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  I felt a shiver of excitement as I climbed on behind him, wrapping my arms around his body. He pressed the starter button and we were off.

  It was an exhilarating ride. Jamie was an expert rider, totally in control, taking the corners smoothly and making me feel completely at ease as we zoomed through the streets. About ten minutes later, we arrived in Barton.

  At first we passed through a bit of a rundown area at the back of the town with rows of narrow, shabby terraced houses with no front gardens. I wondered if Emma lived there. If so, at least no one would be able to kidnap her unnoticed. It seemed as if every movement would be heard in the house next door. But Jamie carried on. A few minutes later, we came to a more affluent area with leafy streets and rows of neat detached houses with tiny front gardens.

  “Next turning on the left,” Jamie shouted. “So start thinking about what we’re going to say to these people.”

  How did you tell complete strangers that their child was in danger? ‘Someone’s kidnapped my brother and Jamie’s sister. Loads of other kids, so we’ve come to warn you that your little girl might be next?’

  As we turned into Greenhall Street, I spotted a dark blue Mila van parked on the right hand side.

  Jamie swore. “I hope we’re not too late.”

  He parked the K7 a couple of metres behind the van and we casually walked up to it. It was a bit battered and dirty, as if it belonged to a tradesman, and the back windows were blacked out. We glanced in the front as we passed, and I saw that it was empty. We paused and looked around. I didn’t know what to do.

  The street was deserted. I guessed everyone was at work and school. It was so quiet and peaceful. So normal. So hard to believe that anything as awful as a kidnapping could be about to take place.

  Maybe we are panicking, jumping to conclusions, I thought. After all, Mila vans were quite common.

  “The van could belong to a plumber or electrician going about their business,” I suggested. I hoped it was.

  “Could be. But I think it’s a bit too much of a coincidence for it to be parked in the same street that Emma lives on, don’t you?” Jamie asked.

  I remembered how Josh was playing in the garden just before he was snatched. Emma could be doing the same thing, heartbreakingly unaware what fate was in store for her. We couldn’t take any chances.

  “If this van does belong to the kidnapper, it means he’s on his way to get Emma right now. We’ve got to stop him. How about we split up? One of us goes to the front of the house and the other to the back?”

  “I’ve a better idea. He’ll have to come back to the van so it might be best if I stay here and see if I can immobilize it while you go warn Emma’s parents? Then he won’t be able to get away.”

  “Good idea.” I started to run off, anxious to get to Emma’s house before the kidnapper struck.

  “Morgan?”

  I paused and glanced over my shoulder. “What?”

  “If you do see the kidnapper, no heroics. Okay?”

  “Okay. Nor you.”

  I didn’t like leaving Jamie by the van alone. The kidnapper could be armed. Or there could be two of them. A gang even. There’s no way Jamie would be a match for a couple of men, but I had no choice. Emma’s life could be at stake.

  I raced along the street, looking for number fourteen, the address we had for Emma. I was at number thirty-four so I ran on.

  As I passed a small pathway separating a block of houses, two people came running out--both dressed in dark leisure suits. I barely had time to notice that one was a man, the other a woman, before the man charged into me, knocking me to the ground.

  “Ow!” I yelled as I hit the pavement, landing on my left shoulder. “What the heck…?”

  Furious, I pulled myself up and rubbed my shoulder. It stung like mad, and I could already feel the throb of a bruise forming. I glared up at the man then sucked in my breath as I saw the young girl, flung face down over his shoulder. I noticed the heavy boot on her left leg then the metal splint supporting it. She was wearing a calliper. She must be Emma. And they were kidnapping her!

  “Hey, stop!” I yelled, scrambling to my feet. “Help! Help! Kidnap!” I screeched, running after them.

  Jamie looked over, heard me and started towards us then suddenly and backtracked to the van, shouting into his squilb. “Law enforcement? You need to get to fourteen Greenhall Street, Barton fast. A young girl’s being kidnapped!”

  The man snarled. “Get to the van quick!”

