London Belongs to the Alchemist (Class Heroes Book 4) Page 14

  Maybe he hadn’t been adequately briefed on Lolly’s abilities. Maybe he had seen a 16-year-old girl and simply couldn’t believe she was a realistic threat. Whichever, the guy obviously thought he had plenty of time to neutralize Lolly before she could make a getaway. He clearly didn’t expect her to be able to spring at him, land like a cat, and break his gun arm like it was twig. The taser clattered onto the slate tiles and, before he could cry out, Lolly clamped a hand over his mouth, and pulled him back so she was sitting on the tiles with his head pulled back into her chest. She wound her legs around his to stop them thrashing around, and restrained his good arm with her free hand.

  “You’re a big boy, so you can stop crying,” Lolly whispered into his ear. “Now, I’m going to ask you a question, then I’m going to let go of your mouth. You’re going to give me an answer and I’ll let you live. If not, I’ll throw you off this roof.” She paused to let that sink in. “You might survive or you might live out your days in terrible agony or with the conversational skills of a cabbage.” Lolly noticed the guy had a wedding ring on. “Maybe your wife will think that’s an improvement, I don’t know. Your choice.”

  She could feel the guy’s hot, raggedy breath on her hand.

  “Where are you holding my father, Sir Michael Rosewood?” she asked, slowly. “You may answer.” Slowly she took her hand off the guy’s mouth. He didn’t cry out.

  “In a secret safe house,” he managed, obviously in pain.

  “In a secret safe house full of secrets for secret spies?” mocked Lolly. “Would you mind sharing that secret with me, please? Where is it?”

  There was a pause.

  “How about, when I throw you off this roof, I keep one arm to give back to your wife?” asked Lolly, enjoying herself. This was familiar territory.

  “North London. Belgravia,” croaked the guy.

  Was he telling the truth?

  “Address?”

  “It’s… it’s not a proper address. You won’t find it on Street View. The lat-long is stored on my phone.”

  “Show me,” ordered Lolly.

  “It’s in my trouser pocket. Left side,” replied the guy, wincing.

  Lolly was holding the guy’s left arm, so he couldn’t reach it himself. Nor could he use his broken right arm to get the phone out; and nor could she reach across with her right hand to retrieve it. She would have to let go of the man’s good arm.

  “Don’t be a silly boy, then. Get the phone,” she said, and slowly relaxed the pressure on the guy’s arm. It was probably a trick, but there was almost nothing he could do to hurt her, so it didn’t matter what he tried.

  Tentatively, he moved his arm and dipped his hand into his left-side trouser pocket, bringing out a small black phone. He pressed a button and the phone lit up. He typed in his pin code. Lolly was about to order him to show her the location of the safe house when he snapped back with the hand holding the phone and hit her with it on the left eye. It was followed up by a reverse head butt. It hurt, but the pain quickly receded as Lolly’s incredible healing powers cut in. In the precious few seconds that she was dazed, the guy sprang forward, using his good arm and legs as leverage. In his haste, he dropped the phone. Lolly’s blurred vision cleared and she saw the guy stagger towards the ledge. He was unbalanced, his broken arm hanging uselessly by his side.

  It was all over in a second. The slope of the roof and the initial momentum of his escape were too great to arrest. With little more than a surprised gasp, he pitched forward over the edge of the roof.

  Chapter 23

  Lolly sat stunned for several seconds after she heard the thud below.

  Tentatively, she looked down to the garden. In the fading light she could see the guy’s twisted, broken form on the grass. Dead, without a doubt.

  Ordinarily, Lolly took great delight from a kill. It was how she got her kicks and she wasn’t ashamed to admit that. But today she had a sour taste in her mouth. Now she might have lost her chance to find her father. But it was more than that, she realized. Somebody was lying dead on the Blakes’ lawn. First, she had caused the family problems just by being here; now she had compounded that by being responsible for the death of a Security Service agent in their garden.

