Missing (6 page)

‘The one you were going to get out of the DVD library. You were raving about it!'

‘I never told you what a bad memory I have, did I? I'm really sorry. Let's go and choose something else. Your pick this time.'

‘OK,' she said slowly. ‘Come over to the library and we can watch it this afternoon.'

‘Man, I'm sorry. I can't do that. There's something else I need to do.'

‘Need to do? Like what? Collect seashells?' she joked.

‘It's something personal,' I said.

Sophie gave me a puzzled look. ‘What is it with you? I thought we were going to be friends, but now I'm not so sure.'

She walked away without a word, heading for the girls' dormitory. I wanted to call out to her, but thought better of it. I needed to head to Ryan's hide-out, deliver my food package to him, check his ankle and be back in time for evening rollcall. I glanced at my watch. It had been a really hot, tropical day, but now clouds were piling up and it looked like we might be in for a storm later in the evening.

I felt bad about the conversation with Sophie and how I'd gotten off to a shaky start with her. Maybe Ryan could give me some tips about recent conversations so that I wouldn't put my foot in it so much.

I waited until Dean had turned the corner of the tall fence and disappeared before I walked off away from the resort compound, heading for the out-of-bounds flags.

As I neared the flags, a voice yelled behind me. ‘Hey! You there! Where do you think you're going?'

Damn! I'd been spotted. And by Dean, of all people. Now what? I turned and looked as innocent as I could. ‘What's the problem?' I asked. ‘I'm just going for a walk.'

‘With a backpack? Let's have a look. What's in there?'

Oh no. Even though I had the satellite phone
and my mobile hidden under the false bottom, he would find the food I had packed for Ryan. I had to think fast.

‘Just some of my stuff,' I said, ‘and a bit of food.'

He yanked my backpack open and peered into it, pulling out the food parcel that I'd wrapped up in paper serviettes, holding up the bananas. ‘A
bit
of food? What's all this for? You're taking food to those kids in the jungle!'

‘No way, man. I get really hungry between meals. There's no law against taking extra fruit and stuff from the dining room.'

‘You were heading for the out-of-bounds area with a backpack full of food. Come with me and explain it to Damien.'

He was pulling out his two-way handset when I heard another voice—Sophie. My heart sank. What if she said something about how different I was? I'd told her that I had something personal planned. Stealing food for the runaways, she'd think. My mind was working overtime, trying to find plausible excuses.

Instead, to my complete surprise, Sophie linked her arm through mine, smiling up at the counsellor while she spoke. ‘Ryan, you're such a dunce! This isn't the right place for our picnic. I meant over there, under the trees near the
vegetable garden! Come on, can't you see that you're almost out of bounds here? Come this way.' With that, she rolled her eyes at Dean, shaking her head as if to say, ‘Isn't he hopeless?' and started dragging me away in the opposite direction. Dean watched us go.

As soon as we were a good distance away, Sophie stopped smiling, her face suddenly serious. She pulled me down onto the grass under the tree and kneeling opposite me, looked around to make sure that no-one was watching or listening to us before she spoke. ‘OK, Ryan Ormond. What is going on? I just saved you from a whole lot of trouble. I think you owe me an explanation.'

‘You're right. I do. But I can't tell you. Please trust me!'

‘Tell me right now, or else I'm going to march straight down there and report you to Damien myself.' She started climbing to her feet.

‘Please, Sophie, don't do that!'

She turned back to me, pointing a banana at me. ‘Explanation, please. Or I'm going.'

She had me. I had to take a risk. If she'd taken a liking to my brother, I hoped I could trust her.

‘OK,' I said, ‘sit down. And stop waving that banana at me.'

Sophie sat down, fixing me with her blue gaze. ‘Now,' she demanded.

‘You've noticed that I'm different—that I've changed?'

‘A lot,' she said. ‘You don't remember anything. You say crazy things. You seem totally—
dumb!
You even
look
different!'

‘The truth is,' I said, wondering how she would take this, ‘that I
am
different. Really different. I'm so different that I'm not actually Ryan.'

Sophie Bellamy looked dumbfounded. She stared at me. ‘Huh? Have you gone completely nuts?'

‘No. I'm not Ryan. I'm his twin brother, Cal.'

Sophie's stare remained fixed for a few seconds then she blinked. ‘You're Cal Ormond? Not Ryan?'

‘That's right.'

‘You're Cal? The twin brother?'

I nodded.

‘The fugitive? Who had the whole country chasing him—and that girl—'

‘Winter,' I said, ‘Winter Frey.'

