Missing

by Gabrielle Lord

  Eventually, Ryan said with a sigh, ‘I guess you’re right. I go into hiding and you take over my life here?’

  ‘I’m just standing in for you—while you’re injured. I’m not taking over your life.’

  He stood up, and tried to put some weight on his injured foot. ‘Argh!’

  ‘Come on. Put your arm around me and I’ll help you up to higher ground and find a good hide-out for you. I’ll give you my binoculars and you can keep an eye out for anything suspicious. You might even get to spot one of the runaways and find out what on earth is going on.’

  As we made our way through the jungle and up the sloping mountain side, Ryan briefed me about the daily routine of the resort. ‘Morning call is at seven, with showers and breakfast, and then rollcall at eight thirty. There are general activities till lunchtime and then free time in the afternoon. They’ve got movies and computer games in the recreation centre, plus meditation and self-esteem classes. Outside there’s rock climbing, swimming, surfing and water sports, but you need stinger suits to go in the water. You’re not allowed to go around to the western side of the island,’ said Ryan, ‘because of the dangerous surf breaking over the jagged rocks. And by the way, we’re out of bounds right now. Did you notice those orange flags on the side of the path?’

  I had, but I hadn’t taken much notice of them.

  ‘We’re not meant to go higher than the flags—because of the pythons and the Gympie Gympie trees. And the runaways. At least that’s what they tell us. I think Damien is a bit of a control freak.’

  We’d reached the massive fallen tree trunk against which I’d stowed my gear. Ryan and I scouted around and found a better hiding place for him—a scooped-out overhang in the rock, behind a curtain of jungle vines. I gave him my emergency provisions, my binoculars and camping gear.

  ‘How are we going to keep in contact?’ I asked as I went to leave.

  ‘Phones are handed in to Damien’s office while we’re here,’ Ryan said. Then he grinned, pulling his mobile out. ‘I kept mine. But you’ll have to be careful and keep yours hidden too.’

  I paused, not sure how to ask the next question. ‘So, bro … you never did explain why you came here in the first place?’ I asked quietly.

  Ryan’s face clouded over and he was silent for a long moment. ‘Let’s not get into that now, we’ve got bigger things to think about first.’

  ‘Fair enough, another time,’ I said. Pushing him seemed like a bad idea. I started to head off back down the mountain. ‘Hey, Ryan?’ I added. ‘You didn’t send me a weird text message with a map and skull and crossbones, did you?’

  ‘No. Got some new pirate friends, have you?’ Ryan joked.

  ‘Worth a shot,’ I shrugged, turning to leave.

  ‘Cal!’ Ryan called out after me. ‘Remember to limp!’

  8:19 am

  As I hurried down the mountain, I was really starting to wonder about this place. Ryan had mentioned so many odd things—kids disappearing, runaways who raided for food, counsellors who acted like guards.

  Caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t notice the palm frond sticking out over the rough track. I jerked back as my jacket was caught by a dozen sharp little hooks. I’d walked straight into a Wait-a-While palm! I tried pulling away, but only succeeded in getting more entangled. It took me ages, and a couple of painful jabs to my fingers, before I finally freed myself from all the hooks.

  As I neared the resort complex, I noticed a group of bodysurfers running back from the beach and I hurried to join them, remembering to limp a little, managing to get through the compound gate before it closed behind us. Everyone was milling about happily. Maybe Ryan always stood with the same people. I hesitated, looking around, when the girl from BB’s photograph ran over to me and grabbed my hand—Sophie Bellamy.

  ‘Ryan! There you are! I thought you were going to be late again.’

  Great, I thought. I’d passed the first test.

  Sophie dragged me over to stand beside her near the front of a raised stage area. I glanced around. There were about forty of us, with perhaps slightly more boys than girls.

  And now the boss arrived, stepping up onto the platform, a folder in his hand. So this was Damien Thoroughgood. He stood well over six-foot tall, broad-shouldered with a dignified air and dressed in khaki shirt and trousers, his hair cropped short. His white teeth flashed when he smiled, and he smiled a lot. He greeted us and then started to read out the names in alphabetical order. When it came to ‘Ryan Ormond’, I answered like the rest of them—’I’m here.’ He lifted his head from the folder and fixed me with a penetrating gaze. I felt my heart start to race. Had he noticed something? I saw his eyes narrow. Was my mission going to come undone even before it had started? I braced myself.

