And then it was gone. Pryor reached past us and pulled the door closed.
I sat down in my usual plastic chair and immediately noticed a couple of new additions to the room.
Two shiny black security cameras peered down at us from opposite corners of the ceiling, green lights blinking.
Pryor cleared her throat and sat back in her seat.
‘We have your friend Jordan.’
The words were like a knife through my chest.
I felt the panic start to show.
No, I ordered myself. Keep it together.
‘Have her where?’ I asked.
I glanced sideways at Luke. He was staring straight back at Pryor, face completely blank. Good boy.
‘In the security centre,’ said Pryor, ‘where she is currently being questioned by Officer Calvin. I thought it was only fair to make you aware of this before we continued our discussion.’
‘Questioned about what, miss?’ I said. ‘Has something –?’
‘With that in mind,’ Pryor continued over the top of me, ‘I wonder if the two of you might be willing to answer a few questions for me.’
Play dumb. Play dumb and co-operate.
‘Of course, miss,’ I said. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Last Friday, a valuable item of property went missing from my office,’ said Pryor. ‘I’d like you to tell me where it is.’
‘I don’t know, miss,’ I said. ‘Where did you have it last?’
‘In my desk drawer, Mr Weir,’ said Pryor coldly, ‘shortly before it was stolen.’
‘Miss, you don’t think –?’
‘It wasn’t us, Ms Pryor,’ said Luke earnestly. ‘We didn’t –’
‘Miss Burke has already confessed to her involvement in the theft,’ Pryor snapped. ‘She has also implicated yourself and Mr Weir.’
I felt the knife twist deeper, shredding my insides. If that was true –
If that was true, then what had he done to her to make her –?
‘Ms Pryor, what is this thing?’ said Luke. ‘What are you saying we stole?’
Silence from Pryor. For a long moment we eyed each other across the desk.
‘I suggest you don’t play games with me, Mr Hunter,’ she said at last.
A tiny light clicked on in my brain.
She was lying. Jordan hadn’t told them anything.
I’d had more than enough run-ins with the teachers in this place to realise when one of them was dodging a question. Clearly, Pryor suspected that we’d taken the phone. But right now, that was all it was. A suspicion. Otherwise she would’ve just come right out and said it.
That’s why we were in here.
Now that they had Jordan, Pryor wanted to use her to get a confession out of us. I only hoped Luke wasn’t dumb enough to take the bait.
‘Mr Weir,’ said Pryor, suddenly shifting gears, ‘tell me, how is your father holding up after your excursion on Sunday?’
I didn’t answer.
By yesterday afternoon, Dad had been back to his normal happy self. But he was still refusing to talk about our trip to the Shackleton Building, or about what had gone on afterwards. It was like none of it had ever happened.
Except that he still couldn’t walk more than a few metres without holding onto something.
‘Don’t want to talk about it?’ asked Pryor. ‘Well, in any case, I’m sure he’s learnt a valuable lesson about the importance of not overstepping one’s boundaries.’
I grabbed onto the sides of my chair, and it was all that kept from reaching across the desk and punching her stupid face in.
Pryor narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Tell me where it is,’ she demanded again.
I gave her a confused smile. ‘Where what is, miss?’
And suddenly, Pryor was on her feet, shouting down at me. ‘The phone, you idiot boy! The phone that you stole from my desk drawer! Where is it?’
I reeled back. But more shocking than the outburst itself was the unexpected edge to her voice. There was something there I’d never heard before, and it took me a sec to figure out what it was.
Fear. Pryor was scared.
I thought of Dad limping home from the Shackleton Building, and wondered if Mr Shackleton might not have the same thing in store for Pryor when he found out she’d lost one of his top-secret phones.
Pryor tensed up a bit, like she realised what she’d let slip. But there was no point backing down now.
‘Tell me!’ she shrieked, leaning right across the table. ‘Tell me what you’ve done with it, or your friend Jordan may find herself –’
‘What are you talking about?’ Luke broke in, tears starting well in his eyes. ‘We haven’t touched your phone! Why would we? Phones don’t even work in this stupid town!’
