Blood Ties (22 page)

‘What d’you mean, “to help you”?’

‘To learn about what I do.’ Elijah stopped. My heart beat faster. So Mel was right.

‘Is that it?’ I said. ‘You want me to somehow take over your work? Because—?’

‘Where is Mel?’ Elijah pushed himself away from the wall and looked down the corridor. ‘I told her I didn’t want you to leave your room unaccompanied.’

I stared at him. I still needed answers. ‘Tell me what you want me to do.’

‘Not now. Not here.’ Elijah folded his arms. ‘Back to your room.’

My temper rose like a volcano.

‘Tell me!’ I shouted. ‘Tell me or I’ll tell everyone who I am.’

Elijah whipped round, his eyes blazing. ‘You will do no such thing.’

‘I will,’ I shouted. ‘I’ll go back to the dining hall and stand on a table and—’

‘You’ve been in the dining hall?’ Elijah glared at me. ‘I told Mel to keep you away from all the public areas.’

My heart pounded.
Crap.
Now I’d got someone else into terrible trouble.

‘It’s not Mel’s fault,’ I said quickly. ‘She told me to go back to my room. But I . . . I don’t want to. I don’t want to be a prisoner here. I want to go back to London. I want to go home.’ I fought an impulse to cry. No way was I showing any emotion in front of this man.

Elijah stared at me. He suddenly looked tired. Exhausted, even. He pulled a pot of pills out of his pocket and popped one in his mouth.

‘If you’re keeping me here because you’re going to die one day and you want me to take over from you, there’s no point,’ I snapped. ‘I’ve got as much chance of becoming a genius scientist as I have of turning into a bunsen burner.’

A look of shock crossed Elijah’s face, then he smiled. ‘Okay, Theodore,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m sorry. This must all seem quite bewildering to you.’ He put his hand on my shoulder and started walking me back towards my room. ‘I do want you to learn about what I do here. And yes, my hope is that you will be able to follow in my footsteps. But I do not intend to force you into anything. Right now, all I ask is that you give me and my work a chance.’ He squeezed my shoulder. ‘You know I was angry that you disobeyed your mother and set off to find me in that reckless way you did, but I was also touched. Proud that you wanted to know me.’

I looked away, remembering how I’d imagined us as soldiers, fighting side by side against RAGE’s bigotry. That seemed a long time ago now.

We reached my room.

‘We will talk again soon, Theodore,’ Elijah said. ‘Okay?’

He patted my back. For a split second I felt that gun pressing against my forehead again.

I nodded slowly.

‘Good.’ Elijah opened my door. ‘Now, please, inside and rest.’

I walked into my studio. The door clicked shut behind me.

I was locked in.

It was late Friday afternoon. The Starbucks near where Theo lived was packed with teenagers. I’d guessed it would be, from the way Theo had described hanging out there with Jake.

Lewis and I had driven down from Scotland that morning. We waited in a shop opposite, watching out for Max.

Our postcard to her had read:
Starbucks. Friday. Five p.m. Say nothing. Baby Friend.

Baby friends was how Theo had described him and Max to me the first time I’d met her. I’d hoped the phrase would make sense to her. I also hoped she wouldn’t be too pissed off at us pretending the postcard came from Theo.

The truth was, I wasn’t sure if Max would turn up for anyone else.

She arrived at 4.55 p.m. Lewis scanned the street up and down as she walked into the café.

‘She hasn’t been followed,’ he said.

‘How can you be so sure?’

‘Because I am. Plus I’d recognise anyone from RAGE. Or the people they use to do this kind of thing.’ Lewis glanced at me. ‘I worked with them for six months, remember?’

We waited five minutes, then crossed the road.

I spotted Max as soon as we walked in. She was sitting at the back, beside the toilets, drumming her fingers on the table. I started threading my way through the throng of teenagers clustered around the order and collection points.

Lewis kept his hand protectively on my shoulder. I noticed a number of girls checking him out and shooting me envious glances. In spite of how nervous I was feeling, I smiled. Lewis was tall and really fit, with amazing blue eyes. I mean, I didn’t fancy him myself, but the idea that anyone would think I was old enough or pretty enough for him to be interested in was kind of nice.

Max stood up as I reached her table.

‘Where’s Theo?’ she said. ‘What’s happened to him?’

