Resistance (17 page)

T
he next morning
seemed to crawl by. When she was meant to be studying, Allie instead made notes about the things Christopher had said to her. She kept going over it in her mind.

She’d told the others about it at breakfast. The whole time she spoke, Sylvain kept his gaze fixed in the distance. The only sign that he was anything other than calm was a muscle flickering in his jaw.

When she finished, Carter looked furious. ‘So all their security and he just waltzes into your
room
? What the hell is going on around here?’

‘They can’t secure this place,’ Nicole said. ‘We all know it. It’s too big. Too rambling. If someone tries hard enough …’

‘They’ll get in.’ Rachel finished the sentence. She looked pale. ‘I was in the next room; I didn’t hear a thing. Oh, Allie, I’m so sorry.’

Allie shook her head. ‘It’s not your fault, Rach. I didn’t scream for help. Anyway, there was a guard in the hallway the whole time.’

They all started speaking at once then.

‘They should …’

‘Isabelle …’

‘We should try …’

Sylvain’s voice cut through the chaos. ‘This is too dangerous.’ He turned to Allie. In the light streaming through the huge windows, his eyes were lavender. ‘Isabelle must do something.’

‘There’s a guard on the roof above my room now,’ she said. ‘And outside my door. No one’s getting in. Or out.’ She gave a harsh laugh. ‘I’m being held prisoner for my own safety.’

‘What a mess,’ Rachel murmured.

A
fter breakfast
, Sylvain caught up with Allie as she walked up the stairs to chemistry.

His eyes searched her face. ‘Are you really OK?’

‘I’m really fine,’ she said. ‘He didn’t hurt me.’

Sylvain took her hand, and laced his fingers through hers.

‘He could have. You were alone with him.’

His hand was warm against hers. Solid. She squeezed his fingers.

‘I know. But he’s my brother and I guess …’ She sighed. ‘I just don’t think he’d hurt me.’

They’d reached the classroom now and they stood outside the door as the other students hurried to their lessons. A guard stood nearby, his dark uniform crisp and clean. He kept his attention focussed elsewhere, pretending he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Guards had followed her down to breakfast this morning, too.

Glancing at him, Sylvain pulled her closer and whispered, ‘If anything happened to you ... I don’t know what I would do.’

He looked beautiful in the soft morning light, all tawny skin and aquamarine eyes.

‘Nothing will happen to me,’ she said. ‘I promise.’ Around them, classroom doors had begun to close. The guard moved closer.

Feeling his eyes on her, Allie pulled back. ‘We should go in.’

Sylvain didn’t argue.

After taking their usual seats, they talked in whispers about the guards until Jerry Cole walked in, calling for silence in his usual mild fashion.

The science teacher seemed even more disorganised than usual. His papers were crumpled and out of order, his wiry hair needed combing and his glasses were crooked, as if he’d rushed to the room.

‘Today we’re talking about …’ He rifled through his papers as if he had no idea what he wanted to talk about today. Eventually he found the one he wanted and held it up triumphantly. ‘Gauss’s Law of Gravity and …’ Stopping again he searched for another page. ‘Oh dear, where has everything gone?’

The students tittered at his confusion. He smiled at them over the tops of his glasses. ‘I didn’t sleep last night, gang,’ he said. ‘So this may be one of those classes where you explain string theory to me and I grade the inventiveness of your descriptions.’

Allie cast a surreptitious glance at Sylvain from beneath her lashes. His lips were curved into an unselfconscious smile as he watched Jerry try and get it together.

He looked even better when he smiled. She had to love him back.

T
hat evening
, the group gathered on the lawn to compare notes. It was July now, and it stayed light until late in the evening.

Two guards stood about ten feet away, keeping watch.

By now, Allie hardly noticed them. They’d followed her all day.

After kicking off their shoes and loosening their ties the students sat in a circle on the soft grass.

The thrill of Christopher’s sudden reappearance had faded by now, and for a change, they weren’t talking about Nathaniel or Christopher at all. They were complaining about their homework.

‘ …then she said, “You can read fifty pages by tomorrow, can’t you?”’ Nicole sounded vexed. ‘And I said, “Of course. Because this is my
only
class …”’

The others made soothing noises of sympathy.

‘Is it just me?’ Allie said. ‘Or is Zelazny going a little crazy? Look at this.’ With an accusing look, she held up her assignment page so they could see the length of it. ‘If he’s the spy, he’s trying to kill us with coursework.’

‘All the teachers are a little intense,’ Carter said. ‘Like they sense something is … going … on …’

His voice trailed off as he looked past her shoulder. Everyone twisted around to see what had drawn his attention.

The guards who had been standing behind them had taken off running to the school. They were talking into microphones Allie couldn’t see.

