‘What—?’
Before I knew what was happening, both backpacks had been wrenched from my shoulders and I was sent sprawling onto the ground, face down. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I twisted around to see who it was but already the jungle was closing around my assailant. I climbed to my feet, attempting to give chase. But in this dense undergrowth, it was too easy to lose someone in the dark, and there was no way I was going to find whoever had stolen my supplies.
I slumped in despair, feeling the energy draining out of me. After all my hard work, I’d been taken down like an idiot. I should have been on full alert. Instead I’d lost the backpacks and our much-needed supplies. My right hand, still stinging badly from the modbot attack back in the lab was now even more painful from trying to break my fall, and had collected dirt in the tiny puncture wounds on my palm.
I sat down next to the grave, trying to work out what to do next. What the hell were we going to eat? Slowly, I stood up. There was no point feeling sorry for myself. I’d have to make my way back to the cave and get help from the others to make a new plan.
Deciding to risk the jungle rather than try the coastline climb over the rocks with such a sore hand, I started to move slowly through the undergrowth.
I’d been making my way through the jungle for about ten minutes when I reached the small cleared area that I remembered well from my first landing on the island, all those weeks ago. I saw something propped up against a tree that made me blink and wonder if I was seeing things. There, sitting side by side under one of the huge swamp mahogany trees, were the two full backpacks, just waiting to be picked up. I froze. What kind of trap was this?
I waited, listening to the silence. The occasional rustle of a small creature in the leaf litter, or the distant calling of a bird were the only sounds I could hear. I waited, crouched down. Eventually, I could wait no longer and ventured forward, swinging round in all directions, expecting an attack. All I saw were green leaves and the tangle of vines that wound through the undergrowth. I approached the backpacks as if they were booby-trapped.
I examined them thoroughly before picking the first one up. It was still full and I hauled it over my left shoulder. Then I shone the light onto the second one. It too still had its provisions, but there was something else that hadn’t been there before—something I hadn’t collected in the stores building. Sitting right on top, in a clear plastic box, was a USB. Gingerly, I picked it up, slipped it into my pocket and lifted the second backpack onto my right shoulder.
I swung round, hearing the sound of a branch snapping. It had been a trap and I was caught right in it!
But then… my brother suddenly emerged.
‘Ryan! What are you doing here?’ I asked, pleased to see him.
‘I was keeping an eye on you, bro,’ he said. ‘I was waiting for you near the stores area, ready to back you up. But then I lost you for a while outside the resort. But I see you were successful.’ He indicated the two full backpacks.
‘Someone jumped me a while ago. Did you see who it was?’
Ryan shook his head.
Facing Ryan, I failed to notice a movement in the undergrowth nearby until too late and suddenly we were both blinded by a camera flash. For a split second, the clearing lit up like midday. It caught me and Ryan, shocked and surprised, in its cold, brilliant light.
‘Who’s there? Who is it?’ I called as someone went crashing down the hill.
The two of us stared at each other, listening to the fading sound of the escaping photographer. The worst possible thing had happened. There was now evidence that there were two ‘Ryan Ormonds’ on Shadow Island.
‘Who was that?’ Ryan breathed.
‘Wish I knew,’ I said.
‘Our cover is totally blown now, what will we do? I’m so close to finding out what’s going on with the Zenith team, I can’t believe I’ll have to go on the run now. Once that photograph gets to Damien…’ Ryan said.
‘You know, I don’t think that’s going to happen,’ I said. ‘If you think about it, why weren’t we challenged straightaway? Because whoever took the photograph just wants to have it—to have something just in case. It could have been one of the counsellors or even one of the Paradise People. I’m half expecting someone to make some kind of demand rather than go running to Damien with the proof of our double act. Someone set up a trap by jumping me and stealing the backpacks and then leaving them up against that tree higher up the mountain. Setting me up for a photo opportunity. And planting a USB. There is something in all this that just doesn’t add up.’
