Authors: Chris Ewan
A likeness of the memory stick appeared on screen, above the letters
MF
.
MF
for
Melanie Fleming
. Lukas double-clicked on the icon. A dialogue box ballooned out from it.
Enter password
.
Lukas grunted.
‘What is it?’ Anderson asked, glancing up from the gun.
‘The files are encrypted. Password-protected.’
‘So enter the password.’ Anderson pointed with the muzzle of the gun towards the memory stick and the sticky label that was attached to it.
For Rob. 9A13D21A
.
Lukas shrugged and his fingers danced across the keys. He typed
9A13D21A
and hit
Enter
.
The laptop processed the information. It was impossibly slow compared to the computing speed Lukas was used to. Then it delivered its verdict. A dissonant sound, followed by a line of red text at the bottom of the dialogue box.
Invalid password. Retry.
Lukas shrugged and typed in
For Rob. 9A13D21A
. Hit
Enter
.
The laptop ran through the cycle once more. It emitted the same rude buzz.
Invalid password. Retry.
‘Problem?’ Anderson asked. His elbow was propped on the table, the gun hanging loosely from where he’d poked a finger through the trigger guard.
‘It doesn’t like this password.’
‘How many attempts do we have? Could it shut down on us if we keep entering the wrong code?’
Lukas pouted. He considered the garish memory stick, as if the answer might be contained on it. ‘Unlikely.’
‘Can you check?’
He pouted some more. ‘If I had more equipment, then maybe.’
‘How long to get the equipment you need?’
‘I don’t know. It could be difficult over here.’
‘So keep trying.’
Lukas did. He entered the password as one complete word:
ForRob9A13D21A
. Didn’t work. He tried the same thing again, only in lower case:
forrob9a13d21a
. Same result. He tried the man’s name on its own:
Rob
. No go. He tried the man’s full name:
Robert Hale
. Nothing. He tried the full name with the numbers. He tried the numbers before the name. All he got was a series of unpleasant dings and the familiar message.
Invalid password. Retry.
‘Can you hack it?’ Anderson asked.
‘Not without my equipment.’
Anderson sighed. Exasperated. He pushed himself to his feet and circled around the table until he was hovering over Lukas’s shoulder, one hand on the back of his chair, the hand with the gun braced against the table edge. He considered the dialogue box for a moment. Considered the memory stick.
‘So the message is a code,’ he said. ‘That makes sense, right? Some kind of double protection. This first part,
For Rob
, that just tells us who the code is designed for. But the numbers and the letters, they’re the code. So they mean something to the guy.’
‘Like what?’ Lukas asked.
‘That’s what I aim to ask him.’
*
I was kneeling on the concrete floor. Not the most comfortable position, but it was easier than trying to lower myself to sit on my backside. I didn’t rate the idea of standing for long, and leaning against a wall was out of the question. My shoulder blade hurt like hell. It was throbbing and very hot. It took a seriously good reason for me to move, and when I did move, I tried to remain as stiff as possible, like I was wearing a neck brace. I kept picturing little bits of jagged bone swimming around beneath my skin. Not a reassuring image.
Rebecca was much more active. To begin with, she’d tried to open the garage door, only to find that it wouldn’t budge. Now she was crouching near the bottom of the door, squeezing her hands through the gap that had been created by the van’s impact. I couldn’t see the point. She was doing a good job of scraping the skin from her knuckles but she wasn’t achieving much else. If we had access to some screwdrivers, then maybe we could have dismantled the door and removed it from its hinges. But all we had was the wrench hidden in my sling.
‘You should leave it,’ I said. ‘You’re wasting energy.’
‘Energy for what? We’re trapped in here.’
‘We have the wrench.’
‘Against a baseball bat. And a gun.’
‘At least it’s something.’
‘You can barely move. I can barely see.’
‘Yeah, but think what we could achieve if we pool our talents.’
Rebecca gave me a sour look. Not easy with badly swollen eyes and a flattened nose. She twisted her body around to face me. ‘I take it you get why they’ve brought us out here? Why we’re locked up like this?’
‘I’m guessing it’s not good.’
‘Come on.’ She tugged on her T-shirt, showing me her blood. ‘An isolated spot. Somewhere they think one of their men was killed and left to rot.’
