Hostage (19 page)

‘Well, that sounds fine,’ he
replied casually. In fact, the positioning was perfect. From the perspective of a
bodyguard, he could protect her back if necessary, observe any threat approaching from
the front and easily grab her to provide body cover or escape in the event of an
emergency.

Alicia’s school bag buzzed and she
pulled out her mobile to read the text message.

‘Hey, that’s a neat phone
cover!’ said Paige.

Alicia grinned, pleased that one of her
friends had noticed. ‘It’s a present from Connor.’

‘Lucky you, that’s a limited
edition Armani!’ Grace exclaimed, admiring the red butterfly logo.

The girls crowded round to have a better
look.

‘Just a thank-you gift,’
explained Connor, worried they’d read too much into it. But the girls were more
interested in comparing phone covers and lucky charms.

The school bell rang for class.

‘Come on,’ said Alicia, grabbing
her bag and looking at Connor. ‘First lesson’s history. If you can survive
this, you can survive anything!’

History wasn’t one of Connor’s
favourite topics, but the lesson was made even more challenging by the double life he
was leading. Protecting the President’s daughter meant he had to be on constant
alert – Code Yellow. But that was hard to maintain when a teacher was asking questions
and there was class work to be done. It was only his first day and Connor already felt
like he was performing a constant juggling act with his attention.

The open window. The teacher. The other students. Alicia. The unanswered workbook on
his desk. The person passing in the corridor …

As the bell went for lunch, after the first
three periods of history, Mandarin Chinese and maths, Connor was glad to be able to
concentrate on just one role – that of being a buddyguard.

Alicia and her friends collected their bags
and headed for the refectory with Connor in tow. As they wandered down the corridor,
Connor kept a careful eye out for potential threats. Although it was tempting to relax –
since they were within the relatively safe confines of a private
school – Colonel Black had reinforced in him during training that ‘assumption is
the mother of all screw-ups’. A bodyguard could
never
assume that an area
was totally safe or an individual not a threat. Vigilance was required at all times.
This meant that while the Secret Service would have vetted any people in direct contact
with Alicia there was always a chance one shark could slip through the net. This could
be a teacher, an office clerk, one of the catering staff, the cleaners, the groundsmen,
a delivery driver or even a fellow student.
Everyone
was a suspect.

But the threat need not be an assassination.
As Alicia’s buddyguard, Connor was to protect her from all forms of harm – from
everyday bullying to a simple accident. So although he didn’t expect there’d
be any potential assassins among the students, if Montarose School was anything like his
own in East London, there’d certainly be a bonehead or two.

As if on cue, two lads strolled up to their
group as they waited in line for food. One was well-built with dark wavy hair, a square
jaw and a confident swagger. He looked like a young Clark Kent who’d forgotten to
put on his glasses and was still Superman. His friend was bigger – a bulldozer of a boy
with a short crew cut and size twelve Converse trainers.

‘Hey, Alicia!’ drawled Superman.
‘What’s up?’

‘Hi, Ethan,’ she replied,
smiling coyly as her friends gathered to one side to give them space.

‘Ethan, this is Connor from
England,’ introduced Alicia.

The boy gave a brief nod in Connor’s
direction. ‘Right!’

Then he turned his attention back to Alicia
before Connor had a chance to reply.

‘So, what you doing at the
weekend?’ he asked.

Alicia glanced sideways at her giggling
schoolmates. ‘My father’s asked me to take Connor to the National Mall on
Saturday. Fancy joining us?’

‘Nah, it’s just a bunch of old
museums and monuments,’ snorted Ethan. ‘Anyway, I’ve got baseball
practice.’

‘Ethan’s the top hitter for the
school team,’ Grace whispered to Connor, handing him a dinner tray.
‘He’s also the school star quarterback.’

Connor nodded. Judging by the boy’s
attitude, he certainly thought himself a star.

‘Are you going to the Summer
Prom?’ Ethan asked casually.

‘Maybe,’ replied Alicia,
twirling a lock of her dark hair round her finger. ‘Depends who’s
asking.’

‘I am.’

Alicia pursed her lips. ‘I’ll
think about it.’

‘
Think about it?
’
exclaimed Ethan, his stunned expression suggesting he never expected ‘no’
from a girl – even the President’s daughter. ‘It’s only two weeks
away.’

‘Yeah, but I need the Secret Service
to check you out first. Got to confirm you’re no “threat”,’ she
said, raising her eyebrows teasingly.

‘But I’m a senator’s
son!’ he replied, clearly not getting Alicia’s joke. He walked off in a
huff, muttering, ‘Well, don’t take too long about it.’

The girls regrouped round Alicia.

‘I don’t believe you!’ said
Paige, her blue eyes wide. ‘Ethan asked you to the Prom and you didn’t say
yes
.’

‘He’s got to work a bit harder
than that,’ replied Alicia.

‘Treat ’em mean, keep ’em
keen, eh?’ sniggered Grace.

‘No, the guy needs some style first.
He needs to impress me. I mean, he asked me in the lunch queue, for goodness’
sake!’

As the girls stood gossiping, Connor became
aware of someone staring intently at Alicia through the glass pane of a door marked
NO ADMITTANCE
. He couldn’t make out the man’s features
clearly, since the glass was obscured. But the man’s eyes were magnified by it and
his attention was definitely fixed on Alicia.

Connor’s awareness shot up one level
to Code Orange. As he evaluated the potential threat, the man noticed Connor looking in
his direction, and suddenly disappeared.

