She kept her face blank but her heart leapt with excitement. They could make this work.
‘What about Isabelle?’ Zoe sounded doubtful. ‘She won’t let us do it.’
Standing, Raj wiped the arrows from the floor with the sole of his boot. In an instant the evidence was gone. ‘She won’t know.’
They gaped at him surprise.
‘How —’ Allie started but Raj held up his hand. He looked tense, his jaw squared as if anticipating a blow.
‘I’m in charge of the operation. Isabelle and I have already decided to leave the Night School instructors out of any plan because we don’t know which of them to trust. I have nearly one hundred guards on their way now, and they all report directly to me.’
The others murmured.
‘A hundred?’ Carter looked stunned. ‘Where…?’
‘Lucinda.’ Raj held Allie’s gaze. ‘She sent her own personal security team. I’ve called my guards in. By midnight they’ll be here and ready.’
Allie sent a silent prayer of thanks to her grandmother.
‘What will you tell Isabelle?’ Sylvain’s practical question brought her back to earth.
‘She asked me to keep you all under guard for your own protection in one of the classrooms.’ He shrugged. ‘I’ll tell her that’s where you are.’
‘But she’ll…’ Allie faltered. ‘She’ll never forgive you.’
Raj’s expression told her he knew that already.
‘Let me worry about that,’ he said. ‘You worry about staying safe.’ With a glance at his watch, he motioned for them all to stand. ‘I need you all in gear and ready to go. Stay in the training room until I come and get you. My men will take you there now.’ His gaze glanced off Allie’s. ‘I’ve got to go and meet Isabelle now.’
After Raj left, the guards led them silently through a series of dark underground corridors. Allie, who thought she knew the school well, had never seen some of them. The school’s cellars were a labyrinth – at times they climbed up one level only to descend again moments later.
She was thoroughly lost by the time a door opened on to the hallway outside the familiar Night School training rooms.
After changing quickly into their dark Night School gear, they gathered in Training Room One. The square chamber felt hollow and empty without the other Night School members.
Zoe was the only one who seemed unaffected by the situation. She limbered up on the thick elastic matting as if this were any other training exercise.
The others exchanged anxious murmurs and tried to stay calm. Allie’s nervousness made her muscles stiff. It was hard to warm up.
She wasn’t alone. Across the room she saw Sylvain exhale through pursed lips as if trying to force himself to relax. But his shoulder muscles bulged from the tension.
After a while, there was nothing to do but wait. Allie leaned back against a wall, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, and rested her chin on her knees. She tried not to think about how Rachel might be feeling right now. What she might be thinking.
Why was Nathaniel making her wait until midnight? It seemed so long. She wanted Rachel out of there.
When Carter sat down next to her, she welcomed the distraction.
‘You ready for this?’ he asked.
She looked at him soberly. ‘I just want to get it over with.’
‘Me too.’
Allie watched his face as he looked out across the room. She thought about how he must feel after everything that had happened today.
‘Carter, I’m so sorry about Jules.’ Her voice was tentative. She wasn’t certain how welcome her sympathy would be. ‘I didn’t know about… about her parents.’
His face darkened. ‘I missed her by minutes. She was supposed to go to one of the hiding rooms but she didn’t make it. By the time I got outside the car was gone. It happened so fast.’
Allie looked at him sadly. ‘I didn’t know her parents were…’
He shook his head. ‘I didn’t want to advertise it. Besides, you two…’
‘Yeah,’ she said, ashamed. ‘I’m sorry about that, too. All that fighting… it seems so unimportant now.’ She turned to face him. ‘Do you think she’ll get away? Come back? She’s trained.’
He shook his head, a muscle flickering in his jaw. ‘I don’t know. Could we just… talk about something else?’
But what else was there to talk about?
When Raj walked through the door some time later they were all sitting in tense silence, waiting. He looked around the room, his eyes missing nothing.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
‘All you do is put it in your ear, like headphones.’ Raj put a small silver device on Allie’s fingertip, and she placed it cautiously in her ear.
It felt cold against the sensitive flesh and she shivered. ‘Won’t it just fall out?’
‘Adjust it until it feels snug but don’t force it,’ he said.
She moved it until it seemed to fit. ‘I think it’s in there.’
‘This is your microphone.’ He showed her a tiny piece of what looked like black plastic no larger than the head of a pin. ‘Here. Lean forward.’
She did as he asked, and he stuck it to the fabric of her jacket, just below her jaw. She craned her neck to look for it – it was invisible.
He placed an earpiece in his own ear. ‘Say something.’
His voice rang from the device inside her ear and she flinched. ‘Wow. That is way too loud.’
‘It’s because I’m standing so close to you. The transmission is not strong – as soon as you leave the building my voice will seem faint to you but you should never lose contact at any point.’
Biting her lip, Allie nodded. They were standing at the end of the corridor, by the stairs leading out on to the grounds. She’d been through that door a hundred times in the last few months with the other Night School students. She knew the path she was about to take like the back of her hand. She knew where she was headed and what she was going to do. She was ready.
She’d never been more frightened.
As if he could see it on her face, Raj took her by the shoulders. The others were gathered behind them so he lowered his voice until only she could hear. ‘You’re sure you want to do this?’
Allie thought of Rachel, sitting at her library table bending over her chemistry books, glasses sliding down her nose. Throwing back her head to laugh at one of Allie’s bad jokes. Calmly explaining complex molecules. Running into her room when she had a nightmare.
Terrified, with blood running down her arm and Gabe holding the knife.
Lifting her chin she met Raj’s gaze with fierce eyes. She might be scared but she wasn’t about to back down. This was her chance to get the bastards who killed Jo. Beautiful, happy, crazy Jo. And who now wanted to kill Rachel.
They were all just pawns in Nathaniel’s game.
Allie was sick of being a pawn.
‘I’m ready.’
Her words were simple but her tone was eloquent – Raj didn’t ask her again.
‘OK.’ Stepping back, he looked at them all, pride in his eyes. ‘You know the plan. I know you can do this. Go out there. And bring her back.’
THIRTY-FOUR
