Waiting in the Shadows (9 page)

‘So, we will take another Non-Lab into our confidence? And one who is an unknown factor to all of us? This idea is insane!' Abel stood up clenching his fists.

‘He already in a position to put us all in danger!' Celia insisted. ‘We need to have him on our side now!'

‘How can we trust
any
Non-Lab?' Abel snarled, staring at Ruby. He stormed out of the door.

Dette stood up and followed him, ‘I'll go and talk to him. I'll see if I can persuade him to consider your idea.'

Abel's face was still sullen as they sat with Isaac in their midst the following evening.

‘First tell us what you
do
know, and we will fill in the details,' Keith spoke quietly to Isaac.

‘Well, I suppose I don't know that much really, but I have a gut feeling that things aren't what they seem with you people,' Isaac looked less sure of himself surrounded by her friends than he had with Ruby on her own.

‘So …?' Celia prompted him.

‘I know you are in contact with groups of students around the country. Many of them are twins, like you boys. I know these students are going under false names. And I know some of them are nervous, afraid of another group called the “Non-Labs” …' He looked up as Johnny stifled a giggle. Celia silenced him with a glare.

‘And, I know you didn't go to Sherwood High,' he finished.

‘So you don't really know that much at all, do you?' Abel sneered.

‘I have addresses and enough to start an interesting newspaper story on the increase in twins and triplets among the student population! This is worth further investigation!' Isaac turned to him, his face flushed.

‘Who'd be interested in this?' Keith asked quietly.

‘My uncle, he's a reporter for
The Times
, some of his friends, some of my own colleagues,' Isaac continued doggedly.

‘How could you find out more, if we don't cooperate?' Abel asked him.

‘I'd gain public interest by starting an article about twins and triplets. I'd start by interviewing some of these students!' he took the paper from his pocket. In a flash, Abel had removed it from his hand. Isaac looked at him, ‘I do have copies, you know! I left some stuff with a friend, for security, before I came here today!'

There was silence for a moment.

‘Isaac,' Keith broke the silence, ‘your interference at the wrong time may cause the loss of lives;
hundreds
of lives! You will have to wait for your big story until the end of our plan.'

‘I
knew
there was more to this! I can wait! I
swear
I wouldn't print anything that may endanger lives!' Isaac looked at him eagerly.

Keith looked around the room. The others nodded, except for Abel who turned away with a grunt.

For the next hour Isaac listened with widening eyes as Celia and the others explained the situation and their plan to free the Labs, now and then asking a question.

At one point Isaac turned and smiled at Johnny, ‘That's why you laughed when I said a group called the “Non-Labs”! I'm one of them!' Johnny grinned back and nodded.

Finally there was silence.

‘Wow! What a story!' Isaac gave a soft whistle.

‘A story that can't be made public yet!' Celia warned him.

‘I fully understand that! Look, I may be able to help you. I may even prove useful, you know,' he said.

Abel grunted again, ‘Our Non-Lab friend, Ruby,
helped
us by supplying you with crucial names and addresses!'

Ruby blushed and looked down.

‘No, she didn't!' Isaac reached inside his pocket and pulled out the skeleton keys. ‘As we're all revealing our criminal activities, I have to admit I looked around your house one day when you were all out.'

He gave Ruby an apologetic smile. ‘Sorry!' He opened his hands, ‘Hey, it's a skill that you may find useful! And I also have useful contacts in the press, through my uncle.'

Keith nodded slowly, ‘Yes, you may indeed prove a useful ally, Isaac.'

Abel glared at him again, ‘But if you ever do, or think of doing, something that will put any Lab in danger, you will regret it!'

Isaac stood to face him, spreading his hands out. ‘I'm on your side! It's in my interest to keep this story under wraps until the correct time, the same as it is for you.' He paused, ‘Hey, maybe we could even be friends?' He held out a tentative hand. Throwing him a derisive look, Abel turned away.

The following day Ruby found Isaac beside her in the supermarket again.

‘Shopping again?' he asked her.

‘I didn't get anything the other day, don't you remember?' she smiled.

