by Ruth Eastham
He attached a rope to the halter, looping it through the metal ring, and gave an urgent tug on the rope, leading Centurion out into the yard, Emmi and Jon following with the holdall of tools. The big horse’s hooves skittered on the stone flags as he followed Aidan in the direction of Carrus Woods. The animal tossed his head, suddenly more alert, seeming to relish being out in the open again for the first time since his accident. Aidan was relieved to see there were no signs of a limp.
‘Let’s make it fast,’ said Jon. ‘The first fracking is in …’ he checked the time on his mobile, ‘twenty-five minutes’ time!’
Aidan made a clicking sound to Centurion and the four of them hurried for the trees.
– CHAPTER 22 –
GUARDED BY LEVERETS
I won’t let anything happen to Centurion, Aidan repeated to himself as they went.
All he knew was that he was going to hide the horse; keep him safe, somewhere near the clearing. He had to buy time until Dad got back and could try and sort things out. They reached the edge of the field, and headed into the ancient woodland. Emmi went first, then Jon, with Aidan leading Centurion at the back.
The trees closed round them, a sanctuary of branches and leaves. Sunlight came in beams through the canopy, moving in flitting patches on bark and heather.
Emmi called instructions as they made a hurried plan. ‘We should tap along the walls of the chamber and listen for a sound that the face might be hollow … Or look for marks that might show us where the hidden doorway is. There must be something we missed the first time.’
On they went, winding between the thickening trees.
Aidan tugged at the rope, and Centurion gave a rumbling snort of complaint; then continued his steady pace. There was no way to rush the horse more than he was already.
At one point they heard the distinct sound of a car engine, muffled by the trees, but uncomfortably close.
‘Berryman, do you think?’ asked Jon.
It had to be, Aidan reckoned, searching for them using one of the tracks at the wood edges. If Berryman stayed in his car, he wouldn’t be able to follow them this far. But if he decided to continue on foot …
‘Come on!’ Aidan hissed. ‘We need to go further in.’
They got deeper into the woods, walking in silence. Even Emmi had stopped her nervous chatter.
Niggling doubts were never far away. What if they couldn’t find the second chamber in time? thought Aidan. Fracking Blast Number Six. What might that do to those widening cracks in the rocks?
From behind, leaves rustled and twigs cracked, and Aidan started to get the uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching from the dense thickets and their steelblue shadows. But when he peered nervously back the way they’d come, he couldn’t see anyone.
An alarm suddenly sounded, making all three of them nearly jump out of their skins.
Jon drew to a stop and pulled out his phone. ‘The first blast,’ he said gravely. ‘Six seconds … Five … Four … Three … Two …’
In the distance, a shrill flock of birds erupted from the trees.
Aidan felt the tiniest tremor, like a slight vibration in the air. Almost as soon as it had come, it was gone.
None of them moved. Just stood in a stunned silence.
It had happened, thought Aidan.
Despite all the months of petitions and the protests.
They hadn’t been able to stop the fracking.
Aidan thought about Mr Williams; all the people who’d tried. The campaigns and the canvassing.
It had all been for nothing.
Aidan’s fists clenched. They might not have stopped this first fracking, he told himself, and he was probably going to have to move away from Carrus – he knew that now – but they could stop any more plans Enershale had. If they could only find Boudicca’s tomb, they could expose Berryman for what he was; get proof that the daughters’ bones and bracelet had been stolen. Get justice for Robbie. That was what was important now.
Emmi pointed through a gap in the branches. The tall, thin gas stack of the Enershale plant was in view, and from the top of the chimney Aidan saw a blue flame burning against the cloudy sky.
‘The first extracted gas,’ muttered Jon, with more than a tinge of wonder. ‘The methane being burnt.’
‘Fifteen minutes until the second blast.’ Aidan said. ‘Let’s go!’
Centurion seemed to sense the urgency, Aidan and his friends jogging as the animal broke into a surprisingly brisk walk.
