Dangerous Games (10 page)

M
y weekend passed quietly. Very quietly. Back at school on Monday, nothing had improved. I was still trying to find somewhere to sit for the four classes I shared with Soph, and at recess and lunchtime I had no-one to talk to except Celeste.

On Wednesday Celeste broke it to me that Soph had sent out invitations for her party.

‘Did you get the email from Soph?' she asked.

‘What email?'

‘She sent it yesterday.'

‘I haven't had anything from Soph.'

‘She's having her party, not this Saturday but next Saturday.'

‘Oh,' I said.

‘She probably just forgot to put you on the email list,' Celeste said.

‘Mm,' I said.

We both knew I hadn't been accidentally left off the email list.

‘So what's she got planned?' I asked.

‘She's having it at her house,' Celeste said. ‘Her parents
are going out for the night and she's got the place to herself. Mina says she's planning to invite Draz and a bunch of his friends.'

‘Oh,' I said again.

‘I'm not sure if I'll go,' Celeste said.

‘Why?'

‘Well – I was thinking maybe you and me could do something instead.'

Tears prickled in my eyes. Celeste was a kind person. ‘You should go,' I said. ‘I think I'm busy that night anyway.'

‘Really?'

‘Sure,' I said breezily. ‘And anyway, aren't you dying to get a look at Draz in his natural habitat?'

‘Well,' Celeste said, laughing, ‘yes. After everything I've heard about Draz and his parties, this is going to be the party of the year.'

The party of the year. And I wasn't invited.

Celeste realised what she'd said. ‘It'll be pretty embarrassing for Soph if it's not,' she said, and gave a disloyal smile.

I pretended I didn't mind about Soph's party, but I spent the rest of the day sunk in gloom. Even though it had been more than a week now since Soph had spoken to me, I kept hoping that this was just a temporary state of affairs, and that eventually Soph would get over her fear of me and realise that our friendship went deeper than anything else, and that it would take more than Draz or the forces of destruction to tear us apart. It didn't seem possible that our friendship could really be over. But the fact that she hadn't invited me to her birthday seemed
like a sign that things had gone seriously wrong. Not speaking at school was one thing. Cutting me out of a major event like a birthday was quite another. It made it all seem much more final.

When I got home that afternoon I went and checked my email, just in case Soph had changed her mind or the mail had got delayed or something, but there was nothing there. I checked it again half an hour later and again half an hour after that but still there was nothing. ‘Are you waiting for a mail from your BOYFRIEND?' Jason shouted.

‘Rack off and die!' I snarled back.

I didn't check my mail again after that.

I
t was the weekend and again I had nothing to do. Ben was busy. So was Celeste. Soph was still not speaking to me. The rest of my friends had sided with Soph. I was spending another Saturday night in the lounge room with Mum and Dad watching a cuddly little TV show about detectives in an English country village. Soph was probably out drag-racing with Draz, or fanging down some brightly lit street somewhere hanging out Draz's brother's sunroof and waving at passers-by and screaming. And just as I was about to start gnawing my own foot off with boredom, I felt my bracelet stir on my wrist, and Finn's voice popped into my head:
I need to see you. Now!

Ever so casual, I got to my feet. ‘This show is
so
boring,' I said and yawned. ‘I'm going to bed.'

‘Night, darling,' said Mum.

‘Night, pudding,' said Dad.

‘You're weak,' Jason said. ‘I'm not tired.'

‘Ten more minutes,' Dad said, ‘and it's your bedtime.'

I left them to wrangle and went to my room. As I closed the door I heard a knock on my bedroom window.
I lifted the blind and opened the window to Finn, and as he climbed in I had a sudden feeling of deja vu. Ben had once climbed in my bedroom window in exactly the same way. Then it had seemed like the most risky and daring thing I'd ever done in my life but now it felt like just another day at the office.

‘Hey,' he said, looking more sparkly and alive than anyone had a right to. ‘Are you ready to have some fun?'

‘I'm
so
ready,' I said.

‘Great!' Finn said, looking pleased with me. ‘Listen, I've found a base. It's small, not very well defended. I think we can take it.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘You and me. We're going to do a raid.'

‘You mean – on one of
their
bases? The white circle?'

Finn's smile dimmed slightly as he saw my hesitation. ‘You said I could count on you,' he reminded me. ‘This is it. This is what it's all about.'

I was frightened by the idea of walking into a nest of agents of order, but the thought of losing his good opinion frightened me even more, so all I said was, ‘Tell me about this mission.'

