“How long?” Daniel said.
“I’m not sure. Maybe a few hours.”
He snorted. “You don’t even know do you?”
I glared at him. “Not exactly, no. I’ve only lived here a month.”
“We’re basing this entire escape plan on your vague idea,” he snapped.
I walked straight up to him and shoved his arm. “What’s the matter with you? I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas.”
“Guys, stop fighting,” Angela said with a sigh.
“I’m just not sure that trusting a GEM is a good idea.” Daniel raked his hands through his hair.
“Why are you only saying this now?” I said.
We stood close to each another. Heat spread over my skin. He had an earthy smell – like after rainfall.
“I dunno,” he shrugged and turned away.
I gazed at his back, confused, and tried to ignore the breadth of his shoulders. Or the way his blond hair curled at the back of his neck.
“Is this something to do with your vision?” I asked.
Daniel’s head twitched to the side. “No.”
“You’re lying,” I said. I moved forward and spun him around to face me. “You have to tell me what you saw.”
His mouth opened and closed. He looked at me with more vulnerability than ever before. I had never seen Daniel afraid before. It disturbed me so deeply I couldn’t breathe. If Daniel was afraid then it must be something bad. This was the boy brave and reckless enough to break into a mansion in the GEM part of town.
“Guys,” Angela said in a warning voice, “I hear something.”
We fell silent.
“Running footsteps,” I whispered. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
*
My feet hammered the tarmac. I blocked out the pain. Daniel urged us on, all the time the footsteps gaining on us. They knew we were here. My grip tightened on the gun. I’d never fired a gun before. I had no idea whether, if it came down to me or them, I would even be able to pull that trigger. But I carried on running, checking Angela was still by my side, the dank smelling streets whizzing past in a blur.
“This way,” Daniel whispered.
He turned sharply to the left we followed. A cluster of cats scattered from an upturned bin. Angela tripped on a rusty bicycle and I caught her wrist. We stumbled together before regaining balance and Daniel disappeared around another corner. The stumble twisted my ankle again and I winced as we continued to run. The footsteps behind us kept the same steady pace. I waited for them to shoot, bracing myself.
“Halt or we shoot!”
The alley bottlenecked out by the canal where there were a few boats dotted along the edge. Some of the GEMs kept their fancy speedboats moored here in between trips to the coast.
“Where now?” I called to Daniel.
He spun around and shook his head. We could continue running down the canal but there would be nowhere to hide. His mouth gaped and he looked at me with wide eyes. The footsteps were just around the corner now. I heard the creaking of their leather uniforms. I lifted my gun and took aim. The Enforcers, two of them, ran around the corner, their guns held high.
“Put the guns down and come quietly,” said the one on the right.
They were dressed in their usual, identical attire, heavy-duty black leather and the helmet. You never saw their faces.
“I repeat. Put the guns down or we will shoot you.”
My finger trembled over the trigger. There was a chance for me to use my gift but I’d already used it so much today that I was fatigued. I couldn’t rely on it. We had to either think quickly or shoot. Two guns against two guns. We’d all die. I backed up, towards the canal. Daniel turned to me, his face convulsing, fighting inner decisions. I shook my head at him, knowing his thoughts. He rolled his eyes, turned his chin away and then put the gun on the ground.
“I’m the one you’re looking for,” he said. “I broke into Murgatroyd’s house.”
I wanted to kick him.
“We are here to capture two of you. One boy. One girl. Both white.”
Daniel turned to me. He was in pain, the moonlight revealing his contorted face. “No. Just take me. Let the other two go.”
The Enforcer shook his helmet slowly. “They are not my orders. We will take the girl also.”
“Screw your orders,” Daniel shouted. “Take me and leave her.”
“I will follow my orders,” the Enforcer said. There was not one bit of emotion in his voice.
“I’m bargaining with you,” shouted Daniel. “Don’t you understand?”
“Daniel,” I said softly. “Kick your gun to the edge of the canal.”
He turned to me. “What?”
