Darkhaven, page 26
Cecelia’s arms were back around me. ‘She’s going to survive this. We’ll figure it all out.’
Fighting back tears, I jumped in my car and tried not to speed too much on my way to Darkhaven. Sirens howled further down the freeway and fitful rain splattered the windscreen. I turned on the wipers and gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned pale.
Chapter 28
Take My Memories
Liam met me at the front door of Darkhaven. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked. He looked so calm.
‘Stephen called me. Surely you know about –’
With a furtive glance around, he pulled me inside before I could finish. ‘Were you followed?’
I realised his “calm” was actually controlled tension. His eyes betrayed the fear under his neutral expression.
‘Followed?’ I’d put my phone in the Faraday bag.
Liam headed back towards the kitchen, mobile phone to his ear as he waited for someone to answer. Finally he said, ‘She’s here,’ then hung up and turned me. ‘Something is going on. I think you were right about your hunch that something bad is happening. But I can’t see what it is.’
‘Is this about Alex? Where’s Stephen?’
He shrugged apologetically. ‘I don’t know. I’m sorry, Gabby. But you shouldn’t have come here. Stephen thinks they might be following you somehow. You were meant to meet him at your Event location.’
Bubbling anger flashed over my body. ‘How was I supposed to know that? You know my intuition is gone.’
Liam turned and placed a hand on my arm. ‘It’s okay. He’s on his way back now.’ His voice was gentle, but there was an edge to it I hadn’t heard before. I shivered, despite the heavy heat.
We made a tense group in the kitchen. Donovan was on the couch, one leg crossed over the other, stoic as ever. Liam took a chair, and I sat down next to him. It felt like all I’d been doing since this whole nightmare started was sitting down at tables, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Wander the streets? Knock on the Taskforce door? Hi Sean, sorry to bother you, just wondering if you happen to have my uncle here. If I could have him back, please. Yeah, right.
After fifteen minutes of wired silence, Stephen walked in. Taut lines of worry creased his forehead.
‘What was the code?’ he asked, bypassing “hi” completely. At least he wasn’t mad that I hadn’t understood his cryptic message about the meeting point. His gaze on me was heavy with compassion as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
Deflated and exhausted, I gave half a shrug and relayed the message. ‘So nothing useful.’
‘Except that the threat extends to your friends,’ Donovan said darkly.
‘What was the message you got about Alex?’ I asked.
Stephen pushed his phone over to me. It was a single line from an unknown number.
I have her uncle – Sean
‘What are we supposed to do with that?’ I tried not to let panic rise all the way up my throat. ‘Can we trace the number?’
Liam shook his head. ‘It’s just a pre-paid phone. We don’t know how he has Stephen’s number though.’
‘What do we do?’ I asked. The panic simmered at chest height. My ears started to ring, softly, insistently.
Stephen turned on his chair to face me. ‘I might not have clairvoyance or a gift for it, but I still have some intuition. And it’s telling me that we have to sit tight. He’ll be in touch again.’
‘How can you trust that at a time like this?’ I asked, rising to my feet without really meaning to. ‘Intuition! I trusted mine last time I was dealing with Sean, and it nearly got me killed!’
Liam reached a hand towards me. ‘Gabby, Stephen’s been intuitive for a long time. Trust me. He’d know if the feeling was gone.’ His voice sounded empty.
I was not empty. Alex was in danger. One of my best friends could be dying on a bathroom floor and I wasn’t there, and although I was still mad, fear for her writhed in the pit of my stomach. And for Cecelia. Keraun was gone, possibly never to return – why would he? Come back to Perth for some slightly superhuman girl who couldn’t make a decision?
I was full of rage. My blood hissed, my ears rang, my vision sharpened to a harsh contrast and I channelled the anger. I threw my chair back.
‘Trust you? You don’t even know what’s going on! I know when the feeling is gone, and I know why!’ My voice rose to a roar. ‘It’s because I trusted every damn thing you ever taught me, and look where it’s got me!’
