There's something wrong with Phoebe

22 - Phoebe

I tried to conceal my smirk as I was led back into court and put back on the podium. Now things were really going to kick off. I’d seen a glint in Jack’s eyes. It had been promising, and it meant I was going to see everyone again sooner than I’d thought.

“This man is here on suspicion of drug dealing, but also, a recent claim has arisen that he is the abductor of Phoebe Gold.” I frowned slightly, as I had not known of the drug suspicions. Was this a cover up story? No, that was stupid. Who would cover up a crime with another crime?

“You remember me now,” Jack said. I was confused, seeing that his gaze was directed at my Dad. Everyone turned to him, and he shook his head, staring at the ground. “I sold this man drugs, and have done for the past three years.” It was everybody else’s turn to gasp now, and chatter broke out in the court room. I shook my head slightly, staring at my Dad as he trembled in his seat. Could this be true? Was this a side to Jack I was unaware of? I’d always wondered where he got his money from, but had my Dad really been in contact with my ‘abductor’ for three years? Had he known who this man was?

“Silence!” said the judge, banging his mallet. “Is this true, Mr Gold?” He stood, shaking, and nodded. The court room burst into noise again before they were silenced. His knees weakened and he collapsed into his seat. I was stunned, but had to get back to the job, clenching my fists and loosening them. I had to get focused.  

“Miss Gold, did this man abduct you? And hold you captive for six years?”

“It was hardly holding me captive,” I said. I felt more confident now with sarcastic answers.

“But you do know this man?”

“Yes,” I said. I knew there was no way of getting around it, but I did know that Jack was communicating with me. His eyes flickered up, down, to the sides; he shuffled in his seat in different directions and his lips moved ever so slightly. I knew what I had to do. This was what our years of training had been for. I tried to stay calm, though I was getting excited now.

“And what did this man do whilst you were in his captivity?”

“Well…not much.”

“Phoebe, you told me he fathered your child, which he went on to beat before your eyes. Is this true or not?” said Eliza. I pursed my lips, looking at Jack.

“I gave him an offering, but he didn’t beat the child. The child is still alive.” Everyone gasped as I said this.

“Where is this child now?” said the man. I had to think about this carefully. I looked at Jack and he nodded slightly.

“With the other kids,” I said, smiling, causing more gasps.

“Where are these other kids, Phoebe?” Eliza said. I heard the footsteps and the noise coming from outside. The doors burst open. My mind registered my friends’ faces for only a fraction of a second before I swung myself over the podium, my foot colliding with the man’s face. The guards approached me and I punched one of them out during a flip in which I kicked the other backwards. The one I’d punched approached me again and I jutted my fist up under his chin, and he then fell to the ground. I felt the other guard standing again, and grabbed his hand before flipping him over and slamming him on the ground, hearing the crushing of bone.

The court was chaos as Jack ran for the exit whilst fighting off people around him and my friends did a great job themselves. I smiled as I contributed to knocking a few more guards out before running for the exit. It had been child’s play.

“Get them!” the judge called, but we were sprinting away now together as a unit, arms pumping and grinning.

“Great to see you!” I said to Lily on the run, knocking my fist against hers. “You too, Katy, Natasha and Jessie!” They nodded, continuing to run. We burst out of the front entrance after knocking several people out and then we were really running as fast as we could. I laughed as we did so, as nobody knew what was going on and looked perplexed. I couldn’t believe we were actually doing this.

A police car started to pull up alongside us and called for us to stop but we continued to run. The others could go faster than me with more ease as I hadn’t trained in a while athletically, so now they were speeding up, I had to really try to match their pace. They pulled over, and two men got out of the car with guns. This was the bit that always worried me. No doubt Katy, Natasha, Jessie and Lily all had their white suits on underneath their clothing, so they were bullet proof, but I had to try and detect where the bullets were and dodge them.

Jack had spent almost a year firing plastic bullets at us blindfolded before we’d mastered the skill and now was the time to test it. I heard the gun shot and the sound of the bullet collide with the air. It was on my left, near my rib. I dodged it, banging slightly into Jack as I did, knocking him off foot and down a little, but it meant he ducked the bullet which would have gone straight through his head.

“Play 23!” screamed Jack and we all halted in our tracks. The policemen sounded confused and we waited, smiling to ourselves. All was quiet. We counted to three in our heads. Then, we sprung onto our hands backwards before our legs flipped over kicking the men straight in the face before Jack screamed, “Here!” He had climbed into a car, the owner lying on the ground, passed out. We all rushed in as he pulled away from the curb and were racing through town. We didn’t talk and just caught our breath before we got to the edge of town and rushed out again, running down the back alley I’d collected my supplies from. Jack said there was no CCTV here.

Then, we came to a pot hole in the ground. “Down here!” he said hurriedly and we slipped down, me first. It wasn’t very deep and only came a few inches above my head, but I saw before me a tunnel lit with bulbs in the walls.

“Wow,” I whispered, taking a step in as the others slipped down.

“This is the route I made from the house to here. I went down it to get here and do my drug selling. Sorry about that girls; but I needed the money to feed you all.”

“Its fine,” Lily said, speaking for us all, and we nodded in agreement.

“Just follow the lights round and we’ll be back soon enough. Oh, and as we won’t be coming back….” He bent down, picking up a false piece of ground which he slotted into the pot hole. Daylight left the tunnel and it was purely the dim glow of the bulbs guiding us.

I allowed Jack, and then the other girls to go in front of me before hugging Lily tightly. “I can’t believe I’m seeing you again!”

“Same here!” she said. “Onto phase two now!” Our eyes voiced the thought we were both thinking. What was phase two? All these years, all we’d been told was six of us would be selected to cause six explosions around England. Now what? We had to just wait and see. We trusted whatever Jack had planned for us. He was all I had now anyway. The thought sent chills down my spine as I walked, but I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. That was all I had to think of right now. We had been successful, and Jack was proud.