Losing Lila (6 page)

She was banging on the door. Alex opened it and she burst through. I stumbled crazily towards her, pushing Alex out of the way and throwing my arms round the tiny Japanese girl with sunglasses the size of dinner plates and a dress so mini it would barely cover a Bratz doll.

‘Suki! You found us! You found us!’

She hugged me back. ‘Of course we found you. What did you expect?’ She pulled her sunglasses down and peered at me over the top of them. ‘What did you do to your hair?’ she shrieked.

‘Hi, Lila.’ Demos was standing behind her, in the doorway.

I extricated myself from Suki’s arms and turned to Demos. ‘Hi,’ I said.

He smiled at me. There was little joy in it, though. He glanced down at my sheet toga and then at Alex in his boxer shorts. A wry smile formed on his lips. Then he took hold of Suki’s elbow. ‘Come on, Suki.’ He pulled her towards the door. ‘We’ll see you downstairs,’ he said over his shoulder.

‘Bye,’ Suki called out, her eyes so glued to Alex’s bare chest that she failed to watch where she was going and walked straight into the doorpost. We heard her giggling all the way down the stairs.

‘Where’s Nate? Where’s Key?’ I asked, looking around and feeling all my elation drain instantly away.

Demos, Suki, Alicia and Harvey were sitting on sunbeds beneath the shade of a palm tree, quietly conferring. There was no sign of Nate or Key. I frowned and did another headcount. Amber and Bill were missing too.

Demos stood up and walked towards us. ‘Nate’s in his room, resting,’ he said. ‘Key’s gone back to see if he can find out what’s happening to Jack.’

At the sound of Jack’s name I felt a familiar lurch in my stomach. Demos must have realised how I was feeling because I felt his hand on my shoulder. I looked up into his flat blue eyes and something passed between us – some kind of reassurance that he understood how I was feeling and that everything would be OK. Or maybe he was doing some kind of Jedi mind-trick on me – I wasn’t sure, but I did feel calmer.

‘Where are the others?’ I finally asked.

‘They’re in Mexico City,’ Demos said.

‘What are they doing there?’

‘Thomas needed medical help.’ He glanced darkly in Alex’s direction and I stepped slightly in front of him as though I could block Demos’s anger. Alex hadn’t known what the Unit was doing to Thomas; it was hardly fair to blame him.

‘And Amber? Bill?’ I asked.

Demos’s expression turned darker still. He looked at me. ‘Amber’s not in a good way. Bill’s doing his best to look after both of them.’

Of course Amber wasn’t in a good way – she’d seen the man she loved killed right in front of her. I didn’t know what to say to that.

‘Demos.’

I looked up. Alex had stepped forward and was holding out his hand. ‘I’m Alex Wakeman. We never got to meet properly.’

There was a moment when no one breathed. We all stared at Alex, wondering what Demos would do. Whichever way you looked at it, Alex and Demos had been fighting on different sides of the war until just over a week ago. No one was sure whether the truce had been temporary or if it would hold.

I looked at Demos. His eyes were a match for Alex’s in both the blueness and the as-inscrutable-as-a-rock stakes. He considered Alex for a few seconds before taking his hand and shaking it. We all breathed out in unison.

‘Thank you for fighting with us back there,’ Demos said.

Alex nodded. ‘It was the least I could do. I’m sorry.’

‘You weren’t to know. I’m sorry I kidnapped Lila from you.’

A scowl crossed Alex’s face. Then he took a deep breath and walked over to where Alicia was sitting. She looked up at him. The bruise on her face was still there. It had mellowed to a yellowish colour, but it was still a clear reminder of her recent imprisonment.

Alex knelt in the sand in front of her. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

Alicia grinned at him. ‘Apology accepted. And thank you for springing me out of that place. We’re cool.’

Alex grinned back at her and stood up. Demos introduced him to Harvey and I watched the three of them fall into a small huddle and start talking as if a fortnight ago they hadn’t all been trying to kill each other.

‘Did you find us OK?’ I asked, turning to Suki.

She raised a perfect eyebrow. ‘We’re here, aren’t we?’

‘I mean, was it difficult? We had to leave Mexico City. The Unit found us. There was a tracker in Alex’s arm.’

‘We know. Nate was there in the cathedral; he won’t stop going on about it – particularly the part where Alex took his T-shirt off.’

My mouth fell open. Nate had been in the confessional
with
us?