Liam sat back down. Stephen sank his head into his hands. They looked defeated, but I wasn’t done shouting. ‘So you lost Luci! She was my mother! I was nearly murdered, and now my uncle is abducted and on top of all that you still want me to choose this!’
I picked up another chair and raised it above my head, ready to hurl it at something. Steel arms grasped mine, pulling them down and wrapping around me from behind, forcing me to let go of the chair. Donovan wrestled with me, containing my rage. I squirmed, but I was no match for her strength. She pinned me to her iron body until my blood cooled and the ringing stopped and I sagged. Then she lifted me by the shoulders like a rag doll and set me down on the sofa. She leaned against the wall, watching me. I sat and glowered until the silence started to close in.
‘You know what?’ I said, standing. Donovan made a move towards me, but I held up a hand motioning her to stop. ‘When all this is over, I’m done. I’m going back. I’ll have the Viciretro. You can take my memories. I’d rather forget you all anyway.’
I stalked out of the room, down the hall and to the patio. Despite today’s dampness, the landscape was drier than it had been when I first came here, the grass browning and the blooms on the tea trees faded. I leaned on the railing and gazed out as the gravid air finally caved under the weight of the water in it. The rain was sparse at first, but the drops were fat and heavy, and each fell to the earth with an audible spaa-lop. I took a deep breath, sucking in air, not paying attention to smells or sounds or even looking at anything other than the damp dirt.
‘Petrichor.’
I turned. There he stood, this alien god, leaning against the wall like he owned the world and hadn’t a care. He smiled, the colour of his eyes lifting to a faint yellow glow. Everything dropped away for a swift moment, all my worry and fear and stress, and it was just him and my heart, which was now somewhere near my knees. This must be how people swoon, a remote part of my brain thought. Their heart actually moves down a metre or so and knocks their knees out from under them with its pounding. Then reality crashed back on top of me, and I sank against the railing until I was sitting on the dusty floor. Keraun was at my side.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked. He took my chin in his hand and turned my face to his as he leaned in. His breath was warm on my cheek. His eyes were so close to mine, I could feel heat radiating off them. They glowed, shifting from brown to liquid yellow as he closed them and moved closer and drew my face towards him and his lips met mine. My eyelids fluttered shut and my lips parted and again I forgot about everything except my heart now winging its way back up my legs and through my chest, past its usual resting place, past my throat and head until it soared out somewhere I hadn’t even known it could go. Time almost stopped.
But it didn’t. My breath caught in my throat. Keraun pulled back, eyes glowing, a gentle smile playing on his face.
‘And you thought I wouldn’t come back,’ he whispered.
‘I thought you couldn’t read minds.’ There wouldn’t be much he could read now anyway – my mind was utter chaos.
‘I can’t. It was just that you looked surprised to see me.’ He didn’t take his eyes off my face. The intensity was soft and sharp at the same time. I looked away.
‘I’m sorry,’ he continued, ‘I wasn’t paying attention. What’s wrong?’
‘They’ve taken Alex,’ I said, trying not to let the trembling take over my body. ‘And Zenna’s in trouble.’
Keraun squeezed my shoulders. Before he could say anything, Stephen stuck his head around the door, frowning. ‘There’s a new message,’ he said.
I leapt to my feet and followed Stephen back inside, Keraun right behind me.
Chapter 29
Making Fakes
‘I’d hoped you were gone.’ Stephen glared at Keraun as we re-entered the kitchen, then gave me a questioning look.
Keraun smiled, genuine and dazzling. He held up his palms in supplication. ‘There isn’t anywhere else in the universe I would rather be.’ But he paused just inside the doorway, giving Stephen and the others some distance.
Stephen turned back to the table, where someone had spread a map of Perth. He held his phone out to me. ‘Sean wants that disk you took back in exchange for your uncle. We’ve copied it, although we can’t decrypt the data, but he may as well have it back. He’s given us two possible locations. Apparently you will know which one to go to.’
I stared at the map, then the phone, numbness spreading through my body. The locations were Cecelia’s and Zenna’s homes. The final words were Gabby’s choice.
