“Yeah, they are,” I smile, recognizing half of them already.
Luckily they haven’t forgotten me just yet because a few of them run over to me excitedly and I’m soon hugging several children at once.
A little girl called Jessie, who I used to look after, holds onto me tightly. “Star! I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too, Jessie,” I say.
“Are you coming back to live with us?” Trudy asks me excitedly.
“No, I’m only visiting,” I answer which makes them all look sad, “but I promise to visit heaps more times so we can still play.”
“Will you play hide and seek with us after lunch?” Jessie begs me.
“No, I want to play hairdressers, Star always made my hair look nice,” Trudy insists.
“She wants to play superheroes with me and Ted,” Gary insists, “don’t you, Star?”
“We’ll all play a game together,” I suggest, knowing I won’t have time to play with them all individually, “but first we have a mission.”
“Oh good, are we being freedom fighters?” Jessie asks, hopping with excitement.
It was one of my favourite imaginary games when I was younger and the kids used to love it too. It’s so weird thinking I’ll be doing all that stuff for real now.
“Yeah, sort of,” I say, trying to keep it like a game. “We’ve brought a special device and we need to get every single person scanned to make sure they’re safe.”
All the kids excitedly join in and we don’t have much trouble rounding them up to scan them. They all think it’s fun and giggle as they’re being scanned.
Every time I scan I hold my breath and dread to hear a beeping sound from the device, but luckily we get through every single one without anything being detected and I breathe a sigh of relief.
Sarah and I have a quick game of tag with all the children and they’re all sad when I say I have to leave.
“Please stay Star,” Jessie begs me starting to cry. “It’s more fun when you’re here.”
“I’ll visit again like I promised,” I say and give her a big hug.
I get hugs from all the children and a few cling to Sarah too. We say goodbye one last time and then finally leave while the volunteers try to distract them with a game and cakes.
I feel so mean to leave them so upset and there’s a part of me that really does want to stay and look after them; but I’m a freedom fighter now and I have a new life to live.
“We’ll visit soon,” Sarah reassures me when we’re back in the minivan.
I gaze out of the window until it disappears from view. “Yeah, I just miss it there,” I say and suddenly feel like crying.
I quickly distract myself by phoning Rickie. It rings a few times before he finally answers and I feel happy and warm hearing his voice again, “Hey Star, how’s it goin’?”
“It’s good news,” I tell him. “We didn’t detect any microchips so it looks like the sanctuary’s location is safe.”
“Cool,” he sounds pleased. “I’ll let Carl know.”
“What are you up to?”
“Just goin’ to a meeting with another freedom fighter leader,” he tells me, sounding bored. “I’m in Dragon City right now so it’ll be late when I get back, but we can still hang out later if y’ want to?”
“Okay,” I agree, feeling better. I feel less upset about leaving now that I know I have someone special to go back to.
We quickly say goodbye and when I hang up I notice that Sarah’s feeling upset too.
“I wish we could have stayed there all day,” sighs Sarah. “It looks so great there and the kids are so sweet. It was heart breaking having to leave them, I guess it’s worse for you.”
“Yeah but we’ll be back,” I say, not wanting to miss them too much. “Maybe you should stay there as a volunteer? Then you could look after them all the time.”
“I don’t know,” she says unsurely. “I guess I’m having too much fun right now being a freedom fighter.”
“Same here,” I smile, remembering that after years of longing to be a freedom fighter my dream has finally come true.
That night I feel really excited when I see Rickie arrive back to the base on his motorbike. I go outside to greet him and he smiles over at me looking tired. He gives me a hug and I snuggle up in his arms feeling happy to be back.
“How was the meeting?” I ask him.
“Okay I guess,” he answers. “The main thing is everyone will know about the microchips now the word is spreading.”
“How was it at the sanctuary?” he asks me gently. “Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, it was really good,” I say feeling happy and sad at the same time. “It’s weird going back, I really miss everyone there,” I admit. “All the kids were gutted when I left.” I feel my heart pang with guilt missing all of them all over again, especially Jessie who was like a little sister to me.
“I’ll take you back there one day so we can go together,” he says and I smile up at him, feeling touched. “I guess it would be cool to see where you grew up. I’ve never been there yet.”
“You’ll love it,” I tell him, imagining how amazing it would be having him there with me. I’m sure all the children would love him. “So what’s happening now?” I ask, trying to focus more on our job of stopping Snider and his microchips.
“Tomorrow’s gonna be another busy day, we’ve got more stuff planned,” he says
“More meetings?” I tease him. I know he hates doing all the boring stuff like that; he enjoys the action part more.
“No way, I’ve had enough of boring meetings. Carl’s given me a mission for tomorrow night. I need to raid Snider’s place and destroy all the new batch of microchips before they get out. A few other freedom fighters are working on trashing the machines that are making more at his factory.”
“Do you need any help?” I ask.
“Maybe,” he grins. “You could help me out. It’ll be good for you to get some experience now you’re trained.”
“That’ll be cool,” I say, feeling excited.
