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You've got to be kidding me.

They stopped outside the school. I ducked down behind another garden bed.

Jordan turned to face Luke. They stood there talking like that for a couple of hours – or three minutes, I don't know – too quietly and too far away for me to hear what they were saying.

And then Jordan leant in and kissed him on the cheek.

Which just goes to show that there is no day so bad that someone can't come charging in and obliterate it completely.

‘Luke, you know how you and me are mates?' I said.

‘Yeah …' said Luke slowly.

We were out behind the gym, dodging the few kids who still hadn't had enough of us after the surveys last week. It was recess, the first chance I'd had to talk to Luke away from Jordan.

‘And you know how mates usually don't stab each other in the back by deliberately trampling over the one off-limits thing in their whole friendship?'

Luke took a swig from his water bottle. ‘I assume you're going somewhere with this.'

‘Yeah, I am,' I said. ‘What's up with you and Jordan?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Don't be an idiot,' I said. ‘I saw you two this morning.'

‘Oh,' said Luke. ‘No – Peter, that was nothing. She asked
me
to meet
her.
'

‘Right, of course,' I said. ‘So obviously that meant you had to buy her freakin' pastries.'

Luke closed his eyes. ‘That wasn't – I only did that because I owed her from last time.'

I don't know how he thought
that
was going to help his case.

‘Are you serious?' I said. ‘How long –?'

But I knew. Week before last. When Luke had been beat up by Crazy Bill. Jordan was there to see it.

‘Peter relax,' said Luke. ‘Seriously. You've got nothing to worry about. We were only – she just wanted to talk to me about something.'

‘About what?' I demanded.

But then Jordan burst out from around the corner. ‘There you are,' she said, looking frantic.

‘What?' said Luke. ‘What's wrong?'

‘Nothing,' said Jordan. ‘I just got an email from Mum. She's got a doctor's appointment first thing tomorrow morning.'

‘Okay,' I said, not really sure what I was supposed to do with that information.

‘I'm going with her,' said Jordan, rummaging through her bag.

‘What for?' I asked. ‘I mean, is this just, like, a mother-daughter thing, or –?'

‘No,' said Jordan. ‘It's an end-of-the-world thing.' She pulled out her
Time
magazine, flipped to the photo inside the medical centre, and pointed to the metal door at the edge of the frame.

‘Tomorrow morning, I'm going to find out what's in there.'

Chapter 12

T
UESDAY
, M
AY
26
79
DAYS

‘She's insane,' I said under my breath, pretending to write something historical as Mr Ranga walked past.

‘Yeah,' Luke whispered back. ‘I think you might have mentioned that already.'

In the last twenty-four hours, he and I had been keeping an uneasy truce about the whole Jordan thing. Actually, Luke was still saying he hadn't done anything wrong, so the truce was basically me deciding not to punch him.

I'd actually started to think that we had a decent shot at being mates. I mean, yeah, he was a bit of a dumb-arse sometimes, but this end-of-the-world stuff had kind of forced us together and, hey, I'm open-minded. But there were some lines you didn't cross.

Neither of us had seen Jordan before school this morning. She'd given us strict orders to stay right away from the medical centre. Didn't want to do anything to attract suspicion. But there'd been no sign of her at school either. And Tuesday mornings were double history for Luke and me, so the next time either of us could track Jordan down would be recess.

Assuming she'd even made it out of the medical centre in one piece.

‘Shouldn't have let her go,' I said.

‘
Let
her?' said Luke. ‘As if you could've stopped her.'

‘I could've negotiated.'

Luke snorted. ‘This is
Jordan
we're talking about.'

‘Listen mate, I can be very persuasive when I –'

‘Peter,' snapped Mr Ranga from across the room, finally realising that neither of us had done any work all lesson. ‘What's the answer to question seven?'

‘Um … Nazis?' I tried.