But at the border of the clearing, Aidan felt Centurion tug back on the rope and refuse to enter. No amount of pulling could persuade him to step over the boundary of bracken and heather. He stamped his front hooves snorting, and would not go any further.
‘What is it, boy?’ Aidan’s heart thudded. ‘We’ve not got time for this!’
He exchanged worried glances with Emmi and Jon, but nobody wanted to offer an explanation. They were all nervous enough as it was.
Aidan tied Centurion to a tree in a sheltered area. He held the horse’s head between his hands. ‘Wait here. Stay quiet!’
Aidan crouched at the entrance to the tomb chamber, then looked round at Emmi and Jon.
‘Go for it, Aide, man,’ said Jon in barely a whisper, patting him on the back. Emmi passed the torch.
With a deep breath, Aidan eased himself between the ancient tree roots and down the stairwell, his two friends following close behind.
The torch cast an eerie glow along the passage walls, and their shadows rose and fell like dark ghosts around them.
At one point Aidan thought he heard noises coming from the way they’d come – the sound of footfalls – and he swung the torch beam back fast, only to see Emmi and Jon’s startled faces and the black hole of the tunnel stretching behind them.
‘You nearly gave me a heart attack, Aide!’ said Jon, shielding his eyes with his hand. Then he twisted and let out a scream. ‘Spider! Get it off me! Get it off!’
But it was only a clump of roots that had dropped on him from the ceiling.
They picked up their pace, in places Aidan stumbling over lumps of earth that must have come loose since they were last there. He couldn’t help shining the torch upwards as they went, seeing the cracks, which seemed to have lengthened and widened.
They entered the chamber, and Aidan hurriedly emptied the tools out of the bag. He took the mallet. ‘Let’s spread out! Take a section of the far wall each, like Emmi said. Start low, near the floor and work your way up!’
He banged at the stone and earth, trying to detect a change in sound, Emmi snatched up the claw hammer, and Jon the crowbar, and the two of them did the same either side of him.
But their wall tapping was coming up with nothing.
An alarm reverberated round the chamber.
Jon snatched out his phone. ‘Fracking blast number two coming up!’ His voice rose as he spoke.
‘Six … five … four … three …’
All three of them froze. Aidan’s jaw clenched.
‘Two … one …’
There was no mistaking the tremor this time. The air in the confined space wobbled. A tremble rippled up through the soles of Aidan’s shoes.
He thought about that thick red line on Berryman’s map. Each deep blast getting nearer to where they were. Closing in on them. And if they had felt something that evident with only blast number two, what was going to happen when blast six, that last one, hit?
‘Let’s keep searching,’ said Emmi with a strained voice. ‘Hurry!’
The three bent to their work. The air was heavy with tension as they scoured at the chamber walls.
Jon’s phone gave its next shrill warning, and Aidan winced with actual physical pain.
‘That’s fifteen minutes gone already?’ protested Emmi. ‘It can’t be!’
‘Blast three,’ Jon muttered. ‘Five … four … three …’
Aidan braced. He saw Emmi clutch her hammer tight.
‘Two … one …’
>
The chamber shook below them, the vibration rippling up the walls and over their heads. A clod of soil fell from the ceiling and shattered into pieces. A crack snaked up the wall. Aidan heard the unnerving sounds of rock grating rock; stones loosening.
Jon gave a kind of squeak.
Enough messing about! Aidan gritted his teeth and swung the mallet hard. A patch of rock shattered.
He drew back the mallet to swing again …
They had to find a way through this wall … before the blasts did it for them and buried them right underneath it.
– CHAPTER 23 –
INTRUDERS
ZERO
There was the dull boom, like a distant explosion, and the muffled vibration of it reverberating through the rocks around them. The throb of it set Aidan’s teeth on edge. The space shuddered, and he heard the hollow growling echo of the blast.
Blast four.
Crumbled earth showered down on them, and they had to dodge finger-sized flakes of falling rock.
The grim reality of the situation hit him.
