I stared at the tow trucks that had parked behind the van, all six of them. ‘Nice cover, guys. Tow trucks can roar around the city at all hours and no one gives them a second glance. Hey, do you know the Kerrigans?’
Gun Boy frowned. ‘Kerrigans? No. Elevator, now, please.’
Rani looked as puzzled as the bad guys. I shook my head. ‘Nobody appreciates a classic Aussie comedy reference these days.’
We were crowded into the small lift with Gun Boy and half a dozen of his jolly buddies. They smelled of stale sweat.
‘Okay,’ I said, and since no one had warned us not to talk yet, I thought I’d get in a few questions while I could. ‘Where are we then?’
‘Toorak,’ Gun Boy said, and I nearly fell over. I expected a surly response, or a snarl, or a pistol whip. Didn’t these guys know anything about being kidnappers?
‘Nice,’ I said. ‘If I have to be kidnapped and kept somewhere, I always prefer it to be in one of the better suburbs.’
Gun Boy shrugged. ‘Toorak is quiet and close to the city.’
‘A top choice, my good man, top choice. And while we’re being so friendly, would you mind telling us what you’re going to do with us?’
He considered this. ‘You will first be presented to the local leader of the Malefactors, then kept in a room and then we will perform a rite on you that will determine your ghost-hunting ability. Any you have will then be extracted to add to the power of our group. This will leave you mindless and like a jelly.’
I caught Rani’s eye. ‘Oh, they’re the Malefactors.’
Then it hit me. Brain. Jelly. Mindless. I swallowed hard.
Rani saw. ‘Good thing our commando squad is tracking us right now, Anton. I’d be worried if not for them.’
Gun Boy’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.
I gave Rani the thumbs-up. Nothing like the non-existent reinforcements bluff to lift the spirits.
CHAPTER 20
The lift opened onto a sort of reception area, designed to impress. Expensive black marble on the floor and walls. Mirrors, potted palms, four doors opening onto other parts of what promised to be an extensive complex. It looked more like a hotel foyer than a home, and that told me something. This place was made for rich people to live in short term.
Gun Boy and his buddies ushered us to the big double doors facing the lift. He was nervous, his gun wobbling as they stood in front of the doors. ‘Do not upset our leader, please,’ he said.
‘Great.’ I tipped him a salute. ‘Go straight to the top, I say. Messing around with underlings is a waste of time.’
‘Do not upset him,’ Gun Boy repeated. ‘It will go ill for us.’
‘I like to see naked self-interest like yours,’ Rani said. ‘But we can’t make any guarantees.’
‘It will go ill for you too,’ Gun Boy said, almost as an afterthought. ‘And we hate disposing of bodies.’
Okay, then.
They opened the doors and escorted us inside.
If the reception area was designed to impress, this was too, but on a bigger scale. The room was at least ten metres long, and about half as wide. The ceilings must have been five or six metres overhead. The floor was that jigsaw wooden stuff. Parquetry. The floor-to-ceiling windows were bare of curtains and they looked out on a quiet, leafy street. The house opposite was a massive three-storey construction with more pillars and columns and balconies than a little kid’s Lego idea of a mansion.
This was a room for gatherings, cocktail parties maybe, with the snooty crowd milling around with champagne glasses that were half-full and egos that were overflowing. They’d have to be well rugged-up, though, because it was definitely chilly.
A desk stood at the far end of the room. It was a bit obvious, really, how that made us cross about a kilometre of floor before we reached it, to underline how insignificant we were. Intimidate Your Enemies 101.
Sitting behind the desk was the big boss of these Malefactors, our Trespassers sub-set of the day.
I’d like to say he was an average-looking guy, someone who could be mistaken for an accountant or a public servant. It’d be a commentary on how evil lurks everywhere, blah, blah, blah…but I’d be lying. This guy was seriously weird.
For a start, he had an almost triangular-shaped head, with the top much wider than his chin. Glossy, black, slicked-down hair, with a hairline alarmingly close to his eyebrows. I never trusted a low hairline. If I had one I would have learned to shave my forehead, let me tell you.