‘Nazis. That's your answer to the question:
What were some of the staple food sources of allied forces serving in World War II?
'

‘Just trying to think outside the box, sir,' I said.

A few people laughed, but unfortunately Mr Hanger is not what you'd call a think-outside-the-box kind of guy.

‘Would you like me to leave the room, sir?' I asked hopefully.

‘Actually,' he sneered, ‘I think a detention would be more appropriate. How does this afternoon work for you?'

Recess was almost over. Still no sign of Jordan.

‘This is not good,' said Luke, checking the time again.

‘You reckon?' I said, seriously re-evaluating my No Punching policy.

We were waiting down near the bike racks outside the maths block. She was meant to meet us here as soon as we all got out of class.

‘Maybe she went straight home with her mum,' said Luke.

‘She would have emailed,' I said distractedly, scanning the playground again. ‘Uh-oh.'

‘What?'

‘Pryor.' She was marching across the playground towards us, looking disturbingly happy. Never a good sign.

‘Run for it?' asked Luke.

‘No.'

‘But if Jordan's already –'

‘
No,
' I said. ‘Let's see what she wants.'

We walked out to meet her.

‘Morning, miss!' I said. ‘Have you got our next assignment for us?'

‘Come with me,' she said, veering back around toward her office.

We followed her back over the grass to the quad, kids stopping to gawk at us the whole way. Freckles and a few of her midget posse saw us coming and started charging over, probably armed with yet another page of suggestions for us. I glared at them and shook my head. They stopped, disappointed.

‘What's this about, miss?' I asked as we headed into the admin building.

No answer.

Pryor stopped in the doorway to Staples' office.

‘Mrs Stapleton,' she snapped. ‘I will tolerate
no
interruptions this morning. Is that clear?'

Without waiting for an answer, she swept off down the hall again, swiped her card, and let us into her office.

Luke glanced back over his shoulder. I could see exactly what he was thinking.

Last chance to bolt.

And then it was gone. Pryor reached past us and pulled the door closed.

I sat down in my usual plastic chair and immediately noticed a couple of new additions to the room.

Two shiny black security cameras peered down at us from opposite corners of the ceiling, green lights blinking.

Pryor cleared her throat and sat back in her seat.

‘We have your friend Jordan.'

The words were like a knife through my chest.

I felt the panic start to show.

No,
I ordered myself.
Keep it together.

‘Have her where?' I asked.

I glanced sideways at Luke. He was staring straight back at Pryor, face completely blank. Good boy.

‘In the security centre,' said Pryor, ‘where she is currently being questioned by Officer Calvin. I thought it was only fair to make you aware of this before we continued our discussion.'

‘Questioned about what, miss?' I said. ‘Has something –?'

‘With that in mind,' Pryor continued over the top of me, ‘I wonder if the two of you might be willing to answer a few questions for me.'

Play dumb. Play dumb and co-operate.

‘Of course, miss,' I said. ‘What do you want to know?'

‘Last Friday, a valuable item of property went missing from my office,' said Pryor. ‘I'd like you to tell me where it is.'

‘I don't know, miss,' I said. ‘Where did you have it last?'

‘In my desk drawer, Mr Weir,' said Pryor coldly, ‘shortly before it was
stolen.
'

‘Miss, you don't think –?'

‘It wasn't us, Ms Pryor,' said Luke earnestly. ‘We didn't –'

‘Miss Burke has already confessed to her involvement in the theft,' Pryor snapped. ‘She has also implicated yourself and Mr Weir.'

I felt the knife twist deeper, shredding my insides. If that was true –

If that was true, then what had he done to her to make her –?

‘Ms Pryor, what
is
this thing?' said Luke. ‘What are you saying we stole?'

Silence from Pryor. For a long moment we eyed each other across the desk.

‘I suggest you don't play games with me, Mr Hunter,' she said at last.

A tiny light clicked on in my brain.

She was lying. Jordan hadn't told them anything.

