Taking the Chequered Flag

by Pam Harvey

  ‘We’ve dealt with dangerous things before,’ Gabby said crossly, thinking back on the adventures she’d had with her friends. ‘Anyway, if it’s so bad, why didn’t you just tell the police?’

  ‘I nearly did.’ Tony stopped rubbing the chair.

  ‘And?’

  ‘Well, I thought I could deal with it myself.’

  And be the hero, thought Gabby. She shrugged to show Tony that she knew what he meant. Tony was handsome enough to be a fantastic hero. Gabby thought about all those action movies she’d seen in which the heroes leaped about, flashing their good looks around. Tony, she thought, would fit right in.

  ‘What is it that you saw?’

  Tony was still for a moment and then heaved himself to his feet. He grabbed the pair of silver crutches next to him and hobbled over to the mantelpiece above the fireplace. Gabby couldn’t see what he was doing but when she turned around he had a mobile phone in his hand. ‘I found this.’

  ‘The phone?’

  ‘No—this.’ He pushed a few buttons then gave the phone to Gabby.

  The screen was tiny and the video only lasted 30 seconds but it was enough to see the blurry images of two men, a long sort of tunnel and a tiny room that appeared to be cut out of rock, filled with shelves and boxes. The film stopped and Gabby played it again. ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s at Croft’s Cement. There’s something going on there and when I went looking, I found this room. More like a cave, really. It’s where they keep their stuff.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I don’t know who they are. Big blokes, tough looking. They come in at night and unload this stuff.’

  Gabby looked at the footage again. There didn’t seem to be anything remarkable about it. It just looked like a bunch of boxes to her. ‘How do you know it’s not just Croft’s Cement stuff? They might have bits of special cement in the boxes.’

  Tony gave her a funny look. ‘I’m sure Croft’s don’t even know about it. That cement yard hasn’t been used for years and I’ve seen the cars come in late at night. The big guys use torches and one keeps guard. No, it isn’t anything to do with Croft’s.’

  ‘Have you got any idea what might be in the boxes?’

  ‘Something small.’ Tony hopped back to his chair and sat down, lifting his leg up onto its seat. ‘I’ve seen these guys in action three times and once they had a box open. It seemed to be full of plastic bags and each bag had something dark in it.’

  ‘I’ll show the others. They might have an idea.’

  ‘No.’ Tony reached for his phone. ‘Don’t show them. Don’t even tell them about it.’

  Gabby fiddled with the phone, turned it off, and then handed it to Tony who put it in his pocket. At the same time, her phone rang its funky tune and she reached into her pocket to answer it. ‘Hello?…Hi…Yep…Coming now…See ya.’ She flicked it off and turned to face Tony. ‘This is crazy. If you think something is going on, you need to tell someone.’

  Tony shifted uncomfortably. ‘I can’t do anything now.’

  ‘Yeah, I know your leg won’t let you do anything.’ Gabby looked closely at Tony. ‘That’s not what you mean, is it?’

  There was a long silence as Tony made a big fuss over straightening his stocking, which Gabby could see was perfectly straight anyway. ‘I was going to use the race for cover.’

  ‘Huh? What race? The preliminaries?’

  ‘Not that race. Not those types of races. Another race.’

  ‘You were going in another race? You mean, an unofficial race?’

  Tony nodded. ‘The Graveyard race. I was going to get a group of riders together to have a go at it.’

  ‘That’s the really dangerous course! People get hurt there. Even I know that.’

  Tony shrugged. ‘All races are dangerous. It’s no different. I was going to check out the area during the race and then call the police when I found it. It would look like I found the room by accident. But…’ His voice trailed off.

  ‘But those big guys found you poking around there and threatened you. Said they were going to bury you in the Graveyard.’

  Tony just looked at Gabby.

  The sound of the back door opening made them both jump. There were several thumps as bags of groceries landed on the kitchen table. ‘Antonio!’ called Mrs De Lugio. ‘I’m home, love!’

  Tony cringed. Gabby tried hard not to giggle.

  ‘I’m still in the lounge room, Ma. Gabby’s here.’

  ‘Gabriella!’ Mrs D stormed into the lounge room and gave Gabby a hug. ‘You’ve come to see my boy! And isn’t he looking well? The doctors say that he will be back in action very soon. But no motorbikes.’ Mrs D shook her finger at her son. ‘No motorbikes for a long, long time.’

