Trapped (24 page)

She felt hope rise in her. Just a few metres to go, and as long as the jetski started first time she would be away. She could hear the shouts of her captors behind, they were gaining on her. Heart pounding with the effort, she raced out from the tunnel, the fresh air hitting her like a wall. She was just about to take a huge leap onto the jetski when she heard a noise behind her. Instinctively she turned and felt something shoved hard over her bruised face. Then everything went black.

‘Well, well,' said Tass. ‘And just what new and amazing species do we have here?'

From her position sprawled at the bottom of the cage, Cate stared blearily upwards taking in the expensive shoes, the tanned legs and finally the faces of Tass and Lulu.

She feigned surprise. ‘What's going on? What I am doing in this cage?'

‘Yeah, yeah, Cate, nice try.' Tass sounded calm and relaxed, amused even. ‘Well, who'd have thought that a kid like you would end up causing us all this trouble? Don't worry, Cate, we'll soon have you out of there. But not just yet.'

‘I would enjoy being in that cage if I were you, Cate Carlisle,' Lulu hissed happily at her. ‘Where you're going, this will seem like the lap of luxury.'

‘Hang on, wait – please.' Cate dragged herself upright to face them, swaying as she hung onto the bars for support. She
forced herself to meet Tass's eyes. ‘People will be looking for me – my friends, my family. If I don't call them soon then they will know something bad has happened.'

‘Oh?' Tass sneered, his handsome face contorted with hatred. ‘How scared am I?' He looked down at his clunky gold watch. ‘Two hours ago, when you were enjoying a nice sleep,
The Good Times
left Antibes harbour. In roughly ten minutes she will be out in international waters and then it doesn't matter who your friends are. If they try to mount any misguided rescue attempt we will be completely within our rights to use maximum force against them. We will send them to the bottom of the sea.'

For the first time since she had come to, Cate was aware of the deep throbbing sound of the engines vibrating along the floor of her cage. Her heart sank. It was all too late.

‘Where are you taking me?' she asked.

This time Lulu answered her. ‘Well, we were going to have a press conference somewhere nice and civilised like Venice or Monaco. But now, thanks to the trouble you have caused us, we are having to relocate to Sibya. As it happens, Tass is very friendly with the head of the Sibyan army. They don't like spies there any more than we do.'

Now Cate was really beginning to panic. She knew about Sibya, she had heard her father discussing with colleagues about how the small East African country was one of the most dangerous places in the world. Once people crossed the borders, they often disappeared without trace.

‘My father will never stop searching for me.' Cate was trying to sound confident, keep calm. ‘He knows so many
people around the world, you'd never get a minute's peace.'

‘He can't prove anything.' Lulu smiled at her benignly. ‘Not really. No one can. The thing is, Cate, you've been far too good at covering your tracks. We'll just deny everything. We'll say that the last time we saw you was on
Catwalk II
and no one will be able to prove otherwise. Will they, darling?' She looked brightly at Tass, who nodded his head approvingly.

‘And,' she continued, her smile becoming more menacing by the second, ‘they'll never know that we've been thinking about extending our research to humans. And you'd be the perfect specimen to start with.'

Cate went cold. These two had clearly lost all semblance of humanity and rationality. They were scary, very scary.

Tass smiled at Lulu lovingly.

Cate looked from one to the other, the shock registering in her face. ‘You two?' she said incredulously. ‘You two are – you two are together? An item?' She was laughing now through her fear – she couldn't help herself.

Lulu turned back to her crossly. ‘We're married – husband and wife. We've been together for years. We met at school.' Her face softened. ‘I wasn't rich enough so we had to keep it secret from Tass's vile father. Tass couldn't risk being cut off from the money, you see.'

Tass looked sadly at his wife. ‘I'm sorry, darling. I still feel really bad about that.'

‘It's OK,' Lulu said brightly. ‘I understand. I wanted the money too.'

‘But now,' Tass said gleefully, ‘now, I'm going to prove myself once and for all with this amazing, genius breakthough.
Presidents, scientists, businessmen. The whole world will be begging me to work with them.'