I'd had more than enough run-ins with the teachers in this place to realise when one of them was dodging a question. Clearly, Pryor suspected that we'd taken the phone. But right now, that was all it was. A suspicion. Otherwise she would've just come right out and said it.

That's why we were in here.

Now that they had Jordan, Pryor wanted to use her to get a confession out of us. I only hoped Luke wasn't dumb enough to take the bait.

‘Mr Weir,' said Pryor, suddenly shifting gears, ‘tell me, how is your father holding up after your excursion on Sunday?'

I didn't answer.

By yesterday afternoon, Dad had been back to his normal happy self. But he was still refusing to talk about our trip to the Shackleton Building, or about what had gone on afterwards. It was like none of it had ever happened.

Except that he still couldn't walk more than a few metres without holding onto something.

‘Don't want to talk about it?' asked Pryor. ‘Well, in any case, I'm sure he's learnt a valuable lesson about the importance of not overstepping one's boundaries.'

I grabbed onto the sides of my chair, and it was all that kept from reaching across the desk and punching her stupid face in.

Pryor narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Tell me where it is,' she demanded again.

I gave her a confused smile. ‘Where
what
is, miss?'

And suddenly, Pryor was on her feet, shouting down at me. ‘The phone, you idiot boy! The phone that you stole from my desk drawer! Where is it?'

I reeled back. But more shocking than the outburst itself was the unexpected edge to her voice. There was something there I'd never heard before, and it took me a sec to figure out what it was.

Fear. Pryor was
scared.

I thought of Dad limping home from the Shackleton Building, and wondered if Mr Shackleton might not have the same thing in store for Pryor when he found out she'd lost one of his top-secret phones.

Pryor tensed up a bit, like she realised what she'd let slip. But there was no point backing down now.

‘Tell me!' she shrieked, leaning right across the table. ‘Tell me what you've done with it, or your friend Jordan may find herself –'

‘What are you
talking
about?' Luke broke in, tears starting well in his eyes. ‘We haven't
touched
your phone! Why would we? Phones don't even
work
in this stupid town!'

Silence.

Pryor rested her hands on the table, heaving with rage, studying Luke intently.

He wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeve, breathing hard. Not a bad little performance.

‘Disappointing,' said Pryor, finally sitting back down in her seat, ‘I only hope that Ms Burke will be more co-operative.'

She reached over to pull a sheet of paper from her printer, and slid it across the table towards us.

‘Here is your second assignment,' she said coldly. ‘You are to have it completed by this time next week. I trust that this won't be too much for the two of you to manage?'

Chapter 13

T
UESDAY
, M
AY
26
79
DAYS

The next four hours gave me plenty of time to consider every possible meaning of the
two of you.

Pryor was just screwing with us. Had to be. They couldn't
really
have done anything to Jordan. Not if they wanted us all to keep thinking that everything was normal in this place.

They couldn't have a girl going into the security centre and coming out injured, or not coming out at all. It would raise too many questions.

Unless they're past that,
I thought.
Unless whatever they caught Jordan doing was bad enough to make them think hurting her was worth the risk.

I argued with myself all afternoon. By the time we made it back to the PE change rooms at the end of the day, my head was a mess and I could hardly see straight.

‘Hello? Peter?'

‘Huh?' I said, slipping back to reality.

‘I said
where to first?
' Luke whispered, crouching down to pull on his shoes. ‘Security centre?'

‘And do what? Ask Calvin if we can just pop in for a visit?'

‘Okay, fine,' said Luke. ‘So, what? Jordan's place?'

‘Not much else we can do,' I shrugged, spraying deodorant on over my shirt.

‘And if she's not there?'

‘Then we work something else out,' I said, wishing I could just do this by myself.

Ms Jeffery let us out of the gym and we ran to the maths block to get our bikes. It was total gridlock. I pulled my bike loose and charged through the crowd, almost knocking down a couple of morons who were standing around, talking. Seriously, just get your bike and go.