‘He followed you here too,’ Suki went on, without pausing for breath, ‘but by the time he got back to us, we were way behind you. It took us a while to drive down here – nice place by the way – and we had to stop in Mexico City, of course.’ Her face puckered.

‘How is Amber?’ I asked.

‘Not good,’ Suki said with a sigh. ‘She’s angry. Very angry. With Demos. With the Unit. With everyone. She didn’t want to come with us.’

‘How did you get the Unit off your tail?’ I said, changing the subject as I saw Suki’s lip tremble.

‘They were never on it,’ she said. ‘We drove north, but they went south almost immediately. They were following you from the get-go. Once we realised, we turned straight round and tried to get to you before they did, but it wasn’t so easy. We got pulled over three times by the police and they tried to stop us at the border too.’

‘What happened?’ I asked. ‘How’d you get through?’

‘Demos.’ Suki shrugged. ‘He just froze them and we drove on by.’

Not for the first time I felt a stab of jealousy at Demos’s ability. It made things so much easier. He would never have to befriend a psychotic Mafia drug lord or be manhandled by his minions.

‘A who?’ Suki burst out. ‘What did you just say about a Mafia drug lord manhandling your minions?’

‘Nothing.’ I frowned at her. ‘I didn’t say anything.’

It was making me wonder now why we’d bothered with the fake passports. We could have just waited for Demos and crossed the border with him.

‘What are you talking about?’ Suki asked, her smooth forehead creasing.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said quickly. ‘Come on, show me where Nate is. I want to say hi.’

She bounced up, grinning, her black hair flapping like a crow’s wing. ‘He’s going to be so mad he didn’t get to see Alex in his underwear.’

‘Wait, hang on a second,’ I said, grabbing her by the wrist, ‘what about Rachel?’

I noticed everyone had fallen silent. Alex’s own head had pricked up at the sound of Rachel’s name. Last time we’d seen Rachel she’d been fighting tooth and nail as she was hauled onto the bus.

‘Urgh, her,’ Suki groaned. ‘Yeah, she’s still with us. And she’s still a pain in the
culo
. I’m learning Spanish,’ she said brightly. ‘
Culo
means ass.’

‘Yeah, I’m aware of that. Did you get any information out of her?’ I asked, unable to keep the hope out of my voice. I looked anxiously over at Demos and the others.

‘Nothing helpful,’ Suki said. ‘She just keeps singing nursery rhymes in her head every time Alicia and I try to read her mind. Over and over. If I hear her singing
she’ll be coming round the mountain
one more time, I think I’m going to have to shoot her.’

Get to the back of the line
, I thought to myself.

‘We know where they’re holding your mum, though,’ said Demos. ‘We got that out of her. She’s still on the base at Pendleton – down in prisoner holding.’ He glanced at Alex. ‘We were hoping you could help with the plans of the building and the entry codes.’

Alex shook his head, his expression grim. ‘They’ll have changed the codes and barred my access,’ he said. ‘And we’ll need more than just a layout of the building. We need a plan of how we’re going to get in there. I won’t be able to go anywhere near the base. And the whole place is rigged with alarms so none of you can either.’ He paused. ‘Let me speak to Rachel, see if I can get something out of her.’

And if that doesn’t work
, I thought to myself,
just let me at her
. It would make what I did to that Humvee back in Joshua Tree look like tossing a pancake.

‘Oh, Nate, if only you could see what I’ve just seen!’ Suki sighed, dropping down onto the bed Nate was stretched out on. We were in the room next to mine and Alex’s. The others were all outside, sitting under some palm trees, talking. We could see them through the open door, but couldn’t hear them over the roar of the surf outside and the whir of the fan overhead.

Nate rolled over sleepily and smiled widely as he saw me.

‘Hey,’ I said.

‘Hey,’ he answered, rubbing his eyes. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Oh, just Alex half naked, that’s all,’ Suki smirked.

Nate sat bolt upright. ‘I missed it?’ He sighed and lay back down. ‘Oh well, I’ve seen him completely naked already.’

I leapt off the bed. ‘Please don’t tell me you were following us the entire time, Nate?’ I begged. Oh God, what had he seen? I squeezed my eyes shut, recalling some of the more graphic moments Nate might have been witness to, and let the blush swallow me whole. A loud gasp from Suki made me cover my ears and scrunch my eyes even tighter shut, as if that might somehow stop her from getting a visual on the images running wantonly through my mind.

‘La la la la la la la la la,’ I started singing, trying to picture a blank white wall instead of Alex in all his naked perfection.

