Night School: Resistance (Night School 4)

The students nodded their agreement.


‘The person you’re looking for is Jerry Cole.’





25





Twenty-five





Everyone shouted at once.

‘Jerry?’

‘What?’

‘No.’

‘It can’t be.’

As the uproar rose, Allie stood in absolute silence. The news was like a wave curling over her head. Poised to draw her under.

It was Jerry? Kindly, jovial, science-loving Jerry?

Her brain wouldn’t accept it.

But then, across the crowded office, Isabelle caught her eye. The pain on her face was so raw the faint hope provided by disbelief evaporated instantly.

Isabelle was careful. And she wouldn’t look so haunted if she wasn’t certain.

Allie’s stomach ached as if someone had punched her.

She thought of Jo, blonde and bright and so alive, pointing at Jerry. ‘Isn’t he just yummy for an old man?’

It was Jerry who opened the gate that night. Jerry who lured Jo to her killer.

We trusted him, she thought. And he helped to kill her.

She needed to sit down. The room was airless. Hot. She felt dizzy.

Her heart was thudding in her ears and it was too loud to be healthy.

‘It won’t kill you …’ Zoe had said of panic, but at that moment she almost wished it would.

How could she live in the kind of world where this could happen? Where someone could pretend to be so kind and then do such awful things?

How does anyone live here?

The world is uninhabitable. It is full of monsters.

A tear ran down her cheek and she brushed it away. It was becoming hard to breathe and she knew if she didn’t focus – if she let panic take over – she’d be a burden to the others. She needed to control her pain. Direct it where it would do some good.

At the front of the room, Raj was still talking and she forced herself to listen. He was calling out names and assigning locations. It felt distant, as if it was all happening to someone else. The words blurred together like some unknown language.

Then he’d finished and everyone was moving, and Allie wasn’t sure where she was supposed to go. Someone touched her arm and she looked up to see Sylvain’s blue eyes watching her with concern.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, pulling herself together. ‘Whose team…?’

‘You’re with me and Zoe.’ His French-accented voice was low and preternaturally calm. ‘Are you OK?’

Straightening, she gave a terse nod to show she was fine, although she wasn’t fine at all.

‘We are certain he is in or very near the main building,’ Raj said. ‘But we can’t be certain where. So we need to search floor by floor, room by room. The guards are already doing this, your job is to assist them. Act as additional eyes and ears.’

Someone opened the door, letting in fresh air. Allie tried to take a deep breath but her lungs felt tight.

‘Take a comms device on your way out.’ Raj raised his voice to be heard over the low rumble of conversation. ‘If you see anything at all, report back immediately. Do not engage.’

As the students began to file out, accepting small, hand-held radios from guards at the door, he called after them. ‘And remember: Under no circumstances are you to try and take him alone.’

Later, Allie wouldn’t be able to remember leaving the room. All she knew was that suddenly she was walking down the wide main hallway alongside Sylvain and Zoe, as fury slowly grew inside her.

Jerry has to pay.

The school felt oddly empty, inhabited only by the dark shapes that slipped out of Isabelle’s office and fanned out across all levels of the rambling building, silent as wraiths.

Movement had calmed Allie’s nerves. The methodical process ahead of them – the ultimate goal – gave her purpose. She breathed normally.

Speed was essential; there was no time to change into Night School gear. The polished wood floor was cool and uneven beneath Allie’s toes. Like Zoe, she was still barefoot. Their group was to search the ground floor of the main building. As they walked, Sylvain explained in a whisper what Allie had missed – the guards had already been through this quadrant so they were simply mopping up. He almost certainly wasn’t down here. The non-Night School students were being kept in the common room, so they headed past it to the nearest room – the dining hall.

By common consent, Sylvain took the lead. Allie and Zoe stood back on either side of the doorway as he turned the handle.

Allie’s heart rate accelerated. All her muscles tensed. She was ready.

The door swung open on silent hinges.

Inside, the vast room was dim, illuminated only by the evening light that filtered through the huge windows on the far wall. The round tables were bare, heavy chairs neatly pushed in.

They branched out, Sylvain heading left, Zoe right.

Cautiously, Allie walked down the middle of the huge room. But there was no place to hide here. No closets or hanging fabric. It was clearly empty.