Revenge (5 page)

Mrs Ormond burst into tears as she read Cal's letter—the letter that we knew had been delivered to Winter's house by some unknown abductor.

‘But he seemed so happy,' she cried. ‘
Everything
was going so well. The attention has been tough, I know, but I thought he was coping.'

Winter handed Mrs Ormond a box of tissues. Mrs O had come so far since her dark days with Rafe and his mind-altering potions, but right now she looked almost as frail as she had last year. I held Gabbi tightly as she, too, cried into a tissue.

‘I've been trying so hard to make it up to him,' continued Mrs Ormond. She dropped her head into her hands. ‘But how could he ever
forgive
me for not believing him last year?'

‘This has nothing to do with you,' Winter offered, ‘
or
Gab. I swear. It's just …' Winter stopped and wrapped her arms around Mrs Ormond's slumped shoulders. ‘It's just that the press still follow him everywhere he goes … and he just needs some time out. He'll be back before we know it, I swear.'

Gab pulled away from me, leaving behind a big damp spot on my T-shirt. ‘But where is he?' she asked. ‘Who's looking after him?'

I could barely speak. I looked at Winter. The
threat made by the kidnapper was all I could think of. Cal was in mortal danger, forced to write a fake note. I scratched my head and sighed.

Solving complex equations and tampering with technology to get me out of the trickiest of situations was easy, but when it came to making up stories about the whereabouts of my best friend … my mind was drawing a blank.

Luckily, Winter was a better liar. ‘You both remember hearing about Melba Snipe, right?' she said, trying to make her voice sound calm. ‘That sweet old lady who helped Cal when he was on the run? Well, he's camped up at her place for a while. No big deal. But you can't tell this to
anyone
, OK? He's trying to get
out
of the spotlight.'

‘But can't we go and see him?' cried Gabbi. ‘At night, even?'

I frowned and shook my head.

‘I can't believe this is happening again,' Gab added.

‘It's not
happening again
,' I said. ‘This is
different
. We just need to give him some space.'

Winter fiddled with her earrings—two pairs of silver swallows, joined in flight. The four of us looked to the floor, despairing for different reasons. But one thing remained the same. Cal was gone.

People pointed and muttered as Winter and I passed them on the street. Usually I didn't mind the attention so much—these days everyone at school treated me like a rock god, and as if I'd complain about that.

But today was different. We had no idea who had taken Cal, or why.

‘Boges!' a voice called out. I gulped as I turned and found Madeleine Baker running up to me.

Winter stopped a few metres ahead of me and watched, impatiently, hands on her hips.

Maddy and I had been hanging out with each other a lot lately, but I'd barely had time to think about her the last few days.

‘Hey, stranger,' she said, tugging on the thin white cords of her earphones, popping them out of her ears and leaving them hanging over her top. She smiled uncertainly, her freckled cheeks pink from running. ‘Boges, are you OK?'

‘Um, sure,' I said, straightening up. ‘I just …'

‘You were supposed to meet me earlier today. For a run,' she added, looking down at her
tracksuit
and trainers.

‘Oh,' I said slowly. ‘Sorry. I just—'

I knew I had to keep my mouth shut. I couldn't tell her anything.

Maddy looked ahead at Winter, then back at me.

Winter was glaring at me in the distance. She jabbed at her watch. She'd been the one who'd pushed me to ask out Maddy in the first place, but right now it was clear she didn't care about anything or anyone but Cal. And neither did I.

I stepped back.

‘What is it?' Maddy persisted.

‘I'm sorry …' I took a deep breath to brace myself. ‘I can't deal with this right now.'

She stared at me, confused. ‘What do you mean? You want to break up?' she asked.

Before I had a chance to answer, she turned and jogged away from me.

We sat on the ground, silent. No-one was around—it was eerily quiet. We just had to wait for the caller to contact us again.

Winter must have snuck Cal's letter back into her pocket after showing it to his mum and Gab. She was clutching it, reading it over and over again.