‘It wasn't
your
breakthrough!' Cate was outraged, her sense of justice getting the better of her. ‘I think you'll find that the professor came up with the knowledge.'

It was a mistake. Immediately Tass's mood changed, his face darkened as one strong hand came through the bars grabbing at Cate's arm and pulling her closer. She stared at him, half terrified, half fascinated, wondering how she could have ever thought him handsome.

‘You – know – far – too – much.' He spat it out, his spittle landing on Cate's face. ‘In ten hours we reach Sibya. Then you are . . .' He ran his finger across her throat. ‘I will take personal pleasure in telling the good Colonel there to make your life one long, lingering hell.'

As the doors closed behind them and the overhead lights faded to a dull gleam, a shaken Cate took stock of her situation. It was grim, she knew that. Any hope she had of persuading her captors that she was just a silly teenager caught up in something beyond her comprehension was long gone. She had seen what had happened to the professor when he became a problem. She shuddered. Part of her was angry at herself for being so stupid as to think that she, Cate Carlisle, could possibly have succeeded in taking on, and winning against, such determined thugs. Undeniably too, she was terrified of dying, of the actual process of being killed, of never seeing her friends and family again.

But still, she wasn't ready to give up. She looked around at her surroundings. The bars of the cage were spaced at ten
centimetre intervals, far too close for her to squeeze through. She couldn't see where the lock was but, looking at the other cages around her, she spotted a digital box situated right at the top of the doors. But even if Cate knew which code to punch in – which she didn't – a quick attempt convinced her she wouldn't be able to reach the box anyway.

There was a rustle in the cage next to her and, turning to look, she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her. As her vision adjusted to the gloom she saw a tiny panda, no more than thirty centimetres high, big black circles surrounding his frightened eyes.

Opposite her, in a large cage, she could just make out the outline of a white tiger cub, its yellowy eyes watching her carefully. In the next cage, a small black mass had crammed itself into the far corner of the cage, its long arms wrapped protectively around its chest.
A gorilla,
thought Cate.
A beautiful mountain gorilla.

She counted around twenty cages, all full of animals who should by rights, she thought, no longer be babies and should be roaming safely in protected reserves. She pictured their parents, imagined the heartbreak they must have suffered as their babies were torn away from them and she felt tears prick at her eyes.

Now they were trapped here, manipulated and experimented on by monsters, and would never be allowed to mature. No doubt they would become some sort of freak show, objects not of beauty and strength but of curiosity, to be sold to the highest bidder as if they were sacks of grain.

Cate was furious now, her anger energising her. She patted her clothes and her pockets. She had been thoroughly searched
and everything removed from her. Even the laces on her trainers had gone. But her trainers hadn't. Remembering the CCTV camera clicking overhead, Cate crept to the back of her cage and looked at the bottom of her trainers. Relief washed over her. The studs were still there.

Just then there was the sound of footsteps in the antechamber. The doors opened, the lights came up and a ginger-haired man walked in holding buckets of food and a heavy, pointed stick.

‘Feeding time at the zoo.' The accent, the voice was familiar. Suddenly Cate was aware of a thin face peering at her through the bars.

‘Oh. I thought it was you.' It was the guard who had found Stripy for her the day before. Was it really just a day ago? She could hardly believe it.

‘You got me into a lot of trouble, kid. Well, you stuck your nose in where it shouldn't be and look what happened to ya.' He whistled cheerfully as he stood up. ‘Now it's your turn to be in a whole heap of trouble.'

Cate watched as he began to feed the animals. They were clearly waiting for their food, but even so they didn't rush to the door. She soon understood why.

The guard opened the door of the panda cage next to her and without any preamble gave the baby a sharp thwack across the back of its neck with his stick. The panda shuddered but didn't howl, just lay cowed and subdued, crouched as far away from the guard as possible.

‘Hey!' shouted Cate, horrified by what she was witnessing. ‘Leave him alone, you coward.'

