by Karen King
I followed his gaze and saw a pair of blue and white trainers peeking out from the foot of the bed. Very familiar blue and white trainers. I ran over and there, sitting against the wall beside the bottom of the bed, was a pale, dishevelled and absolutely terrified Josh.
Chapter Thirteen
Josh’s eyes filled with tears when he saw me. “Maw.” He lifted his arms for me to pick him up.
I could hardly believe that I actually found my little brother.
“Josh. Thank goodness you’re safe.” I knelt down and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him to me. “Oh, Joshie!”
Josh rested his head against me and sobbed into my shoulder.
“Don’t cry, Joshie. Maw’s here now.” I kissed his forehead then drew back a little so I could take a good look at him. I was relieved not to see any bruises or evidence that he’d been hurt. He was still dressed in the blue and white striped tee shirt and blue shorts he’d been wearing when he disappeared, although they both looked quite grubby. Not surprising as he’d been wearing them for a week.
“Josh okay?” I asked, taking the screwed-up tissue out of my pocket and wiping the tears off his face the best that I could. I made a mental note that if we managed to get out of there alive, I’d never go out without a clean hankie again.
“’Ome,” he whimpered. “’Ome, Maw.”
I kissed him on the cheek. “Maw will take you home soon. I promise.”
“We’ve got to get going Morgan. Someone could come along any minute,” Jamie warned me.
He was right, of course. “I’m taking Josh with me,” I said. “I’m not leaving him here.” Leaving Emma was hard enough but I couldn’t leave Josh.
“We can’t take him. We need to move quickly. We need to get help.”
“What if they come back to kill him?”
“They won’t. Not yet. Organs have a short shelf life, especially hearts and lungs. A few hours at the most. They won’t kill anyone until the last minute. They want the organs for tomorrow afternoon, so Josh and the other children are safe until the morning.”
I shuddered, holding Josh tight. I knew Jamie was right. My little brother was safe for that moment. We had to find a phone and get help.
I looked at Josh, forcing a smile. “Maw back soon. Josh stay here.”
“Josh come!” he cried, clinging onto me in desperation.
The distress on his face tore at my heart, but I knew I had to leave him. “Maw back soon,” I promised, gently pulling his hands off me. “Joshie wait. Okay?"
Josh sniffed and nodded.
“Morgan, come on!” Jamie was already out of the door. I ran over to join him, turning to give Josh a comforting wave before I went out. The despairing look he gave me was like a knife in the heart. How could I leave him?
“Sorry, but we have to do this,” Jamie apologised, his tone gruff, as he locked the door. “Josh will be in more danger if we take him with us.”
He was right, but it was hard leaving my little brother behind. We’ll save him, I vowed. Somehow we’ll get these children out of here safely and make sure those creeps pay for the hideous crimes they’d done. All we had to do was find a phone.
Jamie had already moved onto the last room, the one the woman had gone into first, and tried a key in the lock. I glanced around to check the coast was clear as I joined him. If anyone were to come along, or the woman to come back, we’d be in serious trouble. There was nowhere to hide in that corridor.
Jamie got the door open. We both stepped inside, bracing ourselves. Was Holly in there? If so, what state would she be in?
To our dismay the room was empty too.
No wonder the woman had gone so quickly. She only had Josh and Emma to check on. Where was Holly? And the other children?
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Jamie’s face. I could feel his despair, it hung in the air, like a thick curtain between us, and I didn’t know what to say to brush it aside. If Holly wasn’t there, then where was she? I tried to cast my mind back to how long she’d been missing. Two months or so. What if we were too late?
Jamie bent down and picked something off the floor. He held it in his hand and gazed at it. It was a pink butterfly hair slide. I could tell by the expression on his face that he recognized it.
“It’s Holly’s, isn’t it?”
He closed his hand around the slide and nodded. “She’s been here. So where is she now?” He looked at me, his eyes dark with anguish. “Where’s my little sister, Morgan? What have they done to her?”
