‘Nguyen,’ he whispered. ‘You in here?’
Nothing. Great. Where the hell is he?
‘Zac?’ he tried again. Louder now.
‘In here.’
The voice came from deeper in the wood and Luke frowned, annoyed. Any minute now Singh would notice them missing.
The events of last night were replaying in his mind, itching at his subconscious.
Nothing had seemed right from the moment Abrafo had walked into the Admin building, but it was obvious that Zac knew more about it than he did. And Luke did not like that. He made it his mission to understand everything he could about every environment he was thrown into. Until last night, Dwight had been predictable and was about as safe as anywhere else he could remember living. But now there was something he didn’t understand. He trudged further into the woods.
The air was frigid and he picked his way forward through mist and the steam of his breath. A deep, musty smell wafted up from the sodden soil and leaf matter.
‘Nguyen?’ he called.
‘Yep. Right here.’
Zac was crouched at the base of a tree, grinning. ‘These are those mushrooms I was telling you about,’ he said. ‘The Yellow Stainers. Here. Put these in your pocket, but whatever you do, don’t put your hands near your mouth until you wash.’
Luke stared. ‘You said you found these when we were out running the other day. Have you been in here before?’
Zac grinned and raised his eyebrows.
‘You’re a weird one, Nguyen,’ said Luke, holding out his hand and pocketing the mushrooms. They looked just like the mushrooms he’d seen in the shops. Whatever.
‘Who is Abrafo?’ he said.
‘Um, a bad guy,’ said Zac, squatting again.
In the gloom, Luke couldn’t see his face.
‘Why did he call me Lucifer?’ he said.
‘I don’t know. Do you?’ said Zac.
‘Um, hello. Why would I ask you if I knew that?’ Luke shook his head. ‘Why were you fighting him?’
‘To protect you,’ said Zac, looking up. The skin of his face seemed to glow, but his dark hair and eyes were like pockets of the forest.
‘Protect me? Why? What are you talking about?’
Zac shrugged and stood. ‘It’s why I’m here,’ he said.
Zac was a head shorter than Luke, and thin as a rake, but Luke had seen him fight. He didn’t mind that this kid was on his side, but he sure as hell had no idea why Zac would want to protect him. What was the catch? No one did something for nothing.
‘What are you talking about, Nguyen? You told me you were locked up because of an assault charge.’
‘Yep.’
‘Well, who did you assault?’
‘Zecko Sevic.’
‘What! My case worker? How the hell do you know him? Why did you assault him?’
‘He was going to come after you again. That’s when the Council decided they needed to send someone in to protect you. I guess, though, after Zecko’s run-in with me, your enemies finally figured that he wasn’t going to get the job done. So they sent in Abrafo.’
Luke forgot about Singh and the others running on the oval. He forgot about the fact that he was standing in a freezing, boggy wood in winter. He sat down in the grass and put his head in his hands.
‘What are you talking about, Nguyen?’ he said through his fingers.
‘Well, don’t you ever wonder why you’re always getting hammered, Luke?’ said Zac, standing above him.
‘Not really,’ said Luke. ‘That’s life.’
‘Yeah, maybe. But you attract more than your fair share of haters, wouldn’t you say?’
Luke felt water seeping in through his tracksuit pants. He stood quickly, brushing at his backside, frowning.
‘Well, yeah, I guess so. Especially lately,’ he said. ‘But what have you got to do with it?’
‘They don’t tell me a lot,’ said Zac. ‘I’m kind of new at this.’
‘What are you new at? Being a bodyguard for kids in lockup?’ Luke shuffled in the grass, freezing now that his bum was wet. ‘And who’s they? Who’s this Council that told you to protect me?’
‘You don’t know them,’ said Zac.
‘Well, how do they know me?’
‘They’ve never met you either. But there are some people out there who want to help you.’
‘Why me?’ said Luke.
None of this made any sense, and he’d ninety-nine per cent made up his mind that Zac Nguyen was insane and was making all this up as he went along. He was suddenly much less curious and more amused by what this crazy kid would come out with next.
‘That bit I really don’t know,’ said Zac, bending over to pick a few more mushrooms. ‘I mean, you can’t run, and you definitely can’t fight. I don’t know what it is that’s supposed to make you so special. They just told me to do whatever I had to do to stop anyone killing you.’
Luke laughed. ‘You’re a nutter,’ he said.
‘Yeah, well, Abrafo’s still going to try to kill you.’
‘You are completely mental. Do you do drugs? Abrafo escaped. Remember?’
‘He’ll be around here. Waiting for a chance,’ said Zac. ‘And that reminds me. We should get back.’
‘Well, that’s the first thing we agree on, Zac. Let’s get me, these mushrooms, and your crazy arse back out there to cop our punishment.’
Trudging back through the woods, Luke figured he’d see where Zac’s fantasy story took him next.
‘What makes you think that Abrafo would hang around to hunt me after he’d already escaped?’ he said.
‘Because I would,’ said Zac.
Pausing at the edge of the trees, Luke was sure he’d see Dorm Four in army lines at the head of the oval, with at least four screws in the fields searching for them. But when he stepped out of the woods, what he saw was Kitkat, Jonas and Barry shuffling along on the track ahead of him, deep in conversation. Travis, Toad, Clarkson, Hooley and the others were also still running laps. Mr Singh stood tiredly at the starting point.
‘What do we do now?’ he whispered to Zac, next to him.
‘Just run in and join them,’ said Zac. ‘Come on.’
Luke stared after Nguyen running back to the oval. He waited for the whistle from Singh, but Zac rejoined the rest of the dorm without incident and quickly overtook everyone on the straight. Luke knew he’d never be as lucky, but he set off fast across the thirty-metre stretch between the woods and the running track. He fell into step next to Hong Lo.
‘Hey, Black,’ said Hong. ‘Did someone really escape last night?’
Luke blinked. Hong seemed not to have noticed that he’d just bolted out of the bushes.
‘Um, yeah,’ he said.
‘Cool,’ said Hong.
‘Yeah,’ said Luke, thinking, I can’t believe we got away with it.
‘Who was he?’ said Hong. ‘You saw him, didn’t you? Everyone’s saying he assaulted Ms McNichol and Matron and that you fainted! Is it true?’
‘No.’
‘Well, what does he look like?’ said Hong Lo.
‘Oh, just your average bloke, really,’ said Luke. ‘Nothing much to look at.’
‘You reckon they’ll catch him, then?’
Luke concentrated on his sodden sneakers for a moment.
‘Nah,’ he said finally. ‘I reckon he’s long gone, Lo.’
A camp on the outskirts of Pantelimon, Bucharest, Romania
Oody kept her awake most of the night with his snoring and snuffling, but regardless, Samantha refused to let go of Tamas’s dog. She felt safer with him by her side. Although he slept deeply, Oody was always the first dog in the camp awake and barking if any stranger approached. But she doubted she’d have slept much at all, even if Oody had been settled. Her mind was an mpeg player programmed to random selection, and the images shuffled ceaselessly: from swords to nunchucks, glue-sniffing street kids to gunfire, tattoos to hissing ninja women.