‘You have to get out!’ he told Emmi and Jon. ‘It’s getting too dangerous!’ He tapped about on a patch of wall they hadn’t tried yet, then slammed the section of wall with his mallet – once, twice. ‘I’ll stay here and keep looking a bit and –’
‘No way!’ chorused his friends.
‘Are you crazy?’ cried Emmi. ‘We’re not leaving you here by yourself, Aidan!’
‘I think we should all evacuate!’ said Jon. His hair stuck up in wild tufts flecked with soil. ‘We tried our best. But even if there is a weak point through to Boudicca’s chamber, we’re stuffed. We’ll never find it and break through in time.’
Aidan gripped the handle of the mallet then let it go loose in his hand. He hung his head.
This had been their last chance. Their very last chance to find the truth.
Reluctantly, he nodded.
His friends weren’t going to leave him here. And he couldn’t let them risk staying.
Every second they were in here, was a second less of escape time.
Now that Aidan was no longer focused on the search, the space they were in suddenly seemed much smaller than it had before. Claustrophobic. It was as if the walls had inched forward when he wasn’t looking, little by little, squeezing the air. The need to get out gripped him. ‘Come on!’
But as Aidan made to leave, he drew to a sudden stop, making Jon and Emmi bunch into a huddle behind him.
There was someone in the doorway.
Catching them in the dazzle of their head torch.
Blocking the way.
Aidan put up a hand to shield his eyes, trying to make out who it was. His mind whirred with confusion and fright as he squinted at the shadowy figure. Had Berryman somehow followed them?
No, that outline wasn’t Berryman’s.
Was it the accomplice then – some Enershale person?
‘Hello kids,’ came a voice.
A woman’s voice.
‘Thank goodness I found you!’
– CHAPTER 24 –
HOPE TO DIE
Aidan gaped.
It was Emmi’s incredulous voice that spoke first.
‘Miss Carter?’
The teacher angled her head torch so that the beam wasn’t right in their faces. She was still dressed as Boudicca. ‘I’m so glad that you’re all OK.’
‘How did you know we were here, Miss?’ said Emmi.
Miss Carter looked at them, a confused look creasing her pretty face. Locks of wavy red hair fell across it. ‘Don’t you remember?’
Emmi was staring hard at the woman. She repeated her question, more loudly. ‘How did you know we were here?’
Aidan saw Jon take an ever-so-slight step backwards.
‘You told me,’ Miss Carter replied, ‘when you came round to my house, Emmi, sweetheart! You told me about finding this old cave, and that you were dead keen to explore it. I told you not to, but I knew you wouldn’t listen. You’re just like me – you love adventures too much!’
‘Cave?’ repeated Jon, looking at Aidan and Emmi.
Aidan’s throat went tight. What was Miss Carter talking about? He eyed the cracks; then their only exit behind Miss Carter.
‘Er …’ Jon coughed, a dry-sounding cough. He was blinking hard and Aidan noticed that one of his legs had started trembling. ‘We need to leave now, Miss Carter. We can talk more about this when we get out where it’s safe.’ He took a shaky step towards her.
‘Stay where you are, Jon.’
The teacher had lifted something to waist level, and at first Aidan couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But it was caught in the torchlight so there couldn’t be any mistaking it.
Miss Carter was holding a gun.
And she was pointing it right in their direction.
Aidan stared as the realisation sunk in.
Emmi’s face wore a look of disgust. ‘Robbie’s accident,’ she said, her voice acid. ‘Did you by any chance have something to do with that?’
‘Ah, Emmi,’ Miss Carter sighed. ‘Sweetheart,’ she said, in that same sing-song voice.
Aidan’s mind went into overdrive. He thought about making a grab for the gun, but he couldn’t risk it going off with all of them in such a confined space … There wasn’t enough room to get round Miss Carter …
‘We deserve an explanation at least!’ demanded Emmi. Her shock echoed through the chamber. Angry tears streamed down her face. ‘After what happened to my cousin, I deserve to know the truth!’
There was a pause. Miss Carter sighed again. Then Aidan saw her expression harden. There was an ugly twist to her mouth as she spoke.