She caught sight of Lewis beside me and frowned. ‘Who are you?’

‘This is Lewis,’ I said. ‘He saved Theo’s life. And mine.’

Max looked back at me. ‘Where
is
Theo?’ she repeated.

I explained what had happened. I didn’t mention the whole cloning thing. Just that RAGE had come after us and Theo’s dad had sent Lewis to rescue us.

‘They came after us too,’ Max said. ‘Me and Jake.’

‘Are you talking about me?’ said a smooth, familiar voice.

I jumped. Jake was standing right beside me, a leering smile on his face.

I felt Lewis’s hand grip my shoulder more tightly, drawing me away from him. I kicked myself mentally. Why hadn’t I thought about it? Jake was bound to be here.

‘Who’s this?’ Lewis asked.

‘Just Jake.’ I blushed. ‘Another friend of Theo’s.’

‘Hey, Rachel. Good to see you, too,’ Jake purred. ‘What have you done with Theo? Max and I have been in this total nightmare. The guys from that weirdo organisation your dad’s mixed up in are seriously evil.’

‘Oh, shut up, Jake,’ Max snapped. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Before anyone could say anything else, I introduced Lewis properly and we all sat down at the table. I went over what we’d just told Max, again. Then Max explained how the night RAGE came for Theo and me, they also picked up Jake and her.

‘They took us together to this abandoned building. Left us for ages.’

Lewis nodded. ‘They would have been waiting to see what you knew. What you said about Theo.’

‘Then they interrogated us separately,’ Jake went on. ‘It was really scary. They were dead threatening. I mean they didn’t hurt us or anything, but I bet they had guns.’

I opened my mouth to tell him I was sure of it. But Lewis laid his hand on my arm.

‘We had to tell them what we knew,’ Jake said. ‘They kept asking where Theo was now – but of course we didn’t know.’

Lewis cleared his throat. ‘The point is that although Theo’s dad rescued him, now he wants Theo to stay with him,’ he said.

‘But we know Theo won’t want that,’ I added. ‘We’re going to get him out.’

‘How?’ Max asked.

Lewis glossed over the details of our rescue plan – he’d made it clear earlier that, for their own safety, the less Max and Jake knew the better. Then he outlined exactly how Max could help with the relocations. ‘I need you to find some old identities for us,’ he said. ‘People who died as children but who would be the same age as me and Rachel and Theo . . .’

‘And this friend of Lewis’s called Mel, and my mum and dad,’ I added.

Lewis and I had called Mum and Dad from a payphone. We hadn’t told them about our proposed attempt to rescue Theo and Mel, though. It was too risky. Dad was bound to try and stop us. He might even tell Elijah what we were planning.

‘We need basic information – name, age, where and when they were born . . . that sort of thing,’ Lewis went on. ‘And you’ll have to use computers in internet cafés so nothing can be traced back.’ He fixed Max with his clear blue eyes. ‘Can you do it?’

She stared from him to me, then back to him. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘But what will you do with all the data?’

‘Well, I won’t be able to sort out jobs or schools or anything like that,’ Lewis said. ‘But I’ve got a contact who can get some basic I.D. done. New passports, driving licences. Stuff like that.’

Jake whistled. ‘This is major.’

Lewis turned to him. ‘It’s also a matter of life and death. Ours and Theo’s. You can never tell anyone.
Ever
.’ His eyes shone hard.

Jake nodded. ‘Whatever you say.’

The four of us left Starbucks for a nearby internet café where Max started searching for the information she needed. While she and Lewis were poring over the computer screen, Jake pulled me to one side.

‘That Lewis guy’s way too old for you, the big perv. Though I have to say –’ he grinned, ‘– you’re looking good, Rachel . . .’

I blushed. I was sure I didn’t look any different than I had when Jake had last seen me.

‘Lewis isn’t like that,’ I said. ‘For a start he’s madly in love with the girl he mentioned earlier. He’s like . . . like my big brother or something . . .’

‘Oh?’ Jake raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh, well then . . .’

‘Hey.’ Lewis was back. ‘Max has made a start but she can’t do it all today. Rachel and I need to split now. We’ll meet you back here same time Tuesday. No contact in between, okay?’

Jake looked a little disappointed, but he didn’t say anything. Two minutes later Lewis and I were outside the café, our hoodies pulled up, striding down the high street.