His eyes were small in that bizarre head, small and grey-blue. His mouth was small, too, and so red I wasn’t sure if he was wearing lipstick or not. He also had ears, one on either side of his head, which was about the only ordinary thing about him.
The whole effect was like a little kid’s drawing of a person, brought to life. That is, if the little kid was having a really off day with sub-standard crayons.
He was wearing a grey silk shirt, unbuttoned at the neck. His hands were resting on the desk in front of him. The desk was totally bare.
‘Nice place you’ve got here,’ I said. ‘Did you decorate it yourself or did you get someone in?’
The man lifted one hand and batted this aside, as if he was flapping away a bad smell.
I’ve had worse reactions.
‘Who are you?’ he said in a voice that could have come from anywhere. It was educated, soft, cultured even, but I couldn’t pin down the accent.
Rani stepped forward. ‘Did you kill my parents?’
I stared. I hadn’t been expecting that.
The man curled his lip. ‘I have no idea. One kills so many people, these days, that it’s hard to keep track. Tell me – who were they? Where was I supposed to kill them? How?’
Rani’s face screwed up, half with pain, half with frustration. ‘I don’t know. I have no memory of that, and I can’t find out.’
The man frowned. ‘To whom do you belong?’
‘I am a member of the Company of the Righteous. Release us immediately or you will be faced with our might.’
The man raised an eyebrow, and his whole slick puck of hair moved. It made me queasy. ‘The Company of the Righteous? What are they doing in this forsaken backwater?’
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘That’s my forsaken backwater you’re insulting.’
He raised both forefingers from the desk and let them fall again. ‘I always insult places that are at the end of the earth.’
‘And that’s totally a matter of perspective, something you seem to be lacking. Where you come from is the end of the earth if you measure it from here.’
He pursed his lips. It wasn’t a good look. He resembled an out-of-shape football with a bit of the bladder poking out.
Rani went on. ‘This, of course, raises the question of what you Malefactors are doing here, if it’s so forsaken.’
‘Malefactors,’ I said. ‘Where do you people get these names from? Is there some sort of Evil Organisation Random Name Generator that I don’t know about?’
The big boss looked at me then. I mean, really looked at me. Before, he’d given me the once-over, but now he locked his eyes on mine.
It was like looking into the pit of doom. Those bland eyes were a prop, and as I looked it was as if they were whisked away and I was looking at depravity, at heartless, pitiless malignancy. This man was a walking, breathing tumour.
Talking smart to this guy might be stupid, but show me anyone who hasn’t done anything stupid and I’ll show you an alien.
‘You must be a hit at Halloween.’ I won’t say that my voice squeaked at first, but it definitely got stronger as I went on. ‘You could hire yourself out. You know: scary times guaranteed or your money back.’
‘Be quiet, boy,’ he said, ‘or I’ll have one of your fingers cut off, for a start.’
It was the calm way he said it that was chilling. That and the way Gun Boy and his buddies – who had been standing silently to one side while all this was going on – produced big shiny knives all at the same t
ime like a chorus line of sleight-of-hand artists.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘So I can either have my brains sucked out with ten fingers or with nine.’
He frowned at that. These big boss bad guys. It’s only funny if they say it. I think that’s why they cart so many underlings around with them. Guaranteed laughter. ‘And why would we…’ He saw my pendant. ‘Ah. You have the sight too. Good. We will take you as well as the girl.’
Okay, so I dropped myself in it there. On the other hand, I didn’t think they were really about to let me walk out of here just because I was underpowered in the ghost-seeing department.
‘You thought it was just her?’ I said, nodding at Rani. ‘We don’t all need a sword to show we’re in the seeing-ghosts club.’
‘We don’t often see independent operators,’ the big boss said. ‘Mostly it’s because they don’t last long.’ He glanced at Rani. ‘Or is the Company of the Righteous – pompous name, that, boy, if you’re being critical – so desperate that it’s recruiting way out here at the ends of the earth?’