‘That's right. And your friend, Bugsy or—'

‘Boges,' I corrected.

‘Boges,' she repeated. ‘You guys were all over the news back then. He told me about his brother Cal. But—but where's Ryan?'

‘He's hiding up in the jungle, halfway up the mountain.'

‘You were taking him food?'

‘That's right. He injured his ankle and—well, it's a long story. So I'm taking his place for a while.'

Sophie Bellamy stared out to the ocean, a slight frown on her forehead, her fair hair shining in the late afternoon sunshine, before turning her puzzled gaze on me. ‘You came here to check on Ryan?'

It was part of the truth and so I grabbed it. ‘That's right. I was worried about him.'

I saw the relief in her face as she got a grasp on the situation.

She indicated the mountain with her eyes. ‘OK! What are we waiting for? Let's go visit him!'

I waited as Sophie slipped behind the large tree under whose shade we were sheltering, and when she was safely hidden, I took a quick look around and I gradually eased myself back into the undergrowth, melting into the thick jungle.

As we made our way up the rough path, Sophie told me about her own concerns. ‘Ryan and I have been talking. We both feel like there's something weird going down. Some of the kids adore Damien and would do anything for him. It
all seems sunny on the surface but what if it's not all water sports and camp fire songs?'

‘It seems more like a boot camp, don't you think?' I asked as we approached closer to where I'd left Ryan hiding.

‘It sure feels like it sometimes,' she said. ‘My father—' her voice faltered before she continued, ‘my father works in security and so I know a bit about that stuff … and I don't like the way the Paradise People Resort is run. It's more like an army barracks. All this rollcall business and not being allowed to talk about certain things.'

We paused, catching our breath. ‘What things?' I asked, curious.

‘Well, we're not allowed to ask questions about the runaways. And both Ryan and I noticed other kids just disappearing. Not going home like most of them do, on the supply ship.'

‘What do you mean?' I asked.

‘Most kids only stay a few weeks. Then they leave on the boat. But I've seen kids who were supposed to have gone home still here. It looks like they've gone home—they don't sleep in the dormitories anymore, their lockers are empty. But I've seen them—a few of them.'

‘Do you think the runaways and the disappearing kids are the same people?' I asked.

‘There's no way of knowing, because nobody really talks about it. I'd like to leave but I've made friends here. I can't just run away and leave them. Not if something bad is happening. The disappeared kids must have gone somewhere.' Sophie's blue eyes and freckled face were full of concern.

I whistled to Ryan to let him know that I was close to his hide-out and saw the curtain of vines and leaves move as he poked his head out. Sophie and I hurried over to him and he grinned widely to see us.

‘Hey, Sophie! Cal!'

‘How's that ankle, bro?' I asked, lifting away some vines and pushing through to Ryan's lair.

‘Getting better … am I glad to see you! And you,' he said to Sophie. ‘I guess Cal's explained our double act?'

‘I was really confused until he did. I thought you'd gone totally crazy.'

We crawled further into Ryan's cave and I pulled the food out of my backpack.

‘I nearly didn't make it,' I explained, telling him about the counsellor who'd challenged me. ‘But Sophie saved the day.' Then Sophie and Ryan shared their concerns about the disappearing kids and the runaways, whoever they were.

‘What's really going on here?' asked Sophie.

‘I'm hoping Cal can find out more about it. Damien asked me to join The Edge group. They do separate activities from the rest of the Paradise People,' Ryan explained.

‘I asked the matron of our dormitory, Mrs Clayton, what happens to kids who don't fit in or who don't like this place,' said Sophie, frowning. ‘She said they either go back with the supply ship if it's around or other arrangements are made for them to go home.' She paused and her frown deepened. ‘But I don't believe that. Most of the counsellors honestly believe Damien is only concerned for the safety of these so-called “runaways”, considering the pythons and the stinging trees and other possible dangers on the island. I'm more worried about the kids who are supposed to have gone home and then I see them still here. I don't know where they live or what they do.'

‘Any ideas?' I asked.

‘Not right now,' she said. ‘But soon, I hope.'

Later that evening, I snuck out of the dormitory to call BB and got lucky with my phone reception. ‘I've seen Sophie and she's totally fine,' I said. I could hear BB's sigh of relief down the phone line. ‘But listen, I want to stay longer,' and I
explained my idea of swapping with Ryan to find out more about the Paradise People.

‘As long as you're confident you can handle the situation,' BB said, ‘we'll let it play out for now. Just keep us posted and we'll wait to arrange your pick-up. Over and out.'

