London Belongs to the Alchemist (Class Heroes Book 4) Read online

  “You’d better come downstairs, James,” said Dad, rubbing his face wearily. “Once Nina’s dad has collected her, we need to sit down with Sam and find out what else happened tonight.”

  Chapter 35

  Thursday 19 April

  James slept badly that night. He had lots of random dreams and they all involved Lolly — but not in a good way.

  He woke up feeling wretched. He didn’t want Lolly to go, but if Mum and Dad didn’t actually kick her out, she would no doubt leave anyway. He couldn’t be bothered to shower, but he was ravenously hungry. He put on his school uniform and trudged downstairs. He really wasn’t in the mood for school today. He blundered into the kitchen to find Mum giving Lolly some toast. Lolly was dressed in jeans, boots and a white roll neck sweater. She looked composed and self assured.

  “Hi,” said James, now wishing he’d showered and smartened himself up. He felt stupid in his school clothes.

  “Hey,” said Lolly brightly, delicately pulling the toast apart and popping pieces into her mouth.

  “What’s going on?” asked James.

  “Your lovely mother is trying to persuade me to stay,” said Lolly. “Which is kind, but I’ve told her I have to go. Your dad can’t even look at me today.”

  “He’s ok,” said James, without really knowing if Dad was ok or not.

  “Who’s ok?” asked Sam, stomping into the kitchen and looking more miserable than anybody.

  “I was just saying,” began Lolly.

  “Actually, I wasn’t talking to you,” cut in Sam, not looking at Lolly, but helping herself to toast. “Not now we know you’ve murdered an MI5 agent. Not that I’m at all surprised. But you have just ruined any chance my family had of staying safe. So thanks for that. When are you leaving?”

  “Leave it, will yer,” snapped James.

  Sam looked at him in surprise.

  “Lolly isn’t leaving,” said Mum.

  “What? Seriously?!” floundered Sam.

  “It’s better for us all if she stays,” said Mum, firmly.

  “Shu—ut up!” replied Sam, earning herself a sharp look from Mum. “I mean,” continued Sam, fractionally more contrite, “when James and I went to a party without telling you, you virtually started a parliamentary inquiry and gave us what-for! But Lolly goes and kills a secret agent in our garden and she gets freshly made bread for her toast. How does that work?”

  “Sam, calm down. Your father and I have made a decision. He’ll explain it to you on the way to school”.

  “Are you going to stay?” James asked Lolly, hopefully. She shrugged, noncommittally.

  “And what is wrong with you?” Sam shouted at James. “You’re my brother and you seem to care more about her than you do about me, these days. Why can none of you see what she’s like?”

  She stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door. James winced.

  Lolly watched her go.

  “I know I keep saying it, but I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Yeah, you’re Miss Sorry Lolly,” shouted Sam from the lounge.

  “And we need to change your name to Slam Blake, with all your door tantrums,” James called back. There was no rejoinder. Moody cow, thought James.

  Mum put a hand on Lolly’s shoulder.

  “Everybody deserves a second chance,” she said.

  “I wish my mother was like you,” said Lolly, wistfully. Then, as if she didn’t want to become morbid, she changed the subject. “I had a look at the packets of powder that Sam took from that boy. I’m pretty sure it is Super Drug. Did he get it from Al?”

  “Yeah. The idiot has been supplying this kid, Mark Foster, with Super D, because Foster’s brother has some kind of deal going with Al.”

  Lolly’s blank face indicated she was processing this information.

  “This stuff was never intended for the school playground,” she said.

  “Oh, right. So who was it intended for?” shouted Sam, marching back into the kitchen. “People who you and your father decided were good enough to have it?”

  It’s going to kick off, thought James, as Sam stood toe-to-toe with Lolly.

  Lolly’s cheeks reddened.

  “It was meant for people who could help make this a better world,” she countered.

  Sam snorted.

  “You don’t even know what that means. You’re just quoting Michael Jackson lyrics.”

  “I’m going to have to tell Al that he can’t give out Super D to morons anymore,” said Lolly, matter-of-factly. “I’m surprised you haven’t made him, Sam,” she added.