‘I'm glad we're friends again.'

She nodded as she reached for a box of cereal from the top shelf.

‘Here, let me,' Isaac said, passing one to her. ‘See? I'm useful already!'

Ruby smiled again, ‘Even more helpful if you let me get on with my shopping.'

She continued to the next aisle, with Isaac beside her.

‘So, any developments?' he asked.

‘Nothing new since we saw you yesterday!' she said.

‘Are you going to be setting up new homes soon?' he continued. ‘Maybe I can help?'

‘Celia organises these things, it's really not up to me,' Ruby said.

‘I would like to be involved as much as possible! Then when the Centre is exposed, I will be able to tell the real story from the inside!' Isaac told her.

‘I will speak to Celia,' Ruby promised him.

He approached her again the next day when he called around with Sara and Jane.

‘Have you seen this?' he asked, unfolding a national newspaper. He showed her the story on a political rally to be held in London the following day. A group calling themselves “Forever England” were to march through the city centre to protest against the number of immigrants allowed into the UK. ‘Are any of your group involved?'

She got up and signalled him to follow her to the garden.

‘Ben and some of the others are holding a counter meeting at the university.'

Isaac frowned. ‘That could be an explosive situation! Isn't it dangerous for them to take part in it?'

‘Yes!' Ruby nodded, ‘Abel has tried to persuade them not to attend, but Ben and Megan insist they must stand up for what they believe in or they might as well be still living in the Caves!'

‘I'll get in touch with a friend of mine who works for a London paper. He might have some details about this march.' Isaac looked thoughtful.

‘That would be helpful, Isaac,' Ruby said. ‘Abel must be very worried or he wouldn't be planning on going to London himself.'

‘Tell him maybe I can be of use if I go with you to London,' Isaac told her.

Abel was adamant that Isaac did not accompany them to London when Ruby suggested it later that evening.

‘We don't need his help! We can take care of our own!'

‘He has friends in London. He's going to find out what they know about this demonstration,' Ruby told him.

‘He is not travelling with us. He can stay with his friends,' Abel said, and turned away.

Ruby phoned Isaac to tell him.

‘I know you are trying to be helpful, Isaac. Abel finds it difficult to trust Non-Labs,' she said. ‘It will be a while before he accepts your help. He's still not happy to have me around!'

‘Well, I'll be in London anyway. I'll phone you if I hear of anything that will be useful,' Isaac sounded disappointed.

Ruby, Abel, Ben, and the other students from London were in front of the university where a large podium had been set up.

Several of the students had made speeches about the right of people all over the world to be allowed to travel freely.

Ben spoke about the lack of equality between the different countries and how many people like himself would like to see opportunities and resources shared out more equally.

‘We don't need to divide the world into places you
can
go into and places you are
barred
from! We need to
open
the boundaries between countries!'

Ruby stood near Abel, watching him speak.

‘He obviously feels very strongly about this!' she whispered to Abel.

His face was set. ‘I am not happy about him bringing such attention to himself and the others!'

Just then Ruby's phone began to ring; it was Isaac. She moved to a quieter place so she could hear him.

‘Ruby! Things aren't looking good! My friend has heard that the Forever England group have hired some hecklers to join the university demonstration. They'll be here soon! You'd better get your people out quickly!' Isaac told her. ‘The police are to be sent in. There will be plenty of arrests!'

‘Ben's on the podium speaking at the moment! The others are near him. I can't see Abel. He was here a moment ago! Where are you, Isaac?' Ruby felt her heart racing.

‘Calm down, Ruby. We'll be all right. I'm near the podium; I'll speak to Ben as soon as he gets down and get him to get the others together. I'll get them out on this side. You find Abel and both of you get as far away from here as soon as you can, OK?'

As soon as Isaac had rung off, Ruby began to look around for Abel. She finally spotted him near the entrance to the university and pushed her way through the crowds to join him.

‘Abel! We've got to get out of here quickly! There's going to be a disturbance, the police are on their way, people will be arrested!' she blurted out.

‘We must get Ben and the others,' he cried, turning towards the podium.

