Chapter Thirteen: Dancing In The Dark

There was a moment of shocked silence, which Li eventually broke.

'He's what?' she yelped.

I sighed, put on my patient voice and answered: 'Jasper is going to blow up the mall.' Looking at they're faces, I got hastily and somewhat unsteadily to my feet and added, 'Can we go now?'

'Hang on,' Hex said in a rush. 'Can you elaborate?'

I was twitching with impatience and ready to throttle them, but I kept the calm voice. 'No. I can't. We're in a bit of a rush.'

Without waiting for an answer, I raced for the car, comforted by the sound of their feet coming after me. I reached the car first and threw myself in the driver's seat.

'Hey!' Hex protested as I turned the key in the ignition.

'Shut up and get in the damn car,' I snapped, patience wearing dangerously thin.

Hex's mouth clacked shut and he scurried around to the front passenger seat, sliding in and sitting very straight and still. I felt bad for snapping at him, but had no time to apologise.

'Everyone in?' I called. There were two yep's from the back seat so I slammed my foot down on the accelerator and sped out of the parking lot.

I ignored the speed limits, Hex's worried sideways glances, Li's woops and Paulo's repeated questions. Just concentrate on getting us all there alive, Amber, I told myself. Don't think about what you'll do next. Just focus on the now. A small smile stretched across my face. Wow. I felt so Zen.

Hex saw my smile and started. 'Why're you smiling?'

I quickly dropped the corners of my lips down in a stressed frown. 'I'm not.'

'You were.'

'Weren't.

'Were.'

'You two!' Li sighed and thwacked the backs of our heads. 'Quit it. Hex, let Amber drive. Amber, stop annoying Hex.'

'Yes mom,' we answered in unison.

I went to smile again but stopped myself. Alex was still missing and Jasper was about to blow a building sky high. This wasn't the time to be thinking about the normality of the situation. The relief could wait until we were all together again.

'Is this the place?' Paulo was the first one out of the crapmobile as we pulled up in the dark backstreet behind the new mall.

I nodded, though I doubt if he would have seen given the fact that it was so dark and I had my head in my backpack, searching for the map.

'What're you looking for?' Hex crouched down next to me, his hand on my back.

For some reason, my cheeks flamed red and I only just managed to force out, 'Map.' My fingers closed around the map, but I kept rummaging for a few more seconds to give my cheeks a chance to return to their normal colour. 'Found it,' I said cheerfully when I finally straightened up, pushing all unrelated thoughts from my mind. 'We need to go to the lower level of the underground car park. It's not finished, so watch yourselves.'

We sprinted for a largish door on the side of the building. It opened into a huge, empty space, various large wooden crates dotted here and there.

'Stairs,' Hex muttered. 'We need stairs.'

Li, her eyes squinty, bounced in place. 'I see some!' she enthused. 'Come on!'

Like bloodhounds on the scent of something interesting, we raced off in the direction Li had pointed.

'Oh.' Li's face fell when we screeched to a halt. 'Not stairs.'

The cavernous whole in the ground, with various sharp and potentially deadly looking bits of metal littered in the bottom, didn't look too promising.

'Spread out,' Hex decided. 'See anything that looks like it might lead down to the car parks, give a yell.'

We all murmured our agreement and then fanned out, each working our way outwards, towards the distant walls. The relative darkness and solitude brought back my confusion with painful clarity. What the heck was going on? I sighed. There were times when I wished with all my heart that Hex would be a bit less cryptic and a tad more open.

'Gah!' Hex's shout snapped me out of my thoughts. There was a crash, muffled cursing and a dull clanging before: 'Found them.'

'Yeah! Right on, Hex!' Li could be heard rushing across the room towards the sound of Hex's voice. I followed, Paulo almost crashing into me as he floundered about in the dark.

'Woops,' he said, pulling up just seconds away from running me over. 'Sorry, Amber.'

'Don't worry about it.' I brushed his apology away, concentrating on navigating the pitch black staircase.

I reached the bottom and stood to the side, giving Paulo a clear way down and giving my eyes a chance to adjust.

'Is this the right level?' Paulo asked as he joined us.

I shrugged. 'Maybe.' I looked around, widening my eyes and squinting to try and see better. It didn't really work and I just felt like an idiot. 'Have a look-'

A loud rhythmic clanging cut me off. It was impossible to ignore and coming from the direction of the far end of car park, if that was what this level was. For a minute or two, the four of us stood completely still, looking in the direction of the clanging.

'I have,' I said slowly, 'a really spooky feeling about this.' My gaze slid sideways, to Li's face. Her eyes were darting anxiously, her mouth a thin line. She looked scared and apprehensive, two emotions that I wouldn't normally associate with Li. That was enough to get my heart pounding like a demented drum and my mouth turning dry.

'Shall we?' Paulo gulped. 'I mean, we don't have to, but I suppose we should. It's probably nothing, but just in case. What if just a few of-'

'No,' Hex said firmly. His expression gave nothing away, but his voice said no arguments. 'We're all going together. Right now.'

Slowly, but increasing our pace with every stride, we started for the noise. I dreaded what we were about to find. An image of Alex flashed into my mind and I started jogging. I felt my friends hesitate before they followed my lead.

'Alex?' The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. 'Alex, are you ok?'

We rounded the corner and stopped dead. About twenty metres away, hidden behind a large piece of something metal, was Alex. He was gagged and his wrists and ankles were tied tightly together. A long metal pole lay by his feet and he'd obviously been clanging it against the big, unidentifiable metal thing to make the noise. He looked up as we screeched to a startled halt, his eyes big with fear. He started jerking his head, mumbling into the gag.

'What?' Hex leaned forward, as though that might make Alex's words and their meaning clearer. For some reason, although we were all desperate to get to Alex and free him, we stayed where we were.

That turned out to be the smartest thing we'd done all day.

'What are you doing here?' Jasper emerged from the shadows behind Alex, a gun held loosely in his hand. His tone wasn't annoyed or even curious. Casual, like he didn't really care.

'I was going to ask you the same question.' I cringed, feeling so clichéd, yet again.

'You first,' Jasper insisted, leaning easily against the mysterious metal thing.

What the hell, I thought. Can't get any worse. 'You're going to blow up the mall,' I said bluntly. 'I went through your filing cabinet and found the papers.'

Jasper's face contorted into something resembling anger for a split second before falling back into neutral mode. What was with guys and not being able to show emotions? Needing to maintain the tough veneer. Drove me crazy.

'You got anything to say?' I continued when it became clear he wasn't going to answer. 'Denials, accusations, threats...' I trailed off, my eyes narrowing. There was something odd that I hadn't noticed yet. Alex's gaze wasn't directed anywhere. Or so it seemed. He was staring intently at a spot off to our left, about halfway between Jasper and us, his eyes sad. Jasper caught my glance at Alex and followed his gaze, his expression still neutral. With a heart heavy with dread, I looked as well, hearing the soft gasps of my friends and feeling Hex's hand grab mine.

'No,' I whispered. 'Please, no.'

A/N Oohhhhhhh. Cliffy! Aren't they awesomely frustrating? I'm still not utterly happy with my writing at the moment, but maybe it's just the last couple of difficult chapters. Hope you're all still liking this fic!