  ‘How’s that ankle coming along, Ryan? You feeling alright?’

  Slowly, I let out the breath I’d been holding in. ‘It’s OK,’ I said, wondering if I was supposed to say ‘Sir’ or something else.

  Thoroughgood nodded and then passed on to the next name. Finally we were excused but as we started to move away, Damien looked my way and beckoned me over. ‘Good to see that ankle’s getting better. Have you given any more thought to the matter we discussed the other day?’

  Problem. How was I going to answer that? I tried to look like I was contemplating something.

  ‘I need your answer fairly soon, Ryan,’ Damien said. ‘Otherwise you might miss out. So what’s it to be?’

  I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about but I had to give some kind of answer. ‘I’m still thinking about it,’ I said, nodding, hoping I looked like I was deep in thought.

  ‘Good. That shows you’re someone who doesn’t rush into things. But I also need people who can act decisively.’

  ‘You’ll have your answer very soon,’ I said. Just as soon as I find out from Ryan what this is all about!

  That seemed to satisfy him and he strode away, taking a phone call on the way back to the office building.

  8:41 am

  When I was certain there was nobody in the bathroom block, I went into a cubicle and closed the door, pulling my phone out. I called Ryan, keeping my voice as low as possible. ‘Thoroughgood just asked me if I had an answer for him, he asked you about something. What was it?’

  ‘I forgot to tell you, sorry! He invited me to join The Edge—it’s like an exclusive adventure program.’

  ‘OK, that doesn’t sound too bad,’ I said.

  ‘But you’re not allowed to talk about it,’ said Ryan. ‘No-one must know that you’ve been invited. And that seems suss to me. Why would you have to keep that a secret?’

  ‘Maybe he thinks other kids might get jealous, or feel hurt if they’re not included?’

  Footsteps approached the bathroom block from outside. ‘Gotta go,’ I said, ringing off.

  2:14 pm

  I joined in some activities for the rest of the morning, spending a bit of time with Sophie Bellamy—not too much in case she worked out I wasn’t Ryan—just enough to get to know her a little. A couple of times I caught her looking at me oddly.

  ‘Your ankle seems to have gotten better really quickly,’ she said.

  ‘It comes and goes a bit,’ I said vaguely. Actually, I was having a bit too much fun and I’d forgotten to limp enough. Idiot, I scolded myself.

  ‘Seems to have gone quite a lot,’ she said, giving me an enquiring look. ‘And there’s something else. You seem—I don’t know …’

  ‘Come on,’ I said, not liking the direction of the conversation. ‘Do you feel like a swim?’

  The rest of the time, I dutifully watched on with my ‘sprained’ ankle as most kids went windsurfing or rock climbing. Damien had organised team sports with Dean, the counsellor who’d been so suspicious about me at the fence earlier. He seemed to be Damien’s second-in-command.

  At lunchtime, I’d managed to stash some food into my backpack for Ryan. Afterwards, I watched a game of soccer, resisting the temptation to join in. Sophie sa
w me on the sidelines and came over to me.

  ‘Hey, Ryan! Wanna watch that movie you mentioned yesterday?’

  ‘I–I forgot which one you mean,’ I said lamely.

  ‘The one you were going to get out of the DVD library. You were raving about it!’

  ‘I never told you what a bad memory I have, did I? I’m really sorry. Let’s go and choose something else. Your pick this time.’

  ‘OK,’ she said slowly. ‘Come over to the library and we can watch it this afternoon.’

  ‘Man, I’m sorry. I can’t do that. There’s something else I need to do.’

  ‘Need to do? Like what? Collect seashells?’ she joked.

  ‘It’s something personal,’ I said.

  Sophie gave me a puzzled look. ‘What is it with you? I thought we were going to be friends, but now I’m not so sure.’

