Blood Ties (8 page)

‘Hi.’ He flicked his head to get his hair out of his eyes.

‘Hi,’ I squeaked back, feeling my face redden
.
He was even more gorgeous than I’d remembered. I quickly clocked the jeans and trainers – the same ones that he’d worn before. But now he was wearing a black T-shirt. His arms were smooth and brown underneath, his muscles all tensed with the effort of holding on to the dogs.

‘Sorry about the mutts,’ Theo said. ‘They’re Max’s. Hey, log off, guys. Log off.’ The dogs stopped leaping about and stood obediently at his side. I stared at them. I like dogs, but Mum had never let me have any kind of pet, so I wasn’t used to them. I reached forwards and carefully petted the smaller dog on the back. His fur was short and dark and rough. He sniffed at my shoes.

‘That’s Java,’ Theo said. ‘The other one’s his mum, Perl.’ Perl wagged her tail furiously. She had a long, intelligent face and almost looked like she was smiling at me.

I looked up at Theo. He glanced through a door to my left, where the thickset man I’d seen at the window was staring at us.

Theo saw I’d noticed. ‘Er . . . that’s Roy.’ He shut the front door and propelled me towards the stairs. The dogs scampered after us.

I wanted to ask who Roy was, but Theo clearly didn’t want to talk about him.

We climbed the stairs. ‘Did you get it okay?’ Theo said. His voice was low. It sent a shiver down my spine.

I nodded. ‘It was fine. My dad was out and I don’t think Mum suspected anything.’ I shrugged the backpack off my shoulders as we reached the first floor. A long corridor stretched ahead of us, doors leading off on both sides – books and bags and dirty clothes were strewn all over the carpet. ‘The computer’s in here.’ I handed Theo the bag.

‘Thanks.’ He stared at me. ‘I really, really appreciate you doing this.’

I looked at the floor, embarrassed, not sure what to say. Then the smaller dog ran up again, licking at my hand.

‘What did you say they were called?’ I said, bending down to stroke him.

‘Java and Perl. They’re named after computer programs. They only understand computer-speak. If you want them to fetch stuff you have to tell them to defrag it. And check this out.’ Theo leaned down and picked up a pink-and-white sock that lay on top of a heap of dirty washing next to us.

‘Virus. This is a virus,’ he said, holding the sock out to the dogs. He threw it into the air above their heads. ‘Okay. Delete the virus.’

Perl and Java leaped for the sock. Each grabbed an end in their mouth and tugged hard. In seconds the sock was torn to shreds.

‘Wow,’ I said, transfixed by the dogs. ‘They’re amazing.’ It was strange. All those anxieties I’d had. And now being here with Theo just seemed like the most natural thing in the world. He turned away from the dogs and smiled at me. A warm, generous, beautiful smile.

I could feel my heart liquefying and sliding into a puddle at his feet.

‘Come on,’ he said, patting the bag. ‘Let’s take this to Max.’

I followed him along the corridor. With any luck Max would be so geeky that he’d get completely wrapped up in hacking into Dad’s computer and leave me and Theo to talk.

Not that I could think of anything to say.

Not that Theo would ever, ever be interested in me.

Perl and Java raced past us, barking happily as they bounded into a room at the end of the corridor. Theo stood back to let me go past him. The room was as messy as the corridor outside. Overflowing with wires and headphones and computer games, with heaps of clothes scattered across the floor. A pair of lemon-yellow curtains fluttered at the dusty window. A hunched-over figure was sitting at the desk in the corner, mostly hidden behind two precariously balanced stacks of DVDs and mini-disks.

‘Max,’ Theo said. ‘This is Rachel.’

The figure uncurled itself and stood up.

Close-cropped, white-blonde hair. Pale, pinched face. Long, skinny legs in tight, massively ripped jeans.

My mouth dropped open.

Max was a girl.

I pulled the laptop out of the bag and shoved it at Max. She took it, then just stood there, staring at Rachel.

‘Max,’ I muttered. Why did she have to glare like that? I knew Max so well I didn’t often stop to think about how strange she must look to someone who’d never met her before, with those jeans she always wore that were more rip than denim and her stony black eyes that bored into you.

Rachel was blushing, her forehead shining with sweat.

‘D’you want a drink?’ I said. ‘Give Max a chance to examine the hard drive.’

