Itchcraft (35 page)

‘Hey, Jack!’ she said, her voice breaking. ‘Thought you’d gone. Thought we’d lost you.’

Jack opened her eyes and nodded. It looked as though it took all her strength.

‘We
did
lose you,’ said Aisha, bringing more blankets. ‘You are officially a miracle. Your heart stopped beating down there, and we restarted it. Always thought we could; never had the chance to prove it.’ She laughed at the looks of astonishment she was getting. ‘Hey, we experimented! But somehow a large pig was never quite realistic enough.’

‘A pig!’ croaked Lucy. ‘You’re kidding us, right?’

‘No, she’s not,’ said Dada. ‘It was weird, but it worked. Now you’re alive because of a thirty-five-kilo swine.’ Nobody had the energy to laugh, but there were a few smiles. ‘I’m Dada, by the way.’ She pointed around the deck as the figures took off their hoods. ‘This is Leila, Chika, Aisha, Sade – and that’s Tobi at the wheel, waiting to find out where we’re going next.’ In their wetsuits and hoods it had been difficult to tell them apart, but now the divers became recognizable as the crew from Shivvi’s photo.

‘Hi,’ said Itch, Chloe and Lucy.

Leila came over with another oxygen canister. ‘We need to get you to a hospital, Jack. All of you, really, but Jack especially. We’re nearly out of air – this tank’s empty – and that makes me nervous. You don’t go through something like that and just walk away. She needs to be checked over. And Itch needs stitches.’

‘Where’s the nearest hospital?’ asked Chloe.

‘Back on the island.’ She nodded into the darkness. ‘Back on El Hiero. But it’s hardly a hospital. Just a surgery really, open in the day, restricted hours.’

Itch managed to sit up. He was shivering under the blankets, his wet clothes clinging and sopping. He had a question. ‘How did you know where we were?’ His voice was feeble and reedy, but all the divers heard and smiled.

It was Chika who stepped forward, shaking out her braided black hair. ‘El Hiero is an old Greencorps haunt. We went there with Shivvi a few times. Flowerdew was always there, boasting with his oil friends. When we saw you at the TV press conference, we guessed where Jack and Chloe were being taken.’

Leila took over. ‘And when you announced to all the world that it wasn’t us who killed the Greencorps bosses, we knew we owed you. Big time. We came to El Hiero and waited. Sure enough, Flowerdew turned up in that mining ship – the
Strontian
– and we followed him.’

‘Wow,’ said Chloe.

‘Debt paid in full, then,’ said Itch. ‘Thanks. Really. But we need to talk about Shivvi sometime—’

‘Jack’s not looking good,’ interrupted Lucy. Under the blankets Jack was shaking uncontrollably, her skin white, her eyes tight shut.

‘Like I said – she needs proper care,’ said Leila. ‘Gran Canaria has a hospital, but that’ll take us hours. This RIB isn’t built for long haul.’

‘What does she need exactly?’ asked Itch, getting to his feet.

‘Right now she needs body warmth,’ said Leila. ‘Chloe and Lucy, lie down beside her. Seriously – it’ll help. But mainly she needs oxygen. And we are using our last supplies . . .’ She glanced at Jack.

Itch looked around the deck . . .

At the divers who had saved him, and at his sister, his cousin and his friend.

At the darkness, the lapping waves and the empty sea around them.

‘I know where she can find all those,’ he said quietly.

‘Really?’ said Dada. ‘Where? I can’t think of—’

‘On Flowerdew’s ship,’ said Itch, cutting her off. ‘On the
Strontian
. I saw the sick bay. It has all that.’

There was silence, interrupted only by coughing from Jack.

‘We’re not going back,’ said Lucy. ‘Please tell me we’re not going back to that ship . . .’

The RIB bounced along on the Atlantic waves, its crew deep in discussion. It was still dark, the only light coming from the stars and Leila’s torch. The divers were crouched by Itch; Chloe and Lucy were still lying next to the sleeping Jack. Every few minutes, the torch beam swept over her. The oxygen mask magnified her deathly white, clammy face. The sight gave an extra urgency to their arguments.

‘If we run out of oxygen – which we will in under an hour – and Jack is still like this, we might lose her.’ Leila looked at the faces around her. ‘That’s the risk we take if we cut for home.’

‘I’m not going back on that ship,’ Lucy said firmly. ‘I’ll do anything else to help Jack, but please—’

‘That’s fair enough,’ said Aisha. ‘You won’t need to. The issue is whether we can board the
Strontian
, collect the medical supplies she needs, and get off again.’

‘Are there any ships nearby who could help . . .?’ Even as she said it, Chloe sounded unsure.