‘We don’t know if that’s what really happened.’
‘Remember the blood we found in the woods? And look at that Lukas guy. The way he’s limping. I reckon he knows from personal experience that you can get hurt up here without anyone coming to help.’
‘Shimmin knows about this place.’
‘Yeah, and he was determined to leave it well alone. I don’t think there’s much chance of the cavalry arriving.’
‘People will see that I’m missing. My parents, for one.’
‘It’s the middle of the day, Rob. You’ve been out with me for the last couple of days. They won’t even begin to get worried until later tonight at the earliest. Maybe not even then.’
She was right. It wasn’t as if life was normal for any of us right now. If I didn’t get home to walk or feed Rocky, or to sleep in my own bed, Mum and Dad would be unlikely to panic right away. Especially if they thought I was with Rebecca.
She asked, ‘Did anyone know you were going to the sports centre this morning?’
‘Nobody.’
‘You didn’t tell Shimmin about the locker key?’
‘It was like I told you, I didn’t know who to trust. I kept it to myself.’
‘Perfect.’
She straightened and considered the damage to the backs of her hands. Sucked on one of her bloodied knuckles.
That was when I heard the scrabble of a key in a lock. Rebecca heard it, too. Her face jerked towards the door and I shuffled round on my knees.
Anderson stepped into the garage.
He was holding his baseball bat out in front of him like a sword. Two hands on the grip, right over left, body crouched and wary. He relaxed when he saw that we weren’t planning to attack him, and he nodded back towards Lukas in the kitchen, as if confirming that everything was fine. Lukas released a breath and lowered the gun he was holding, and Anderson nudged the door closed with the end of his bat before pacing further into the room. His swagger returned and so did his grin. I got the impression he enjoyed the sensation of power he had over us. I hoped that might be a good thing. Maybe he’d want to prolong the experience.
‘Still here?’ he said, and showed a lot of teeth.
‘What do you really want?’ Rebecca asked. She lowered her knuckle from her mouth. ‘You told us you were looking for Lena. But we don’t know where she is and holding us here is only going to distract you from finding her.’
His grin became wider. ‘We’ll find her when it matters.’
‘But there’s something else going on, isn’t there? She’s not your primary concern.’
‘Interesting,’ he said, leaning his head on to his muscular shoulder. ‘Now why would you think I’d tell you something like that?’
‘Because you’re arrogant. Because you want to show us how clever you are.’
‘Oh, I’m arrogant,’ he agreed. ‘You got me. But I don’t plan on telling you anything. And, by the way, Lena’s really not your concern. Your concern should be how we resolve your situation here.’
‘And how do we do that?’ I asked.
He smiled down at me, like he was pleased by my response. He drew a small circle in the air with the bat. ‘You tell me the code.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘The code on the flash stick. The one your sister left for you. The one you found this morning.’
‘My God,’ Rebecca said. ‘You can’t access the memory stick.’ She poked her finger towards Anderson. ‘It must be password-protected. And that’s your concern. That’s what Erik is worried about. Whatever is on that memory stick can harm him in some way.’
‘Hmm,’ Anderson said. ‘Interesting again. Like I care.’ He focused hard on me, watching me from over the end of the bat. ‘Now, give me the code.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘For Rob,’ he said. ‘Nine A one three D two one A.’
‘If there’s a password, that’s it,’ I said.
‘No, that’s not it. It’s a code for something else. It means something to you.’
I shook my head. ‘It means nothing to me.’
‘You’re lying. Tell me what it means.’
‘I don’t –’
I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Anderson lunged and swung a fast backhand into the centre of my chest. The bat made a hollow
thunk
against my battered ribcage, like he’d struck a waffle ball. It felt a lot more painful. My ribs were still tender and the blow exploded through my solar plexus. I groaned and crumpled and Anderson barked with laughter, then stepped around behind me and jabbed the rounded end of the bat into my busted shoulder. I shrieked and rocked back, but there wasn’t enough air in my lungs and the sound came out as a gargled croak. The pain from the two blows merged somewhere in the middle of my torso, roiling around inside. I knew the next breath I took was going to hurt like crazy. It didn’t disappoint.