I tried to think of something to comfort him. “Maybe they’re keeping some of the children in another part of the building. Josh and Emma have only just been kidnapped so perhaps that’s why they’re here.”
“Either that or we’re too late.” Jamie’s face went slack with despair.
I thought back to the woman’s words: three kidneys, two hearts, half a dozen corneas.
“Holly must be here. They need at least three children for the delivery tomorrow,” I reminded him. “Half a dozen corneas, remember?” I couldn’t bring myself to stop and dwell on what it actually meant.
“What if they already had some in reserve?” Jamie swallowed, looking away. I could almost feel his pain. “They probably save some of the non-perishable organs. Corneas can be stored for weeks. Holly’s been missing for two months now. What if they’ve already killed her? If she was used for another…delivery?”
I squeezed his arm in an attempt to comfort him. “Look, they’re not going to keep all the kids here, are they? Someone might find them. They probably bring them here when they first kidnap them then move them away from the main building. I bet Holly and the other children are locked up in an outbuilding. Like the one we were locked in.”
“You could be right…”
“Of course I’m right.” I hoped I sounded more positive than I felt. I couldn’t bear to think of anything happening to Jamie’s little sister. “Now let’s find a phone and call the LEF to come and arrest this scum.”
“Do you think we can trust the LEF to come?”
I wasn’t sure. Would they take us seriously? Would they even care? Then I remembered how Summer said her dad was friends with the Chief Superintendent. Maybe Leo could help. “Let’s call Summer,” I suggested. “Her dad knows the Chief Superintendent. He’ll help us.”
Jamie nodded. “Good idea.”
It was obvious there were no phones on that floor so we needed to get to the one below, which meant we had to risk the fire escape again. As we raced along the corridor we saw that the lift was about to stop. Someone, probably one of the kidnappers, was about to step out. With a final spurt we got through the fire doors, then crouched down and peered through the glass just in time to see Marku marching out of the lift.
We reached the platform on the second floor when I heard the fire door on the floor above us open. We both glanced up as Marku glanced down. For a moment our eyes met then his face contorted in fury.
“Stop!” he roared, descending the steps, two at a time.
We pushed open the fire door and ran inside. Sergiu was striding along the corridor towards us. Marku came in behind us.
We were cornered.
Then I spotted a door on the right, half open. I nudged Jamie and we headed for it. We rushed inside and dove in. Luckily no one was in there. To the left of the door was a big wooden cupboard.
“Quick, let’s pull that in front of the door.” I ran to the cupboard and started pushing it. Jamie pulled the other side. We dragged it in front of the door just as the handle turned.
“You kids are dead!” Marku’s furious shout was followed by a loud thud that shook the door on its hinges. Another thud followed. He obviously intended to kick the door in.
We had to get help fast. Sergiu would join him any minute and between them they’d soon kick the door open. In a panic, I scanned the room then almost whooped with delight when I saw a phone perched on top of a big wooden desk in the middle of the room. I pointed it out t
o Jamie, who leaned against the cupboard to hold it back against the door, and raced towards it. “I’ll phone Summer!”
I heard Sergiu’s voice outside and knew we had only a couple of minutes before they broke in. I raced for the phone, grabbing it as a huge thud shook the door. The cupboard tilted forward. Jamie pushed it back, his face red with the strain.
“Hurry up! I can’t hold them back much longer.”
My mind went numb. What was Summer’s squilb number? It was programmed into my squilb so I’d never memorized it. I had to dial her home number, and hoped that she answered. I remembered hers because it was only two digits different from mine.
With shaking fingers I dialled the number.
“Summer!”
“Morgan! Is that you? Where are you?”
Thud!
Bang!
“What’s that noise? Morgan where are you?” Summer yelled as the door finally caved in. The cupboard fell to the floor, narrowly missing Jamie who dove out of the way just in time.
