Faster Than Lightning

by Pam Harvey

  They went around the first bend. The ground was slippery at the turn and Angus held King in, afraid that he’d come crashing down. The other horse pulled away in front, sending clods of dirt up into Angus’s face.

  The storm was right overhead. Lightning flashed and thunder came on top of it, scaring both horses. Jack’s horse faltered. Angus caught a glimpse of the whites of its eyes as it tried to leap away. Jack sawed at its mouth but the horse wasn’t listening. It put its head down and bucked.

  Angus urged King past. They flew around the next corner. In the flashes of light, Angus could see the crowd waving their arms and punching their fists into the air. He put his head down on his horse’s neck. ‘Let’s go, King. Come on, boy.’

  Behind them, Jack was gaining. Angus heard the frantic scrabble of the other horse’s hooves and knew it was bolting. He looked around quickly, just in time to see Jack sweep past, totally out of control. The young horse got to the last corner first, but didn’t turn. It kept going straight ahead, disappearing into the trees.

  King took the corner easily. His strong legs carried Angus around without a stumble. In seconds, they were past the finishing line. Angus let the reins go and stood in his stirrups, arms outstretched. The crowd cheered. Thunder crashed. There was no sign of Jack.

  It took a while for everything to calm down. Strappers and trainers and racing officials patted Angus on the knee and King on the neck, and then they quickly left, eager to be out of the rain. Eventually, Jack came back, his horse still crazy. He had his hands full trying to calm his horse, but he looked at Angus and smiled ruefully before dismounting, taking the horse into his truck and leaving with his trainer. Then it was just Angus and King left in the wet. And Hannah.

  ‘You still here,’ Angus said.

  ‘I’m waiting to tell you something.’ Hannah was drenched. Angus could see she was shivering.

  ‘Well, I’ve got to get King home and dry. Come on.’ He moved back in the saddle.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Get on.’

  Hannah opened her mouth to protest, but Angus had reached down and was pulling her up. She scrambled up the horse’s side and sat nervously in the saddle in front of Angus. ‘This is ridiculous.’

  ‘Not as stupid as catching pneumonia.’ Angus walked King on. The horse stepped quickly, eager to be home. ‘Now, what do you have to tell me?’

  ‘The results came back. The sample was negative. That horse isn’t a clone.’

  ‘Geez, that was quick.’ Angus looked at the back of Hannah’s head. He had a feeling she had more to say.

  She did. ‘And do you know what that woman said? She told me to “stick to boys, not science”.’

  If Angus hadn’t been trying to steer a horse, he would’ve laughed. He felt Hannah stiffen in front of him, so he bit his lip. ‘What would she know?’ he said finally as they made it to his place. He slid off King and waited for Hannah to do the same. ‘She’s only a geneticist.’

  Hannah half fell off the chestnut horse. When her feet hit the ground, she stood up tall and looked at Angus. ‘You’re right. What would she know?’

  Chapter 12

  Tamworth Street, Teasdale: Saturday morning

  The sun came out bright and strong the next day and Hannah woke up all the more determined to investigate the farm. What was happening there just didn’t make sense. Why would a horse stud have a laboratory?

  ‘Hannah, I’m just going into town.’ Her mum opened the bedroom door a bit and peeped in.

  ‘Okay.’ Hannah sat up. ‘I’m going over to Angus’s. I said I’d meet him at 10 o’clock.’

  ‘Can you take Sean for me? He’ll only get bored down the street.’

  ‘No worries.’

  Sean was in his room, making aeroplanes out of Lego. Hannah was half tempted to leave him there—he probably wouldn’t even know he was by himself. Then she remembered what she’d said to her mother. ‘Sean,’ she said loudly into his room, making him jump. ‘We’re going to Angus’s.’

  ‘All right!’ Sean scrambled to his feet. ‘Will E.D. be there?’

  ‘I don’t know. Should he be there?’

  Sean shrugged. ‘I hope he is.’ He ran out of the room and out the front door.

  Hannah followed him, running to catch up. Motorcycles and horses: a little kid’s dream, she thought. I’m not that rapt in either.

  Angus was in one of the yards with King when Hannah and Sean arrived. He was grooming the horse carefully, checking him over for any sign of problems from the race the day before. ‘He’s fine,’ he blurted out to Hannah. ‘I’ll just let him have the day off.’

