A. N. T. I. D. O. T. E. Read online

  I’d been so close. So close …

  Mum had been a couple of metres away and yet I’d failed again. Shelby’s must have had people not just in the park, but staked out all around it.

  The park … Nosh …

  My eyes opened wide in horror. Nosh. I’d forgotten all about him. Was he all right? Had Smiler or one of his colleagues caught him? I had to find him, I just had to. I ran downstairs and to the front door. I had the door open when Nosh’s mum stepped out of the front room.

  ‘Elliot,’ she frowned. ‘Where’re you going?’

  ‘I thought I’d go and find Nosh,’ I said, desperate to keep any trace of panic out of my voice.

  ‘Where is he?’ Nosh’s mum asked.

  ‘He went to the park.’

  ‘I think he can find his way home from the park OK, don’t you?’ she smiled.

  ‘I could go and meet him if you like,’ I tried.

  ‘No, I don’t think so,’ Nosh’s mum said. ‘You can wait here for him.’

  ‘Oh, but …’

  Nosh’s mum looked at me pointedly. ‘Is something wrong?’

  I shook my head quickly. ‘No, I … No.’

  ‘Then you can help me make the dinner,’ she smiled.

  And what could I do? The only way out of it was to tell Nosh’s mum the truth and I couldn’t do that – not until I knew for sure that Nosh was in trouble. It was cowardly, I know, but part of it was because I didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily – and that’s true. I wasn’t just thinking about myself.

  Nosh’s mum set me to work peeling potatoes but after I’d nicked my fingers for the third time with the knife, she decided to give me something ‘a little less dangerous’ – as she put it. So I was put in charge of the salad, rinsing lettuce and grating carrots. If anything, the grater was more dangerous than the knife had been! It was just that I couldn’t concentrate on anything I was doing. All I could think about was Nosh. I’d been wrong before when I thought that Nosh was the one who had all the imagination. My imagination was working overtime, and each thought as to what might have happened to Nosh was more dreadful than the last. Nosh’s dad arrived home from work and Nosh still hadn’t turned up.

  ‘You’re sure he went to the park?’ Nosh’s mum asked me.

  I nodded. ‘I’m sure he’ll be home soon.’

  ‘He’d better be,’ Nosh’s mum muttered under her breath.

  After I’d helped prepare the dinner, I sat down in the armchair in the front room where I could see directly out of the front window. Nosh’s mum and dad were watching the early evening news. Once or twice I caught Nosh’s mum giving me a funny look, and more than once her eyes drifted to the clock above the mantelpiece. Glancing down at my watch, I decided to give Nosh fifteen more minutes. After that I’d tell his mum and dad everything and let them call the police. There was no way Nosh should be this late back.

  But just then, I heard a key turn in the front door. I was on my feet in a second. Nosh’s mum was only just behind me as I ran out into the hall.

  It was Nosh.

  ‘Where’ve you been? I was worried sick!’ I ranted at him.

  ‘Nosh, what time do you call this?’ his mum frowned.

  ‘Have you been in the park all this time?’ I asked.

  ‘You could’ve phoned to let me know what was happening,’ his mum continued.

  As Nosh listened to us, his head moved from left to right and back again as if he was watching a tennis match.

  ‘So what happened?’ I asked.

  ‘What’s going on?’ his mum said.

  ‘Whoa! Please!’ Nosh put his hands up defensively. ‘I just went for a walk in the park and I forgot all about the time.’

  ‘Why are you wearing Elliot’s jacket?’ Nosh’s mum asked suspiciously.

  ‘He said I could borrow it,’ Nosh said.

  ‘Yes, I did,’ I backed him up.

  I looked at Nosh. He was glaring at me.

  ‘Hhmm! Go and wash your hands. You’re just in time for dinner,’ Nosh’s mum said.

  Nosh marched upstairs in an obvious huff. I followed him.

  ‘So how did it go?’ I asked, once we were alone.

  ‘What was all that at the door?’ Nosh rounded on me. ‘Mum’s bad enough without you joining in as well.’

  ‘Sorry. I was worried about you, that’s all.’

  ‘Well, don’t go on at me like that again,’ Nosh ordered. ‘I don’t like it.’

  ‘I promise,’ I said. ‘Now, how did it go?’

  ‘I walked round and round the park until my feet were covered in blisters, that’s how it went,’ Nosh complained. ‘What about you?’

  ‘I came this close.’ I held my thumb and index finger together. ‘This close to talking to Mum but that guy with the pony-tail was there, too. He chased Mum and then tried to chase me.’

  Nosh stared at me. ‘What happened to your mum?’

  ‘She hopped in the back of a mini-cab and it sped off.’

  ‘And what about you?’

  ‘I raced all the way home,’ I admitted, sheepishly. ‘No way was he going to catch me.’

  ‘How did he know you were going to be in the fish and chip shop?’ Nosh asked.

