they do it: there are laws about donating money to political causes. But there are dozens of independent organizations and little groups fighting against me and, although they don’t seem to be connected, we’re pretty sure that Nightrise is bankrolling the whole lot of them. But I’ve got no proof, Jamie. They’ve been too careful. And if I start making accusations, it’ll just make me look like a sore loser – at least, I’ll look as if I’m afraid of losing, and that won’t help anyone.”
“So what can you do?”
“I have to wait and hope I win. If I become president of this country – and I believe that there’s a very good chance of that happening – I want to make it my first priority to fight corruption in business and I mean to make a start with Nightrise.”
“We can’t wait,” Jamie said. “They’re hurting Scott.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know.”
“Hold on,” Alicia said. She reached into her handbag and took out a sheet of paper. “Thanks to Jamie, we managed to find out that Scott may be being held in a place called Silent Creek. I checked it out on the Internet. Silent Creek is a prison, a Youth Correctional Facility, out in the Mojave Desert. It’s the only privately run prison in Nevada. And it’s owned by Nightrise.”
“Scott’s there,” Jamie said.
“We think Scott is there. And, we think, Daniel could be there too.” Alicia sighed. “It makes sense. If you wanted to hold a bunch of kids somewhere nobody could find them, somewhere out of the way, a prison in the desert would be perfect. Can you go in there, Senator? Could you get the police to raid it?”
“I could try.” Trelawny thought for a moment, then shook his head. “But it wouldn’t be easy. First of all, I’ve got no real proof that there’s anything wrong going on there. I haven’t even heard of Silent Creek – and if it’s in Nevada it isn’t even in my jurisdiction. And finally, if I did make enough noise to get an investigation started, the prison supervisor would hear about it before we got anywhere near. If those two boys were there, there’d be all the time in the world to move them some place else. Or worse…”
Alicia nodded. She had been expecting this. “You may be right,” she said. “But we have another thought.”
“I could go in there,” Jamie said.
“Go in there… how?”
“You must know people,” Alicia said. “Suppose Jamie were to become one of the inmates. With a false name. A judge could send him there with another bunch of juveniles. Once he was inside Silent Creek, he could find out if Scott and Daniel were there and get a message to me. Maybe he could even help get them out.”
“How would he do that?”
“There are things I can do,” Jamie explained. “Things you don’t know about.”
“I know you want to take these people on in your own time, Senator,” Alicia said. “But we don’t have any time. We have to do something now.”
There was a knock at the door and, without waiting for an answer, Warren Cornfield burst in. Trelawny’s security man was looking furious. He stood framed in the doorway, which was almost his own size.
“Excuse me, sir,” he said. “I’m sorry to butt in…”
“What is it, Warren?” Trelawny asked. He didn’t seem concerned.
“Sir, that woman has lied to me.” His finger jabbed in Alicia’s direction. “That boy she’s brought to see you, I think you should know that his name is not David. I thought I recognized him and now I know who he is. His name is Jamie Tyler and he is a wanted felon.”
“Alicia has already told me who he is,” Trelawny replied.
“She has?” Cornfield was taken aback. “Sir, the Nevada police are actively looking for this child. He’s wanted for first degree murder. If you let him leave here, if anyone finds out that he’s even been in the same room as you, he could destroy your entire campaign.”
“Come in, Warren. Shut the door behind you.”
The security man did as he was told. Trelawny waited until he had calmed down.
“Have you called the police?” Trelawny asked.
“No, sir. Not yet.”
“That’s good. Let’s leave it that way.” Trelawny turned to Alicia. “You’d better go,” he said. “But I have your cell number and I’ll get in touch. It should be possible to arrange what you’ve asked. I have friends…” He went over to Jamie and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I won’t forget meeting you,” he said. “And what you said, about winning the election – you’re absolutely right.” He smiled. “I hope you find your brother.”
“Sir…” Warren Cornfield couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “These two people should be in jail.”
“It’s OK, Warren. I think I know what I’m doing. I want you to show my guests out. Don’t arrest them. Don’t call the police. Make sure nobody gets in their way.”
“Whatever you say, sir.”
Cornfield was still scowling as he showed them to the door. At the last moment, Jamie turned round and took one last look at the man who might become president. He had picked up the little box and was holding it with a sort of wonderment, as if he too could somehow look through the wooden surface and uncover the secrets locked inside. Then the door closed. He didn’t think he would see him again.
Pain.
Scott Tyler didn’t know how long he had been here. Nor did he know where “here” was or how he had got there.
He was lying on a bed. To begin with, there had been chains around his wrists and handcuffs, but now they had no further need of them. He was too weak to move. If he had been able to examine himself, he would have seen he was still in the same clothes that he had been wearing at the theatre, although the shirt had been ripped open and the trousers were crumpled and torn. Not that he remembered the theatre any more or anything that had happened on the night he was seized. A very large part of his memory had been taken away from him. The drugs dripping into his right arm had done that. The doses had been carefully monitored, the injections exactly timed. They didn’t want to kill him or to drive him mad. Their aim was more complicated than that. They wanted to tear him away from the life he had been living and leave him floating helplessly until he was ready to be made theirs.
He hadn’t eaten for days and they had barely brought him enough water to keep him alive. Nor had he slept. Every time his eyes closed, they would bombard the room with a barrage of sound, drum beats, music, machinegun fire. The lights were kept on all the time. Right now it could have been the middle of the day or the night. It made no difference. Scott was barely conscious. And he was ready for the next stage.
The door opened. Scott didn’t even try to look up to see who had come in. He was afraid to do anything without being told. There was a rustle of fabric as someone sat down. He smelled a scent, some sort of flower. Trembling, he turned his head and saw that a woman had come in and sat down in the chair next to him. She was looking at him as if unsure what to make of him. Or maybe she was deciding what to do next.
She lifted a hand. Scott saw that she wore several rings. For a moment, two of her fingers rested on his arm. “What have they done to you?” She spoke for the first time. Her voice was soft and almost musical. “You poor boy,” she went on. “I’d have come sooner if only I’d known but, you see, it’s so difficult for me. I want to be your friend. But I have to know that you trust me. You have to be on my side.”
Her fingers moved to his forehead, moving a lock of hair out of his eyes.
“Jamie left you,” she went on. “Do you remember – at the theatre? That’s when they came for you and your brother just abandoned you. All your life you looked after him but he didn’t care. The first chance he got, he was away, leaving you to all this. Right now, he’s laughing at you. Because he’s all right. He’s having a fine old time. And you’re stretched out on your back, connected up to all these nasty tubes, and you could die here and nobody would think twice.
“But that’s the mistake you’ve made since you were little, Scott. Do you remember Ed and Leanne in Carson City? You thought they’d look after you but they let you down. And then there were Don and Marcie and they were even worse. But that’s the thing about life, isn’t it? It’s always the good people who get pushed around. The little people. Do you want to be a little person, Scott, or do you want to be with me? Because, you see, in the world that’s coming, I’m going to be in charge, and you’re going to have to start asking yourself, which end of the whip do you want to be?
