign that said everyone goes to eat dinner at seven p.m. It’s ten to now. If we wait until everyone’s eating, we’ll avoid bumping into Hawk by accident. We don’t want him to know that we’re aboard. It’s best to keep a low profile until then.’

  As they waited, the pair secured their room, leaving a small camera and microphone device pinned to the wall to monitor any uninvited visitors.

  The Nordlys was one of fourteen Hurtigruten ships that constantly cruise up and down Norway, serving towns and villages that, in winter, cling to the edge of the ice and rock and are battered by the sea.

  Onboard there were three accommodation floors, narrow corridors running the length of the ship to a large staircase at the bow and stern. Above the accommodation were two more floors of restaurants and cafes. There was even a cinema and a library. It was like a massive floating hotel, stuffed with tourists.

  At ten past seven Lily and Kester emerged on to the main cafe floor to hear gentle music playing and a hubbub of voices chattering. Every passenger seemed to be in the dining room for the seven o’clock sitting.

  The best place to observe the passengers was from outside, looking in, so Kester led Lily on to the deck. Here a few passengers stood alone, their hands on the rail that stopped them falling into the cold, dark sea below.

  For the next fifteen minutes, scarves concealing their faces, Lily and Kester peered from all points into the dining rooms and cafes, Lily working clockwise, Kester anticlockwise. They met at the bow of the ship, a cold breeze rushing towards them from the north.

  ‘Anything?’ Kester asked.

  ‘Nothing.’

  Kester shook his head. ‘They must be in their rooms. I asked if you could get food delivered to your cabin and you can.’

  ‘Or they’re not onboard,’ Lily suggested. ‘And they’ve tricked us on to this boat to get us away from Tromsø. Just like we said.’

  ‘True,’ Kester said.

  ‘When do we stop first?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘Let’s ask,’ Lily said, ‘at the main desk. At least then we’ll know how much time we have to find him before we decide to get off.’

  ‘OK.’

  Kester and Lily walked back into the warmth of the cafes and restaurants, the smell of food and coffee, the noise of laughter, and somewhere, on a higher floor, someone singing.

  ‘Hello.’

  Kester and Lily had approached the ship’s main reception desk to find a member of the crew manning it alone. The desk was solid, made of light wood and chrome tubing. The crew member was young, wearing her long blonde hair in a ponytail.

  ‘Good evening,’ the woman said with a friendly smile.

  Lily smiled back and spoke to her as Kester leaned over the counter and glanced at all the paperwork that the woman had been working on.

  ‘Please can you tell me when we stop next?’ Lily asked.

  ‘Yes,’ the woman said in perfect English, although she was clearly Norwegian. She turned round to study a timetable. ‘We stop in three hours. At a town called Skjervøy. Then, after that, at Øskfjord, then Hammerfest.’

  While the crew member’s back was turned, Lily leaned over and slipped one of her two passports underneath a pile of papers on the desk, then quickly pulled her hand away before the woman turned back round. It was an impulsive act, but a plan had come to her mind and, not consulting Kester, she’d acted without hesitation.

  Now the woman was looking at her again, smiling. Lily smiled back and said thank you, then headed up the stairs to the cafe. Kester followed right behind her.

  ‘What did you do just then?’

  ‘I put my false passport in her pile of papers.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because we need to go back and find out what room Hawk is in. And we need an excuse to be snooping around. So, if I can say I’ve lost my passport, then it’s one reason I could be frantically searching through her paperwork.’

  ‘Good thinking,’ Kester said.

  ‘But let’s wait until later,’ Lily cautioned. ‘Early tomorrow morning. Then there’s a chance the reception will be unmanned.’

  ‘OK,’ Kester said. ‘And, if it’s not, we can always create a distraction.’

  WEDNESDAY

  The Ship Prison Cell

  It was all quiet on the ship when Lily and Kester emerged again from their cabin. They stood out on the deck to go over their plan. The sky was bright with a cold white light. The mountains seemed to be glowing and, although the sea was dark, it looked like liquid silver on the surface.

  ‘If there’s someone on the counter, I’ll ask for help using the Internet terminals,’ Kester said. ‘Then you have a look.’

  ‘OK,’ Lily agreed.

  ‘Come on then,’ said Kester, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets.

  They went back inside the ship and walked confidently up to the reception desk. It was empty, as they’d hoped. Kester looked down a long corridor of bedrooms, then up a stairwell to check for people. ‘Clear,’ he murmured.