“You’ll need to wear all black, it helps to camouflage when you’re hiding in the shadows and it makes you harder to spot in the dark,” he advises me, “and remember your gear, you’re gonna need it.”
Chapter 12
Late at night the next day, Rickie and I set off on our mission. I’m wearing black trainers, jeans and a hoodie, plus the bullet proof jacket underneath just in case. I’ve brought along my mobile, sleeping dart gun and emergency tracker. I didn’t need to bring my navigation system since Rickie has brought his.
Rickie drives us over to Lord Snider’s headquarters, which is in the middle of the city. He stops the motorbike a distance away, so we’re not spotted by troops or CCTV cameras, and we walk the rest of the way being careful not to be seen.
There are armed security guards at the front gates, so we avoid them and stay to the right side of the building. We climb over the tall wall surrounding the building and carefully land at the other side.
There are more security guards on look out around the grounds, so we stay in the shadows out of sight and press ourselves against the side of the building.
My heart beats fast in case we’re spotted, but luckily none of the security guards notice us as we make our way across.
Rickie manages to get inside one of the entrances using a security card. We peer in to check it’s safe and then enter, having our sleeping dart guns ready and filled in case we get attacked.
“Where do you think Snider keeps the microchips?” I ask him quietly as we make our way along the dark corridor.
“Not sure, but there’s gotta be a storage room ‘round here somewhere.”
We search the corridor and stop at a padlocked, iron door. Rickie picks the lock and manages to open it.
When we enter we see boxes of microchips stored on the shelves and Rickie quickly gets out his mobile and reports to Bryan that we’ve found them.
A
n hour later, we’ve emptied all the boxes and all that’s left are destroyed microchips on the floor.
“Think we’ve trashed them enough?” he asks grinning.
I grin back at him and then suddenly we hear alarms sound and my heart begins to race.
“Some of the others must have set the alarm off. Quick, let’s scram,” he grabs hold of my hand and pulls me out of the room.
We hear shouts and running footsteps in the corridor behind us and run fast towards the door.
Gun shots sound behind us as we run and I feel lucky to be wearing a bullet proof jacket to protect myself. The alarms are still ringing loudly in the building and the sound is almost deafening.
I hear a few of the security guards start to chase after us, but we quickly climb up the wall and jump over the other side, safely out of their reach. We soon reach his motorbike, which is still hidden from view, and drive safety back to the base before they can catch us.
Chapter 13
On Saturday night I make my way over to Indigo Bar to do another dance performance. Phoebe has agreed to let me have dance shows there for the rest of the year and from what she’s told me a lot of people enjoy them and my shows are quickly becoming well known.
Sarah helped me make posters to advertise them, and after sticking them up around the city, we’ve had even more interest. I’m so used to doing the shows now that I don’t even get nervous anymore.
As I take the stage that night everything is going well, but then there’s a sudden interruption as I see police officers burst in through the doorway.
I sigh, feeling annoyed. I can’t believe they’ve done yet another raid on the night of my performance, but they at least let me finish my dance show last time. This time I don’t get to finish because there’s a huge panic and people start to leave. I’m left standing on stage not knowing what to do.
I look around for Rickie, feeling worried that he might be here and they’ve followed him inside trying to arrest him, but I can’t see him and I remember he’s out on a mission. So if they’re not after Rickie, why are they here?
One stern looking police officer, who seems to be the leader of the rest, strides towards the stage and I start to feel anxious.
“Star Summers, you’re under arrest for illegally working as a freedom fighter,” he tells me.
My heart beats faster. How do they know who I am? And how do they know I’m a freedom fighter?
Before they can get up on the stage and arrest me, I turn and run as fast as I can. I escape out of the fire exit, that I remember using on the night they chased after me and Rickie. Unfortunately I don’t have Rickie here or his motorbike, so I carry on running and race through the back alleyways out of sight.
I try to think of the best way to get to the freedom fighter base and how to stay unseen; but then I feel someone jump out at me from behind and fall to the floor.
The guy who jumped me has arrested and hand-cuffed me before I can try any self-defence moves and I still feel stunned from the attack.
“You’re under arrest for crimes against the government,” he says and hauls me to my feet.
I struggle to get away, but he’s tall with huge muscles and holds on to me tight, so I don’t stand a chance.
“Well done, Officer Dobson,” I look up and see the police officer who tried to arrest me at the bar. He gives me an evil grin, “You thought you would get away, didn’t you? Well you thought wrong.”
“So you can do your job then?” I ask feeling annoyed.
He growls angrily at my sarcastic comment, “Dobson, get her in the car.”
Officer Dobson still has hold of me and they take me to their police car which is parked up outside the bar. I’m forced into the back and they start to drive to the nearest police station.
That’s when I start to panic. There’s no way I can escape from them. The doors have security locks and I’m outnumbered, plus they have guns loaded with bullets and I know they’re evil enough not to hesitate about using them.
I feel for my emergency tracker and press the red button, which flashes for a few seconds to say that the message has been sent.