  She raised her eyebrows and Angus realised she didn’t know what he was talking about. ‘King is fine.’

  ‘Great,’ said Hannah. She reached out slowly with one hand to touch the chestnut horse’s nose. ‘Angus, tell me more about the laboratory.’

  ‘You aren’t going to let this go, are you? You don’t think we should lay low for a while?’

  Hannah shrugged. ‘Why should we? Just because of one little letter? We know something’s going on. Tell me what was in the laboratory.’

  Angus climbed through the fence to stand next to her. ‘Glass beakers and test tubes and technical stuff. I don’t know.’

  ‘What else was there?’

  ‘I dunno, just stuff.’

  Hannah ground the dirt with her foot. ‘I need to go and see it for myself.’

  ‘Well, I’ll just ring them up and say that we’re coming for a visit.’

  ‘Very funny. No, we need to sneak in.’

  Angus didn’t seem convinced. ‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea that I turn up there again.’

  ‘No, probably not—it could be dangerous. But I really want to know what’s going on. And we’d only be looking.’

  Angus could tell by the determined expression on Hannah’s face that he wouldn’t be able to talk her out of it. ‘It would have to be when they weren’t expecting us. I reckon there’s plenty of things happening up there that they don’t want us to know about.’

  ‘Night time,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Hannah, you can’t go out at night!’ said Sean, taking a brush from Angus and carefully grooming King’s back.

  ‘I can. If no one knows.’

  ‘Mum’ll know. She knows everything.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Hannah nodded. ‘You’re right about that. Maybe we could stay here, Angus.’

  ‘It’s a bit hard to move around our house without Dad noticing. It’s too small.’

  ‘We need to be somewhere where no one will notice us leaving.’

  Hannah and Angus looked at each other.

  ‘Gabby’s,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Yep,’ said Angus, nodding slowly.

  ‘We’ll have a sleepover at Gabby’s tonight.’

  ‘Don’t you have to be invited to a sleepover?’ Sean said, genuinely puzzled.

  Hannah grinned at Angus. ‘Why don’t you ask her? She’ll do anything for you. Let’s get the phone.’

  ‘But…’ Angus protested all the way to the house, but Hannah wasn’t listening. She dialled Gabby’s number and handed him the phone.

  ‘Hello, Gabby? It’s Angus. Yeah. Gabby, we need your help.’ He looked at Hannah and then turned away. ‘It’s about the black racehorse…’

  It didn’t take long for Gabby to agree to a sleepover. Not when Angus was asking. ‘There’s one condition,’ she told him. ‘I’m not having Emilio Dingbat. He is not staying at my house—he doesn’t ever wash the grease off his hands.’

  ‘Sure. No E.D.’ Angus looked at Hannah.

  ‘We have to have him,’ mouthed Hannah. ‘He’s got transport.’

  ‘We’ll see you tonight.’ Angus put the phone on the hook. ‘She said, no E.D.’

  ‘Ha! We’ll see about that. Come on, Sean. We’ve got things to organise. Like giving you a ride on King for not mentioning anything to Mum about the sleepover tonight.’

  Angus grinned. ‘Yeah, Sean. Want t
o go for a ride on a racehorse?’

  Sean couldn’t get out the door quick enough.

  Chapter 13

  Rogan’s Road, Teasdale: Saturday night

  Gabby and Ling were waiting at the door for Angus. Gabby smiled broadly at him, then winked at Hannah. ‘Come in,’ she said.

  ‘Hi, Ling,’ Hannah said. ‘Are you getting used to staying in the Palace?’

  ‘Just about,’ said Ling, smiling. ‘I’m glad you’re staying tonight—a sleepover was a good idea.’

  Gabby had her bedroom set up with mattresses and pillows. The pillows were all pink. Angus blanched. ‘Am I sleeping in here with you lot?’

  ‘Hardly,’ said Hannah, frowning at him.

  Angus sighed with relief. He sat in a corner chair and pretended to read a magazine.

  That’s where he stayed for the rest of the evening. Gabby sat on the floor and offered him pizza and chips, while Ling and Hannah lay on their stomachs playing Monopoly. Angus kept looking at his watch. The hours went by very slowly.

  Finally, he said, ‘Do you think we could go to bed now? Fool your parents into thinking we’re asleep?’

