Night School - Endgame (22 page)

A
llie couldn’t seem
to make herself breathe.

Isabelle covered her lips with her hand but showed no other emotion. She leaned forward.

The radio crackled into life when a woman spoke, breathless and clearly running.

‘Romeo Group on the run.’ There was a sound of gunshots, and Allie couldn’t tell if they came from the radio or from the field outside. The woman was shouting, ‘All groups are taking fire. Return to vehicles. Move, move, move.’

Panicked, Allie spun to look at Isabelle. ‘We have to do something.’

But Isabelle was already on it. She leaned forward towards the driver. ‘Start the car. Take us to St John’s Fields.’

The driver shot her a surprised look. ‘But my orders…’

‘Your orders are to take us to St John’s Fields and help our people,’ the headmistress snapped.

The driver started the car.

In Allie’s ears Dom’s voice was insistent. ‘Alpha Group, verify your location. Alpha Group, are you reading me?’

There was no reply.

They shot down the narrow road, tyres spinning. Allie rolled down the window and stuck her head out, straining to hear anything above the engines. In the distance, she thought she heard shots. She definitely saw lights in the field, swinging wildly.

The narrow road curved and undulated sharply through the darkness; the driver took every bend as fast as the vehicle would allow.

Come on. Come on, Carter. You can do this. Run for your life. Run for me.

They rounded a turn at speed, just as a man, clad all in black, burst out of the darkness into the road.

Allie screamed. The driver slammed the brakes, throwing them forward hard and then back again. The wound on her neck throbbed.

Clearly recognising the driver, the man ran to her window.

When he saw who was in the car, the guard’s eyes widened.

‘Which way are they headed?’ Isabelle barked.

He pointed down the road ahead of them. ‘That way. I was trying to pull the guards off Raj’s trail, but they ran right by me.’ He held Isabelle’s gaze. ‘I think they know he’s got the target.’

They all heard more gunshots in the distance. The guard took a step back. ‘I gotta go.’

He took off running, Allie heard his voice in her earpiece. ‘Lima Group unable to locate Alpha.’

Allie stared out the open window. At first, all she could see in the darkness was trees and pastures. But then, just ahead, she saw something else. A blur of motion.

‘There!’ She pointed. ‘Someone’s running.’

Isabelle looked where she indicated. Her lips tightened. ‘Driver, stop the car.’

She spoke into her microphone. ‘Dom, this is Control. We can see Alpha Group from the road. We’re going after them.’

Allie reached for the door handle. Isabelle gave her a look. ‘Your neck.’

‘My neck will survive,’ Allie said, unbuckling her seatbelt.

They both leapt from the car at the same moment.

It was dark, but they were used to darkness. Side-by-side, they crashed through a gap in the hedgerow, leaping over a narrow but deep stream bed to get to the field where they’d seen the others.

Allie climbed a fence to get a view of the field. Again, she saw the oddly disconcerting blur of black clad runners moving against the night.

‘There!’ She pointed to the movement. The runners were heading to the right, running low and fast. It was impossible to see from here who it was. They had to hope it was Raj.

Allie and Isabelle moved quickly to intercept them.

‘If we get to those trees,’ Isabelle whispered, pointing to a cluster of pines, ‘we can catch them. It will be easier to lose the guards with cover.’

Running in the pasture was difficult – it had been used by cows or horses, who’d left deep pits and ruts in the mud. The uneven steps jolted her, putting pressure on her stitches – her neck burned but she ignored the pain. Carter was out there somewhere. In the dark.

She could hear shouts in the distance – there’d been no gunfire for some time now, and she hoped that was a good sign.

The trees were close. She put her head down, and increased her speed.

Just as they reached the edge of the woods, though, someone grabbed her with such force her feet left the ground.

Struggling in the man’s grip, she swung around, fists raised.

It was Nine.

They stared at each other. He spoke first. ‘What the hell…?’

‘Let her go.’ Leaping between them, Isabelle swung a perfectly targeted swing kick towards Moran’s face.

‘Wait!’ Allie called out, as Nine dodged the blow at the last second. ‘This is him. This is Owen Moran.’

Isabelle didn’t move out of her defensive stance. Her eyes locked on his.

‘Which side are you on, Mr Moran? Are you here to free Carter? Or to take him back?’

He held up his hands. ‘Lady, I just risked my bleeding neck to get your kid out of the sodding house. Now if you’d let me run the hell away before someone blows my stupid head off, I’d appreciate it.’

‘Where are the others?’ Allie asked impatiently. ‘Where’s Carter?’