‘That’s two cracks you’ve had at my city,’ I said. ‘If you keep it up I won’t show you Captain Cook’s cottage.’
He frowned at this, and I counted it as a hit. ‘By the looks of you,’ he said, ‘you are unlikely to provide us with much that is useful, but we’ll take it nonetheless.’ He turned to Rani. ‘You should give us more.’ He tapped his fingers on the desk again. ‘But before that, I’m interested in finding an amateur phasmaturgist who seems to be making mischief hereabouts. She appears to be a dab hand at summoning and controlling Rogues.’
Okay, confirmation that these guys were after Stacey Evans. Way to go.
Rani bristled. ‘Why would I share anything with the Malefactors?’
‘Quite.’ He drummed his fingers on the desk. ‘This may be pointless, but – with some hesitation – I will offer you both the traditional offer to join our organisation.’
Bingo. ‘Sure thing,’ I said. ‘When do we start?’
Rani stared at me, open-mouthed.
The big bad boss, though, smiled. Nastily. ‘Oh dear, that was far too quick. I detect insincerity.’
Gah. How could I be taken on staff and then work from inside the organisation to help us both escape if I kept up the smartarsery? ‘Sorry. I have trouble with sounding sincere. It’s a condition.’ I held up both hands. ‘But I am sick of blundering around in a rundown family organisation with no prospects.’
He didn’t move. ‘I see.’
I tried a shrug. ‘Besides, I’d rather be working for you than dead, if you know what I mean.’
‘No, I’m not convinced,’ he said. ‘Not even by the candid selfishness. I withdraw my offer.’
‘Offer?’ I scoffed. ‘You weren’t serious about it for a second.’
‘True. I simply like amusing myself, watching how people betray themselves when their lives are at stake.’
I shook my head at Rani, and I hoped the gesture expressed that I hadn’t really thought of turning traitor, and that I agreed just so I could possibly find a way out of this. Which is a lot to convey with a headshake, admittedly, and I’m not sure if I pulled it off.
He studied us in a way I didn’t like. ‘I’m still after this phasmaturgist, and your appearance just as we were about to take her makes me think that you know something.’ He clicked his fingers. Gun Boy loped to his side. ‘Lock them away while we make preparations to find out what they know.’
Gun Boy nodded. ‘And the ritual? Are we still going ahead with it after that?’
‘Of course. Their strength may be meagre, but it could be usefully added to ours. Make haste!’
CHAPTER 21
We were locked in a bare room in the middle of a night that hadn’t gone in any direction I’d anticipated. It might have been a bedroom, once upon a time, but all the furniture was gone, leaving only the carpet and the built-in wardrobes, mirror-doored, with nothing inside. The windows looked out over a back courtyard, where clever garden lighting showed us red brick, some small box trees that looked as if they badly needed clipping, and a dry fountain. The cherub holding the dolphin looked really irritated at how things had turned out for him.
The window was barred. Seriously barred. It could have kept out an attack by a megashark.
‘Sorry,’ Rani said.
I whirled. Maybe not ice-dancer perfect, but not bad. ‘What for?’
‘Back at Docklands. We should have waited, observed, picked them off one at a time.’
‘True. I mean, after all your pointers on reconnoitring and sizing up the lines of fire, just ploughing in like that was unexpected.’
‘I see. And you’ve never made a bad decision before?’
‘Not with a sword in my hand, that’s for sure. There’s only one way things can go when you’re armed like that, and that’s badly.’
‘It would have been bad for you if I hadn’t been armed.’
‘If you hadn’t been armed we would have done things differently.’
‘And ended up torn to pieces? Lovely.’
‘We could have kept our distance.’
‘When these people could be those that killed my parents?’
‘You don’t know that. And, anyway, what about tactics and preparation and all that? You just charged in!’
‘You’d rather we skulked about?’ She folded her arms and her foot started tapping. ‘Hiding and cowering, the classic Marin approach?’
‘That’s not how we do things,’ I snapped.
‘You should be proud, really, of the small achievements of your family. Out here, all by yourselves? You’ve done well, considering.’
