As much as I hated what he was saying, his words made sense to me. The bad guys had tracked me down easily when I was at home. They’d tracked me down when I was with my other family members, like Great-uncle Bartholomew and Great-aunt Millicent.
‘So is it true?’ Rafe asked.
‘Is what true?’
‘Samuel? He’s alive? Please don’t say so unless you’ve seen him in the flesh for yourself. Have you?’
‘He’s alive. I have seen him.’
Rafe let out a strange gulping sound, like he was trying to hold back tears.
‘Every day,’ he said, ‘I have prayed it would happen.’
‘Does Mum know anything about Dad’s discovery?’ I asked, quickly.
‘She’s so fragile, Cal,’ said Rafe, slowly. ‘I’ve done everything possible to keep it from her. It’d be far too risky if she got involved. But in another month, the danger will be over. Then I can explain everything to her. Then you can come home and together we’ll clear your name and get our lives back. I promise.’
I was still feeling dazed from my conversation with my uncle when my phone started beeping again—reminding me I had voicemail messages to check. I also had four text messages from Winter, from last night and this morning.
I stretched my legs out on the bench, and began reading.
cal! call me back!
what’s going on? please call me back! I have more HUGE news!
u ok? how come you’re not answering? i’ve left you a million voicemail messages!
PLEASE answer your phone. seriously going crazy here. i need u. can u meet me at the beach today?
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 tight
ly, 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.
‘Gotcha, boss,’ he said.
Bruno put away his phone and pulled out a large roll of electrical tape from his pocket. He wrapped Griff’s wrists behind him before dragging him to his feet. He threw the roll of tape to Zombie Two, then hauled Griff over to the container and tossed him inside. I heard Griff grunt as he fell to the floor.
‘What have you done to Winter?’ I pleaded. ‘Where is she?’
The two thugs didn’t answer. Instead, Zombie Two wrenched my arms into position behind my back. But he didn’t restrain my hands with tape, he just lifted me up and threw me, sending me stumbling into the container.
I struggled to my feet and charged towards the opening. ‘What have you done with Winter?’ I screeched, before being knocked back down again, this time by Bruno.
‘Just shut up and you won’t get hurt,’ he said, ‘for now. The boss will be opening a bottle of French champagne when I tell him what we’ve just caught! We’ve been trying to take you out of the picture for months, and now you’ve just handed yourself over. You practically begged to be thrown into the container. It’s too easy. Like trapping rabbits!’
‘Let us out!’ cried Griff.
‘Not going to happen,’ said Bruno. ‘I guess this is goodbye.’
Hearing the container doors slamming shut was horrendous. Then came the awful sound of the locking device clicking into place, followed by the burnout of a car speeding away.
Griff groaned beside me, half leaning against the metal wall. On my knees, I crawled around in the darkness, reaching out blindly, feeling for Winter.
‘Winter? Are you in here?’ I called.
My frantic searching continued, moving carefully along the hard, cold floor of the container. Griff joined me.
‘Winter?’ I called again.
‘Cal!’ Griff croaked. ‘There’s someone else in here! I think I just felt a leg!’
I scrambled to Griff’s side, feeling around him. ‘She’s just here,’ said Griff. ‘I think she’s dead!’
‘Winter? Winter?’ I shouted, finally feeling her wild hair and finding her face. ‘Can you hear me?’ I asked, holding her up.
There was no answer. She was cold.
‘Winter?’ I cried. ‘Winter? Please talk to me!’
I grabbed her hands and squeezed them.
Cold.
I put my head down on her chest, trying to hear a heartbeat, desperate to find a pulse in her neck.
Cold.
All I could hear was Griff Kirby whimpering and the sound of my fearful heart.
I was too late.
She’d always been there for me, and the one time she needed me, I’d ignored her.
I lifted her up and shook her gently.
My phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket, reminding me again of the unheard voicemail messages. I knelt up to get a better hold of Winter and my mobile tumbled out of my pocket and hit the floor of the container.
The bump had activated the loudspeaker function.
‘You have four new messages,’ said the voice on my phone.
After a beep, Winter’s recorded voice reverberated ominously through the container as I held her lifeless body in my arms.
‘Cal, it’s me. I’m at the car yard and I have amazing news! I just found Mum and Dad’s car and got inside. It’s our car, that’s for sure—I found the tiny bird I had drawn on the upholstery in the back when I was nine! I knew it was here. I knew it! Call me back!’
Beep.
‘Me again. Please call me back when you get this message. I checked the car over … and I was right. The brake lines had been cut … Cal, Sligo did it. He murdered my parents.’
Beep.
‘Cal, where are you?! I feel like I’m going crazy here. I’m so close to confronting Sligo, but I know I shouldn’t do it. Not yet. Not without you. Oh, Cal, where are you? I really need you right now. I don’t know what to do. I need you to talk sense into me. Please call.’
Beep.
‘I don’t know why I can’t stop crying—I always suspected it. I always knew in my heart Sligo must have murdered them. I’ve made my decision and I’m on my way over to see him now. I’ve been waiting for six years to find out the truth, this can’t wait another second.’
Copyright
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SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registeredtrademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Text copyright © Gabrielle Lord, 2010.
Illustrations copyright © Scholastic Australia, 2010.
Illustrations by Rebecca Young.
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Cover design by Natalie Winter.
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e Leary © Scholastic Australia, 2010.
Cover photography: boy’s face by Wendell Levi Teodoro (www. zeduce.org) © Scholastic Australia 2010; close-up of boy’s face by Michael Bagnall © Scholastic Australia 2010; man jumping between roof tops © Bernhard Lang/The Image Bank/Getty Images; buildings © Tonis Valing/Shutterstock; people hurrying © Leenvdb/Shutterstock; clouds © WebStudio24h/Shutterstock; magpie © Gary Unwin/Shutterstock.
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited in 2012.
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