THREE WEEKS EARLIER
Amber was halfway through her bowl of cereal when the front door was thrown open. Footsteps clattered into the lounge room and Hex's tired face appeared from around the corner.
'Anything?' Amber asked around a mouthful of Cornflakes.
Hex dropped his coat onto one of the armchairs and slumped against the kitchen bench, scowling. 'They can't tell us, apparently.' His voice was unmistakably bitter.
The cereal turned to sawdust in Amber's mouth. With difficulty she swallowed. 'Do you think...?'
'What?' Hex's green eyes immediately sharpened.
'That we're not being told anything because something bad has happened,' Amber finished hesitantly. Her comment was supposed to sound like a statement, but came out halfway towards being a question. To her relief, Hex immediately shook his head.
'No,' he insisted. 'What would be the point of that?'
Sighing, Hex pulled out the bar stool next to Amber and sat down. He put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands, staring at a small puddle of milk by the cartoon.
'Well then why aren't they telling us what's going on?' Amber demanded when it became obvious Hex wasn't going to say anything else.
Hex turned his head slightly and looked at Amber's face for a moment before answering. 'Most likely they have no idea where Li is.' He switched his focus back to the spilled milk. There was a slight squeak as Amber's stool slid back across the lino. She grabbed her still half-full bowl and stormed around the bench, into the actual kitchen.
'Why don't they know anything?' she fumed, scraping the rest of her breakfast into the bin under the sink. 'They're the police, aren't they?'
Hex watched her with slight concern. 'Did you have enough to eat?' he asked, thinking of the large amount of cereal now sitting in the bin.
'Yes,' Amber snapped without turning around. She scrubbed angrily at her bowl, trying to control her rising irritation. Li had been missing for a week now and still nothing had been found. The Cheong's house had been searched thoroughly, but, with nothing being found, the police had come to the conclusion that Li mightn't have been snatched from the house. If she was snatched at all.
Amber frowned out the window as she remembered the previous morning. They'd gone around to see Li's parents and ask them what was happening, to find two uniformed police officers and a plain clothes detective standing in the living room with Li's mother.
'So as I was saying, Mrs Cheong,' the detective had said in a nervous tone, 'it is looking as though you're daughter may not have been abducted from your house.'
'What?' Mrs Cheong had sounded outraged. 'She's responsible and Nancy was keeping an eye out for her. She said Li never left the house!'
The detective perched on the edge of the sofa and cleared his throat. 'Well, our forensic team has been through here with a fine tooth comb and nothing remotely suspicious has been found. If you're daughter didn't leave the house and wasn't kidnapped outside then...' He trailed off, finishing the sentence being unnecessary; everyone knew what he was implying.
'Li did not willing go with anyone!' Mrs Cheong exploded. 'How dare you stand here and accuse my daughter of something so, so' –she searched for the right word- 'immature!'
The detective had obviously realised he'd crossed the line because he wisely stood up, backing right off. Mrs Cheong carried on, regardless.
'Don't you even dare think of accusing my daughter of running off with some weirdo,' she spat. 'Li isn't like that.' She glowered at him. 'I'd appreciate it if you left now.'
Corralling the two uniformed officers, the detective had muttered a farewell and left quickly. It had taken two cups of tea, fifteen minutes and all of Alpha Force's calming tactics to transform Mrs Cheong back into her peaceful and controlled self.
Alpha Force. Amber winced, realising she'd thought that automatically. Li wasn't with them so how could they be Alpha Force? She dropped the bowl onto the draining board and turned around, leaning against the sink.
'Are you sure you're ok?' Hex asked worriedly, watching Amber's rather shaky stance and the death grip she had inflicted on the edge of the counter.
'Yeah,' Amber answered, but this time there was no annoyance in her words.
Alex chose this moment to enter. His blonde hair was tousled and dark circles ringed the bottom of his eyes.
'Morning,' he murmured.
Hex raised an eyebrow. 'You look like death,' he said. Alex ignored him, slotting a piece of bread into the toaster and watching the coils turn red. His gaze flitting back and forth between Alex and Amber, Hex had an idea. Alex's toast popped up, making all three of the jump. Grinning sheepishly, Alex flipped the toast onto the plate and smeared butter over it. He was just about to find something else to put on it, when he looked up and caught sight of Hex's expression.
'What are you thinking?' Alex's voice sounded slightly apprehensive, wondering what plan Hex had cooking. Another head swivelled in Hex's direction as Amber tuned in.
'When you've finished your toast, Alex, and Paulo's dragged his bum out of bed,' he said slowly, 'I think we should do a bit of investigating of our own.'
The shadows threw up weird and wonderful shapes against the back fence. Amber, crouched next to Alex, froze as a branch broke to her left. All her instincts screamed at her to run, but Amber stayed put, shooting a questioning glance in Alex's general direction. He put his finger to his lips and nodded to a dark shape emerging from the darkness. The tabby cat saw Amber and Alex, hissed and bounded away. Amber let out a breath that she hadn't realised she was holding as Alex tapped her shoulder and pointed at the fence.
As Alex opened the side gate and slipped into the backyard, Amber felt edgy again. This felt wrong somehow. Alex was waiting for her to catch up, huddled next to a large bush.