From everywhere, guards poured onto the lawn, where they conferred before taking off into the building. In the distance, Allie heard cars roaring up the drive at top speed.

‘What the actual hell …’ Allie said, as nerves began to tighten her muscles.

‘Uh-oh,’ Rachel whispered.

Sylvain, Zoe and Carter leapt to their feet. The others scrambled to do the same.

A guard Allie remembered from Night School training ran across the lawn towards them. He was shouting but they couldn’t understand what he was saying until he neared them.

‘Everyone
inside
. Now.’

Without pausing to grab their books or shoes they took off across the lawn. Around them, Allie saw other students doing the same. Everyone poured towards the school. Guards stood at the door urging them to move faster. Nobody screamed. There was no panicking. This was Cimmeria, after all. But everyone moved fast.

The grass was soft and cool beneath the soles of their feet. The sky was blue and innocent overhead. They might have been playing a game in other circumstances.

But this was no game.

Allie didn’t know what she was running to or from, but she was alert and focused. She glanced back for Rachel, and found Nicole was already at her side.

Carter and Sylvain flanked Allie, matching her step for step. Ahead, Zoe had already reached the front steps and zipped into the building.

‘Go, go, go!’ the guards by the door kept shouting.

By the time she reached the entrance hall, Allie was moving so fast her bare feet skidded on the stone floor. She steadied herself without breaking stride. Down the hallway, she saw guards and teachers herding students into the common room.

She started to follow but someone called her name. Turning, she saw Raj in the doorway to Isabelle’s office, gesturing to them urgently.

With Carter and Sylvain beside her, she ran over to him.

Raj wore the cool, tense expression she remembered from other disastrous evenings. ‘In here.’

When everyone was in, he shut the door and crossed the room to where Isabelle stood at her desk. The headmistress held her mobile phone loosely in one hand. Allie noticed her hair was dishevelled as if she’d been running. And she thought her hand trembled slightly as she pressed it against her forehead and nodded at something Raj had said.

The small room was crowded with Night School students and guards but the atmosphere was hushed. Nobody said a word.

W
ith so many
people in such a small space it was almost instantly hot and stuffy. Allie was squeezed in between the two boys. She could just see Zoe, but there wasn’t room enough for her to turn to look for Rachel and Nicole. She assumed they were behind her.

‘Whatever’s happening,’ Carter whispered, ‘it’s bad.’

She heard Zoe mutter, ‘I can’t see anything.’ Then watched her elbow her way to the front with what looked like unnecessary violence.

‘I need you to stay calm,’ Isabelle said.

The room went deathly silent.

‘The situation is this,’ the headmistress continued. ‘The person among us who has been working for Nathaniel has been identified.’

Allie’s breath caught.

A murmur swept the room and Isabelle waited for it to fade.

‘I can’t tell you how right now but I can assure you our evidence is correct. He is on the run. He knows we are looking for him. We believe he is hiding in the building or very close to it. Raj?’

He, him,
Allie thought, feeling slightly dazed.
It’s not Eloise.

Raj leaned forward, pressing his hands on the top of his desk. ‘We need you to help the guards sweep the building to find him. Time is of the essence. You will be divided into teams of three.’ His steely gaze moved from face to face, as if he spoke to each of them individually. ‘You are to follow the usual protocols but the person we are looking for is very dangerous. Highly trained. If you find him you are not to try to capture him yourself but wait for the guards. Am I clear?’

The students nodded their agreement.

‘The person you’re looking for is Jerry Cole.’

E
veryone shouted at once
.

‘
Jerry?
’

‘What?’

‘No.’

‘It
can’t
be.’

As the uproar rose, Allie stood in absolute silence. The news was like a wave curling over her head. Poised to draw her under.

It was
Jerry
? Kindly, jovial, science-loving Jerry?

Her brain wouldn’t accept it.

But then, across the crowded office, Isabelle caught her eye. The pain on her face was so raw the faint hope provided by disbelief evaporated instantly.

Isabelle was careful. And she wouldn’t look so haunted if she wasn’t certain.

Allie’s stomach ached as if someone had punched her.

She thought of Jo, blonde and bright and so alive, pointing at Jerry. ‘Isn’t he just yummy for an old man?’

It was Jerry who opened the gate that night. Jerry who lured Jo to her killer.

We trusted him,
she thought.
And he helped to kill her.

She needed to sit down. The room was airless. Hot. She felt dizzy.

Her heart was thudding in her ears and it was too loud to be healthy.

‘
It won’t kill you …
’ Zoe had said of panic, but at that moment she almost wished it would.

How could she live in the kind of world where this could happen? Where someone could pretend to be so kind and then do such awful things?

How does anyone live here?

