Blood Ties (27 page)

I didn’t need the warning. My heart was already in my throat as we took a taxi along wide open roads towards Washington. The taxi dropped us at some huge supermarket car park. Mothers with little kids kept arriving and parking, then disappearing inside the shop. The four of us waited by the exit – standing silently in the cold, sunny air. Even Simpson seemed tense. I asked what we were waiting for, but no one answered me.

Half an hour later I found out.

A grey van pulled slowly into the car park. It didn’t park properly, just did a loop and pulled up where we were waiting. Simpson opened one of the back doors a crack and bundled me inside. It was dark – I could hear breathing sounds, but I couldn’t make out any faces. I felt someone – Franks maybe, or Lewis – pushing in after me. I moved forwards and stepped on someone’s toe.

‘Sorry,’ I said.

‘Quiet,’ Simpson barked behind me. A hand on my arm guided me to the side of the van. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see that the van was lined with men sitting on benches. They all seemed to be wearing black, with black wool masks over their faces – completely covered apart from slits for eyes.

One of them squeezed sideways to let me sit down.

I could feel the press of his leg against mine. I wanted to shrink away, but there was literally nowhere to shrink to. Lewis, Simpson and Franks sat on the floor of the van between the two benches, the four small bags we had between us at their feet. The door slammed shut. Some kind of infrared light came on. I looked round the van interior. Altogether there were twenty men.

And each one held a handgun in his lap.

‘Daniel.’ I thumped my fists against the holographic wall panel. ‘Daniel. Let me in.’

Silence.

My heart raced. I had to get inside that hidden room. I had to talk to the little boy.

I peered closely through the holographic trees. Behind the panel I could just make out another room. Low tables and little chairs. Daniel standing beside them. I thumped the panel again, so hard it shook.

‘Daniel,’ I shouted. ‘If you don’t let me in Elijah will be cross.’

This seemed to do the trick.

‘You can let yourself in.’ He sounded sulky, but scared.

‘How?’

‘There’s a number pad. You have to put in numbers.’

I bent down and found the pad at the base of the wall. ‘Which numbers?’ I shouted.

‘050414,’ he called. ‘That’s my age and my birthday. I’m five, then the four is for April because it’s the number four month in the year. Elijah told me. And my birthday’s April fourteen.’

I pressed in the numbers. The panel opened.

Daniel was backing away from me across the room. His eyes were big and round. I looked round quickly. There were two low kids’ tables. Four little chairs round each one. But it wasn’t any kind of kids’ room. Nothing on the walls. And a desk and filing cabinets down the left-hand wall.

I glanced down at Daniel. Mum had a picture of me at about the same age on a shelf in our living room. My hair had maybe been a bit longer, but otherwise we looked identical. There was no doubt that he was another clone of Elijah.

Daniel stared back at me defiantly. I suddenly realised how scared he was. Scared of me. I smiled and squatted down so I was closer to his height.

‘How old are you?’ I said.

‘I just told you,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m five. Five and four-sixths.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘I learned fractions the other day. I’m the only one in the research group who understands them. Brad Cummins can’t even count above thirty.’

I raised my eyebrows, wondering if Elijah’s brains had finally found their way to the surface of his DNA. Not to mention his arrogance. Although . . .

‘Wouldn’t that be two-thirds, not four-sixths?’ I grinned.

Daniel made a goofy face, twisting his mouth and crossing his eyes. ‘What’s your name?’ he said.

‘Theo.’ I sat down on the floor. ‘I know Elijah too.’

Daniel nodded solemnly. ‘Everyone does.’

There was a pause.

‘Do you live here?’ I said.

Daniel nodded again.

‘With your mum and dad?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t have a mommy or a daddy. I have Kelsey. She looks after me. We live through there. Elijah comes too, sometimes. Kelsey’s asleep.’ He pointed to a door on the opposite wall. My heart leaped. The door must lead to the rest of Elijah’s apartment. Maybe even another way out.

Daniel made a goofy face again. ‘You won’t tell Elijah I was out here, will you? I’m not supposed to unless someone’s with me.’

‘Sure.’ I thought rapidly. ‘Hey, Daniel. Tell me about the research group you’re in.’

Daniel wandered over to one of the little tables and reached across to the pot of pens that stood on top of it.

