Dangerous Games (11 page)

I was alone.

There was a ping from the lift. The mechanism rolled to a stop and the lift doors slid open. They were coming. The forces of order were coming.

H
eavy footfalls came down the hallway. My heart hammered in my chest. I tried to make my body work – or my powers – but everything was numb. A sense of misery and despair engulfed me as I realised that this was it, this was my life, and it was over now, and it seemed deeply unfair that it should end like this.

But then the feet stopped on the threshold of the office, and from my position on the floor behind the partition I saw the shadows jump crazily as someone swung a torch around. For one long, agonising moment I waited, thinking:
don't come in here! Don't come in here!
And at last, to my immeasurable relief, the feet moved away, and after a moment I heard the lift doors roll open again, and the security guard stepped into the lift and went safely back down to wherever it was he had come from.

My luck had held! I was safe, I hadn't been neutralised! But as the immediate relief wore off, I realised I was in just as much danger as before. The security guard hadn't spotted me but the forces of order were still out there.
That stupid laptop had sent out a warning to its owner. Sooner or later, someone would be coming.

I lay there in the darkness, my ears straining for the slightest sound. The building hummed and popped and sighed. I heard water trickle somewhere. A motor ran, and then stopped. The secret life of the building whirred on and there was nothing I could do except lie there, listening to the blood rushing in my ears. (At least the booby-trap hadn't stopped my heart and lungs, otherwise I'd be dead.) And as the minutes ticked by, a horrible dread crept into my heart. Just supposing I did manage to make it out of here, what if Finn was wrong and this paralysis wasn't temporary? What if I was going to be trapped like this, a mind inside a breathing, but motionless, body, for the rest of my life? They'd have to put me in a nursing home and feed me through a tube. And I'd be stuck there with my thoughts and no way to express them. I'd be worse off than the guy who wrote books with his left foot, or the other guy who wrote by blinking. I couldn't even blink.

And the longer I lay there, the more desperate and lonely and miserable I began to feel. After all Finn had said about looking out for each other and being a team, he'd just walked away and left me. If the positions had been reversed I never would have left him behind. I had no idea what I would have done, but I would have done
something
. I wouldn't have just walked away.

But Finn had abandoned me. Fear crept through me, choking me; the tears welled up and spilled down my cheeks and into the carpet. Not that I could even feel the
carpet – or the tears. I couldn't feel anything. If I ever got out of here Finn was going to be so dead.

If
I ever got out of here.

Minutes swelled into hours. My paralysis was total. Finn did not return.

And then I heard a stealthy click.

My heart started to race again. Was this it? Had the forces of order finally come for me? Or had Finn returned?

Whoever it was crept into the office and paused, looking around. My heart accelerated to a crescendo. Finn wouldn't have to look around. Finn knew exactly where he'd left me. It had to be the forces of order.

I heard the footsteps coming closer, closer. I waited helplessly for the final blow to fall, but then I saw a familiar pair of beaten-up trainers and Ben dropped to his knees beside me.

‘What happened?' he asked. ‘I got your distress call.'

I must have managed to get off one quick call before my powers were cut off.

‘What are you doing here?' he asked. ‘Are you okay?'

But I couldn't say anything. My powers were still as numb as my body. He caught me up and looked into my eyes, and I could see the panic in his face.

‘They didn't get you, did they? Melissa? Can you hear me?'

He stared desperately into my eyes, and I thought,
he thinks I've been neutralised
. But Ben must have glimpsed something, some stirring of the living me, because he said, ‘It's okay Melissa, I'm going to get you out of here. It's going to be okay.'

He pulled me into his arms and staggered to his feet. ‘You need to lay off the choccy bikkies, mate,' he said. And I knew he was scared, but he was pretending he wasn't for my sake, and I was so grateful to him I wanted to cry.

He carried me out of the office and down the hallway and into the stairwell, and somehow, with a lot of pauses and rests and panting and struggling, he got me down all ten flights of stairs. He made a lot of noise – he couldn't help it – and I kept expecting the security guard to come looking for us. But somehow we made it to the ground floor toilet undetected.

‘Hmm,' Ben said, studying the window I'd crawled through with Finn. I was still completely floppy; there was no way I was getting through that window under my own steam. ‘Tricky.'

Ben hoisted me into the cubicle. He rested my shoulders on the lid of the toilet seat and tried pushing me out feet first, but I sagged in the middle and jack-knifed onto the floor, donking my head on the porcelain. Not that I could feel it, of course.