  I charged after them as they both sprinted over to the van. I’d heard people say that when they’d been faced with a dangerous situation, they didn’t have time to think, they just reacted. Just did what anyone else would do. Well, that’s exactly what happened to me.

  I sort of went into auto-pilot. All I could think of was saving that little girl from whatever fate those two sickos had planned for her. Trying to ignore the stabbing pain in my shoulder, I ran after them, hollering for help at the top of my voice, hoping to alert Emma’s parents, the neighbours, anyone.

  No one came.

  The man ran faster, swearing profusely. The girl’s arms dangled limply down his back, her long hair cascading over her like a dark veil. She was so lifeless, that for a moment I feared she was dead. But then I realized she was probably drugged. After all, why would they want to carry off a dead body?

  Jamie finished his phone call, and was leaning against the driver’s door of the van, obviously hoping to prevent them getting in. They ignored him and ran straight to the back, the woman in the lead. Jamie chased after them, shouting for help. We were both hollering at the top of our voices, but no one came to see what all the noise was about. Maybe the kidnappers chose the daytime to seize their victims because they knew most people were out at work then.

  The woman pulled open the back doors of the van. “Quick! Get her inside before someone comes to check what these perishing kids are screaming at!”

  A stitch was gnawing at my side. I tried to ignore it, forcing myself to run faster so I could help Jamie, who battled with the woman. I reached the van just as the man flung the little girl into the back of it. Jamie pushed past him and tried to pull her back out.

  “You…" The man spat and cursed, kicking Jamie in the stomach with such force he fell back onto the ground.

  Horrified, I heard Jamie groan and saw him curl up into a ball, clutching his stomach.

  “Jamie!” I screamed. Pushing past the man I bent down to help Jamie up but the woman yanked me back by my hair so hard, I thought my scalp would come off in her hands. I jammed my elbow into her chest in a desperate attempt to force her to loosen her grip. Before I could wriggle free, I felt something placed over my mouth. A sickly, sweet smell flooded my nose and swarmed up into my head. Then everything went blank.

  Chapter Eleven

  When I came to, my head was pounding and for a moment I couldn’t remember what had happened. Whatever stuff they’d used to knock me out was pretty powerful. Then it all came flashing back. Jamie! Emma! What had happened to them? I opened my eyes and found myself facing a grubby white wall. Where was I?

  I tried to sit up, and found that I couldn’t move my hands. They were tied firmly behind my back. I’d been snap-banded.

  “You okay, Morgan?” It was Jamie. It sounded like he was sitting right by me. Thank goodness he was still alive.

  “I think so.” I rolled over then wriggled myself into a sitting position, not an easy feat. Jamie leaned against the wall besides me. He had a big bruise on his left cheek, probably where he’d hit the ground when that brute had kicked him. By the look of it, his hands were snap-banded behind his back too.

  “How about you? That yob put the boot in. I was scared he’d done some serious damage.”

  He smiled ruefully. “I’ve got a stinker of a headache and my stomach’s a bit tender but otherwise I’m fine.”

  “Where are we? Any idea?” I tried to assess our surroundings. We were in a small room, not much bigger than a she
d. It was completely bare--no carpet, no furniture, nothing. Near the top of one wall was a pocket-handkerchief sized window that let in a sliver of light. There was no hint as to what sort of building it was. It could be a private house, a room in an office, or a disused manufacturing outlet. Anything.

  “Nope. I’m guessing we’re in the same place as Emma because I don’t think they’d have been in too much of a hurry to make a detour to take us anywhere else.”

  That made sense. “That means Josh and Holly and the other kids could be here too. We’ve got to get out of here and find them.” I wriggled my wrists, desperately trying to work them free, but the bands were too tight.

  “You’ll never do it that way. I’ve tried,” Jamie said. He obviously hadn’t been out cold as long as I had been. “Turn around and let me have a go.”

  “Your hands are tied behind your back too,” I pointed out.

