Anja stared at Miles. “Um, no he doesn’t. And anyway, I’ve already texted him to ask if he could look into it.”
Miles leaned forward. “And? What did he reply?”
Anja breathed out sharply, “He said the same crap the police did, Rufus was taken before he got here, making him Kettleton’s issue. And I’ve checked in with the Kettleton police station, they’re ‘looking into it’. Which means they’re not going to do a damn thing.”
They went back to staring at the wall.
Anja considered telling Miles about the second text Jabez had sent but decided against it. She picked up her phone reading both texts again.
“Sadly he’s Kettleton’s issue, but I’ll send a request to the head of police there to make sure they take it seriously.” Anja then read the second text, the one she hadn’t told Miles about, “From a friend to a friend, you should tread with caution. Don’t do anything you’ll regret. There’s more going on than you’re aware of.”
When she had first read the text she’d wanted to throw her phone across the room. Jabez was being cryptic and she hated it.
Miles thought of more ideas, but Anja shot each one down because it was either stupid, she’d already done it, or both.
She had tabs open on all local police stations and hospitals in Okland and Kettleton. She repeatedly checked them for talk of a red-haired teenager, but so far nothing had come up. Rufus’s phone had been turned off seconds after he’d been taken, the battery had probably been taken out or the phone had been destroyed. Anja couldn’t figure out which.
Miles and Saskia had done all they could.
Anja felt empty. The silence was suffocating until it was interrupted by someone pounding on the front door. Miles jumped up, exchanging glances with Anja. He opened the door. Saskia rushed in, wrapping her woolly cardigan around herself tightly, Miles moved to stand next to her in the middle of the room. Anja jumped to her feet, her laptop sliding off her lap and onto the floor. Saskia opened her mouth to speak but instead, a sob escaped. She took a few steps forward and embraced her boyfriend.
Saskia pulled away, wiping her sleeve under her eyes to collect the tears that were falling. “I saw him. Outside my hotel.”
Miles’s face changed instantly. It took on a hardness that Anja had never seen before. Saskia continued to talk but her words were so staggered and quiet Anja couldn’t pick them up completely. Miles was shaking his head side to side, Anja wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw fear etched onto his face.
“I need to leave now,” Saskia said. Her hands were shaking at her sides.
Miles bent and grabbed them, a sad smile on his face. “If you’re going then I’m going too.” Saskia began to shake her head but Miles added, “This is non-negotiable.”
Anja moved around the sofa. Saskia seemed to notice her then, wiping her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” It took her a second to realise why Saskia was apologising.
“You need to do anything you can to stay away from him.” Anja had picked up on the fact that ‘him’ was Saskia’s disgusting father. “I’ll find Rufus just fine. You guys should go.”
Miles was holding onto Saskia’s hands as he looked into her eyes, “We can’t stay here, but I think I know somewhere we’ll be safe.” Saskia nodded, then let go of Miles’s hand to run over and hug Anja.
“Good luck,” she whispered.
Miles was already grabbing his coat and phone from the counter. He smiled, he seemed to be trying to find the right words to say. Anja nodded once to answer his unasked questions.
“I’ll be fine.” She hoped by telling the lie that she’d start to believe it herself.
Before Anja had a real chance to process what was going on her friends were out the door, leaving it open behind them.
Chapter Nine
Everything was falling apart and it felt as if Anja had no control. The world had made up its mind to hate her and she had to suffer the consequences of that decision. Finding Rufus was all she cared about. Her mind and body had become two separate entities, each as useless as the other.
Anja had the slowest week of her life. She spent all of her time trying to find her brother. But he was still missing. She’d contacted one of the other coders in her department and asked them if they could look into it, but her request was immediately declined with no explanation.
With every day that went past she grew more and more frantic. Miles hadn’t come back since he’d run off with Saskia and she felt his absence almost as much as she felt Rufus’s. He’d been texting her but he hadn’t given Anja any information about where he was, just that they were okay and staying with a friend.
Willow had been asking for frequent updates on how he was doing and with every fake text, Anja had felt more of her hope slipping away. She’d made excuse after excuse as to why Rufus couldn’t talk on the phone and even though it hurt her to lie to Willow, she knew she had to. Anja was just avoiding the inevitable, but she couldn’t muster up the strength needed to tell her friend the truth.
She was on borrowed time. Without her internship, she didn’t have a place in the city, so any day the landlord could decide to evict her. With Miles gone she had no one to turn to for help. She was spending every minute trying to find Rufus, which meant that even though Jabez had offered her a way to get her job back she couldn’t take it.
How can I stay strong when I have no hope, no one to talk to and no job to focus on?
She had been craving real food for the last few days and finally got to a point where she couldn’t bring herself to eat any more noodles. Anja grabbed her bag and headed to the nearest shop.
Charlie’s pizza smelled divine as she walked by, but the smell also brought back memories of Miles and her eating the pizza together. On her way back from the market she tried her best not to look at the pizzeria.
