Genius Squad (31 page)

‘What is?’ said Trader.

‘Her plan to kidnap Prosper English. When he arrives at the Coroner’s Court.’ Lexi was bobbing up and down in her seat. ‘That Gazo guy is supposed to stink up the whole courthouse, so everyone will pass out except the GenoME people. They’ll be disguised as journalists, and they’ll have gas-masks and stuff.’ Lexi’s frantic gum-chewing started to slow as her brow creased. ‘I guess they’ll be dragging Prosper out to a car, or something,’ she speculated. ‘It doesn’t say here. Maybe she hasn’t worked that out yet.’

‘Wait – wait a minute.’ Cadel couldn’t believe it. He had to swallow hard before continuing. ‘Gazo can’t be doing that,’ he whispered. ‘He
wouldn’t
do that.’

‘Carolina thinks he will. She’ll threaten to expose him if he doesn’t. By telling the police who he really is.’ Lexi consulted her data. ‘Which means that she must have worked out who he really is herself. Somehow.’

‘Her husband would probably have known about Gazo,’ Trader mused. ‘Chester Cramp used to run NanTex, remember. He’d be familiar with all of Darkkon’s genetic mutants. I’m sure Chester would have twigged when he saw Gazo’s application form.’

‘Yeah. I guess. Except that I can’t find any emails from Chester on the subject,’ Lexi pointed out.

‘Maybe he phoned her.’

‘Maybe.’

‘If she’s threatening to expose Gazo, then she doesn’t realise that the police have already b-been told about him,’ said Hamish. ‘So either Gazo hasn’t been mentioned on the police system yet, or she hasn’t found him there.’ He scanned the room. ‘Somebody ought to check.’

Cadel realised that he was on his feet, though he had no memory of rising. Sonja watched him with evident concern.

Trader was deep in thought.

‘It’s all a bit rushed,’ he said, stroking his chin. ‘I’d be surprised if they could pull it off. Though if they do, we’re in luck.’ He glanced at Judith. ‘As long as we can prove that the orders came from America. Otherwise Earl Toffany could say that it was all Carolina’s idea. He could blame her and get off scot-free.’ Feeling a tug at his sleeve, Trader rounded on Cadel. ‘What? What is it?’

‘We have to tell the police,’ Cadel insisted.

‘Oh, no.’ Trader was adamant. ‘And tip them off about what we’ve been doing? Not likely.’

‘But – ’

‘Gazo will tell them.’ Trader spoke with a careless confidence that Cadel found abrasive. ‘He’s on the side of the angels now, isn’t he?’

‘
If-Gazo-tells-the-police-about-Carolina’s-plan, someone-might-report-it-on-the-police-system
,’ Sonja interposed. ‘
And-Carolina-has-access-to-that
.’

‘She’s right,’ agreed Devin. He seemed startled to hear these words issuing from his own mouth, but ploughed on anyway. ‘Sonja’s right. If Carolina learns that the cops know what she’s going to do, she’ll think up another plan,’ he said. ‘Without telling Gazo about it.’

‘
And-she-might-try-to-silence-him
,’ Sonja added. ‘
Because-he’s-the-only-witness-who-can-testify-that-she’s-arranging-to-have-Prosper-abducted.
’

As far as Cadel was concerned, Sonja had hit the nail on the head. Gazo
was
in danger. Clearly, Carolina hadn’t yet stumbled on evidence of his cooperation with the police. But this was no guarantee that she wouldn’t come across an incriminating email in the future.

‘I need to tell Gazo,’ Cadel declared. ‘Right now. I need to tell him that Carolina’s been spying on the police.’ He raised his voice, forestalling Trader’s objection. ‘Gazo can warn Saul Greeniaus about what GenoME’s doing,’ he said, ‘as long as we pretend that he got all his facts from GenoME, not from me. That way, the squad will be protected.’

‘Cadel – ’

‘
I’m going to do it!
’ Cadel clenched his fists. ‘You can’t stop me, Trader!’

A hush fell. The only movement was Sonja’s juddering; the more she tried to subdue it, the worse it became. Everyone else remained motionless, gaping or wincing or (in Lexi’s case) dimpling with glee. Even Trader seemed taken aback.

‘I’m not going to stop you,’ he said finally. ‘I’m going to ask you to think. You were told not to contact Gazo. Suppose the police are tapping his phone? Suppose they’re watching his house? How are you going to get in touch without alerting them?’ Seeing Cadel frown, Trader pressed his advantage. ‘What if they get suspicious?’ he continued more quietly. ‘First you contact Gazo, after being warned not to. Next thing he’s on the phone, telling police to keep his name off their computers. Isn’t it possible that they might put two and two together?’