  “I know, but I’ve got strong teeth,” he said, baring them so I could see. They were straight and gleaming white, probably due to the usual cosmetic treatment more than nature. “If you hold your hands out as far as you can, and I wriggle down onto my knees, I might be able to release the bands."

  Snap-bands were made out of a tough, indestructible metal. As the name implied, they snapped tightly around the wrists and locked tight. The only way to open them was by pressing a small catch at the back, practically indiscernible to the naked eye. How Jamie was going to do that with his teeth I had no idea, but anything was worth a go. The kidnappers obviously didn’t intend for us to escape.

  I didn’t want to think what they planned on doing to us.

  I held out my wrists as high as I could as Jamie shuffled nearer to me. Then I felt his tongue moving over the snap-band. Clever. He had more chance of feeling for the catch with his tongue than seeing it.

  My wrists soon felt quite wet and slobbery, but I tried not to flinch. I knew that it was a painstaking and uncomfortable task for Jamie too, bent on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. Then I felt him pause and lick over the same spot a couple of times, as if checking something. Had he found the catch? I wanted to ask him but knew that if I spoke to him it would distract him and then he would lose the location of the catch. I kept silent.

  I felt his teeth on the band, scraping against it, as if he was trying to grip the catch and spring it. Would he be able to do it?

  I heard him shuffle again, then his teeth tugged at the band. It pressed against my wrist and snapped open.

  “You did it!” I swivelled around to grin at Jamie, wiping my wet wrists on my jeans.

  “Sorry about the mess,” he said.

  I could tell by his flushed cheeks that he was a bit embarrassed. “No biggie. You got me free!” The snap-band was still dangling from my wrists. I took it off, and looked at it. The catch was so small I could barely see it.

  “See if you can do mine now.” Jamie turned his back to me, and held out his bound wrists.

  I squatted down and peered at the band. The catch was far too tiny for me to see, and I didn’t fancy running my tongue over it like Jamie had done. So I ran my finger along it instead, feeling for it. There it was. I tugged at it with my nail but I couldn’t budge it.

  “You have to sort of slide it to the side and press it down,’ Jamie said.

  I tried again. It was a bit fiddly but the snap-band finally sprang open.

  “Done it!” I said triumphantly as Jamie flexed his wrists. "Now, let’s see if we can call for some help.” I reached for my squilb. My left wrist was bare. My squilb had gone.

  “They’ve taken it!” I gasped. “They’ve taken my squilb.”

  “Mine too.”

  We had no way of contacting anyone or being contacted.

  We both spun around to face the doors at the sound of approaching footsteps. They stopped outside it. Then a key fumbled in the lock.

  “Sit down and try to act as if your hands are still tied,” Jamie whispered.

  I squatted back down and stared at the door, my heart pounding. Who was coming in? And what were they going to do?

  “The perishing snap-bands!” Jamie muttered. He quickly scooped them both up and shoved them in his jeans pockets just as the handle turned and the door creaked open.

  It was the woman kidnapper. “So you’re both awake then.” She looked about thirty, with a hard, pointed face, short mousy brown hair and sharp blue eyes. “You’re going to regret interfering in this.” She glared coldly at us.

  “Where are we?” I demanded, keeping my hands clasped behind my back to make it look like they were still bound together. “What have you done with Emma? And where’s Josh and Holly?”

  “So we were right. You are the two kids stirring up all the publicity. Well you should have kept your noses out. Now you’ll have to be killed too.”

  “Killed!” The emotionless way she said it made me snap. I sprung to my feet and lunged at her, knocking her back onto the floor, momentarily winding her. Before she could get back up, I jumped astride her, pinning down her arms with my knees. The bunch of keys she was holding fell out of her hand, and skimmed across the floor. “You’d better not have killed my little brother." I pummelled her furiously, raining my fists on her chest, her face, anywhere. I was so mad I didn’t even stop to think what I was doing.

  “Get off me!” The woman snarled. She spat in my face and I instinctively recoiled, relaxing my grip on her as a glob of her spittle trickled down my nose. It was a bad move because it gave her chance to jerk her arms free and, with one swift shove, she hurled me to the floor.