Ben looked down at me, stricken. ‘Sorry,' he said. ‘Okay, let's try this the other way.'

He balanced me on my feet and then steered my head and shoulders out the window. This time momentum was working with us, not against us, and he managed to slide me through the window and out into the night, keeping a grip on my legs so he could lower me out. But then I got too heavy and he lost his hold on me. I toppled out the window and into a puddle, and I felt the sting of cold water on my cheek and it was so exciting
that I didn't care that it smelt like rubbish bins and it was all over me. Later I would care. But not now.

Ben scrambled out the window after me, and I wished there was some way to communicate to him that I had just felt something, and I tried to widen my eyes or blink or look a little bit more animated so he'd notice. But he didn't notice.

‘My car's not too far,' he said, and lifted me up again, slinging one of my arms around his shoulders, and half-carried, half-dragged me down the alley and out into the street.

‘If anyone asks,' he said, puffing, ‘just pretend you're drunk.'

He was parked right out front. If there were agents of order anywhere nearby we would have made an easy target, but the streets were utterly deserted.

Finn's car was nowhere in sight. I wondered if he'd led the agents of order away, like he promised, or if he'd simply shot through.

Ben dropped me into the passenger seat and strapped me in. According to the clock on the dashboard it was now well after midnight. I had been alone in the office for more than two hours.

Ben got into the driver's seat, but then inspiration seemed to desert him. ‘I don't know what to do now,' he said. ‘Do I take you to hospital, take you home … ?' He stared at me, helpless. ‘I don't even know what happened to you.' He hesitated a moment longer then said, ‘I'm taking you to Casualty. I've got no idea what I'm going to tell them, but I guess I'll think of something.'

And he started the car and began to drive. But he
never did have to work out what to say to the casualty doctors, because the effects of the booby-trap gradually began to wear off. First my cheek began to tickle like there were caterpillars walking on it. Then I felt my eyelid start to twitch. Sensation began to spread, up my forehead, into my ear, through my hairline, and down to my jaw, down to my lips, which began to tingle, and into my tongue.

‘I can talk!' I said – or tried to say. It came out more like slurpy moany sounds.

Ben jumped. ‘Hey! You can talk!' he said.

He pulled over to the side of the road. ‘Are you okay? Did the agents get you? What happened?'

‘It was a booby-trap,' I said, but I still sounded like someone had melted my tongue. Drool was leaking out my mouth and down my chin.

‘What?'

I tried to tell him what had happened but it took several more minutes before I could speak clearly enough to make myself understood.

‘That office,' I said finally, ‘it's a secret agents of order base. They keep all the records there. Me and Finn were trying to steal the information.'

A look of irritation crossed Ben's face. ‘Finn,' he repeated in disgust.

‘It was all on a laptop and the laptop was booby-trapped,' I said. ‘As soon as I touched it I was paralysed.'

‘And where's Finn now?'

‘I don't know,' I said.

‘What, he just left you there?'

‘He said he'd be back for me.'

A sob welled up from somewhere deep in my chest, and then another and another, and I started to cry and then I couldn't stop.

‘Hey,' Ben said, and folded me in his arms, and I let him hug me until the smell of my own clothes from the puddle in the alleyway got too disgusting and I pulled away from him.

‘I stink,' I said.

‘So what?' Ben said, and gave me his familiar crooked smile. But it wasn't a happy smile. Ben was mad. Really mad.

‘I can't believe he just left you there like that,' he said. ‘Wait till I get my hands on him, I'm going to sort him out.'

‘No,' I said, ‘it wasn't his fault –'

‘Not his fault? Who dragged you there in the first place?'

‘I didn't have to go,' I said.

‘Yeah, right,' Ben said angrily, ‘when he turned up talking big and flattering you and talking about how much he needs you and how great you are, you're definitely going to say:
no thanks I'm not going
.'

I didn't like this picture of myself very much. ‘It was my choice,' I said crossly. ‘I knew the risks.'

Ben made a frustrated noise. ‘You're unbelievable,' he said. ‘The guy leaves you for dead and you're defending him?'

‘I'm not
defending
him,' I said, but then couldn't think what to say next.

‘Fine. Whatever.' Ben started the car and put it into gear with an angry crunch. ‘If you want to keep hanging
out with Finn, that's up to you. But that's it for me – I'm done. Next time he gets you into trouble, you're on your own. I'm not bailing you out again.'

‘So – what? I have to choose between you and him?'

‘Yes,' Ben said simply.