‘No.’ Cadel stood firm. ‘No, they won’t,’ he said. ‘Because they won’t know I’ve been anywhere near Gazo.’

Trader clicked his tongue and shook his head.

‘How do you propose to manage that?’ he inquired. ‘There are two coppers sitting outside the gate as we speak, Cadel. You’re not going to get past
them
.’

‘Oh, yes I am,’ said Cadel, with absolute certainty. ‘Just watch.’

TWENTY-SEVEN

Lexi was only too delighted to help with Cadel’s costume. She threw open her wardrobe, dragging out armfuls of unsuitable clothes: black net tank-tops, black vinyl miniskirts, black leather trousers covered in oddly placed zippers. No matter how many times Cadel stressed that he was trying to
avoid
being noticed – that a black lace corselet or a t-shirt covered in fake blood spatters was likely to attract unwanted attention – Lexi kept pleading with him to at least ‘try this on’.

‘But you’ll need a jacket!’ she would say, holding up a shaggy black vest made of artificial fur, or a trailing black velveteen cape trimmed with red satin. ‘Go on, please? It’ll look
fabulous
on you!’

Cadel, however, refused to oblige. The more Lexi begged, the more uncooperative he became. ‘I just want ordinary stuff,’ he insisted. ‘Don’t you have any ordinary stuff?’ In the end, he chose a black cotton skirt, a black lace bra, and a pair of black tights. Combined with one of his own white t-shirts – worn beneath Sonja’s embroidered pink jumper – the skirt didn’t look too outlandish, though its hem was slightly asymmetrical.

On his feet he wore Judith’s ankle-boots. These boots had high heels, and added greatly to the overall effect, Cadel thought. Luckily, he and Judith shared an identical shoe size.

He turned down Lexi’s offer of black nail-polish.

‘How am I supposed to get it off afterwards?’ he said. ‘I’ll be doing a quick change, Lexi. I can’t be messing around with nail-polish remover.’ Nor did he favour lipstick that was deep purple, or fire-engine red. Secretly, his aim was to imitate Dot, whose bland appearance meant that she never stood out in a crowd. Everything about her was neutral – even her lipstick. And it was Dot’s lipstick that Cadel eventually borrowed, much to Lexi’s disgust.

He had decided not to worry about jewellery. Managing hair clips would be fiddly enough. By tying his hair back tightly, he flattened out most of his curls; the bouncy little ponytail that resulted from this manoeuvre could be wound up and pinned down into a kind of bun, which could then be concealed beneath a large silk flower attached to a comb. Sonja contributed the comb. It had been a Christmas gift from her friend Kay-Lee, but Sonja had never worn it.

‘
You-look-better-than-I-do-in-most-things
,’ she said. ‘
Even-silk-flowers
.’

Gazing into Lexi’s mirror, Cadel couldn’t disagree. He was almost disappointed to see that he still made a pretty convincing girl – at least from a distance. Up close, his budding moustache was perhaps a little too heavy, and his jaw a little too angular. It was also just as well that Sonja’s jumper happened to have a high neck.

Nevertheless, his transformation was so remarkable that Trader gasped at the sight of him.

‘Good God,’ said Trader. Then he burst out laughing.

‘Isn’t he gorgeous?’ Lexi crooned. ‘Don’t you like what I did with his hair?’

They were standing in Sonja’s bedroom, surrounded by heaps of Lexi’s discarded clothes. Trader shook his head in wonder as he eyed Cadel from every angle.

‘I honestly wouldn’t have recognised you,’ Trader admitted. ‘Is this something you learned at the Institute?’

‘More or less,’ said Cadel.

Trader cocked his head to one side, his smile still plastered across his face. ‘It’s a great disguise,’ he conceded, ‘but I still don’t understand how you’re going to get out of here. The coppers will be suspicious, because they won’t have seen you come in. Not dressed like that, anyway.’

‘I won’t be dressed like this when I leave,’ Cadel informed him.

‘Then they’ll follow you.’

‘I know.’

‘You can’t hide in the back of the van,’ Lexi pointed out. ‘If they’re looking through the gates, they’ll see you climb into it.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Cadel. ‘I know what I’m doing.’ Once again, he addressed Trader. ‘I just need Hamish and Devin to help me. It won’t take more than four hours, tops.’

With the American system shut down for the night, Hamish and Devin were at a loose end, so Cadel wasn’t surprised when they agreed to accompany him to the cinema. Zac volunteered to drive there, and might even have stayed to watch the movie if its subject matter had been more to his taste.