  She walked away without a word, heading for the girls’ dormitory. I wanted to call out to her, but thought better of it. I needed to head to Ryan’s hide-out, deliver my food package to him, check his ankle and be back in time for evening rollcall. I glanced at my watch. It had been a really hot, tropical day, but now clouds were piling up and it looked like we might be in for a storm later in the evening.

  I felt bad about the conversation with Sophie and how I’d gotten off to a shaky start with her. Maybe Ryan could give me some tips about recent conversations so that I wouldn’t put my foot in it so much.

  I waited until Dean had turned the corner of the tall fence and disappeared before I walked off away from the resort compound, heading for the out-of-bounds flags.

  As I neared the flags, a voice yelled behind me. ‘Hey! You there! Where do you think you’re going?’

  Damn! I’d been spotted. And by Dean, of all people. Now what? I turned and looked as innocent as I could. ‘What’s the problem?’ I asked. ‘I’m just going for a walk.’

  ‘With a backpack? Let’s have a look. What’s in there?’

  Oh no. Even though I had the satellite phone and my mobile hidden under the false bottom, he would find the food I had packed for Ryan. I had to think fast.

  ‘Just some of my stuff,’ I said, ‘and a bit of food.’

  He yanked my backpack open and peered into it, pulling out the food parcel that I’d wrapped up in paper serviettes, holding up the bananas. ‘A bit of food? What’s all this for? You’re taking food to those kids in the jungle!’

  ‘No way, man. I get really hungry between meals. There’s no law against taking extra fruit and stuff from the dining room.’

  ‘You were heading for the out-of-bounds area with a backpack full of food. Come with me and explain it to Damien.’

  He was pulling out his two-way handset when I heard another voice—Sophie. My heart sank. What if she said something about how different I was? I’d told her that I had something personal planned. Stealing food for the runaways, she’d think. My mind was working overtime, trying to find plausible excuses.

  Instead, to my complete surprise, Sophie linked her arm through mine, smiling up at the counsellor while she spoke. ‘Ryan, you’re such a dunce! This isn’t the right place for our picnic. I meant over there, under the trees near the vegetable garden! Come on, can’t you see that you’re almost out of bounds here? Come this way.’ With that, she rolled her eyes at Dean, shaking her head as if to say, ‘Isn’t he hopeless?’ and started dragging me away in the opposite direction. Dean watched us go.

  2:35 pm

  As soon as we were a good distance away, Sophie stopped smiling, her face suddenly serious. She pulled me down onto the grass under the tree and kneeling opposite me, looked around to make sure that no-one was watching or listening to us before she spoke. ‘OK, Ryan Ormond. What is going on? I just saved you from a whole lot of trouble. I think you owe me an explanation.’

  ‘You’re right. I do. But I can’t tell you. Please trust me!’

  ‘Tell me right now, or else I’m going to march straight down there and report you to Damien myself.’ She started climbing to her feet.

  ‘Please, Sophie, don’t do that!’

  She turned back to me, pointing a banana at me. ‘Explanation, please. Or I’m going.’

  She had me. I had to take a risk. If she’d taken a liking to my brother, I hoped I could trust her.

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘sit down. And stop waving that banana at me.’

  Sophie sat down, fixing me with her blue gaze. ‘Now,’ she demanded.

  ‘You’ve noticed that I’m different—that I’ve changed?’

  ‘A lot,’ she said. ‘You don’t remember anything. You say crazy things. You seem totally—dumb! You even look different!’

  ‘The truth is,’ I said, wondering how she would take this, ‘that I am different. Really different. I’m so different that I’m not actually Ryan.’

  Sophie Bellamy looked dumbfounded. She stared at me. ‘Huh? Have you gone completely nuts?’

  ‘No. I’m not Ryan. I’m his twin brother, Cal.’

  Sophie’s stare remained fixed for a few seconds then she blinked. ‘You’re Cal Ormond? Not Ryan?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘You’re Cal? The twin brother?’

  I nodded.

  ‘The fugitive? Who had the whole country chasing him—and that girl—’

  ‘Winter,’ I said, ‘Winter Frey.’

  ‘That’s right. And your friend, Bugsy or—’

  ‘Boges,’ I corrected.

