Missing (12 page)

A figure loomed over me, with a bow and arrow. I heard Sophie's sharp intake of breath.

‘Zak?' I hissed.

‘Cal?'

‘Nice take-down, Zak,' I said, getting to my feet, brushing the mud off my knees. Zak put his bow and arrow down.

‘Sorry,' he said.

‘OK, you two,' said Sophie, startled. ‘What's going on?'

We filled Sophie in as Zak led us back to his cave. At the end of his story, his face was etched with concern for his sister.

‘So how did Ariel get caught?' I asked.

‘We followed you into the mountain as planned
and gave you a few minutes to find Sophie,' Zak said. ‘We knocked over some equipment in that big cavern to distract everyone, then ran for it. We were almost outside when someone grabbed Ariel. Before I could go back in, she kicked the branch out of the way so the door would close. Crazy girl!'

‘
Brave
girl,' said Sophie. ‘Thank you,' she added quietly.

‘I searched the mountain corridor for Ariel. I'm sorry, I don't know where she is. But don't worry, Zak, I promise I'll help you find her,' I said, as we went through the well-camouflaged opening to the cave.

Zak's face paled, then he gave a small smile, ‘Thanks Cal, I know you will.'

Then I told Sophie more about my night journey to the outcrop. ‘There's a guy there, locked up in a cement bunker. He asked me to help him but when I asked him who he was, he couldn't tell me.'

‘What do you mean,
couldn't
tell you?' asked Sophie, pushing wet hair back from her face, wrapping herself in the sarong that Zak gave her.

‘He literally didn't know who he was. I couldn't get any sense out of him. He only seemed able to say two things: “Help me” and “I don't know”. His voice sounded—rusty.'

My mobile chimed and I grabbed it. It was a text from Winter. I read it out.

Meanings for Mordred … a character from King Arthur. Treacherous, traitor to the king. A close rellie, but while Arthur's away, Mordred rebels. Tries to take over kingdom. Mordred = rebellion against rightful authority. Aka a destructive force. Hope that helps! Wx

So a Mordred Key might be connected to taking over something or someone and trying to replace it or them. Didn't ring any bells for me.

‘Do you think the Mordred Key is something to do with Delta 11?' Sophie asked. ‘That's the most secret place around here. That would be the place to keep something hidden.'

‘Your guess is as good as mine,' I said. ‘But I'm hoping to get more information very soon,' I said, describing my visit to Damien's office and what I'd seen on his screen. ‘Maybe Mordred is about replacing something legitimate with something bad.'

Zak frowned. ‘That could mean a lot of things,' he said.

‘It could,' I agreed. ‘But it's a start. And if I can get hold of whatever's on Damien's computer, we might find out a whole lot more.'

With a stick, I did a sketch of the sword with the serpent wound around it on the sandy floor
of the cave. ‘This is what the icon for the Mordred Key looked like.'

‘Swords and snakes,' said Sophie. ‘Not crazy about either of those.'

‘Sophie,' I said, looking up from the drawing, thinking of Winter and Boges. ‘You really could be more helpful back on the mainland. I know my friends Winter and Boges would like you. You could be a member of the team. You're in constant danger here and—,' I was cut off by the sounds of people yelling and shouting.

‘What's that?' Zak asked.

Down at the resort, the loudspeakers blared.

At first I thought Sophie's absence from Delta 2 had been discovered but a loud noise outside the cave had us all on our feet ready to bolt.

Someone was coming straight for the cave!

Before we could take any action, the cave's narrow entrance between the leaves darkened as a figure approached.

Ariel!

‘I escaped!' she cried, as she dived inside. ‘They had me locked up in one of the storerooms in the mountain, but when they went in to check I was still there, I was ready for them and took them by surprise!'

‘Thank goodness you're safe!' said her brother, hugging her tightly. ‘I was so worried about you. We were going to rescue you!'

‘Well, I've saved you the trouble! Really, I'm fine, don't worry. But I'm scared I might have brought the search party here,' she said.

‘We should split up,' I said. ‘If the cave is discovered, we'll be trapped like rats and they'll catch us all. We'll meet back here later when it's safe.' Within seconds, we'd scattered in different directions, taking cover wherever we could find it.

I crawled into a narrow space between a huge rotting tree trunk and a vine-covered rock, hoping my friends had found good hiding spots.

The searchers came closer. Now I could hear their words clearly as they called out to each other.

‘She can't have gone far. Fan out more.'

‘Watch out for the Gympies!'

I sensed someone walking close to my hideout. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see sneakers moving through the leaves. All he needed to do was take two steps in my direction and he'd tread on me! I willed myself to shrink even more.

The shoes moved away and I let out a silent sigh of relief. But then came another pair, even closer. This time it was Damien. ‘Have you found anything, Chloe?'

‘There are some broken leaves here,' I heard her reply. ‘Someone's passed by recently.'

From higher up the mountain, somebody yelled and I was very grateful to hear them, because the next thing Chloe said was, ‘Must have been those guys up there. We should join them and see if they've found anything.'

Ten minutes later, all was still. The search party had gone high up the mountain. I waited another five minutes and then, moving with great stealth, I crawled out of my hiding place. Everything was quiet. Movement nearby made me start in fright. Then a voice. ‘It's OK, Cal. It's me. And Ariel. We dug under this boulder ages ago in case we needed a bolthole.'

I watched as Zak and Ariel brushed mud and leaves off their arms.

‘Where's Sophie?' I asked.

Zak and Ariel looked at each other. ‘Maybe she's already back at the cave?'

But when we got back, there was no sign of her. I wasn't sure what to do. Should I risk going out to look for her, or wait for her to come to us? I was trying to decide when a noise made us all jump.

