“Lenz, call Ryda of the M-Boyz for me. I think we need some new blood; tougher men who can stand their ground in a fight.”
“Yes sir,” the man replied as they jumped into the van and drove off.
Around her, the police started quizzing people as they tried to restore order and find out what had happened. Seeing that her job here was done, Scarlett knew now would be a good time to leave.
“We should get out of here,” she said to Neelam.
“Really?” Neelam replied sarcastically. “I said that when you ran off thinking you were Superman 10 minutes ago.”
“Alright, alright, don’t have a go.” Scarlett said.
They started walking back up the road towards their new, temporary home.
“I guess we lost our shopping,” she said. Great, Dylan and the others would go mad when they came back empty handed.
“No, I stashed it behind this power box.”
Neelam dashed over to a grey, metal structure and grabbed their four carrier bags of shopping. Scarlett gave her a huge hug of appreciation. Neelam could be brilliantly clever sometimes. Well, all of the time.
“Now let’s get home before the others think we got into trouble…. Which we did.”
“You won’t tell Dylan, will you?”
Neelam gave her a look.
“Please? We barely got involved and he’ll only overreact and give me a lecture.”
“OK. To be honest, I’d rather keep my mouth shut because he’d just lay some of the blame on me if he knew. I know how grumpy he can get.”
“Very.” Scarlett laughed as a TV screen in the window of a shop they were passing caught her eye. A picture of Prime Minster Goulden flashed up, then the footage cut to a journalist who was standing outside No 10 Downing Street.
Realising some major news was breaking, she ran into the shop, where she found more sets showing the same channel. She and Neelam stood in silence as they listened to the news.
“After hours of speculation, we have just received notice that the Prime Minister’s talks with Mendia did not go ahead as planned today because the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alan Hipplewell, pulled out of the meeting at the last minute, stating that he could no longer support his party’s stance on the war. The Prime Minister subsequently announced that he’s accepted Mr Hipplewell’s resignation, news that has shocked the entire government because the MP had previously been a favourite of Adam Goulden’s and one of the strongest supporters of a war with Mendia.”
“Yes!” Scarlett whispered to Neelam. “We did it!”
“However,” the reporter continued. “The Prime Minster has announced that the talks will now take place tomorrow morning, but he has requested that the location be moved to Manchester because he is due to attend a separate summit with business leaders at the city’s Manchester Central Convention Centre. The King of Mendia has yet to respond, but sources close to the monarch believe that he will agree to the talks and is preparing to travel to the northern city as we speak.”
Scarlett clenched her fist in frustration and looked towards her friend.
“Looks like we only succeeded in postponing the war,” Neelam said. “Goulden will still go ahead with the war and the worst bit is he’s coming to Manchester tomorrow. I thought we were safe from him up here.”
Scarlett refused to believe they were beaten though and unlike Neelam, she thought the fact that Goulden was coming to the north was a great idea.
“No, Neelam, this is good news. It means we still have a chance to stop him.”
Chapter 14
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Neelam said late that evening.
The group had been debating what to do about Goulden’s imminent arrival in the city since Neelam and Scarlett had returned some hours earlier. They’d immediately told everyone what they’d seen on the news about Hipplewell’s resignation and Goulden’s threat to Mendia, but Neelam had kept quiet about the adventure, which Scarlett was relieved about. She made a mental note to thank her friend later.
The five of them were now struggling to agree over whether to take action against Goulden or not. Neelam and Alex believed they should lie low to avoid detection, while Dylan and Scarlett wanted to do all they could to stop a war. Meanwhile, Lucy was too busy on her laptop, scouring every database, file and record she could hack her way into in a bid to find out more about the workhouses. While she’d tried to remain calm about her brother, Aaron, being captured at first, as time went on, she was growing more desperate to learn what had happened to him, Isabella and Jay.
Scarlett was reluctant to disturb Lucy, but without her deciding vote, discussions between the other four had descended into one big row with no end in sight. However, Neelam and Dylan had been having the same argument for an hour now, so something needed to be done soon or this could continue until the morning. At least.
“What’s so bad about it?” Dylan said. “Would you rather we sit back and let war break out?”
“No, I’d rather we stayed alive and out of Goulden’s way,” Neelam said. “Have you forgotten that he was there when Scarlett was killed in Mason’s vision?”
Upon hearing her name, Scarlett re-joined the discussion. “Don’t start that rubbish again, I’m not going to die.”
“You might.”
Scarlett gave Neelam a dirty look. It was bad enough having Dylan on her case, she didn’t need her friend telling her how to live her life too.
“We can’t know that for sure,” Scarlett said, “but if we don’t stop this war, millions of people will certainly die. Can you let all the people in Mendia suffer because we were too chicken to do something when we had the chance? British soldiers will be killed too, not to mention all the people in this country caught up in revenge attacks, such as the one Mason saw wiping out this whole city. Who knows where it will end?”
“Neelam, I’m scared at the prospect of losing Scarlett, too, but we can’t let it blur our judgment. We have to stop this war for all the reasons she just said.” Dylan added.
