Faster Than Lightning

by Pam Harvey

  He knew straight away there was trouble. The gate to King’s paddock was gently swinging. Sean ran up behind him, out of breath. Angus grabbed his arm. ‘When did you get here?’

  ‘About ten minutes ago. Where’s King gone?’ Sean’s face turned pale at the panic in Angus’s voice.

  ‘Did you see anything? Was there anyone hanging around here?’

  ‘Um, no. I don’t think so. There was a horse float that—’

  ‘What? What colour? Where? When?’ Angus was shouting. Sean’s bottom lip quivered. Angus put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Sean, tell me everything, okay?’

  As it turned out, there wasn’t much more for Angus to learn. A horse float was a horse float, according to Sean.

  Angus rang the police. The policeman on duty at the station sounded bored, but promised he’d send a van around later in the afternoon—Sarge was tied up at the moment with a car accident on the other side of town.

  ‘Sean, go and get Hannah. Quick!’

  Angus grabbed the phone from the kitchen bench and rang his father. No answer. Then he called E.D., who promised he’d be over in five minutes. Angus spent that time searching the paddock and gate area looking for clues. There were none. Just the open gate.

  The smell of car oil made Angus turn around. E.D. had walked up behind him, wiping dirty hands on even dirtier overalls.

  ‘What’s up?’ E.D. asked.

  ‘King’s gone,’ Angus said. ‘They’ve got him.’

  E.D. looked at his friend’s distraught face.

  ‘Hang on a minute. It might’ve been that dude—Jock, Jack, whatever his name is,’ E.D. said. ‘He’d be really annoyed that you beat him in that race. Especially in front of a crowd.’

  Angus was quiet. He wasn’t convinced.

  ‘Let’s go pay him a visit.’ E.D. strode off. ‘Then we’ll know for sure.’

  ‘Do you know where he lives?’ Angus called. E.D. stopped, looking slightly sheepish. ‘Didn’t think so. I do—c’mon.’ Angus jogged back round to the front of the house, E.D. following close behind. ‘It’s down by the track. But let’s do this quickly.’

  E.D. ran past him and jumped on his trail bike. ‘What’s keeping you, dude?’ he called, revving his bike.

  ‘Just go steady,’ Angus muttered as they sped off.

  E.D. kept to the grassy areas beside the main road. Angus searched left and right as they went, scanning every paddock, road and track for a runaway horse or a float, but saw nothing unusual.

  ‘Take a right and follow the track around,’ he shouted, pointing to a small gate tucked away between two enormous hedges. ‘Jack lives in that big white house with the other strappers.’ E.D. slowed and turned into the driveway. As soon as Angus saw Jack, he knew they were on the wrong trail.

  ‘Hey!’ Jack called, taking his feet off the verandah rail and standing up. He plonked a mug of something hot onto the wooden boards and walked down to the motorbike. ‘Listen, Angus, I have to admit you were great out there in the park. And sorry for acting like a bit of a jerk.’ Jack paused, looking from one kid to the other. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘King’s gone and we reckon you know where he is,’ E.D. said, taking a step towards Jack. Jack didn’t budge.

  ‘What do you mean, King’s gone?’

  ‘Do you want me to write it down for you, Jock Strap?’ E.D. was losing his patience. Quickly.

  ‘It’s Jack, not Jock.’

  Angus put a hand up to stop E.D. ‘Thanks for your compliment, Jack. I was a bit lucky though, what with the storm and everything…’

  ‘So where’s King?’ E.D. interrupted.

  Jack spun round and called back towards the house. ‘Benny, get Davo and come out here a sec, would you?’ He turned to Angus. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘Don’t go pretending—’

  ‘Shut up!’ Angus and Jack said together. Angus added, ‘Look, E.D., I don’t reckon Jack had anything to do with King going missing, okay?’

  ‘All right, all right,’ E.D. conceded, ‘I just thought we should, you know, suss everyone out.’

  ‘No problem,’ said Jack, ‘I can see why you might have been suspicious.’

  Angus explained the morning’s events. By the time he’d finished, the other strappers, Benny and Davo, had joined the group.

  ‘Back in the saddle, guys,’ Jack explained. ‘These guys would do the same for us. Well, maybe not the Mr Mechanic git here with the grease on his face.’ He grinned, looking at E.D. ‘We’ll check down at the track and around a couple of places I know. We’ll get him back, okay?’