‘Well, I hope you’re right, otherwise I’m going to have a very short training session and you’re going to have one more person to rescue,’ Ryan half-laughed. ‘I’d better get back before I’m missed,’ he added. ‘Try to stay out of the limelight from now on, would you?’
‘Oh, very funny,’ I retorted as I shouldered the heavy backpacks and made my way back to the others.
Katz Cave
11:21 pm
Zak, Ariel and Sophie were full of questions and after I’d answered them all, I told them about the photograph that could potentially end my undercover work on Shadow Island.
Before pulling out the USB and plugging it into my mobile, there was something else I wanted to say. ‘If Damien finds out that there have been two of us all along, he’s going to feel under enormous pressure. He’s not going to know how much information Ryan and I might have gathered between us. My bet is that he’ll change his plans—whatever they are. Of course he might step up the search for us. But somehow, I think he’s got bigger things to worry about now—like getting his Zenith team into action. He can’t know how much information I might have passed on to other people. We know he’s up to no good even though we don’t know exactly what it is yet.’
‘Cal,’ said Sophie. ‘I think we need to know what’s on that USB.’
‘Please,’ said Ariel.
I plugged the USB into my mobile and everyone crowded round to see what was on the screen. I opened the first link and frowned. Numbered ‘1’, it seemed to be an unremarkable diagram of the layout of a two-storey building, until I looked closer. On one of the external walls was the symbol of an eye—and I immediately thought of the holographic eyes back in Jeffrey Thoroughgood’s laboratory. The other oddity was a bit scarier: in another part of the building was the skull and crossbones image that we’d seen superimposed on the world map that had been sent to me.
Intensely curious, I opened the next link—number ‘2’—to see something very similar, although the building layout was different. But there was the eye marking a spot near an external wall and there was the skull and crossbones marking a spot inside the building. Moving more quickly, I opened numbers ‘3’, ‘4’ and ‘5’. They all followed the same pattern—the image of an eye on one section of a building, always an external wall, and somewhere else, in various different positions, the skull and crossbones marked another spot on each diagram. Five different buildings, five identical markings.
The final link opened to reveal a repetition of the lists of names and numbers—all those Zeniths and Melehans and the single mention of Mordred that I’d seen in the paper file in the laboratory.
‘OK,’ Zak asked. ‘Who has any ideas about these?’
‘Maybe the eye marks where the security camera is on each building,’ Sophie suggested.
‘I’m not so sure,’ I said, ‘I think they might be connected to the holographic eyes in the light box in Jeffrey Thoroughgood’s laboratory.’
‘As for the skull and crossbones,’ Sophie continued, ‘they mark different spots in the different buildings. Are they places to be wary of? Dangerous places?’
‘Like places where poison might be stored?’ asked Zak. ‘Or weapons?’ he added quietly.
I looked around at their faces—Sophie, Ariel, and Zak—all of them seeking answers. Answers I didn’t have.
‘Somebody wanted us to have this information,’ I said. ‘And that some
body took a photograph of me and Ryan together. It’s like on the one hand they want help, but on the other hand, they’re making sure that I know that they’ve got something over me, something they can use against me. Like I said to Ryan, the whole incident just doesn’t stack up.’
‘Maybe it is one of the Paradise People,’ Ariel suggested. ‘Or what if it’s someone from the Zenith team who wants to get out?’
‘I counted at least ten rucksacks,’ I said, ‘with five routes on the map, and now we have five different diagrams.’
‘One place each for the five Zenith teams on the list,’ said Sophie.
‘Right,’ said Ariel. ‘Five teams…’
Suddenly I got it! ‘Five targets! Five different targets in five different cities!’
‘Targets for what?’ asked Zak, worry etched on his sunburnt face. Silence. Another question without an answer.
‘The first thing I want to do,’ I said, ‘is to get this information to SI-6—and of course, Boges. We need every brain available to be working on these questions.’
