The Thirteenth (20 page)

“You finish when I say you can,” Jason said seriously. “Now, en garde.” Val prepared herself. “Advance, extend arm, now lunge.”

Val was tired and really had had enough, and Jason knew it. He called out, “Salute.”

Val lowered her arm and raised her visor.

“That’s it for today,” Jason said as he shook Val’s hand.

“Control freak,” Val murmured under her breath as felt relief rushed through her body. She was pleased with what she’d learned from Jason and looked over at Shane and Delta for approval. They were so completely engrossed in the laptop, they hadn’t even been watching. So, no longer the chosen-one, she had been shoved to one side by a Dell.

“Sorry, does no one have any interest in my progress?” Val asked as she took off her jacket, allowing her plastic cups to spill out onto the floor.

“No. Shane has found this really interesting news on AOL about a disappearing girl. You need to look at this.” Delta beckoned Val over. “There has been a sighting of you vanishing near a mine in Devon. Some Naval Officer called Max Phillips says you and a police officer disappeared before his very eyes,” Delta giggled.

“Hey Dad, don’t we have family in Devon?” Jason asked.

“Yes, your Aunty Pauline lives there.”

“Well I’m pleased for you both. Maybe next time I teleport there I could sleep over,” Val said sarcastically. “Even better, you can now Google me. Maybe we could eBay my services.”

“Do you think people would pay?” Delta asked in a serious tone.

“No.” Val grabbed a bottle of water from Delta’s hand and sat down. Jason sat next to her giving Val a pat on the arm.

He was sitting so close they were actually touching. Val’s stomach fluttered. She leant forward to pick up the sword from the table. “I suppose I will be carrying this epée everywhere, is that correct?” Val looked at Jason for confirmation. He nodded back at her. As she picked it up her arm flinched. “Do you think this thing is safe?” she asked.

Jason shrugged his shoulders and moved away like a child who had just been burnt.

“I promise I won’t do that to you again.” Val smiled sheepishly.

“Look at what it says here.” Delta pointed at the screen. “They are bringing in some man called Derek Acorah who is a medium to make a connection with you.” At this point they all burst out laughing.

“Do you think he will?” Val said, unable to catch her breath.

“Well if anyone can, Derek can,” said Shane. Val’s arm twinged again and she noticed she still had the sword in her hand. Maybe it was letting off small shocks. Val pushed it into her back pocket.

“Well I need the little girls’ room, so excuse me for a moment.” Val stood up and made her way towards the toilet.

As she passed the gallery area, Val spotted one of Shane’s pictures shift. She stopped and moved in closer to inspect it. It wasn’t actually the picture; it was as if an image was appearing on the glass. It was swirling, like water going down a plughole at speed. Val could sense its darkness and she could actually smell disinfectant oozing out of the image. She heard the faint call of a woman and felt compelled to touch the image. Placing her hand on it, she once again found herself slipping into the darkness.

“Did you hear that Dad?” Jason asked looking up from the laptop.

“What?” Shane turned to see Delta. He could tell from the expression on her face that something was very wrong.

Delta pointed in the direction of the Gallery. “She was heading for the toilet. She bent to look at that picture and the light took her.” Shane patted Delta on the shoulder. “Come on, she’ll be OK.” He beckoned her to follow as he walked towards Jason and the laptop. “OK son, let’s find her.”

Jason started tapping in the codes that Sam had sent with the instructions, and then leant back in his chair.

“Well?” Delta asked impatiently.

“She hasn’t arrived anywhere yet, but when she does we’ll know where,” said Jason, smiling confidently. They all huddled around the screen like children at Christmas staring into Hamleys toy store window at the array of tempting treats.

‘Bleep.’

“There she is!” said Jason.

Val opened her eyes to be greeted by a silver bowl containing blue water, which was spinning into an abyss in front of her. A hideously strong smell of detergent violated her nasal passages. She lifted herself up, and instantly realised that she was looking at a tin toilet.

“Great, toilet. My favourite,” Val said as she surveyed her surroundings. She recognised that this was the sort of toilet you would find on a train or a
plane
. There was a sudden, violent shudder and Val fell backwards towards the mirror unit. Quickly placing her head between her knees and her hands over her head she started to pray as she rocked backwards and forwards.