“I don’t like it.” Neelam folded her arms.
“Well, start liking it!” Dylan was growing increasingly angry and frustrated.
“Will you lot shut up?” Lucy said. The light blinked on and off as she stood up to face them. “I’m so sick of hearing this.”
The bulb above them flickered again, then it switched off completely. The hideout had no power supply, so Lucy was using her abilities to provide electricity for the lights and her computer. And as her power was tied to her emotions, her little outburst had caused everything to switch off, plunging them into darkness.
“Oh great,” Alex said. “She’s pulled the plug on us.”
Suddenly, the light flashed back on, illuminating the room once more.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, I was angry. Now, Dylan, you calm down and stop having a go at Neelam and Neelam, you stop worrying about Scarlett. If Scarlett herself and her stupidly overprotective boyfriend are happy for her to risk her life, then I don’t see why you should have a problem with that.”
Scarlett laughed, Lucy had a good point there.
The blonde strode over to the group and sat down on the floor next to them.
“Scarlett and Dylan are right, we can’t let this war happen. We help people, we don’t stand back and let them die. I’d love to sit this one out so I can concentrate on looking for Aaron, but we can’t. We have to find a way to stop Goulden declaring war tomorrow. It’s likely this will lead to an attack on Manchester and even if we’re wrong about that, thousands will still die in the war. How can you not want to prevent it?”
Neelam hung her head and remained silent, so some of what Lucy said must have hit home with her. Scarlett didn’t think she’d ever see the day that Lucy lectured Neelam on the correct course of action.
“So that’s that then,” Dylan said. “You’re casting the deciding vote in our favour?”
Lucy nodded.
“Fine,” Neelam said. “We’d bette
r make sure we know what we’re doing though because security is going to be high while Goulden’s in town and I do not want to get caught.”
The following morning, Scarlett woke up before everyone else. She had no idea what time it was because the windows to the hideout were boarded up, so she couldn’t tell if it was light outside yet. She fumbled in the dark to find her digital watch, which had a light-up screen, and saw it was 6.30am. She didn’t even know there was a 6.30am before she came to this hellish reality. In fact, she often lounged around in bed till mid-morning, but now she seemed to wake up at the crack of dawn most days.
She arched her back to ease the stiffness and pain she felt from sleeping on the cold, wooden floor and stretched her arms in the air. It didn’t help. She looked across to see Dylan was still sleeping, which didn’t surprise her. There was a bottle of water next to him, but his arm was strewn across it, so there was no way she could grab it without waking him. Damn it, she was dying of thirst and all the food and supplies were upstairs.
Scarlett stood up as quietly as she could and tiptoed across the room, being careful not to wake the others as she crept past them on the way to the staircase. She winced as the bottom step creaked loudly, then flew the rest of the way up. It was a much more peaceful way to travel. She hovered over to the corner where the bags of food were and settled down on the ground.
As she pulled out a water bottle and unscrewed it, a flash of light appeared before her, causing her to jump and spill some of the water down her front.
“Alex!” she said. “You scared the life out of me.”
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I heard you come up here and I teleported after you to avoid waking everyone up. Those stairs are well noisy.”
“And the light flash you create as you ’port away is the perfect way to keep people asleep, I guess.”
“I didn’t think about that.”
Scarlett shook her head and smiled as Alex sat down beside her.
“I had a dream about us living here in Manchester back in our own world,” he said. “Everything was so normal. We were drinking milkshakes and eating burgers with your brother, Dan; just having fun and being teenagers. Being innocent. I can’t tell you how gutted I was when I woke up to realise I was still in this useless, warped reality. It’s been a long time since I had a burger.”
“Do you wish we could go back?” She understood how he was feeling because she often had those dreams too. And she knew how much Alex loved burgers.
“Yes, no… maybe. I’d love life to be normal again, you know? To see my mum and dad and finish my A-levels. I thought life was boring before, but now I crave boring.” He took Scarlett’s water bottle and drank from it. “But then, I don’t feel we can leave this place either. We’re needed here.”
“I know what you mean. I crave home, but in a weird way I feel like this is home now too. I’d miss it if I left.”
“You’d miss Dylan.” Alex laughed and gave her a wink.
“Shut up.” Scarlett blushed.
Alex roared with laughter. “Ooh touchy! Sorry, Scarlett. You make a good couple. I’m pleased he’s dropped all that jealousy crap though.”
“Yeah, even I thought that was annoying. I kinda can’t blame him when the Alex and Scarlett of this world had a thing for each other though.”
Alex pretended to shudder and laughed. “That is so weird, no offence.”
“Ha! None taken. I have to admit, it grosses me out too. I can’t imagine us ever being an item.”
“I know! We’ve been friends for far too long. Do you ever wonder what happened to them?”
“The other Scarlett and Alex? I dunno. I wasn’t even sure they existed at first, but they must do. Maybe they swapped places with us.”
“And got hit by the truck?”
“I honestly don’t have a clue. Perhaps we’ll find out one day if we figure out a way to get home.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go home.”
