November (17 page)

Immediately I dialled her phone, but it rang out. Three times.

I didn’t know what else to do but to head straight to the beach.

Waiting near the rocks, I scanned the horizon for any sign of Winter. A couple of hours had passed already and I was starting to get impatient. I decided to text her.

at the beach. still waiting for u. why won’t u
answer your phone now? angry at me? payback?

Something caught my attention up high, and I glanced up above the rocks to see a figure waving on the top of the cliff. I stood up and squinted my eyes.

It wasn’t Winter, it was a guy. A guy who was waving and yelling and running down towards me.

I jumped down from the rock and prepared to take off. I didn’t have time to deal with this right now. I couldn’t risk waiting around any longer.

‘Cal! I have to talk to you!’

I blinked at the approaching figure. It was Griff Kirby racing towards me—his red hair unmistakeable. I started running. There was no way this guy was going to set me up again!

‘No! Don’t run off like that! You have to help! Winter is in serious trouble!’

At the mention of her name, I came to a halt and turned around.

‘What would you know?’ I asked him.

‘She’s in trouble,’ he said again. He was doubled over, trying to catch his breath.

I charged over to him, grabbing him by the shoulders. ‘You already said that. Why are
you
telling me?’

‘I saw it happen! She yelled out to me, “Find Cal! Tell him what’s happened! Try the beach!”.’

‘You saw
what
happen?’ I said, shaking him. ‘What’s happened to her?
Where is she?
’

He wriggled out of my grasp and I let him go, all my energy focused on his words. ‘She was just snatched off the street! I saw the whole thing! They dragged her into a car, kicking and screaming! I raced after the car but it was no use.’

The desperation and the fear in his face must have matched my own. The chill in my heart dropped to sub zero.

‘What car? Who grabbed her?’

‘She was dragged into a black Subaru. I got part of the registration number. I couldn’t do anything to save her! All her stuff’s scattered over the road!’

The black Subaru.
Sligo
. Everything around me started spinning. If Sligo had discovered that she was a spy, under his nose, and that she had taken his scram money from him … or if he’d found her searching his car yard … or if he’d found out about me … I had to block it all out of my mind and concentrate. Every minute was crucial to saving her.

‘What are we going to do?’ Griff was pleading.

‘I’m thinking, I’m
thinking
! Take me to where it happened.’

Without another word, Griff turned and ran, heading away from the beach. I ran with him all
the way up to Carnegie Street, the whole time trying to fight off thoughts of what could be happening to Winter.

The sight of Winter’s bag lying in the gutter, filthy from being run over, sent horrifying chills up my spine. The contents of her bag were strewn over the bitumen, and I automatically began picking them up. A squashed hairbrush, some lip gloss, a crushed pen. Griff started helping me. I grabbed her bag and pulled it open. Miraculously, her mobile was unharmed, inside. As I checked it over, it rang.

I pressed ‘answer’, but didn’t say anything. I simply waited.

‘Well, well, well, Winter Frey,’ Sligo’s voice bellowed down the line. ‘My
sham
daughter. My little spy. You will pay for what you’ve done to me! After everything I’ve done for you. Everything I’ve given you! Taken you under my wing! This is how you repay me? Ha! Bruno and Zombrovski will be loading you up and sending you away so that I never have to see your pitiful orphan face ever again!’ he shouted. ‘If only the accident—when
Daddy
“lost control”—had taken you, too,’ he said with a wicked laugh. ‘Goodbye!’

Sligo hung up and I was left speechless. Griff
looked at me in horror. Now it was his turn to shake me. ‘Don’t just stand there, Cal, say something!’

For the moment, all thoughts of the DMO, and our seemingly impossible escape to Ireland, were driven from my mind. All I could think of was my friend Winter and how to find her.

‘They’re taking her somewhere,’ I said. ‘Loading her up.’

‘Loading her up … in what?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said, wishing like crazy Boges was here to help. ‘But there’s no time to waste. Let’s go!’

We ran through the dark without speaking. I hung a right-hand turn, heading towards Sligo’s car yard. Griff was just a few metres behind me. That was where he’d lock her up, I figured. The yard seemed to be where he, or his thugs, carried out all of his dirty work. I just hoped she was OK, and that Sligo simply wanted her out of his life, not for her life to be over.