The radio had sprung into life! For the first time ever, SI-6 was calling me.

Zak looked on, startled.

‘I'll explain everything, I promise,' I said as I grabbed the radio out of its hiding place.

‘Night Hawk, this is Condor. Copy please.'

‘Condor, this is Night Hawk. So relieved to hear from you. We've been having difficulties making contact with you.'

‘That's why I'm calling, Night Hawk. We hadn't heard from you for a while. Do you read … copy …' The line was dropping out again.

‘Condor? Do you read me?' I tried in vain. There was only static.

I swung around at a different sound behind me. Sophie Bellamy stood there, her pretty freckled face pulled into a scowl. ‘What's going on? That was my father's voice! You're talking to
my father?
'

Sophie wasn't supposed to find out like this. ‘Sophie, listen,' I started to say.

But she wasn't listening. Her face screwed up in fury. ‘You're working for my
father! He
sent you. You've been spying on me all this time. How could you? You lied to me! I
trusted
you!'

‘Sophie,
please
. It's not like that, I swear.'

She didn't want to hear it, instead she continued shouting. ‘Pretending to be my friend and all the time reporting me back to my father? You had no right to do that!'

‘Just listen to me, will you?'

But flinging me a last, furious look, she turned and crashed through the tangle of leaves and vines and out of the cave.

I took off after her. ‘Sophie! Come back. It's not like that! Please, you've got it all wrong. Come back and let's talk about it!'

I could hear her ahead of me, smashing her way through the rainforest.

‘Come back! It might not be safe!'

My words had no effect. The way she was going, she would run straight bang into the arms of the search party. I had to stop her, for her own sake.

Overhead, thunder grumbled and the sky darkened.

The thunder rolled overhead as the storm front grew closer. How was I going to get out of this mess? Sophie
had
to get off the island now. The search would be relentless, because she knew too much. Unlike other kids who might have run away from the resort compound, Sophie had been right into the heart of the mountain, where the secret training area lay. Damien
had
to silence her. This was serious.

Lower down I could hear search parties making another pass over the foothills.

‘Spread out and search every inch of your area,' I heard Damien ordering through a loudhailer.

Zak had suddenly joined me. I hadn't heard him coming at all. ‘Cal, we have to find her,' he said, his suntanned face tight with fear and concern.

‘Zak's right,' said Ariel, who had materialised behind her brother.

This wasn't working, I thought, randomly searching, exposing ourselves to capture. We needed to think of a plan.

‘We'll go back to your cave,' I said. ‘They haven't ever found that. We'll be safe there for a while. We can plan what we're going to do next. Let's hope Sophie stays well hidden.'

I sounded confident, but I wasn't.

We made our way back through the rainforest as quickly as we dared, trying not to leave obvious footprints or broken vines behind us. All the time, my head was whirling, trying to come up with a plan that would work. It had to be a big plan. I had to find Sophie, get into Damien's office with the Stealth Hacker, send the data to SI-6 and Boges, make sure Ryan was OK and free the unknown prisoner from Delta 11.

I could just hear Boges saying, ‘Sure, dude. Should be easy as!'

We squeezed through the well-hidden entry to the cave, rearranging the thick greenery behind us. I knew I wasn't the only person holding my breath as I crouched down with Zak and Ariel.

They came close again, slashing through the vines and cursing the obstacles. A moment later, I heard Dean. He was standing just outside the concealed entrance.

‘She's somewhere on this island and we have plenty of searchers. You lot go up that way again—' I imagined him pointing, ‘—and you lot, head up over there. I'll take a look around here and then join you.'

I was too scared to risk even a peep through the leaves. Instead I huddled together with the others.

Finally, the noises died down as the search party moved away.

The rainforest had been quiet for some time. There was just the steady sound of the rain and the slapping of palm leaves in the wind.

‘I think they've gone,' I whispered. ‘At least for now.'

‘We've got to find Sophie,' said Ariel, her brown eyes concerned.

Before anyone could even move, there was a sound outside. We froze at the noise. It came again. I looked out, scared and anxious. Not far from the cave, something was moving in the undergrowth. Cautiously, I peered through some leafy cover to see a python heading our way.

‘It's a snake,' I said, stepping through the cave's leafy entrance, and watching, waiting for it to cross the open area ahead of me and disappear again into the thick undergrowth. But it didn't. It turned and now it was heading straight at me. I jumped sideways calling as loudly as I dared to the others. ‘Look out!'

The creature sidled closer. I'd read in a nature magazine that snakes are timid animals and prefer to get out of the way of any threat rather than fight it. This snake hadn't read the magazine. It seemed to be intent on coming straight towards me, and when I moved sideways, it did the same. It came closer, rearing up. Quick as a flash, I picked up a heavy branch and hit it. I'd only meant to discourage it, but the blow had been harder than I intended and now the creature lay on the rainforest floor, the
back half wiggling, the front half still. I looked closer.

‘Geez!' said Zak, taking the words right out of my mouth.

‘Oh my goodness!' cried Ariel. ‘What on earth is
that?
'

I stood there staring at what lay on the path. This was no snake. Inside the torn skin, I could see wiring, circuitry and electronic components.

‘It's man-made!' Zak said. ‘Those pythons aren't real. They're some kind of robot!'

In front of our eyes, the electronic snake started to twist and heave. We watched in amazement as the undamaged remainder of its body regrouped, leaving the damaged section on the forest floor. Then, slightly shorter than it had been, the robot python slid away. Just before it vanished, I came out of my stunned state and managed to get a picture of it on my mobile.