  Sam hopped from foot to foot.

  “What?” she screeched.

  “Samantha, calm down,” ordered Mum.

  “Chill, Sam,” said James, gently, trying to put a consoling hand on her shoulder. Sam shrugged it off.

  “You can shut up, too, because you fancy her. And she can go to hell,” shouted Sam, pointing at Lolly. “Good luck with telling Al what to do. He’s got his own mind and you can’t just give him orders.”

  “Oh, I think he’ll do as I tell him,” said Lolly, airily. “Have a nice day at school, Sam.”

  “I said that’s enough! You too, Lolly,” ordered Mum.

  Nobody argued.

  James picked up his school bag and trooped to the front door. His heart leaped when Lolly snuck into the hallway and gave him a long, mind-blowing kiss on the mouth.

  “To give you something to look forward to,” she said, naughtily.

  There was a groan and James saw Sam over Lolly’s shoulder, looking daggers at them both.

  “So are you staying?” James asked Lolly.

  “Looks like it. As long as your parents want me to.”

  “Awesome,” said James, unable to look his sister in the eye.

  Sam stormed into the lounge and slammed the door. The painting that hung in the hallway fell off the wall and the glass frame smashed on the floor.

  ***

  It took Dad some while to persuade Sam that she needed to get into the car and be taken to school. Lolly had insisted on helping Mum clean up the glass, exacerbating Sam’s ire.

  Now they were late, Dad was bad tempered, and he was driving too fast.

  James was angry with his sister for her condemnation of Lolly. He had always looked out for Sam, so what right did she have to criticize his choice of girlfriend?

  That jolted him.

  Was Lolly his girlfriend? It was hard to be sure of a girl like Lolly. But then that’s what made her so exciting.

  Sam was just jealous because Lolly was living in the house now and Sam had to share his attention.

  “It’s not about right or wrong anymore, as far as Lolly is concerned,” Dad explained en route, cutting up a bus as he pulled out onto South Ealing Road. The bus driver delivered a long, angry horn blast.

  “She’s just wrong, full stop,” muttered Sam, sulkily.

  “It’s about doing what is right for you,” Dad added, grimly. “Right now, it’s best that Lolly stays with us.”

  “You lied to Mrs Stannard to protect Lolly,” Sam shouted over him. “You’ve always taught us to respect the police and our teachers, and you! Now you’re saying it’s ok to do what you like when it suits us. Well, ok, I’ll do that.” She folded her arms defiantly.

  “This is different,” replied Dad, patiently. “All those things we taught you still stand. But we’re talking about MI5 here. They don’t have a concept of morality, only about doing what is expedient. They’ve done far worse than Lolly in their time. If we give Lolly to them, then sooner or later, she’ll tell them about you guys.”

  “Mrs Stannard already knows about us.”

  “She does, but so far she has kept it to herself. I hope she has enough of a conscience to continue to keep that secret. Once the genie is out of the bottle, someone will come along and try to take you away from us. That’s guaranteed.”

  Dad slammed on the brakes as a mother with two young children stepped out onto the pedestrian crossing. The ca
r stopped with a jolt. The mother looked angrily at Dad. He did one of those pretend-smiles back, whilst muttering, “In your own time, luv.”

  James chuckled.

  Eventually the car set off again.

  “If you think Sir Michael wanted to exploit you,” continued Dad, “he’ll seem like a kindly uncle in comparison to what other people might try. You have to understand that my only concern is keeping you guys safe. We’re in a different game now. Different rules. It’s us against them.”

  “Now you’re sounding like Sir Michael,” said Sam.

  “On this occasion, I agree with him. Now, whatever you do, don’t mention to anybody at school anything about Lolly, or MI5, or anything.”

  “Like I was going to,” muttered Sam, sarcastically.

  “What about Nina? She saw Mrs Stannard,” James pointed out.

  “She doesn’t know anything about her, and I think Nina will be concentrating on the bullying problem at school. I’m going to see the Head about it myself after I’ve dropped you off.”

