August (18 page)

I tried to swallow some milkshake but my throat felt constricted, as if something was blocking it. I was trying another mouthful when I jumped at my mobile ringing. I snatched it up.

‘Yes?’

‘Do you have everything with you?’ the
distorted
voice asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Proceed to the Spindrift River Bridge
immediately. Keep the station on your right, and follow the main road to the bridge on the other side of town. It shouldn’t take you more than half an hour. You are to wait there
without
crossing it. You will be provided with more information once you are in position. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, but I–’

‘Do you understand?’ the voice demanded.

‘I understand.’

I turned to Winter and tried to speak without moving my lips and without showing any
expression
, in case someone was hidden inside the café, watching my reaction. ‘They’ve chosen the main bridge, after all,’ I said. ‘I have to let Sharkey and Boges know.’

Winter’s eyes looked down, indicating under the table.

I punched in the words, blindly, while my phone sat on my knee. I hoped I’d typed enough of it correctly for them to get the right message.

 big bridge.now

Leaving our milkshakes almost untouched, we paid and hurried out into the night. The drizzle had stopped, but the night was cold and a misty vapour hung in the air.

We continued walking past the short row of shops and soon we were past the garage at the
other end of town and out on the highway on the other side of the small township.

I looked back. Billabong had settled for the night. Apart from the street lights, very few windows of the houses were lit up.

We’d reached the end of the pedestrian
footpath
, and had to follow a vague track through the grass by the side of the road.

‘If anything happens tonight–’ I began.

‘Our plan will work, Cal. It has to.’

‘But if anything goes wrong … with me,’ I said, ‘promise me that you and Boges will do everything you can to get Gabbi safely home.’

Winter stopped walking and pulled on my arm to stop me. Her eyes looked suddenly worried and scared. She knew she couldn’t guarantee I’d make it out OK, but she was trying really hard not to let it show.

‘Gabbi will be in safe hands,’ she said. ‘You can count on me.’

And I knew I could count on Boges.

We continued walking, our breath making little clouds ahead of us.

The land rose slightly and when we reached the top of the rise, I looked down to see a
two-lane
bridge at the bottom of the incline.

‘There it is. Spindrift River Bridge,’ I said. Six lights dotted the length of its arch.

‘Listen to that,’ said Winter, pointing out the sound of gushing water. ‘It’s the river, running wild after all the rain. It’s caught all the run-off from the mountains.’

We both watched the water thrashing over the rocky Spindrift River, metres beneath the bridge.

In the twenty minutes that it had taken us to walk from the Billabong Café to the bridge, only one car had passed us along the lonely road.

The two lanes of the bridge were empty, and we couldn’t see anything in the darkness on the other side either. But somewhere over there, Gabbi and her kidnappers were waiting for me.

I took a deep breath and straightened my shoulders.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Let’s go and get Gabbi.’

‘But what about Sharkey and Boges?’ Winter asked as we hurried downhill towards the start of the bridge.

‘I’m sure they’re here somewhere, watching our backs, waiting for the action to start.’

‘But where’s Sharkey’s car?’ she said,
carefully
surveying the landscape around us.

‘It’s here somewhere. It has to be. I reckon they’ve parked it on that rise just behind us,’ I said. ‘We’ll have the element of surprise, too,’ I reminded her. ‘The kidnappers aren’t expecting
a fight–just a couple of kids doing what they’ve been told to do. When they attack, you grab Gabbi and take her up there, OK?’

Winter nodded, anxiously. ‘So then we all meet up back at the car, speed away leaving the kidnappers stranded–without Gabbi, without the information and without you?’

‘You got it,’ I said.

‘They’ll come after us,’ she warned.

‘They may not. Nelson intends to drive Gabbi to the nearest police station for an escort to the hospital. We’ll jump out before that, of course.’

Winter looked really unsure. As unsure as I was feeling inside.

‘Can you drive?’ I asked her. ‘If we take too long to join you back at Sharkey’s car, I want you to drive the car, with Gabbi inside, away from here without turning back,’ I explained. ‘Tell me you will?’

‘Cal, I can’t leave you guys behind. I won’t leave
you
behind.’

‘Please, Winter, I’m begging you. All I care about is getting Gabbi back. Whatever happens after that, I can deal with. I’m sure Sharkey will have Boges looked after, so don’t worry about them, either. Sharkey, Boges and I will be a tough fighting team,’ I said, my pulses quickening in anticipation of the ambush.

‘And if they’re expecting a demure girl who’s come along with you to be a babysitter, then they’re in for a big shock!’

‘You ready, then?’

‘Let’s do it.’

We stepped out of the bush and onto the road a little before the bridge began. Through the clearing night sky, a half-moon showed and the rushing sound of the flooded river just ahead of us filled the night. It roared away beneath the bridge, in a fast-moving channel about as wide as the highway. Then the racing water narrowed and curved around a bend to disappear into the gloom of the night.

We waited at our end of the bridge. There were no signs of people, other than us. At this hour, only foxes and night birds were out, and from somewhere on the river flats, I heard the eerie shriek of plovers piercing the night.

Winter stood, brave, on my left. My whole body was sweating. In my mind I was chanting:
I’m coming, Gabs. I’m coming to take you home
. In my hands I clutched the parcel they were expecting. I prayed that Sharkey and Boges were in position, keeping up their end of this plan.