I wait, hoping somehow I’ll be rescued, but the police car soon stops. They escort me into the police station and I can’t help but feel anxious now. I’m taken into an interview room and Officer Dobson and the other guy sit opposite me at the table.
“I’m Officer Vincent. We’d like to ask you a few questions,” he says seriously. I cross my arms and try to make out I’m not scared.
“Why were you at Lord Snider’s building on the night of the sixth of September?”
I’m surprised they know but I give nothing away, “I wasn’t there.”
He smirks, “oh really? Then how do you explain this?” He shows me a CCTV snap shot of me and Rickie. My hood is pulled over my head, but you can still see my eyes and most of my face. Some of my blonde and blue highlighted hair hangs out loosely in view.
“I’ll repeat the question...why were you there?”
“It’s none of your business,” I reply.
“Did it have anything to do with Lord Snider’s equipment? We had a report from him that night.”
I don’t answer and he gets pretty annoyed with me, “Do you know how serious it is, committing crimes against the government and working as an illegal freedom fighter? You’ll also need to be charged for incidents that night, breaking and entering a property and criminal damage. The least you’ll get off with is spending the rest of your life in prison.”
I try not to laugh. How can the police here be so stupid? You’d think I’d committed murder or something really serious the way they were acting, not try and fight against an evil dictator.
He sees my smile which I’m trying my best to hide.
“You think that’s funny, do you? Well, you won’t be laughing once you see Lord Snider. He’s the person who’ll have you executed.”
At least that stops me from laughing. The last thing I want to do is be executed, especially by the person who already murdered my parents.
“However, if you agree to give us some information about your friends,” he continues, trying to keep his temper, “then we can forget all about your sentence.”
I frown.
“If you give us some useful information we’ll let you go free,” he says. “So, do you have any locations that we might be interested in?”
I shake my head.
“What about him, Rickie Granger?” he points to him on the photograph and my heart stops. “We’ve been after him for years and you obviously know him. So where is he?”
“I’m not telling you anything,” I say angrily. I’d rather die than get Rickie arrested.
“Fine, we’ll just ask Lord Snider and see what he thinks about it,” he smirks because it's obvious that making me see him will give me a one way ticket to an execution.
Chapter 14
I’m still sat in the interview room twenty minutes later, wondering where my emergency back-up is and when they’re going to help.
The door bursts open and Officer Vincent returns, only this time there’s someone with him and I feel my heart sink.
A tall man, over six feet in height, walks into the room. His face is hardened and stern; his eyes have an evil glint. His thin, dark hair hangs around his face like spider’s legs.
I suddenly feel sick. I can’t believe the person I hate so much for taking my parents away is standing in front of me, and now he is about to try and murder me too.
“This better be important,” I hear him growl angrily.
“It’s about the break-in,” Officer Vincent informs him nervously.
Lord Snider grins evilly, “Have you caught Rickie Granger? I can’t wait to get my hands on that annoying brat!”
“Unfortunately not yet, my Lord,” answered Officer Vincent quickly, “but we did catch this girl,” he points over to me. “She was involved in the crime that night of the break-in.”
Lord Snider lo
oks over coldly and studies me.
“She was caught on your CCTV footage breaking into your building and helping Rickie Granger with criminal damage,” Officer Vincent shows him the CCTV shot. “She must be another freedom fighter.”
“You shouldn’t have messed with me little girl,” he growls angrily. “Anyone who crosses me is executed.”
He turns to Officer Vincent, “any information?”
“She won’t tell us anything.”
He walks over to me and I can’t tell whether my heart is beating so fast because of fear or fury for what he’s done.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll tell us what we need to know,” he says threateningly.
I look back at him angrily, “I won’t ever betray the freedom fighters to you.”
He looks furious and strides away angrily.
“Should we take her away to be executed?” Officer Vincent asks him.
He thinks for a while, “no, lock her away in a prison cell; we’ll deal with her later.”
“If we keep her in any longer those freedom fighters will try and help her…”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” Lord Snider grins evilly. “If we keep her here we can use her as bait. Pretty soon her friends will try to save her and we’ll be ready for them; and once they’re caught we’ll be able to execute them all.”
My heart skips a beat and I feel more anxious than ever, especially at knowing that thanks to me my friends would be in danger.
“Excellent plan, my Lord. I’ll order extra police officers to come over and guard the area.”
“If either Carl or Rickie Granger comes anywhere near here I want them captured dead or alive and brought to me,” Lord Snider reminds him angrily. “Any other freedom fighters can be imprisoned and executed later.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“And remember, I want to be informed of everything,” says Lord Snider and then strides out of the room.
Officer Dobson grabs hold of me and pulls me out of my chair. He takes me along the corridor, opens one of the prison cells and throws me inside. I hear him slam the door behind me and listen to the click of the door being locked.
I get up from the floor and look around at the small, dark prison cell. There’s nothing inside the room except a bucket in the corner. Light shines through the barred, prison window and I grab the rails and look out, longing to be free again.
Freedom Fighters: Twilight City (Book 1) Page 5