  I shook my head. ‘He might have seen me through the shop window. Or maybe he popped in there for a quick bag of chips. I don’t know. All I do know is once again, I still haven’t managed to speak to Mum.’

  ‘What about your uncle?’ Nosh asked.

  ‘He wasn’t released. He’s been remanded in custody,’ I replied, glumly. ‘Your mum phoned up for me earlier today.’

  ‘Remanded in custody? Why didn’t they let him out?’ Nosh asked.

  ‘He’s been up before magistrates before. It’s always because of ANTIDOTE protest marches or demonstrations, but I guess they decided to keep him in until his court date,’ I sighed.

  ‘Maybe we’ll have better luck once Halle comes home,’ said Nosh.

  I just hoped he was right.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Mole Unmasked

  THE MOMENT HALLE set foot through the door, I was at her side.

  ‘Did ANTIDOTE take you on? Did my programs work? Did you get the information we need?’ I asked impatiently.

  ‘Hello to you, too, Elliot,’ Halle said dryly. Julian followed her into the house, closing the front door behind him.

  ‘Did you get it?’ I asked again. I wasn’t in the mood to be teased – not after the afternoon I’d just had.

  ‘I got some of it. I couldn’t get to Rohan Adjava’s PC because he was in the office all day and never away from his desk for long enough,’ Halle said, handing over the memory stick.

  ‘But you ran the programs on Sarah’s and Ian’s machines?’

  ‘Yes. And it wasn’t easy either. I had to pretend I wanted to work late and volunteer to type up flyers on Sarah’s machine. Then I had to pretend that Sarah’s machine wasn’t working and use Ian’s PC. Ian and Sarah popped in and out of the office all day. The whole thing has added an extra ten years to my life.’

  ‘At least your years have caught up with your face, then,’ Nosh told her.

  I was barely listening. To be honest, I didn’t much care how she’d got the data, just as long as she had.

  ‘Halle, you had it easy,’ Julian told her. ‘At least they didn’t use you as a general dogsbody. If I never see another box of ANTIDOTE flyers, it’ll be too soon.’

  ‘You had the easy bit. If I’d been caught …’

  ‘Easy bit?’ Julian said indignantly. ‘What about amending the memo and …’

  ‘Come on, Nosh,’ I whispered. ‘Let’s leave them to it.’

  ‘Mum, Elliot and I are just popping next door,’ Nosh called out.

  ‘What about your din …?’

  Nosh and I were out the door before his mum could say anything else. In my house, we dashed up the stairs and I switched on Mum’s PC.

  ‘Let’s hope the information we’re after isn’t on Rohan’s mac
hine.’ Nosh crossed his fingers.

  Once the PC had booted up, I inserted the memory stick Halle had brought back. Before I could do anything else, the doorbell rang. It made both Nosh and me jump. Without saying a word to each other, we crept down the stairs. There were two silhouettes outside the front door.

  ‘Elliot? Is that you? Open up!’ It was Halle.

  ‘What d’you want?’ I called out to her.

  ‘You don’t think I did all that for nothing, do you?’ she called back. ‘I did all the hard work. The least you could do is let me see if it worked.’

  ‘Don’t let her in,’ Nosh commanded.

  It was tempting, but in the end I opened the door, saying to Nosh, ‘After all, she did help us and she didn’t have to.’

  Halle and Julian came into the house.

  ‘Come on then, Elliot. What’re you waiting for?’ Julian grinned at me.

  We all went back upstairs. I ran another program I’d written on Mum’s PC to decompress all the captured data and load it onto the hard disk, where there was more space. Basically, what I’d done was search for any documents containing either SHELBY or PARDELA or MARCUS or JOSHUA or PHARMACEUTI-CALS. And I wasn’t disappointed. The memory key was now full.

  ‘Don’t you want to hear how I’ve set the ball rolling?’ Julian asked me. ‘I used several copies of that Marcus Pardela memo to good effect.’

  I froze as my heart skipped a beat. I turned to him, dreading to hear the answer but needing to ask the question. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I hope you didn’t ruin everything,’ Nosh frowned.

  ‘Of course not,’ Julian replied. ‘If anything, I’ve speeded things up. This lunchtime, I left a copy of Marcus Pardela’s memo on Sarah’s, Ian’s and Rohan’s desks.’

  It was worse than I thought.

  ‘Why on earth did you do that?’ Even Halle was astounded.

  ‘You maggot-brain! Now the mole will know we’re on to him or her!’ Nosh raged.

  Me? I couldn’t speak. My throat was being choked from the inside. How could he? How could Julian ruin everything like this?

  ‘No, you don’t understand,’ Julian said quickly. ‘I amended each memo first so that it looked like the memo was copied to each individual person.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Halle.

  Julian took a pristine, folded copy of the memo out of his jacket pocket and held it up to all of us. ‘You see that “cc:” line? On one copy, I filled that in with Sarah Irving’s name and left the memo on her desk. On the second copy I added Rohan’s name, and on the third copy I added Ian’s name. Each of them will think that the memo has been copied exclusively to them.’