‘I’m not a big fan of horror films,’ he remarked, tapping the entertainment page of Judith’s newspaper. ‘Couldn’t we see this one, instead?’

‘No,’ said Cadel. ‘It’s all a matter of timing.’

‘What about me?’ Lexi plaintively demanded. ‘Why can’t I go?’

‘Because you have decoding to finish,’ Trader rejoined, and that was the end of that. No further discussion was entered into. By two o’clock Cadel was sitting in Zac’s battered old van, heading for the city. On his knee he was nursing a backpack that contained his bulky costume, as well as a packet of crisps protruding artfully out of one side-pocket. This chip packet was another part of his disguise.

‘There has to be a reason for bringing such a big bag,’ Cadel had explained, after insisting that Hamish load up his own backpack with lemonade and caramel popcorn. ‘The police have to think we’re smuggling cheap snacks into the movie.’

‘You mean those guys actually
think
?’ had been the response from Hamish, who was almost too enthusiastic about Cadel’s plan. Cadel worried that the surveillance team might start to wonder why Hamish kept prancing from foot to foot, and breaking into giggles. Would they grow suspicious? Or would they look at those massive biker’s boots, and that unsuccessful buzz-cut, and decide that Hamish was just a harmless flake?

Cadel certainly hoped so.

Before leaving Clearview House, Cadel had donned one of Devin’s beanies, as well as a pair of blue jeans and a red top. Devin himself was already gone by then; he’d caught the 1:07 bus (as instructed) wearing an outfit similar to Cadel’s – minus the beanie. Cadel made sure that Zac’s van arrived at the Broadway cinemas with barely enough time to spare. Knowing that the police car was on his tail, Cadel wanted to be able to charge inside at top speed without giving the impression that he was running away from his bodyguards.

As Cadel had told Zac, it was all in the timing. When Zac entered the multi-storeyed car park and pulled over, Hamish and Cadel immediately jumped out. This ploy took the police by surprise. They obviously weren’t prepared for such a quick drop-off, though it didn’t take them long to react. By the time one of them had climbed out of their vehicle, however, Cadel and Hamish were already through the exit door and halfway up a flight of stairs that led to the cinema complex.

Cadel tore off his beanie in the stairwell. At the top of the stairs, he punched through another door to find himself just around the corner from the cinema box office. Devin was waiting for him, tickets in hand. Cadel exchanged the beanie for a ticket while he and Hamish and Devin raced around the corner. At this point Devin donned the beanie.

Then they separated. Cadel plunged into the ladies’ restroom while Hamish and Devin sprinted towards cinema number three. Cadel was sure that the usher had seen only two boys, one dressed in a grey beanie, a red top, and blue jeans. If given a description, she would direct the police towards cinema three – where Hamish and Devin would be sitting in the dark, at the very back of the theatre.

Here they would remain for the next two-and-a-half hours.

Cadel surprised one little girl when he crashed into the ladies’ toilets, but didn’t try to explain himself. As she stared at him, open-mouthed, he scurried past her and shut himself in a cubicle. Then he changed his clothes, waiting several minutes (until the coast was clear) before emerging to slap on make-up. He was interrupted during this process by a middle-aged woman in a tracksuit. By that time, however, he was wearing lipstick, so she didn’t give him a second glance.

He had already concealed his backpack inside a larger plastic bag, which he’d brought with him for that purpose. And he knew that the ankle-boots made him look taller than usual. Nevertheless, when he finally emerged from the restroom, he did so with a wildly beating heart and a high colour.

Sure enough, one of his bodyguards was sitting on a bench not far from cinema three.

Cadel recognised him as the driver of the car that had followed Zac’s van from Clearview House. The other policeman was probably inside cinema three, sitting somewhere near Hamish and Devin. Devin had been told to stay slumped in his seat, thereby giving the impression that he was fairly short. He was also supposed to be keeping his mouth shut and his face lowered. Cadel hoped that he would remember to do this. There was a risk that the movie might distract him.

Marching past the bored police driver, Cadel busied himself tucking Sonja’s hairbrush into Lexi’s shoulder-bag. This activity was supposed to divert attention from his face to his hands. But he wasn’t too worried. Having timed his exit to coincide with the end of another film, he was carried along in the tide of patrons spilling from cinema four, and managed to lose himself in the crowd. With so many people to look at, the policeman didn’t appear to notice Cadel – who slipped out of the cinema complex into the larger, brighter expanse of an adjacent shopping mall.