A cold, light breeze rustled the silvered leaves of the gum trees, crowded near the riverbanks. Clouds slowly moved across the half-moon, and
our world became even darker. I glanced at the time. It was after ten o’clock–and there wasn’t a soul in sight.

A light drizzle started up. I heard a sound and swung round, but there was nothing there. Spooked, we moved further onto the bridge.

What if the kidnappers had changed their minds, seen something they didn’t like and backed off? I felt the beginning of a sob rising up in the back of my throat, and I swallowed it down. I should have convinced Mum back in January to leave the country with me and Gab. None of this would have happened if we’d done that. Gabbi would be safe with Mum and me, in some secure location, not in a coma, being used as a bargaining tool by evil people set on solving the Ormond Singularity first. I should have–

My mobile rang, and I grabbed it from my pocket.

‘I’m here,’ I said to the kidnappers, ‘just as you said I should be–standing at the township end of the bridge. Where are you? Where is Gabbi?’

‘You’ll see in just a moment. Wait right where you are.’

The line went dead.

The sound of a speeding car tore through the
night air from the other side of the bridge.
Headlights
appeared, approaching the bridge from the opposite end.

‘It’s them!’ cried Winter, shivering beside me. She tightened her hold on my arm and I
tightened
my hold on the parcel.

The car paused as it reached the start of the bridge, then began crawling towards us, and the middle of the Spindrift River bridge.

It came to a stop and we squinted in the bright lights shining on us. It wasn’t the Mercedes I’d come to know so well. It was a different
silhouette
altogether.

The headlights suddenly went out.

I was desperate to believe that Sharkey and Boges were just behind us, in similar darkness, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.

I could hardly hear anything over the
rushing
water of the river–it seemed to intensify to match my adrenaline. The driver, in shadowy silhouette, opened the car door and stepped onto the bridge.

‘Stay here,’ I whispered to Winter, putting a restraining hand on her arm. ‘I’m going to move in closer.’

‘Here I am,’ I called out, stepping towards them, and waving the parcel over my head. ‘I have everything you want. Let Gabbi go!’

For a long moment, the figure just stood there, unmoving. My eyes vainly tried to make out whether Gabbi was in the car.

Then his voice hissed through the darkness. ‘Come closer!’

‘Not until I see what you have first,’ I said. ‘No deal without that. I want to see my sister.’

The man turned back to the car. Was he going to drive away?

‘Hey!’ I called after him. ‘We had a deal! Where’s my sister?’

The figure leaned into the rear of the car for a moment but I couldn’t make out what he was doing.

What was going on? He stepped away.

The car he’d arrived in suddenly shot backwards. The headlights flashed back on.

There was another guy–a driver!

Now, in the high beam of the headlights, I could see a large bundle lying on the side of the bridge.

The bundle moved.

‘It’s Gabbi!’ Winter cried.

‘Gabbi!’ I yelled, instinctively running
forward
. In the blaze of the headlights I could see the top of her pale forehead poking out of the sleeping-bag she was cocooned in, and her golden hair shining. She was just metres from me!

Now was the time for my back-up to appear.

A harsh voice brought me to a sudden halt.

‘Stop right there! Leave the information you’ve bought with you on the ground,’ he ordered,
moving
around to stand visibly in the small pool of light from the bridge. ‘And put your hands up in the air.’ He was a man I’d never seen before, wearing a padded ski-jacket and a beanie pulled down low to his eyes. His jaw was hard, and his lips formed a thin line above his unshaven chin.

‘Did you hear me?’ he snarled. ‘Put the
documents
down and put your hands up!’

I did as he said and put the parcel on the ground. I kicked it in his direction, three or four metres away. ‘This is what you need,’ I said, slowly raising my arms. ‘These are all the drawings that my dad did before he died. I also have my notes, some important letters and other crucial pieces of information. It’s all there. And here I am,’ I said, blinking in the headlights, spreading my hands further to show that I meant to give them no trouble.

He stepped towards the package and bent over to pick it up. ‘Is this everything?’ he snarled.

‘Everything,’ I said. ‘There’s no way I’d risk my sister’s life by holding anything back. So now my friend is going to collect Gabbi. OK?’

Winter stepped out of the shadows and stood
beside me. She held her hands up in the air, like me.

The kidnapper nodded and Winter slowly approached Gabbi, lying silent on the road.

‘You,’ he gestured to me, ‘move slowly towards the car. And don’t try anything smart.’

Where were Nelson and Boges?

I crept closer, unable to take my eyes off my sister. Winter stooped to pick Gabbi up, while I kept walking towards the kidnappers’ car.

The headlights suddenly died again and we were plunged into darkness. Even the low bridge lights went out.

I saw a shadow move in the kidnappers’ car.

Where were Nelson and Boges?!

I swung back, intending to warn the others and help Winter carry Gabbi away from here, but the ski-jacket man’s vicious voice shouted out, ‘Move and I’ll shoot!’

Winter gasped. I froze.

‘OK! OK!’ I cried. ‘We’re not moving!’ I wouldn’t dare do anything that would endanger Gabbi’s life further.

Nelson and Boges! Hurry up!

Almost the second I thought this, I heard the roar of a fast accelerating car behind me.

Nelson’s car screamed onto the bridge,
headlights
blazing!