Missing (7 page)

Over the next few days, I started training with eight other guys about my age. We also had a lot of fun kicking balls around and I was stoked to start learning abseiling with them.

At night, everyone would gather around a campfire on the beach, watching the moon rise out of the sea and singing at the tops of our voices while Damien joined in.

One night Sophie plopped down in the sand next to me, blowing on a sausage to cool it down, reaching out for the barbecue sauce that was being passed around the circle.

‘I heard something interesting today. There's a rumour going round,' she whispered to me as everybody laughed at one of Damien's jokes, ‘that there's someone on a rocky outcrop just south of the beach.'

‘What? Who?' I asked. But Sophie shook her head. ‘Nobody knows. It's just a rumour. It's probably not even true.'

I looked across at Damien who was conducting some crazy song, using a piece of driftwood as a baton. ‘But it just might be,' I whispered back.

Later that night, I sneaked away to take food saved from our campfire feast to Ryan. As Ryan demolished a few cold sausages, we discussed the odd phone conversation I'd heard in Damien's office. ‘At least it wasn't me he was talking about,' said Ryan.

‘Maybe it was one of the runaways?' I suggested. ‘And Sophie told me a rumour she'd heard about somebody being kept prisoner on a rocky outcrop just past the island.'

Ryan nodded. ‘I'd heard that too, but I just thought it was kids mucking about—a camp fire ghost story. But now I'm not so sure.'

In the following days, our little gang went on ten-kilometre runs, getting to see some of the amazing beauty of the island. With Hamish showing us where it was safe to go, we ran through lush jungle, along cliff tops with breathtaking views, and past a spectacular waterfall, where we often finished by jumping into the sparkling water and splashing each other. The uphill jogs carrying heavy packs to build up our endurance were less fun though.

In our stinger suits, we practised our distance swimming and had a chance to enjoy the ocean too. As I swam past the rocky outcrop, I spotted a large square cement block behind the boulders and rocks of the small island. Could there be someone trapped out here? It seemed just too unbelievable.

Back in the covered court area behind the main building, we trained with weights, barbells and dumbbells. Hamish offered prizes and turned it into a competition. I did pretty well, but the super-strong guy in our group, Alex, seemed to be the best at winning extra desserts at dinner.

It was when we started practising taking people by surprise from behind that I started to worry a bit. Why were we being trained in
this
sort of thing?

Then this morning at training there were only six of us. Puzzled, I asked Hamish. ‘Where are the other two guys?'

He fixed me with a steely gaze. ‘That's not something for us to worry about. Try sixty push-ups. Now.'

As I puffed and grunted and sweated, straining over the last five, questions kept circling in my mind. Why were we training like this? Where had the missing two guys gone? Every day, Shadow Island and its popular and powerful leader raised more questions. From the basketball court I heard cheering and clapping as someone scored a basket. Other kids seemed to be happy, just having fun. Why was I so troubled about this place?

From now on, I needed to focus on finding the answers. At the back of mind, I also had
the nagging worry that almost four weeks had gone by since I'd received that mysterious text message. I was no nearer to figuring it out, but the days were still counting down.

I saw Sophie Bellamy playing table tennis with another girl in the recreation room, her fair hair tied back into two braids, freckled face tense with concentration. I waited until she'd won the rally and sidled over to her. ‘Can we talk, in private?'

She nodded, and continued returning her opponent's serves with a killer spin until she'd won the game. She put her bat down, shook hands with her opponent, threw a towel over her shoulder and dawdled over to join me. We stepped outside and I looked around to see where the nearest CCTV camera was positioned. I didn't want to be seen at all if I could help it.

‘Let's go over to the cemetery,' I said.

First we made as if we were preparing the kayaks to go out, scooping the water out of them, brushing sand off the hulls, then when we were certain no-one was watching, we crawled past the bushes into the old graveyard.

‘This place is creepy,' Sophie said, looking around at the leaning tombstones and the almost
obliterated names and dates on them.

‘They're OK,' I said, ‘they're not going to say anything to Damien about us being out of bounds,' I grinned.

‘Where have you been?' Sophie demanded. ‘I've hardly seen you the last few days.'

‘I was invited to join The Edge,' I said quietly. ‘I'm not supposed to say anything about it to anyone. I've been doing adventuring and training hard.'

‘Me too. Damien asked me a few days ago. I joined the girls' squad and got the same instructions about keeping it quiet. More secrecy.'