So much for prolonging things. Suddenly, I wasn’t half as keen on the idea.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Rebecca move towards me. Anderson warned her off with a forehand swipe of the bat. She danced backwards, sucking in her stomach, and the blow
swished
through the air.
Anderson conjured a smug smile and lifted my chin with the end of his bat. Pain rippled through the muscles of my shoulder. He leaned down to my face and pressed the bat hard against my throat, constricting my airway.
‘You have ten minutes,’ he said, and winked at me. ‘Then I want the code. I’ll break as many bones as it takes until you give me the right answer. Just ask your friend here. She can tell you how much I hate beating on people. And, hey, I really don’t want to have to smash your other shoulder, right?’
He smiled like the idea couldn’t have appealed to him more. Then he took a series of backwards steps, maintaining eye contact all the way to the door. He slammed it behind him and locked us alone in the garage once more.
Chapter Forty-seven
‘Are you OK?’ Rebecca asked.
‘I’ll live.’
She went to place a hand on my shoulder, then thought better of it. ‘The guy’s a sadist.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘That’s why he loves using the bat so much. He can dish out pain in instalments. Gauge its effects. It’s not so easy for him to do that with the gun.’
I tried to stand but the pain from my shoulder blade was excruciating. It felt like someone had opened a zip that ran lengthways down my back, peeled apart the skin, separated the flesh, and stuck a bunch of razor blades inside. I grunted and rocked forwards on to my good arm, head down, spitting on to the concrete floor. I’d never known pain like it. Every fractional movement sent waves of agony through me.
‘Do you know the code?’ Rebecca asked me, lowering her voice. ‘If you know it, you should tell him. Before he leaves you in pieces.’
‘And then what?’ I whispered. ‘If I tell him what it means, we’re no use to them any more.’
‘So you
do
know it?’
I glanced towards the door. I was concerned that Anderson might be listening. I didn’t want him to hear us. ‘Maybe. I’m not sure. It’d be a guess.’
‘A guess?’
‘An educated one. But I can’t tell him what he wants to know without getting someone else involved. And it still won’t help us.’
‘It might if it’s all he needs. Erik has his private jet. They can leave the island whenever they choose. They might leave as soon as you give them the password.’
I shook my head. ‘You said it yourself. He’s a sadist. And look at Teare. Look at what happened to her.’
‘That wasn’t Anderson. I was with them the entire night.’
‘But it shows how high the stakes are, doesn’t it? The lengths people are prepared to go to. And there’s something else.’ I stared hard at her, breathing fast against the pain, and lowered my voice a fraction more. ‘Suppose you’re right. Suppose Laura really is alive. We might be the only ones who can help her. She left that code for
me
, not Anderson. She did it for a reason. It has to be important.’
Rebecca studied me for a moment. Her pupils danced behind her swollen eyes. Her skin was bunched up loosely above the bridge of her nose. I could see a pale glint of bone amid the dried blood and the yellow-green bruising.
‘So what do you suggest?’ she hissed.
‘The boiler,’ I said, and motioned to it with my eyes. ‘If we take the cover off, I can undo the safety valve. That’ll release some oil. We can cause an explosion.’
She backed off. ‘How big an explosion?’
‘Big.’
She shook her head. ‘Bad idea. We’re in a confined space. Nowhere to shelter. It puts us in as much danger as them.’
‘We’re in danger already. How much worse can it get?’
She shook her head some more. ‘To even have a chance with something like that, you’d need to time it exactly. You’d need to lure Anderson in front of the thing and then ignite it. And you’d still be endangering us.’
‘What other choice do we have?’
‘The wrench,’ Rebecca murmured. ‘Give it to me.’
‘Easier if you take it yourself.’
Rebecca reached down and eased a hand under my hoodie. Her forearm snaked up over my abdomen, until all I could see was her elbow.
‘Careful,’ I said.
‘Got it.’ She withdrew the wrench from my sling in one fluid movement. ‘It’s solid.’ She slapped it against her palm.
It was one hell of an old thing, probably a tool I’d inherited from Dad. The metal was oxidised and dulled down to matt brown. It weighed a couple of kilos, at least, and most of the weight was in the U-shaped head.