Timesurfers (3 page)

“To get his butt kicked. Jonah would only
disarm his bomb to protect something or someone extremely
important.” Austin contemplated her. “Do you know him?”

“No. I did see him here before everyone
except me froze and you guys appeared out of thin air.”

Rafe grinned. “I bet that’s not a sentence
you ever expected to hear yourself say.”

“I knew he came back to disarm that bomb.”
Austin pointed at Cate. “How do you fit into the puzzle?”

“Everyone’s coming round,” Rose said. “The
target’s safe, so let’s get back.”

Austin scratched his head and assessed Cate
from head to toe. “What shall we do with you?”

Chapter 2

Aftershocks

H
is careless tone made Cate lift her chin a little.
“I’m excellent at keeping secrets. I’m also fabulous at denial. We
could pretend this never happened.” She blasted him with an overly
bright smile. Her ability to use sarcasm at such an inappropriate
moment surprised even her. She had too much to lose to breathe a
word of this to anyone.

Rafe let out a long breath. “Let me sort
her.”

“Leave her, Rafe. Who’ll believe her if she
does talk?” Austin called. “Set this situation right in everyone
else’s mind.”

A fierce buzzing filled Cate’s ears.

Austin stared at her. “It’ll come to me how I
know you.
Naitanui
!” he
called and melted from view.

Rafe and Rose climbed on the motorbike. They
flickered and vanished.

With a flurry of movement and noise, people
started going about their business again. She scooted over to
Eve.

“Are you well enough to take the bus, or
should we lash out and take a cab?” Eve asked.

“What?”

“
You’ve
been feeling u
nwell all
afternoon,” Eve said. There was concern etched on her
face.

“Give me a second.” She took a deep
breath.

“Cab it is.” Eve marched toward the road and
let out an ear-piercing whistle. “You look pasty. Let’s get you
home.”

The ride to Cate’s house was a silent
one.

“You should go wild and dress in a
colour
other than black
once in a while.” Eve interrupted Cate’s thoughts. “It’s very
goth
.”

“What? Oh!” She glanced at her black
leggings, top, and felt jacket. “You wear enough
colour
for the both of us!”

Eve smoothed her red tulle skirt, dotted with
silver stars. Her black tights finished just above her shiny,
cherry-red lace-up boots. Her outfits always reminded Cate of that
eclectic mix five-year-olds wore when they couldn’t decide if they
wanted to be a tomboy or ballerina, or whether to go with patterned
or plain. They went with a bit of everything.

“I wear black because everything else clashes
with my hair.” Cate braced an arm against the seat as the cab
skidded to a stop.

“That’s a whole other fashion discussion. See
you at school tomorrow.”

“Indeed.”

“Zach’s not worth it, you know.”

“I know.” Cate regretted for the millionth
time not being able to tell Eve about witness protection. She
slammed the cab door and pushed the iron gates under the rose
covered
arbour
so hard
that they bounced back and smacked her knees as she hurried
through. The wooden boards creaked as she powered up the front
steps and the security lanterns flooded the porch with light. Goose
bumps rippled across her skin as she wrestled the key into the
lock.

She shouldered the blue door open and stepped
into the dark house. The short hairs on the back of her neck stood
on end. She swiped her hand over the light switches. The bright
light slowed her heartbeat marginally. With a cheery wave and
forced smile for Eve, she closed the door. Her blasé front crumpled
as the cab vanished.

She screeched when her phone beeped, startled
by her daily 6:00 p.m. reminder to check in with Pip, her handler.
She slid down the wall and sat on the smooth, cold terracotta
tiles, waiting for her heart to stop threatening to come out of her
mouth. Her fingers hovered over the phone. Instead of physically
meeting Pip each day, Cate had to check in daily by text to confirm
all was well. Did she text the distress code or feign business as
usual? When the alert level went up for any reason Pip also
surveilled
her for a
good portion of each day and night. That was a complete
nightmare.

She went with the standard text. If the
people at the bus stop were here to take her, they would have done
it this afternoon. Who were they? How did they vanish like that?
And what about the frozen
crowd?