Silence.
Pryor rested her hands on the table, heaving with rage, studying Luke intently.
He wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeve, breathing hard. Not a bad little performance.
‘Disappointing,’ said Pryor, finally sitting back down in her seat, ‘I only hope that Ms Burke will be more co-operative.’
She reached over to pull a sheet of paper from her printer, and slid it across the table towards us.
‘Here is your second assignment,’ she said coldly. ‘You are to have it completed by this time next week. I trust that this won’t be too much for the two of you to manage?’
Chapter 13
TUESDAY, MAY 26
79 DAYS
The next four hours gave me plenty of time to consider every possible meaning of the two of you.
Pryor was just screwing with us. Had to be. They couldn’t really have done anything to Jordan. Not if they wanted us all to keep thinking that everything was normal in this place.
They couldn’t have a girl going into the security centre and coming out injured, or not coming out at all. It would raise too many questions.
Unless they’re past that, I thought. Unless whatever they caught Jordan doing was bad enough to make them think hurting her was worth the risk.
I argued with myself all afternoon. By the time we made it back to the PE change rooms at the end of the day, my head was a mess and I could hardly see straight.
‘Hello? Peter?’
‘Huh?’ I said, slipping back to reality.
‘I said where to first? ’ Luke whispered, crouching down to pull on his shoes. ‘Security centre?’
‘And do what? Ask Calvin if we can just pop in for a visit?’
‘Okay, fine,’ said Luke. ‘So, what? Jordan’s place?’
‘Not much else we can do,’ I shrugged, spraying deodorant on over my shirt.
‘And if she’s not there?’
‘Then we work something else out,’ I said, wishing I could just do this by myself.
Ms Jeffery let us out of the gym and we ran to the maths block to get our bikes. It was total gridlock. I pulled my bike loose and charged through the crowd, almost knocking down a couple of morons who were standing around, talking. Seriously, just get your bike and go.
After a few minutes of pushing and shoving and rolling over toes, I finally hauled my bike clear of the mob. Luke was still fumbling with his bike chain. He kept moving aside to let other people push past.
‘Come on!’ I shouted. This was no time to be polite.
I was about to ride off without him, when I saw Cat, Tank and Mike skulking off towards the English block.
Where in the world were they going?
‘Peter Weir!’ shouted a rabid voice from above me. Mr Ranga was leaning out the second-storey window, comb-over flapping in the wind.
Oh, crap. Detention.
‘Sorry, sir!’ I called up to him. ‘I’m kind of busy this afternoon. Can we reschedule?’
‘Do not make this any worse for yourself, Peter,’ Mr Ranga spat. ‘Get yourself up here immediately!’
I cupped a hand to my ear. ‘What’s that, sir? I can’t hear you up there!’
‘Peter!’ he screamed. ‘Don’t you dare!’
>
But that was all I heard. Luke had finally pulled his bike free, and the two of us took off towards the back gate.
‘I have a feeling you’re going to pay for that,’ said Luke, swerving around a couple of kids on skateboards.
‘Whatever,’ I said. With everything else going on, Mr Ranga wasn’t even in my head.
We shot through the school gate at full tilt, sending a bunch of primary kids running for cover.
In two minutes, we were ditching our bikes and running up the path to Jordan’s house.
Please be okay. Please.
I leapt onto the veranda and hammered the doorbell.
What if no-one was home? Jordan’s parents usually wouldn’t finish work until five, but –
I jumped as a shadow appeared behind the door. It was huge, stretching past both sides of the stained glass.
The door opened and suddenly Jordan’s enormous, towering, shaven-headed, islander father was looming over us.
He looked absolutely furious.
I almost ran for it. I knew Jordan’s dad was a really good guy, but right now he looked terrifying. And I’d seen what he could do when someone threatened his family.
But then he realised who we were, and the rage on his face dropped back a bit.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Hi, boys.’
I started breathing again, feeling extremely grateful that I wasn’t whoever he’d thought might be coming to the door.
