Every Second Counts Read online

  ‘They were just doing what they needed to protect themselves,’ Nat said.

  Feeling disgruntled, I shrugged.

  ‘So how many of you are there in the resistance?’ I asked.

  Julius frowned. ‘As far as I know there are fifteen Resistance Pairs. Parveen was put with the guy from Resistance Two.’

  ‘Pairs?’ Nat frowned.

  ‘Yes, we travel in twos, keeping numbers down for safety,’ Julius explained. ‘Lennox and I are Resistance Nine. So far I’ve met the people in Resistance Four, Six and Eight but I only know the others through draft emails. We move around using the list of safe houses Parveen sent you. That is, there are more houses, but we don’t all have access to all of them. Sometimes we run into other pairs, most of the time we’re just on the move, trying to avoid being caught, just like you.’

  My heart sank. When Parveen had mentioned there being a resistance group in her original message, I’d imagined a proper army of people, not a few random pairs scattered across a bunch of rundown safe houses, intent on simply surviving.

  If this was all the resistance amounted to, we had no hope of exposing and defeating Riley.

  Nat

  ‘So I get the “pairs” bit,’ Charlie said drily. ‘But where does the “resistance” come in? It sounds like you just roam about the country trying to stay out of trouble. How is that going to bring down Roman Riley?’

  Julius’s face flushed red. ‘It’s hard,’ he said. ‘We’re operating in total isolation – the police are in Riley’s pocket.’

  ‘We know. Look, is there any kind of plan?’ I asked, trying to sound less scathing than Charlie just had.

  ‘We’re doing everything we can,’ Lennox said defensively. ‘Mostly we’re trying to build up evidence to prove Riley is conning the electorate and that he has some kind of hold over the leaders of the League of Iron so they’re prepared to say they are the terrorists.’

  ‘And how are you doing all that?’ Charlie sounded even more contemptuous than before. ‘Riley has a lot of protection and he’s very smart.’

  I shot her a warning look, but she avoided my gaze.

  ‘We’re working on hacking into his computer network and we’ve tried to steal information too.’ Julius looked away. ‘We’ve lost five good people in the past six months, plus whatever’s happened to Parveen. It hasn’t been easy, but the Mayor of London is with us and however long it takes—’

  ‘Whoa, back up,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Yeah.’ I frowned. ‘You’re saying Mayor Latimer is on our side? Part of the resistance?’

  ‘Yes,’ Julius said. ‘Absolutely.’

  I shook my head. That didn’t make sense at all. When Charlie and I had escaped from Riley last month, we had also rescued Mayor Latimer’s son, Aaron. And yet, despite this, neither Aaron nor his father had spoken out in our defence afterwards, letting the police and the public carry on thinking we were dangerous terrorists, even though they both knew Riley had set us up.

  ‘You can’t trust Mayor Latimer,’ Charlie said firmly.

  ‘We’re just telling you what we’ve heard from a couple of the London-based Pairs,’ Lennox snapped. ‘They say Latimer has just supplied the resistance with some new gear – tracking and surveillance equipment, a few tasers.’

  ‘Of course none of it’s come our way yet,’ Julius added. ‘We don’t have any IT, and that –’ he pointed to the knife Charlie had wrested off Lennox, ‘– that’s our only real weapon.’

  ‘Right.’ I nodded. It sounded worse and worse. A known ally of Riley’s infiltrating the resistance and no proper way of fighting back.

  ‘Well your set-up seems really amateurish to me,’ Charlie said with a sniff.

  I threw her another warning glance. Why did she have to be so antagonistic? She was right, though. Quite apart from the lack of weapons, it was obvious from the way Julius was talking that neither he nor Lennox had any combat experience, whereas Charlie and I had been trained by one of Riley’s best operatives, Taylor, to fight hard, move stealthily – and even handle guns.

  ‘Who’s your leader?’ I asked.

  ‘We don’t have one,’ Julius admitted. He looked embarrassed. ‘We’re more a co-operative, sharing information, letting everyone else know we’re okay or if there’s danger somewhere.’

  Charlie snorted. Exasperated, I turned on her. ‘Let’s just find out a bit more before we start judging them, okay?’

