The Midnight Mercenary (2 page)

‘Is that
you
, Charlie?' his mum called hesitantly. Then, ‘Karolos Floros!' followed by a torrent of angry Greek.

On the sofa, Lady Naomi reached up to her neck. A moment later, her whole body flickered and disappeared, and Amelia saw Charlie sitting in her place, a small brass object clutched between his fingers.

It was a holo-emitter – one of the devices Tom used to disguise all the alien guests who stayed at the hotel.

So he's finally worked out how to use it,
Amelia thought.
Great.

‘Oh, Charlie,' said Mum sadly, but she was looking at James.

James stood up, his face red again, but this time with fury. Charlie was still laughing to himself, ignoring his mum and apparently quite unaware that James was about to go volcanic.

Amelia had never seen James so mad. He drew back his fist as though he were about to punch Charlie, but – though Charlie almost deserved it – he lowered it again and yelled instead.

‘You pathetic, thieving scumbag! You went into my room? You went through my things? You stole that –' He broke off, making a grab for the holo-emitter.

Charlie twisted away, but he finally stopped laughing and looked up at James. It seemed to take a second or two for him to work out just how mad James really was. Amelia watched Charlie's face slide from confusion, to surprise, to a certain wide-eyed realisation that clearly said
uh-oh …

But rather than yelling at Charlie again, James turned instead on Mum. ‘You see?' he bellowed. ‘You dragged me out to Bum-Crack Bay, away from all my friends, away from everything good for
this?
' He pointed at Charlie in disgust.

Mum was silent.

Amelia ground her teeth. James was doing the same thing he'd been doing ever since they'd first arrived here: getting angry as an excuse for ignoring the facts. Nearly a month in the hotel, a month surrounded by alien technology and alien wormholes – not to mention the aliens themselves – and James had spent the whole time trying desperately to convince himself that none of it was actually happening. Bizarrely, he'd even spent a few days tinkering with this holo-emitter as a way of distracting himself from reality.

And now he was doing the same thing all over again, concentrating as hard as he could on the one thing he could deal with (they had moved house) to avoid facing the truth: that he had just seen genuine alien technology at work.

Charlie, meanwhile, was sitting frozen, as though hoping that if he stayed still enough, James would forget he was there. Amelia didn't know who to feel sorrier for. On the other hand, it was also hard to tell who was being the bigger jerk.

But before things had the chance to escalate any further, a flash of lightning lit up the room, making their candles seem pale for an instant, and Amelia saw the face of a grizzled old man through the glass of the library's French doors. He was streaming with water, his grey hair flat to his head, and his black eye-patch stark against his skin. As the thunder boomed, he knocked three times using a hand that was missing a finger. He looked like the ghost of a drowned sailor.

Mary spun about with a little squeal of surprise.

‘Oh, for goodness sake,' said Mum. ‘Tom!'

‘Quickly, Amelia,' said Mum. ‘Let Tom in.'

Charlie, who was quick to recognise a good distraction when he saw one, had leapt off the sofa and was already halfway to the doors. Tom, although under the shelter of the hotel's veranda, was standing in the middle of his own personal puddle. Water dribbled off his trousers.

‘Come in, Tom,' said Mum. ‘Dry off before you catch your death.'

Tom twitched at the words, although Amelia knew they only meant that Tom shouldn't risk a cold. ‘No time,' he said gruffly. He went to keep talking but stopped and frowned at Charlie beside him, and then at Amelia.

‘Can you get the power back on?' Mum asked. ‘Scott's usually faster than this with a fuse box.'

Tom rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and didn't answer.

‘Well?' Mum prompted.

Tom glanced at Charlie and Amelia again, and raised a helpless eyebrow at Mum.

‘I'm sorry,' she said briskly. ‘You came here to tell us something, not to be pestered with questions. What was it you needed?'

‘We've got guests coming,' said Tom.

A shiver sparked up Amelia's back. If Tom knew about the guests first, that meant they were aliens, travelling through a wormhole in space and arriving at the gateway in the caves under his cottage.

Mum sighed. ‘How many of them?'

‘And how long until they arrive?' Mary added.

According to hotel rules, off-world guests were supposed to send Tom a message at least a day or two in advance, to give Dad time to sort out the strange foods some aliens needed, and Mum and Mary time to sort out any special arrangements for the rooms.

‘An hour or two,' said Tom apologetically.

‘
What?
' said Mum.

‘And there will be about twenty of them.'

‘
How
many?' said Mary.

‘Mostly children,' said Tom. ‘Sorry.'

‘In a blackout!' Mum almost yelled. ‘Trekking through the rain and mud in the middle of the night, and we can't offer them so much as a cup of hot tea, let alone a bath!'

Lightning flashed into the room, but no thunder followed. Amelia looked at Charlie, who quickly put his hands behind his back.