  Mrs Stannard would have no choice but to call in her colleagues. The body would be taken away and questions would be asked. What was the operation? How had the man died? What did the Blake family have to do with the death?

  Mrs Stannard would have no choice but to reveal the twins’ secret and they would probably end up in the same prison as her father.

  And this troubled Lolly. It wasn’t what she had intended.

  Had Mrs Stannard heard the fight and the fall from inside? Lolly retrieved her own phone from her pocket. The connection was still active but there was no sound. Mrs Stannard was probably searching the house. Maybe they hadn’t heard. There was no activity outside. Nobody had come to investigate. She put her phone back in her pocket and picked up the dead guy’s phone. It was still unlocked from when he’d entered his pin. She must keep it active.

  Lolly now had another problem. To keep the Blakes from being implicated, she had to get rid of the body.

  She pictured her cosy, pink bedroom. The kitchen. The warmth of the dining room. The chatter of the family.

  Tiredness threatened to overwhelm her.

  Lolly forced herself to accept the reality of her situation. She checked the phone’s maps app to see if there was a marker for the safe house that the guy had described. Nothing.

  She looked through the text messages. There were none before today. She hastily looked through the other apps on the phone but there was no clue as to the safe house location. As she had suspected, he had lied to her, so the safe house probably wasn’t in Belgravia at all.

  She went back to the text messages. There had been several between the guy and a contact listed as ‘Stannard’. The last one read:

  ‘7.45. Ealing Broadway.’

  Lolly jumped off the roof, landing neatly on the grass close to the body. Close up, it wasn’t a pretty sight. In addition to the arm that Lolly had broken, the neck was snapped, a leg was twisted underneath the body, and the look on the man’s face was sickening. Fortunately there was no blood.

  If there was any chance of preserving the Blakes’ perceived innocence, then it was vital to remove the dead body from their garden.

  She scooped up the corpse in her arms and carried it to where a tall fence separated the garden from an alleyway that ran the length of the houses on the road. She threw the body over the fence, then jumped into the alleyway. She picked up the body again and ran towards the main road.

  She kept to the darkness of the alleyway and took out the dead man’s phone. She typed in a reply to Mrs Stannard:

  ‘Have sight of the target. In pursuit. Will contact later.’ She pressed Send.

  It wasn’t a great ruse, but it was the best she could do. She hoped the text sounded convincingly ‘spy-y’. Undoubtedly the man’s phone had a GPS tracker, so she needed to send it on a wild goose chase. She pocketed the phone.

  From then, it was simple. She stepped out into the road to stop the first car that she saw. It was a blue Subaru, driven by a boy not much older than herself. When he lowered his window to swear at her, she reached in and knocked him out. She pushed him into the passenger seat, put the dead body in the back seat, and drove towards the M4, heading out of London.

  ***

  At a motorway service station near Windsor, Lolly slipped the dead agent’s phone into a woman’s bag and deposited the car’s owner in the car park. She then drove the Subaru to the nearest deserted road and used her flame power to turn the car into a fireball. She wanted the car and the body totally incinerated, to make identification impossible.

  After that, she ran to the nearest town and caught a series of trains back to Ealing. It was nearly midnight when she got back to the Blakes’ house. She felt tired, anxious, sad and hungry. She looked up at James’s bedroom window
. She had no idea what was waiting for her inside. The lights were off. He’d be fast asleep.

  Lolly vaulted over the fence into the garden.

  Chapter 24

  James Blake woke up with a start. For a second he didn’t know where he was or what was happening. It was totally dark.

  He had a vague notion that he’d been dreaming about Lolly Rosewood.

  When he saw Lolly’s face only inches from his own, he thought it was all part of the fantasy.

  “Lolly?” he whispered, blearily. She was sitting on his bed.

  “Dreaming about me?” she asked, with a smile.

  James didn’t answer that one.

  “Where did you go?” he asked. He was starting to focus now. Lolly looked absolutely exhausted.

  “I was listening in to your meeting with Mrs Stannard,” said Lolly. “I heard her say she was going to search the house. I slipped out of the window and ran. What happened?”

