Blood Ransom (3 page)

‘Tomorrow morning, first thing.’

‘
What?
’ I leaped up. ‘We have to call the police. Get him stopped.’

‘
No.
’ Milo shook his head in another gesture that reminded me of Theo. ‘Elijah’s back working for the government. They know exactly what he’s up to, though
it’s all under cover, of course. They’re letting him use Daniel because Elijah’s work is so valuable – they don’t want to lose him.’

My mouth fell open. ‘That’s
terrible.
’

Milo grimaced. ‘Yes, but there’s nothing we can do.’

I stood silently for a second. Shoppers were still bustling around us, but I felt completely detached from my surroundings.

It was obscene that Elijah could consider taking Daniel’s heart to replace his own. But somehow it was even worse that the governments which were supposed to be protecting me and Theo were
turning a blind eye.

‘We can’t let this happen,’ I said slowly.

Milo looked sadly up at me. ‘How can we stop Elijah?’ he said. ‘He’s too powerful.’

‘I don’t know exactly,’ I said. ‘But we have to try.’

6

The clock on the diner wall ticked slowly to midday and big, sad Jack was still hunched over the computer.

At one minute past noon, I went up to Cheri. ‘I
have
to use the computer,’ I said.

Cheri glanced over at Jack. ‘I’m sure he won’t be too much longer.’

At that moment Jack sighed. He shifted on his bar stool so that it creaked under his weight. Slowly he rolled the mouse over the shut-down button.

I was hovering beside him before he’d even clicked it, though it was another full minute before Jack managed to ease himself off the stool and shuffle to the door.

I glanced at the clock as I sat down. Three and a half minutes past twelve. Never mind. I was sure Rachel would wait. We’d both been a few minutes late before. Eager with anticipation, I
logged on to the chat room we were using this month – we changed venues regularly – and searched for her user name.

She wasn’t there. Oh well, maybe she was late too. I kept the screen up while I went to check my emails. A few minutes later I was back. Still no Rachel.

I started to feel a little irritated. All the effort I’d made to be here on time and she wasn’t ready? It was probably her mum’s fault. Rachel’s mum was, basically, your
worst nightmare. A hideous combo of martyr and snob. Rachel spent a lot of our time together online complaining about her. Recently Mrs Smith had been trying to force Rachel to play golf.
Unbelievable.

I finished my shake and checked the chat room again. Rachel
still
wasn’t there. It was now almost 12.15. I started to wonder if I’d got the place or the time wrong. But I knew
I hadn’t.

Cheri wandered over and I ordered another shake.

It arrived.

I drank it.

I checked the chat room again.

It was now 12.23 and Rachel wasn’t there.

This was by far the latest either of us had ever been.

For the first time in nine months, I started to wonder if maybe she wasn’t coming online at all.

7

‘You don’t know what you’re saying,’ Milo said. ‘Elijah’s island is heavily guarded. Even if we could somehow reach Daniel, there’s no
way we’d be able to get away without being seen.’

‘There has to be a way,’ I insisted. ‘We can’t just let Daniel die.’

Milo shook his head.

My mind whirled with all the possible options as we made our way back down Rosmore Row towards the high street.

As we reached the corner, Milo looked up at me. It had stopped raining, but his hair was wet. The way the light fell across his face highlighted a deep crease in his forehead. Suddenly he looked
much older than before – and a lot less like Theo.

‘I don’t want to go back there,’ he said simply.

I bit my lip, realising for the first time how much courage it must have taken Milo to run away in the first place.

‘It’s only for a short time,’ I said. ‘And once Daniel’s safe, I’ll help you find somewhere to stay. My dad will help you.’

I was certain Dad wouldn’t mind. Though, somehow, I’d have to talk to him without Mum finding out. I could just imagine her reaction. And I couldn’t talk to Dad till it was all
over. Even if he was prepared to help Milo, he’d still be furious that I was planning to put myself in danger after all I’d been through last year.

