‘I’ll be fine. But, Allie?’ The look on her face gave Allie an idea of what was coming next. ‘I’m not going to leave the young ones. I’m going to hide them, too.’
Allie couldn’t ever remember being more proud of her.
‘It was a crap plan, anyway,’ she said, a smile quirking up her lips.
Rachel held up her fist. ‘Stay safe.’
As Allie raised her own fist a sudden thought made her hesitate. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Rachel really behave as if she was in Night School.
Before Rachel could notice the pause, though, Allie recovered and bumped her fist with her own. ‘Always.’
Downstairs, the scene was even worse than the girls’ dorm. As students wept and struggled, and uniformed men shouted, Zelazny stood red-faced near the door bellowing, ‘Please return to your normal activities! Do not linger in the hallway. If you are collecting students, do so in an orderly fashion. School must not be disrupted!’
No one was listening.
‘There’s no need to be so grabby!’ A tall, bookish-looking boy said, wrenching his arm free from a uniformed muscle-man’s grip. ‘I’m cooperating. You can tell them I cooperated.’
Allie recognised the stressed-out boy from the study carrel – the one who’d snapped at her the other day. But now he looked young and frightened – his glasses had been knocked crooked on his face as he tried to walk with elaborate dignity, just out of the man’s reach.
‘Hey!’ Running to his side, Allie touched his shoulder and he spun round to look at her. Behind his dark-framed glasses, his eyes looked afraid. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Oh, I’m just fine,’ he said with false bravery. ‘I’m going home, though. Pete here won’t have it any other way, eh, Pete?’
The dark sarcasm in his voice was not missed by the man, who shot him a threatening look.
‘Think you’re funny? I am allowed to subdue you, boy. You do not want me to subdue you.’ With that, Pete shoved the boy so hard he took an involuntary sprawling step towards the door.
‘See?’ he said despairingly as he caught himself. ‘Everything’s just fine.’
As they walked out the door, the driver turned to look at Allie with appraising eyes – something in his gaze made her blood chill in her veins. He knew who she was.
Suddenly afraid, she ran across the entrance hall to where Zelazny had given up shouting and now muttered at a clipboard in his hand. He seemed to be ticking names off as students walked out, dragging their suitcases behind them.
‘Mr Zelazny —’ Allie began, but he cut her off without looking up.
‘Not now.’
But she was not going to be put off. Not today.
‘Mr Zelazny.’ This time she said his name with such authority the teacher looked up, his mouth open in surprise.
When she had his full attention, Allie spoke clearly, enunciating each syllable: ‘Where is Isabelle?’
For a moment he looked at her as if he’d never seen her before. As she studied him with a frown, she noticed the clipboard quivering very slightly.
Blustering, raging, fearless Zelazny was frightened. But if he was the spy… wasn’t this what he wanted?
‘Isabelle?’ she said again.
He rubbed a weary hand across his face.
‘Great hall.’ His voice was hoarse from shouting, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.
Without waiting for more information, Allie fought her way back through the noisy, frightened crowd, across the polished oak floor, past the tapestries where ladies in long, medieval gowns looked upon the chaos but passed no judgement, under the sparkling crystal chandeliers.
The door to the great hall stood open. Clad in a dark skirt and crisp, grey blouse, a silk scarf draped around her neck, Isabelle stood on the low platform she used for induction days, surrounded by a crowd of worried teachers and a handful of students.
She appeared as calm and unruffled as Zelazny had looked panicked. But Allie knew her well enough by now to know it was an act. She could see her tension in the way she held her hands, in the high set of her shoulder and the tiny lines around her eyes.
‘There is nothing more we can do right now,’ she was saying as Allie walked in. ‘We must wait for them all to go before we know how many we have left.’
The teachers grumbled, clearly not satisfied.
‘It’s not just students leaving,’ one of the science instructors said. ‘Sarah Jones is gone.’
Someone gasped and a whisper swept the room. Allie had to think for a moment before realising they must be talking about the biology teacher. Rachel had mentioned her before.
‘Are you certain?’ Isabelle’s face betrayed no emotion.
‘Her room was cleared out when I stopped in on my way here.’ The woman looked shaken. ‘We were friends. I didn’t know she was one of Nathaniel’s supporters.’
Isabelle didn’t pause to comfort her. ‘Does anyone know of other teachers who are missing?’
‘I haven’t seen Darren Campbell,’ a voice called from the back, and the crowd murmured restively.
‘What about Ken Brade?’ a maths teacher asked.