‘Mr Burke,’ said Luke, ‘we were wondering if Jordan –’
‘This really isn’t a good time, Luke,’ said Jordan’s dad in a voice that made my blood go cold.
‘Is she here?’ I asked. ‘We just want to make sure she’s –’
‘Dad?’
I heard footsteps from inside the house, and Jordan appeared in the doorway. She had goosebumps all up and down her arms, and her skin was radiating heat, like she’d just got out of the shower.
And for a few seconds, I forgot everything that was wrong in Phoenix.
‘Hey,’ she said. ‘Dad, it’s fine, let them in.’
Jordan’s dad considered us for a minute. The last time we were over here, Crazy Bill had followed Luke and me up to the house and started spying on us.
Not our fault. But also not the best first impression to make on your future girlfriend’s father.
‘We won’t stay long,’ said Luke.
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘we just need to catch her up on our meeting with Pryor today. You know, staff-student liaison stuff.’
Mr Burke looked at Jordan, who was staring up at him, Bambi-eyed.
‘All right, all right,’ he said, sighing like he knew full well she was playing him. ‘Just take it easy, okay? You’ve had a rough day.’
‘Dad, I’m fine,’ said Jordan. She turned to me and Luke. ‘C’mon.’
We followed her down the hall. As we passed the lounge room, I saw Jordan’s little sister lying on the floor, surrounded by paper and colouring pencils.
She looked up at us and exploded into a fit of giggles.
Jordan shot Luke a weary look. ‘Probably planning our wedding,’ she said. ‘I swear, she hasn’t shut up about you since last time you guys were here.’
Stupid kid, I thought, stepping into Jordan’s room. What would she know?
Jordan shut the door behind us and her tone changed completely.
‘Are you guys okay?’ she asked.
‘Us?’ said Luke. ‘You’re the one who –’
‘Calvin said you guys admitted to taking the phone,’ said Jordan.
‘Pryor said the same thing about you,’ I said. ‘You didn’t tell him anything?’
‘No,’ said Jordan. ‘Did you?’
‘Course not,’ I said.
‘Okay, good,’ Jordan breathed.
‘What did Calvin do to you?’ I asked. ‘I mean, he didn’t hurt you or anything?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘In fact …’
Jordan went across to her schoolbag and grabbed her copy of The Shape of Things to Come. She flipped it open and pulled out a bookmark or something from between the pages. She held it up in front of us.
‘Are you kidding me?’ I said.
It wasn’t a bookmark.
It was a key card.
Chapter 14
TUESDAY, MAY 26
79 DAYS
‘Told you I’d find out what was behind that door,’ Jordan grinned.
‘Yeah, but …’ Luke trailed off. ‘How did you get that?’
‘Actually, it wasn’t as hard as I thought,’ said Jordan. ‘Montag seemed sort of distracted when Mum and I went in to see him. Like he had somewhere else to be.’
‘The meeting with Ketterley and your dad,’ said Luke, pulling his eyes away from the key card to look at me. ‘That was today, right?’
‘Think so,’ I said, really not wanting to get into Dad again.
‘Anyway,’ said Jordan, ‘Montag let us into his office – as in, his normal office, not the metal door place – and then he clipped all his keys and stuff to the side of his belt.’
‘The key card too?’ I said.
‘Yeah, on one of those little clamp things,’ she said, miming with her finger and thumb. ‘I waited until Dr Montag went to type something into his computer, and I reached over and unclipped the card from his belt while he and Mum had their backs turned.’
‘That’s it?’ said Luke.
‘What do you mean, that’s it? ’ I said, looking for a reason to snap at him. ‘What if he’d seen her?’
‘He didn’t,’ Jordan shrugged. ‘I mean, these guys are still only human, right? So, yeah, I stuck the card in my pocket and then asked Dr Montag where the toilet was. I was planning to have a quick look in the locked room and get back again before anyone realised something was up.’
‘But?’ said Luke.