  She jumped up. “Don’t worry, you’ll soon be joining them,” she gloated, making a dash for the door. But Jamie was after her and brought her down with a brilliant rugby tackle.

  “Quick, get out of here,” he yelled to me. “I’ve got her keys, we’ll lock her in.”

  I picked myself up and ran, Jamie close on my heels. The woman scrambled to her feet again, charging after us but we were out of the door, slamming it shut just before she reached us. She banged on the door, cursing and yanking at the handle. I managed to hold it firm long enough for Jamie to lock it. Luckily it was the first key he tried.

  “You won’t get away, you stupid fools!” she shouted, giving the door a final thump. “The gates are locked. You’ll never get out of here.”

  Jamie slipped the keys into his jacket pocket. “She’s bound to have a nano and will be phoning the others right now to let them know we’ve escaped. We’ve got to try to find a way out of here before they start looking for us.”

  We were standing in a long, narrow corridor with brick walls and the same concrete floor as the room we’d just been locked in. I guessed we must have been in an outhouse, perhaps used for storage. We ran down the corridor then stopped as we came to another door, slightly ajar, enough to allow in a pencil chink of light and waft of air. Fresh air. It was the way out.

  Cautiously, Jamie inched the door open, then we both peered through the gap. A big bush obscured the view so we pushed it open a little more. Jamie peered out, whistled and opened the door further. “Take a look at this!”

  I looked out, and was amazed to discover that we were at the back of a big white building, three stories high. Huge solar panels lined the roof and large windows ran along the walls.

  “What do you think it is?” Jamie asked.

  “I don’t know. An office block or maybe a clinic? Although none of the clinics I’ve been to with Josh looked like this.”

  I stared at the building, puzzled. It wasn’t what I’d expected to see. Actually, I’m not sure what I expected. Some sort of disused factory or derelict house, I guess.

  “But why would a place like this be involved in child-kidnapping?” Jamie replied.

  I had no idea. There was something sinister about it all.

  “I can’t see anyone around. Let’s make a dash for that bush. It should give us enough cover while we try to think what to do,” Jamie said.

  Just then, the back door of the bui
lding flung open and two men came bursting out. I recognised one of them as the man who’d kidnapped us. The other was tall, bald and dressed in a white coat--the sort scientists and doctors wore. A shiver ran down my spine.

  Our kidnapper shouted down a nanophone in a language I didn’t understand.

  “Curse, Crina! Why didn’t she watch those kids!” The white-coat man swore, and spat on the ground. “Get the dogs out, Marku. They’ll soon track them down!” “We can’t allow them to escape and raise the alarm. We’ve got a delivery for tomorrow.”

  “Don’t worry, they won’t get away,” our kidnapper, who we then knew was called Marku, replied. “And when we find them, I’ll deal with them once and for all.”

  Then, to my horror, he headed in our direction, jangling a bunch of keys. I guessed he was going to let the woman, Crina, out. We both crouched down behind the bush and held our breath until he’d passed us and disappeared into the outhouse we’d just escaped from. We had about two minutes before he came out with Crina, and I knew that any minute the dogs would be let loose. My stomach churned at the thought. I’d been terrified of dogs since one had bitten me on the hand when I was a child. I had always gone out of my way to avoid them, which wasn’t too difficult as dogs were no longer allowed in public areas unless they were muzzled. I knew that if I came face to face with one of the guard dogs I’d freeze.

  Jamie must have sensed how I was feeling because he rested his hand on my arm and gave it a reassuring, ‘I’m here, I’ll look after you’ sort of squeeze. I appreciated the gesture, even though we both knew he would be no match for a bunch of raging guard dogs.

  “We’ve got no chance of getting out of the grounds, and I reckon the kids are here too,” Jamie whispered. “Let’s see if we can sneak into that building, find a phone and call the law.”

  We raced over to the white building, hoping to find a side door we could sneak into. We were in luck. There were two doors a metre or so apart. We took the first one.