  ‘Mama,’ Tony protested. ‘Only three months. Not forever.’

  Mrs De Lugio turned to Gabby in dismay. ‘You see what I have to put up with? Not forever! He wants to push his mother into an early grave. They all do. Riding these crazy machines. I don’t know.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ Gabby said encouragingly. ‘Tony’s strong and he’ll get better very soon. And you never know, maybe he’ll take up some other sport. Like swimming.’

  Tony gave her the strangest of looks and even Mrs D looked up with a frown. Gabby gave a nervous laugh. ‘Well, got to go. Everyone’s waiting for me at home.’ She lifted her phone up, reminding Tony of the phone call she’d had.

  ‘You won’t stay for coffee and cake? I just baked last night.’

  ‘Thanks, Mrs D, but I’ve got to get going.’

  ‘Next time, you promise that you will stay. I have no one to talk to in this family but boys. And all they talk about is wheels and grease and speed. Huh!’

  Even though Mrs D sounded disgusted, Gabby couldn’t help but notice that her eyes were twinkling. ‘Okay, next time I’ll stay.’

  ‘Good girl.’

  ‘Bye, Tony,’ said Gabby as she followed his mother into the kitchen.

  ‘Gab,’ hissed Tony just before she went through the door. ‘Keep it a secret.’

  Fortunately for Gabby, Mrs D caught her by the shoulders, swinging her around and giving her a huge container of home-made biscuits. ‘You take those for yourself and the others. For after their swim.’

  Gabby thanked her and hurried out of the house without looking back at Tony. I haven’t promised, she thought. I couldn’t promise.

  When she was well out of sight, Gabby stopped and set the biscuits down on the footpath. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and went to Messages. There it was; a 30-second video clip, straight from Tony. Well, not Tony exactly. Tony’s phone.

  She put the phone back in her pocket, picked up the biscuits, and hurried home. Part of her felt bad that she’d tricked Tony, pretending to answer the phone when she had forwarded the video from his phone. I’m only trying to help him, she thought, running the last kilometre to her house. And that’s okay.

  That’s what she wanted to think, anyway.

  Chapter 12

  The Hidden Room

  Monday, 17 January

  Angus tore his eyes away from the tiny screen of Gabby’s mobile phone and turned to E.D. who was sitting in the corner of Gabby’s bedroom, angrily flicking paperclips off her desk and onto the floor. His wet hair dripped onto her carpet.

  ‘E.D., come and look at this. It’s incredible.’

  ‘I can’t believe you did that, Gabby.’ E.D. shook his head so that water sprayed everywhere.

  ‘Oh, get over it, E.D. You’re just jealous,’ Gabby said.

  ‘Jealous?’ E.D. shouted, standing up suddenly.

  ‘E.D.’ Hannah stood up too and walked towards him. ‘Tony would have told you. He was just trying to protect you. He knows you better than any of us. There’s no way he’d want you heading up to Croft’s Cement and discovering this secret room.’

  E.D. slowly lifted his head and stared at Hannah. ‘What room?’

  ‘The room we’re looking at on the mobile, idiot,’ Angus said. �
��That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.’ The screen Angus and the others were looking at went grey, and then black.

  ‘Is that it?’ asked Hannah.

  ‘Yes. It stopped there when I watched it before too.’ Gabby pressed a button on her phone, trying to ignore the wet patch on her floor.

  ‘Why don’t we download it onto a hard drive and watch it on a big monitor?’

  Angus looked at Hannah. ‘Good thinking.’

  ‘Which monitor, guys?’ Gabby said. ‘Mine’s big, but it’s not as big as Dad’s.’

  ‘The biggest, Gab!’ E.D. said, smiling. ‘And sorry about the water. I guess it’ll dry.’

  Gabby shrugged and led the way to her father’s study. A few minutes later, Hannah had transferred the file onto the hard drive.

  ‘Is that a computer screen or a TV?’ Angus asked, whistling softly.

  ‘Both,’ E.D. muttered. ‘Come on.’ He was impatient now. Later on he would deal with Gabby and Tony.