I jabbed a finger at her. ‘Don’t patronise me.’ I took a step away. I was breathing hard. ‘Sorry.’
Rani looked away. ‘Sorry? Isn’t that where we started?’
‘Yeah. Look, we’re in a bad situation. It got to me. I didn’t mean it.’
‘Neither did I,’ she said softly.
I glanced at her. ‘We’re polite, aren’t we? We say we didn’t mean it, but it came from somewhere.’
‘Your point?’
‘My point is that even though I said what I said, and it came from somewhere inside me, I take it back.’ I started a slow circuit of the room, inspecting the architraves, the ceiling, the door. ‘Besides, you would have demolished them all if their reinforcements hadn’t turned up.’
Awkward silence is awkward.
Rani saw my impressive, methodical approach. She began to inspect the wardrobes. ‘“If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.” Sun Tzu.’
Grateful for the bone, I grabbed it. ‘Oh come on, are you sure that wasn’t Oscar Wilde?’ I bent and picked up a piece of fluff. I narrowed my eyes. It could be important. Or it could just be fluff. Hard to tell in these crazy times. I dropped it on the floor, but promised myself that I’d keep an eye on it. ‘Besides, the reinforcements didn’t have to be everywhere, they just had to be where we were.’
Rani finished her exploration of the wardrobe, didn’t find any entrances to Narnia. She went to the door and tested it with a shoulder. ‘I can get us through here, but with the Malefactors waiting for us, a distraction could be useful.’
‘Distraction. Right.’
I kept pacing and the more I paced, the smaller the room seemed and the further and further away from brilliant I got. In fact, the closer and closer I got to thinking that maybe definitely I wasn’t cut out for this, and that got my palms sweating and my stomach flip-flopping at the fate these Trespassers had in mind for us. I had trouble keeping my thoughts straight – they refused to stick and they all scuttled away before I could nail them down. I didn’t know what to do with my hands and after flapping them around for a while I stuck them in my pockets just to keep them still.
‘Okay,’ I said, and I had to clear my throat before I could go on, ‘what are we especially good at?’
‘Seeing ghosts?’
‘True, but it’s more
than that. We’re good at detecting ghosts, interacting with them and, in your case, dispatching them into oblivion. In my case, easing their passage to the great beyond.’
She frowned. ‘So?’
‘That sort of thing was one of Aunt Tanja’s obsessions. I’ve had Bec looking into her work.’
Noises came through the door. Either the bad guys were having a little sing-along, or an argument was breaking out. I cheered that thought on, because if they all killed each other, the future would be a whole lot brighter for Rani and me. Even if it would leave us locked in a room.
I continued. ‘The Marins have had to think about this whole ghost interaction thing a bit differently, you know.’
‘I think that’s the definition of “heresy” that Commander Gatehouse was using.’
‘Right, right. Since we’re not as dedicated to chopping up ghosts and assigning them to oblivion as your team is. And I don’t know if you realise it, but even though you’re re-evaluating the whole thing, your hand has just gone to where your sword hilt usually is.’
‘Go on,’ she said. ‘Carefully.’
‘So we’ve explored all sorts of aspects of this ghost–human interaction thing.’
‘And when you say “we” you mean the Marin family.’
‘That’s right. Apparently Aunt Tanja had an idea that instead of just hunting ghosts, sniffing around for them, maybe she could attract them.’
Rani stared. ‘Just in case you can’t tell, this is my “Was she bonkers?” expression.’
‘I guessed. And she wasn’t bonkers, just a deep thinker. Dad pieced all this together later, because one of Tanja’s experiments went horribly wrong. So horribly she disappeared.’
‘She died?’
‘She disappeared. During a séance.’
‘And you tried a séance two nights ago knowing your aunt disappeared during one.’
‘Well, yeah, sort of. I was careful.’
‘You might have just been lucky.’ She put both hands to her forehead and massaged it. ‘Don’t tell me that you want to try again.’
Gap Year in Ghost Town Page 18