‘Robbie and I found this site. When we were children.
‘It wasn’t long after he got that virus that damaged his brain. He followed me around everywhere I went, like a little dog. Poor, stupid Robbie.’
Aidan saw Emmi’s hands clench into fists by her sides, but she stayed silent.
‘We saw the steps,’ Miss Carter went on, ‘but could only guess at what was beyond them. It was impossible to get through – believe me, we tried! We made it a game to guess what was down here.
‘But I couldn’t get rid of Robbie. It got quite tedious. So sometimes I would trap him down between the roots and tell him they were snakes going to get him.’ She gave a mechanical little laugh. ‘He used to get so scared, silly Robbie, and it was only a game! He should have known it was just a game, shouldn’t he?’
She shifted her position and the gun twitched.
‘But one night there was a huge storm and a landslide in the clearing, and the whole entrance was covered up so you couldn’t see the steps any more.
‘And Robbie and I swore to each other, cross our hearts and hope to die, to keep the place a secret. Our special secret.’
Her eyes glinted in the torchlight.
‘Cross our hearts, and hope to die,’ she repeated, in a cold monotone.
Aidan’s skin crawled.
‘But why didn’t you tell anyone?’ he said stiffly. ‘Even when you grew up? You must have guessed what this place could be.’
Miss Carter regarded him a minute.
‘Don’t you like having secrets?’ she asked. ‘Old Centurion and his poor injured leg, for example?’ Aidan flinched. ‘Doesn’t everyone like having precious secrets?’
She scowled suddenly. ‘But then Robbie must have somehow got down here without asking my permission. Dug and wriggled his way through like the little weasel he is; I don’t know how he did it. He took the arm bracelet and put it in the museum without telling me.’ Aidan heard her voice spiked with anger. ‘It wasn’t his place to decide.’
‘I had to take the bracelet before someone found out its significance. I had to stop him blabbing to everyone. I didn’t have a choice.’
‘We always have choices,’ Emmi said.
‘Do you know about ghosts, children?’ Miss Carter said. ‘You do, Aidan.’ She turned to him. ‘Losing
your mum the way you did.’
‘Don’t you talk about my mum!’
‘Ruins a childhood, a thing like that,’ Miss Carter continued. ‘Childhood ghosts are the worst kind there are. But believe me, if you’d had parents like mine, you would have wanted to leave home and get right away from this place. I was glad when they died.’
Aidan shuddered. The most shocking part wasn’t what she was saying, it was the way she was saying it. So matter-of-fact; without any emotion.
‘All I wanted was to leave Carrus. But then I found out about all the debts my so loving parents had left me saddled with.’
‘Who knocked down Robbie?’ interruped Aidan, feeling braver than he sounded. ‘Was it you or Berryman?’
Miss Carter gave that tinkling laugh again. ‘Berryman? That conceited loser!’
Emmi shot Aidan a confused look. ‘Or some Enershale traitor, then?’ she stammered.
‘I assure you,’ said Miss Carter. ‘I prefer to work alone. Why would I want to share the money with anyone, if I didn’t have to?’
‘But …’ Aidan just didn’t get it. She had to be wrong, didn’t she? ‘But, it was Berryman who was going to make loads of money from the Enershale deals.’
‘Was it?’ said Miss Carter mildly.
‘We saw the contract at the manor house!’ snapped Emmi.
Aidan put a hand on Emmi’s arm. He thought back to the document they’d found in the Lord’s study. What had it said again? Emmi’s voice spooled through his mind: ‘… four million pounds … paid to the landowner of adjacent land … Berryman agrees to cooperate fully with any expansion of operations –’
His mouth went dry. It hadn’t actually said that the landowner of adjacent land was Berryman himself, had it?
Berryman had agreed to cooperate, but that wasn’t the same thing.
‘A manager from Enershale came to my door,’ Miss Carter continued. ‘He knew fracking would be controversial in the community, so he was only too happy to keep the deal confidential.’