I couldn't believe it. After all we'd been through, could Ben really cut me off so easily?

Apparently he could.

We drove the rest of the way home in silence.

Ben pulled up outside my house, but he wouldn't look at me. I started to get out of the car, and then I remembered that I hadn't actually thanked him for rescuing me yet. ‘Thanks for coming to get me,' I said.

Ben gave me a look that I couldn't decipher, then shook his head and drove away.

Everything was dark and silent as I crept up the drive and round the back of the house. I eased one leg over my bedroom windowsill and was about to ease the other one over when
bam
! The room was flooded with light and I saw my father sitting there in his pyjamas waiting for me.

‘Where have you been?' he thundered.

‘W
ell –' I began, but then couldn't think of anything sensible to say.

Mum appeared, pulling on her dressing gown. ‘What happened to you?' she demanded. ‘What's that on your clothes? You smell like you've been crawling through a sewer.'

‘Oh,' I said. ‘That.'
Curses
! ‘I've been – out.'

My brother Jason appeared in his dinosaur pyjamas. ‘You are so busted!' he crowed.

‘Jason, back to bed!' Mum snapped.

‘You're going to be grounded till the end of time!' Jason said.

‘Bed! Now! I mean it!'

My brother made a loser sign with his finger and thumb and retreated, sniggering.

‘We can see you've been out,' Dad said, folding his arms across his chest. ‘Where?'

Where
? ‘Soph and I went to a movie. With a friend. And their car broke down and we had to push it and I fell down in a puddle.'

‘Long movie, was it?' Dad said. It was after 1 am.

‘We had to wait for the road service people. They took ages.'

‘So who is this friend you and Soph went to the movies with?' Mum asked. ‘With their own car?'

‘It wasn't so much a friend,' I said. ‘Actually it was Celeste's sister.'

Dad and Mum both had their arms crossed now. ‘Do you think we were born yesterday?' Dad asked.

‘Soph's parents rang here looking for her. They thought she was out with you,' Mum said. ‘And I told them she wasn't and then I discovered
you
weren't here. So where were you?'

Oh man. This was bad. This was very bad.

‘Like I said, we all went to the movies with Celeste and her sister and the car broke down. And I don't know where you think we were, but wherever it is, you're wrong.'

Mum looked exasperated. ‘You seriously expect us to believe you were out until one in the morning with Celeste and her sister?'

‘Yes!'

‘So why didn't you tell us where you were going?'

‘We weren't sneaking out to see boys, if that's what you think,' I said. ‘Do I look like I'm dressed for a date?'

‘No, you look like you're dressed for breaking and entering,' Mum said, looking at me through narrowed eyes.

‘So where were you really?' Dad said.

‘How many times do I have to say it?' I said. ‘We went to the movies.'

‘And Soph will confirm that if we ask her, will she?' Mum asked.

‘Of course,' I said, thinking I'd better send her a text quick smart.

‘Right,' Mum said, sounding bright and shrill. ‘Let's go and ask her, shall we?'

I was horrified. ‘You can't ring her now,' I said. ‘It's 1 am.'

‘No kidding,' Mum said grimly.

‘But – but –'

Mum walked into the hallway and picked up the phone. I watched as she began to dial, unwilling to believe she'd really go through with it. But she could be hard as nails, my mum, and her blood was up. It was time to come clean – or at least to change my story. Obviously there was no way I could tell them the
real
story.

‘All right,' I said, ‘if you really must know, I was out with Ben.'

Mum put the phone down and turned to stare at me. ‘Ben?'

‘He invited me to a thing,' I said.

‘What kind of “thing”?' Mum asked.

‘Sort of a party. Well, it wasn't really a party. It was more of a gathering. A very casual, hanging out kind of – gathering.'

‘So what's that all over your clothes?'

‘The backyard was very dark and I fell over in the compost.'

Mum took in a deep nostril-flaring breath and then let it out again. ‘So why didn't you just ask us if you could go?'

‘I don't know,' I said.

‘Is it because you thought if you were honest about
where you were going we wouldn't have let you go?'

‘It was a very, very casual thing,' I protested. ‘Very low-key. And I was with Ben.'

My parents trusted Ben. They thought he had a good head on his shoulders. It was enough to put you off a guy, they liked him so much.

‘That's why I'm so puzzled about why you felt you had to sneak out,' Mum said. She knew my story didn't add up but she couldn't quite work out which bit of it wasn't true. ‘So did Soph come with you to this very low-key gathering?'