The world is uninhabitable. It is full of monsters.

A tear ran down her cheek and she brushed it away. It was becoming hard to breathe and she knew if she didn’t focus – if she let panic take over – she’d be a burden to the others. She needed to control her pain. Direct it where it would do some good.

At the front of the room, Raj was still talking and she forced herself to listen. He was calling out names and assigning locations. It felt distant, as if it was all happening to someone else. The words blurred together like some unknown language.

Then he’d finished and everyone was moving, and Allie wasn’t sure where she was supposed to go. Someone touched her arm and she looked up to see Sylvain’s blue eyes watching her with concern.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, pulling herself together. ‘Whose team…?’

‘You’re with me and Zoe.’ His French-accented voice was low and preternaturally calm. ‘Are you OK?’

Straightening, she gave a terse nod to show she was fine, although she wasn’t fine at all.

‘We are certain he is in or very near the main building,’ Raj said. ‘But we can’t be certain where. So we need to search floor by floor, room by room. The guards are already doing this, your job is to assist them. Act as additional eyes and ears.’

Someone opened the door, letting in fresh air. Allie tried to take a deep breath but her lungs felt tight.

‘Take a comms device on your way out.’ Raj raised his voice to be heard over the low rumble of conversation. ‘If you see anything at all, report back immediately. Do not engage.’

As the students began to file out, accepting small, hand-held radios from guards at the door, he called after them. ‘And remember: Under no circumstances are you to try and take him alone.’

Later, Allie wouldn’t be able to remember leaving the room. All she knew was that suddenly she was walking down the wide main hallway alongside Sylvain and Zoe, as fury slowly grew inside her.

Jerry has to pay.

The school felt oddly empty, inhabited only by the dark shapes that slipped out of Isabelle’s office and fanned out across all levels of the rambling building, silent as wraiths.

Movement had calmed Allie’s nerves. The methodical process ahead of them – the ultimate goal – gave her purpose. She breathed normally.

Speed was essential; there was no time to change into Night School gear. The polished wood floor was cool and uneven beneath Allie’s toes. Like Zoe, she was still barefoot. Their group was to search the ground floor of the main building. As they walked, Sylvain explained in a whisper what Allie had missed – the guards had already been through this quadrant so they were simply mopping up. He almost certainly wasn’t down here. The non-Night School students were being kept in the common room, so they headed past it to the nearest room – the dining hall.

By common consent, Sylvain took the lead. Allie and Zoe stood back on either side of the doorway as he turned the handle.

Allie’s heart rate accelerated. All her muscles tensed. She was ready.

The door swung open on silent hinges.

Inside, the vast room was dim, illuminated only by the evening light that filtered through the huge windows on the far wall. The round tables were bare, heavy chairs neatly pushed in.

They branched out, Sylvain heading left, Zoe right.

Cautiously, Allie walked down the middle of the huge room. But there was no place to hide here. No closets or hanging fabric. It was clearly empty.

Crouching, she peered under the tables. Nothing but wooden legs.

She straightened again. The three exchanged glances. Zoe pointed to the double doors at the end of the room leading into the kitchen. Nodding, Sylvain hurried towards her and Allie followed suit.

She tried to imagine what she’d do if she found Jerry – he was the best of all the teachers. Highly trained. Lethal. Muscular.

Her teacher.

How would she fight him?

I’d just do it,
she decided with cold determination.

But the idea scared the hell out of her.

This time, Zoe went first – springing through the doors in a clean, athletic leap.

Industrial-sized dishwashers burbled in a corner. Giant refrigerators hummed. But the room was empty.

They searched the low cupboards and looked under the gigantic butcher block. Nothing.

Sylvain cocked an eyebrow and she nodded.

The next room along the corridor was the great hall.

It was Allie’s turn to go first. She waited until the others were in place before reaching for the door knob. The metal felt cold beneath her fingers but it turned easily. The door swung open without a sound.

The long, elegant ballroom could hold several hundred revellers. It was easy to imagine them now, swirling across the polished oak floor, drinking champagne, laughing. Empty, it had a hollow, ghostly feel. There were no windows here – the far end of the room was lost in shadows.

Allie’s chest felt tight.

Again they spread out under heavy, metal light fixtures. They glowed like a thousand candles when lit. Now, they were dark and cool.

The room was virtually devoid of furniture, which made searching easier. They kept pace with each other as they walked down the length of the ballroom. The floor felt clean and smooth beneath Allie’s bare feet, as if it was swept every day, even when it wasn’t used.

At the back of the room, stacks of chairs and a few tables had been pushed to the side, waiting for the next gala event. Moving in near perfect sync they all crouched low to look beneath them.

Nothing. Not even dust.