‘The forces of order aren't like us,' Finn said. ‘They're more like an international corporation with branches in every country, and a lot of staff working in a lot of offices doing all kinds of different things. Some of it's secret, some of it's not. Some of it's perfectly legitimate business activity.'

‘You mean the agents of order have gone corporate?' I asked.

‘
They
get paid a salary,' Finn said. ‘
They
have expense accounts.'

‘Man,' I said, ‘how come our side didn't think of that?'

‘The base I've located is part of the legit side of the operation. It's a temp agency –'

‘A what?'

‘They hire out staff to businesses on a temporary basis. But that's not all they do. Hidden amongst their files are the operational records for all the agents of order working in this town.'

‘How do you know that?' I asked.

‘Surveillance,' Finn said, and grinned.

‘So what's the plan?' I asked.

‘Tonight,' Finn said, ‘we're going to break into the office and steal one of their computers.'

‘Oh,' I said.

I had been expecting something a little bit more dramatic: rappelling over walls with camouflage face paint on, blasting a couple of agents and then making a speedy getaway, something like that. Not breaking and entering to swipe somebody's laptop.

‘There's an access point in the back of the building,' Finn continued. ‘Once we're inside, we'll head up to the tenth floor. I'll disarm the alarm and guard the entrance while you go in and get the computer. Then we get out the same way we came in.'

‘Right,' I said. ‘Okay.'

It all sounded very simple. Possibly a bit too simple.

‘But,' I said, ‘if they've got information like that there, won't they be guarding the place?'

‘You'd think so, wouldn't you?' Finn said. ‘But they don't. There's a civilian security guard on call if the alarms are tripped, but they take a minimum of fifteen minutes to respond. And the guard they've got on tonight is particularly slow. He has a bad back.'

I stared at him. ‘How do you know all this stuff?'

‘I've got a lot of time on my hands,' he said, deadpan.

‘But,' I said again, ‘what about stuff we can't see? What if the place is a safe house or an oubliette?'

Oubliettes were like tiny traps that snapped shut around you, cutting you off from your powers and leaving you helpless until the agents of order came to neutralise you. I'd already had to get Ben out of one oubliette and I didn't fancy getting caught in one myself.

‘I've been inside the office,' Finn said. ‘There's nothing. It's not protected in any way.'

‘Isn't that a bit stupid?' I suggested.

‘That's why it's such a good target,' Finn replied, his eyes gleaming. ‘So – are you in, or are you out?'

You know what I said. Of course I said yes.

I climbed out my window into a night that was as cold and dark as space. Finn's car was waiting just down the street. We got in and Finn drove to the central business district. I looked up at the great stacks of offices, piled on top of each other, all those dark, quiet, empty floors, with here and there a light still burning. A lonely workaholic, or just someone who'd forgotten to switch off the lights on their way out? There was something terribly depressing about all those empty floors, and I told myself that whatever it was I ended up doing with my life, it wouldn't involve spending most of my days in a place like this.

We got out of the car and Finn ducked into an alley that ran between two anonymous office buildings. I followed him into a twisting little maze of rubbish bins and bad smells and fire doors and plumbing. The light from the streetlights didn't penetrate here and the buildings themselves were unlit. Once we had turned the corner and were out of sight from the street, Finn switched on a torch which cast a tiny circle of illumination around his feet, and I followed that tiny circle through the puddled alley, until at last we reached a narrow window.

‘Okay,' Finn said. ‘Here we go.'

The window looked locked, but Finn got his fingertips under it and levered it open. He put his head inside and shone the torch cautiously around, checking the interior.

‘All clear,' he said. I could just see the whites of his eyes glistening in the darkness as he turned to me. ‘This is your last chance to bail out. Are you ready for this?'

I nodded.

‘Then let's do it,' he said.

Finn hopped up onto the narrow ledge and climbed dexterously in the window, and I hopped up after him. It was very dark inside, but I could just see enough, and sense enough from the echoey acoustics, to know that we were entering the building through a toilet. I jumped down onto the floor and heard the sound of my feet echoing loudly. I froze, waiting to see if someone had heard us, but the building was quiet.

Finn crept forward and I followed him. We went winding through dark corridors, moving forward slowly and carefully, stopping at every noise and whisper, until
we found the stairwell. Finn opened the door a crack and then the two of us slipped into the concrete darkness of the stairwell and began to climb, up, up, careful not to let our feet clang too loudly on the treads, all the way up to the tenth floor. I felt like a cat, whiskers spread wide to sense any approaching danger in the darkness, but there was nothing.