‘Let’s draw these diagrams,’ suggested Sophie, ‘seeing as we can’t print them out anywhere. We could sketch them out over against the wall, in that dust on the floor. Then we can all study them.’
‘Great idea,’ I said.
It took us a while working through each of the diagrams on the USB. I was still keen to begin searching for the keys to Damien’s two prison sites, but I helped the others draw up the diagrams one after the other in the soft dusty soil.
Soon we had all five diagrams drawn out, marking the skull and crossbones and the eye symbols on each one. We stood around looking at them, trying to understand what they meant. Observe things, Dad would say to me, and let what you observe tell you its story. I walked from one to the other, observing as hard as I could. But I wasn’t hearing any story, not from any of them. Five different diagrams of five different buildings. They must be located in the five cities on the map in the laboratory. But what were these buildings? What secrets did they hide?
I needed to call Boges. But given the patchy reception I was getting on my phone, I decided it was worth taking a risky trip to a high point where I could pick up a better signal to make the call.
‘I’ve gotta go to some higher ground,’ I said to the others.
Shadow Island Jungle
11:28 pm
I found a sturdy tree deep in the jungle and shinned halfway up, hoping I was completely out of sight of any searchers. But, to my relief, I couldn’t see anyone. The search parties, which for days had been struggling through the jungle undergrowth, had vanished. I guess they still get to sleep, I thought to myself.
As I hauled myself up, I noticed that my hand was no longer stinging from the modbot toxin. There was still slight redness running along my palm beneath my fingers and some slight itching, but the painful stinging sensation was gone.
I scanned as much as I could of the surrounding rainforest. There was no movement anywhere under the vines and trees. In fact, the place felt deserted.
Puzzled, I called Boges.
‘Man, am I pleased to hear your voice!’ he exclaimed, sounding instantly awake, even though I suspected I’d woken him.
‘I’m pleased to talk to you too, Boges,’ I said, bringing him up to date with the latest happenings on Shadow Island. I told him about the modbot that had bitten me.
‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ he said, his voice serious. ‘They can be programmed to do pretty much anything.’
‘Why would Jeffrey Thoroughgood program his modbots to attack people? What’s the point of locating trapped people in order to help them, and then stinging them with poison?’ As I talked, I noticed the pain in my hand throbbing again.
‘Not sure. Could be just experimental.’
I told him about my cover being destroyed by the photograph taken of Ryan and me together. ‘Someone has given us a USB,’ I said, ‘and I’m about to email its contents to you. Can you send it on to BB? That’ll save me breaking cover again tonight. Actually, I’m a bit surprised that I haven’t heard back from him after having to hang up on him before. And Paddy would have passed on the information by now.’
Briefly, I told Boges about the discussion we’d had about the meanings of diagrams on the USB—the layout of buildings, the symbols of the eye and the skull and crossbones stamped in different positions.
‘We think the five diagrams are targets for five teams from the Zenith group. But we don’t know what they’re after. Maybe the symbols mean they’re planning to steal poisons from these buildings,’ I said.
‘I’ll take a good look at them,’ Boges promised, ‘and check in with SI-6 if I have a major breakthrough. And I’ll try and make sense of those names and numbers on the Zenith lists.’
He paused. ‘I think I’ve made some headway with the encryption of the Mordred file. I’ve used a cracker code and modified it so that it works much faster, and as far as I can tell, the Mordred file is a series of very elaborate instructions—which we sort of knew anyway. I’ve been liaising with Maxine, one of the spooks in the cyber security department of SI-6, and we both agree the first part is a very brilliant and complex penetration test which would work in about ninety-nine per cent of secured systems, the rest—well, we’re still working on that.’
‘It sounds like you’re on the case, as usual, buddy,’ I smiled.