“OK, so I have lied a lot recently, God, and I know I need to pay more attention to my parents, but please, sweet, kind God, if you care about me at all, make this a train not a plane,” Val cried into her knees.

“Hello Val,” a quiet voice whispered into her ear.

Val looked up. “Hello. Is that you, God?” She looked around her tin prison for a sign; nothing would surprise her any more.

“No.” Then she heard giggling. “It’s me Jason, son of Shane.” Then she heard uncontrollable laughing.

“Well, I’m so pleased you people think this is entertaining,” Val huffed.

“Sorry Val, I didn’t realise you had a fear of flying,” Jason responded.

“So, am I on a plane?” Val whimpered.

“Well, unless you are on a train thirty two-thousand feet above the tracks, yes, you are definitely on a plane.” There was silence.

“I can’t be on a plane. I want to come home now.” Val started to shake. “Where exactly is this plane?” she asked.

“Well, from what this computer is telling me, there are lots of numbers and figures, but in plain English you are flying over the North Sea, 15 minutes away from Norfolk,” Jason responded. He could tell by the silence that Val was struggling with this whole situation. “Val, I’m here, so keep talking to me. What do you normally do now? Jason hoped this would get Val moving.

“Well, I suppose I assess the situation and go and look for whoever needs me,” Val replied as she started to get up.

“Good, OK. Where exactly are you?” Jason kept his voice very calm.

“I’m in the toilet. I think I can hear an airhostess talking outside. I need to get out of here without drawing any attention to myself.” Val now felt slightly more focused.

“I’ll talk to you as you go along. Let’s get going Val.” Val felt a warm feeling all over; she was so pleased to not be alone.

She flicked the catch and pulled open the door to come face to face with a very grumpy, balding, sweaty, over-weight middle-aged man in an expensive suit, who was obviously in need of the service she had been hogging.

“Sorry,” Val apologised, looking at the ground as she passed. The man grunted and walked past her into the toilet. Val got a strong whiff of his warm aftershave, which made her stomach slightly more nauseous than it had been before, if that was physically possible.

Unexpectedly, the plane lurched to one side and Val felt her heart jump into her throat as she grabbed the edge of the nearest seat. “If we were supposed to fly I’m sure we would have wings,” Val hissed under her breath. When she looked up, she saw the full extent of her problem. “Oh bums, this plane is massive.”

“Val, how many seats from one side to the other?” Jason’s voice resounded in her ear.

“Only four seats in each row in this section but I can see through the curtains and they are sitting three, four, three. It’s huge.” Val looked around to make sure she wasn’t drawing too much attention to herself as she slowly started to make her way down the plane.

“Hello,” a young female stewardess in a red suit greeted Val as she passed her. Val smiled back weakly. She needed to keep moving and could see that there were at least four sections up ahead and hundreds of people. How would she know who to help? Maybe she could stand by the door at the end of the flight, like the captain, and shake everyone’s hands.

She assumed from the champagne flutes that passengers were holding that she was in first class. They seemed to be mostly businesspeople who were clicking on their laptops or, in the case of the women, reapplying their lip-gloss.

No one here looked in imminent danger so Val headed for the next section. A man who was walking backwards towards her while talking to a stewardess turned. Val instantly recognised his face.

“Hell, no,” Val whispered, throwing herself clumsily into an empty chair.

“What’s wrong?” Jason’s voice rang in her ear.

“Delta, your dad’s here,” Val whispered under her breath hoping that they would hear her.

“My dad! He’s coming back from the States today. Well, now I can tell you you’re on the VS2343 from Kennedy airport to London Gatwick arriving at eight p.m. our time.” Delta finished with a grunt of satisfaction, as if she had added the secret ingredient to the cake mix that was Val’s life.

“Great! Just pray that he doesn’t see me. That would be just too much explaining.” Val reached forward to grab a magazine to cover her face. When she peeked over the top, Delta’s father was seated a few rows in front.

“OK, I’m going to make a move.” Val held the magazine up in front of her face as she headed towards the curtains.

“What can you see now?” Jason asked.

“Richard Branson.”

“What?”