I told her about the weird conversation I'd heard in Damien's office. Sophie was very sceptical. ‘Lost dog! There are no dogs here. He was talking about a person for sure. Let's see if Ryan has had any more ideas about it.'

As we crept out in the late afternoon to take food up to Ryan, I paused. ‘Sophie,' I said. ‘I think you should leave.'

‘With you and Ryan still here? And all the other kids? No way!'

‘OK, OK,' I said. I knew exactly what she meant. I decided to make a call to BB later that night to brief him on our suspicions. But what we
really needed was proof that something was up. ‘Sophie, I'm definitely going to stay here until we get some answers. So that way, you can go home, knowing that Ryan and I can deal with whatever is happening here.'

I saw the look on her face. It said,
You're joking, right?
She rolled her eyes. ‘If Ryan's staying, and you are staying, so am I. Ryan is my friend!'

For the time being, I let the matter drop. I thought of her father and how he would worry if he knew about our concerns.

The three of us settled into Ryan's hide-out to discuss what to do.

‘What do
you
think's going on here?' I asked my brother. ‘You've been here longer than me.'

Ryan thought for a moment. ‘I get the feeling that there's some sort of
selection
process going on. Damien picks out certain kids who are really good at sports.'

‘What are they being selected
for?
' asked Sophie.

I was just about to ask another question when a sound made the three of us freeze. Someone or something was moving stealthily through the jungle near us. We shrank further back into our overhanging shelter, trying to be as invisible as possible.

I peered through a gap in the hanging vines. Two boys and a girl, all wearing bright red and blue shirts, were creeping along the pathway. Ryan leaned closer, whispering in my ear. ‘I haven't seen these guys for weeks. What are they doing here?'

I waited until the small group had vanished from sight. ‘I'm going after them,' I hissed.

‘Me too,' said Sophie.

‘No, only me. Two people will make too much noise.'

Lifting the veil of vines and creepers, I crept out from our hiding place, my eyes fixed on the spot where I'd last seen the trio. Moving as quickly as I dared, I went after them.

Ahead of me, I could see movement and the occasional flash of red and blue as I followed them further up the mountain. We were now high above the resort compound. Keeping my eyes peeled for pythons and stinging trees, I followed them for almost ten minutes. Then the sound of quiet voices carried on the wind to me. They seem to have stopped for a conversation.

Very carefully, I moved closer. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could see them quite clearly now, standing under a dense group of rainforest trees. The girl took out something small and black from her pocket and pointed it
ahead of her. I noticed a wound on her upper left arm, just under what looked like a new tattoo—three lines, like a ‘Z'. In surprise I saw that the boys had similar wounds and tattoos on their arms.

Before I had any more time to consider what it might mean, I heard a whirring sound. I crept closer and closer, trying to see what they were doing. Then I jumped back. I'd almost walked into another Gympie Gympie tree! I ducked around to avoid it, and when I'd straightened up the sound had stopped. I came forward, pressing close to a large rainforest tree, hoping to overhear their conversation. Now there was only silence and the occasional piercing sound of a rainforest bird. I peered around the tree, keeping my body well hidden.

The trio had vanished! There was no-one there. I blinked a couple of times, scarcely able to believe my eyes. One minute they'd been there, huddled together talking—the next minute they'd simply disappeared. I stepped out from behind the tree, wary of a trap. Maybe they knew they were being followed and set me up for an ambush. I took a few more careful steps towards the spot where I'd last seen the group. There was nothing to show anyone had been standing there apart from a faint footprint in the damp soil.

I jogged back to Sophie and Ryan, pushing aside the curtain of vines and creepers and squatted down beside them. They listened intently as I described what had happened. ‘They just disappeared,' I said finally.

‘But that's not possible,' said Ryan. ‘Three people can't just vanish like that.'

‘I'm telling you what I saw. I know it sounds impossible.'

‘Did you hear anything strange?' asked Sophie.

‘I did,' I nodded. ‘Why? Have you heard something too?'

‘Once I was up here exploring and I heard this odd noise, like machinery or an engine of some kind. I was surprised because I was in the middle of nowhere up in the rainforest.'

‘That's it!' I cried excitedly. ‘That's the sound I heard, too. A kind of mechanical sound.'

The three of us looked at each other.

‘Right,' said Ryan. ‘So, some kind of machine?'

