The Rescue Read Free

look. I’ll be back before Senor Fussypants knows we were gone .’ He disappeared through the door.
    Muttering angrily to myself, I crossed the room towards him. It was all very well Nico saying he would was only taking a ‘quick look’. If Fernandez came back and found him gone, I could just imagine how much trouble we would both be in.
    I reached the door and peered round it. Nico was standing in a gloomy corridor, staring out of a window onto an empty, shaded courtyard.
    ‘Come back,’ I hissed.
    Nico shook his head. ‘We’ve got a second.’ He frowned, still staring out at the courtyard. ‘Where d’you think everyone is?’ he whispered.
    ‘Working, remember?’ I said.
    ‘Oh yeah. “The young people are doing their chores”,’ Nico said, in a fair imitation of Fernandez’ voice. ‘Don’t you hate being called that . . . young people? It’s so patronising.’
    ‘Nico, will you—’
    ‘Jesus, man, look !’ Nico held up his hand to silence me. ‘ Look ,’ he repeated, pointing through the window. A line of five or six kids – some about our age, others younger – were crossing the bleak stone courtyard after a thickset man with a snake tattoo down one arm.
    The kids were dressed shabbily, though they looked clean. But there was something defeated about the way they were walking that sent a chill down my spine.
    As we watched, one of the younger kids said something, and the man with the tattoo hit him across the head. The boy stumbled sideways, then carried on walking. My mouth fell open. I moved closer to the window.
    Nico sucked in his breath. ‘That doesn’t look like the young people doing their chores, does it?’
    I shook my head, frowning.
    We watched for a moment longer. As they reached the edge of the toilets in the centre of the courtyard, Tattoo Man struck another member of the group, a skinny girl with long dark hair. The girl fell to the ground. The man pointed to her trailing shoe lace and the girl knelt, meekly, to tie it.
    ‘Jesus Christ,’ Nico breathed. ‘What the hell is this place?’
    I glanced back into the camp lobby. The front door was still firmly shut. I caught the echo of Geri’s high tinkly laugh in the distance. She and Fernandez must still be talking.
    I took a deep breath and joined Nico by the window. From here I could see the whole courtyard. It was paved with large stone slabs and flanked on one side by what looked like a barn and on the other by a white building similar in style to the main house. Apart from the toilets in the centre, the courtyard was empty.
    As we watched, Tattoo Man and the other kids vanished round the side of the toilets, leaving the skinny dark-haired girl in plain view, still struggling with her shoelace.
    Nico darted down the corridor to the door that led onto the courtyard. He yanked on the handle. Locked. He raised his hand in the gesture he uses to perform telekinesis.
    ‘What are you doing?’ I said, appalled.
    ‘Listen,’ he said, urgently. ‘If what we’ve just seen is typical of what goes on in this camp, then we need to find out and tell Geri before she leaves.’ He twisted his hand. There was a click as the lock undid and the door sprang ajar. I stared, impressed in spite of myself. I’d never tell him this, but Nico’s telekinetic skills are pretty amazing to watch.
    Nico pushed the door open and stepped into the courtyard.
    I hesitated for a second, then followed. Nico was right, we had to find out what we were letting ourselves in for.
    The heat hit me hard. Even in the shade of the courtyard it was like stepping into an oven. I glanced round as we crept across the paving stones. No one at the windows. At least we wouldn’t be spotted from inside the house.
    Nico had already reached the girl. She jumped as he touched her shoulder. He said something in a low voice while I ran past and peered round the side of the hut.
    The other kids and Tattoo Man were gathered next to a ramshackle old VW bus, parked in the