‘Yeah …' Tom looked awkward. ‘It was a bit of a last-minute thing …'

‘How can moving twenty-odd children across space be a last-minute thing?' Mum really was yelling now. ‘Why on Earth would anyone leave plans like that until the last –' She caught herself, realised something, and shook off her temper. ‘Right. Sorry, Tom,' she said calmly. ‘I just had a tiny little mental overload there for a second. I'm back now. So, what do you need us to do?'

‘I'm afraid I don't know,' he said warily. ‘There were no other details given.'

‘Right,' said Mum. ‘Very good. Thank you, Tom.'

As Tom turned to go, Amelia saw Charlie slip out into the lobby.

Not so fast, Charlie,
thought Amelia. He might be able to sneak off on the two mums, and maybe even outrun James for a while, but Amelia wouldn't let him go so easily.

The lobby was eerie in the half-dark. The candelabra that James had left lit up the reception desk well enough, but that only made the rest of the room feel darker, more echoing. Amelia looked instinctively toward the twin staircases, as though she might be able to see Charlie there, if only she looked hard enough. Her eyes ached with the darkness. She'd never realised how tiring it was to
not
see.

Behind her, she heard the main doors to the hotel creak open, and the sound of the rain grew louder. Charlie was going
out?

Grawk made that rumbling sound again, and Amelia followed the faint glow of his eyes toward the door. Standing on the threshold, not sure whether to go out into the night, she heard a voice call, ‘Tom! Tom!'

Amelia gasped. It was her
mother
.

‘Yes?' Tom called back, and Amelia heard his boots coming closer along the wooden veranda. ‘What is it, Skye?'

‘Just one thing,' Mum said. ‘You didn't want to say anything about the power. Why? What's wrong?'

Tom sucked in his breath, and for a long pause there was nothing but the sound of the rain. Amelia strained her ears as much as her eyes.

‘Skye, I don't know how to say this, but …'

‘What?'

‘I couldn't say anything in front of the kids …'

‘
What?
'

‘It's everything we feared, Skye.'

This time Mum's voice was shaky. ‘What?'

‘Keep the kids inside. Don't let them out of your sight for a moment.'

‘Why?' Mum sounded like a kid herself.

‘Another wormhole connected this evening, a couple of hours ago, and someone came through. It was –' Tom faltered. ‘Well, I've just received confirmation – it was Krskn.'

Amelia felt her heart lurch. She knew Krskn only by name – but every time she'd ever heard that name spoken, it was in anxious, fearful tones. Whenever anyone talked about danger coming through the gateway, whenever they talked about absolute, terrifying worst-case scenarios,
Krskn
was the name that came up.

‘He's
here?
' Mum said.

‘And he's cut the power,' said Tom. ‘Whatever he's here for, he wants us in the dark.'

‘OK,' said Mum, trying to rally. ‘OK. It's Krskn, and he's cut the power. OK. We can deal with that.'

‘I'm sorry, Skye. But that's not all.'

Amelia bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. Even more frightening than the thought of Krskn out there messing with them was the sorrow in Tom's voice. And then he said it:

‘I'm sorry, Skye. He's already got Scott.'

Amelia ran out of the hotel and immediately collided with someone. She felt Mum's hands catch her. ‘Where is he?' she yelled to Tom. ‘Where's my dad?'

‘Get her inside, Skye!' Tom bellowed. ‘Now!'

Amelia shoved at Mum, pushing against her in anger as she was dragged back into the lobby, leaving Tom outside. Mum's body flickered, disappeared and suddenly it was
Charlie
grabbing her fists and saying, ‘Shh! Stop it, Amelia, it's me!'

‘I know it's you, you creep!' she hissed, grasping for the holo-emitter. ‘How could you do that? Give it to me! I'm going to smash it –'

‘What's going on?' This time it really was her mum, silhouetted in the library doorway. ‘Amelia! What's happened?'

‘Dad's gone!' Amelia cried.

‘What? Gone where?' She hurried over to Amelia.

‘Krskn took him! I don't know where.'

Mum staggered slightly, but her voice was steady. ‘Krskn? Why do you think that?'

‘Tom said!' Amelia shouted, and then added viciously, ‘Ask Charlie – he's the one Tom told.'

‘Charlie?' his mum asked, confused but already suspicious. ‘Why would Tom –?'

‘It doesn't matter why,' Charlie said quickly. ‘Tom told us – told me,' he admitted, ‘that Krskn was here, that he cut the power, and he took Mr Walker.'

Mum was silent for several long seconds. In the dim candlelight of the lobby, Amelia could see her pale face frowning in concentration. Then her shoulders squared and she lifted her chin.

‘So,' said Mum. ‘Here's the situation: in an hour or so, more than twenty aliens, mostly children, will arrive at the hotel. For whatever reason, they gave us no real warning that they were coming. Now we have Krskn somewhere loose on the grounds, cutting our power and leaving us blind – I don't think it's too big a leap of logic to assume he's targeting the kids.'

‘Us?' Charlie gasped.

‘No, not you – the alien kids. Which means two things: one, these children need our protection. We must do everything we can to keep them safe.'