He took off running, Allie heard his voice in her earpiece. ‘Lima Group unable to locate Alpha.’
Allie stared out the open window. At first, all she could see in the darkness was trees and pastures. But then, just ahead, she saw something else. A blur of motion.
‘There!’ She pointed. ‘Someone’s running.’
Isabelle looked where she indicated. Her lips tightened. ‘Driver, stop the car.’
She spoke into her microphone. ‘Dom, this is Control. We can see Alpha Group from the road. We’re going after them.’
Allie reached for the door handle. Isabelle gave her a look. ‘Your neck.’
‘My neck will survive,’ Allie said, unbuckling her seatbelt.
They both leapt from the car at the same moment.
It was dark, but they were used to darkness. Side-by-side, they crashed through a gap in the hedgerow, leaping over a narrow but deep stream bed to get to the field where they’d seen the others.
Allie climbed a fence to get a view of the field. Again, she saw the oddly disconcerting blur of black clad runners moving against the night.
‘There!’ She pointed to the movement. The runners were heading to the right, running low and fast. It was impossible to see from here who it was. They had to hope it was Raj.
Allie and Isabelle moved quickly to intercept them.
‘If we get to those trees,’ Isabelle whispered, pointing to a cluster of pines, ‘we can catch them. It will be easier to lose the guards with cover.’
Running in the pasture was difficult – it had been used by cows or horses, who’d left deep pits and ruts in the mud. The uneven steps jolted her, putting pressure on her stitches – her neck burned but she ignored the pain. Carter was out there somewhere. In the dark.
She could hear shouts in the distance – there’d been no gunfire for some time now, and she hoped that was a good sign.
The trees were close. She put her head down, and increased her speed.
Just as they reached the edge of the woods, though, someone grabbed her with such force her feet left the ground.
Struggling in the man’s grip, she swung around, fists raised.
It was Nine.
They stared at each other. He spoke first. ‘What the hell…?’
‘Let her go.’ Leaping between them, Isabelle swung a perfectly targeted swing kick towards Moran’s face.
‘Wait!’ Allie called out, as Nine dodged the blow at the last second. ‘This is him. This is Owen Moran.’
Isabelle didn’t move out of her defensive stance. Her eyes locked on his.
‘Which side are you on, Mr Moran? Are you here to free Carter? Or to take him back?’
He held up his hands. ‘Lady, I just risked my bleeding neck to get your kid out of the sodding house. Now if you’d let me run the hell away before someone blows my stupid head off, I’d appreciate it.’
‘Where are the others?’ Allie asked impatiently. ‘Where’s Carter?’
‘I’m not sure – we got separated in the pasture,’ he explained. ‘The other guards came back sooner than I hoped. They saw us heading for the fence and took off after us.’
‘So they’re near.’ Isabelle frowned, squinting in to the darkness. She seemed to have accepted Moran’s honesty, for now, at least.
Allie still wore her earpiece; she’d been tuning out Dom’s updates but now she heard her voice grow insistent. ‘Control, please respond. Control: your location.’
‘Isabelle,’ Allie said, ‘Dom’s trying to reach you.’
Isabelle pressed her microphone. ‘This is Control. We’re in the pasture 500 metres from St John’s Fields.’
‘You’ve got to get out of there,’ Dom said. ‘Nathaniel’s coming back.’
Allie’s heart seemed to stop. She turned to Nine before realising he couldn’t hear what she’d just heard.
‘Nathaniel’s on his way back,’ she said. ‘We have to get out of here. Isabelle…’ She looked at the headmistress, who shook her head.
‘I’m not leaving without my people.’
‘Well, seems to me, one of your people’s standing right here.’ Nine pointed at Allie. Seeing the looks on both their faces, he sighed. ‘All I can tell you is, if I was in the position your people are in right now, I’d loop around through these woods,’ he pointed at the trees behind them, ‘lose the guards here and then head straight into that thicket to the main road and double back.’
The thicket he referred to was just a darker shadow against the black night –Allie hadn’t even noticed it before now.
Isabelle was also studying the route he’d suggested, worried lines creasing her forehead. ‘It makes sense,’ she said, mostly to herself.
There was no time for discussion.
‘Let’s go.’ Allie shot off across the small dark wood – Nine and Isabelle flanked her.
Nothing moved in the forest – there was no sign of life. Soon they were shooting across the flat grass, heading straight towards the line of thick growth Nine had indicated. They were nearly to it when Allie saw the shadows running far ahead of them.