‘I’m not sure – we got separated in the pasture,’ he explained. ‘The other guards came back sooner than I hoped. They saw us heading for the fence and took off after us.’

‘So they’re near.’ Isabelle frowned, squinting in to the darkness. She seemed to have accepted Moran’s honesty, for now, at least.

Allie still wore her earpiece; she’d been tuning out Dom’s updates but now she heard her voice grow insistent. ‘Control, please respond. Control: your location.’

‘Isabelle,’ Allie said, ‘Dom’s trying to reach you.’

Isabelle pressed her microphone. ‘This is Control. We’re in the pasture 500 metres from St John’s Fields.’

‘You’ve got to get out of there,’ Dom said. ‘Nathaniel’s coming back.’

Allie’s heart seemed to stop. She turned to Nine before realising he couldn’t hear what she’d just heard.

‘Nathaniel’s on his way back,’ she said. ‘We have to get out of here. Isabelle…’ She looked at the headmistress, who shook her head.

‘I’m not leaving without my people.’

‘Well, seems to me, one of your people’s standing right here.’ Nine pointed at Allie. Seeing the looks on both their faces, he sighed. ‘All I can tell you is, if I was in the position your people are in right now, I’d loop around through these woods,’ he pointed at the trees behind them, ‘lose the guards here and then head straight into that thicket to the main road and double back.’

The thicket he referred to was just a darker shadow against the black night –Allie hadn’t even noticed it before now.

Isabelle was also studying the route he’d suggested, worried lines creasing her forehead. ‘It makes sense,’ she said, mostly to herself.

There was no time for discussion.

‘Let’s go.’ Allie shot off across the small dark wood – Nine and Isabelle flanked her.

Nothing moved in the forest – there was no sign of life. Soon they were shooting across the flat grass, heading straight towards the line of thick growth Nine had indicated. They were nearly to it when Allie saw the shadows running far ahead of them.

Glancing over, she caught Isabelle’s eye and pointed. The headmistress nodded.

There was no way to know if that was Raj or Nathaniel’s guards, but they were nearing the road now, anyway. Isabelle pressed her microphone button and whispered into it.

‘Dom, have our driver turn on the headlights.’

‘On it now,’ Dom replied.

A few seconds later, lights lit up the roadway in the distance.

Isabelle whispered instructions. Allie was focused on running, but she saw the lights move closer.

Behind them they heard shouts.

‘Shit,’ Nine muttered. He grabbed Allie’s arm, pulling her low but keeping them both moving.

The crack of gunfire split the air. They increased their speed. Allie’s lungs burned. She felt a trickle of warmth down her throat that was probably blood leaking from her wound. Still, she ran faster than she’d ever run, crashing through the hedgerow, ignoring the branches that sliced at her arms and legs as she leapt out into the road.

Where she ran straight into Raj.

‘Raj!’ she gasped the word. ‘Where…?’

He pointed to the SUV waiting behind him. ‘No time. Get in. We’ve got to get out of here.’

‘Carter…’ she said, panic beginning to swirl inside her. They couldn’t leave him behind. Not again.

‘He’s safe.’ He held her gaze. ‘In the car.’

Allie fought back tears as she ran to the SUV. They’d come so far. And now they were going back without even the chance to see him.

Her vision was blurred as she jumped through the vehicle’s open door and slid across into the seat by the window, leaving room for Isabelle and Nine on the seats beside her.

As she did, the guard in the front seat turned around to face her.

‘Hey,’ Carter said, a grin spreading slowly across his face. ‘I was wondering when you’d show up.’

T
he cars rolled
into the school grounds in a triumphant procession. They arrived to find the students and teachers gathered on the front lawn in the dark, cheering.

When Carter stepped out of the SUV with Allie at his side, they roared.

Zoe launched herself at him, as Lucas patted him hard on the back.

Allie stepped back to let the others have a chance to greet him, but she never took her eyes off him. He looked OK – thin but not damaged.

He hadn’t talked much on the way back. When Allie asked him how it had been, he’d gone quiet.

‘They weren’t much for hygiene. I’d kill for a shower,’ he joked, dodging the serious undertone of her question.

But he had leaned forward to where Owen Moran had taken his original seat in the front, and held out his hand.

‘I want to thank you for saving my life,’ he said. ‘You’re a brave man.’

Moran had taken his hand with reluctance. ‘I’m a stupid man,’ he said. ‘But you’re welcome.’

Dom informed them through the comms system that Nathaniel had reached his house about fifteen minutes after they’d departed.

‘He is not happy,’ she reported.

After the triumphant return to Cimmeria, they all gathered in Dom’s office, while Raj and Carter told them everything that had happened at St John’s Fields after Moran freed him.