  ‘Thanks, Jack,’ Angus said, feeling a little more optimistic. He watched the three strappers head quickly back into the house.

  ‘You wanna go to McCann’s now?’ E.D. asked.

  ‘No, not yet. Let’s go see if Sarge has turned up.’

  E.D. took it easier on the return trip, taking more of the back roads.

  Halfway home, Angus spotted a horse float parked outside a small house about 200 metres down Foggers Lane.

  ‘E.D!’ he shouted, pointing to the float.

  ‘You wanna check it out?’ E.D. slowed the motorbike and turned into the dirt road.

  ‘You know who lives down here?’ Angus asked.

  ‘No idea.’ E.D. kicked the bike’s stand down. ‘You recognise it?’

  They stopped suddenly as an engine roared into life. The boys scrambled into a ditch as the float swung out onto the road.

  ‘Get your head down, idiot!’ hissed Angus, dragging E.D. further down into the long grass.

  ‘C’mon, Angus. We’ve got ourselves a chase,’ E.D. said, leaping out of the dampness and running back to the bike. Angus groaned. A cloud of dust was all that remained as the car and float disappeared further down Foggers Lane.

  ‘Hang on!’ E.D. called, as the bike spat into action. In a flash they had hurtled past the house where the float had been parked. Angus had a vague impression of a couple of chooks and a barking dog as they sped by.

  ‘E.D.?’ Angus called, holding his friend’s shirt tightly.

  ‘We’re gaining!’ E.D. shouted, leaning a little lower in the seat, and gunning the bike for even more speed. ‘Pull your visor down.’ The bike careered into the storm of brown dust and grit being thrown out by the vehicles in front of them.

  ‘You want to jump on?’ E.D. called out to his friend as they pulled up alongside the float. But Angus knew there wasn’t a horse inside. They were wasting their time.

  ‘No!’ Angus shouted. ‘There’s nothing—’

  Suddenly the float swung violently to the right. Its left wheel had thudded into a large pothole. E.D. braked, the float moving ahead.

  ‘Look out!’ Angus yelled, ducking instinctively as the nearer of the float’s rear doors came swinging towards them, bumped loose by the jolt.

  Angus threw up an arm to protect himself. E.D. slammed his right foot down, making the bike skid and slide over the loose stones and gravel. The bike stopped a few metres short of the float, close enough for both boys to see that it was completely empty. The car door in front of them opened.

  ‘Empty,’ E.D. grumbled.

  ‘I’ve been trying to tell you that for the last five minutes.’

  E.D. didn’t appear to have heard him.

  ‘They’re getting out to shut the float door. Time to go,’ E.D. whispered, turning the bike around.

  ‘Let’s head to my place and see if the police have arrived,’ Angus said.

  They screamed back to the house and were met by a pair of hopeful faces that quickly turned glum when they saw Angus and E.D. had no news.

  ‘Anything?’ Angus asked, tearing off his helmet. Hannah shook her head.

  The phone rang. It took Angus a moment to realise that it was coming from inside the house. He raced in to answer it. The others followed.

  ‘It could be Jack!’ he said.

  The others watched his face keenly.

  ‘Hello?’

  It was the only word Angus spoke.
After a few moments, his face going paler by the second, he hung up the phone.

  ‘Well?’ Hannah asked.

  For almost a minute he said nothing.

  ‘Angus?’ This time, E.D. spoke.

  Angus looked up as if hearing them for the first time.

  ‘“You were warned. Now you’re going to suffer,”’ Angus quoted, his face stark. He swallowed. ‘“Not as much as your precious horse”,’ he added.

  Immediately his mind flashed back to the dream—the nightmare—that had started the day. Could it get any worse?

  Chapter 15

  Turning away from his friends, Angus picked up the phone again and rang his father. This time it answered after two rings. Angus couldn’t stop the moan in his voice. Hannah, sensing that he wanted to be alone, steered the others outside.

  ‘Dad, they’ve taken King. I’ve looked everywhere. Jack’s been looking as well. King’s gone. They’ve stolen him.’

  ‘What are you talking about, Angus?’ His dad’s voice was curt. ‘He’s a good horse but he’s too old to race. No one would steal him.’