A day after he had left Miles had sent Anja a text saying that he’d quit his job so he could be with Saskia, but she hadn’t expected him to be replaced so quickly. The new receptionist was a plump boy who was always grumpy and always glaring. She had attempted to talk to him but he’d completely ignored her. But today when he saw her coming he stood and placed a yellow piece of paper on the top counter. Anja read it and felt her face go red. It was an eviction notice, with her name on. She scrunched up the paper and stuffed it into her pocket and then yelled some very explicit words at the new boy at the desk. He looked back at her as if she were a piece of gum on the sole of his shoe.
After telling him where the landlord could ‘stick it’ she stomped upstairs. She stuffed her duffel bag with her very few possessions and then stormed back down to leave. She raised her middle finger at the boy as she left.
The night was muggy and the air was thick. The sun had begun to set, and even though it was beautiful, and the remaining light sparkled on the glass buildings, Anja felt defeated.
She was walking towards the outskirts of the city until the sun had completely set, using her phone to find directions to the nearest hotel.
The duffle bag had begun to strain her back when she finally arrived.
She pushed aside one set of doors, then found herself in a small closed-off corridor. Anja opened another door in front of her which led into the reception area.
She hadn’t realised how expensive the room would be, meaning she could only afford two nights, which used up all the money she had in her account. All she had left was the cash in her pocket.
This meant that she had three days to find her brother. After that, she would be forced to head back to Kettleton alone.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that Rufus was in the city.
If they haven’t taken him to Okland then why did they wait for him to take the train? Why not just kidnap him back in Kettleton?
The room was small and like most things in Okland it had a completely neutral colour scheme. It smelled like freshly cut lilacs, the scent overwhelming the room.
Anja set up her laptop before perching herself on the bed. Her eyes bo
red into the screen, hoping to come up with a new idea on how to find him. Without police help, she didn’t even know if it was possible to find someone in a city this big.
The group who’d taken Rufus looked professional. They’d been dressed in matching black body armour and black masks to conceal their faces. The guns they’d held… Her heart sank. Guns. Fear overtook her sadness. Why had they taken him? What have they done to him?
Anja decided to distract herself with food. She scanned the room, her eyes landing on the mini-fridge, set into the wall of the room. She helped herself to a tiny can of fizzy drink and a chocolate bar.
To begin with, she tried tracking Rufus’s laptop, but that quickly came up empty. It’d probably been found on the train and destroyed, along with his phone.
Every lead quickly became a dead-end.
She didn’t want to sleep because that would mean another night that her brother was out there alone. But she couldn’t help it when her body eventually succumbed to exhaustion.
* * *
When she woke up the next morning, she raided the mini-fridge again and got to work trying to get into the train station’s security to access the footage of her brother being taken. She needed to look over every detail of what had happened, and her memory was letting her down.
She spent the entire day creating a cyberworm that would slowly break down the system’s security, allowing her access to the footage from the train. If successful the code would implant itself into the system and allow her access, without a trace.
Her eyes stung, and that sting turned into a burning. She scrunched up her face, a tear rolling down her cheek, from the bright screen or her despair, she didn’t know. Her hands cramped up, but she couldn’t stop, she had to get this right. Finally, she was done and she could lie down.
* * *
Anja had previously tried to gain access to the security cameras around the city, but they were well protected. Finally, on her last full day in the city, she broke through. She even managed to set up an alert for him in their facial recognition program. She manually scanned the city’s camera footage from the day Rufus had gone missing, working from the outskirts of the city to the centre. I knew they had a lot of cameras, but damn this is scary. It seemed like every inch of the city was being watched, and yet Anja still couldn’t find her brother.
Her time in the hotel seemed to pass in a matter of minutes. Her hands shook as she picked up her duffle bag. She left the hotel.
This is it. The search is over.
Anja knew it was time to go back to Kettleton but as she stood in the streets of Okland, her feet wouldn’t move in the direction of the train station. Deep down she knew that if she went back she would never find Rufus.
Anja sent a text. One desperate text.
“I need help. I need you.”
Then she waited, her heart hammering, emotions ready to spill over and take control of her mind. Anja could feel the panic taking over. She needed to move, so she began to walk, searching for a quiet area to clear her head. But she was in Okland, and nowhere was quiet. People bustled around her, a few knocked into her. Thoughts and fears bombarded her mind, clouding her vision. She could not catch her breath, even though she was walking slowly.
What is happening to me? Have I finally broken?
Her phone buzzed in her shaking hand. Miles had finally texted back. His reply consisted of an address, some brief instructions on how to get there and a quick message saying, “See you soon.”
Anja left the skyscrapers behind and entered a more modest section of the capital. Her legs began to ache but finally, she stood in front of an apartment building. Miles’s instructions told her to go into the building and down a set of steps. She checked the directions Miles had texted her, hoping that she’d followed them correctly.
She found herself in front of a door, covered in scratches from years of use. She pounded on it, hoping to get the attention of Miles.
Please be inside, please be inside…
After a few seconds of silence, the door was thrown open.
A hand grabbed Anja’s wrist, dragging her inside. A small girl with black hair pushed her against the wall. “Who the hell are you?” the girl shouted. Her face was fierce and her eyes were so dark they almost looked black.