  Lily moved to the end of the counter and lifted a small hatch, allowing her to step behind the desk. Seeing the passenger list, she began speed-reading the names. Her and Kester’s false names were the last on the list. Then she saw Hawk’s name and moved her finger to find his room number.

  247.

  Result.

  Lily grinned. But then her face dropped. Suddenly the door from the office behind her was opening and the woman they’d talked to the night before emerged, tightening her ponytail.

  At first, she didn’t see Lily, then, turning, they came eye to eye, a deep frown appearing on the woman’s face.

  ‘Hi,’ Lily said, smiling innocently at the woman who had just caught her going through the passenger records.

  ‘What are you doing behind the counter?’ the woman asked, ignoring Lily’s friendliness. Her tone was harsh, not like the first time they’d spoken. She was wearing her jacket now. Black with gold lines on the cuffs. A uniform that made her look more official.

  ‘I asked what you are doing?’ she said again. ‘This is a secure area.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Lily said, almost sounding like she was crying. ‘I think I dropped my passport round here and I wanted to find it before … before anyone found out. I was worried I’d be thrown off the boat.’

  Kester moved to lean on the reception desk to give Lily his moral support.

  The woman eyed Lily sceptically. ‘You’ve lost your passport?’

  ‘I’m sorry. I know this looks really bad,’ Lily sniffed. ‘I just wondered if one of the crew had found it and left it for me here maybe?’

  The woman looked even more closely at Lily. Lily felt herself go hot inside her head, but she knew not to show it by blushing. She breathed in and out, keeping her body calm, even though her mind was far from it.

  The woman frowned again, then shuffled through the papers in front of her, almost immediately finding the passport Lily had placed there a few hours earlier.

  ‘Ah,’ she said, her tone softer now. ‘Yes. It is here. But, please, if you had lost it, we would not have thrown you off the boat. We would have helped you. I am sorry you were alarmed.’

  Lily smiled and took the passport and said thank you three times, trying to sound like she was truly relieved to have her passport back.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ the woman said, ‘that I suspected you. I hope I wasn’t unkind to you?’

  Lily shook her head and smiled again, but the woman still looked upset. ‘Please,’ she said, ‘perhaps you would like to have a tour of the boat? I can show you the interesting areas.’

  ‘Really?’ Lily said excitedly.

  ‘Yes. We can go now. It will make me feel better about upsetting you. You are the only passengers awake and I am bored. Come, follow me.
I am Marie-Ann.’

  ‘I’m Iris,’ Lily said, remembering to give the same name as the one on the false passport she’d planted. ‘And this is Tom.’

  As she followed the woman on their tour of the boat, Lily felt bad. Here was a nice woman who’d been trusting and kind, but Lily had lied to her about losing her passport, about her name and about what she was doing. It was part of her job, she knew. That was what you had to do to be a spy: to stop greater evils, you had to lie.

  But she didn’t always feel good doing it.

  Marie-Ann tapped a keyboard at the side of a doorway, entering a four-digit code which Kester memorized in case it proved useful later. Lily and Kester followed her through a heavy metal door that was painted white, then down a series of long corridors with other corridors leading off them.

  First, she showed them the kitchen storage area and a row of room-sized fridges and freezers packed with food. The children were interested to see hundreds of boxes and giant tins of food, then, in the meat freezer, whole animal carcasses hanging on hooks in cold storage. Next Marie-Ann led them through another door and they found themselves out at the stern of the ship, low down near the water, the sea churning in the morning light. Around them they saw huge ropes coiled or stretched out across the deck. Kester worked out that above them, on the next deck, was the place they had stared out to sea late last night.

  ‘I had no idea we were at the stern of the ship,’ he said.

  ‘It is a real labyrinth,’ Marie-Ann said. ‘But follow me. This is the interesting place.’

  Their guide led them down another narrow corridor with a low ceiling. All the ceilings were low in the crew area: not like where the passengers sat and walked.

  ‘This,’ she said. ‘What do you think it is?’

  It was a small room with a bed and toilet, both bolted to the floor. A tiny porthole. Nothing else. No bedding. No light fittings.

  ‘A sick bay?’ Kester suggested as Lily moved inside the room.

  ‘No,’ Marie-Ann smiled. ‘This is the jail. For prisoners.’