‘And she’ll walk straight into Guy and his gang,’ pointed out Jake unhappily.
At that thought, Dan looked even more miserable.
‘Don’t worry,’ Lauren tried to reassure him. ‘You said she told you she was staying in London, so she won’t be coming here.’
‘But say she changes her mind?’ asked Dan, very worried.
No one answered him. Jake didn’t like to think what would happen to her if she did show up.
About midnight they heard footsteps. It was one of the girls, Gadge. She pushed something through the bars of the cell door.
‘Here,’ she said.
Then she went back upstairs.
Jake picked up two bottles of water.
‘At least we won’t die of thirst,’ said Lauren.
‘When do we get fed?’ Jake asked Gareth.
‘When they feel like it,’ said Gareth. ‘I’ve been here for four days now and have had a few pieces of bread.’
‘Why do you think they haven’t killed you?’ asked Jake.
‘I think Guy sees me as a bargaining chip if things go bad for him,’ said Gareth. ‘From what I can make out, Alex Munro told him about my real job.’
‘Your real job?’ queried Dan.
‘As everyone else here seems to know, I don’t see why you should be kept out of the loop,’ said Gareth. ‘I work for the secret services.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘But that’s a secret, and I expect you to keep it.’
‘I will!’ Dan assured him.
‘Providing we get out of here,’ sighed Lauren.
Deep night came. Lauren, Gareth and Dan eventually succumbed to sleep, but Jake stayed awake. Every nerve in his body was twitching. The whole time he was waiting for the sound of footsteps on the stairs and someone to appear with that machete, or Guy with the gun. They’re going to kill us, he said to himself. The question is: when? Will Guy keep us as a bargaining chip, the way he’s hanging on to Gareth? Unlikely. Gareth’s worth something, he’s valuable. Me, Lauren and Dan, we’re disposable.
By the time daylight filtered in through the tiny hole, Jake still hadn’t slept. Lauren, Dan and Gareth woke, and they all took sips from the bottles of water. No one spoke, there wasn’t much to say. Nothing positive, anyway.
They sat on the floor, or paced to stretch their legs, as the hours passed. No one came down to the dungeons to see them. One hour passed, then two, then three. They thought they heard sounds of banging and crashing going on somewhere outside, but the sounds were distant.
Finally, at half past eleven, they heard the sound of boots on the stone steps. Duke and Des appeared. As before, Duke was holding the machete.
Des unlocked the door and pointed at Jake and Lauren.
‘You two,’ he snapped. ‘Guy wants to see you.’
Guy was sitting waiting for them as Jake and Lauren were pushed into the room. The other members of the gang were lounging about. From the sullen expressions on their faces and the dirt on their clothes, Jake guessed they’d been digging for The Index at the site of the old chapel. Guy’s opening words confirmed this.
‘Well, you have kept us busy, Jake,’ he said. ‘After you found the Journal, it really got us quite excited, so we’ve spent the whole morning, ever since the sun came up, lifting those very heavy flagstones and searching the whole site. And guess what?’
Jake didn’t need to guess. The venomous looks he was receiving from the members of Guy’s crew said it plainly.
‘That’s right, Jake. A couple more empty holes, but no sign of The Index. Which is very disappointing. So, Jake, where is it?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Jake.
‘Let me have a go at him,’ snarled Des. ‘I’ll make him talk.’
‘Wait, Des. Don’t be so impatient. I’m sure Jake will be helpful to us, without our having to resort to too much violence.’
Jake looked at the kids’ faces. Not all of them would enjoy inflicting pain. Yes, Des and Duke would be nasty, he could tell that. But there was hope in the others: in the two girls, Midge and Gadge. They were part of this crew, but at the same time he had the feeling they were separate from it. The two unknowns were Patch and Spider. Were they cruel, enjoying torture, like Des and Duke? Or did they have something that could be appealed to, deep down?
Guy was talking again.
‘You see, Jake, so far out of all the people I’ve talked to about The Index, or any of the Malichea books, you’re the only one who’s shown the kind of brains to work out where they are. Munro told me you’d found some of the books. Pierce Randall told me the same. And here you are, successfully tracking down the Journal, something that no one has done before. So you see, Jake, I feel you have the power.’