‘Where are we going?’ I said, tugging my jacket round me. It was nearly as cold here as it had been up at the cottage and I knew Lewis had very little cash – just enough for the petrol down here and a few days’ food.

‘To find a squat,’ Lewis said. ‘Some abandoned building where we can stay while we get all this stuff sorted out.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘Easy.’ Lewis grinned at me. ‘We head for somewhere rundown and look for boarded-up doors and windows. I spent the ages of six to nine living in squats. Though I don’t remember it being this cold where I grew up.’

He was right. It
was
easy. By ten o’clock that night we had found an abandoned flat on a council estate and broken into it. Someone had obviously been living there before because they had left some blankets and a stained mattress behind on the floor.

‘You take that,’ he said, putting down the two torch lanterns we’d brought from the cottage. ‘I can sleep on the floor.’

I looked around the largest room. There was no furniture, just a pile of broken bottles in one corner. I could see my breath in front of my face, it was so cold. Paint was peeling from the walls. And I already knew that the kitchen and bathroom were filthy, with no running water.

In short, it was by far the most revolting place I’d ever anticipated spending the night in my life. And yet the prospect of staying here for a few days filled me with far less horror than I’d felt for months every morning before setting off for school.

‘I’m sorry it’s so dirty. We’ll get some stuff and clean up a bit tomorrow,’ Lewis said, clearly misinterpreting my silence for disgust.

I smiled at him.

‘This is fine,’ I said.

I meant it. Being without Mum and Dad was hard. And thinking about what we were planning to do in order to rescue Mel and Theo was terrifying. But for the first time in my life I felt truly alive. I knew I would be safe here with Lewis. I knew he could and would protect me.

And, if everything went as we were planning, I knew that soon I would see Theo again.

After a few days of being shut up in my room I was climbing the walls. Despite what Elijah had said about talking to me soon, he had hardly come near me since our encounter in the corridor. I didn’t see him the next day for the medical exam, though it felt like I met half the compound’s staff. An endless stream of doctors prodded and poked at me for most of the morning. I had blood taken, my height and weight measured and my blood pressure checked. Then I was hooked up to all sorts of machines including an ultrasound scanner which showed my liver, kidneys and bladder and an E.C.G. machine which checked out my heart. All perfectly healthy, apparently.

I’d been in my room ever since.

Mel brought me meals and stayed to talk to me too, as often and for as long as she could. But she had work to do on the compound – I discovered that as well as being part of the security detail, she ran body combat classes for all the staff.
Elijah insists everyone attends
. And then, of course, she had to spend time with Elijah – most of the evenings and all of the nights, I was guessing. The dark bruise around her eye had faded now, though a mark still remained.

It was clear to me by now that Mel didn’t want to be with Elijah. And equally clear – as it must have been to anyone who knew him – that he wasn’t going to let her go until he no longer wanted her around.

When I wasn’t focused on Elijah and Mel, I thought about Mum and Rachel. I asked Mel several times if I could call Mum, but she said I’d have to talk to Elijah about it – and, so far, I hadn’t had the chance. I spent a lot of time wondering about him and Mum, though. Things like how much they’d really cared about each other, and whether they still did, and whether he’d ever hurt her – like he hurt Mel.

And I worried a lot about Rachel – if she was okay with whoever Elijah had sent to sort out her relocation.

Apart from that, I browsed online, watched TV and slept.

I was more bored and miserable than I’d ever been in my life.

Mel could see how bad I felt, and on the fourth morning she appeared early with my breakfast: toast and bacon and grilled tomatoes.

‘I’ve persuaded Elijah to let you try out my body combat class,’ she said. ‘It’s like an exercise class, but we go through combat moves. There’s one every morning at ten a.m. Everyone who lives in the compound has to come at least once a week. Elijah says you can do it, provided you wear a cap and I’m with you the whole time and you don’t speak to anyone. You’ll just look like someone’s visiting older kid.’

It was a sign of how desperate I felt that my spirits rose at the prospect of prancing about in some exercise class with a bunch of macho security guards and ancient scientists.

‘Okay.’ I grinned. ‘Thanks.’

Mel beamed at me as she put down my tray.

On the underside of her arm, where the skin was paler, were four oval bruises. They looked like fingermarks.