‘Yes, thanks.’ Rachel smiled shyly at me. Then she turned back to Max. ‘You won’t . . . I mean, the computer . . . it won’t show that you’ve been looking or . . .’

‘Course not.’ Max sniffed impatiently. ‘Your dad’ll never know anyone’s been anywhere near it.’

‘But he has a password,’ Rachel stammered. ‘I don’t know what it is. Will you . . . I mean, how are you going to get past that?’

I could see Max bristling. She hates it when people question her hacking abilities. ‘If I told you I’d have to kill you,’ she said, completely straight-faced.

Rachel was now looking utterly freaked out.

‘Hah, hah,’ I said. ‘Hilarious, Max.’ I raised my eyes at Rachel. ‘Don’t worry. Passwords are one of Max’s specialities.’

Max shook her head dismissively and shunted the laptop onto the desk. ‘I’m looking for emails between this Richard Smith guy and someone called Lewis. Yeah?’

I nodded, ushering Rachel towards the door. ‘We’ll be back in a minute,’ I said.

I took Rachel downstairs to Max’s kitchen. She gazed round the room, her mouth falling open at the sight of the dirty plates piled up on every surface. It was a bit of a mess. Max’s mum’s an artist. Spends most of her time in her studio, painting and stuff. She’s not massively into housework. And I doubt if Max even knows where the washing-up liquid is kept.

I walked over to the sink and rinsed out a couple of glasses.

‘Water okay?’ I said.

Rachel nodded.

We sipped our drinks in silence for a few moments. Rachel was still looking around, frowning.

‘How . . . er . . . how do you know Max?’ she said. ‘Does she go to your school?’

I laughed. ‘No way. Mine’s just a boys’ school. Max and I’ve known each other since we were at nursery. Our mums met when we were little. Max and I are . . . we’re like baby friends. I mean she’s a bit weird. But she’s all right underneath. Like my sister or something.’

For some reason this made Rachel smile. A big smile that lit up her whole face. It was the first time I’d seen her appear anything other than worried or embarrassed. For a couple of seconds she looked really pretty. Then she blushed and dipped her head.

The doorbell rang and the dogs started barking again.

‘I’ll go,’ I yelled, unnecessarily. Like Max or her mum would even
hear
the bell.

I strolled down the corridor and restrained Perl and Java again while I opened the door.

Jake stood on the other side. He grinned at me. ‘Both your birds here, then?’

Fantastic. Jake in full-on, babe-magnet mode.

Just what I needed.

‘Stop it,’ I hissed. But Jake pushed past me and the two dogs and strode over to the stairs. He had come with me to visit Max several times. I was pretty sure he had a fairly big crush on her. It was always hard to tell with Jake, of course, what with his habit of fancying anything that moved. But I knew he loved the way Max was always rude to him. Sometimes I wondered what Jake would do if a girl ever actually encouraged him. Probably collapse from shock.

‘Hey, Max,’ Jake called up the stairs. ‘Wanna game of Deathmaster Battleground later? Bet I can kick your arse at it.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Max’s shout dripped with sarcasm. ‘I’m quaking.’

Undeterred, Jake spun round and mouthed, ‘Where’s Rachel?’ at me.

I nodded towards the kitchen. ‘Be cool,’ I mouthed back.

Rachel was sitting at the kitchen table – which was covered with magazines and pencil sketches and old mugs of coffee – still sipping her water.

She looked up at Jake.

‘Hey there, Rachel,’ he said in what I knew was his attempt at a smooth and sophisticated voice. He slipped along the bench at the table until he was sitting directly opposite her. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘You have really pretty eyes.’

For God’s sake
.

I shuddered and marched over to the sink to pour myself some more water. Rachel said nothing. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her staring down at the table. She looked embarrassed. I suddenly felt massively annoyed with Jake. It was all very well him making a prat of himself with girls we didn’t know at Starbucks. But Rachel was doing me a huge favour here.

‘Hey, Jake,’ I said fiercely. ‘Why don’t you—?’

‘Theo.’ I looked round. Max was standing in the doorway, grinning. ‘I’ve done it. Come and see.’

We followed Max upstairs to her room.

‘Richard Smith had deleted the email but I found it on the hard drive,’ Max explained. ‘He used a standard one hundred and twenty-eight-bit symmetric encryption.’