‘Yes, there will be, but we don’t have time, Chloe. We could catch the mining ship in thirty minutes if we hit top speed,’ said Leila.

‘They’ll see us coming,’ said Lucy. ‘You’ve got radar, so they certainly will.’

‘It won’t be a problem. And if they
do
challenge us, we can say we need urgent medical supplies. Which we do.’

Aisha looked at her colleagues. ‘Are we doing this?’ One by one they all nodded. ‘You’ll be safe here,’ she told Lucy. ‘We can handle ourselves quite well, you know.’ She smiled and Lucy nodded. ‘You guys will watch Jack; Tobi will stay on the boat, Chika too. The rest of us will go and steal some oxygen.’

Chloe was aware that Itch hadn’t said anything for a while. He was hugging his legs to his chest, staring off into the distance.

‘I’ve seen that look before, Itch,’ she said. ‘What are you thinking?’

He turned to his sister. ‘I’m going too.’

‘No, Itch! No, you can’t! Please—’

‘Itch, you should stay here,’ said Aisha. ‘Seriously, you’ve been through enough.’

‘I know where the sick bay is,’ he said. ‘It’ll be faster with me.’

‘Draw a map then!’ said Lucy.

‘I’m going,’ said Itch. ‘All this is my fault. All of it. And I’ve had enough.’

Aisha nodded to Tobi, who ran to the wheel. She corrected their heading, checked her radar and opened the RIB’s three engines to full throttle.

As the boat speeded after the mining ship, Chloe looked at Itch. ‘Those didn’t sound like the words of someone who was just planning on liberating some oxygen.’

Itch didn’t look at her. ‘What did they sound like?’

‘Like someone planning revenge.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Really? After all this?’ Chloe was angry now. ‘Itch, if we need the oxygen and drugs for Jack, then OK, but that is it. You come back here – you don’t go and give Flowerdew a kicking.’

‘What if—?’

She put her hand over his mouth. Tears in her eyes, she glared at her brother. ‘You come back. You understand?’

He nodded and she took her hand away. ‘OK,’ he said.

The 900-horsepower engine sent the RIB crashing through the swell. At the bow, the divers were checking their equipment.

Leila called Itch over. ‘We’ve downloaded the plans of the ship.’ He saw that her phone displayed a map of each deck. ‘This the medical room?’ She pointed to a room with a red cross on it. Itch nodded. Leila looked at him. ‘So we don’t really need you to show us when we get there.’

‘Guess not,’ he said flatly.

‘Unless you feel you might still have something to contribute . . .’

He stared back at her. ‘Chloe has made me promise to just get the oxygen and come back.’

‘Of course she has. And I’m sure we’ll all try to keep to that. If we can . . .’ Itch saw the beginnings of a smile on her face, and slowly realized what was going on.

‘You want to go after Flowerdew too,’ he said.

Leila’s voice was barely audible above the roar of the engines. ‘He’s a few kilometres away, Itch. We might never get another chance.’

‘Yes, but you’d be doing this for Shivvi, and she was as bad as him! Cruel, greedy, ruthless . . . She tried to kill me and Jack!’

Leila gazed out over the sea. She was silent for so long, Itch thought the conversation was over. Just as he was turning to check on Jack, she took his arm.

‘I know what she became. And I know what she did . . . But she wasn’t always like that. When we started diving together, she was just one of us. We made a great team. She was always the fiercest competitor, always had to be the best, and Flowerdew exploited that. The Greencorps machine turned her ambition into cruelty and recklessness. By the time she went to prison she was virtually unrecognizable, a different person, and we blame Flowerdew. But she was still our friend and we want to tell him to his face.’

‘And then?’ asked Itch.

‘We’ll see,’ she said.

She didn’t need to explain and he didn’t need to ask. She turned away, but he caught her arm.

‘What’s up with the radar?’

Leila looked surprised.

‘When Lucy asked about the radar, you said it wouldn’t be a problem. Why not?’

Leila smiled again. ‘Glad we’re on the same team, Itch.’ She took a breath. ‘When we got to El Hiero, we knew the sort of ship to look out for. When the
Strontian
blew in, we knew that Flowerdew was on it. We thought this moment might come. Chika got on board and placed a small scrambler by the masts. We switched their radar off as soon as we got near.’

Itch’s bloodshot eyes were wide with shock. ‘You planned all this?’

‘Too loud, Itch – keep it down. Don’t make this trickier than it needs to be.’

‘But your intention was always to board Flowerdew’s ship?’ Itch couldn’t keep the astonishment out of his voice. ‘It was lucky for us you were around – but you were following him, not us? Is that right?’