“I have a magazine in my face and there is a picture of Richard Branson. He looks really good for his age,” Val said.

“Get serious,” Jason snapped.

“Yes sir.” Val smiled for the first time, starting to relax. As she moved through the next section, the difference in the passengers was apparent. Most people were casually dressed, and the quality of handbags dropped dramatically. Delta had taught Val a lot about distinguishing classes by accessories and she felt quite sad that she knew these unimportant pieces of trivia.

“I have moved to economy,” Val said. “I haven’t made contact with anyone, good or bad, yet.”

“Keep your eyes open,” replied Jason.

“Will do, Captain,” Val chirped.

Val was only a few steps into the economy section when a petite blonde woman sprang to her feet about five rows in front of her.

“He’s got a bomb!” she screamed, jumping into the aisle and starting to run, screaming as she went.

Within seconds the whole section was on its feet. Like a cattle stampede, they all tried to follow the woman into first class. Val had just enough time to jump into an empty gap from where she observed the full extent of the hysteria. Not only was everyone running, she also had Jason shouting into her ear.

“Did she say BOMB?” he yelled, repeating it about five times.

“Stop, shouting!” Val bellowed back at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you could hear me. So, did she say bomb?”

“Yes,” Val replied abruptly. If her stomach was jumpy before it was now tied in painful knots. Her heart was hammering, she could barely breath and her knees were actually knocking together. She bent down for a second to catch her breath before rising again to take in the full extent of the situation. How, she wondered, was she expected to deal with a bomb?

Next to where the blonde woman had been sitting, was a thirty-something dark haired man in a blue shirt and slacks. Unlike the other passengers, he hadn’t run for his life, but was now jumping around hysterically in his seat. Val found it even more bizarre that he didn’t seem to be making any noise. If he was a terrorist, he was a very quiet, very well-dressed one.

Stepping out into the aisle, Val composed herself and slowly made her way towards him.

“What’s going on, Val? Please speak to me.” Jason’s voice was cracking under the pressure.

“I’m OK. Give me a minute. I think I have found the person I was looking for,” Val replied calmly. She edged closer and all of a sudden the man spotted her. He seemed even more distressed than the other passengers. This made Val think that maybe he wasn’t the bomber the woman had made him out to be. As Val moved closer he became still and she saw that he had one hand handcuffed to the seat.

“Wow, these people get dirtier every time,” Val whispered, trying not to scare the man who was still like a rabbit in headlights looking at her.

“Who is dirty?” Jason asked, perplexed by Val’s comments.

“Shh,” Val snapped. “Hello, my name is Val.” She was now only two aisles away and this whole section of the plane was empty, but she knew they would only have a few seconds alone. The man started to make strange signs with his hand on his chest.

“He isn’t talking to you. What’s going on?” Jason wanted to know. Jason obviously wasn’t going to be able to keep quiet during this situation, so Val decided she would just ignore him.

“Are you OK?” Val smiled as the man carried on beating hand signals onto his chest with his free hand. “Can you talk?” He shook his head violently. “OK,” Val smiled.

“Is he a mute?” Jason called out as if he had guessed the answer to a quiz question.

“Jason, if you don’t shut up I will cut you off,” Val responded smoothly.

“OK!”

“Can you help me? I know you don’t have a bomb,” Val said. The man nodded vigorously. “Do you know where she put her bag? Maybe there are some keys for your cuffs?” Val was now next to the man. If this was a set-up then this would be his moment to attack. She gently placed her hand into her back pocket checking that her sword was there. As it brushed her fingers she felt slightly more secure. The man pointed to the overhead luggage compartments. Val smiled again, hoping to reassure him. Reaching up and releasing the door handle, she quickly pulled down all the bags. The man pointed vigorously at one of them; it was brown leather, like the ones Val had seen doctors with. As she picked it up he became very agitated, shaking his head and stamping his feet. Val dropped the bag and took a step back.

“Has this got a bomb in it?” Val asked him. He shook his head and Val felt the relief wash over her body. She picked the bag up again, more carefully this time. There was a large tag on it: ‘
Name; Paul Brown
– speech impaired’.
Val smiled and pointed at him. “Are you Paul?” The man nodded with tears of relief in his eyes.