I stared blankly at her.

‘High end for a domestic user, but fairly straightforward.’ She ran over to the computer and jiggled the mouse. ‘Look.’

Rachel, Jake and I lined up next to each other, peering over her shoulder at the email on the screen.

The email ended by giving the false name and school I’d told to Rachel’s parents.

My heart thudded. Apollo? Was that me? Why was Mr Smith referring to me by some weird code name? And what did ‘that time’ refer to?

‘Well,
that
makes sense.’ Jake snorted.

I glanced at Rachel. ‘D’you understand any of it?’

Rachel shrugged. She was staring intently at the email. ‘Well Apollo is obviously you. And Artemis must be me. But why? And what is there to find out about me?’ She paused. ‘It would help if we knew what the names meant. I mean, Apollo and Artemis are two of the Greek gods, obviously, but . . .’ She bit her lip.

Max twisted round. ‘Obviously,’ she mouthed up at me, sarcastically.

‘Gods of what?’ I said, ignoring Max.

Rachel shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’ She hesitated, like there was something on her mind she wasn’t saying.

‘Okay.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Well, we can look up about the gods on the internet. But maybe the whole thing will make sense if we know who your dad was sending the email to. Who this Lewis is.’

‘I already checked that out,’ Max said. ‘The recipient’s email address is masked but I’ve got the header. Lewis Michael. He’s working out of an ordinary domestic account. But I ran a check on the name and I’m almost sure he’s connected to this organisation called RAGE. Quite a high-ranking member, I reckon. Does that help?’

My mind flickered back to the newspaper report I’d found on the internet at the library. RAGE. The Righteous Army against Genetic Engineering. The same group who’d blown up the clinic where Dad worked. Who’d killed nine people and sent Dad into hiding.

‘What is it, Theo?’ Rachel said.

I caught Jake’s eye. I could see he was remembering the newspaper article too.

‘RAGE is this extreme group that’s against genetic research,’ I said. ‘This extremely violent group. They blew up that clinic your dad and mine both worked in.’

‘But why’s my dad emailing them?’ Rachel frowned at me. I saw this awful look of realisation dawn in her eyes. ‘You don’t think he’s . . .? He couldn’t be.’

Long pause.

‘He wasn’t there that day. At the clinic.’ My voice sounded strained.

The whole world seemed to shrink to Rachel’s horrified eyes. Like we both knew the truth and neither of us wanted to face it.

But we had to.

‘Your dad was the only person who worked at the clinic who survived the firebomb without becoming a RAGE target,’ I said flatly.

‘That doesn’t mean . . .’ Rachel’s eyes widened. ‘You can’t be saying my dad was involved in killing all those people?’

I looked at a spot on the wall next to her face.

‘But
your
dad was there,’ she whispered. ‘You’re saying my dad killed your dad.’

There was a horrible silence. I knew Rachel was staring at me. I couldn’t meet her eyes.

Then Jake put his arm round her shoulders.

‘No way, babe,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Didn’t Theo tell you? His dad’s still alive.’

I couldn’t take it in. I stood there stupidly, my mouth open, just staring up at Theo. ‘Your dad isn’t dead?’ I said.

His face went red. He wouldn’t look at me. Couldn’t look at me.

I dimly registered his friend Jake’s hand resting lightly on my shoulder.

My attention was mostly on what Theo had just said, my mind ricochetting between the news that his dad – James Lawson – was alive and the suggestion that my dad could have ever, ever have had anything to do with blowing up that clinic.

But a part of my mind was horribly aware of the hand too. It felt awkward and wrong and embarrassing, just like it had when Jake had stared at me in the kitchen, earlier.

I shrank my arm down a little. The hand dropped away.

Theo slowly met my eyes and I knew. He’d lied to me. I’d stolen Dad’s laptop and let his stupid weirdo hacker friend get all over it like a rash. I’d even put up with her staring at me like I was a bit of dirt.

And Theo had lied to me.

It didn’t really matter what about or why. I could feel the itchy tingling of tears behind my eyes and nose. I grabbed the laptop and strode out of the room, down to the front door. I pulled it open and started running along the pavement. I’d left my backpack behind, but right then I didn’t care. I felt so stupid for trusting Theo. I just wanted to get as far away from him as possible.