Glancing over, she caught Isabelle’s eye and pointed. The headmistress nodded.
There was no way to know if that was Raj or Nathaniel’s guards, but they were nearing the road now, anyway. Isabelle pressed her microphone button and whispered into it.
‘Dom, have our driver turn on the headlights.’
‘On it now,’ Dom replied.
A few seconds later, lights lit up the roadway in the distance.
Isabelle whispered instructions. Allie was focused on running, but she saw the lights move closer.
Behind them they heard shouts.
‘Shit,’ Nine muttered. He grabbed Allie’s arm, pulling her low but keeping them both moving.
The crack of gunfire split the air. They increased their speed. Allie’s lungs burned. She felt a trickle of warmth down her throat that was probably blood leaking from her wound. Still, she ran faster than she’d ever run, crashing through the hedgerow, ignoring the branches that sliced at her arms and legs as she leapt out into the road.
Where she ran straight into Raj.
‘Raj!’ she gasped the word. ‘Where…?’
He pointed to the SUV waiting behind him. ‘No time. Get in. We’ve got to get out of here.’
‘Carter…’ she said, panic beginning to swirl inside her. They couldn’t leave him behind. Not again.
‘He’s safe.’ He held her gaze. ‘In the car.’
Allie fought back tears as she ran to the SUV. They’d come so far. And now they were going back without even the chance to see him.
Her vision was blurred as she jumped through the vehicle’s open door and slid across into the seat by the window, leaving room for Isabelle and Nine on the seats beside her.
As she did, the guard in the front seat turned around to face her.
‘Hey,’ Carter said, a grin spreading slowly across his face. ‘I was wondering when you’d show up.’
32
The cars rolled into the school grounds in a triumphant procession. They arrived to find the students and teachers gathered on the front lawn in the dark, cheering.
When Carter stepped out of the SUV with Allie at his side, they roared.
Zoe launched herself at him, as Lucas patted him hard on the back.
Allie stepped back to let the others have a chance to greet him, but she never took her eyes off him. He looked OK – thin but not damaged.
He hadn’t talked much on the way back. When Allie asked him how it had been, he’d gone quiet.
‘They weren’t much for hygiene. I’d kill for a shower,’ he joked, dodging the serious undertone of her question.
But he had leaned forward to where Owen Moran had taken his original seat in the front, and held out his hand.
‘I want to thank you for saving my life,’ he said. ‘You’re a brave man.’
Moran had taken his hand with reluctance. ‘I’m a stupid man,’ he said. ‘But you’re welcome.’
Dom informed them through the comms system that Nathaniel had reached his house about fifteen minutes after they’d departed.
‘He is not happy,’ she reported.
After the triumphant return to Cimmeria, they all gathered in Dom’s office, while Raj and Carter told them everything that had happened at St John’s Fields after Moran freed him.
‘Everything was clockwork,’ Raj said. ‘We got into the grounds without a hitch. Everyone was in position. At midnight exactly, Moran opened the door and he and Carter came out.’ He glanced at Allie. ‘He didn’t let us down. None of what happened next was his fault.’
‘Tell us what happened next,’ Isabelle urged Raj. ‘How were you discovered?’
‘It was bad luck,’ he said. ‘The plan called for us to cross over the fence fifty metres south of the farmhouse. The only problem was, on our way to that location, we ran straight into Nathaniel’s guards, heading back from the diversion. We were almost to the fence when the firing started.’ His face darkened. ‘That was when all hell broke loose.’
‘You disappeared from comms,’ Dom pointed out. ‘Scared the hell out of me.’
Raj shot her an apologetic look. ‘I lost my microphone in the pasture.’
‘How did you get away from them?’ Zoe stared at Raj, her hazel eyes like saucers.
Carter glanced at Raj, a wry smile lighting up his face. ‘We ran like hell.’
‘Having the decoy groups helped,’ Raj said. ‘It divided and confused Nathaniel’s guards. Some followed the decoys, some followed us. But we still couldn’t get to the cars, so we headed into the pasture to try to lose them.’ He glanced at Isabelle. ‘That’s where we were when you arrived.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘The rest you know.’
‘How did Nathaniel treat you, Carter?’ Isabelle studied him with concern.
He hesitated for just a second before speaking. ‘To be honest, he was nothing like I expected. Those three days when you saw me with the chains?’
She nodded.