‘I guess you could follow me back to Paul – he’s the guard who drove me here,’ Milo said, slowly. ‘I’m due to meet him in the car park in a few minutes, but
if I went on ahead, I could maybe distract him somehow so you could hide in the trunk of his car. Smuggling you onto the boat to the island won’t be easy, but it’s possible, I
guess.’

I nodded. ‘We can do this, Milo,’ I said.

‘Okay.’ He smiled, his face lightening and looking more like Theo’s again. ‘I told Paul I’d meet him at five-thirty. It must be nearly that now.’

‘Five-thirty? You’re kidding.’ I checked the time, a sense of dread filling me. Milo was right – it was just a couple of minutes off the half hour. Thirty minutes since I
was supposed to be online with Theo. The shock of meeting Milo had pushed the time right out of my mind. ‘Oh, no.’

‘What?’ Milo raised his eyebrows.

I sped up, turning along the high street towards the internet café. ‘Theo and I are in touch,’ I said. ‘We meet up online every week. I’ve just missed our regular
chat and I have to try him before we set off.’

Milo pushed his wheels faster. He was, I noted with the small part of my brain that wasn’t consumed with worries about reaching Theo and what Milo and I were planning next, extremely
dextrous at weaving his way through the throngs of shoppers still crowding the street.

‘You’ll have to be quick online, Rachel,’ he said as we reached the café. ‘If I’m late, Paul will worry about getting into trouble with Elijah and just want
to get going. It’ll be harder to distract him.’

I disappeared into the café, leaving Milo on the pavement taking out his mobile.

I hurried to a free terminal and logged on. My hands were shaking as I accessed the chat room. Would Theo still be there?

8

I sat, nursing my third strawberry milkshake and feeling sick. Cheri had kicked me off the computer so that another – paying – client could use it. I was waiting
impatiently for her to finish so I could log on again.

Where
was
Rachel?

I tried to focus on the most likely possibilities.

1: She’d forgotten.

No. No way. I mean, she’d never forgotten before. Not one single time in nine months.

2: Something or someone had prevented her from coming.

More likely. Except Rachel had
always
had huge problems with her parents, especially her mum, and she’d never missed an online session with me before.

3: She was deliberately avoiding me.

I couldn’t believe that was true. I mean, even if Rachel didn’t want to call herself my girlfriend any more, we were still friends, weren’t we? She wouldn’t just break
off all contact without saying something.

Unless she’d fallen for someone else, big time, and couldn’t face either telling me or lying to me . . .

My stomach twisted into knots as I thought about this. The truth was, though I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, Rachel was more than just a girlfriend to me. She was the only person I
could truly be myself with. And the only person – apart from Mum, and a few government officials – who knew about us being clones. The idea of her not being in my life was too horrible
to think about.

‘You feeling all right, hon?’ Cheri wandered over, a look of concern on her face.

‘Sure.’ I attempted a smile. ‘But I need to get back on the internet as soon as possible.’

Cheri smiled back sympathetically. ‘Problems at home?’

I nodded. Cheri knew all about my mum and her overprotective ways. Mum was better than she used to be, of course. Back before I tracked down Rachel and ran off to find Elijah, I’d had a
bodyguard who never let me out of his sight. I understood later that Mum had been trying to protect me from RAGE, but even so it was a bit over the top. I guess Mum had no one to stop her from
getting completely hysterical. There was never another man around and I’d been told my dad was dead. At least here in Philly she let me go out on my own – though I still had ridiculous
curfews most nights.

A couple of minutes later the woman using the computer logged off and I raced over.

My hands shook as I accessed the chat room.

Please be there, Rachel. Please be there.

9

I stayed in the chat room for a couple of minutes, but there was no sign of Theo. I could see he’d been there, though. I caught sight of one of his usernames on a couple
of threads.

He’d obviously assumed I wasn’t coming and logged off.

I sat back in my chair, my heart sinking.

Wheels turned beside me. I looked up to see Milo’s concerned face –
so
like Theo’s – gazing at mine.

‘He’s gone,’ I said. The words came out like a sob and I blushed at giving away how much my contact with Theo meant to me.