‘But of course, dude. And as a sideline, I’ve managed to separate some meta-data and I’ve even been able to hack into Damien’s email. He’s very security savvy and careful in what he writes—he’s obviously aware of potential hackers. But there’s one email contact that intrigues me. He seems to have a fiancée—in fact, he’s promised to buy her a ten million pound castle in Scotland as a wedding present. Some chick called Gloria Finlay. I’m trying to get into her system now. That should be easier, because she probably won’t have the sophisticated encryption that Damien runs his system through. So I might be able to double back into his system through hers.’
‘Ten million pounds? I thought it was his brother who was the billionaire,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know that Damien was wealthy, too.’ Then something else occurred to me, ‘Or…’ I began to say before Boges cut across me as we both hit on the same idea at the same time.
‘… or he’s expecting to come into a lot of money very soon.’
‘Exactly,’ I said, thinking of all the movies I’d seen where highly-trained thieves pull off huge jewellery heists, or robbed banks. But none of that required surgically implanted enhancing drugs, or military rations, or holographic eyes. Or any of the other mysterious items that I’d found in Jeffrey’s lab. I shared my thoughts with Boges.
‘Good point,’ he said. ‘Why not just use balaclavas and shotguns like a proper villain?’
‘Damien is planning something else, Boges. Something new. Something bad.’
My last few words hung in the air.
‘So, what’s your next step, dude?’ Boges asked.
‘I’ve gotta get the key to Delta 11 and the key to the iron door where we think prisoners have been locked up under the mountain.’
‘How will you do that?’ he asked.
‘I’ll have to break into Damien’s office again. I’ve seen the Delta 11 key on the board there. Finding the other key is going to be trickier.’
‘Good luck with that, dude. I know you’ll…’ but the conversation was interrupted by a terrifying earth tremor, causing the tree I was in to sway from side to side. I nearly lost my mobile as I clung on, hurting my right hand against the thorny bark of the tree.
‘What was that?’ Boges asked.
‘Another warning from our local volcano, I think,’ I said, anxiously peering through the leaves, trying to get a clear line of sight up the steep incline to the smoking hill above me. ‘Anyway, thanks Boges.’
‘You don’t have to thank me, dude. This is the kind of thing I love to sink my teeth into—metaphorically speaking, of course. Otherwise, give me pizza—wit
h the lot. OK. Over and out. And be careful with that volcano, won’t you?’
He rang off and I climbed down, suddenly hankering after pizza and listening to the sharp sound of tearing leaves as they were pounded by the falling rocks and stones shaken loose by the volcano. I waited, sheltering under the tree, until the pelting stones had finished raining down. The volcano was definitely issuing a warning.
DAY 56
35 days to go…
9:39 pm
A frustrating couple of days had passed with no real progress. The jungle had seemed full of search parties and we had no choice but to lie low. I thought about everyone back home and hoped SI-6 were holding up their end of the bargain and keeping my mum reassured. I hadn’t gone this long without speaking to her since my days on the run.
Ryan had continued to keep a low profile and train with the Zenith team. He’d managed to sneak in a phone call earlier in the day in between sessions.
‘Ivan has been pushing us all pretty hard,’ Ryan had said. ‘And I could tell a couple of the guys were losing interest, so they’ve made more of an effort to do fun stuff, like abseiling and that kind of thing. But I’ve got a feeling that it won’t be long now till we’re moved inside the mountain.’ And we both knew what that would mean.
Even though it wasn’t the designated time, I took a chance and called BB’s number and was really surprised when I got an answer. It was Paddy again.
‘I know I’m calling early,’ I said, ‘but all the same, I’m really glad you’re there!’
‘No problem. We were just doing a routine security sweep of our radio systems and I just happened to have your secure channel open. We’ve realised the encryption on your channel might be contributing to the patchy reception you’ve been experiencing so I thought I’d better keep an eye on it.’
‘That would explain the trouble I’ve had!’ I sighed. ‘Has BB said anything to you? About what I told you?’
Hunted Page 7