There were no closets here or cupboards. No places to hide. So when they reached the back wall they turned in unison and headed back out again without a word.

The hallway was still and silent.

The next door along was a utility closet Allie could never remember noticing before. It held mops, buckets and other cleaning supplies, and reminded her uneasily of the place where she’d hidden in Brixton Hill School the night she and Mark were arrested. An event that led her here, to this day. This moment.

A split second in time that changed everything.

What if that never happened?
she wondered as they closed the door again.
What if I’d never gone out that night to tag the school? Where would I be now?

But there wasn’t time to dwell. They were nearing the last door in the hallway – the library.

By now their routine was set. Allie and Zoe flanked the entrance. When they were in place, Sylvain stepped forward and reached for the handle.

They all heard the noise at the same time. A faint crash. The sound of exertion or struggle muffled by the thick wood of the door.

The moment seemed to freeze. Allie felt Sylvain’s body tense. Next to him, Zoe frowned and cocked her head, alert but tiny, like a bird poised for flight.

Then Sylvain threw his shoulder against the door, and they all spilled into the room.

At first they could see nothing but the forest of bookshelves that towered above them and sprawled out in all directions beneath the dim, antique lighting. Instinctively, Allie started to move, but Sylvain flung out his arm, stopping her and Zoe. For a split second they stood still. Then they heard it again. The sound of flesh against flesh, of breath forced out, a stifled cry. The thud of something falling.

‘That way.’ Zoe pointed with eager assurance across the room.

They took off at a run, sticking close together this time. They were nearly to the mid-point of the library when they saw Eloise and Jerry. They were just outside the study carrels – in fact, one of the carrels still stood open, light and colour pouring through its small, carefully disguised door.

That’s where he hid,
Allie realised numbly.

The two were fighting viciously. Eloise’s long, dark hair had come free of its clip and flowed down her slender back as she swung a kick at Jerry’s neck. Her aim was unerring but Jerry was fast and he dodged her foot with frightening ease, bobbing up with his fist raised.

He said something then that Allie didn’t hear and Eloise whirled, elbows out like pikes. This time she connected, striking him hard in the chest. He winced but still rolled out of reach when she sliced a punch to his face.

That was when he saw them.

Allie saw his gaze skitter across their faces and she thought, for a second, a hint of regret shadowed his eyes.

‘Get him,’ Sylvain said.

The three hurled themselves across the room. Zoe, always the fastest, reached him first, shooting in to aim a sharp, well-placed kick at his lower back, but he dodged her with ease, swatting her away.

As she realised what was happening, Eloise’s eyes widened.

‘Get back!’ she shouted.

Their presence had distracted her, and that gave Jerry a break. Moving fast, he lifted a nearby study table as if it weighed nothing at all then threw it at them with such force it splintered when it hit the ground.

They scattered. A small piece of flying wood hit Allie like shrapnel, slicing the skin on her thigh, but she ignored the sting and spun round, looking for the science teacher. He was nowhere to be seen.

‘This way!’ Eloise called, running towards the back of the room.

Behind her, Allie heard Sylvain speaking urgently.

‘In the library. Now! Now!’ Tension made his accent thicker and it took her a second to realise he was talking into his radio. She’d forgotten she had one.

Her heart hammered against her ribs as she ran through the stacks towards the sound of Eloise’s voice. She’d lost Zoe after the table was thrown, but there was no time to do anything except run.

As she spun out of the stacks to the open space at the back of the library she heard Eloise talking, her voice low and taut.

‘You stole everything I cared about,’ she said. ‘Everything that mattered. If it takes all my life I will make you pay for that.’

They were by the back door. Eloise was blocking Jerry’s escape with her body. Zoe buzzed around them like a fly, looking for a moment of weakness to get a blow in. They both ignored her.

Sylvain stood in the shadows across from Allie, watching intently.

Eloise was their teacher. A Night School instructor. This was her play.

Jerry’s attention was focused on Eloise. He didn’t look angry or bitter. He looked regretful.

‘I’m so sorry, Ellie,’ he said. ‘I never meant for this to happen.’

‘Bollocks.’ Eloise spat the word at him. ‘You chose Nathaniel over me. You never loved me. Every word you ever said was a lie.’

The science teacher shook his head hard, no longer trying to get to the door. ‘No, no, no. I did love you. I do. I meant everything—’

At that moment, seeing him distracted, Zoe launched into a whirling kick, aimed at the back of his head.

But Jerry was the one who taught them that move. And he was also the one who taught them how to defend themselves against it.

Spinning, he knocked her back with a strong counter-kick and, before she could regain her balance, swung a punch at her jaw. The blow made an awful cracking sound.

Zoe’s body flew through the air, crashing into a table, before crumpling to the floor, where she lay horribly still.