‘Well, the first part worked,’ said Jordan, sitting down on her bed. ‘Actually, Dr Montag said it might be good if I stepped out for a couple of minutes so he could talk to Mum about some personal stuff.’
‘What kind of stuff?’ I asked, sitting down next to her.
‘Pregnant women’s business,’ said Jordan pointedly. ‘You really want me to go into detail?’
‘You know what? Why don’t you just keep telling us what happened?’
‘Right,’ said Jordan, shuffling away from me a bit, ‘so it took me a few minutes to find the place from the photo. It was right at the other end of the building, near the room they had Luke in after he got bashed.’
‘And?’ said Luke. ‘What was in there?’
‘Nothing,’ said Jordan.
‘What, so it was just another hospital room or something?’ I said.
‘No,’ said Jordan, ‘it was an empty room.’
‘Are you sure?’ said Luke. ‘Did you … I mean, you went in and had a look around, right?’
‘At what? ’ said Jordan, and it was nice to hear her getting stuck into him for a change. ‘Of course I looked, but it wasn’t even a proper room. It was just this tiny little cupboard thing with, like, kitchen tiles on the floor.’
It didn’t make any sense. There had to be something in there. Something Jordan had missed. But my survival instinct kicked in before I said this out loud. Telling Jordan she hadn’t looked hard enough wouldn’t do me any favours.
‘What happened then?’ I asked instead.
‘I started heading back, but this nurse stopped me halfway and asked me what I was doing,’ said Jordan. ‘I told her I’d got lost on the way to the toilets. She let me go, and then followed me all the way back up the hall. When we got to the waiting room, she kept going and walked straight out of the building and across the street.’
‘Huh?’ said Luke. ‘Wait – she went to the security centre?’
Jordan sighed. ‘Yep.’
‘To do what?’ I said. ‘Report some suspicious walking?’
‘I don’t know what she told them,’ said Jordan. ‘I went straight back to Mum and Dr Montag and hid t
he key card in my bag. Next thing I know, Calvin’s storming in with two other security officers.’
‘Bet your mum loved that,’ said Luke.
‘Uh-huh,’ said Jordan. ‘She went pretty nuts – and that was before she knew what was really going on. Because, remember, this isn’t the first time Calvin’s burst in on one of her doctor’s appointments.’
‘Yeah, she’s had kind of a bad run, huh?’ I said.
‘So Mum starts laying into him about that,’ Jordan continued, ‘and then Calvin says one of the nurses has reported some suspicious behaviour and that I need to come with him, and Mum just lost it at him. In the end, they needed one of the security officers to stay back and restrain her.’
‘She okay?’ said Luke, jumping in before I had the chance.
‘Yeah, they didn’t do anything to her. The guard just waited until she calmed down a bit and then sent her home.’ Jordan pointed at the bedroom door. ‘She’s at her computer now, sending an angry email to Mr Shackleton.’
‘Awesome,’ I said. ‘I’m sure he’ll sort the whole thing right out.’
‘But that’s pretty much it,’ said Jordan. ‘Calvin hauled me into one of the interrogation rooms and started questioning me.’
‘You sure you’re okay?’ I asked, moving closer to her again.
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘He was – I mean, between the phone and going to the Shackleton Building and getting caught out in the bush, they’re definitely getting suspicious. But they’re still kind of stuck, aren’t they, because they don’t want to give themselves away either. So I just kept my mouth shut and eventually they had to let me go.’
‘Hang on,’ said Luke. ‘How did you get away from there without Calvin finding the key card? Surely he must have gone through your stuff.’
‘Nope,’ Jordan grinned. ‘My schoolbag never made it to the security centre. Calvin was too busy dealing with Mum to even realise it was there. I just left it behind in the doctor’s office, and Mum brought it home.’
She flipped the key card over in her fingers. ‘So …’ she said. ‘Who wants to go have a proper look inside Pryor’s office?’
I cringed. One of us was going to have to burst her bubble. I decided to let Luke do it.
‘Jordan … we can’t,’ he said. ‘Pryor’s just had security cameras put in.’
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