The Rescue (5 page)

We were in our dorms at 8 p.m. and Senor Fernandez came to switch off the light at 9 p.m. I could hear the others whispering as I fell into another troubled half-sleep – where images of Luz mingled with worries about Mum and Dad. Sandra’s really my stepmum, but I call her Mum. Dad married her after my real mum died when I was four and my sister, Amy, was just a year old. Dad and Sandra went on and had another girl, Kim, so I guess we’re quite a big family now.

Anyway, camp had been so busy during the day I hadn’t had time to think about any of my family, but as I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how they were and whether they were thinking about me. If only I could have spoken to them, but the only phone was in Senor Fernandez’ office and we were forbidden from using it. For the first time I wondered if it might be possible to mind-read at a distance – real telepathy – but I had no idea how to even start to do that.

The next day passed in a similar way. And the one after that – a constant sucession of physically demanding labour and mentally unstimulating schoolwork where thoughts of Luz crept, regularly, into my mind. Like Ketty, I did my best to stay out of trouble.

It wasn’t hard. As Tommy had said, the camp was very strict but, once you knew the rules, it was easy enough to follow them. Nico, of course, pushed things – he even sneaked out after lights out to visit Ketty on the second night, though he came back within five minutes, declaring Fernandez was on the prowl. Dylan seemed to have annoyed everyone. Cindy particularly seemed to hate her, giving her demerits at the drop of a hat.

Apart from at mealtimes – when he sat apart from the rest of us – and when he came to switch lights out at the end of the day, we hardly ever saw Senor Fernandez. And then, at the end of the third day, Nico came up to me just before lights out. The dorm was fairly quiet. Mat and Mig were doing another jigsaw. A piece was missing and both of them were convinced Tommy had taken it. Tommy, meanwhile, was arguing, loudly, that he hadn’t.

‘We can’t stay here, man,’ Nico muttered. ‘This dorm’s like a frigging youth club and Fergus would go ballistic if he knew what Fernandez was making us do – all that hard labour in the field.’

It was always strange hearing Nico talk about Mr Fox in such a familiar way. Sometimes I forgot Fergus Fox was his stepfather, as well as our head teacher. I wondered if Nico missed him as much as I missed my dad and stepmum.

I sighed. ‘Mr Fox doesn’t have a choice about us being here. Geri’s the only one who can get us out and I don’t think she’s going to be all that bothered about us having to dig ditches – she’ll think it’s good discipline. I mean, Fernandez is hardly in the same league as . . .’ I paused, remembering the names of the bad guys we’d been up against, ‘. . . as, say, Blake Carson . . .’

‘I know, but —’ Nico started

‘Anyway, what can we do? There’s desert everywhere you look. We wouldn’t last five minutes if we ran away – and even if we could drive, we don’t know where the keys to Fernandez’s car are.’

‘There’s a phone in his office,’ Nico whispered. ‘I’m going to sneak into the main building and use it tonight. Call Geri on that emergency number she gave us.’

I stared at him. ‘But she’ll phone here at the end of the week anyway.’

‘I’m not waiting for her to call and then have Fernandez listening in to the conversation, ready to tell her we’re exaggerating everything. Jesus,’ Nico hissed. ‘I’ll tell her we’re being beaten up by the staff on a daily basis if it’ll get us out of here. I need you to keep lookout. Will you help?’

‘But . . .’ I stared at him. ‘What if we’re caught?’

‘Then we’ll get ten frigging demerits.’ Nico sighed. ‘It’s worth a try, isn’t it?’

I stared at him. Fernandez’s office didn’t just contain a phone. There must be files and papers in there. Maybe one of them would explain where Luz had been taken. Meeting her felt like a dream, now, but I hadn’t forgotten my promise to help her. If I could tell Geri where she was, Medusa HQ could at least check she was okay.

‘Okay,’ I said to him. ‘Yes, let’s do it.’

4: Escondite

Nico and I went to bed – and to sleep – at the same time as the others. We were both knackered from three full-on days of hard work and knew we’d have to wait until the middle of the night before attempting to break into the main building and use the phone in Fernandez’ office.

As our mobiles had been taken away before we left Fox Academy, the only way we had of setting an alarm was my watch. I left it on my pillow, timed to go off at 2 a.m. I was deeply asleep when it beeped beside me, so it took me a couple of seconds to stop the thing. I sat up, looking round in the pitch dark.

‘What was that?’ Tommy croaked sleepily from his bed.

‘Just my watch going off,’ I whispered. ‘Sorry, go back to sleep.’

Tommy snuffled into his pillow as Nico crept over.

‘Give it ten minutes,’ he whispered, ‘make sure the others are properly asleep.’

We waited in silence. All I could hear was my own breathing. After what felt like ages, I tiptoed over to Tommy’s bed. He was lying on his front, curled up like a baby, sucking his thumb. I watched the outline of his chest rise and fall evenly a couple of times. Well, that settled it. He was definitely asleep. There was no way he’d be faking with his thumb in his mouth.

Nico was standing between Mat and Mig’s beds.

‘They’re well out of it,’ he whispered.

‘Come on, then. Let’s go.’

The door that led outside was locked. Nico raised his hand and made a twisting motion. Telekinesis. With a soft click the lock sprang back. We padded across the courtyard. In the depths of night it was surprisingly cool. A bright moon hung clear in the sky, casting a gentle light across the three buildings.

The two bolts on the inside of the door into the main building scraped against the wall as Nico drew them back telekinetically. I held my breath, hoping no one inside would hear. We had no idea where Fernandez, Cindy or Don slept, though I was guessing their rooms were near the girls’ dorm.