“We’ve been kidnapped!” I shrieked down the phone. “I’ve found Josh. You’ve got to send the LEF to help us.”
Sergiu had Jamie pinned up against the wall. Marku was thundering across the room towards me. I ran, still holding the phone.
“Tell me where you are!” Summer begged.
“I don’t know. Some sort of research centre.” I gabbled, trying desperately to think of the name of it. “They’re going to kill us, Summer...”
Too late.
I realized that I’d blocked myself into a corner of the room. Marku was almost on me and there was nowhere to run.
“Is that Morgan?” I heard Leo ask.
“Summer you’ve got to help us!” I screamed as Marku reached out, snatched the phone out of my hand and hurtled it across the room.
“No one can help you now,” he snarled. “It’s too late.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Well, it looks like we’ve got some more organs to sell.” Marku grabbed my wrist and, with a quick flick of his hand, twisted my arm up my back.
“Ow!” I yelled. I kicked my foot back, jamming him hard in the shins. It wasn’t that I was brave, just that I figured I had nothing to lose. Those creeps were going to kill us anyway, so I might as well try and make a run for it. Marku was too quick for me. He wrapped his other arm around my neck and squeezed so tight I almost fainted. “Keep still if you want to see your little brother again,” he ordered.
I stopped struggling. Play it cool, and keep alert for a chance to escape, I thought. Putting up a struggle if there was chance I could get away was one thing. Giving them an excuse to kill me when I could buy some time was another.
“That’s better.” Seeing I’d stopped struggling, Marku relaxed his hold a little, enough for me to breathe more comfortably.
Over by the door, Jamie was still grappling with Sergiu. The man was bigger and stronger, but what Jamie lacked in size he more than made up for in guts. He elbowed Sergiu in the stomach, forcing him to release him, then cuffed him with a left hook under the chin that sent him flying backwards, hitting his head on the wall. Sergiu groaned and slumped to the floor.
Marku swore, tightening his hold around my throat, as Jamie came running across the room, obviously set on rescuing me.
“Freeze!” Crina ran in brandishing a gun. She fired a shot that just skimmed past Jamie’s head.
Everyone froze.
“Watch what you’re doing with that thing. We need them alive until morning or their organs are no good to us,” Marku ordered.
“So I make sure they die a slow and painful death.” Crina kept the gun pointed at Jamie. “Sit down on the floor with your hands on your knees,” she ordered. Jamie reluctantly did as she asked.
Marku’s arm was so tight around my neck I could barely breathe. My head felt faint, my body weak — little wonder as not only was this creep blocking my air supply, I’d had nothing to eat or drink since I left the house that morning. I knew without a doubt that those people meant what they said and intended to kill us. Instead of rescuing Josh and the other children, Jamie and I were going to share their fate.
Then I realized that I’d been doomed from the moment we saw them kidnapping Emma. Once we’d seen their faces, there was no way they could afford to let us go. That’s why they’d kidnapped us too instead of just driving off with Emma. They probably intended to keep us alive until they got a demand for our organs. Didn’t the woman say something about having to be a compatible blood group? Maybe that’s why we hadn’t found Holly or any of the other children yet. They must have been locked up somewhere waiting until someone suitable needed them. It was a gruesome thought.
“Take these two down to the Preparation Room,” Marku told Crina, finally releasing his grip around my neck. “We’ll keep them there overnight. And get that bunch of keys off them!”
Crina pointed the gun first at Jamie, then at me. “Hand over the keys! And remember, one clever move and I’ll go and shoot the RADs right now.”
The threat worked. There was no way we were going to risk anything happening to any of the children. Jamie took the keys out of his pocket and handed them to her. She put them in her jacket pocket and waved the gun. “Move it!”
We were safe until morning, I thought as I rubbed my sore neck. Summer would have alerted the law by then. All we could do was pray they would track us down in time. I just wished I could have spoken to her a little longer, given her more details about where we were. At least I’d told her we were at some sort of research centre, but how many of them were there in the country? If only I could have remembered the name. Would the LEF be able to check them all out in time to save us?