‘Hey,’ Milo said, awkwardly. ‘You’ll be able to try again later. Er, but if we’re going we have to go now . . . I’m already late for Paul.’

I nodded, staring at the screen. I wanted to leave some kind of message for Theo but I couldn’t think what to say.

Milo nudged my arm. ‘Seriously, Rachel, we have to go.’

He wheeled himself to the door and looked over his shoulder expectantly.

Sighing, I switched off the terminal, paid at the counter and rushed outside to join him.

It took a few minutes to get to the car park. At least it wasn’t raining.

I hung back as Milo approached Paul – a burly guy with blond hair wearing jeans and a rugby shirt. I watched them talking. Paul nodded, then the pair of them headed for the public
toilets.

It suddenly occurred to me that if Milo couldn’t walk, he probably had to be helped to get to the loo. I’d never really thought about that before – all the things I took for
granted that he had to deal with because he was disabled.

I waited for Milo to pretend he needed something from the boot and come back to the car. Apparently the boot operated independently from the car’s central locking system and the plan was
that once Milo had opened it, he would only pretend to shut it properly, so I could sneak in.

The two men had almost reached the toilets before Milo turned in his chair and whizzed back to the car, his wheels spinning fast. He opened the boot and fumbled inside for a bit.

‘Make sure you lock it!’ Paul yelled from across the car park.

Milo nodded, then carefully lowered the boot and whizzed back to Paul. They disappeared inside the toilets.

Palms clammy with sweat, I rushed over to the car. The boot was open just a fraction. I looked round. The car park was virtually empty, just a young woman with a baby, emptying her shopping into
her car. I waited, heart thumping, while she strapped in the baby and drove off. Now an elderly couple were strolling past, heading for their car.

I glanced over at the toilets. No sign of Milo and Paul. I had no idea how much time I’d have before they came back. I looked round. The elderly couple had reached their car. It was a
couple of rows away so all I could see now were the tops of their heads. They both appeared to be bent over, looking at something inside the car.

This was my best chance. With a quick glance around to check the coast was clear, I flipped the boot fully open and clambered inside. It was spacious enough, though it smelled slightly musty. I
reached my hand round and pulled the boot lid down hard, jerking my hand away just before it slammed shut.

It was done. I was trapped inside, my knees bunched up to my chest. My own breathing sounded loud in my ears. Suppose something went wrong – the car crashed or Milo forgot to let me out?
I’d suffocate in here. How much air did I have, anyway?

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. Milo had assured me that Elijah’s motorboat was tied up at a deserted beach just beyond the docks and that the journey would only take about
ten minutes. I wasn’t going to run out of air that fast.

I didn’t want to think about Theo, and how I’d missed messaging with him earlier, so I focused on Lewis instead. Lewis was a former employee of Elijah’s. He’d been sent
to look after me, but had ended up working with me to defeat Elijah. I missed him a lot. I mean, he was a good few years older than me and from a completely different background, but we’d got
on really well from the start. I thought of him like an older brother. A very cool older brother. Lewis had shown me quite a few fighting moves – in fact it was him who’d sparked off my
interest in self-defence – but he’d also taught me a lot about dealing with my fears.

When you feel anxious, press your feet into the ground and breathe in and out through the soles.

I couldn’t use the ground, of course, but I pressed my feet against the side of the car and took a few calming breaths.

A minute later footsteps and the squeak of wheels signalled the return of Milo and Paul. I held my breath as two doors opened and – eventually – slammed shut. I knew, because Milo
had told me, that the front passenger seat of this car had been adapted to contain the seat part of Milo’s wheelchair and that, nine times out of ten, for short journeys Paul just folded the
wheels and chucked them onto the back seat.

I just had time to pray that he didn’t change his routine today and put them in the boot before another door opened and shut and the engine roared into life.

Paul reversed out of his parking space and we were off. It was hot, now, in the boot. I couldn’t tell if Paul and Milo were talking or not. All I could hear was the car engine’s low
rumble and the whoosh of passing traffic.

Ten minutes later, the car stopped. I tensed, knowing that the next part of the plan was going to be the hardest to carry out successfully.