  The image was blurry and grainy. For the first few seconds it stayed fixed on a nondescript grey wall. Then a shadowy figure appeared. The light brightened as another person loomed into the shot, holding a torch.

  ‘That place looks familiar,’ E.D. said, leaning in closer.

  ‘It’s that big tunnel near the empty railway truck we found,’ said Angus.

  ‘Look!’ Gabby pointed. The wall of the tunnel had somehow opened up, revealing a passage. A single railway line vanished into the darkness.

  The two men entered. The camera shook as it followed them into a small room.

  ‘Geez, your brother was brave to do this,’ Hannah whispered. The camera panned around the walls of the room then suddenly they were looking at the dark roof of the building.

  ‘I think the men must have heard Tony then,’ Gabby said. There were a few more seconds of wild jerky film as Tony’s mobile phone swung crazily.

  ‘He’s running away,’ Angus said.

  ‘Sprinting more like,’ added Hannah. The monitor screen went black. ‘This is when he must have been caught,’ she continued.

  ‘Yeah, he did well to hide his mobile phone.’ E.D. shook his head slowly.

  ‘What I want to know is how that wall suddenly turned into an opening.’ Gabby leaned forward and pressed the play button again.

  ‘That’s easy,’ said Hannah. ‘The guy pressed something on the wall. I saw him.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Angus said.

  ‘Yeah, look.’ Hannah leaned forward, waited a moment, then just as the second man appeared with the torch, pressed the pause button.

  ‘You’re right,’ said Gabby. Like everyone else, her attention had been focused on the second man approaching with the torch.

  They watched the footage twice more.

  ‘Biscuit anyone?’ Gabby passed around the container Mrs D had given her.

  ‘I say we go and check it out.’ E.D. stood up, brushing the biscuit crumbs to the floor.

  ‘I say I like your thinking,’ said Gabby, clapping her hands.

  ‘Guys, this isn’t some little kindergarten mystery,’ Hannah said seriously. ‘This is big time.’

  ‘Hey, come on, Han. Where’s your sense of adventure? We’re a team. We can do this. What do you say, Angus?’ Gabby turned to look at him.

  ‘The first sign of trouble we’re out of there, okay? And if there’s anyone about, we don’t go in. Deal?’

  ‘Deal!’ E.D. had already left the room.

  ‘Geez, what a dump,’ said Hannah, gazing around the desolate area outside the front of the cement works. The place was littered with rubbish, pieces of cement, sheets of rusted corrugated metal, broken glass and piles of dirt. There was an old yellow couch leaning against a fence and other items of broken office furniture scattered about.

  ‘Come on,’ Angus said, nervously. ‘This place still gives me the creeps.’

  ‘If that room inside the tunnel isn’t locked we can just take some photos then get out of here.’ Hannah marched towards the main entrance. Angus sighed and followed.

  ‘Don’t worry, Angus. We’ll be out of here in five minutes,’ said E.D., clapping him on the back.

  Gabby pulled out her phone and viewed the footage Tony had filmed. ‘This way,’ she called, heading away to the far right corner of the enormous opening. They walked over three railway lines; two of them stopped close to the back wall, but the third continued, gently curving away and disappearing literally into the wall to the right.

  ‘Weird,’ E.D. muttered, getting down on his hands and knees and looking closely at the place where the tracks disappeared. ‘This wall must have been put in later.’ He felt with his hands. ‘Hannah, you got that torch?’

  ‘It was over here that the guy touched the wall,’ Gabby said, reaching up with her hands and slapping the dust-covered wall.

  ‘I’m going back to keep watch,’ Angus called. Was that the sound of a motorbike he’d heard, or was it just his imagination?

  ‘Good idea, Angus.’ Hannah joined Gabby at the wall, feeling along the rough bricks.

  ‘Hang on. What’s this?’

  No one got a chance to answer Gabby. There was a clanking and grinding sound then suddenly the entire cement wall in front of them rose slowly.

  ‘I found a lever,’ Gabby said, almost dropping her phone in shock.

  In a flash, E.D. was on his hands and knees, crawling through the widening gap. ‘It’s a tunnel,’ he shouted. Gabby put the phone back in her pocket, and followed him. In front of them was a narrow passage, just wide enough for a single train track. Ahead, Hannah could see that the track dropped away into darkness. She shivered, turning back to the opening behind her.

