Every Second Counts (2 page)

‘You’re Nat Holloway and the girl is Charlie Stockwell, aren’t you?’ he asked, laying the blade on the seat beside him. I glanced at it – it wasn’t a knife
after all, just a vegetable peeler. ‘What are you doing here? Does Riley know we’re here?’

I stared at him. Man, he was scared.
Really
scared.

‘Please, Nat,’ the man went on. ‘Lennox and I need to know.’

‘Is Lennox the guy with Charlie?’ I demanded, rising to my feet. ‘Is she okay?’

‘She’ll be fine,’ the man said. ‘Lennox won’t hurt her. Er, I’m Julius Prebert. We just need to know why you’re here.’

Whoever this guy was, he was definitely no solider. I knew from my training with Taylor that the art of interrogation lay in trying not to give away too much with your questions and that the art
of intimidation lay in being hard and unemotional. This man was failing on both counts. Which gave me the edge.

I was pretty sure I was physically stronger than him too. But hopefully this didn’t need to come to a fight. I headed for the door, determined to find Charlie.

‘Wait, Nat.’

‘You’re in the resistance, aren’t you?’ I asked.

Julius nodded. ‘Parveen Patel told you about us, didn’t she?’

Before I could respond, the door flew open. A second man – Lennox, presumably – stumbled inside, closely followed by Charlie, her eyes blazing. She was wielding a knife. An actual
knife. She must have taken it off Lennox.

Julius gasped in horror. He sprang to his feet.

‘Are you okay?’ Charlie and I spoke together.

‘I’m fine,’ I said.

She gave a swift nod. ‘Me too.’

‘Please don’t hurt us,’ Julius stammered.

‘Shut up, Julius,’ Lennox snapped.

I assessed Lennox quickly. He was younger than the bald guy, barely older than Charlie and me, and much tougher looking. But under the bravado I could see he was trembling too.

I held up my hands. ‘Nobody’s going to get hurt. We just want to talk.’ I glanced at Charlie. Reluctantly she lowered the knife. ‘Julius and Lennox are in the
resistance,’ I said to her. ‘They’re the people we’ve been looking for – the ones Parveen told us about.’

As I said Parveen’s name, Julius and Lennox glanced at each other. Julius had mentioned her earlier too. I frowned. If Par had told them about us, why were they so suspicious?

‘Why did you attack us?’ Charlie demanded, vocalising my own thoughts. She advanced on Julius. ‘If you’re in the resistance against Riley, why did you put bags over our
heads and force us inside?’

‘Because we thought you might be Riley’s spies,’ Julius said quickly, his voice quavering.

‘They
are
Riley’s spies,’ Lennox snapped. ‘
She
kidnapped the Mayor of London’s son. And
he
set off a bomb at the Houses of Parliament. They did
that for that scum, Riley.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘You’ve got this all wrong. We were
set up
by Riley. He conned us into joining the English Freedom Army, which he said only existed to stop
terrorists, then he manipulated us
into
becoming terrorists. I didn’t
know
I was carrying a bomb under Parliament and Charlie was
ordered
to kidnap Aaron
Latimer.’

‘That’s right,’ Charlie added. ‘I thought I was protecting Aaron.’

‘The bottom line,’ I said, trying to keep my voice even, ‘is that Parveen trusted us enough to give us this address, so you should trust us too.’ I pointed to the window.
‘We’re here alone and unarmed. Is that really how Riley would have dealt with you if he knew you were here?’

Julius nodded. I could see he was persuaded, but Lennox still looked suspicious.

‘This could be a double bluff,’ he argued. ‘You could both secretly be working for Riley.

‘
No
, don’t you get it?’ Charlie snapped. ‘Riley was behind the Canal St Market bomb which killed my mother.’ For a second her eyes filled with tears. She
blinked them angrily away. ‘The same bomb left Nat’s brother in a coma. There’s no way we would do
anything
for that man.’

‘You mentioned Parveen Patel earlier,’ I said. ‘She obviously told you about us, just like she told us about you. She gave us the addresses of three safe houses a couple of
weeks ago. We’ve been working our way through them, looking for the resistance, ever since. Surely it isn’t a surprise that we’re here?’

There was a long pause, then Julius sighed. ‘It isn’t,’ he said.

‘Then why all the noise?’ Charlie demanded.

‘Because,’ Lennox snapped, ‘Parveen has disappeared.’