  Charlie shot me a furious look which faded as I glared at her. After a moment she gave an awkward shrug. ‘Sorry, I’m just upset that there isn’t more of a proper organisation working against Riley.’

  ‘I know.’ I turned back to Julius. ‘How come you’re both in the resistance?’

  ‘I was a solicitor, in my first job,’ Julius explained. ‘Eight months ago I was helping in a case to take Riley to court. My boss died in what was supposedly an accident, then someone planted evidence that made it look like I’d stolen money from my law firm to give to a woman I’d met precisely once. They made it look like I was bribing her. I said it was all a set-up, but the company fired me anyway, so I lost my flat and my girlfriend.’ He sighed. ‘Riley’s taken my whole life away.’

  I turned to Lennox. ‘What about you?’

  ‘I worked for a car manufacturer, got involved in the trade union there. A mate of mine found out what the English Freedom Army was really up to. He told the police. They weren’t interested. So he told me and I tried to take it to my union. Next thing I know, my mate’s dead and I’m being threatened to keep quiet. So I carry on trying to expose the EFA and all of a sudden there’s a warrant out for my arrest for being dangerous, a potential terrorist just like you two.’

  I nodded, taking this in. ‘Okay,’ I said slowly. ‘Everything you’re trying to do is good, but we need to do more and do it faster. We have to bring down Riley before the election. That way we all can get our lives back.’

  ‘But the election is next week,’ Julius spluttered.

  ‘Basically we need to expose him as a murderer,’ Charlie went on. ‘We need to prove that he set up me and Nat and get evidence on what he’s planning next.

  Julius and Lennox stared at us, open-mouthed.

  ‘Getting proof against him is the only way he’ll be forced to resign from power,’ I added. ‘We still live in a democracy. If we can convince the public how corrupt he is, they won’t vote for him or his party at the election next week.’

  ‘That’s some timeframe,’ Lennox said with a sneer.

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘But we have to try. The next few days are crucial. I’ve been looking at the polls. Riley’s Future Party are set to do really well in the election – maybe even well enough to form a government. Riley could control the country by the end of next week.

  ‘I just don’t see what we can do. Riley’s set everyone against us,’ Julius said. ‘He discredits all his enemies so that people think we’re the bad guys. Look at that film you and Charlie posted on YouTube and how he twisted everything you said.’

  This was true. Riley had responded to our attempt to clear our names by saying we were lying and desperate.

  ‘We have to find another way,’ I insisted. ‘Talking about him isn’t enough, we need to get actual proof and use it.’

  ‘We could assassinate him,’ Lennox suggested. ‘Get close with a gun or a knife. I’d do it.’

  I shook my head. ‘Too risky. You wouldn’t get near him.’

  ‘Anyway, killing him would make us as bad as he is,’ Julius added.

  I looked over at Charlie. She was still standing a little way from us, arms folded. She rolled her eyes, presumably at Julius’s reluctance to take Riley out.

  I met her gaze. For all her bravado, Charlie wasn’t any more a killer than Julius. Just a few weeks ago she had a gun in her hand and Riley unarmed in her sights and she hadn’t taken the shot. Neither had I. I’d told her we’d done the right thing, but Charlie hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

  A flicker
of embarrassment – and vulnerability – showed on her face, then disappeared again. She knew what I was thinking. I raised my eyebrows. ‘Any suggestions for how we expose Riley?’

  Julius and Lennox turned to her. A beat passed. And then Charlie jutted out her chin in that defiant gesture of hers I was beginning to know so well.

  ‘I think it’s obvious,’ she said. ‘I should join Riley’s inner circle, like he wanted me to when we last saw him.’

  There was a shocked silence.

  ‘You mean pretend to switch sides?’ I shook my head.

  ‘Exactly,’ Charlie said. ‘I can get close, get evidence of what he’s planning, the next bomb or whatever.’

  ‘No way.’ My heart rate quickened. It was true that Riley had claimed to want to bring Charlie into his inner circle, but to me that was obviously a lie, a barefaced attempt to try and stop her running away. Anyway, I couldn’t begin to imagine the danger Charlie would put herself in if she voluntarily turned up on Riley’s doorstep. ‘Riley’s not going to believe you joining him now,’ I went on. ‘It’s too risky.’

