After five minutes of stretches on the AstroTurf of the TUIL Arena, the England youth team captain, Rio, asked his teammates to run round the perimeter of the pitch. A steady pace on the lengths, then sprints on the widths.
With adults being banned from the team hotel, it had been decided that Rio would act as coach for this tournament. And he relished his role. It was a new experience for him.
Rio was tall, black and lean. He was the best player in the team by a long way. Everyone respected him. Even Hatty. Because of that respect, Hatty went at the training hard from the first minute. She loved training almost as much as playing matches. She believed in giving a hundred per cent at all times.
She also loved being a spy.
Hatty had known what her mum’s job was all along and it had always been her ambition to be a spy too. But she never expected that her cover story would be so much fun. Her mum’s cover had been as a telephone engineer. Not that exciting! Which is why Hatty was so happy to pretend to be a member of a youth football team, representing England.
It was almost perfect.
Except for one person.
Georgia.
As Hatty eased down from a sprint to a jog, she saw Georgia’s blonde ponytail come bouncing alongside her and she knew that the other girl was about to say her piece. Georgia always had to say her piece: she was one of those people who wanted to be at the centre of things or else wanted to tear them down. Hatty accelerated, trying to avoid her rather than get involved in another argument. But that was not going to happen this time.
‘What were you doing running up that hill?’ Georgia gasped, trying to keep up.
Hatty didn’t answer straight away. She was surprised that anyone had seen them. ‘Training,’ she replied.
‘We’re training now. Why do you and Kester and Adnan and Lily always have to do extra training?’
‘We missed a training session yesterday,’ Hatty explained, quick as a beat. ‘You were here the day before. We were just trying to keep up with you, Georgia.’
The two girls arrived at the corner flag and Hatty set off at a fast pace, leaving Georgia behind. Why, she asked herself, did she find Georgia so difficult to deal with? Yes, Georgia was annoying, but Hatty could normally deal with annoying people all day long. With Georgia it was different.
She speeded up, feeling the other girl’s eyes on her back.
After the stretching and the running, Rio set up a seven-a-side game. He preferred training to be made up mostly of short games rather than just practising football drills.
He also had a word with Lesh, who was waiting on the sidelines. Lesh had a new role in the team. He’d been a decent defender before his accident. So now he was Mr Tactics, having found some Dutch football software that helped him to analyse the team’s performance and what each player was achieving on the pitch.
Almost as soon as the seven-a-side started, Lily went in hard with a tackle on Finn, one of Rio’s best friends.
‘Calm down, Lily,’ Rio said. ‘This is just a practice game.’
Lily climbed to her feet and put her hand out to Finn. He took it and let himself be pulled up by her.
‘Sorry, Finn,’ she said.
Finn just scowled in response.
Hatty smiled as she tracked back to cover the free kick that Lily had given away. Lily was a good footballer, a precise defender who made perfect use of space, skilfully distributing the ball. But she was also a player with aggression. Hatty loved the way people never expected that from Lily, even people who knew her. She was pretty and sweet and kind and she always had a smile on her face. But on the pitch she was a tough tackler. Hard as nails.
‘What is it?’ Georgia asked.
‘What is what?’
‘Why are you smiling? And what is it about you and Lily? And the others. You’re always going off on your own. There’s something weird about you.’
Hatty turned to face her enemy. ‘Could it be because we’re mates?’
‘No.’
‘Honestly?’
‘No.’
‘What then?’ Hatty asked, slightly worried that Georgia was asking too many questions and how it could make trouble for them, especially as they had to get away sharpish after training to plant listening devices and track their targets in the conference hotel.
‘There’s something else,’ Georgia said as if to herself. ‘I’ll find out. It’s just a matter of time.’