Nat and I stared at each other. Parveen had disappeared?
How?
Had Riley captured her? Killed her? The horror I felt was reflected in Nat’s ice-blue eyes. Even in
that terrible moment I couldn’t help but notice how good-looking he was. I loved the strong lines of his face and the way you could never be quite sure what he was thinking, that guarded
expression he always wore.

I turned to Julius and Lennox. ‘So when did you last hear from Parveen?’ I asked.

The two men looked at each other. Lennox gave a gruff nod. ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘If you really think we can trust them.’

‘We saw her in London just over a fortnight ago. She said you’d contacted her and that she’d given you some safe house addresses. She hasn’t been in touch since. We have
a system of checking in for everybody. A weekly signal.’

‘You mean using the draft email system?’ I asked. This was a clever trick we’d learned from the EFA, a way of communicating online without leaving a trail. Basically, you
logged on to an email account and left a message in the draft box for the next person to log in and read.

‘Yes, Parveen hasn’t checked in via draft email since that last message.’ Julius paused. ‘You can see why we were suspicious before, can’t you?’

‘Yes,’ Nat said.

‘Mmm.’ I pursed my lips, unwilling to forgive them. ‘There was still no need to threaten us.’

‘They were just doing what they needed to protect themselves,’ Nat said.

Feeling disgruntled, I shrugged.

‘So how many of you are there in the resistance?’ I asked.

Julius frowned. ‘As far as I know there are fifteen Resistance Pairs. Parveen was put with the guy from Resistance Two.’

‘
Pairs?’
Nat frowned.

‘Yes, we travel in twos, keeping numbers down for safety,’ Julius explained. ‘Lennox and I are Resistance Nine. So far I’ve met the people in Resistance Four, Six and
Eight but I only know the others through draft emails. We move around using the list of safe houses Parveen sent you. That is, there are more houses, but we don’t all have access to all of
them. Sometimes we run into other pairs, most of the time we’re just on the move, trying to avoid being caught, just like you.’

My heart sank. When Parveen had mentioned there being a resistance group in her original message, I’d imagined a proper army of people, not a few random pairs scattered across a bunch of
rundown safe houses, intent on simply surviving.

If this was all the resistance amounted to, we had no hope of exposing and defeating Riley.

‘So I get the “pairs” bit,’ Charlie said drily. ‘But where does the “resistance” come in? It sounds like you just roam about the
country trying to stay out of trouble. How is that going to bring down Roman Riley?’

Julius’s face flushed red. ‘It’s hard,’ he said. ‘We’re operating in total isolation – the police are in Riley’s pocket.’

‘We know. Look, is there any kind of plan?’ I asked, trying to sound less scathing than Charlie just had.

‘We’re doing everything we can,’ Lennox said defensively. ‘Mostly we’re trying to build up evidence to prove Riley is conning the electorate and that he has some
kind of hold over the leaders of the League of Iron so they’re prepared to say
they
are the terrorists.’

‘And how are you doing all that?’ Charlie sounded even more contemptuous than before. ‘Riley has a lot of protection and he’s very smart.’

I shot her a warning look, but she avoided my gaze.

‘We’re working on hacking into his computer network and we’ve tried to steal information too.’ Julius looked away. ‘We’ve lost five good people in the past
six months, plus whatever’s happened to Parveen. It hasn’t been easy, but the Mayor of London is with us and however long it takes—’

‘Whoa, back up,’ Charlie said.

‘Yeah.’ I frowned. ‘You’re saying Mayor Latimer is on our side? Part of the resistance?’

‘Yes,’ Julius said. ‘Absolutely.’

I shook my head. That didn’t make sense at all. When Charlie and I had escaped from Riley last month, we had also rescued Mayor Latimer’s son, Aaron. And yet, despite this, neither
Aaron nor his father had spoken out in our defence afterwards, letting the police and the public carry on thinking we were dangerous terrorists, even though they both knew Riley had set us up.

‘You can’t trust Mayor Latimer,’ Charlie said firmly.

‘We’re just telling you what we’ve heard from a couple of the London-based Pairs,’ Lennox snapped. ‘They say Latimer has just supplied the resistance with some new
gear – tracking and surveillance equipment, a few tasers.’

‘Of course none of it’s come our way yet,’ Julius added. ‘We don’t have any IT, and that –’ he pointed to the knife Charlie had wrested off Lennox,
‘– that’s our only real weapon.’