‘What do you have to do?’ I said.

Daniel picked out a red felt-tip pen. ‘Different things.’ He held the pen out in front of him and squinted down its length like a gun.

‘Okay.’ The holographic wall panel was still open; Elijah’s room in plain view.
Jesus
, he could walk in at any second. ‘What did you do last time? Were you on your own?’

‘No.’ Daniel pointed his pen-gun at me. ‘There were six of us. We did drawing.’

This was hopeless.

‘
Bang
– you’re dead.’ Daniel grinned.

I put my hands in the air and fell over sideways. ‘Ya got me.’

Daniel appeared above my head. ‘I know what it’s called.’

I sat up. ‘You mean your research project?’

He nodded. ‘I saw the letters on the front. Elijah has a big book about it. I read the letters,’ he said proudly. ‘I can read better than anyone else in the research project. That’s because the project’s about me. Elijah told me.’

My heart skipped a beat. ‘What did the letters say?’

‘We-ell.’ Daniel pulled away and pointed the pen-gun at me again. ‘The first one was a hairy hat man.’

‘What?’ I stared at him, completely bewildered.

‘A “ha”.’

I scrambled over to the little table. I pulled a pen out of the pot and reached for a scrap of paper from the pile. I wrote down the letter H. ‘Did it look like that?’

Daniel nodded.

Yes
. I wrote the rest of the word. I showed Daniel.

‘Is this what it said on Elijah’s book?’

HERMES

Daniel shrugged. He lined up the pen-gun again. ‘Maybe.
Pow
. I think so. Hey, I said you were dead.’

Thump. Thump. Thump.
I jumped as a rapid series of knocks sounded on Elijah’s outer door.
Thump. Thump. Thump
.

My mind whirled. The Hermes Project was about Daniel. Hermes must be Daniel’s code name. Which meant it
was
connected to me. I was Elijah’s clone too.

Thump. Thump. Thump
.

‘Theo, if you’re in there, please open the door.’ Mel’s voice.

I scrambled to my feet. ‘Stay here,’ I hissed at Daniel.

‘PLEASE.’ The thumping was louder than ever. ‘THEO.’

Crap.
She’d have half the security staff here in a minute. Not to mention waking up Daniel’s nanny.

I strode back into Elijah’s living area and opened the door that led out onto the rest of the compound.

‘Mel?’

Her face was twisted with fear. ‘Theo, listen.’ She barged into the room. ‘Elijah knows you ran off. He’s looking for you. Looking for me. You have to go back to your room.’

‘No.’ I turned and pointed to the holographic wall panel. ‘See? There’s loads of hidden rooms through there,’ I said. ‘I need to look around. There might even be a back way out of the compound.’

‘Hi, Mel.’ Daniel ran out from behind the holographic panel, which swished shut behind him. He flew across the room and hurled himself into Mel’s arms.

‘Hi, Daniel,’ Mel said distractedly. ‘Theo, you—’

‘You
know
him?’ I stared at her, shocked. ‘You
knew
about him?’

Mel frowned. ‘Only that he’s in this research group of Elijah’s. Please come with—’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Fury tore through me.

‘Tell you what?’

‘You
know.
’ I glared at her. ‘How he’s the same as me.’

Mel’s eyes widened as she took in what I was saying. ‘Are you sure? I didn’t . . . I mean, Elijah just said . . . it never occurred to me . . .’ She tailed off, staring at Daniel.

I could see in her face she was telling the truth.

She turned to me. ‘I didn’t know, Theo,’ she said urgently. ‘But what I
do
know is that Elijah could come back here any minute.’

I swore. ‘Is there any way outside through the rooms behind that?’ I pointed to the holographic panel.

Mel nodded. ‘There’s a back way out. But it’s locked. Only Elijah has the key. He keeps it with him all the time. Puts it in a safe when he goes to bed.’

It didn’t matter. I had to try. I marched across the room.

‘No,’ Mel said.

‘You can’t stop me.’ I glanced round, but Mel wasn’t looking at me. She was staring at the computer on the desk. It had switched itself on and was counting down. I stared at the screen in horror. How hadn’t I noticed?

Return in 10 seconds

Return in 09 seconds

Mel started backing away from the door towards the little bedroom that led off from the living area. She gripped Daniel’s hand tightly.