'Why are we sneaking around?' Amber whispered as she joined him.
'Li's mum isn't here; she's gone to stay with her sister, Debbie or something. Besides' –Alex grinned suddenly- 'we like a challenge.'
Amber rolled her eyes and peeked out from behind the bush. A pair of eyes stared straight back at her and Amber gave a startled squawk, scrabbling backwards and bumping into Alex.
'Sorry. Did I frighten you?' Hex's familiar accent floated towards them and Amber growled as his head appeared.
'Idiot,' she muttered, thumping his arm.
He grinned and squashed in beside her behind the bush. 'Paulo's keeping watch. Amber,' Hex said in a low voice, 'you'll have to go through the laundry window and let us in. They don't have an alarm system, so we haven't got anything to worry about.'
Amber nodded automatically, before realising what Hex had just said. 'Hang on. Why me?'
In answer, Hex gestured at Alex and himself. 'That window is tiny and we certainly won't fit.'
The three of them squirmed forward, Amber muttering to herself. They reached the side of the house, the laundry window near the top and not nearly as small as Amber had thought. She'd be able to fit, though it might take a bit of wriggling.
'Ok,' Alex whispered. 'Put one foot in Hex's hands and one foot in mine.' The two boys cupped their hands to form a step that Amber would be able to stand on. Gripping the tops of their heads, she stood, her head now level with the window.
'Grab the edge,' hissed Hex, 'and pull yourself through. We'll feed your legs through, so grab onto something on the other side.'
Amber did as Hex told her, poking her head through the open window and using her arms to pull her through. Luckily there was a washing machine right underneath her and, as the two boys pushed the rest of her body through the window, she simply supported herself on the washing machine.
Five minutes later, Hex and Alex had joined her. They crept through the house, heading for the stairs.
'What are we hoping to find?' Amber murmured.
'Something that will lead us to find Li,' answered Hex in a patronising tone. Amber could easily hear the unspoken, What were you thinking of looking for?, and she ground her teeth.
'I know that,' she said. 'But the police have been through here already. What are we going to find that trained professionals couldn't?'
'We know Li, therefore something that the police and whoever else was sorting through everything here might have overlooked might be a breakthrough for us.' Hex stopped by Li's bedroom door and looked at his friends. 'Just remember that what we find we may not like,' he added softly.
Li's bedroom was loud and vibrant, just like Li. Two walls and the cupboards were painted orange, while the remaining wall and the door was a flaming red. Amber would have thought the two colours would never have worked in a bedroom, but this somehow did. There was a simple wooden bed and next to it a bedside table. Two bookcases were pushed against the red wall, and stuffed to the max with various non-fiction books and novels.
Amber crossed the room and looked at Li's bedside table. Her heart ached when she caught sight of the picture beside her bed. Alpha Force, complete and whole, were standing together smiling broadly. Amber recognised the tree next to Paulo and realised it was the photo her Uncle had taken just two months ago when they were all staying at the Middleton's house. How had things changed so quickly? How was it that just two short months ago, the five of them were having such a great time together and now Li was missing? It didn't make sense.
Replacing the photo on the table, Amber turned her attention back to their hunt. Alex was looking through Li's cupboard while Hex sifted through the bookshelf. Amber had no idea what they were hoping to find, but she decided to humour them and join in. Dropping to the ground, Amber studied the floor from the carpet's point of view. Li was very tidy, or maybe her parents had cleaned up after the forensic team went through. Wiggling forward on her stomach, Amber caught sight of a scrap of paper under the bed. Maybe if the room hadn't been so spotless, Amber wouldn't have noticed. As it was, the tiny piece of white stood out sharply against the carpet.
'Guys, I found something,' Amber said, her voice slightly muffled by the carpet and being under the bed.
'What?' Hex and Alex sounded excited. They dropped what they were doing and dropped own next to Amber, just as she emerged from under the bed.
'Angels,' Amber read. She flipped it over but the rest of the paper was blank. 'What's it mean? That could be from anything!'
Hex gently pulled the paper from Amber's hands before she ripped it up. 'It may be insignificant by itself, but it could be the final piece of information that leads us to Li.' He slipped the paper into his palmtop case, strapped securely to his belt. 'I'll hold onto it.'
Frustrated by their lack of success in Li's room, the three friends searched the rest of the house quickly, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. They left via the back door, Hex reminding Amber to lock it behind her which resulted in her snarling and muttering under her breath again.
Paulo was waiting in the shadowy alley next to the block of flats across the road. His face lit up when he saw his friends.
'Anything?' he asked hopefully. Alex shook his head and Paulo's face fell.
'Hang on,' Hex interrupted. 'Amber did find a piece of paper with the word "angels" on it, but as to what that means, well...' He trailed off and shrugged.
Paulo squared his shoulders and stared at the house. 'If it means something you will figure it out, Hex. I know you will.' He grinned suddenly, making his friends smile in return, relieved to see Paulo relatively happy again.
'If any one can crack it, code boy can,' Amber added, tapping Hex's head gently.
They walked back to the apartment, still carrying on with their carefree attitude, laughing and joking, completely unaware that they were being followed.