‘Ryan Ormond, please report to Damien's office immediately.' The announcement jolted me out of my thoughts as my name was blared over the loudspeaker. Did this mean trouble? I thought I'd blended in over the last day or so. Maybe not.

I hurried over to the main building and sat on a bench outside where a sign read: ‘Please wait here to see the team leader.' I waited for ten minutes, wondering what this was all about. Had Dean said something about finding ‘Ryan' out of bounds the other day?

I was getting more and more anxious when suddenly Damien himself appeared at the doorway, his powerful body almost filling the space. ‘Follow me, please, Ryan,' he said, his face giving nothing away. I did so, taking in the steel staircase leading up to a second floor, with a
number of doors leading off a corridor. At the end, we came to Damien's office.

‘In here, please,' he said, opening the door. I walked into a square room, two sides of which were thick glass overlooking the resort main square and many of the buildings, with a view to the mountain beyond. A long dark timber desk ran parallel to the eastern window. Along the opposite wall, a bank of monitor screens flickered, sending back live feed from the closed-circuit television cameras situated around the resort compound. A couple of the images were moving. Did Damien have roving hand-held cameras? Next to the screen on the wall, a number of keys hung on hooks.

As Damien ushered me to a chair, I tried to take a closer look. I could just make out some of the labels—'main gate', ‘D-1', ‘D-2', ‘D-11', ‘submersible'. None particularly stood out, but could one of them be what Brittany Philips was scared of?

I took a seat in front of the desk. Damien could keep the resort under surveillance from this point, as well as watching a lot of the action of the Paradise People on the courts and grassy area at the beach. Two laptop computers on his desk rolled their screensavers.

He stood for a moment, his back to me, watching a fast-moving basketball game down below, then
turned to me and leaned forward on his desk. With an uncannily broad smile, he said, ‘Are you ready to give me an answer, Ryan? I'd hate for you to miss your chance. What do you say?'

Thank goodness Ryan had briefed me on this, I thought. I forced myself to return his big grin. ‘My answer is yes. I'd be honoured to join The Edge.'

Damien straightened up. ‘Good,' he said. ‘Now that you're on board, I can tell you a little more about the squads. It's a progrm designed to help build strong, healthy bodies and minds. We combine adventure, healthy physical activities and survival challenges to nurture everyone's individual strengths. How does that sound to you?'

‘Sounds pretty good,' I said enthusiastically. I was warming up to my role now.

‘When young people come here, they're often lost and lonely. We help them to reach their full potential with a great reward system—so they can strive to become the best they can be.' He paused. ‘There is some pretty advanced training offered to the very best of them. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The next group after The Edge is extremely exclusive.'

So there was another level, I thought to myself, even within the special program. Damien
was smiling widely again. ‘There is however, the need for discretion. Your agreement to joining The Edge means you must not talk about it or about any of the extra activities that we offer. Not everyone who comes here is suitable for the program, and we can't provide it for everyone. It would be hurtful for other kids to find out and feel excluded, wouldn't it?'

‘Sure, I understand,' I said.

‘So, not a word. When we're ready for you, one of the trainers will fly a small flag underneath the Paradise People Resort standard.'

That must have been the darker pennant I'd noticed flying beneath the resort flag on my earlier reconnaissance.

Damien's mobile rang and he hastily grabbed it, turning away from me. There was a few moments' silence as he listened to the caller, then in an urgent voice he said, ‘He can't have gone far. Deal with it!' He turned to me, flashing his smile again. ‘A lost dog,' he explained.

I knew it was a lie. Damien was talking about someone who had gotten away. Someone who couldn't have gone far. Far from where? I still couldn't put my finger on what was wrong with this place. I didn't let any of my misgivings show as I put out my hand to shake his. ‘When do we start?' I said.

‘Now is as good a time as any,' he said. He pressed a button on a keyboard and within moments, a powerfully-built man in army fatigues, his head shaven and with a jet earring flashing from his left ear, appeared at the doorway. ‘This is Hamish, Ryan. He'll take you to the others and put you through your paces. See what your strengths are so we can put you into the best program for your skill level.'

He nodded to both of us to show that we were dismissed and I followed Hamish down the steel stairs, but this time we exited the building on the other side and into a large covered area that was easily as big as six basketball courts. Groups of kids were working through a gymnastics routine, others were wrestling, and a small group in white outfits were practising martial arts with an instructor. This could be fun, I thought. Hamish turned to me and said, ‘Let's see what you can do. Start with push-ups.'

I managed thirty-six.

‘Not bad for a newbie,' said Hamish, ‘I'll have you doing a hundred before long.'