‘What’s behind that door?’
Connor asked Kalila.

‘Just the kitchens,’ she
replied, helping herself to a Caesar salad from the food bar.

‘We’ll sit over there,
Connor,’ Alicia called, pointing to a table by the window.

‘Right behind you,’ Connor
replied, quickly selecting a sandwich and a soft drink. He hurried over to ensure he got
a seat beside Alicia. He allowed his alert level to drop to Code Yellow again. But for
her safety he wanted the best position to view the refectory and
NO
ADMITTANCE
door – just in case the watcher made a second appearance.

During his afternoon lessons of English and
geography, Connor pondered the face at the glass. If not for his bodyguard training, he
doubted he’d have noticed the man in the first place. There was no real reason to
suspect anything more than a curious member of the catering staff. The face never
reappeared and could simply have been a chef checking the length of the dinner queue, or
a new kitchen hand who’d had his first sighting of the President’s daughter.
But something about the intensity of the stare unsettled Connor. Perhaps it was the way
the eyes were magnified by the rippled glass, or the fact that the gaze was directed at
Alicia alone and nobody else.

The school bell rang, interrupting his
thoughts.

‘Remember, I want your assignments on
my desk by Friday,’ said Mr Hulme, their geography teacher, over the scrape of
chairs and thumping of bags.

Connor wished he’d been paying more
attention. He hurriedly scribbled down the assignment from the whiteboard as the
students piled out of the classroom, eager to go home and enjoy what was left of the
day’s
sunshine. Alicia waited for Connor and they headed for the
main foyer with her friends. At the end of the corridor, he held the door open for
them.

‘Thank you,’ said Alicia,
surprised by his courteous gesture.

‘Aww, English boys are so
polite,’ said Paige, skipping through after her with Grace and Kalila.

Before Connor could follow, Ethan barged
past. ‘Good work, doorman.’

His friend, whose name Connor had discovered
was Jimbo, also muscled his way through with no more than a grunt of acknowledgement.
Connor held himself in check at their rudeness. He didn’t want to get on the wrong
side of
any
of Alicia’s friends – even the most obnoxious. At the same
time, he wasn’t going to be pushed around.

‘Next time leave a tip!’ he
cried, keeping his voice light and humorous.

Neither Ethan nor Jimbo bothered to
reply.

Letting the door swing shut behind him,
Connor instinctively checked over his shoulder. He noticed a man with black hair,
glasses and a dark complexion standing at the far end of the corridor. He was staring
intently in Alicia’s direction.
Could this be the face behind the glass?
But the man wasn’t dressed in catering clothes. He wore light-coloured chinos, a
shirt and a striped blue tie.

‘Who’s that?’ asked
Connor.

Alicia glanced back down the corridor.
‘Oh, that’s Mr Hayek, the new IT teacher. He must be on hall
duty.’

Connor let his guard down. He realized he was
being
too
paranoid. If he continued to suspect everyone and anyone who merely
looked at the President’s daughter, he’d be a nervous wreck by the end of
the week. He made a mental note to study the photos of the teachers and school staff
that Ling had compiled in his operations folder. That way he need only be suspicious of
strangers and any staff doing something out of the ordinary.

They congregated in the foyer to say
goodbye.

‘So who’s up for the National
Mall this weekend?’ asked Alicia.

Grace smiled. ‘Sorry, seeing my
grandparents.’

‘Catch you later for shopping
maybe,’ said Paige.

‘You
always
want to go
shopping,’ laughed Alicia.

‘Hey, it’s my favourite hobby.
And I’m already meeting a friend for lunch.’

‘A friend or a
friend
?’
enquired Grace.

‘A
friend
called
Steve,’ Paige replied with a cheeky smile.

‘You go, girl!’ said Grace,
high-fiving her. ‘See you all tomorrow.’

She waved goodbye and Paige followed before
Alicia had a chance to question her any more about her lunch date.

‘What about you, Kalila?’ asked
Alicia.

‘I’ll have to ask my father
first,’ she replied with a timid smile.

‘Of course,’ said Alicia.
‘I understand. I have to get my father’s permission to do
anything
!’

Kalila glanced towards a sleek silver Mercedes
Benz in the car park. ‘Sorry, I’d better go – my brother’s waiting for
me.’

Connor followed her gaze and spotted a young
man in the driver’s seat, looking in their direction and impatiently checking his
watch.

‘Bye, Connor, it’s been lovely
meeting you,’ said Kalila, smiling shyly at him, before hurrying down the steps
and over to the car.

‘We should go too,’ said Alicia.
‘Otherwise Kyle will start getting edgy.’

As Connor followed Alicia, he looked back at
the silver Mercedes and remarked, ‘Kalila seems nice.’

‘Yes, she’s one of my best
friends,’ Alicia admitted. ‘Her father’s a foreign diplomat, so
she’s not fazed by the fact I’m the First Daughter.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked
Connor.

Alicia considered him a moment, then seemed
to decide to trust him with her thoughts. ‘Having a father who’s President
can affect friendships. When my father came to power, some of my friends dropped away,
worried they’d appear to be cosying up. Others, who’d never spoken to me
before, tried to squeeze into my supposed “inner circle”. But Kalila, she
just stayed the same.’

‘It’s good to have friends like
that,’ said Connor, thinking of Charley and Amir back in the UK. He hoped he would
get a chance to speak to them during his evening report.

As they headed down the school steps, Kyle
subtly appeared from behind and guided them towards the
waiting limo.
He opened the door for Alicia. On the other side, another agent held the door for
Connor.