‘What are you looking for?' I asked. ‘A secret message to decipher with the Caesar shift?' I joked nervously. ‘I don't think Cal could have been in a position to pull that off.'

‘You never know,' she said.

‘What do you mean?'

Winter ignored me. I could see her mouthing Cal's words as if they would somehow tell her where he was.

‘Oriana's in jail,' I said, my mind desperately trying to work out who was behind Cal's
kidnapping
. ‘Sligo, Sumo, Zombie One and Zombie Two are all dead. What about Red Singlet?' But I knew that was unlikely.

I felt hopeless just waiting for something to happen.

‘We're here!' I said out loud to our unknown enemy. ‘We did what we were told! Where are you? Show yourself!'

A sudden puff of air shot past my ear and I looked up. Winter stared at me, shocked, then her eyes closed and she slumped to the side.

As I lurched forward to catch her, there was another rush of air, and I felt a shooting pain in my arm. I looked at Winter, confused. Before I knew it, I was slumping over to join her.

Dazed, I opened my eyes, trying to get my bearings. Something was jabbing me in my side.

‘Boges, wake up. Boges?'

‘What happened?' I moaned, squirming away from Winter's prodding. Slowly everything was coming into focus, like a thick fog lifting.

Winter's face came into view. Her eyes were red and panicked. My head was heavy as I turned and took in our surroundings.

‘Where are we?'

‘I don't know, but we have to get out. Come on,' she prompted, grabbing my hands and trying to help me to my feet. ‘Are you OK?'

‘Yeah, you?'

‘I'll be better when I find out what's going on.'

I managed to sit up, but everything was
shaking
. We were in some sort of dark, damp room, with a dirt floor. I could have kicked myself.
Go to the clock tower
he'd said. And we'd done just that. Walked straight into a trap.

I peered around, shining my key light over the room. With the small circle of light, I traced the join of two dank concrete walls. In another corner there was a wire snaking up to a speaker at the ceiling. A humming sound buzzed into my ears. What the ..?

Suddenly a bluish light came on behind me. Winter grabbed my hand and we spun around. High on the wall was a TV screen. We approached it, squinting, trying to make sense of the blurry
shape—a figure huddled in the dark corner of what looked like a shed.

‘Boges, what's going on?' Winter cried,
squeezing
my arm.

‘I don't know, but this is freaking me out.'

The figure on the screen looked up.

‘No!' Winter shrieked, falling to her knees and grabbing at the screen. ‘No, no, no! It's Cal! Where is he?!'

‘Cal!' I shouted. What I was seeing couldn't be real!

‘What have they done to him?' Winter pleaded.

‘Winter?' Cal whispered, barely moving. His weak voice spluttered through the speaker in the corner of the room. ‘Winter?'

‘He can hear us! Cal! It's me and Boges!' she answered. ‘Are you OK?'

‘Cal, it's Boges,' I said as calmly as I could. ‘You need to tell us where you are.'

‘I—I don't know … where I am,' said Cal softly, slowly turning his head. His eyes strained to focus on his surroundings. Dirty blond hair streaked down his face, damp and stringy. ‘I … can't … I don't know,' he repeated.

‘That's OK, buddy,' I said. ‘We'll find you and we'll get you out. Don't worry.'

‘You're
here
?' said Cal, suddenly lurching forward on his hands and knees, looking around
himself frantically. The sound of metal scraping the ground grated into our ears. His leg was shackled. ‘I knew you'd find me … I knew you'd work it out. I can hear—' Cal fell back again, coughing.

The horrible hacking sound spat out of the speaker and reverberated around the room.

‘We'll get you out of there, OK?' I said, barely able to breathe, let alone speak. I was vaguely aware of Winter muttering something, over and over, beside me. ‘Just tell us what you can,' I said, ‘and we'll find you.'

‘
Work it out?
' Winter cried. ‘Work it out? What do you mean, Cal? Work out where you are? Who has you? What do you mean?'

The picture shook and shifted, snatching Cal from us as though someone had batted the
camera
lens away from him. Then the live video feed cut out with a piercing noise and the room was plunged into darkness once more.