‘Where are we?’ Griff asked, running towards me.

I didn’t answer.

‘Where are we?’ he asked again.

‘Vulkan Sligo’s car yard.’

Griff swore and stopped in his tracks, clearly terrified.

‘Come on!’ I hissed, as I darted across the road and hurled myself at the cyclone fence. I searched frantically for a sign of Zombie Two, Bruno, Sligo and, of course, Winter. All seemed quiet.

I threw my backpack down on the other side of the fence, and using my hoodie to protect my hands from the barbed wire, was able to haul myself over and down. Griff grunted as he mimicked my movements.

I looked left and right, fearing we’d be picked up on security cameras or that automatic lights would flood the area, highlighting our presence.

With Griff behind me, I set off, keeping low and as close as possible to the piles of car bodies. A stray cat screeched, making my hair stand on end. I’d almost trodden on her. She bounded away, disappearing back into blackness.

‘I can’t see where I’m going,’ grizzled Griff.

Bent over, we continued our hobbling run between the piles of cars until we’d come to the open area in front of the office block. I pulled up short. A huge container stood on the back of a truck, parked out the front. What was it doing
there? Was Sligo importing car parts? Or was it loaded with machinery for export?

It was dark, but beyond the bulk of the container and the truck, I saw a light in the office where I first encountered Vulkan Sligo. Was Winter sitting in that same chair, with her hands taped tightly, being interrogated, like I had been?

If it hadn’t been for her that day, I would have drowned in the oil tank. She’d saved me. And we were strangers back then.

‘Follow me,’ I whispered to Griff, while moving forward.

‘Someone’s in there!’ Griff hissed in my ear.

‘Winter might be in there,’ I hissed back.

‘I think we should get out of here.’

‘If you’re too scared to help,’ I growled, ‘just go. Get out of here.’

‘I may be scared,’ said Griff, ‘but I’m not leaving without you.’

We crept up the stairs towards the office, but as we made our way to the door the clang of metal behind us made me swing around. I ducked and pulled Griff down with me.

‘What was that?’ Griff whispered in my ear.

‘No idea. Let’s go down and take a look.’

We retraced our footsteps down the stairs. The sound I’d heard could have been the doors of
the container being opened or closed. That meant Zombie Two, Bruno or even Sligo himself could be close by. I couldn’t see any light down there.

Suddenly I heard a voice. Someone was speaking near the container. I strained to listen.

‘OK, boss.’ It was the voice of Zombie Two! ‘I about to lock it,’ he said in his thick accent, ‘then she ready to go.’

Did he mean the container was ready to go, or did ‘she’ mean Winter? A horrifying thought came to me. Winter was in the container! Bound for who-knows-where!

‘She’s in the container!’ I mouthed to Griff. Winter was in there and Zombie Two was about to lock it up!

But why wasn’t Winter yelling and banging on the walls, demanding to be let out? The container was just metres from us. Why was she so silent?

Fear was spreading rapidly through my body. ‘We have to get her out!’ I whispered. ‘Before he locks the container! Come on!’

Griff looked petrified, but in what must have been a sudden burst of bravery he stood up from where we’d been squatting and leaped down the stairs. He landed awkwardly, then tripped over something, kicking a rock up at the side of the container.

Whack!
The rock clanged loudly on the metal wall.

Griff froze.

‘Who’s there?’ came Zombie Two’s snarling voice. ‘Who’s that?’

I jumped down the stairs and hauled Griff up. ‘On your feet! Quick!’

It was too late. Bruno suddenly materialised from nowhere, and Zombie Two loomed up behind us.

‘You! This time I finish you!’ Zombie Two shouted.

He pounced on me, almost breaking my arm as he threw me to the ground.

I lay squashed on my stomach, his heavy boot pressed on the small of my back, my arm painfully twisted back in his gorilla grip.

‘Make move, and is last move you make! Understood?’

‘Understood,’ I gasped.

I turned my head to see Griff Kirby pinned to the ground under Bruno’s knee. Now Bruno was talking on the phone.