‘Everything was clockwork,’ Raj said. ‘We got into the grounds without a hitch. Everyone was in position. At midnight exactly, Moran opened the door and he and Carter came out.’ He glanced at Allie. ‘He didn’t let us down. None of what happened next was his fault.’

‘Tell us what happened next,’ Isabelle urged Raj. ‘How were you discovered?’

‘It was bad luck,’ he said. ‘The plan called for us to cross over the fence fifty metres south of the farmhouse. The only problem was, on our way to that location, we ran straight into Nathaniel’s guards, heading back from the diversion. We were almost to the fence when the firing started.’ His face darkened. ‘That was when all hell broke loose.’

‘You disappeared from comms,’ Dom pointed out. ‘Scared the hell out of me.’

Raj shot her an apologetic look. ‘I lost my microphone in the pasture.’

‘How did you get away from them?’ Zoe stared at Raj, her hazel eyes like saucers.

Carter glanced at Raj, a wry smile lighting up his face. ‘We ran like hell.’

‘Having the decoy groups helped,’ Raj said. ‘It divided and confused Nathaniel’s guards. Some followed the decoys, some followed us. But we still couldn’t get to the cars, so we headed into the pasture to try to lose them.’ He glanced at Isabelle. ‘That’s where we were when you arrived.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘The rest you know.’

‘How did Nathaniel treat you, Carter?’ Isabelle studied him with concern.

He hesitated for just a second before speaking. ‘To be honest, he was nothing like I expected. Those three days when you saw me with the chains?’

She nodded.

‘That was the only time it was like that. Nathaniel straight out told me he was hoping to upset you. The other days I was locked in a room. It wasn’t fun but at least I wasn’t chained up. The guards weren’t friendly but – I wasn’t beaten.’

Allie didn’t know what to think. She’d been so afraid when she saw Carter chained to a wall like an animal. She was sure he’d been suffering the worst kind of torture.

‘Nathaniel and his games.’ Isabelle gave a tired sigh. ‘He never wearies of them.’

‘They did question me a lot,’ Carter volunteered. ‘About you.’ He glanced at Allie, who sat next to him. ‘And Allie.’

This caught Raj’s attention. ‘What kind of things did they want to know?’ he asked. ‘Who interrogated you?’

‘Nathaniel,’ Carter said. ‘I never saw Gabe after the first couple of days. What happened to him? Anyone know?’

Allie flinched, tightening her grip on his hand.

‘We can talk about that later,’ Raj said smoothly. ‘Let’s talk about the interrogation first.’

‘He wanted to know how often Lucinda came to visit Allie and Isabelle. How close they were. What their plans were.’ He looked at the headmistress. ‘He seems obsessed with the idea that you have some big plan for the Orion Group. He thinks you’re plotting to undermine him. To turn his supporters against him again. He’s really insecure about everything, as far as I could tell.’

Raj rubbed a hand across his jaw, his face dark with thought. ‘I’d like to go over all of this with you in private.’

‘But not tonight.’ Isabelle stood up. ‘It’s nearly three in the morning. Let’s get some rest and start again in a few hours. There is much to discuss.

‘Let’s do it with clear heads.’

Allie and Carter strolled down the wide, formal hallway towards the stairs, talking in low whispers. After they’d left Dom’s office they’d let the others go on ahead. It was their first chance to be alone.

The school was so silent. It was as if they had the entire building to themselves – maybe even the whole world.

Carter looked around, taking in the faint shadowed gleam of the oak-panelled walls, the barely visible oil paintings on the walls, the heavy marble-topped tables, huge vases of roses. He sniffed the air, inhaling the faint perfume of wood smoke that always seemed to permeate the building, even in the summer.

‘You know, I know this sounds stupid but… sometimes I wondered if I’d ever see this place again.’ He smiled, embarrassed by his own sentimentality. ‘It seemed so… far away.’ He reached out, running his fingers across the walls. ‘I had a lot of time to think, you know? And one day I realised this is the only home I’ve ever known. I was born here. Leaving it would be like… I don’t know. Losing a limb.’ He tilted his head to see the crystal chandelier floating above the sweeping curve of the staircase. ‘It would break my heart.’

Allie’s throat tightened.

She would have to tell Carter about their plans to leave. But she wouldn’t tell him now. He needed time to be home. To feel safe.

‘I love it here, too,’ she said, meaning it.

Turning into the grand, curving staircase, they began to climb. Their steps were perfectly in sync. She kept peeking at him out of the corner of her eye. His gaze was straight ahead; he appeared lost in thought.