  ‘It’s a warning.’ Angus took a deep breath and told his father how they’d gone back to look at the farm. He didn’t tell him the real reason. ‘We just went to look at the horses again.’

  ‘That shouldn’t have been a problem.’

  ‘We did it at night. Their security system went off.’

  His father was quiet for a moment. ‘That wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I hardly think they’d take your horse just for that.’

  ‘Can you go and see, Dad? Just in case.’

  ‘You’ve already told the police: they’ll search where they think they should.’

  In the back of Angus’s mind, getting the police to search the stud didn’t seem like a good move. If anything were happening there that shouldn’t be, security would be doubled. It would be even harder to find out what was going on. But if they didn’t check the farm and King was there, it would be a disaster. What would they do to his horse? Getting King back was the most important thing.

  ‘I’m coming home now, Angus. Wait there. We’ll find him.’

  Angus put the phone down and waited in the silence, letting his gaze drift around the room. A picture of his mother was propped up on the window sill. It was fading in the strong sunlight, but in Angus’s mind her image was as strong as ever. Someone had said to him that after a while he wouldn’t remember exactly what she looked like, that memories fade like photos. He didn’t believe it. He could picture every bit of his mum’s face, right down to the faint scar on her cheek where a mole had been removed.

  A loud scrabble of noise forced him to sit up. Voices were coming down the driveway. His friends made their way to the back door and barged in without knocking. A stormy looking Gabby and a worried Ling stopped in front of him. Behind them were E.D., Hannah and Sean. E.D. rolled his eyes at Angus. ‘Hannah thought we needed all hands on deck.’

  ‘If you’d rung earlier, we could’ve helped look for King as well.’ Gabby tossed her hair back so it swept across E.D.’s face. He wiped it away with exaggerated swipes.

  ‘We’ll help now.’ Ling stepped past her cousin and went to stand next to Angus.

  Angus looked at his friends crowding around him. ‘Thanks. We haven’t been up to McCann’s yet.’

  ‘That’s where he’ll be,’ said Hannah. ‘Those scumbags have got him.’

  ‘I hope they don’t hurt him!’ said Sean. His sister clamped her hand over his mouth.

  ‘He’ll be fine,’ she said, pulling Sean to the back of the kitchen to give him an earful.

  Mr Mac’s red horse truck flew down the drive. Angus raced out to see his father but knew straight away from the look on the older man’s face what had happened.

  ‘I went to the police and they did a search for us. They couldn’t find him, Angus. He’s not at the farm. They went out there and asked the woman in charge. They said she was very cooperative, showed them all the horses that were there, but none matched King’s description.’

  He handed a piece of paper to his son. ‘This is the name of the lady they spoke to. I’m sorry. He must have got out of his paddock. He’ll turn up—maybe at feeding time.’ He put the truck into first gear. ‘I’ve got to go to the track for a bit. Don’t worry, son. King will be fine.’

  Angus closed his fist around the paper. ‘Let me have a look at that,’ Gabby said, taking the note from him.

  ‘Natasha Miller,’ she read. Nobody spoke. ‘What’s your problem, Hannah?’

  Hannah had gone completely still. Slowly, her face drained of colour. She looked at Angus. ‘Natasha Miller is Mum’s friend. It’s Tash.’

  Chapter 16

  ‘This is ridiculous.’ Gabby looked at Angus sternly. ‘You’re out of your depth, Angus MacDonald. Look at you. You too, Hannah. It’s time we handed this all over.’

  ‘She’s right.’ Hannah sighed. ‘Natasha Miller! I knew she was a creep.’

  ‘What? What about Tash?’ Sean tugged at his sister’s sleeve.

  Hannah looked at Sean without really seeing him. ‘I should have realised.’

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ E.D. said, raising his voice and pointing a finger at Gabby. ‘Don’t you go telling us when it’s time to give up. We’re on to something.’

  ‘It isn’t that simple,’ Ling said, surprising everyone with her firm voice. ‘Let me get this straight. King has been stolen by the people who work up at McCann’s old farm.’

  ‘Yeah. Now called Bentley’s Stud Farm. And—’

  Ling held a hand up and narrowed her eyes at E.D., who surprised himself by pausing mid-sentence.