‘Nate has been following you all the time,’ Suki said, cutting through my la-ing, ‘and yes, he has seen everything. And reported back to me. So I’m all up to speed.’

I opened my eyes and started scanning the room for something to launch at her head.

‘Nice work, Lila,’ Suki continued, lowering her voice. ‘Shame you can’t get him to – you know . . .’

‘I can’t believe you guys!’ I yelled.

‘All in the name of duty,’ Nate beamed. ‘Someone had to make sure we didn’t lose you. If it wasn’t for me following you guys, we wouldn’t have known where you’d run off to and we might never have found you – and then what? Seriously? Who chooses a romantic beach getaway at a time like this?’

I glared at him. And at Suki. A serious talk about the concepts of privacy and invasion was going to be occurring when I had calmed down.

‘We’re sorry, please forgive us,’ Suki said, nudging Nate, who nodded, the corners of his mouth turning down as he attempted a contrite look.

‘Well, don’t do it again, OK?’ I hissed. ‘You’ve found us now. There’s no more need to spy. Agreed?’

Neither of them said a word. They just shot each other a look out of the corner of their eyes.

‘Agreed?’ I growled. Nate opened his mouth to argue, but Suki elbowed him in the ribs and he shut his mouth quickly and nodded.

‘And you,’ I said, turning to Suki, ‘stay out of my head, OK? It’s really starting to get annoying.’

‘Easier said than done, but I’ll try.’

I held her gaze, imagining in graphic, bloody detail what I would do to her if she or Nate spied on me again, or on Alex. Or on the two of us together.

‘OK, I get it!’ Suki yelled, throwing her hands up. She patted the bed and, after a few seconds, I relented and went and sat back down.

‘What happened to the bus?’ I asked, referring to the giant RV tour bus that they’d been travelling in up until now.

‘We had to get rid of it – it was kind of obvious as Batmobiles go. Harvey was very sad, but Demos bought him a BMW instead – actually, he stole it, he didn’t buy it. And he also stole a van, because we needed somewhere to put Rachel. You know, it’s not such a good idea driving around with a gagged girl in the front seat of a car. We didn’t want people thinking that we were trying to kidnap her.’

‘We did kidnap her,’ I reminded Suki. ‘So, where is she?’ I tried to sound like I didn’t care. I was itching to go and see Rachel right that second, but I also knew that if I did, I might not be able to control myself.

‘I think she’s still in the van,’ Suki said, her eyes narrowing at me as she read my mind. ‘She’s not very compliant with our wishes. Every time we take the gag off she starts screaming about how her father’s going to kill us when he finds us.’

‘But not before he rips open our brains and finds out what makes us so freaking special,’ Nate butted in.

‘Nate!’ Suki shouted, glaring at him. ‘Lila doesn’t need to hear this.’

‘Whoops, sorry,’ he said, biting his lip.

I shrugged it off as best I could and glanced through the open door to where I could see Alex. He was sitting on a sunbed, locked in conversation with Demos, but he sensed me looking and glanced over. He said something quickly to Demos then stood up and strolled towards us, hesitating at the door until Suki waved him in. He crossed to where I was sitting on the bed and dropped to a crouch by my side. Suki and Nate fell silent. I could have sworn I heard one of them sigh.

‘Nate, hi, nice to meet you properly,’ Alex said, extending his hand. Nate blushed to the roots of his hair and I tried to suppress a laugh.

‘Hi,’ Suki answered for him, in her tinkling sing-song voice, ‘it’s nice to meet you too – properly, I mean. Nate’s already met you, so to speak. He follows you a lot.’

Nate blushed even harder, glaring at Suki. Alex laughed it off, shooting me a puzzled look. I shrugged. It was better all round not to go there.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Alex asked me, his face suddenly turning serious.

‘Are you kidding?’ I answered, standing up.

‘Only the last time you saw Rachel you wanted to kill her,’ he said, looking at me doubtfully.

‘Yep, I still want to kill her,’ I said, ‘but not before she tells us everything we need to know.’

He looked even more worried. I shrugged. What did he expect? That suddenly I’d feel like sharing milk and cookies with the woman? This was the person who was behind the Unit, behind my mother’s imprisonment and probable torture. Yes, I wanted to kill her.

Alex considered me for a minute, probably trying to work out whether or not he could trust me to control myself. I was still trying to work the same thing out, but I wasn’t about to tell him that and I hoped Suki wouldn’t either.