At the top, they stopped and turned to face each other. This was traditionally where the genders parted. Girls turned left towards the stairs to the girls’ dorm. Boys turned right, towards their own quarters.

Carter looked down into her eyes. His lips curved into a wicked smile. The look in his eyes sent butterflies swirling inside her.

‘Want to break the Rules?’

His room was just as she remembered it, much like hers, with an arched window above the desk, a narrow bed and desk. It had dark blue bed covers, and a white blanket was folded neatly over the foot of the bed. Someone had turned down the bed and left the bedside lamp on.

His pyjamas had been set out for him as well, along with a dressing gown and a stack of fluffy white towels.

It was just so Cimmeria, Allie thought fondly.

Welcome back from your kidnapping. Here’s a soft towel. 

‘This is going to sound odd,’ he said, his tone unexpectedly cautious, ‘but would you mind if I took a shower?’ He tugged at the plain grey t-shirt. ‘I want to wash all the Nathaniel dirt off and just be me again.’

Allie could understand that completely.

‘Go,’ she said, leaning back against the desk. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll just be in here and going through your stuff.’

Laughing, he grabbed a towel and his shower things.

‘Happy snooping,’ he said, before closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was gone, though, Allie’s smile faded. Without him in it, the room felt empty. She didn’t know what to do with herself.

For a while she sat in his chair, staring out the window. Because of the darkness outside, she saw mostly her own reflection.

She leaned forward, mildly horrified. Her hair was a mess.

She smoothed it with her fingers, getting rid of the wilder tangles.

When she didn’t want to look at herself any longer, she climbed up on the empty desktop, unlatched the window and pushed it open, letting in the cool night breeze.

It was very late. But she didn’t feel tired anymore. She’d never felt more awake. Her body thrummed with happiness. Carter was home.

They were still in trouble. The same problems they had yesterday would be there to greet them tomorrow. But she would get through them. Now that she had him back.

She sat cross-legged on top of his desk, her chin on one hand, looking out over the quiet grounds. In the distance, a night bird sang a mournful song.

Her mind flipped through all that had happened while he’d been gone. Her grandmother’s funeral. Her inheritance. Rachel.

Most of all, Gabe.

Her heart twisted at the memory. She’d have to tell Carter what she’d done. What if he didn’t understand? What if he looked at her differently?

Behind her, the bedroom door swung open. Allie spun around.

Carter stood in the doorway, a towel over his shoulder, his dark hair damp and curling. He wore navy Cimmeria trousers. He’d left his shirt unbuttoned, and her eyes were drawn to his finely muscled chest, the flat plane of his stomach.

Just looking at him made her pulse race.

He was perfect.

His eyes traced her face, the lines of her body.

He didn’t say a word. Dropping the towel to the floor, he crossed the room in four long steps. She slipped from the desk and they met in a kiss.

It was the kiss she’d dreamed about. Longed for.

He must have dreamed of it too, because his lips were demanding. Passionate. He crushed her in his arms, pulling her tightly against him. His body was warm and shower damp.

His lips teased hers until her lips parted. He tasted of peppermint toothpaste. His soft breath filled her lungs and she never wanted to breathe anything again except him.

She pressed her hand against the warm skin of his chest and felt his heart beating beneath her fingertips. Its rhythm was strong and so fast – as fast as her own.

His eyes darkened.

‘Allie,’ he whispered. ‘I’ve dreamed of this a thousand times. Tell me I’m not dreaming now.’

The longing in his voice made her stomach muscles tighten. Something deep inside her ached when he looked at her like that.

‘This is real,’ she said, as much to herself as to him.

Reaching up, she ran her fingers through his damp, tangled hair, and pulled his head down until his mouth met hers again. ‘Completely real.’

She couldn’t seem to stop touching him. She slid her hands across his warm skin, feeling the hard definition of his muscles. The nubby line of his spine.

Taking this as invitation, he slid his hands underneath her untucked top, stroking the sensitive skin of her lower back until she gasped.

With a ragged breath, he raised his head, gazing down at her, his dark eyes fathomless.

‘You are the most amazing person I have ever known,’ he whispered. ‘I would be held prisoner for a hundred years if I knew I’d see you at the end.’

Allie’s eyes blinked back tears.

When she’d first arrived at Cimmeria Academy, she didn’t believe there was one true person left in the world. Now, at last, she knew she’d been wrong.

‘I love you, Carter.’

It still felt weird to say it; some part of her twisted in agony waiting for him to say it back.

He pressed his forehead against hers, looking deep into her eyes. There was nothing in his face but truth. She’d never seen anything more beautiful.

‘Allie,’ he whispered. ‘I will love you forever.’