‘You want some too?' The guard was back at her cage, his stupid face peering through the bars at her. ‘A hiding would do you the world of good, I reckon. It's like these animals. They may be precious but they still need to know who's boss and I think you do too.' Before Cate could move, the door was open and she felt a sharp pain across the back of her calves.

‘Next time it's your feet.' The guard grinned. ‘Hurts more there.'

Cate groaned, rubbing her already swollen legs. She couldn't believe that someone so young could be so vicious. But she had learnt her lesson.
No more mouthiness
, she thought.
Action next time
.

From the back of her cage she watched carefully as her tormentor went about his work. As the guard clicked the code on each of the cages, Cate quickly realised that it was the same one. And one she could easily remember. 181542 – the battle of Waterloo plus the number of the bus she got to school. Thanks, Ginger.

Just as the guard was about to leave the room, Cate called out to him. ‘Please.' She forced herself to sound weak and close to tears. ‘Please can I have some water, something to eat. I'm so hungry, so sick.'

He came back to her, delighted at her pleading. ‘I might do, I might not.' His grinning face was tantalisingly close. ‘It's not like you're precious like these animals, is it, darlin'?'

Cate felt like grabbing his head and smashing it against the bars.
Not yet
, she thought.

‘OK, kid. Here's the deal. I think you need just a little bit more time to think about all the trouble you've caused. I'll
bring you something to eat when I'm ready.'

I'll be waiting
, thought Cate.

As soon as the door closed she went to work. She moved away as far as she could from the overhead cameras and felt down to the bottom of her right trainer. She unscrewed the first stud she came to and poked her fingers into the hole. First time lucky. She pulled out the tiny vial and slid it under the palm of her hand. As smoothly as possible she rolled onto her stomach, her head facing the bars where they met the back wall.

She took a deep breath, unscrewed the vial and poured a few drops of liquid onto the bottom of each of the three bars that lay in the shadows, hoping against hope that it would be too dark for the camera to see what she was up to. There was a slight smell of burning, a soft crackle and, before her eyes, Cate could see the metal dissolving as if it was a stick of sugar rock.

Cate gave it a few seconds then pulled hard at the bars. They moved inwards into the cage. She looked at the hole, checking it out for size. Easily large enough for her to slither through.

Now she needed a weapon. She poured what was left of the acid over one of the loosened bars and cheered inwardly as a section fell onto the straw with a dull thud. Now all Cate had to do was wait.

The guard was clearly in no hurry to feed her. Hours ticked by and Cate fought to stay awake. The animals around her were still, but she saw by the glimmer of their eyes that they were awake and watchful, unnerved no doubt by her unfamiliar presence.

Then she heard footsteps and sprang into action. She slipped quietly through the hole, picked up the heavy bar and was by the side of the door just as the guard came through it. She swung hard and hit down with a ferocious anger she didn't know she possessed. The man slid silently to the floor, the electronic door swooshing shut behind him.

Within seconds, Cate had dragged him into an empty cage and pushed him to the back, covering him with straw. She quickly ran her hands over his skinny frame and found a small Glock pistol which she slipped into her pocket. Then she turned to the animals which were up at the front of their cages, staring at her in astonishment.

‘I'll be back for you, I promise,' she said quietly as she passed through the door and out into the next room.

She had to get to a computer and fast. Clearly the ship had managed to avoid the IMIA search parties, otherwise she had no doubt that Marcus would have already sent in a rescue team. Or perhaps they knew exactly where
The Good Times
was but were holding back, fearful of causing her death. In that case, they couldn't know that the boat was heading to Sibya, because if it reached there, she'd have no more chance of escape. She had to somehow alert Marcus and get the ship stopped.

She crept quietly to the exit and opened it slowly. She had banked on Ginger being the only guard on duty at this time of the night but, to her horror, she realised she had miscalculated. Wandering up and down the corridor, presumably waiting for his mate, was a short but very square, black man who looked as if he was more than capable of taking care of himself.