“Just do it. On three, okay? Trust me.” I turned back to the Enforcers. “All right. I’ll surrender too. We’re putting our guns down, see?” I slowly placed my gun on the ground. As I did so I turned to face Daniel. “Do you know how to drive a boat?”
A small corner of his mouth twitched. Angela looked from me to Daniel and back at the Enforcers in terror. Seeing me surrender, the Enforcers relaxed their grip on the guns and began to walk towards us.
“1… 2… 3…,” I whispered.
We kicked our guns back and they slid noisily across the tarmac towards the canal. I grabbed hold of Angela’s arm and ran towards the water. Just before jumping in I reached down and scooped up the gun. The Enforcers opened fire. Our black clothing blended with the dark water making it almost impossible to identify us at night.
“That boat,” I called over to Daniel and Angela. He nodded.
The Enforcers gave up shooting and instead removed their helmets and boots. My tunic, flooded with water, felt like it weighed a ton, but I pushed myself forward, trying to keep the gun out of the water as much as possible. Luckily the canal was narrow and we reached the boat. I gave Angela a shove to help her onto the step ladder and then climbed up after her. I heard a splash as an Enforcer jumped into the canal. The other had decided to stay on the canal bed and shoot at us. I ducked down to avoid the bullets.
“Angela, quick, untie that rope but stay down behind the cabin,” I said. “I turned to Daniel. Do you know anything about boats?”
“I once fitted out a few shelves in a speedboat for a GEM. He talked a bit about them.”
“Do you know how to start one?” I pointed to the complicated buttons and levers. They were arranged around a steering wheel so at least we knew how to steer the boat.
Daniel climbed up the cabin and into the driver’s seat. I stayed to make sure Angela came back from untying the knot and helped her into the seat next to Daniel. Another bullet whizzed past, hitting the boat with a plink.
“Okay, Daniel. Now would be a good time to get it started.” I shivered in my sodden clothes and stared down at the water. I couldn’t see the Enforcer who followed us but I guessed he would be a strong swimmer and it wouldn’t take long for him to reach the boat.
“Hold on,” Daniel shouted back. He swore. “You need a key.”
I put my head in my hands. We were going to die.
“I think I can hot wire it.”
I lifted my head from my hands. “How do you…? Not important. Start it.”
Daniel fumbled with the control panel, trying to pop out a section of the plastic. Something thudded against the side of the boat. Then a hand grasped the metal bar around the tail. It was the Enforcer.
42
“What’s going on?” Daniel shouted.
“Nothing,” I said. “You just get it started. I’ll handle this.”
I jogged over to the boat edge. The Enforcer still only had one hand on the rail. He struggled to pull himself up whilst still carrying the gun. With his helmet off I saw how young he was, barely twenty. I swallowed and focussed. Without hesitating I hit him squarely on the jaw with the butt of my gun.
The Enforcer fell back into the water, losing his weapon in the process. From the canal bed
another bullet landed just inches to my right on the boat. He was shooting less often now, taking aim at more solid targets. He was running out of bullets. I turned to run back to Daniel and Angela but something caught on my bad ankle and I fell to the floor with a scream. The Enforcer had me. I kicked out at him but he ducked. I didn’t dare to hit him with the gun in case he ripped it from my fingers and used it on me. I kicked again, hoping that I wouldn’t have to shoot.
I thought it strange that the Enforcer wasn’t trying to pull me into the water. Then I understood. He was trying to hold me still. Just as I rolled to my side another bullet hit the boat where less than a second before my head had lain.
“Now would be a really good time to start this thing,” I yelled out to Daniel. I screamed in frustration at the Enforcer and kicked, hitting him on the jaw. “Why are you even working for them?” I kicked and rolled, avoiding another bullet.
“They are my orders,” he said simply.
I kicked him hard in the chest and finally his grip loosened. The boat chugged and spluttered and then died. The motion loosened the Enforcer’s grip again and I took my chance. With one last almighty kick I rid myself of the Enforcer. As he fell back into the water the boat pulled away and I cheered.
