Every Second Counts Read Online Free PDF Page B

thoughts started streaming through my brain: what if Riley was away
all night? All week? What if he’d moved house? I only enough money for a few days’ worth of food. What on earth would I do after that?
    The rain slowed to a faint drizzle. I took out my phone. Maybe I should call Nat after all, tell him where I was. It was sensible to keep in touch. And I
had
run off without saying
anything, then refused to answer his calls and texts.
    Plus I missed him. Badly. We might argue sometimes, but I’d spent the past few weeks entirely in his company and not having him beside me right now felt like a part of me was missing.
    Just as I was about to switch on the mobile and make the call, lights blazed from the house. Two downstairs rooms were now lit up. Phone still in my hand, I peered out through the fronds of the
willow tree. A figure was walking past the window. It was him: Roman Riley. A moment later the curtains closed.
    This was it. I resolved to call Nat later, after I’d spoken to Riley. Nat might not have liked me attempting to make contact with Riley, but maybe he’d change his mind if I was able
to report that I was now successfully undercover with the EFA.
    I crept out from under my tree. The rain was a light mist on my face. Ignoring it, I sped silently across the grass. No one was looking out from the windows of the house. Long shadows deepened
the darkness of the garden. I came to the stone paving that surrounded the fishpond in the middle of the lawn. A low iron fence had been erected around the water. Crouching down I followed the
fence, heading for the end of the pond and the final stretch of grass before the house.
    I reached the last bit of fence. As I stepped out, ready to dart across the lawn, a hand grabbed my arm. I gasped. Something struck me across the back. I stumbled forwards. My phone flew out of
my hand.
    With a splash it landed in the pond.
No.
My arm was twisted up, behind my back. As I yelled out, a hand was clamped over my mouth. My arm was wrenched higher. Pain seared through me. I
turned my head. One of Riley’s EFA soldiers stood behind me, a beanie hat pulled low over his forehead.
    ‘Who are you?’ the man ordered. ‘Why are you here?’ He took his hand away from my mouth.
    ‘I’m Charlie Stockwell,’ I gasped. ‘I want to see Riley – and I know he’ll want to—’
    The soldier clamped his hand over my mouth again. ‘Come on.’ With a rough tug on the arm still twisted behind my back, he dragged me across the grass towards the house.
    I looked over my shoulder at the fishpond. The orange fish swam lazily, their gleaming skin glinting in the faint light from the house. My heart sank. I might be on my way to see Riley, but my
phone was now at the bottom of that pond. It was gone. And with it, my only way of directly contacting Nat.

Nat
    ‘Riley’s really kidnapped Jas?’ People in the ticket office were bustling around me but all my focus was on Aaron’s voice on the other end of the
line.
    ‘Yes, she was on her way over to see me and they took her and I got a phone call telling me to say nothing to any—’
    ‘Wait. Slow down.’ A tannoy announcement boomed overhead as I tried to process what Aaron was saying. I could understand why Riley might think Jas would know where I was, but why on
earth would she have been going to see Aaron in the first place? Jas hardly knew him – though she did know that, despite my rescuing him, Aaron Latimer had done absolutely nothing to clear my
name. Okay, so Julius had insisted that Mayor Latimer was only pretending to support Riley, that he was in fact giving the resistance equipment and weapons, but that could easily be a con. And this
was
surely
a trick.
    ‘Nat?’ Aaron sounded panicky, his voice urgent. ‘Are you there?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Does your dad know Riley’s taken Jas?’
    ‘No, he’s away on some business trip.’
    ‘I thought he was supposed to be close to Riley?’
    ‘He pretends to