“I could ask you the same question.” This was answered by another shove against the wall. For such a small girl she’s strangely strong.
“Answer my question.”
“My name’s Anja.” Over the fierce girl’s shoulder Anja caught a glimpse of someone. It was Saskia. “Thank goodness,” she sighed.
The girl holding her loosened her grip as Saskia rushed towards them, shouting,
“Oh my goodness! Faye, let her go!”
With a grunt, Faye moved back. Her hair was in a high ponytail, it reached down past her hips, the ends dyed dark blue.
“What are you doing here?” Saskia asked.
“It’s a long story. But I have nowhere to go and Miles texted me this address.”
Saskia smiled, pulling her into a hug. “It’s great to see you again,” She pulled away and indicated to Faye with her head, “There’s lots to update you on.”
Anja took a second to look around. They stood at the top of a small set of stairs that led down into an apartment. “Whose place is this?” Anja asked.
“It doesn’t concern you,” snapped Faye. She turned to Saskia, “Can we trust her?”
“You can’t go through life hating everyone you meet.”
“I can try,” she retorted. “This girl could’ve drawn attention to us, which would’ve put you in danger.” She glared at Anja.
“This girl is my friend, and anyway life is more fun with a little danger.”
Anja followed them down the steps. The apartment had a small kitchen, a large sofa facing one of the cracked walls and four doors coming off of the main room. She stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do.
“Why didn’t you leave Okland?” she asked Saskia.
Saskia looked up, “My father has put a missing person alert on me, so I couldn’t leave the city.” She paused for a moment, “You might’ve guessed from Faye’s warm welcome that we weren’t expecting you, but now you’re here, could you help us with something?” Anja nodded. “There’s a camera outside the building and with my Dad working with the police I’m paranoid that they’ll search cameras around the city and find me and this place.” She indicated around her. “I was wondering if you could wipe the footage from when we arrived. Then Faye can disable it in the morning. It’ll take them weeks to have someone free to fix it.”
“I can do that.” Anja took her laptop out of her bag and opened it.
As she sat logging into her laptop the door crashed open and two boys walked down the stairs. Anja jumped to her feet and grinned at the sight of the boy in the lead. “Miles!”
Chapter Ten
“You made it!”
Anja rushed forward and hugged Miles until he pushed her away. “I can’t believe it!” The tension left her body as she looked at her friend, standing in front of her again.
“I am so sorry I didn’t call,” he said. “I heard this thing on the news about the police tracking phone calls and got paranoid.”
“Miles, you are totally forgiven. You have no idea how good it is to see your ugly face again.”
Saskia was grinning too as she turned to Miles. “Thanks for the heads up, I would’ve cleaned up a bit if I’d known we’d be having a friend around.”
Miles hugged Anja again, then asked about her brother.
She told him all about the eviction and her continued, unsuccessful search for Rufus.
“We are going to sort this out. We’ll help you get him back,” Miles announced.
“Oh no, we won’t.” Faye jumped to her feet, “She may be covering our tracks but I will not owe her anything.”
“Don’t be so stubborn, Faye.” It was the other boy. Anja hadn’t noticed him standing at
the bottom of the stairs until he’d spoken.
“Anja, meet Kano Moore,” said Miles. “He’s as messed up as the rest of us. Oh, and he’s the guy who used to live in your apartment before he ditched me to live with Faye so he could be closer to the hospital. Remember? I told you about him.”
Kano glanced at Miles, “I see we’re using full names now, Miles Francis Connor.”
Miles’s cheeks flushed pink as he grinned.
“Francis?” Anja repeated, holding back her laughter.
“Careful, or I might be tempted to side with Faye,” he joked. “But as it stands, I’m going to help, even if it’s just to make up for being a crap friend.”
Faye shot a furious look directly at Kano. “We’ve already had to babysit two of your friends, our apartment isn’t a hotel and I’m not looking for any more charity cases.” She threw her hands in the air. “I mean, what is she going to do, sleep on the sofa?”
Saskia nodded, “That’s exactly what she’s going to do.”
Faye huffed and retreated to sulk in the tiny kitchen.
Anja positioned herself haphazardly on the sofa, her laptop perched in front of her. She silently hoped that if she wiped the camera, maybe Faye would be more inclined to like her.
Anja explained to Saskia what she was doing. “I’m already in the system so deleting the footage of you and the others isn’t that difficult.” Anja caught Faye’s eye from across the room. “Are you good with computers?” she asked. Maybe we can find something in common that would make this girl hate me less.
“Just because I’m Asian you think I’m good with codes and maths?”
“No, that’s not what I meant!” Anja protested, her face growing hot.
“Whatever.” Faye spat out the word. “I’m going to look around outside, make sure no more strays turn up on our doorstep.”
And with that, she was gone.
Kano positioned himself on the sofa, across from her. “She’ll get over it,” he said as he crossed his arms and leaned back into the cushions. “She just isn’t a fan of new people. It took her days to even look at Miles, but that might just be because of his face.”
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