  ‘I can make him believe it. Anyway, it’s not up to you, Nat.’ Her fierce dark eyes met mine at last. ‘It’s my decision.’

  Charlie

  Nat stared at me. I could see the emotions parading across his face: he was annoyed with me for being impatient with Julius and Lennox, and angry that I wanted to put myself at risk by going undercover with Riley.

  Was that because he was scared I would get hurt? On our first night on the run we’d admitted how much we really liked each other, but since then we had barely spoken about our feelings. There had been so many other things to deal with; life in the past few weeks had been unbelievably stressful: finding food, sleeping rough, always worried that if Riley’s English Freedom Army soldiers didn’t find us, some random tramp would attack us in our makeshift beds.

  The tension in the room grew. Nat and I were still looking at each other. And then Julius coughed. ‘Erm, why does Riley want you to join him?’

  ‘That’s my business,’ I snapped.

  I shot Nat a look that meant I seriously wanted him to keep his mouth shut. The truth of it was that Riley had told me my dad – who I thought had died when I was a baby – was in fact alive and a leading figure in the English Freedom Army. I was sure it was a total lie. Well, almost sure. Either way, it was not information I wanted spread about.

  Nat gave me a swift nod, then turned to Julius.

  ‘We can talk about this later. Right now we’re kind of tired. And very hungry,’ he said. ‘Do you have any food?’

  ‘Of course.’ Julius led us out of the little bedroom and into a small kitchen. He bustled about fetching us bread and warming some soup while Nat and I retrieved our backpacks from their hiding place and brought them into the house. Lennox sat at the table with us while we ate our soup and the four of us swapped all the details we knew about Riley. Julius hadn’t been exaggerating his lack of knowledge about the other resistance members, but he told us what he could about the people in Resistance Four, Six and Eight. All of them were either wanted by the police or else had been made scapegoats by Riley.

  I could see Nat getting more and more dispirited as we talked. I was sure he had been hoping that if the resistance could operate as a fighting unit, that there might be some alternative to my going undercover – and that he would be able to talk me out of my plan. As the light completely faded outside, Lennox disappeared again, returning half an hour later with four bags of fish and chips. Nat and I fell on the food. After we’d eaten Julius explained that he and Lennox would have to move on the day after tomorrow, that they never stayed anywhere more than a week so as not to attract attention, and that Nat and I would need to find our own accommodation after that point.

  ‘Four is just too many, people notice a larger group,’ he said nervously.

  ‘Plus I don’t like you,’ Lennox added rudely. His remark was directed mainly at me, though he glanced in Nat’s direction too.

  I opened my mouth to tell him I hadn’t formed a great opinion of him either, but Nat laid his hand on mine.

  ‘That’s fine,’ he said. ‘We can sort out the details tomorrow.’

  I closed my mouth as Julius got up.

  ‘There’s only one bedroom here,’ he said. ‘I’ll bunk in with Lennox for tonight. You two can have the living room, though, er . . . we don’t have any spare blankets.’

  ‘That’s okay.’ Nat explained that we carried everything we needed in our backpacks.

  An hour later we had washed and changed. I felt better than I had for days. It had been brilliant to take a shower, even though the only water in the house was freezing cold. And now we were lying on the sofas in the living area. Tatty and lumpy, they weren’t exactly luxurious but after so many nights sleeping outside it felt good to be indoors away from the elements and on something softer than the ground.

  Nat hadn’t mentioned my plan to infiltrate Riley’s group since I’d brought up the idea earlier, but now he said softly: ‘I don’t want you to go undercover. It will be hard enough convincing Riley you want to join him, but even harder getting proof about his plans. You know how careful and how ruthless he is.’

  I lay back on the sofa. ‘I’ll tell him I need to know about my dad, you know, that I need to find out if he really is alive like Riley said,’ I whispered.

  There was a pause. Nat’s eyes gleamed in the streetlight that shone in through the gap in the curtains.

  ‘You know he isn’t alive, don’t you, Charlie?’ he said softly. ‘Riley was lying about that.’