‘He’s playing games with us,’ Liam remarked.
With shaking fingers, I dropped Stephen’s phone back on the table as I realised. Sean must have hijacked my phone when he and his goons had taken me in to the Taskforce the first time. I hadn’t even thought of it, but I’d saved Stephen’s number.
‘Which one is it?’ Stephen asked.
I stared at the phone screen until it went dark. Before, my intuition had felt like an island that I’d simply swum too far away from. I had known it was still there. The water was clear blue with a sandy bottom, and I could maybe have swum back if I’d been able to understand myself. Now, I was in a riptide. Now, I was out in the deep ocean, nothing but black water below. ‘I don’t know,’ I mumbled.
Donovan slapped a hand on the table. ‘Well that’s a whole lot of helpful.’
I ignored her. ‘But he knows everything. He knows where Alex works.’ I coughed to cover the crack in my voice. ‘And where my friends live.’
‘These are your friends’ addresses?′ Liam asked, concern filling his voice.
I nodded. Somehow Alex had found out and tried to let me know. And I’d failed. The best I could hope for now was that Zenna was bad enough to be admitted to hospital and Cecelia had stayed with her. Nausea turned in my stomach.
Stephen looked deep in thought. ‘We will have to split up,’ he said eventually.
Donovan scoffed, looking around the table at Stephen, Liam and me. ‘What, four of us, split up? We couldn’t take Sean and his henchmen down while securing hostages all together, let alone with only two. Although I’ll give him a damn good fight.’ She clenched her fists. I felt a slight – very slight – shift in sympathy. For all her faults, she was still on my side. Well, Darkhaven’s side, which I supposed was my side. For now.
‘It won’t be two,’ Keraun said, stepping forward from the doorway. ‘I’m in. I’ll come with you.’
‘So will I,’ said another voice before Stephen could raise an objection. Dr Whittaker appeared behind Keraun. Everyone stared. The doctor rarely left her lab and probably hadn’t left Darkhaven since she’d come here.
‘The Taskforce is threatening my home,’ she said, as if that explained everything. ‘I may not be a fighter, but I can still help.’
Donovan’s eyes blazed. ‘Well, six is better than four. Let’s get this bastard.’ She looked to Stephen. A subtle fire seemed to kindle in his face too.
‘Wait,’ Liam said. ‘What about Gabby’s friends? We need to make sure they are protected.’
I snatched up Stephen’s phone and sent a text to Cecelia. It was so easy to remember numbers now.
She replied almost instantly. Hospital. I think she hit an artery. Doctor with her now.
‘There’s no one at Zenna’s house,’ I said, choking out the words.
‘Will they stay out?’ Stephen asked.
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat and banishing the image of Zenna’s bloodied arm. ‘I think so. At least for a few hours.’
‘What about the other one?’
‘Cecelia’s out too. Her mum and sisters will be at ballet now, but they’ll probably finish soon. I don’t know about her dad. He might be home, if he’s not on call.’
‘Where does he work?’ Dr Whittaker asked. ‘I can make sure he’s kept out of the house without raising suspicion.’
‘Dr Robert Wilson. He works in emergency.’ I gave her the hospital details.
‘Okay,’ Stephen began, pulling maps towards him and marking the locations. ‘Donovan, Catherine and Liam will go to the Wilson house. Keraun, Gabby and I will take the other. Report back to Donovan or myself with any news. The aim is to secure the safety of Alex Whitehall. One group will have to take a fake disk.’
He placed a grey disk on the table. It looked a lot like the one I’d taken, except…
‘This is the fake?’ I asked.
‘Yes, a decoy to appear legitimate for long enough to make the exchange –’
‘You are gambling my uncle’s life with this and hoping Sean doesn’t figure it out?’ I was starting to tremble again, but this time it was with fury. I picked up the disk and turned it over. ‘It hasn’t got a holofoil. He’s going to notice instantly if the disk doesn’t have a holofoil.’