  ***

  Dad parked the car in the teachers’ car park. He handed Sam her phone. She brightened up for the first time that morning.

  “I’ve cleaned it up,” said Dad. “There was a virus application on it. It secretly activated your GPS. Lucky you hadn’t used Facebook or any of your other apps. If you had done, the virus would have taken control of your account. Very clever. Somebody knew what they were doing. James, I checked yours, too.”

  “What?! You looked at my phone?” exploded James.

  “Relax. I didn’t look at any of your messages or anything like that. I just scanned it for the virus.”

  “Well, I haven’t got it.”

  “Not any more you haven’t. But you did have.”

  “What? No way. I didn’t get no email or text from Foster.”

  “Nevertheless, you had it. I’ve erased it. Just don’t open any texts or mails from people you don’t know, or numbers you don’t recognize.”

  James fumed. He knew all that, and he hadn’t!

  “Have you any idea who created the virus?” asked Dad.

  “When I looked at Mark Foster’s phone, I saw the app that he was using to track me,” said Sam. “It was the Party Jacker app. The same one Steve used on Friday night to find out where the party was.”

  “Mark Foster’s brother has got his own social media company,” said James. “Steve told us he built the app. I wonder if Al knows that it can also control people’s phones and track them. If I see Foster today, I’ll beat the truth out of him.”

  James was surprised that the idea of taking his frustrations out on Foster hadn’t occurred to him before.

  “Under no circumstances,” warned Dad. “You stay away from that boy and away from trouble. This is a bullying issue and it’s for the school to sort out. Kids, I’ve got enough worries at the moment, please don’t add to them. Do I make myself clear?”

  James swallowed what he was going to say. Instead he muttered, “Understood.”

  Thinking about what Foster had done to Nina made James’s blood boil. He and Sam got out of the car and walked in silence through the playground. He didn’t know what to say to his sister. He had nothing to apologize for.

  ***

  They ended up drifting in different directions in the playground. Despite his promise to Dad, James kept an eye out for Mark Foster.

  James found Steve Roadhouse and they exchanged the usual greetings by punching each other in the stomach.

  “Can I see the Party Jacker app on your phone, man?” asked James.

  Steve got out his phone. There was a yellow, upside-down smiley icon on the home page. Steve tapped it. A map was displayed, centering on where they were standing in the school playground.

  “It’s not doing anything, so obviously there’s no party planned yet.”

  “How did you get the app?” asked James.

  “I told you. My brother had it on his phone. It’s brilliant; he sent it to me in a text. It just installed on my phone, bang, I was sorted.”

  Easily done, thought James.

  “You know about the bullying,” mused James. “Did you know that when Foster targets people, he puts an app on their phone that can control the GPS, get email and Facebook passwords, that sort of thing?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it must be Foster’s brother who invented the app, mustn’t it? It’s similar to, or even the same as, Party Jacker.”

  Steve screwed up his face.

  “Hadn’t thought about it. I suppose it must be. I hadn’t really connected the Party Jacker app to the bullying. Hey. Did you see Al’s latest video?”

  “No. Was that yesterday?”

  “Yeah, but it was late. Nearly midnight. Scared me to death ’cos my phone just started playing it while I was asleep. I’ll send it to you.” Steve tapped away at his phone. “Everyone else I’ve spoken to has seen it.”

  James’s phone pinged. The video that Steve had sent was of Al as DJ Alchemy, performing a magic trick. In it he took a glass of water and turned it into a glass of milk. Big deal. Now James knew about Al’s power, it wasn’t that impressive. It just seemed like an excuse for Al to pontificate about Jesus, and how big corporations exploited people. Like, who didn’t know that?

  “Brilliant, isn’t it?” said Steve.

  “Why is he doing it?” asked James. “Yeah, it’s good. But what’s it all for?”

  Steve shrugged.

  “Who cares?”