  ‘Boges,’ she repeated. ‘You guys were all over the news back then. He told me about his brother Cal. But—but where’s Ryan?’

  ‘He’s hiding up in the jungle, halfway up the mountain.’

  ‘You were taking him food?’

  ‘That’s right. He injured his ankle and—well, it’s a long story. So I’m taking his place for a while.’

  Sophie Bellamy stared out to the ocean, a slight frown on her forehead, her fair hair shining in the late afternoon sunshine, before turning her puzzled gaze on me. ‘You came here to check on Ryan?’

  It was part of the truth and so I grabbed it. ‘That’s right. I was worried about him.’

  I saw the relief in her face as she got a grasp on the situation.

  She indicated the mountain with her eyes. ‘OK! What are we waiting for? Let’s go visit him!’

  I waited as Sophie slipped behind the large tree under whose shade we were sheltering, and when she was safely hidden, I took a quick look around and I gradually eased myself back into the undergrowth, melting into the thick jungle.

  As we made our way up the rough path, Sophie told me about her own concerns. ‘Ryan and I have been talking. We both feel like there’s something weird going down. Some of the kids adore Damien and would do anything for him. It all seems sunny on the surface but what if it’s not all water sports and camp fire songs?’

  ‘It seems more like a boot camp, don’t you think?’ I asked as we approached closer to where I’d left Ryan hiding.

  ‘It sure feels like it sometimes,’ she said. ‘My father—’ her voice faltered before she continued, ‘my father works in security and so I know a bit about that stuff … and I don’t like the way the Paradise People Resort is run. It’s more like an army barracks. All this rollcall business and not being allowed to talk about certain things.’

  We paused, catching our breath. ‘What things?’ I asked, curious.

  ‘Well, we’re not allowed to ask questions about the runaways. And both Ryan and I noticed other kids just disappearing. Not going home like most of them do, on the supply ship.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

  ‘Most kids only stay a few weeks. Then they leave on the boat. But I’ve seen kids who were supposed to have gone home still here. It looks like they’ve gone home—they don’t sleep in the dormitories anymore, their lockers are empty. But I’ve seen them—a few of them.’

  ‘Do you think the runaways and the disappearing kids are the same people?’ I asked.

  ‘There’s no way of knowi
ng, because nobody really talks about it. I’d like to leave but I’ve made friends here. I can’t just run away and leave them. Not if something bad is happening. The disappeared kids must have gone somewhere.’ Sophie’s blue eyes and freckled face were full of concern.

  I whistled to Ryan to let him know that I was close to his hide-out and saw the curtain of vines and leaves move as he poked his head out. Sophie and I hurried over to him and he grinned widely to see us.

  ‘Hey, Sophie! Cal!’

  ‘How’s that ankle, bro?’ I asked, lifting away some vines and pushing through to Ryan’s lair.

  ‘Getting better … am I glad to see you! And you,’ he said to Sophie. ‘I guess Cal’s explained our double act?’

  ‘I was really confused until he did. I thought you’d gone totally crazy.’

  We crawled further into Ryan’s cave and I pulled the food out of my backpack.

  ‘I nearly didn’t make it,’ I explained, telling him about the counsellor who’d challenged me. ‘But Sophie saved the day.’ Then Sophie and Ryan shared their concerns about the disappearing kids and the runaways, whoever they were.

  ‘What’s really going on here?’ asked Sophie.

  ‘I’m hoping Cal can find out more about it. Damien asked me to join The Edge group. They do separate activities from the rest of the Paradise People,’ Ryan explained.

  ‘I asked the matron of our dormitory, Mrs Clayton, what happens to kids who don’t fit in or who don’t like this place,’ said Sophie, frowning. ‘She said they either go back with the supply ship if it’s around or other arrangements are made for them to go home.’ She paused and her frown deepened. ‘But I don’t believe that. Most of the counsellors honestly believe Damien is only concerned for the safety of these so-called “runaways”, considering the pythons and the stinging trees and other possible dangers on the island. I’m more worried about the kids who are supposed to have gone home and then I see them still here. I don’t know where they live or what they do.’