Stealing Phoenix (33 page)

Wake up, Phee, we have a plan.
Sky’s light tone brushed my mind.
Zed’s going to channel everyone’s telekinetic power. We should have enough to get you down from there.

Get up on the parapet, love. You’ll have to help us help you.
Yves sounded confident again.

How am I going to help you?

You are going to jump.

Ha.

You are.

Have you done this before?

Yeah, with fruit.
That was Xav.

And why am I not reassured?

Get on the ledge, Phoenix
. That was Victor, flexing his persuasive powers.

Tell your brother to cut it out.
I’d had enough of men messing with my mind.
I’ll do this of my own free will or not at all.

The wail of the fire engines brought me new hope. Perhaps I would wait for a ladder?

Phee, you don’t have time. I know fire—this one’s almost onto you. I’m keeping the smoke back but even I can’t stop flames once I let them loose.
Yves was running short of patience with me; if I didn’t act, he’d do something stupid like try climbing up to fetch me himself.

OK, OK.
I gritted my teeth and pulled myself up on to the ledge. A shaft of pain shot through my body. Black dots whirled across my vision—faintness or specks of ash, I couldn’t tell which.

We’ll catch you, honey,
whispered Karla, her hands to her mouth to stop a scream.

Oh God, oh God: was I really going to launch myself off the edge and trust them to do their bit? I didn’t doubt they would try, but what if they failed?

I dangled my legs over the edge, ignoring the teeth-grinding agony.
About those fruit, Xav: do you always catch them?

Every time,
he promised, totally serious for once.

I pushed off.

And fell rapidly towards the ground.

Yves!

Then my descent changed direction. I could feel myself being propelled away from the building, as if a J-shaped slide had appeared under me. But surely I was going too fast?

Hold on!
Yves warned.

To what?
I screamed.

I shot forward and into his arms. He took a tumble, breaking my fall with me landing on top of him.

‘To me,’ he said, out of breath.

I could hear Xav laughing. ‘It worked! It actually worked! I don’t believe it!’

‘I’m not letting go of you,’ I vowed, before passing out for a second time.

I woke up in a hospital bed believing, in a confused fashion, that I had a watermelon for a leg—a throbbing, swollen one.

‘I feel terrible,’ I murmured to no one in particular.

‘You don’t look terrible; you look wonderful.’

I cracked open my eyelids to find Yves sitting close by the bedside, his hand wrapped around mine where it rested on the cover. Sunlight poured in through the window behind him, making the white sheets on the bed glow. I could hear the growl of traffic outside, voices in the corridor beyond, but my room was peaceful. Multicoloured balloons floated above every table and ledge, the Benedicts’ celebration of my survival determinedly invading the clinical hospital room.

‘Why do I not believe you?’

‘You should because it’s true. You’re alive and my stupid fire didn’t get you so to me that’s wonderful.’

‘You’re an easy guy to please.’ I ran my tongue over my dry lips. He reached for a cup with a straw and held it so I could sip. I made a further examination of my body and realized I had a drip in the back of my left hand and a thick bandage around my right thigh. ‘The bullet?’

‘Out. You should make a good recovery. Xav’s promised to help reduce the scarring but it’ll always be there, I’m afraid.’ He scowled at the tiled floor. ‘I’m sorry about the fire, Phee. That’s the second time I’ve done that to you.’ Darling Yves: he appeared genuinely worried that I would hold him to blame.

‘Stop it. You can’t feel guilty for doing what you thought would work. My brothers are mental—you can’t predict how they react to stuff like that.’

He squeezed my hand. ‘I … er … have some bad news about them.’

My heart fluttered. ‘What kind of bad news?’

‘We don’t think they got out. The fire services found two bodies on the stairs.’

‘I … see.’

‘They’d like to test your DNA because … well, they weren’t easy to recognize once the blaze was put out. And, as their closest relative who is cooperating with the authorities, Victor wondered if … ?’

‘Of course.’ I swallowed, not sure what I felt. They’d left me for dead but I couldn’t rejoice that they’d fallen victim to the fire. No one deserved to die that way. ‘Tell him I will.’ I didn’t want to think about this and there was so much I didn’t know. ‘You had better fill me in on the rest.’

Yves released my hand and brushed his fingertips over my cheek. ‘We’ve got the ringleaders locked up. Most of them are awaiting deportation as their crimes were committed abroad, but the Seer is being charged with multiple counts of theft and murder.’

I closed my eyes. ‘That’s good. But how … ?’

‘That program I put in the memory stick? It also carried a little extra to ferry out key files to interested parties. As soon as they were stupid enough to copy it over to their machines— against my express instructions, remember—my digital scout went looking for selected terms. Law enforcement agencies around the globe suddenly began receiving the most incriminating information on illegal shipments and many other things. The Seer had boasted online about the disappearance of one Mitch Bannister; did you know him?’

I remembered Tony telling me about Mitch being ordered to kill himself. ‘Yes. He’s buried in Epping Forest, I think.’

‘That’s only one body that they’ll be busy exhuming; there are others over the years. And we now know the Seer’s real name. Want to know what it is?’

I nodded.

‘Kevin Smith. How boring can you get? No wonder he invented a new name for himself.’