“About time, Daniel,” I said with a laugh.
He turned back from the seat and grinned. I climbed up the boat, limping slightly on my ankle.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“Just my ankle from the bite.”
“Let me put some cream on it,” Angela offered.
She opened her backpack and pulled out the supplies we got from Billie. Working quickly she opened the bandage, spread on the antiseptic cream and wrapped it tightly to give me more support. We ate a little of the bread and cheese. The boat roared along and Daniel deftly manoeuvred us through the canal. Things were looking good – until we saw the lights up ahead.
“Daniel!” I shouted.
“I see it,” he said, his face set. “We’ll have to turn around.”
I swore. “The Enforcer on the canal bed… we didn’t think about his Plan-It.” I heard a noise behind us and turned. “They’re following too!”
I ran to the back of the boat to get a better view. It was the Enforcer I had kicked into the water. He must have taken the boat behind us. He was unarmed. Instead he was forcing us into the path of the boat ahead which would contain armed Enforcers.
“We’re trapped!” I said.
“We can’t be,” Angela exclaimed. “We’ll be taken.” Her eyes widened and the fear on her face tugged at my heart.
Daniel turned to me. “It’s over.” The boat began to slow down.
“No,” I said. I spun around, my arms flapping desperately to my sides. “It can’t be. Not after everything. It just can’t be.”
“If we slow down and go quietly they won’t shoot us,” Daniel said. “They will only shoot at us if we fight back.”
“We’ll get away. We have to,” I said. The lights ahead were brighter now. Behind us the Enforcer never slowed.
“Mina’s right,” Angela said. “We have to get away. We’re meant to get to the Clans. I just know it.”
I looked out into the darkness at the canal, hoping something would jump out at me. There were no boats moored in this part of the canal. We were surrounded by a grassy bank. Up ahead another footpath veered away from the banks of the canal into an old industrial estate.
“I’ve got it!” I yelled. “Daniel, can you drive the boat really close to the left side of the canal?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you planning?”
“Just do it! We don’t have time.” I rummaged through the boat cabin.
“What are you doing?” Angela asked.
“Looking for something to jam the accelerator with.”
“Why?”
“We’re going to jump off the boat,” I said.
Angela looked at me in horror.
“Are you crazy?” Daniel said.
I found a first aid kit in a small rectangular tin. “This will do. Which is the accelerator?”
Daniel tore his eyes from my face to reluctantly point out the metal pull-lever responsible for speed. I shoved the tin hard in between the panel of the boat and the lever, forcing it forwards. The boat sped up, churning the water behind us. Daniel steered the boat close to the canal edge and fixed the steering wheel with a piece of rope. The metal scraped against the stone wall of the canal.
We were still a few feet from the grassy canal bed meaning that we would have to reach up and grab the side and pull ourselves up. All while the boat was speeding along. I gulped.
“I don’t know if this is going to work,” Daniel said quietly.
“We have to try,” I replied, quietly enough that Angela couldn’t hear. “I’ll get Angela out first.”
He nodded. “You’re right. You’re crazy. But you’re right.”
I smiled into the darkness. We approached the footpath – our only chance of getting out alive. The lights of the Enforcer’s boat loomed ahead. I tossed out backpacks up onto the grass. We took hold of Angela and lifted her up.
“Angela, you’re going to have to fall and roll onto your side, okay?” Daniel said to her. “We’ll be right behind. You take the packs and do not look behind you. You run towards that footpath and keep going. Understand?”
“Yes,” she said. Her voice sounded breathless. Scared but excited.
We counted to three and threw her up. Angela fell and rolled. She was on her feet in seconds. She grabbed our things and ran into the night. It looked easy enough with two people helping you up. But we had to do this alone. I thought about my injuries and cringed.
“You next,” he said.
Before I could protest Daniel had me by the waist to support me. The grassy ledge was high above my head and I gulped.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” I confessed. The boat suddenly seemed impossibly fast beneath my feet. My head grew dizzy.