What could I say? If I said yes I might be able to get Soph off the hook by pretending she'd only come out to keep me company. But what if she'd already told her parents something else? But no – she'd planned to use me as her alibi. If she'd been found out she probably would have stuck to her story and said she was with me – somewhere.

‘Yes,' I said.

‘I see,' Mum said, and reached for the phone again.

‘What are you doing?' I protested.

‘I promised Soph's parents we'd let them know as soon as you got home,' Mum said. Soph's parents picked up. ‘I'm sorry to call so late. She's here.'

Dad and I listened in silence as Mum exchanged terse parental words with Soph's dad.

‘With Ben, apparently. A very low-key gathering. No, I don't think so. Yes, I will. Yes, I will. Oh, don't worry, I will. Bye.'

Mum hung up and turned to me with a face like thunder. ‘Soph got home at eleven-thirty,' she said
menacingly. ‘So where were you for the last hour and a half?'

I gulped. This was going to take some explaining. ‘Look,' I said in a conciliatory voice, ‘it wasn't meant to get so late. Ben was planning to have me home well before eleven. But then his heap-of-junk car wouldn't start, and the roadside assistance guys took forever – and I
know
I should have just called you and asked you to come and pick me up, but then you'd know I sneaked out, so I thought I'd just wait and – I wasn't up to no good. It was all just stupid.'

This was a much better quality lie – rueful, apologetic, sensible. Dad looked sort of mollified, but Mum was still ropeable.

‘You're only fourteen! What are you doing sneaking out to parties?'

‘It wasn't a party, we were just hanging out.'

‘But why did you sneak out in the first place?' Mum asked.

I squirmed and looked at the floor. ‘Because I thought it'd be fun,' I said.

Mum took a deep breath that pinched her nostrils together. She was still really, really mad. ‘So,' she said. ‘You and Soph went to this party with Ben, is that right?'

‘Yes,' I said.

‘You didn't go with somebody else?'

‘Like who?'

‘Someone Soph knows?'

‘Mum, you're being a bit mysterious.'

‘Don't get cheeky with me,' Mum growled. ‘Soph's
parents think she might have a boyfriend, and you're covering for her.'

‘Soph?' I said. ‘No.'

‘You're sure?'

‘Hey,' I said. ‘Who got home at 1 am, me or her?'

Mum and Dad exchanged an alarmed look.

‘Not that anything happened,' I added. ‘Me and Ben are just friends.'

‘I don't know what to say to you, Melissa,' Mum said. ‘I thought you were more sensible than this, I really did.'

‘I am sensible,' I protested.

‘Oh, come on,' Mum said.

Dad smothered a yawn.

‘I never thought I was going to have to say this,' Mum said. ‘But you're grounded for the next month.'

‘The next
month
!' I squawked.

‘And when we do let you go out again, we're going to drop you off at a set time and pick you up at a set time, and if you're not exactly where we expect you to be at all times, there'll be consequences.'

‘Oh Mum!'

‘You're lucky it's not worse,' Mum said angrily. ‘We had no idea where you were. For all we knew, you could've been dead in a gutter. We were expecting the police to come knocking on our door! You're lucky you're not shackled to the bedroom wall! How could you do something so stupid?'

Protesting had definitely been a mistake. Mum was losing it.

‘Hand over that phone!' she said.

‘What?'

Mum put her hand out for it. ‘You get it back at the end of the month.'

‘But – but how am I supposed to communicate without it?'

‘You can talk to your friends at school,' Mum said crisply, ‘or you can ring them on the home phone. Now give it here.'

Reluctantly I pulled my phone from my pocket and handed it over. I hadn't had one for very long but it felt like I was handing over a limb.

‘All right,' Dad said. ‘We're all tired. It's time we all went to bed.' He looked at me. ‘And this time, we expect you to stay in it.'

I would've rolled my eyes, but I thought it might set my mother off again, so I didn't.

My parents shut the door and headed off to bed. I peeled off my stinky clothes and got into my nightie. Grounded for a
month
. It was so unfair! Not that it was actually going to make a lot of difference – now that me and Soph weren't speaking my weekends were going to be even quieter than they'd been before. But still, it was one thing not having much to do, and quite another knowing you were locked up in the house and couldn't go anywhere. Especially now they'd taken my phone away from me. It was like being a political prisoner.

And without my phone I couldn't even send Soph a text to warn her about what had happened. How were we supposed to get our stories straight?

More importantly, how was I supposed to convince her that I hadn't got her into trouble on purpose?