  Gabby shrugged. ‘They won’t care. It’s not like they’ll check on us or anything.’

  ‘Still, if we turn the lights out and pretend, then they won’t notice if we aren’t here when we go.’

  Angus went into the room next to Gabby’s, and for half an hour everyone lay in the dark on top of their sleeping bags. They heard Gabby’s parents go to bed, without checking on them. ‘Is it time?’ said Gabby.

  ‘Not yet,’ whispered Hannah.

  ‘What are you waiting for?’

  Hannah didn’t answer, but in the distance the sound of a very noisy motorbike started coming closer. She grinned to herself. ‘Lucky your mum and dad are heavy sleepers. Here comes Emilio Dingbat,’ she said.

  ‘What is he doing here?’ Gabby stood up in the middle of the room, her hands on her hips.

  ‘Quiet, Gabby. He’s going to drive us to the farm.’ Angus looked out the window. E.D.’s motorbike headlight had stopped just outside the front gate.

  ‘We’re all going on that?’ Gabby came over and peered out.

  ‘No, he’s got a car somewhere. The motorbike was less obvious. He’s letting us know he’s ready.’

  ‘The bike was less obvious?’

  Everyone listened to its loud revving.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Angus, ‘we’ve got to go.’ He pulled his shoes on. ‘Are you coming, Ling?’

  Ling smiled at him. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Well, I’m coming too!’ said Gabby. Hannah rolled her eyes.

  They crept down the stairs and out the front door. E.D. revved when he saw them, and headed off into the darkness. They ran to follow him, Hannah stumbling in the dark on a stone.

  ‘Are you okay?’ asked Gabby.

  ‘Yeah,’ panted Hannah.

  E.D. had parked his dad’s ute on the fire track that cut through the bush. His bike was beside it, ticking as it cooled down. E.D. was leaning on it, waiting impatiently, tapping his foot, when they arrived. ‘What held you up, guys? We’ve got clues to chase up and places to snoop.’

  ‘Thanks for the lift, E.D.,’ said Angus.

  E.D. grinned. ‘I know a short cut.’

  ‘You aren’t allowed to drive a car!’ said Gabby.

  ‘I’m not allowed to drive on the road,’ E.D. replied, staring at her. ‘That’s why we’re going through the bush.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re allowed to drive through the bush, either.’

  ‘Gabby,’ said Hannah. ‘Shut up and get in.’

  Angus opened the passenger door. ‘You go first, Ling.’ He slid in after her, leaving Hannah and Gabby to climb into the tray.

  ‘Great,’ said Gabby. ‘It’s disgusting in here!’

  Hannah didn’t say anything. She stared hard at the back of Angus and Ling’s heads.

  They crawled along the bush road in second gear. ‘Can’t you go any faster, mate?’ asked Angus.

  ‘Sorry,’ said E.D. ‘Gearbox is stuffed. It’s my next job to fix it.’

  Going very slowly had its advantages. As they got closer to the farm, E.D. switched the lights off. The car crept, nearly invisible, right up to the fence line. ‘We’d better do the rest on foot,’ whispered Angus.

  ‘Whatever, chief,’ said E.D. He jumped out of the car, slamming the door noisily. Angus grimaced. He held the door open for Ling, feeling her hair on his face as she brushed past him, and closed it softly.

  ‘Straight to the lab?’ E.D. asked Hannah.

  She nodded, her face white in the moonlight.

  They ran up the driveway in single file. The house was dark except for a spotlight outside the front door. ‘Go around the back,’ hissed Angus.

  E.D. led the way to the rear of the house. ‘Whoa, those big boys are still here,’ he said as they reached the back door.

  ‘Shhhh!’ hissed Hannah.

  Angus glanced over to see what E.D. meant. The tractors. Of course. He tugged at his friend’s sleeve. ‘Not now. We have to get in the house.’

  ‘Easy,’ said E.D. He tried the door, giving it a hefty push. It crashed open. They froze.

  ‘Good one, Tarzan,’ said Hannah, sarcastically.

  Angus listened, but couldn’t hear any voices.

  ‘I’m going in.’ Hannah moved forward. ‘We probably don’t have much time. Angus!’ she called quietly from inside the house. ‘Where is this lab?’

  She was opening every door she could find. ‘This way,’ said Angus. He led her down the stairs to the door of the lab and shone his torch. They all peered through the window.