‘She has a point.’ Donovan stood. I turned and gaped at her. ‘If his henchmen handle the exchange, we’ll have time, but if Sean sees it first, he’ll probably notice.’
Stephen’s brow creased. ‘What else can we do? We can’t go with nothing, and we don’t have much time. We have to assume that he’s already in place, waiting for us. He’ll know if we delay.’
‘I’ll make one,’ Donovan said. ‘I have a guy who can copy the holofoil. Close enough, at least.’
Stephen looked pained. ‘How long will that take?’
‘I’ll message him now. I can be at the site in under an hour. All going well.’
‘We’ll have to head off without you then, make an appearance and hope you catch us in time. I can buy time at the second location by saying we sent the disk to yours.’
‘You can’t leave Liam and Catherine on their own, they don’t have combat training,’ Donovan said.
I didn’t have combat training. How messy was this going to get? Presumably Sean knew our vulnerabilities. One shot to the head or heart with the right kind of bullet. Against that, combat training seemed almost pointless.
‘I’ll go to the doctor’s house,’ Keraun said.
I turned on him, worry churning in my stomach. Would a Taskforce bullet kill him too? I had no idea. ‘Do you have combat training?’ I asked.
He just quirked up one corner of his mouth like I was being funny. ‘I’ll buy you plenty of time if he’s there. The rest of you go to the other location and take the real disk with you.’
Everyone stared at him. Donovan raised an incredulous eyebrow.
‘Trust me, I know this guy,’ he said. I was pretty sure he didn’t know Sean at all, but then, no one else here knew what Keraun was.
‘If I don’t need to be on the approach team, I can also make sure the mother stays at the ballet studio,’ Dr Whittaker said. I shot her a grateful smile and marked the studio on the map.
‘Liam will go with you,’ Stephen said to Keraun, with more than a hint of forcefulness. ‘And when all this is done, you are going to explain exactly who or what you are, and what you want with my’ – he paused, flushed – ‘with Gabby.’
I hadn’t picked Stephen for the possessive type. But he was working pretty hard to recruit me, so I suppose he counted me as his student. Or something. Something else nagged at me. The holofoil. ‘Wait,’ I said. Everyone looked at me. ‘Why does Sean want the disk back?’
Stephen shrugged. ‘Data control. He wants to make sure we don’t disseminate it. Or lose it.’
I shook my head. Something Zenna had said popped into my head. ‘You said you couldn’t decrypt the data. What if the holofoil is the key? Like a cipher?’
There was a pause, then Donovan nodded. ‘I think she’s right.’
Donovan was agreeing with me way too much. It was unsettling. ‘What do we do?’ I asked.
She rolled her eyes. So not completely on my page. ‘I’ll make two fakes,’ she said. ‘We leave the original here. Catherine and I will take one to each location when I’m done.’
That was as good as the plan got. Doctor Whittaker and Donovan disappeared to their respective tasks. Liam and Keraun went shortly after to Cecelia’s house. That left Stephen and I standing in the kitchen.
‘I don’t like this,’ he remarked. ‘We’re back down to two people on each approach team, and one of those is a guy I don’t know.’
There was nothing I could say to improve his trust in Keraun. Even if he believed me when I said the boy was an alien god, that would probably only heighten his suspicion. I let it go and followed Stephen out to the Corolla.
Chapter 30
Diversions and Decisions
Cecelia called while Stephen and I drove to Zenna’s. When Zenna hadn’t responded to her frantic hammering on the door, Cecelia had gone around the house and smashed in the bathroom window with a pitchfork from the garden shed. She’d found Zenna semi-conscious on the floor, blood flowing from a deep gash in her wrist. By the time Cecelia compressed the wound, the ambulance had arrived. She’d waited at the hospital while Zenna was taken through emergency.
‘So unless you’re going to let me help you, I’m going home to study,’ Cecelia finished.
‘Wait!’ I said, a little too urgently.
‘What? I have Chemistry on Monday. I feel bad for Zenna, but I can’t spend all day in the hospital because of her life choices. I have my own future to look after.’