  “I care. I care when my sister and my friends are being bullied. I don’t get exactly how, but Al and his stupid parties are connected to the bullying. Kyle Foster built that app for Al. Now his brother uses it to track his victims. It’s all down to the GPS thing, isn’t it? I bet you any money that Mark Foster has some kind of administrator password to that app. Something that allows him to take control of any phone that has the app on it.”

  “Errrr, really?” said Steve, looking baffled.

  “Definitely. Must be,” said James. “Which means that if he wanted to, he could control your phone right now. But the only way to know for sure is to get it from the man himself. I tell you, I’m going to have Foster.”

  “You’re going to fight him?” asked Steve, excitedly. Several kids nearby turned around at the mention of the word ‘fight’.

  James remembered his promise to Dad.

  “Well, I’m going to ask him nicely about it,” he said, smiling grimly. “And then I’m going to fight him.”

  ***

  But James didn’t catch even a glimpse of Mark Foster all morning. The best he managed was bumping into Foster’s girlfriend, the surly blonde, in the corridor between classes.

  “Tell your chimp boyfriend that I’m looking for him,” James said, and kept walking. The older girl shouted out some lame insults. James didn’t bother to look around. Message delivered.

  ***

  At lunchtime, James decided it was time to make peace with Sam. They had always been there for each other and it was stupid to let anyone come between them. He texted ‘I’m sorry’ to her and went looking to see if she was outside.

  He found Nina first. She jumped when he tapped her on the shoulder, but brightened quickly when she realized it was him.

  “How you doing?” he asked.

  “Better, thanks,” she said. “Thank you for what you and your family did last night.”

  “That’s ok. Has your dad been to see the Head yet?”

  “He went to see him this morning, but I haven’t heard what happened yet.”

  “Same here.”

  “I’m worried, though. If they don’t expel Foster, he’ll just make things worse here. Look.”

  Nina plucked her phone out of her bag and showed James a text.

  ‘You just dug your own grave! Shouldn’t have run to daddy. I’m going nowhere.’

  “Doesn’t sound good,” pondered James. “Don’t worry. I’m going to have a word with him. But I need to find Sam first.”r />
  He saw her at her favourite bench, eating her sandwich, and was just about to call out when he had the breath knocked from his body as someone crashed into him. His head hit the tarmac. In a blur of movement, James caught a glimpse of Mark Foster looming over him.

  “Looking for me are yer, Blake?” demanded Foster. “Think you’re the big man?” With one hand he lifted James off the ground and threw him some distance across the playground. James rolled over several times. Before he could get up, Foster’s boot crashed into his stomach. James couldn’t breathe.

  Quickly, several other bodies landed on top of him. Hands pinned him down, someone lay across his feet, a fist smashed into his cheek.

  It was the shock rather than the pain that left James feeling numb. It had been a lightning attack. His healing powers acted quickly, but to remove the pile of bodies that were holding him down he would have had to use his telekinesis, and he couldn’t risk doing that. He tried to move his head, but someone was holding it in a vice-like grip. In his peripheral vision, he was aware of a crowd closing in on him. Surely the teachers would spot it soon?

  He heard Nina scream, then the scream was cut short. He caught a glimpse of the blonde girl putting her hand across Nina’s mouth and dragging her away.

  “You made a mistake, Blake,” said Foster, pushing his face close to James’s ear. “You and your sister. Now, she took something from me and I want it back.”

  “Go to hell,” shouted James. Foster kicked him in the stomach.

  “Blake, don’t be stupid,” said Foster, in a mock-reasonable tone. “Do you want me to hurt you?”

  “I’ve seen Nina’s dog excrete harder things than you,” croaked James, as someone pressed a knee onto his chest.

  “Do you know what, I actually like you,” said Foster. “You remind me of me.”

  “You remind me of wee,” managed James, before an unidentified fist crashed into the side of his head. There was an explosion of pain.

  “Look. We don’t have long before a teacher sees, so I’ll tell you what to do. First, get my supply of drugs back from your sister. Then, if you like, I’ll let you buy into my company.”

  “Your what?”

  “Didn’t anyone explain? My company. You want to join my company, you have to buy in. It’ll cost you two hundred quid.”