Ruby caught his arm. ‘Isaac has them, look!'

Ben was speaking to the other Labs and all were following Isaac at a swift pace.

Ruby and Abel were near the entrance of the university when suddenly there was shouting. Several people were pushing their way through the crowds towards the podium. There was the sound of someone screaming. People began to try to leave the square, but a cordon of mounted police blocked them.

Ruby looked with frightened eyes at Abel. He grabbed her hand, ‘We can't get out that way! Come on.'

He ran into the building, pulling her behind him. At the end of the corridor someone shouted at them to stop. They ran down another corridor, trying door handles, but they were all locked. Finally Abel found one that opened and pulling Ruby in behind him, closed the door. They stood closely together in the dark, Ruby trying to breathe quietly. She knew they were in a storage cupboard from the smell of polish. The handle of a floor polisher pushed painfully into her back. The sound of running footsteps outside made her heart pound. She gripped Abel's jacket tightly.

‘They couldn't have gone any further this way!' a voice said.

‘All the rooms are locked,' another answered him.

‘Try the caretaker's cupboard. He doesn't always remember to lock it,' the first voice said.

Abel held tightly to the door handle, his face pinched as the person outside tried to move it.

‘No. It's locked,' the voice finally said. ‘Let's try the cloakrooms. They may be hiding in there.'

‘Better be quick before they have time to double back!' the second man answered.

Ruby and Abel listened to the sound of their feet moving away.

As Ruby gave a sigh of relief, Abel pulled her closer to him. She could feel his heart beating against her. Then slowly he lifted her chin and kissed her gently on the lips. She gave a gasp of surprise.

He quickly released her.

‘I must apologise, Ruby. I don't know why …' He stopped speaking as they heard voices outside the cupboard again.

‘Beats me how they did it! But they've somehow got out.'

‘Better get back to the desk,' the second voice replied, ‘before more of them get in!'

They stood in silence for several more minutes before Abel opened the door and beckoned her to follow him.

It was getting dark when they finally arrived at Ben and the other students' house. Isaac was seated in the lounge talking to Megan when they entered. He stood up smiling.

‘We've been watching the news! We were so relieved to finally hear from you. What happened?'

‘We tried to get through the university building, but ended up stuck in a broom cupboard and eventually had to make our escape through a window in the ladies' toilets!' Ruby giggled. The events of the day had left her feeling light-headed.

‘I told you I might be of use to you!' Isaac beamed at Abel, who gave him a wry smile.

‘We must thank you for your quick actions today, Isaac. You did indeed prove to be extremely useful,' he acknowledged.

‘We phoned Celia, so they wouldn't be worried about us when they see the news tonight,' Ben said.

Abel looked at him, ‘I think you must keep a lower profile until the Labs are in a stronger position to speak out, Ben.'

He looked at Megan and they both nodded.

‘It is true. Our arrest could endanger many others. But I hope it is not to be too long before we are in a position to speak out, Abel.'

‘More Labs are freed every day. But we are still not strong enough to bring about the closure of the Centre without putting any Labs in danger. If only we could formulate a plan to accomplish that, we would all be free tomorrow!' he sighed.

They had been talking for several hours when Abel's phone rang. He went to the hallway to answer it. His face was solemn when he rejoined them.

‘It looks as if we will have to think of a solution to the Centre, and fast! Fil just phoned the house. He has heard rumours that the Centre is to be taken over by an American company, and they're planning on setting up similar sites in several countries around the world!

As they drove along the motorway Ruby watched Abel's face staring stonily ahead. He hardly seemed to be the same person who had held her close and kissed her in the darkness.

Chapter Ten

He walked past rows and rows of capsules, each with a slumbering occupant. He put his hand to his forehead, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. It became difficult to put one foot in front of the other. He steadied himself on the nearest capsule and rested his head against it. On the other side of the smoky glass a girl slept, unaware of his presence. He closed his eyes and slid gently down to the floor.

This time he woke up feeling calm. He knew what he had to do. Somehow, he had to find the sleeping girl!