7: Heading Home

I pressed my hands between my knees and fidgeted. The cheap plastic chair wobbled. Outside, the plane was still sitting where we had landed. Gracie shifted in her seat beside me.

“How long is this going to take?” I asked. The woman had been gone with our ID cards for ages.

“I don’t know,” said Gracie. “Maybe there’re no flights available.”

“But we can’t even afford to pay for a flight,” I whispered.

“Don’t worry about that.”

I was about to ask her what she meant but she looked away, sitting upright on her chair, her toe tapping on the lino.

I checked my phone again. No signal. How could this place not have a phone signal?

“I hate all this sitting around. It makes me jumpy,” I grumbled.

Gracie looked around. “Me too.” She gave me a reassuring smile.

“I’m glad you’re here,” I said.

She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Back there, were you scared?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t remember if I’d been scared or not. All I could think of was the last time I’d seen Robert – with a gun to his head.

“Why did they start hitting people? And Simon – do you think they killed him?” She shifted her chair closer to mine.

I swallowed. “I don’t know.”

“Where do you think they took the pilot?”

“He’ll be fine.”

“You lost your hat.”

I flinched and reached up to touch my head. I couldn’t remember where I’d dropped it.

“It was a cool hat. I liked the feather.”

For a few moments we sat silently.

There was a click of heels on lino and I looked up. The woman was back behind her desk.

“You’re in luck. There’s a routine flight going out later today. It’s not the most luxurious of aircraft, but it’ll get you to Iceland. You can pick up a commercial flight from there.” She held out our ID cards towards us. “It’s a good job you’ve got so much credit on your ID card.” She smiled at Gracie.

I looked over at Gracie. She tucked her ID away in her pocket.

“You’ve got credit?”

Gracie blushed. “Birthday money. Did I tell you my Dad’s quite rich?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Well, he is, so there’s no need for you to worry about that. I’m paying for our tickets. The most important thing is to get away from here.”

“Thanks, Gracie. I promise I’ll pay you back once all this is over.” I looked at my phone once more, then shoved it into my pocket. The sooner we got back to England the better.

It wasn’t until we landed in Keflavik that I finally got a signal.

“I can call Isaac now,” I said to Gracie as we passed though security and into departures. After the tiny plane that had brought us here from the ruby mine, I was looking forward to a proper flight.

“Isaac?” asked Gracie as passport control checked her ID.

“Friend of mine.”

“Friend? Boyfriend?” She winked at me.

“My best friend who happens to be a boy. He’s in Italy.”

“Italy? What’s he doing there?” She found us a couple of seats overlooking the runway.

I dropped my bag and sat down. “Well, he lives there. He’s Italian.”

“Italian? Is he fit?”

I laughed. “No. He’s a geek – spends most of his time on that Netgabble website. But he’s the kindest person in the world.”

Gracie looked disappointed. “So how do you know him? Did you meet him on Netgabble?”

“School. Boarding school. His mum’s English and wanted him to go to school over here. I’m glad she did. I hated it there until I met Isaac.”

Mentioning him like this, I could suddenly see him, grinning at me across the classroom from beneath a shock of dark hair. The memory was painfully vivid.

My heart pounded as I listened to the single ring tone at the other end. Just as I was about to give up on him, the line clicked and I heard his voice.

“Isaac?”

“Danni?” He sounded so pleased that my heart jumped. “Danni,” he said again, but this time the tone was darker.

Gracie gestured to ask if I wanted a drink. I nodded and she wandered off.

“I’m so sorry about Kris,” Isaac was saying. “I got your text, and then it was all over the news. I’ve been trying to call you, but your phone’s been switched off and there’s no answer from the house. What’s going on? And where are you? You sound all echoey.”

“I’m in an airport in Iceland. We’re getting the next flight home.” It was as much as I could do to stop myself crying. It was so good to hear his voice. I hadn’t realised how much I missed him.

“You and Robert?”

“No.”

For a moment there was silence. Then Isaac spoke again, fast and in hushed tones.

“Danni, what’s going on?”

“The Mars Mission – MEXA.” I was whispering too, cupping my hand over the phone. “I think they killed Kris.” My voice started to crack.

“Why? What happened?”

“It’s Robert. We were at the dig and they raided it. They took him away in a helicopter. They had guns.” I swallowed back my tears. “Isaac, he’s all I’ve got left.”

“It’ll be all right, Danni.” His voice was gentle. “But why? Did Robert find something? In Greenland?”

I nodded, then realised he couldn’t see me. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, we did. Ruins and bodies, but the MEXA agents took them all.”

“Did you say bodies?”

“Yes. Skeletons.”

“And MEXA? What would MEXA be doing there? I thought they were just a space agency?”

“Isaac, can you do me a favour? Can you log into my email and send a message to Lucy Munroe? Tell her I’m coming to see her and it’s really important.”

“Danni, of course I will.” He paused a moment. “Can you get here? To Italy? You’ll be safe with us.”

“I don’t know,” I sobbed. “I have to see Lucy first. I think she might know something.”

“But you’re all alone.”

“I’m not. I’m with Gracie.”

“Gracie?”

“Just another girl from the dig site.”

“There were other kids on the dig?”

“No, just Gracie. She’s older than me – eighteen, I think. She’s doing some sort of work experience thing.”

At that moment Gracie came back clutching two bottles of lemonade. The loudspeaker started to call our flight.

“I’ve got to go.”

“Call me when you get to England.”