  I turned away. Nat was probably right, but doubt still wriggled away inside me. After my mum died I’d gone to live with her sister, Karen, but that hadn’t worked out, so I’d moved in with my dad’s brother, Uncle Brian, and his wife and my cousin, Rosa. I had tried to fit in with them but they’d never properly felt like family and I hadn’t been surprised when they’d disowned me after I’d been conned into kidnapping Aaron. Apart from Nat, I was alone. Which made it utterly impossible to ignore the idea that my dad might be out there somewhere. The thought of it twisted my stomach into a tight, painful knot. Not that I was going to admit that to Nat.

  ‘The point is that Riley will believe I need to know the truth,’ I whispered.

  ‘And then what?’

  ‘I’ll find some way of getting evidence about Riley’s next move,’ I said. ‘He wants me to join his inner circle, remember?’

  ‘He says he does, but it won’t be that straightforward,’ Nat insisted. ‘He won’t trust that you genuinely want to join them. And Riley’s not an easy person to lie to.’

  I said nothing, just stared up at the ceiling.

  Nat yawned. ‘Look it’s late and I’m too tired to deal with you being fixated on this right now,’ he said. ‘Can we talk about it in the morning?’

  ‘Sure.’ I pressed my lips together. How dare Nat say I was ‘fixated’? I turned and glared at him, but he had already closed his eyes.

  I watched as he fell asleep. I knew Nat hadn’t meant to upset me but I had just as much right to make a plan to expose Riley as he did. And my plan was certainly a lot better and stronger than anything the so-called resistance had come up with so far.

  I sat up, my heart thumping.

  I was going to leave now.

  No way was I hanging around until morning to have Nat telling me my idea was stupid, or Julius muttering nervously that I’d be killed carrying it out, or Lennox saying that he didn’t care if I was.

  I wriggled out of my sleeping bag and picked up my shoes. I didn’t need much, just my share of our money and a few basics.

  It was late, but I knew from our experiences over the past few weeks that night-time offered the best cover for travel. And, anyway, once I’ve made up my mind about anything I hate waiting. I glanced at Nat again. His breath was deep and even. I slid my phone into my pocket. I’d send him a text when I was properly on my way.

  A minute later I
had slipped out of the front door and closed it silently behind me. I was going to find Roman Riley and get the proof we needed to bring him down, once and for all.

  Nat

  I woke with a start, my eyes springing open. I blinked into the glare of the bright sunlight streaming in through the narrow gap between the curtains. Too harsh. I shut my eyes again. In the distance I could hear the chink of mugs and plates being set down on a table, a kettle boiling. For a few moments I was back at home with Mum and Dad and Jas and Lucas – back in a time long before I’d ever heard of the English Freedom Army, before the bomb blast that had killed Charlie’s mum and left Lucas in a coma, when we were a proper family full of banter and backchat and all the normal work and school routines of family life.

  A second later reality flooded back. Family life didn’t exist any more. I was an outlaw, unable to return home. Right now, instead of revising for my exams I was on the run, sleeping rough, hoping to find some way of bringing down Roman Riley through contact with Julius and Lennox, the oddball pairing of Resistance Nine. I had no plan and limited resources.

  But I had Charlie. At the thought of her I turned my head and, shielding my eyes from the sharp sunlight, peered across at the sofa opposite. There was no sign of her, though her sleeping bag was lying, ruckled, on the sofa. Presumably she was in the kitchen with Julius and Lennox or, possibly, taking a shower. The water here was cold and she had only showered last night but I knew from our four weeks together on the road that Charlie tended to prioritise washing – whatever the circumstances – in a way that reminded me forcefully of Jas. Was that a girl thing, wanting so badly to be clean all the time? Or was it just the two of them?

  I ran my fingers through my hair, smoothing it back, then scrambled out of my sleeping bag. It was a beautiful day outside – a clear blue sky. I checked the time. Nine a.m. Wow, I hadn’t slept that late in ages. As I stumbled sleepily towards the kitchen I could hear Julius and Lennox talking in low voices. The smell of toast wafted towards me. My stomach rumbled; I was starving.