At last we reached the tenth floor. Finn paused, his hand on the door handle, listening, sensing, waiting. When he was sure the coast was clear he eased the door open and stepped out into the corridor. It was dark, lit only by a green exit sign which cast a sickly glow across our faces. I followed Finn down the corridor to an office and watched while he entered a security code that unlocked the glass doors, then stepped inside and entered another code which disarmed the security system. It beeped three times and I saw the light on the tiny panel switch from red to green.

I had been expecting him to do something tricky with his powers. ‘How did you do that?' I asked.

‘Hung around until I saw someone use the keypad and then I memorised the code. It's a really easy one: five six seven eight,' he said. He looked at me expectantly. ‘Are you ready?'

‘Sure,' I said uneasily. My part of the mission was to look for the laptop. It belonged to the agency director and Finn hadn't been able to tell me exactly what it looked like or how I'd know which laptop it was. I just had to use my initiative.

I crept into the office, hoping there'd be an office door, marked
boss
. But there wasn't – it was an open-plan office:
lots of desks, lots of filing cabinets, all much the same. I looked from desk to desk, studying the pot plants, the photos of kids, the novelty posters and birthday cards. How was I supposed to tell which desk was which?

I studied the room, hoping my powers would give me a clue. They didn't, but then I noticed that one of the chairs was much fancier than the others, and the laptop on that desk looked newer and more expensive than the others. That must be the one I was looking for.

I went to the desk and grasped the laptop firmly in both hands, intending to lift it up and carry it away to where Finn was waiting by the door. But the second my hands made contact with it I was slammed by a tremendous force I couldn't identify – it was like I'd been struck by lightning or hit by a sledgehammer or a grenade had suddenly exploded in my face. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see, my hands couldn't grip and my legs no longer seemed to be holding me up. For a moment I didn't know where I was – it was like I was floating in space, although it was a horrible kind of floating, more like falling, and everything was black and red and speckly around me – and then I came to my senses again, and I was lying on the floor of the office and I couldn't move. I was paralysed. I struggled to reach for my powers, but I couldn't feel them, couldn't activate them. I was cut off from the forces of destruction. I was helpless.

Two feet crossed the carpet and stopped in front of me. Then Finn dropped to his hands and knees so he could look at me. I couldn't even move my eyeballs, let alone my head.

‘Can you move?' he asked.

My silence spoke for itself.

‘I'm sorry,' he said. ‘The laptop must have been booby-trapped. I'd heard about this kind of thing but I've never actually seen it before. Basically, you've been half-neutralised.'

Neutralised
? A deep, cold panic squeezed my heart like a fist.

‘But don't worry, it wears off after a couple of hours – provided the agents don't get to you first.' He paused, looking around. ‘We need to get out of here. The guy who owns that laptop's going to come looking for it and we don't want to be around when he does.'

He picked up the laptop in one hand – ‘Don't worry,' he said, ‘it's perfectly safe now. Once the trap's sprung, it's fine' – and then tried to lift me with the other, but I was much too heavy for him to lift one-handed. Then he tried putting the laptop on my stomach and getting one arm under my knees and the other arm under my back, but he still couldn't lift me.

‘Don't suppose you've got any bright ideas?' he asked.

But I couldn't move a muscle. And even if I could, I had nothing to suggest.

‘I might have to drag you,' Finn said.

And then he froze, listening, and I would have frozen too if I hadn't been frozen already. In the silence of the building something mechanical was whirring into life and after a moment I realised what it was. It was the lift. Someone was in the lift.

Someone was coming
.

Finn looked from the laptop to me to the door and then back to the laptop. ‘You do understand how
important this mission is, don't you?' he said. ‘The information on this laptop could make a huge difference to all of us.'

For a moment I couldn't work out what the hell he was talking about. And then I realised. He was going to leave me. He was going to take the laptop and leave me there. Panic swelled up inside me but for the first time in months there was no answering surge from the forces of destruction. I was completely helpless.

Finn dragged me across the floor and hid me behind a partition, then crouched over me. ‘If it's them, I'll try and draw them away,' he said. ‘You're going to be all right. This will pass in a couple of hours, okay? I'll come back for you as soon as I can.'

I wanted to scream:
no, don't leave me
! But my mouth wouldn't move and my powers weren't working and so the cry just echoed around my head.

Finn picked up the laptop. ‘I'm sorry,' he said.

He crept to the door, there was a pause, and then I heard his stealthy footfalls as he went out into the hallway and made for the stairwell. The last I heard of him was a faint click as the door snicked shut behind him.