CATE: “HOME WITH BREAD AND
MILK”

PIP: “? YOUR
DAY?”

CATE: “FINE”
She
replied and held her breath.

PIP: “MINE
UNEVENTFUL”

Obviously the news of her recently single
status hadn’t reached Pip yet. An eerie quiet filled the house. Her
mum and brother went bowling on Sundays. She deleted her
conversation with Pip, pounded up the steps into her bedroom, and
leapt the last few feet onto the bed. If ever a monster were going
to reach out from under the bed and grab her feet, it would be
today.

She clicked the bedside lamp on and hugged
her pillow to her chest. The tin roof popped and creaked. Someone
might be up there.

Her phone beeped again.

PIP: “SLEEP WELL, SINGLE
ONE...”

Of course Pip knew. She probably knew before
Cate. If there was a middle-finger emoticon, she would have replied
with it. She yanked off her Doc Martens and stripped off her
clothes. After jiggling into her satin boxer shorts and T-shirt,
she scooted under the bedcovers.

The iron bed creaked each time she moved. Her
eyes shifted between the window, hidden behind the heavy gold
curtains, and the door. The need to brush her teeth wasn’t enough
to make her walk up the dark corridor to the bathroom. In the
movies, things never ended well when people walked along dark
corridors. A loud crack outside made her heart rev. She pulled her
patchwork quilt higher, her knuckles shining white as she tightened
her grip.

***

Cate staggered out of bed, shattered after a night
filled with more tossing and turning than sleep. She tripped over
her antique bedside table and sent her alarm clock and the only
photo she had with her dad tumbling to the floor when she smacked
her knee on the corner. “Ouch.” That would leave a mark. She
stomped hard on her blaring clock, which someone had set on maximum
beep. Little brothers sucked. “Xavier is so dead.”

She drank in the silence smashing her alarm
clock had achieved. Now her foot hurt. She rubbed her temples and
waited for her heart to move out of her mouth and back to her
chest.

Her fear of someone creeping around the house
last night had morphed into a repetitive, gruesome nightmare. The
guy with the shimmering red outfit, Rafe, rampaged through her
school on his motorbike, while she giggled as Rose—that name was
etched in her brain forever—gave her a makeover. All the while
Jonah, the Ralph Lauren model lounged in the corner, dressed like a
1950s gangster, playing cards with Austin. Each time Austin’s scars
started to drip blood she had woken with a start, drenched in
sweat.

A migraine threatened behind her left eye as
images from the bus stop bombarded her brain. Her heart spluttered
and sprinted. No. She would repress those memories or die
trying.

Her foot throbbed where she had stomped on
the clock. With a grimace she lifted her foot for a closer
inspection. A drop of crimson blood rolled off her heel and seeped
into the shag-pile rug. She hopped around, searching for her mobile
phone amongst the mess on her floor. The text message from Zach
stared back at her.
What a loser!

“WHERE R U?”
she
texted Eve, stabbing the phone buttons and muttering some choice
words about Zach and his miraculous overnight transformation. She
hobbled to the bathroom, phone in hand, and carefully balanced it
on the pedestal basin. Her phone beeped.

EVE: “ON BUS. U
OK?”

CATE: “YEP.”
She
lied.

She glanced in the art-deco mirror, and
ripped the
coloured
braids from her blonde hair and twisted it into a high bun. She
clipped a small green bow at the bottom. The principal at Socrates
Private School was pedantic about hair and uniforms. Hair longer
than your chin had to be up and off your face, and only natural
hair colour that didn’t draw undue attention was permitted.

Her foot had stopped throbbing, so she gave
it a quick twist on the white bath mat to remove any blood that
might still be lurking and chanced a peek. “What the...?” She
examined her foot from different angles. No blood, no cut, not even
a mark. Did she imagine it?

“Cate, breakfast,” her mum called. “You’ll be
late.”

She bolted to her bedroom, tearing her school
uniform from hangers and wrenching it on. Where was her left shoe?
She dropped onto her hands and knees and scanned the floor.

“Ah-ha!” She crawled under her bed and
retrieved the offending black school shoe.