  ‘We now know that Natasha Miller, Hannah’s mum’s friend Tash, who is an expert involved in genetics, is also involved with these people. Even without Natasha, we have reason to believe that the people at Bentley’s Stud Farm are doing something suspicious. They’ve got a scientific laboratory at a horse stud.’

  ‘Reason one to be suspicious,’ Hannah said, ticking off on her fingers.

  Ling continued. ‘They’re very suspicious and angry when Angus goes on his little visit.’

  ‘Two.’ Sean was also counting.

  ‘We know that Lightning Strikes is the same as Gale Force. He’s a clone.’

  ‘Which means there could be lots more Lightning Strikes there,’ Hannah added.

  ‘There are,’ Angus said. ‘I saw a little black foal.’

  ‘Is that three or four?’ Sean asked, looking at his fingers.

  ‘Okay, let’s get up there and find King before he’s turned into dog meat.’ E.D. turned to make for the door.

  ‘And get ourselves killed in the process. Don’t be such an idiot, E.D.’ Gabby’s eyes blazed.

  For a moment no one spoke.

  ‘Okay, we’ll vote,’ Angus said, finally. ‘We make a circle. We close our eyes. If you think we should go up one more time and really find out for sure—’

  ‘Well, we all know what you think, Angus.’ Gabby’s hollow laugh wasn’t convincing.

  He ignored her. ‘Put out your hand into the middle of the circle. Majority wins, okay?’

  ‘Sounds fair to me,’ Hannah said. Gabby shrugged. Sean looked excited. E.D. rubbed his dirty hands together.

  ‘Right, move in close until your shoulders are touching someone else’s.’

  A tight circle was formed, Gabby the last to join. She had placed herself between Hannah and Angus. Sean was on the other side of Angus, then Ling and E.D.

  ‘Eyes closed!’ Angus called. ‘Reach a hand out into the middle of the circle if you think we should go. Otherwise stay still.’

  No one moved. It was as if each was waiting for someone else to make the first move. Angus had promised himself he wouldn’t be the first, hoping that E.D. would take the plunge straight away.

  ‘Ten seconds,’ he whispered.

  Angus felt a movement. Someone had reached out a hand. Slowly, he moved his into the circle and found someone else’s. H
e felt soft, smooth fingers. Ling? Quickly another one joined, resting on his own. E.D.? It felt rough enough.

  He waited a few moments. ‘Okay, all done?’ he said. ‘Can we open our eyes now?’ Sean asked.

  ‘No one move when I say “Open”. Got it?’ Angus said, before counting silently to three.

  ‘Open!’

  Six pairs of eyes saw five hands connected.

  ‘Typical,’ said Gabby, moving away. ‘That was so dumb.’

  ‘Gabby,’ Hannah said sharply, ‘you’re with us or you’re out. For good. Right now. Make your call.’

  The others watched her. Gabby opened her mouth, then closed it again. Inside, she felt slightly ill. She looked first at Hannah, then at Ling, and lastly at Angus. ‘When do we go?’ she asked, her heart racing. Angus smiled. She smiled back nervously.

  ‘Right, I’ve got a plan,’ E.D. said. ‘The same one I was about to tell you ten minutes ago.’ He squatted down. ‘We take the Ghost.’

  ‘The Ghost?’ Gabby frowned.

  ‘White and as silent as the grave,’ E.D. said dramatically.

  Sean shivered. ‘Cool. Where is it?’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Hannah.

  E.D. smiled. ‘It’s my car, hidden away in the old garage at home. It’s a work in progress. And my brother’s got the ute.’ He shrugged. ‘The Ghost will get us there.’

  It took them twenty minutes to get organised. Gabby stood by the open gate, staring at each of them in turn.

  ‘Okay, we’ve explained everyone’s role. Sean,’ Hannah said, frowning, ‘you’ve got to go back home.’

  ‘But you—’

  ‘No! We need you at home, in case someone turns up.’ Sean’s bottom lip started to shake. ‘Don’t go crying on me, Sean, not now. Go home.’ She turned to the others. ‘Come on, let’s go.’

  ‘Are you sure this is the right thing to do?’ asked Gabby. ‘Do you think I should go home and change?’

  ‘There’s no time. Come on,’ Angus said, exasperated.

  ‘Well then, can we just stop by at my place so I can get my mobile phone? Unless you’ve got yours, Hannah.’