  ‘Are you coming?’ Gabby asked, glancing back at Hannah. ‘C’mon.’ She grabbed Hannah’s hand and ran into the opening. ‘This is where Tony went in. That room must be in here somewhere.’

  ‘Somewhere is right here.’

  E.D’s voice came from the left. Hannah and Gabby ran to where he was—a cold brick room built into the side of the tunnel. Shelves lined the walls and boxes were piled on the shelves. E.D. held up a box that he’d opened. ‘Guess what? Loads of those GPS gadgets. Not broken this time.’

  ‘Got it!’ Hannah slapped the side of her head. ‘How could I have been so stupid? It’s obvious.’

  ‘It is?’ said E.D.

  Hannah nodded her head impatiently. ‘Those GPSs have been brought into the country illegally! I bet they’re being sold for heaps of money. That’s what Tony discovered, that’s why they threatened to bury him—he discovered a smuggling racket.’

  From the front of the enormous opening Angus froze. It was a motorbike; no, two of them.

  ‘Oh no,’ he groaned, turning and rushing into the monstrous concrete cave. ‘Guys!’ he yelled, ‘they’re coming!’

  E.D. heard Angus’ faint cry from the depths of the tunnel.

  ‘I’ll be back in a tick,’ he said to the girls. He turned and ran back to the opening.

  ‘I heard bikes,’ Angus said, pointing at some dust clouds that were getting closer.

  ‘God, you’re right,’ E.D. said, running back to the lever on the wall and pulling on it. Angus followed.

  ‘What about the others?’ Angus yelled, pointing at the wall, which was now slowly descending.

  ‘We’ll come back in a minute. C’mon!’ E.D. started sprinting for the exit.

  ‘But Hannah and Gabby are trapped! What if these dudes decide to go in?’

  ‘We ring the police. But they might not go in. Hurry!’

  They ran outside. E.D. swung left, heading for a run-down office.

  ‘Now what?’ Angus gasped, turning to look along the road. The motorbikes were getting closer. He had his phone out but Gabby wasn’t answering. Maybe there was no reception inside the building.

  E.D. picked up an old cushion and pushed it against the window. The glass shattered. He punched away the remaining pieces, tossed the cushion aside and clambered into the office.

 
‘You coming?’ he called. Angus followed him into the dingy room. It stank. They crouched down beneath the window and waited. The noise of the bikes gradually increased. Carefully, E.D. raised his eyes to the level of the window and peered out.

  ‘What?’ Angus hissed.

  ‘It’s the same two guys who were unpacking boxes at Proctor’s,’ E.D. muttered, watching as the two bikies cruised into the main opening.

  ‘And it’s the same two guys that I met in the laneway—Teagan and Jack’s Uncle Peter and his mate.’

  E.D. swore softly.

  ‘What?’

  ‘They’re heading for the back wall.’

  Angus groaned. ‘Now what?’

  ‘Before this gets out of hand, it’s time to ring the cops,’ E.D. said.

  Chapter 13

  Into the Tunnel

  Monday, 17 January

  ‘Hannah, the big door’s closing!’ Gabby shrieked, turning at the sound of the enormous cement wall slowly sliding back down. By the time she’d raced back it had fully closed. ‘E.D.! Angus! Let us out!’

  ‘It’s okay, Gabby,’ Hannah said, joining her a few seconds later. She hoped her voice was calmer than she felt. ‘They know we’re in here. They would have closed it for a reason. They’ll be back in a minute.’

  ‘If it was them who closed it.’ Hannah watched Gabby punching the keys on her mobile.

  ‘I can’t reach them on my phone.’ Gabby banged the phone against her leg. ‘There’s no signal down here.’

  Together they searched the walls and surrounding area for some sort of device that would open the wall. All they found was a light switch.

  ‘Well, at least we can see now,’ said Gabby, gazing around the dimly lit area.

  ‘This is hopeless,’ Hannah said. ‘I think we should head back to that room. Sit it out. The police will arrive; I’m sure E.D. and Angus will ring them.’

  Gabby followed Hannah back into the room. Hannah picked up the box E.D. had opened and pulled out a plastic bag.

  ‘I read about these in Electronics Weekly. NASA made the first ones. Someone in Japan bought the patent. They are really expensive.’