‘Hurry up,’ I whispered.

Nico waved his hand across the lock on the door. Another click. The door sprang open. We were inside.

‘So far, so easy,’ Nico murmured.

‘Don’t get cocky,’ I whispered as we reached Fernandez’s office door.

Nico rolled his eyes. ‘Man, you sound just like Ketty.’

The office door was locked too. Nico focused for a second. This time the lock turned silently. Nico pushed at the door and it swung open.

I followed him into the office. I’d only seen it through the open door before. It was larger than I’d realised. A row of filing cabinets stood down one side of the room. A desk cluttered with a PC, several books and a mountain of papers stood under the window, bathed in moonlight. Nico flicked the wall switch but no light came on.

‘The generator’s probably turned off overnight,’ I muttered.

He nodded. ‘At least there’s moonlight.’ He headed for the phone which was perched at one end of the desk.

I went over to the filing cabinets. How on earth was I going to find out anything about Luz among all the information in here?

I took out my little torch and scanned the drawers fast. They were labelled with numbers. I pulled a few open at random. Bills, brochures, repair estimates. I flicked through the papers as quickly as possible.

Across the room, Nico was dialling a number.

I checked another file. A bunch of invoices. Nothing that looked remotely connected to the kids staying at the camp.

‘Ed, come here,’ Nico whispered. ‘This isn’t working.’

‘What did you dial? I asked.

‘Geri’s emergency number,’ Nico said. ‘I’m just getting an engaged signal.’

‘Were you using the right international code?’ I said.

‘What?’ Nico stared at me. ‘How the frigging hell do I work out what
that
is? Geri said we could use this number to reach her from
anywhere
.’

This was true. I remembered her handing out the number when she briefed us before our first mission. ‘Well maybe you misdialled. Try it again.’

I turned back to the filing cabinets. The next drawer I tried was locked. I stared at it for a second before remembering who I was with.

‘Nico?’ I said.

‘What?’ He looked up from the number pad on the front of the phone.

‘Could you open these drawers for me?’

Nico rolled his eyes. ‘
Why?
’

‘Please.’

He peered at the drawer for a few seconds. With a twist of his hand, the locks sprang back.

Nico turned back to the phone. I pulled the drawer open. Sheaves of papers. I pulled out a bunch and rifled through them. Nothing that made any sense to me. And there were four more cabinets, all full of drawers just like this one. The information about Luz and the other police van kids – if it was here at all – could be in any one of them.

My guts twisted. How long had we been in here? Nico was still hanging on the phone, frowning.

‘Maybe what you think is an engaged tone is actually some weird international ringtone,’ I suggested. ‘Stay on the line.’

Nico nodded. I shut the drawer, scanning the front of the cabinets, trying to make sense of the numbers on the drawer fronts. They didn’t follow on in any kind of order: 20 . . . 05, 20 . . . 08, 20 . . . 06 .

Of course.
My heart leaped. The numbers were dates . . . years . . . All I had to do was find this year and the information about Luz was
bound
to be inside.

I scurried along the line. Nico was sitting on Fernandez’s desk now, peering out of the window, the phone in his hand.

My heart was beating fast as I pulled open this year’s drawer. There were fewer folders than in the other drawers. Not surprising, considering we were only in April. I yanked out a sheaf of papers and scanned them quickly.

Loads of kids I didn’t know. Then a sheet on Tommy, then Camila. Then Mat and Mig and the Spanish girls. I sped up, not looking at them properly. Soon I found one with my name on it, containing all the details of my cover story. Similar papers for Nico, Ketty and Dylan were underneath.

There was nothing on Luz.

I reached inside the drawer, clawing into the back of it. My hand made contact with something soft. Surely not the back of the filing cabinet. I felt round the edges. A padded bag, taped to the back wall of the drawer. I yanked it out. The tape made a ripping noise as it pulled easily away from the drawer. I got the impression it had been attached and removed several times.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Nico hissed.

But I barely heard him. I stared at the outside of the bag – it was a plain, yellow padded envelope with just one word –
Escondite
– written on the outside in thick black ink. I shoved my hand inside and yanked out a bundle of papers. The word
policia
– ‘police’ – hit me straight off – it was written at the top of the first sheet and on the next few. I flicked through them. These were some kind of official forms – all written in Spanish. Most of them had kids’ photographs pinned to the top. My heart thudded. From the Spanish I knew, I was sure these were police reports on children in trouble with the law. Could these be the police van kids? The ones Tommy said came and went from the camp? Why would Fernandez have all their details on file?

Sweat trickled down my neck as I scanned through the photos pinned to the sheets, searching for Luz.

Across the room, Nico had hung up and was dialling again, swearing under his breath.

A boy, two more, then a girl . . .
There
. Luz’s face stared back at me from her picture. Despite the fuzzy lines of the photo she looked beautiful – her sea-green eyes huge in her face. I unclipped the photo and held my torch closer.

‘
Ed!
’ Nico gasped. ‘Listen!’

I turned towards the door, shoving the torch and picture of Luz into my pocket. The unmistakable sound of footsteps thumped down the corridor outside.

Nico and I stared at each other for a split second.

‘Hide!’ he whispered, putting down the phone. He ducked behind the desk.

I shoved the police reports back in the padded envelope, pressed the envelope and tape back into place and pushed the drawer shut.

As I squeezed into the space between the end filing cabinet and the wall, Nico raised his hand slightly and twisted it. All the drawers clicked gently shut.

And then the door opened and Fernandez walked in.

5: Demerits