Chapter Twenty-Four
FAL LOOKED up and down the street, then once more fixed his gaze on the house. “He’s taking his time.”
“There’s not going to be a box marked drugs lying on Nolan’s bed,” Callie said from where she, Lila and Barve were all squashed into the back seats of Elliot’s car. “The search is bound to take some time. He’s been less than five minutes so far.”
Fal glanced at his watch and found she was right. It had felt more like twenty minutes just sitting out here waiting. What had seemed like a good idea earlier felt a lot more dangerous now that Elliot was alone in a house where he didn’t belong, and what if there was a path at the back of the house? Someone could come in through a back door and attack him, thinking he was an intruder.
“I’m doing a project with him,” Lila said, “so I know it’s true when I say he’s an intelligent bloke. He’ll be fine.”
“Someone’s walking towards the house,” Fal saw, hand on the door handle.
“He’s too old to be one of the students,” Barve pointed out. “He’s probably going to another house and if he rings Nolan’s doorbell, Elliot will just ignore it.”
Fal wasn’t even aware that he was tapping a finger against the steering wheel until Callie sharply told him to stop. He sighed and locked his hands together, fingernails digging into flesh to distract him from the desire to march up to the house and get Elliot out of trouble. He shouldn’t have gone in alone. What was delaying him?
The two girls started up a conversation about essays while Fal scanned the street and Nolan’s house. His heart lifted at the sight of the front door finally opening. Elliot came out, shut the door behind him and jogged over to the car, getting in beside Fal and letting in some of the icy air from outside. The familiar scent of his cologne pervaded the car.
“Everything okay?” Fal asked.
“Did you find drugs?” Callied said eagerly.
“No drugs, nor medical letters,” Elliot said, turning sideways in his seat, facing towards Fal, so he could look at him and those in the backseat as he spoke, “but I did find something really weird. There were some letters in Nolan’s room, sent to his address, but not to him.”
“So he had one of his housemates’ letters?” Fal asked.
“No, the name wasn’t any of theirs. I had to check their rooms to get their names, which was what took a while.”
“Then Nolan has letters addressed to another boy who doesn’t actually live there but is being sent mail there?” Fal tried to wrap his head around it, but couldn’t get the scenario to make sense.
“Exactly.” Elliot handed him an envelope.
“Al Greela, 15 Birch Street,” he read. “Al Greela? That sounds as if it could be a Nean name.”
Since his brother and the girls were leaning forward to try and peer over his shoulder, Fal gave Lila the envelope to let them see for themselves.
“So why on earth is he getting some other guy’s post?” Lila asked.
No one had an answer.
Elliot got his mobile out of the front pocket of his trousers, having to squirm about a bit to get it free, Fal watching with amusement. “I’ll see if Eva can explain this.” He dialled her number and explained what they had found, then listened to her reply.
When he ended the call, Fal said, “Does she know what’s going on?”
“No,” Elliot said, looking at him. “She doesn’t have a clue about it. She says she’ll mention the name to Nolan and his friends and see what they say.” He checked the time. “We need to get back to the campus for lectures. Damn, I’m starving.”
Fal got a packet of crisps out of his backpack and chucked it at him.
Elliot caught it and grinned at him, eyes warm. “Thanks.”
* * *
Elliot was humming to himself as he headed to Farlden and Barve’s rooms that evening. He had the excuse to give of wanting to talk about Nolan’s case but, actually, he just wanted to hang out with them. He reached Farlden’s room first and lifted his hand to knock on the door, then heard voices inside. Assuming it was the two brothers, he let his hand drop to turn the handle instead, pushing the heavy door open. He saw Farlden and Barve swing round towards him, eyes wide.
Farlden lurched forwards and tried to push him back out of the room as Elliot caught sight of the other inhabitant of the room. He vaguely felt Farlden’s hand against his chest but couldn’t take his eyes off the strange-looking person wearing clothes of a material he had never seen before. He blinked but there was still a shimmer behind the woman as if there was some other light source behind her.
“Hello, Elliot,” she said, a roughness to her voice as if she hadn’t been using it recently. “I can see that you have a lot of questions. My name is Dervyl and I’m an Izient.”
He wasn’t sure if he had misheard her. The entire conversation felt a bit like a dream or like being in a place where noises sounded different. “A what?”
“I belong to the other human species. We’ve kept hidden from Sapiens for hundreds of thousands of years.”
Sapiens? Not Neans. It hit him then that he was standing in Farlden’s room where Barve and Farlden had been talking with this woman. They knew her. He had heard voices in here before and Farlden had said it was the radio. He turned to stare at Farlden, taking in the dark eyes and square face as if he were looking at someone he’d never seen before. “You lied to me. You’ve been saying all along that you couldn’t trust me, but you meant that you wouldn’t trust me with this. You’ve both been deceiving me ever since we met, haven’t you?”
He wanted Farlden to deny it, not to drop his eyes guiltily like this. Even Barve, who had seemed so honest and got him to share so many personal feelings and thoughts, had kept this from him the whole time.
“We need to talk,” the woman said in an urgent tone.
Elliot ignored her, stumbling backwards, towards the door.
“Wait!” Farlden caught hold of his arm. “I’ll explain everything.”
“After all the lies, what would be the point now?”
He pulled free, turned and walked out of the room. Everything he had believed in had been fake and now he had nothing and no one left.
He had no idea where he was going as he headed for the front door, but he had to get away.