“Now you
are
late,”
her mum bellowed.

Crap!
She tugged on
her socks and shoes as she hopped down the stairs.

Her mum stood at the bottom of the stairs.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?”

“I’m fine.”

Her mum touched Cate’s forehead. “You worried
me, being in bed so early last night. You look pale. Is this about
Zach?”

She bit her lip. “You know about that?”

“He posted a picture with Brittany on
Instagram, and Pip texted me.” Her mother brushed her arm. “Did
something else happen?”

Cate shook her head. Her mum definitely
suspected something.

“You know the rules.” Her mum shrugged. “You
require a boyfriend
and
a close friend as
a minimum to stay under the radar. You have a week to find a new
boyfriend. Loners stand out too much.”

Cate rolled her eyes. “Plenty of strong women
go years without a man. Look at you.”

“I’m not a teenager. You can always find
three more friends instead.”

Like that was going to happen. “Did anyone
ever stop to think I might be more noticeable if I jump straight
from one guy to another?”

“Lower your voice. Your brother will
hear.”

Cate envied the fact Xavier was oblivious to
the witness protection arrangement. He thought they moved because
their parents separated and their mum got a job opportunity too
good to refuse here. He never even questioned the overnight move.
“It makes me look desperate and is guaranteed to create an enormous
amount of unflattering
rumours
.”

“I don’t make the rules. Find yourself a new
boyfriend or they’ll find one for you.”

“I got dumped by text. Cut me a little
slack.” She stomped to the kitchen.

“All dressed up today, Mum. You look nice,”
her brother said. “Hey, Cate?”

“Um...” Cate looked up from wiggling her foot
inside her shoe. It didn’t hurt at all. Xavier was right, pale pink
suited her mum. “You should wear that colour more often, Mum.” The
grey trim on the outfit matched her mum’s eyes.

“Thanks.” Her mum pushed one side of her
perfectly bobbed black hair behind her ear. Her pale skin and fine
features were so different from Cate’s and Xavier’s sun-kissed skin
sprinkled with freckles. She was the principal at the detention
centre that dominated Tempus Falls. Cate thanked her lucky stars
her mum wasn’t the principal at Socrates Private School where
she
attended.

How was she going to bring up her
there-one-minute-gone-the-next cut foot? Did she even dare? She
definitely needed to wait until Xavier left. There was no way she
wanted him bringing up that conversation for the rest of her life.
She opened her mouth a few times as her mum kissed her then Xavier
and headed to the garage. Nothing came out. She couldn’t do it. It
was way more feasible that she was half asleep and dreamed she cut
her foot than it had miraculously healed.

“Xavier...” She stared at her brother. Nope,
no way she was confiding in him. Her brain whirred for something to
say.
“Don’t you think it’s
weird Zach’s all popular now?”

“Zach’s always been cool. Dumping you...smart
move.”

“He hasn’t always been cool.” She banged her
spoon on the kitchen bench. The bus stop was the most terrifying
experience ever. The bizarre foot thing was freaking her out, and
Zach’s sudden popularity was plain irritating.

“Like we haven’t always had a blue SUV and
that imaginary golden retriever you insisted we’d always owned last
Thursday?”

She glowered at Xavier, whose green eyes, so
like hers, sparkled back at her. His blonde, wavy hair had a
distinct boy band vibe with the long fringe.

“When you raced in screaming a stranger tried
to abduct you, and it was the next door
neighbour
taking you to school like she did
every Thursday.” Xavier grinned. “That’s my
favourite
freaky Cate moment.”

“Hilarious.” Cate hadn’t
recognised
the car, the driver or anyone
else inside. Her mum drove her to school because she was so freaked
out, calmly telling her everyone made mistakes.

“So, you’re like a super loser now Zach’s
given you the flick, hey?” Xavier said.

How
was
she going to
deal with everyone at school knowing she’d been dumped by text? She
gave Xavier her most dangerous stare and cracked her knuckles. He
stood his ground for three seconds before he bolted.

“Muuumm, Cate’s threatening to use her
overrated black belt skills on me,” he yelled through the open door
into the garage.