  “Mum and Dad let her look around,” replied James. It felt weird that Lolly was here, in his room. “She didn’t find anything. She apologized. Then she got a text and left. I think you’re safe.”

  Lolly pulled away from him, sharply.

  “I should probably go,” she said.

  “I suppose,” said James, disappointed. “Mum and Dad wouldn’t like it if they found you in here.”

  Lolly smiled, and James instantly knew he’d got the wrong end of the stick.

  “I meant I should leave the house, not your bedroom,” said Lolly, laughing.

  What an idiot! “Ah, yeah, I know, I meant…” he blustered.

  “Don’t apologize. I like it,” she said.

  There was a pause. James didn’t know what to say.

  “Tomorrow, I’m going to sort out Nicky Cairo,” said Lolly. “Then I’d better disappear again. I don’t want to cause your family any more problems.”

  “Thank you,” said James. Argh! What a ridiculous thing to say. He was trying to process what Lolly was saying. She was going to leave them?

  “Tomorrow morning, will you teleport me back to New Cross?” she asked.

  James nodded. Something pounded in his chest. A hollow, empty feeling resided in his stomach.

  “You know, you remind me of my father,” said Lolly, shyly.

  James knew that she meant it as a compliment, but nerves made him respond too quickly.

  “You’re comparing me to that psycho!?”

  Lolly looked hurt and James felt bad, even though he had every right to call Sir Michael anything he liked.

  “Oh, I know what he did was wrong. But he’s a good person, really he is. I suppose I meant that, whatever you say about him, Daddy is a strong man. He makes me feel safe and treasured, and that I have a purpose to my life. He inspired me. I’d do anything for him. And I think I would for you, too,” she said, her big eyes looking down at him.

  James felt ten feet tall.

  “Thank you,” he said again, before he could stop himself. “I don’t know what to say in return. I should hate you. You tried to kill me, you put me through hell, you—”

  “Make your heart leap? You can’t stop thinking about me? You’re intrigued by me? I occupy your every waking thought?” supplied Lolly, her mouth curled into a teasing smile.

  James tried to sit up, but Lolly stopped him by leaning forward, placing the gentlest, warmest, smoothest hand on his cheek, and then planting an electrifying, full-bodied kiss on his lips. It lasted only seconds, but James lost track of time. He sank back into the pillow. He could see only stars. He stopped breathing. This was better than any dream.

  And then Lolly drew away from him, her eyes wet, her mouth still open. She sighed.

  “Goodnight James. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She opened the door to his bedroom. He had a brief glimpse of her delightful silhouette, and then she was gone, closing the door behind her.

  James’s head hit the pillow. He was in a different world.

  Chapter 25

  Wednesday 18 April

  Sam woke up in a good mood, but ended up going to school in a foul temper.

  The day had started well with a text from Al. She hadn’t had a chance to message him last night, so it was nice that he had made contact first.

  ‘Morning, super chick. Thanks for yesterday. Still want to see me?’

  Sam had replied:

  ‘Yes please. Thank you for your video. Maybe do something at weekend if m&d let me?’

  The reply:

  ‘I can’t wait till then. Want to see you. Tonight?’

  Wow. He was keen. But how could they see each other tonight?

  ‘Would love that, but still grounded :-( ’

  The reply.

  ‘Leave it to me. Laters!’

  Sam laughed. The texts, coupled with the fact that Lolly had disappeared last night — presumably with Mrs Stannard chasing her — meant that things could return to normal, or even normal-plus-one.

  The point at which her good mood evaporated was when she went into the bathroom to weigh herself.

  Mum encouraged Sam and James to weigh themselves every day to make sure they were healthy. She and her brother burned calories at a far faster rate than any normal person. Food fuelled their superpowers, therefore they needed to eat more than the average person. If her weight got too low, her powers would start failing.

  Ever since she was 12, Sam had thought she was fat. ‘Poor body image’, a counsellor had called it. She had been on the verge of anorexia at the point when she had gained her powers.