Keeping the gun firmly pointed at us, Crina led us both to a big room right at the end of the corridor. Although the room had the same white walls and grey-tiled floors as the others, it had a distinct disinfectant smell and was spotless, with a large stainless steel cupboard along one wall and four narrow beds running lengthwise down the next wall. A white screen-frame was folded at the head of each bed. It reminded me, chillingly, of a hospital ward. A door on the wall facing us led to an adjoining room. I didn’t even want to think what happened in there.
Suddenly the adjoining door opened and a slim, middle-aged woman wearing a white coat, her blonde hair wrapped into a tight bun, stepped out of the room. She looked at us then at Crina. “What are they doing here?” she demanded. “You told me the situation was under control.”
“It was…is, Dr Francis. The brats escaped and found the RADS,” Crina told her without taking her eyes, or the gun, off us. “They tried to phone for help but we interrupted the call.”
Dr Francis pursed her lips. “Who did they call and did they give away any information?
“The girl phoned her friend. Said they were at some sort of research centre.”
Dr Francis glared at me. “You stupid girl. You were warned to keep out of this. You should have done as you were told.” Her voice was laced with anger. “Now you’ve given us no choice.”
Warned to keep out of it! She knew about the visit from the Ministry men. So, the Ministry was involved. This wasn’t just a bunch of sickos running an illegal organ-trafficking racket. It was Ministry-approved, or at least one the Ministry was prepared to turn a blind eye to. But if that piece of information shook me, her next words to Crina hit me like a sledgehammer.
“There could have been a trace on her friend’s line. We can’t risk the authorities finding any evidence, so we’ll have to get rid of these two as well. I’ve checked with the Fernbrook Clinic, they have two patients with compatible blood groups waiting for donor organs. They’ll do the operations first thing in the morning. The other operations have been brought forward too. Get the RADs ready. I’ll be back at two o’clock to remove the organs.”
Fernbrook Clinic!
That was where Summer’s dad worked. Surely he wasn’t in on it? Of course he wasn’t. How could I have thought such a thing? I’d known Summe
r and her parents for years, spent weekends at their house, gone on days out with them. They’d always been kind to me. And to Josh. There was no way Leo would be involved in something like this.
Was there?
I remembered how furious Leo had been that we’d hacked into the PL website. How he’d banned me from seeing Summer. I knew what we’d done was wrong, but we hadn’t done any real harm. And we were desperate to find Josh. I had thought Leo would have been more understanding. Was he so furious because he was worried what we could have found on his computer? That we could have discovered files detailing his involvement in all of that?
I couldn’t help thinking how rich Summer’s parents were. Seriously rich. Could some of that money have come from illegal organ trafficking? Organs from children like Josh? The thought made me feel sick.
“So you’ve been into our PW records and checked our blood groups?” Jamie demanded. “You were intending to kill us all along, weren’t you?”
“We can’t let you go free, you know too much,” Crina’s face was expressionless. “It’s your own fault for interfering. We only usually deal with RADS.”
I was seething. “Those RADS, as you call them, have got families that care about them!” I shouted. “You can’t go around killing children just because they don’t conform to your idea of perfection!”
“The children who need these organs have families that care about them too,”
Dr Francis replied. Her voice was calm, but her eyes glinted like steel. “And they are normal, intelligent children who can make a useful contribution to our society, not a drain on our funds and resources.” My hand itched to wipe the stupid, smug smile off her face. “Surely you can see, dear, that their lives are far more important. A disabled child requires constant care and can never live an independent life. Sad, I know. But one must face facts and make the best use of the resources available.”
Her words, and the matter-of-fact way she delivered them, made my blood run cold. “You’ve no right to kill one child to save the life of another!” I was horrified. “We all love Josh and he’s got a good, happy life. He’s not a drain on anyone. Mum and Dad look after him and pay for everything he needs.”