Trapped (20 page)

‘Whatever you do, don't press that red button.' José pointed to a large round knob that lay just above the eye line of a mesmerised Oak. ‘That will start the engines and the process of shutting the hatches between us and the rest of the ship.'

He turned his back and went towards the rear of the submarine where some of the children were amusing themselves by trying to spot fish in the dark murky waters. Cate, with Beech toddling alongside quietly, headed into the cramped control room.

Cate gave Beech a quick cuddle, took a deep breath and hit the red button. As the engines roared to life, she shouted to a startled José, ‘Don't worry, I'll go for help!' She sprinted off the submarine, through the already closing shutter into the corridor.

The guard looked startled.

‘One of the kids hit the red button,' panted Cate.

‘It'll be OK.' The fat man was in no hurry to move. ‘As long as the submarine isn't running, the shutter will reach the bottom and then go back up again automatically.'

No!
thought Cate.
What do I have to do to get you out of your seat?

‘The engines have started and water is coming in,' she tried again. ‘José really needs your help.'

This time the guard sprang to his feet and as fast as his bulk would let him hurried towards the submarine bay.

Cate already had the memory stick in her hand. By the time the guard was ducking under the nearly closed shutters, she had slotted it into the USB port at the base of the computer.

She clicked around the screen, searching frantically for a security file. It wasn't on the desktop, nor was it in favourites and now Cate was starting to panic. Suddenly she had a brainwave – she went into the hard drive, searched for
Security
and there in front of her was a folder entitled
Room Entry
. She
looked up. The doors were still closing slowly, now way too low for either José or the guard to make it back. She reckoned she had around two minutes before the shutters rose up far enough to let the trapped men back into her side of the door.

She right clicked on the folder and selected the copy option. The file began to download to the data card, agonisingly slowly at first and then gathering speed. The screen showed seventy seconds left to go before the download was completed. The steel door had reached the bottom and now was bouncing gently as it settled. Fifty seconds to go – the shutters were beginning to clatter at the start of their upward climb. Thirty seconds – Cate's hands were shaking as they hovered over the mouse waiting to click back to the original page. Twenty seconds – she could see the feet of the children. Ten seconds – the men were bending down ready to come through – hurry, hurry! The computer gave out a soft bleep –
Copy complete
. Cate removed the stick and just as the first of the children came bursting back towards her shouting with excitement at their adventure, she managed to clear the screen. By the time the two men were able to get under the door she was halfway down the corridor, kneeling down, cuddling the children and wearing her best distraught look.

The guard lumbered towards her, glaring at her, angry at everyone. ‘What a shambles,' he was shouting. ‘Whose stupid idea was it to let these kids come down here?'

‘Tass,' said Cate, over the noise of the children. ‘He loves these kids.'

The guard went quiet. José looked pale with shock and stood silently, so Cate took charge. ‘You know what?' she said.
‘I think we should all forget this ever happened. We're all safe, no harm done. Right, kids?'

The children nodded solemnly.

José and the guard looked at each other. José was still shaking. ‘You think?' he said hopefully.

The guard shrugged. Cate could see the battle was won.

‘Personally,' said Cate, forcing tears into her eyes. ‘I need this job. I really do.'

‘OK,' said José, patting her on the shoulder. ‘Don't cry, Cate. We agree. Let's forget all about it. But believe me, I am never ever volunteering to show kids around again.'

Halfway there
, thought Cate triumphantly, as they climbed into the lift and rose back up to the world of luxury and sunshine. Now she just had to get around the hand scan.

After lunch, Cate suggested the children watch a movie. They finally all agreed on
Alvin and the Chipmunks
.

‘Any news from Mikey?' asked Cate casually, as José handed her a freshly squeezed apple juice.

‘Ahh.' José sounded exasperated. ‘They are not coming back until late tonight. They have got rid of the paparazzi but now Tass and Nancy have taken Mikey and Ahmed over to Cannes where some friends are having a film premiere at the Ritz Carlton.'

‘What about the other guys? The bodyguards who went with them.'