  She stood on the scales. Just about eight stone. That wasn’t good. She obviously hadn’t been eating enough, and for some reason she had very little appetite.

  Then Lolly wandered into the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. When she saw Sam standing on the scales, she started making a noise like a klaxon.

  “No coach parties. One at a time, please,” she cracked. “Now if you don’t mind, fattie, I need a shower.” And with that, she ushered Sam out of the bathroom, then closed and locked the door.

  Sam returned to her bedroom, fuming.

  ***

  She went downstairs to have breakfast only to find James and Lolly had already eaten all the porridge. Mum quickly made her more, but by the time she’d finished, had her shower and hurriedly dressed she was in a rage, her hair was wet and she felt totally disorganized. She’d always thought of herself as a placid person, but from the moment Lolly had come back into their lives she had been acting like a monster.

  “I thought Lolly had gone for good,” complained Sam.

  “So did I,” said Dad. “I know it’s not easy with her being in the house, but we all need to try and make her feel welcome.”

  “No, we don’t,” said Sam. “James is doing that all by himself because he fancies the pants off her.”

  James just smirked, but didn’t seem bothered by her comment.

  “Where is she, anyway?” asked Sam, suddenly realizing Lolly wasn’t there.

  “She’s gone to see the drug dealer to pay him off,” replied James.

  Sam snorted.

  “She says she’ll leave us afterwards,” he added.

  Sam looked at Mum and Dad for confirmation. They nodded.

  “I’m going to speak to her when she comes back,” said Dad.

  “Really, do you have to?” asked Sam, sarcastically. “You know, if she’s made up her mind. It’s bad luck to change your plans, isn’t it? I’m sure she’ll find some other mugs to live with.”

  Dad didn’t answer. Instead he hurried Sam and James into the car and reversed it off the drive.

  Sam spied the neighbour’s cats, Sookie and Rogue, trotting merrily into the front garden, sniffing curiously at freshly dug soil.

  “You know what Lolly is don’t you,” observed Sam. “She’s a cat whose owner has gone away. She’s just using us. Mum and Dad feed her, James gives her love, and I’m her scratching post.”

  As she watched, both cats decided simultaneously to use the
garden as a toilet.

  “And now Lolly’s dumping all her problems on us,” Sam added.

  “You should give Lolly a break,” replied James. “She’s going to pay Nicky Cairo a massive load of cash to stop him hassling your boyfriend, which is pretty amazing of her if you think about it.”

  Sam didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to hear any more from her brother about how great Lolly was. She reached into her bag to take out her phone so she could re-read her texts from Al. She couldn’t find it. She rummaged through the various items. What had she done with it? After a frantic search, which everybody else ignored, she concluded that somehow in her haste to get out she had left it in her bedroom. Crisis. How was she going to get by without her phone all day? What if Al texted her?

  “I’ve left my phone at home, Dad,” she informed him. “We’ll have to go back for it.”

  “We won’t,” said Dad, flatly. “You won’t die just because you haven’t got your phone. I’m picking you up after school, so you won’t need it, will you?”

  “But what if I need to send a text? Or I need the internet in class?”

  “And they say that nurses have it tough,” drawled James.

  “You can shut up,” snapped Sam, then checked herself. Why were she and her brother getting at each other all the time these days? The answer popped into her head in all its perfect body, perfect skin, perfect smile and superior attitude form.

  ***

  Dad parked the car. They all got out together. Dad had to see the headmaster to smooth over Sam and James’s disappearance from school yesterday afternoon.

  “Is everything going to be ok, Dad?” asked Sam, nervously. He looked strained. He hadn’t said much since Mrs Stannard left last night.

  “Everything is fine, guys. Have a nice day at school.” He headed into the main building while Sam and James mingled in the playground.

  Sam looked at her watch. Another ten minutes until the bell and they could go into Form. Sam looked for Nina. No sign. She wandered around the playground, lost in her thoughts.