Now Leila held onto Itch’s arm, her olive skin contrasting sharply with Itch’s waxy paleness. ‘What I said before was true. We decided to do this after seeing how you stood up for us at the press conference. Saving you guys was the first part; this is the second.’

‘Five kilometres!’ called Tobi.

Itch and Leila peered into the gloom and saw the
Strontian
’s lights.

‘You coming?’ asked Leila.

Itch looked at Chloe and Lucy, who were still trying to warm Jack up. ‘Try and stop me,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘OK. We all need to talk.’

The mining ship’s outline was becoming clearer by the minute. The divers and Itch gathered around Tobi at the wheel; Chloe came over to listen too.

‘How many men on board?’ Leila appeared to be directing operations now.

Brother and sister looked at each other. ‘There’s Flowerdew,’ said Itch, ‘his new puppet – Wing, or Bale, or whatever she’s calling herself today – and about twelve others? Fifteen maybe.’

‘There seemed to be loads,’ said Chloe. ‘We were always surrounded, right from when we arrived.’

‘Presumably there are technicians and scientists somewhere,’ said Itch, ‘but we didn’t see any – just Flowerdew’s thugs.’

‘With Greencorps,’ said Leila, ‘they’re often one and the same. I think we’ve all learned that.’ There were nods and murmurs of agreement. ‘We’ll have the element of surprise,’ she continued. ‘Just before dawn, they’ll still have a skeleton crew on duty – if we’re lucky, just two on the bridge. The sleeping quarters are clearly marked on the plans. If we can lock them in, we’ll be able to reach the medical supplies without interference. Which is Flowerdew’s room?’

Chloe replied, ‘When you go down the main stairs, his room is on the right, after the sick bay.’ She looked straight at Itch. ‘But hopefully you won’t see him, will you?’

‘Obviously,’ he said quietly.

‘We’ve got a spare wetsuit,’ said Aisha. ‘We’ll have our headwraps on too, so we should all look the same. That way, we talk to each other and they won’t know who we are. Or that it’s you, Itch – which might be helpful. Chika will show you.’

At the front of the RIB, sections of the deck lifted to reveal cavernous amounts of storage. From it, after flares and more backpacks, came a wetsuit of indeterminate shape and Chika threw it at Itch.

‘Should fit,’ she said.

Itch grabbed it and started to peel off his wet clothes. This was no time for modesty, but he was glad that it was still dark and the torch was at the other end of the boat. Every wetsuit is a struggle, and this one was no exception – especially with a nasty hip wound. After he’d got it on, Lucy came over and zipped him up.

‘You sure about this?’ she whispered.

‘Jack needs the oxygen, Luce. She looks terrible. We don’t have a choice.’

She hugged him briefly. ‘Sure it’s OK if I don’t come with you? I can look—’

‘Lucy, stop . . .’ Itch pulled away, conscious of being watched. ‘You keep Jack warm. When the O
₂
arrives, get it to her quickly. She needs you here.’ He bent down and felt in his trouser pocket, retrieving a small stone.

‘Itch?’ said Lucy.

‘It’s a surprise,’ he said, zipping it into his wetsuit. He went over and knelt down beside Jack. Her chest was rising and falling in short, quick breaths.

‘Doesn’t look right, does it?’ said Chloe.

‘No. But she’s alive and we’re going to make sure she stays that way,’ he said. ‘We’ll be as quick as possible.’ He got up before he got another lecture, and joined the divers again. They gave him a small round of applause as he approached.

‘Six inches taller than the rest of us, and clearly not a woman, but apart from that, you’ll blend in perfectly,’ said Aisha, and they all laughed.

The looming mining ship ensured the levity was brief. The churn of the mining ship’s engines could be picked out, as could the letters of its name. There was the first hint of lightness in the sky off to their right; they could now distinguish between sea and sky for the first time.

‘We need to get on with this,’ said Leila. ‘Itch, you’re with Dada and Sade. Aisha’s with me. You all know what you’re doing. Let’s make it look like it’s just Tobi and some injured friends. Take us in.’

Following in the mining ship’s wake, the RIB bounced hard as it closed on the
Strontian
. Ahead, the bright deck lights of the ship made Itch uneasy; the darkness had seemed safer. Raising his head, he could now see the place at the stern from where he and Chloe had jumped. How long ago was that? An hour? Two? Five? He had lost all sense of time. But he didn’t care. As his strength had returned, so had his anger. He glanced back at Jack, oxygen mask clamped to her mouth, Chloe and Lucy lying beside her, trying to warm her.