‘They have been left on the
Catwalk II
for now at least. To frighten off the paparazzi. But don't worry yourself, Cate. You are safe here with José!'

He grinned benevolently at her and she smiled back. He
really seemed to be a nice man and she hoped against hope he wasn't mixed up with the bad guys.

The film began and the children were soon glued to the screen. Cate gave them five minutes to get properly hooked and then, in a whisper, leant over and asked Oak for his phone.

Oak slid it carefully under his armrest and onto Cate's lap. She took it from him and, under cover of the half light, slipped off the back, removed his sim card and data card and put her own sim and data card from the IMIA data stick in. It took a few minutes to boot up and then, keeping the phone down below the seat, she began to text Arthur.

Am sending security files to your server. Please bypass need for hand recognition to access Room One within an hour. PS DO NOT CALL.
She pressed send. Thank God it was Saturday. With any luck Arthur would be at home.

Then, using one hand and pretending to eat popcorn with the other, she sent the files. She held her breath. Would the phone be able to cope with sending the huge volume of information she had downloaded from the security computer or would it simply crash?

The upload bar appeared but it grew slowly, painfully slowly, and Cate knew that the longer it took to transmit, the more chance there was of the signal being picked up and intercepted by the huge bank of technology on board the yacht.

A minute later, the file was still transmitting and Cate found herself craning her neck, half expecting shadowy figures to come piling in through the velvet curtains to grab the phone from her sweaty hand. Finally the phone screen changed.
File uploaded.

Cate checked her watch. She would feel much safer if the job was done and downloaded under cover of the film but she had an awful feeling that she had set her brother an almost impossible task. She texted him.
Need it back before three p.m. otherwise too late. Please respond asap
.

She sat back. There was nothing more she could do now. She glanced along the line of the enraptured children, their hands automatically dipping in and out of the popcorn buckets, then tried again to watch the film but the chirruping chipmunks and the gooning around of the human co-stars made her head spin.

Then to her utter relief, the phone vibrated in her hand.
Blimey, you don't want much
, Arthur had texted.
Am working on it as we speak. Seen worse. Three p.m. fine
.

Cate settled back in her seat. Suddenly the film seemed to be very funny after all. Just as the credits were rolling Arthur's file finished downloading to the data card.
Good old Arthur
, thought Cate.
He always comes through.

At six o'clock there was a shift changeover. The first Cate knew of it was when she heard a clatter of steps on the metal spiral staircase that came up from the bottom floor to the staff mess on the lower ground floor. Worn out by another long swim in the pool, the younger children were asleep and the older three were watching TV in a guest bedroom.

Cate was in the mess room having a few quiet minutes to herself, drinking tea and trying to work out just how to get back into the secure area and, more importantly, back to the security station without raising any suspicion.

Suddenly she spotted the fat guard sitting on his own with a large tin of biscuits. He was concentrating hard, working his way methodically through the chocolate ones and discarding the plain.

‘Hi,' said Cate, walking over to him and putting on her friendliest face. ‘I'm so glad I caught you.' He looked at her warily, still chewing, crumbs on either side of his mouth. ‘You're not going to believe it but little Beech must've left her favourite teddy bear behind in the submarine bay. Could you possibly —'

‘No way.' Mr Lardy suddenly came to life. ‘I've finished for the day, clocked off. Done. I'm just waiting for the boat to come and get me and I'm off for the rest of the weekend.'

Cate looked disappointed. ‘But little Beech was so desperate – distraught.' Cate paused. ‘Awful thing to see a little one cry herself to sleep. Have you got kids?'

‘Nope.' The man sounded bored. He had resumed his chewing and was rummaging in the biscuit tin for more of his favourites.

‘I've spent hours looking for it,' Cate persevered. ‘The only place I haven't checked is the submarine bay. It has to be there.' She shook her head, looking worried. ‘I don't know how I'm going to explain it to Nancy and Tass. And of course, Beech would be Tass's favourite kid.'