The phone clicked and he was gone.

We followed the flow of people out onto the runway to board our aircraft. I smiled at Gracie as we strapped ourselves into our seats. She already had the duty free magazine on her knees.

“You look a lot happier,” she said.

I nodded.

“So, what next?”

“Next?” I hadn’t really thought past finding Lucy.

“I could help you,” Gracie said. “If you like.”

“But your parents? Won’t they be worried?” I pulled a magazine out from the seat in front of me and started flicking through pages of adverts.

“I’ll call and let them know I’m safe, but I’m in no rush to go home. There’s only my dad now and he’s always too busy with work.”

“Maybe we should call the police when we land.”

Gracie scowled. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“Why? Do you think MEXA control the police?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t trust them.”

“I have to find my Uncle Robert. I have to save him.” I put the magazine away and turned to face her.

Gracie smiled. It was almost a patronising smile and I felt a surge of annoyance.

“I don’t care what you think,” I said. “There’s something going on – to do with what we found in Greenland – to do with the Mars Mission. If I can find out what, it’ll lead me to Robert.”

Gracie was still smiling. She closed her magazine.

“And you’re going to do this on your own?”

“There’s more to this, Gracie. More than you know.” I touched the rock under my T-shirt, pressing it into my skin, sharp and scratchy.

“What don’t I know?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“You don’t trust me?”

I shook my head. “No. It’s not that. I promised.”

Tears were burning behind my eyes and I blinked a few times. I wasn’t going to let Gracie see me cry. Kris’s words echoed in my mind – tell no one.

“So where do you start?” Gracie asked.

“Oxford.”

“What’s in Oxford?”

I didn’t answer.

“I could help you. I mean that.”

I eyed her up and down. It would be nice not to have to do this all on my own. But even so, I hesitated.

“I have credit,” said Gracie.

“Why do you want to help me?”

Gracie laughed. “Because this sounds like an adventure, and I’m tired of my dad telling me what I should and shouldn’t do all the time. And I’m curious. You’re talking as if there’s some sort of conspiracy, and some secret that MEXA don’t know about.”

I stared into her eyes. There was warmth there. And I was so alone. My parents, then Kris, and now Robert were gone and Isaac was so very far away. Suddenly, the thought of trying to do this alone was almost crushing. I took a deep breath.

“Okay, Gracie, you’re on.”

“So, what’s in Oxford?”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell her. It was a bit of a long shot, after all. But at that moment she reached out and took my hand. It felt a bit like what I imagined having a big sister would feel like.

“We’re going to Oxford,” I said. “To see an old friend of Robert’s.”

We caught a bus from the airport to Oxford and it dropped us off in the centre of the city. I stared around at the electric cars buzzing past, the flotillas of bicycles pulling away from the traffic lights, and wrinkled my nose at the smell of crowds of people. I wasn’t used to such large places. The buildings crowded in on me.

This was a city that had changed so much, even though it was on high enough ground to avoid the relentless rising seas. Many of the lower lying districts had been demolished to make way for the levees and flood defences. The river, like most rivers these days, ran faster and deeper with all the extra rain.

In my parents’ day this had been a university town, and I struggled to imagine what it must have been like with these streets full of students. Today, there were only people in sharp suits clutching umbrellas, hunched against the rain.

“Right then, how do we find this Lucy character?” asked Gracie, leaning against the bus shelter.

Good question.

“I’m not really sure.”

Gracie’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you said she could help us?”

“I hope she can,” I said, trying to sound more sure than I felt.

“Is she with the university? Which college? Or don’t you know?”

I rubbed my eyes and stifled a yawn. It had been a long couple of days.

“She was at Cambridge, but left when the flood waters came and the university shut down. She works for MI5 now.”

“Ooh, MI5. What does she do there?”

“Something secret, obviously.” I tapped the side of my nose. Gracie shook her head and sighed.

“So she’s your uncle’s ex-girlfriend, and they haven’t spoken in how long?”

“A while.”

“And you really think she’ll help us?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, of course she will. She loves him, really.”

Gracie laughed and pointed along the busy street. “I think MI5 is this way.”

I set off, sidestepping to avoid people coming in the opposite direction, and Gracie fell into step beside me. A diesel car drove past, a puff of smoke coming from its exhaust and I paused to watch it. You didn’t see many of those these days.

My phone vibrated in my pocket as the text alert sounded. I pulled it out. Isaac. At last. I’d been trying to call him ever since we landed, but I kept being put through to his answer service. Dumb boy could never remember to charge his phone.

“We could have waited for a bus,” Gracie said.

“I’ve had enough of buses. I’d rather walk.”

I opened the text. Two words:

call me

I looked round at Gracie, and promptly bumped into an old lady who was staggering past, weighed down with bags of groceries. I mumbled an apology as she passed.

“How exactly is this Lucy going to help us? You haven’t explained.”

“The thing that we found in Greenland,” I began. Gracie nodded and steered me into a quieter side street.

“Go on.”

“Well, that strange writing that we found. Robert said Lucy might know something about it. They used to work together.”

“Do MEXA know about Lucy, then?”

I shook my head. “They might, but I doubt if they think she knows anything. She was with Robert right at the start. It was when he started his trips to Greenland that they fell out and broke up.”

“So they won’t know we’re here?”

“I hope not.”

I pulled out my phone and opened Isaac’s text again as we walked.

call me

MI5 was right in front of us. I’d ring him as soon I’d spoken to Lucy.