Every Second Counts Read Online Free PDF Page A

save the battery and partly because I didn’t want to see the list of missed calls and texts from Nat that I
knew would be there. Sure enough, he’d messaged again. I ignored the text and looked at the map. There were three pubs within two or three minutes’ drive from where I stood right now. I
had already checked the roads off two of them. This time, I headed for the third.
    The clouds overhead were darkening in the twilight sky as I stood at the roundabout and faced the street on my left. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. This was it, I was sure. I set
off, palms sweaty, eyes alert. The houses were all big on this street, just like the one I remembered breaking into with Nat.
    Lights were starting to come on in several of the homes. I glanced from left to right.
There.
That was Riley’s large brick house, its sweeping drive and neat front garden set behind
huge ironwork gates. I crept across the road, hiding in the shadows of the hedge that bordered the neighbouring house. I reached the edge of the gate and peered in though the bars. The house beyond
looked deserted. Despite the fact that it was getting darker outside, not a single light shone from any of the windows and there was no sign of anyone guarding the entrance either. I was certain,
having met Riley and seen the ops base in Yorkshire, that he would definitely have at least one EFA soldier posted on his doorstep as basic security.
    I tugged my hood more fully over my head as a light patter of rain started to fall. I swore under my breath. I knew from sleeping outdoors so much in the past month that once you got soaked at
night, it was almost impossible to get properly dry again until the following day. I looked around. There was nowhere to shelter in Riley’s front garden and the hedge in whose shadow I was
loitering was both dense and prickly. I glanced along the side passage of the house. The smart wooden door at the end must lead to a back garden which would offer me more shelter – from both
the rain and from passersby – than I would find out here.
    I would wait for Riley – or one of his guards – to return to the house there. All I had to do was climb the iron gate and then the garden door. No problem.
    Seconds later I had shimmied up the iron railings and, landing lightly on my feet, dropped to the other side. Making as little noise on the gravel as I could, I headed for the side passage and
the back garden beyond.

Nat
    Even allowing for the fact that Charlie had a head start to London, it took me a stupidly long time even to get a very little way. My bus to Manchester broke down twice –
unsurprisingly really, considering what an old rust bucket it was – and it was almost dark by the time I reached Manchester bus station. One of the many downsides of living in a permanent
recession was that every company in the world seemed to operate on a shoestring, with nothing – from buses to phones – working properly any more.
    I headed for the bus station ticket office to buy a ticket for London. I didn’t have much money and this was the cheapest way for me to get to Riley’s house. I hurried past several
queues of passengers waiting to board other buses. There was no time to lose; Charlie was already hours ahead of me.
    I stopped to let a middle-aged lady dragging a suitcase on wheels pass me. She muttered as she was forced to move slightly sideways to avoid my luggage. I was carrying Charlie’s sleeping
bag and all her spare clothes as well as my own. I didn’t want to travel so loaded down and I’d thought about leaving Charlie’s things behind, but Lennox had vowed to destroy
anything left in the safe house so there would be no trace of our visit.
    When I’d said goodbye to him and Julius I had got the impression they were glad to be rid of me. Understandable, but hardly a show of resistance solidarity. Still, I was used to being
alone. It felt like another lifetime since I’d had a proper home, before Lucas went