The man grunted. That hit home. He finally turned to look at Cate. ‘It's your problem, not mine. I'm not missing my boat for any two-year-old or a teddy bear. But I'll radio downstairs and ask them if they'll let you back into the secure area to have a look.' He turned away and reached for a walkie talkie that
was wedged into his chest pocket. ‘Kids,' he snorted. ‘Shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a boat.'

‘Thanks,' said Cate to the back of his head. ‘Thanks a million.' Cate pressed the call button for the lift. ‘You'll go straight to heaven you will.' Probably a McDonald's in his case Cate thought and then checked herself.
Not very kind, Cate
. This man had just done her a huge favour and here she was dissing him in return. She was getting quite catty in her old age. If she wasn't careful she would end up as bitchy as Lulu.

Lulu. As Cate got into the lift she had to stop herself from shouting out. Of course, Lulu. What had Nancy said? She said Lulu had introduced them. Lulu knew loads of people.

Cate pressed the button for the bottom floor and forced herself to concentrate. It was Lulu who looked after every single detail of Nancy's affairs, even down to how much money the supermodel had in her bank account at any one time.

Everywhere Nancy went Lulu was there at her shoulder, guiding her, advising her, chastising her, even introducing her to boyfriends.
Playing her
, thought Cate grimly,
like a violin
. Lulu would have been with Nancy in Africa, in Asia, in Mexico. God, Lulu probably set the trips up, booked the flights and even arranged the adoptions. Nancy just had to turn up and look beautiful.

It all made perfect sense. If Nancy had something to hide, why had she openly told Cate that she and Tass were working together on an environmental project? And Nancy showed no sign of knowing the professor was dead.

That was another thing. Cate had seen Nancy with her children. Nancy wasn't ruthless. Nancy was from a loving
family who gave her a happy childhood and she, at least, was making a good attempt at being a caring mother herself. But Lulu, now there was definitely something scary about her, something very cold and ruthless.

Cate shook her head, amazed that neither she nor the IMIA had seen it before. It wasn't Nancy who was the link to all these missing animals, she was sure, it was Lulu. Lulu, Bill and, unless his boat was being visited by Bill without his knowlege, almost certainly Tass as well.

The doors opened and immediately one of the guards was coming towards her, his sunburnt face expressionless. ‘You Cate?'

She nodded.

‘We were told you were coming.'

They walked silently down towards the secure area, past the banks of computer monitors and the security footage. At the double door he punched in the security code which, Cate noticed, hadn't changed from that morning and, as they opened, nodded to a ginger-haired man sitting at the guard's desk. ‘Here's the nanny. Come to look for the teddy bear. Don't be long.'

The door shut and Cate and the guard looked at each other. He nodded at her, fiddled with the computer mouse and the steel shutters at the end of the corridor began to rise again.

‘You'll be all right?' the man spoke with a drawling Southern American accent. ‘I'll stay here.'

Blimey
, thought Cate.
What is it with these guys? Are they superglued to their seats?
But she nodded her agreement and walked down the corridor, waiting patiently whilst the shutters clattered upwards.

She walked slowly into the dark bay, the submarine looking even more sinister, wallowing like some giant primeval animal half in and half out of the water. She almost expected the sub's giant nose to open like a set of jaws and lunge towards her.
Pull yourself together
, she thought.

She walked noisily onto the gangplank and into the submarine control room, pulled a small stripy teddy bear from her bag and pushed it under the bank of dials, waited a few seconds and then came back to the doors.

‘I can't get the lights on,' she called. ‘I can't see anything – would you mind?'

Grunting, the man rose to his feet. He was very tall, Cate noticed, with a face that looked as if it had seen a few punch-ups. He wandered down the corridor and boarded the submarine, Cate following in his wake. Flashing his torch, he felt around the base of the submarine and flicked a switch.

‘I feel sick,' said Cate suddenly, as light flooded the submarine. ‘I'm going to be sick. I think I'm claustrophobic.' The guard looked alarmed as Cate leant against the submarine wall. ‘Do you have a loo?'