“I don’t know what I want. I do want to stay here, but like you I want to see my family. I bet there’s no prophecy predicting my death in that reality either.” Her face darkened.
“You won’t die, you’re far too tough and powerful. For a girl.” He gave her a playful punch.
“Hey!”
“We don’t know how to get home anyway, even if we did want to go. And we’re so busy, we never have time to think about how we’d go about it.”
“I know, we’re stuck here.” Scarlett grabbed her water bottle back to take a sip. “We’ll have to settle for trying to turn this world back into something that resembles our own I guess. Overthrow Goulden, help our friends, get you a burger…” She winked.
“Now you’re talking,” he said. He leaned past Scarlett and started rustling around in the bags for something to eat. “What have we got in here? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
Later that morning, around 10.30am, the five teenagers were standing outside the grand Midland Hotel, which was a few minutes’ walk from Spinningfields. Thanks to a spot of expert hacking, Lucy had discovered that Goulden and his cronies were staying at the plush venue, which was joined to the Manchester Central Convention Centre where the summit was being held.
A temporary passageway had been constructed to link the two buildings together and as all the entrances to the centre itself were heavily guarded, it seemed like the best way of getting in. Alex had considered teleporting them there, but because he’d never been inside either building before, there was a huge risk they’d pop up in the middle of a crowded room and that was the last thing they wanted.
Instead, they would try to sneak in disguised as waiting staff. It was difficult to locate the uniforms required for a disguise at such short notice, so Neelam was using her power to make everyone see them as five members of the waiting team rather than ordinary, casually dressed teenagers.
“Ready?” Scarlett said as she stared into the vast reception of the hotel. The entrance hall was impressive with its tiled floors and fancy fittings. The grandness would usually intimidate her, but as they had far scarier things to face today, it didn’t bother her so much.
“Sure,” Lucy said.
They planned to head straight through reception to the back of the building, where they should find an entrance to the passage to Manchester Central. Neelam and Lucy were due to go first, so the two girls made their way into the hotel while the other three hung back for a minute, then followed them. They hoped to attract less attention in smaller groups.
“Where are you three going?” a woman in a sleek suit said to Scarlett, Dylan and Alex. She leapt in front of them to block their path.
“We’re here to work with the catering team in the convention complex,” Scarlett said. She flashed an employee card at the haughty woman and silently thanked Lucy for creating some realistic ID cards.
“We’re late,” Alex said with some urgency. “The boss doesn’t like it when we’re late; she’ll ask questions.”
The woman stepped aside. Alex’s quick thinking had worked. No one liked to think they were ruffling the feathers of a senior at such an important event.
“OK, hurry along then, and straighten your backs for goodness’ sake children. You’re mixing with very important people today, so you must not be seen slouching.”
The three stood as poker straight as they could and walked briskly to the passageway entrance, where they flashed their passes at a guard and strolled through to the convention centre. Neelam and Lucy were waiting for them by the entrance.
“The meeting with the King of Mendia is set to happen in that small room to the left in five minutes. I stole the information from a guard’s mind.” Neelam said. “Let’s hang around until the meeting starts, then sneak in there so I can mind trick the King into bowing down to Goulden’s demands.”
“I’m still not keen on the idea of letting Goulden get his own way, but it’s our only option,” Dylan said “Getting Hipplewell to back down didn’t work and there’s no
way we can convince Goulden to call things off. He’s far too stubborn and greedy. If the King gives Mendia back to the UK, it isn’t ideal but at least it will avert a war.”
“There they go,” Scarlett whispered.
She watched as Goulden, three of his cabinet and a couple of hangers-on rushed past them and into the meeting room. The teenagers turned to face the wall, so Goulden didn’t see them. His team were followed by King Nicolas of Mendia, who had an entourage of four people dashing along behind him. The handsome king was around 40 with Mediterranean good looks and wore a navy designer suit. As soon as he entered the room, a burly guard closed the door behind them.
“That’s our cue,” Dylan said.
The five of them walked up to the guard and Neelam used her power to make him believe they were pushing a trolley full of food.
“We’ve been told to bring these refreshments into the meeting. You’ll let us pass, won’t you?” She stared at him as she willed him to do her bidding.
“Go ahead, I’ll let you pass.”
The man opened the door and they all entered the room, where they found Goulden’s team sat one side of a long pine table and the King’s men on the other. He was sat with his back to a large window, which lined the outside wall, looking deep in thought. He held his head in his hands and stared down at a pile of notes he had in front of him. Meanwhile, Goulden was holding court over his own team, looking as confident and brash as ever as he relayed some story to his people.
Scarlett felt sick, nervous and angry at the mere sight of Goulden, she couldn’t stand the man after all he had done to them. She prayed that Neelam’s powers were keeping them disguised because the Prime Minster had evaded her telepathic tricks in the past. This time, Scarlett was adding her boosting power to Neelam’s own talents, so that should allow them to go undetected. She plastered on a smile as she prepared to greet the room.
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 11