  ‘There, what was that?’ Hannah whispered.

  The beam of light swung back. Pairs of startled rabbits stared back at them.

  ‘Look at them. They’re all the same,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Geez, you’re right,’ E.D. said, amazed.

  ‘They’re clones. They must be doing the DNA stuff here.’

  ‘This is gross!’ Gabby exclaimed.

  For once, everyone agreed with her. The torch lit up bottles containing animal body parts standing on shelves, swimming lifelessly in chemicals.

  ‘It looks suspiciously like they’re doing things with DNA. Otherwise, why would this stuff be here?’

  ‘But if they’re doing important secret work,’ said E.D., reaching out to push the metal bar to open the door, ‘why haven’t they got better security?’

  ‘Don’t touch that!’ said Hannah.

  Too late.

  The laboratory lit up like the biggest Christmas tree ever decorated. A siren squealed like an airraid signal. ‘Out!’ Angus yelled. ‘Get going!’

  They threw themselves up the stairs, E.D. knocking Gabby, who pushed hard at Hannah to try and keep her balance. Hannah fell.

  ‘Hannah!’ yelled Angus.

  ‘I’m alright!’ She scrambled up.

  They could have been sprint champions at the speed they ran down the driveway. E.D. got to the ute just as a car drove up from the other end of the property. Angus saw two men jump out and unlock the front door. ‘Quick! While they’re inside.’

  Without thinking, everyone climbed into the front seat of the ute, squashing E.D. into a corner.

  ‘Can’t see real well, guys,’ he said as he steered the car back up the fire track. The car lurched as he drove.

  ‘What?’ said Hannah loudly. ‘Gabby, would you get your bony elbows out of my stomach?’

  ‘Move over then.’ Gabby wriggled over, pushing Hannah into Ling.

  ‘Steady, guys. Don’t hurt the duco.’ E.D. grinned.

  Somehow, they got back to Gabby’s without suffocating. E.D. let the girls out.

  ‘Boy, that was close,’ said Gabby. ‘I never thought I’d be so happy to see my house again. Coming, Angus?’

  ‘Actually, I think I’ll go to E.D.‘s,’ he said, looking at E.D. ‘It’s been a big night.’

  ‘Cool! Let’s go, then.�
�

  Gabby stood with her hands on her hips as the boys drove away across the paddocks.

  ‘Hmph,’ she said.

  ‘Come on, Gab,’ said Hannah, taking her friend’s arm. ‘We don’t need them to have a good time.’

  Ling took her cousin’s other arm. ‘We’ll go and get a midnight snack.’

  Gabby looked one last time across the paddock where the ute was just a speck in the distance, and turned towards her house. She tossed her hair back over her shoulder. ‘Those boys wouldn’t know a good time if it hit them on the head.’

  Chapter 14

  Brookwood, Teasdale: Monday morning

  Angus woke up, breathing hard. He’d been having a terrible nightmare. Something to do with King…trapped with hundreds, maybe thousands of other horses…being herded towards a barn…or was it a glue factory…he’d yelled for King to stop, to try and save him, but the noise was deafening…he’d yelled and yelled, but felt so helpless…

  He shivered, reminding himself it was just a dream. Then he glanced at the clock. 8 am! His dad must have let him sleep in. He sat bolt upright as a scraping noise filled the room.

  ‘Angus! Wake up,’ a small voice called from outside his bedroom window.

  Something scraped on the glass. Someone’s grubby fingernails scraped on the glass. Rubbing his eyes, Angus scrambled out of bed and shuffled over to the window.

  ‘About time,’ Sean called, stepping back from the glass.

  ‘What?’ Angus hissed, lifting the window up.

  ‘It’s King,’ Sean said.

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘Well, I came over, you know, just to say hello to King and, um…’

  ‘Go on,’ Angus said more sharply, wishing Sean would get to the point.

  ‘Well, he’s not here.’

  Suddenly Angus was wide awake.

  ‘He’s not in his stable,’ Sean said. ‘Or his paddock.’

  ‘Have you looked anywhere else?’

  ‘Well, I…’

  Angus didn’t wait to hear his answer. Pulling on some clothes, he bolted for the back door, calling out ‘Dad’ a couple of times. He rushed outside and saw the truck was gone—his dad was probably out getting hay.