‘What’s the—?’

‘Ssssh!’ Mel and I spoke together.

Return in 06 seconds

Return in 05 seconds

Mel opened the bedroom door behind her. She pushed Daniel into the room. Then she caught my eye, just as the main door opened.

No one spoke as we drove. It was hot in the back of the van and it smelled rank. Sweat and that horrible boys’ changing-room smell you get of old trainers.

I kept looking across at Lewis, but he was avoiding my eye.

I knew it was all part of keeping our cover, but it just made me feel more scared. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my combats.

Without warning the van swerved right. We bumped along an uneven track for several minutes. I had to press myself against the side of the van to stop myself from being hurled forwards into somebody’s lap. And then the van stopped.

Immediately, the door at the back swung open. The men stood silently and filed out. I followed, jumping down onto the ground. We were surrounded by trees, in some kind of clearing. Two cars were parked nearby, their windows darkened. I could hear the distant roar of traffic, but the uneven track we were on bent round, hiding the road we’d just driven along from view.

All the men except Lewis and Franks were now lined up opposite the van. I could feel twenty pairs of eyes on me. I retied my ponytail, then folded my arms self-consciously, trying to hide the fact that my hands were shaking.

Simpson was talking in a low voice with the van’s driver. He had two black masks in his hand. He strode over and handed one to Franks.

‘First five,’ he barked. ‘Go.’

Four of the men plus Franks walked over to the van. One of them pulled down a narrow metal shutter below the van’s back door. He crawled on his stomach into the space that opened up. I stared in horror. The space was less than half a metre deep and only as wide as the van. The first man disappeared from view. Another crawled in after him.

‘As soon as the gates blow, the back-up teams follow. The signal for amber is the first gunshot,’ Simpson barked.

My legs were shaking so badly I could barely stand.

What had I done? What had I started?

Franks was now crawling in after the last man. Someone must have given him a gun. It glinted in his hand as he inched his way across the narrow gap.

Simpson came right up to Lewis. ‘You wired up okay?’

Lewis prodded the tiny stud in his ear that doubled as a microphone. ‘Yes, sir.’ His voice echoed through the walkie-talkie strapped to Simpson’s arm.

‘The back-up cars will be following you the whole way,’ Simpson said. ‘And I’ll be able to hear everything. So no tricks. No detours. No deviation of any kind from the plan. Got it?’

‘Yes, sir.’ Lewis stared Simpson straight in the eyes.

‘We have ten minutes’ air down there,’ Simpson said, leaning closer to Lewis. ‘Don’t screw me on this or the cars behind will take you out.’

‘No, sir.’

Simpson drew a stopwatch from his pocket and clicked it on.

He turned to the remaining line of men. ‘As soon as we’re away, get in the cars.’ He scrambled into the metal space under the van. One of the other men pulled up the shutter. Once it was closed there was no way you could see an opening, or even suspect there was one.

‘Come on.’ Lewis dragged me up to the front of the van.

‘I’m glad we’re not travelling like them,’ I whispered.

‘Yeah?’ Lewis jumped into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. ‘Don’t be so sure. You and I are the ones who’ll get shot first if the guards at Elijah’s compound suspect anything.’

I sat down and put on my seatbelt. My heart was in my mouth as we bumped back down the unmade track. The other cars followed right behind. Lewis turned left onto the main road and we continued on our way.

In ten minutes we would be there.

In ten minutes it would be make or break.

In ten minutes I might be dead.

Mel slipped backwards into the bedroom.

I turned and faced Elijah. He stood in the doorway, his face grey with tiredness, his eyes blazing with rage.

‘What are you doing here?’ The coldness of his voice sent a shiver down my spine. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mel’s face in the shadow behind the bedroom door.

With a jolt I realised that Elijah would almost certainly hurt Mel if he found her here. Guilt flooded my head. She had begged me to leave and I’d stayed because I was angry. But it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anything to do with her.

I had to keep Elijah away from the bedroom. I forced myself to look him in the eyes.

‘I am angry, Theodore. Very, very angry.’

‘Yeah? Me too. And it’s
Theo
.’

We stared at each other.

‘Tell me about the Hermes Project,’ I said.