It helped a little to know the Seer was an ordinary person along with the rest of us, like checking under the bed to see that the monster really wasn’t there. But the traces of his domination still remained in the traps he’d set for us in my head. ‘And how did your family find us both times—at the club and at the Community?’

‘I didn’t tell them, you needn’t worry about that. Do you remember I mentioned that I was counting on them to do their part?’

‘Yes.’

‘As I hoped, Zed foresaw us at the club—or you, at any rate. He can’t see me usually as the family tie gets in the way of his future sense. Fortunately, they assumed I’d be with you. They didn’t know why we were there but it was enough for Victor to set up the operation. The American and British law-enforcement agencies had been watching the group for some time, so it was only a matter of putting into action what they had been planning, with the tranquillizers and everything. The biggest problem was finding musicians at such short notice— we couldn’t risk exposing real artists to that kind of volatile situation—which was why my family and a few friends stepped into the breach.’

‘I thought they were amazing. No one looked at them twice—they played so professionally. Your mum and Sky—just wow!’

He smiled. ‘Yeah, they were good, weren’t they? Dad and Zed were having conniptions letting them stand on the front line, of course, but it worked out OK.’

‘Did your family know you hadn’t betrayed them?’

Yves shrugged. ‘They never would’ve doubted me.’

‘But I did.’ That thought was not nice to acknowledge.

‘Come on, Phee: give yourself a break. You threw yourself off that ledge for me. I think we can say you trust me when it counts.’ Yves kicked back in his chair and put his feet up on the end of the bed. ‘I kept you in the dark on purpose so you’re not to blame. I didn’t want the Seer worming the secret out of you.’

I wasn’t completely innocent myself: I still hadn’t told him about my attempt to steal the stick from him on the London Eye. Even so, I felt stupid not guessing what he was up to, but that was something I could fret about later: there were still things I had to know. ‘And the flats—how did your family arrive in time if you didn’t tell them where to go?’

‘The files did that job for me. When I got your message, I’d jumped in the first taxi I could find, leaving the others high and dry. Victor knew where the Seer had been working recently— he made an educated guess that your brothers would come back for their stash. He’s got good instincts when it comes to bad guys.’

I fell silent, thinking over what he had told me. None of the Seer’s red lines had been crossed; I didn’t have to do anything to punish us. We’d been incredibly lucky; we’d skimmed past the Seer’s mind-traps like skiers in an Olympic downhill slalom, clipping but not taking out any of the flags.

‘Tired?’ Yves reached out to smooth my hair away from my face.

‘No, just … just finding it hard to believe it’s all over. It is, isn’t it?’

‘Almost.’ His eyes twinkled mischievously. ‘I’ve got a present for you—and a question, but I think we should wait until you’re feeling stronger.’

I groaned. ‘You can’t do that—tempt me with a present then snatch it away.’

He laughed, a wonderful bubble of sound. ‘You’re right. Here it is then.’ He dropped it on my stomach: a little red booklet.

I flipped to the back page. ‘My passport!’

‘You are now official.’

‘Where did you get the photo?’ It was me as I had looked at the club, including the daisy necklace.

‘That club was bristling with cameras. I just took a screen capture of you looking sombre, a bit of Photoshop magic and there you are. The Brits were more than happy to rush it through for us as we are pretty much their favourite people right now.’

I glanced out of the window. For him to have been able to do all this, I must have been out for longer than I thought. ‘What day is it?’

‘You slept through most of yesterday—in surgery and then post-op. You surfaced a couple of times but I doubt you’ll remember.’

So long? My brothers had been dead for almost two days and the ashes of the fire would be cool. Had everyone else got out? I knew the answer without asking. Yes, Yves would have confessed if there had been more casualties. Only those stupid enough to head into the burning block had been caught. But with no Seer and no Dragon and Unicorn, the Community was finished, the members scattered. We’d never regroup now—that’s if the justice system could keep hold of someone as manipulative as the Seer. That was a problem for tomorrow; for the moment, the others were free. Tony had probably already hocked the necklace and begun his new life somewhere away from the authorities. I too was facing a fresh beginning.

‘And what was the question you had for me?’

Yves leant over my pillow and kissed me softly. ‘Now that really does have to wait. You are under doctor’s orders to rest and I have to tell everyone that you’re awake and not too mad at us for that stunt we pulled on you.’

‘Not mad, but I am convinced you’re all crazy.’

‘You might well be right.’

I didn’t want him to leave just yet. ‘But I’ll rest easier if you ask me your question now. I hate waiting.’

‘OK, but remember you wanted this.’ Then, to my utter shock, he went down on one knee, right there by the bedside. ‘Marry me, Phee.’

‘What!’

‘I know it’s far sooner than either of us planned to get hitched, but it’ll make getting you into the States so much easier if you go as my wife.’

I clutched my chest, heart still pounding. ‘Crumbs, you know how to surprise a girl.’ I gave a choking laugh. My brain was finally catching up with what he had just said. ‘You want me to marry you so I can get a visa?’

He shot me an offended look. ‘No! That’s a side benefit that kind of brought it all forward. I want you to marry me because I love you—just that.’

‘But we’re only going to be eighteen in a couple of weeks. How can we possibly be ready to marry?’