‘Right.’ I nodded. It sounded worse and worse. A known ally of Riley’s infiltrating the resistance and no proper way of fighting back.

‘Well your set-up seems really amateurish to me,’ Charlie said with a sniff.

I threw her another warning glance. Why did she have to be so antagonistic? She was right, though. Quite apart from the lack of weapons, it was obvious from the way Julius was talking that
neither he nor Lennox had any combat experience, whereas Charlie and I had been trained by one of Riley’s best operatives, Taylor, to fight hard, move stealthily – and even handle
guns.

‘Who’s your leader?’ I asked.

‘We don’t have one,’ Julius admitted. He looked embarrassed. ‘We’re more a co-operative, sharing information, letting everyone else know we’re okay or if
there’s danger somewhere.’

Charlie snorted. Exasperated, I turned on her. ‘Let’s just find out a bit more before we start judging them, okay?’

Charlie shot me a furious look which faded as I glared at her. After a moment she gave an awkward shrug. ‘Sorry, I’m just upset that there isn’t more of a proper organisation
working against Riley.’

‘I know.’ I turned back to Julius. ‘How come you’re both in the resistance?’

‘I was a solicitor, in my first job,’ Julius explained. ‘Eight months ago I was helping in a case to take Riley to court. My boss died in what was supposedly an accident, then
someone planted evidence that made it look like I’d stolen money from my law firm to give to a woman I’d met precisely once. They made it look like I was bribing her. I said it was all
a set-up, but the company fired me anyway, so I lost my flat and my girlfriend.’ He sighed. ‘Riley’s taken my whole life away.’

I turned to Lennox. ‘What about you?’

‘I worked for a car manufacturer, got involved in the trade union there. A mate of mine found out what the English Freedom Army was really up to. He told the police. They weren’t
interested. So he told me and I tried to take it to my union. Next thing I know, my mate’s dead and I’m being threatened to keep quiet. So I carry on trying to expose the EFA and all of
a sudden there’s a warrant out for my arrest for being dangerous, a potential terrorist just like you two.’

I nodded, taking this in. ‘Okay,’ I said slowly. ‘Everything you’re trying to do is good, but we need to do more and do it faster. We
have
to bring down Riley
before the election. That way we all can get our lives back.’

‘But the election is next week,’ Julius spluttered.

‘Basically we need to expose him as a murderer,’ Charlie went on. ‘We need to prove that he set up me and Nat and get evidence on what he’s planning next.

Julius and Lennox stared at us, open-mouthed.

‘Getting proof against him is the only way he’ll be forced to resign from power,’ I added. ‘We still live in a democracy. If we can convince the public how corrupt he is,
they won’t vote for him or his party at the election next week.’

‘That’s some timeframe,’ Lennox said with a sneer.

‘I know,’ I said. ‘But we have to try. The next few days are crucial. I’ve been looking at the polls. Riley’s Future Party are set to do really well in the election
– maybe even well enough to form a government. Riley could control the country by the end of next week.

‘I just don’t see what we can do. Riley’s set everyone against us,’ Julius said. ‘He discredits all his enemies so that people think
we’re
the bad
guys. Look at that film you and Charlie posted on YouTube and how he twisted everything you said.’

This was true. Riley had responded to our attempt to clear our names by saying we were lying and desperate.

‘We have to find another way,’ I insisted. ‘Talking about him isn’t enough, we need to get actual proof and use it.’

‘We could assassinate him,’ Lennox suggested. ‘Get close with a gun or a knife. I’d do it.’

I shook my head. ‘Too risky. You wouldn’t get near him.’

‘Anyway, killing him would make us as bad as he is,’ Julius added.

I looked over at Charlie. She was still standing a little way from us, arms folded. She rolled her eyes, presumably at Julius’s reluctance to take Riley out.

I met her gaze. For all her bravado, Charlie wasn’t any more a killer than Julius. Just a few weeks ago she had a gun in her hand and Riley unarmed in her sights and she hadn’t taken
the shot. Neither had I. I’d told her we’d done the right thing, but Charlie hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

A flicker of embarrassment – and vulnerability – showed on her face, then disappeared again. She knew what I was thinking. I raised my eyebrows. ‘Any suggestions for how we
expose Riley?’

Julius and Lennox turned to her. A beat passed. And then Charlie jutted out her chin in that defiant gesture of hers I was beginning to know so well.