At the corner before he reached school, Wesley almost collided with an older boy blocking the pavement. He wore torn jeans and an orange T-shirt, and dark circles under his eyes suggested he hadn’t slept.
‘Excuse me, have you seen Kat Waldgrave?’ he said, voice hoarse, as if he had been asking all night.
The question almost made Wesley laugh. ‘I really haven’t.’
The boy looked like he might cry. ‘I’m sure she’s here somewhere. I have to find her . . .’
Wesley thought immediately of Lukundo being drawn to Aaron’s house after he had been inhabited by his missing friend. ‘How do you know her?’ he asked.
The boy looked pained. ‘I don’t. At least, I don’t think I do.’
He must have been somebody Kat had inhabited. It did work. Wesley didn’t know what strange connection brought the host in search of their faded passenger, but if he was searching for her here she had to be close by. Kat must have heard his plan, and followed him to school to carry it out.
After a moment’s uncertainty, the boy followed Wesley to school, stopping finally to linger outside the gate.
In every lesson, Wesley couldn’t stop glancing beside him, wondering if Kat was there, judging the little work he managed to scrawl out.
No shared morning classes meant he went looking for Luke and Justin at lunchtime. On the way to the canteen he ran into Aoife.
‘Selena replied. You were right, as soon as I mentioned Aaron she agreed to meet us.’
‘When?’
‘Tonight. I haven’t told the others yet.’
Wesley nodded. ‘The sooner the better.’
He moved to walk past her, but Aoife stepped into his path to block him.
‘I’m glad you’ve made us do this,’ she said. ‘It’s made me rethink the whole thing. I think Robbie and Jae, too.’
‘I’m glad,’ he said, and kept moving before he had to think of a proper response. It embarrassed him to think Kat might have overheard.
The canteen was half-full when he arrived, and he spotted them at a table in the corner, wolfing down portions of lumpy chilli con carne. There were too many people here for them to turn violent, but their conversation would be masked by echoing voices and the smack of plastic trays on plastic tables.
‘Let’s do it,’ he said, hoping Kat was still with him.
He was already talking before he took the seat beside them. ‘I’ve been an idiot, okay, and I know I might have messed this up, but I’ve thought about it and I really want to—’
‘Whoa, mate,’ said Luke through a mouthful of chilli. ‘Calm down. We were going to come looking for you.’
There was nothing violent in his tone. Wesley felt himself relax a little.
Luke pushed his tray away. ‘We went too far the other night.’
A part of Wesley wished they hadn’t quite got out of the way of that speeding car. Not enough to kill them, just injuries severe enough to keep them both out of action for a month or two. Problem solved.
‘We believe it wasn’t you who stole the car. You wouldn’t even know how to drive it!’ said Luke. ‘And if you’d told anybody about it we’d probably know by now.’
Wesley kept quiet, trying to work out where this was going. He had expected to have to beg and plead to be let back into the gang. Instead they were being nicer to him than they ever had been before. Somebody was putting them up to this, and Justin’s not-so-subtle elbow nudge to Luke’s ribcage proved it.
‘Look, I’m sorry, all right?’ he said, clearly begrudging every word.
‘We’re sorry,’ echoed Justin.
Wesley nodded, hoping it was enough of a reaction to keep them happy.
‘It’s dumb, getting this worked up over a prank,’ said Luke. ‘It’s all just for a stupid video Tru wants to film.’
Wesley watched him closely. ‘It really is just a prank?’
‘Yeah, man. He’s just taking it seriously because he wants Niko Denton to see.’
The smile on his face was fixed. Luke could probably convince somebody he wasn’t a murderer while holding a severed human head.
‘If I’m going to be involved, I need to know exactly what he’s planning.’
Luke took a breath, as if he was fighting to keep calm. ‘It’s not as easy as that. Tru needs something from you to prove you’re for real. We need another car.’
Wesley’s stomach sank, knowing what would come next.
‘You have easy access to more,’ said Luke. ‘We need you to steal one for us.’
‘How am I supposed to steal from the dealership?’ said Wesley.
‘Get the keys off the new guy who’s banging your mum,’ said Luke, before remembering he was asking a favour. ‘Her new boyfriend. He must trust you by now.’
‘I just wash them.’
‘So you know where the keys are kept, yeah?’
The lock box in the back office. ‘I can’t get to them.’
‘You’re saying there’s no way?’
‘I’d have to get his keys and—’
‘All right, so that’s what you do.’
‘I don’t know . . .’ He could probably do it. The security at the dealership was basic. It might be the only way to find out the real plan so Kat could stop it.
Luke glanced around, as if assessing what he could get away with. ‘Why do you think you have a choice? We let you in on the plan because we thought you could handle it. You don’t get to be a pussy now. You owe us.’
‘You don’t want to make Tru unhappy,’ said Justin. It sounded like he spoke from experience.
Luke hissed through his teeth, the sharp sound making Wesley meet his eye. ‘He’s right. We’ve already told you too much, and Tru doesn’t want any loose ends. We’ve got all the evidence of what you did to Kat, and there are plenty of other things we can pin on you.’
An empty threat. It had to be.
Luke reached out and squeezed his shoulder hard. ‘You help us get a car, and you’re a legend, mate.’
Wesley glanced over his shoulder and swallowed hard. It was the only way. ‘Okay.’
When Luke took his hand away he didn’t seem pleased. He looked relieved.
‘But you have to tell me what he’s going to do with it.’
‘We’ve been keeping track of Tinker on social media. Whenever she stays in a hotel or something she gets it for free as long as she posts about it, right?’ Luke was clearly pleased with his cunning, nerves slipping away as he spoke. ‘That means we’ll know where she’s staying before the convention, what route she’ll take to get there. Everything. All we have to do is keep watch and pick her up when she’s on the street.’
‘And then what?’
Luke leaned back and smiled. ‘I told you. Tru’s going to film a video.’
It was simple enough that it might work. Simple enough that it could be stopped.
‘Be at the dealership with keys tonight at two a.m.,’ said Luke.
Wesley wished he could confirm that Kat had heard, that she understood what she needed to do. It might have stopped his hands shaking when he gave them a nod and left the table behind.