‘The weird thing was,' I said, ‘that all three of them had identical cuts and tattoos on their left arms—' I held my thumb and forefinger about an inch and a half apart—'the cut was really neat, and the tattoo was shaped like a zed.'

‘How about we go back there and take a look around?' Sophie suggested after a pause. ‘Three pairs of eyes are better than one.'

I could see Ryan's ankle was finally healing well as we walked along the path the disappearing trio had taken until we came to the spot where I'd last seen them. We searched around, trying to find something—anything—that would explain what had just happened. But all we found was more rainforest and a massive rock face, dripping with moisture and mosses.

‘I'd like to climb that,' said Ryan, ‘if I had my gear.'

‘Wait till your ankle is completely healed,' Sophie suggested. ‘There's climbing gear in the sports storeroom.'

Finally, we had to give up searching. It was getting close to evening rollcall and Sophie and I needed to be back at the resort.

‘I'm going to move camp,' said Ryan, ‘so I can be closer to that rock wall. I want to study it for fingerholds.'

We helped to move his gear further up the mountain and make another hide-out in another deep scoop in the rock, protected by overhanging foliage. ‘Careful of those Gympie Gympie trees up here,' I said, pointing to two of the stinging trees that hung over the side of the new hide-out.

‘That's my defence system,' he said, grinning up at the overhanging leaves.

We quickly made our way back to the resort and could see kids waiting for evening rollcall. Sophie and I split up in the cemetery, so that we could come in from different directions and avoid suspicion.

That evening, I went in search of a safe spot to call BB. I wanted to text my mum as usual to stop her from worrying, and call Boges and Winter. I scouted around with my mobile discreetly in my hand, looking for a place where the signal was strong and the likelihood of being sprung was minimal.

Overhead, thunder growled and the moon suddenly vanished. A tropical storm was about to dump all over me.

I found a spot just past the orange flags at the end of the beach. Here, the surf crashed and seethed around rocky black outcrops that jutted up out of the water. I was far enough away from the counsellors not to be noticed if I squatted down behind a boulder. I rang Boges.

‘Great to hear from you, dude,' said Boges.

‘I'm here too,' said Winter, chiming in.

‘Hi there. How's it going back on the mainland?'

‘Mmm. OK. What about you?'

‘I can't talk for very long,' I said, keeping an eye on the time so as not to miss BB. I told them how I'd found Sophie Bellamy, how Ryan had injured his ankle and I was now acting in his place. I told them of my suspicions about Damien Thoroughgood and the strange conversation in his office. ‘Kids are going missing,' I said. ‘We actually saw it happen just a while ago.' I relayed how the boys and girl in the red and blue shirts had vanished into thin air.

‘Not possible, dude. They have to have gone somewhere.'

I knew Boges was right, but it wasn't very helpful. I needed evidence.

‘You told BB and SI-6 about Sophie, didn't you?' Winter asked.

‘I spoke to him after I first arrived—he was happy to know Sophie is fine and safe. They asked me to have a look around too and that's what I'm doing now.'

‘Well, we haven't been sitting around doing nothing, either,' said Boges. ‘Winter had a talk with Brittany Philips.'

‘How'd you manage that?' I asked.

‘Having SI-6's resources on tap is quite cool, dude. I found an aunt of hers and it turns out
Brittany is staying with her. Winter managed to persuade Brittany to confide in her.'

‘Awesome! What did she say?'

‘Not much, I'm afraid. She was pretty confused. She said she'd been sacked because she'd overheard something.' Winter said. ‘She's a really nice girl, but it's like she's got some sort of amnesia, or she doesn't want to talk,' Winter added. ‘She had this wounded look about her.'

That reminded me of something. ‘Did she talk about a cut or a tattoo on the arm?'

‘No,' said Winter, ‘but now I think about it, she kept rubbing her arm, as if the muscle was aching or something. I thought it was just nerves. Why do you ask?'

I told them about the cuts and tattoos that I'd noticed on the upper arms of the disappearing trio.

‘That's creepy,' said Boges. ‘They sound deliberate—and surgical. What do you think the cut is for?'

‘Not sure,' I said. ‘It could be some sort of initiation. What about the key she mentioned?'

‘I asked her about it, but she just clammed up. Wouldn't talk about it, no matter how much I tried to tell her we were on her side,' Winter said, her concern evident in her voice.

‘She's scared,' I said.

‘That's pretty clear. But scared of what? We need … before … you say so.'

‘Boges? Winter? You're breaking up.'