“You can do this,” Daniel said with such ferocity that I believed him.
He shoved me hard and I jumped up, my hands reaching for the ledge. The boat moved away slightly and I realised that if I fell it would be straight into the canal. I scrambled for the wall, fingers just finding purchase on the damp grass. My legs hung loosely in the air. Behind me I heard the sound of the Enforcer’s speed boat gaining on us. I pulled, gritting my teeth against the weight of my own body. I had to be on the grass before the Enforcer reached me and I had to make sure Daniel was safe. For a horrible second my fingers slipped and part of the grass came away but I managed to prop myself up by pushing my feet into the slimy cracks of the canal wall. With one last heave I pulled myself up and rolled over just like Angela.
I stood and saw the Enforcer pulling his boat towards the canal wall. He was going to chase us. Up ahead Daniel was battling with the boat, trying to close the gap between it and the wall. I ran towards him, watching with bated breath as he retied the rope. He turned to me and then looked at the wall. He stepped high onto the side of the boat and jumped.
He missed.
43
“Daniel!” I screamed. I ran harder. I couldn’t see him, not even in the water. “Daniel? Where are you?”
“I’m here,” he said faintly.
I dropped to my knees. His fingers were just visible in the dark, clinging to the canal bed. I took hold of his arm and pulled him up, his bulk hard to move. Daniel collapsed on top of me as he finally made it over the edge. I clutched his face.
“I thought you fell in,” I said. “I thought––”
“I’m fine,” he breathed. Something caught his eye on my neckline. In the struggle my necklace had come free from under my tunic. “You wear it?”
Heat prickled my cheeks. “I always wear it.”
His eyes searched my face but I heard the familiar sound of metal against stone. The Enforcer had rammed his boat next to the canal wall but he was struggling to keep the boat st
eady enough to jump.
“Come on, we have to catch Angela up,” I said.
Daniel scrabbled to his feet, and held out a hand to help me up. I took it and he yanked me hard. We turned without looking back, running towards the footpath. I still didn’t feel at full strength due to my injuries and Daniel curbed his pace next to me, making sure he didn’t leave me behind. I bit my lip and tried to speed up.
The footpath was narrow and slippery with mud. Daniel ran beside me, our arms bumping each other. I hopped over stones. My tunic, still soaked, dragging me down. I knew the Enforcer wouldn’t give up the chase. We reached the industrial estate filled with abandoned factories and warehouses, disused roads connecting them.
“Which way do you think Angela went?” I said, not slowing my pace.
“We go straight ahead ‘til we find her,” Daniel said between gritted teeth. He held onto his rib cage as we ran.
“Did you hurt yourself?” I asked.
“Just bruises.”
There was a huge crash and bang behind us and I heard shouting.
Daniel smiled crookedly. “Sounds like the boat crashed.” He slowed for a moment to turn and look behind us. There was smoke in the sky.
“Come on, we should get moving,” I said.
I shuddered at the sight of the smoke. People could be injured. As we moved something else caught my attention, coming out of the footpath was a man dressed in black, bleeding from the head and soaked in water. The Enforcer.
“Quick,” I whispered.
Daniel saw him too. He hadn’t seen us. We sprinted silently through the industrial estate. I looked out for Angela but she was nowhere to be seen. With horror I realised that the Enforcer could find her at any moment.
We ducked between two large buildings and hid. The Enforcer had slowed to a walk. He stalked the estate, listening. I saw him take out his Plan-It and tap something on the screen.
“He’s calling for back-up,” I whispered to Daniel.
We walked silently through the two buildings. There was an open space leading to a road which spiralled out of the estate towards the GEM district. On the other side of this road lay an expanse of forest – a great place to hide and on our way towards the farm. We walked quietly towards the road, with our backs against a warehouse, staying amongst the shadows.
“We have to get out of here,” Daniel said, talking so quietly it barely made a sound.
The Blemished Page 20