  The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach began to fade. I began to see what Julian had been trying to do.

  ‘But if it was copied exclusively to them, why didn’t they get the message via their e-mail? Won’t they be suspicious about the fact that it’s a printed copy of the memo?’ I asked.

  ‘That’s the whole point,’ Julian grinned. ‘Two of them will wonder what’s going on. But one of them – our mole – will think that somehow their message got intercepted. He or she will worry that someone else in the office is definitely on to them. All three of them were in the office this afternoon so I know they’ve all seen the memo. Halle didn’t load up your program on Sarah and Ian’s PCs until just before we came home, so if either of them panicked and sent a message to Marcus Pardela, you should already have it with the other e-mails.’

  I copied Sarah’s and Ian’s messages into two different directories, my heart racing.

  ‘Here goes!’ I said hopefully.

  I checked Ian’s messages first and began to search through all the messages he’d sent out today. There was nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing to or about Marcus Pardela. Disappointed, I then went into Sarah’s e-mail account. I couldn’t believe she’d be the mole. She was always slagging off Shelby’s.

  But I was wrong.

  The last e-mail message she’d sent out was to Marcus Pardela himself. We all looked at each other but said nothing. I retrieved the message and everyone crowded around for a closer look.

  ANTIDOTE PRESSURE GROUP

  * * *

  Electronic Memo:Page 1 of 1

  To: Marcus Pardela - MPARDELA

  From: Sarah Irving - SIRVING

  cc:

  Status: Strictly Confidential

  SUBJECT: COVER

  I’m afraid I have bad news. My cover has been blown. This afternoon I found a copy of your confidential memo (sent to Joshua Shelby and copied to me) on my desk. It was obviously a warning but I don’t know who left it there. I don’t think whoever it was knows anything else but I think I should back out. I await your further instruction.

  * * *

  The silence in the room was deafening. Even though we all knew that someone at ANTIDOTE was a traitor, it was still a shock to see it like that.

  ‘What a rat!’ Halle fumed. ‘No, she’s lower than a rat. She’s a rat’s bum! We should let the others at ANTIDOTE know immediately.’

  ‘No, we can’t,’ I said quickly. ‘Not until we get my mum and Uncle Robert out of trouble.’

  ‘Sarah Irving.’ Julian whistled. ‘And she’s the ANTIDOTE spokesperson. Nine times out of ten when ANTIDOTE are mentioned on the telly, they show Sarah’s face.’

  ‘Can you imagine what will happen if all this comes out? ANTIDOTE will be finished,’ Halle said. ‘No more funding. No more support. Nothing.’

  ‘And that’s probably what Pardela is relying on,’ said Julian. ‘He must know that even when the others at ANTIDOTE learn the truth about Sarah, they’ll be loath to make it public.’

  ‘But what did Marcus Pardela hope to achieve?’ asked Nosh. ‘Sarah could let him know when ANTIDOTE were organizing protest marches against them and such like, but that was it.’

  ‘No, it’s more than that,’ I said slowly. ‘ANTIDOTE march against other companies, not just Shelby’s. If Sarah was just running things for Marcus Pardela then he could make sure they attacked his rivals more often than they did his company.’

  ‘And he could also get an instant list of all those people against his company,’ Julian added. ‘A list of ANTIDOTE supporters.’

  We all fell silent, both impressed and appalled at the deviousness of Pardela’s antics. Nosh pointed to the screen. ‘When Sarah says that she doesn’t think the person who’s on to her “knows anything else” – what does she mean? What else is there to know?’

  ‘That’s a good question,’ I considered.

  ‘Isn’t that irrelevant?’ said Halle. ‘Surely what we need to think about now is how to use this information.’

  Silence.

  ‘It’s not enough.’ Julian said at last. ‘It’s not enough to force Pardela’s hand. We need something more.’

  ‘We don’t have anything else.’ Halle shook her head.

  ‘We have all the files that contain my key words. There may be something in them?’ I suggested.

  ‘Can you print out all the information on it?’ Julian asked.

  ‘Yeah, but it’ll run to hundreds of pages,’ I said.

  ‘We’ll split all the pages between the four of us. That’ll make the task a bit easier,’ said Julian. ‘We can each read through the pages and see if we can find anything we can use.’

  I turned back to the screen and typed in the command to send all the files copied across that day to the printer.

  ‘This is going to take some time,’ I said.

  ‘We’re on to the mole but, thanks to Sarah’s mail message, Marcus Pardela is also on to us. Each of us will have to go through our share of the printed-out pages, tonight.’

  Nosh and I exchanged a glance. Nosh was right. It did feel like Julian was trying to take over. I suppose he thought that because he was the oldest he should be in charge. But I didn’t say anything. Thanks to him we now knew who the mole was.

  ‘Elliot, can you make me a copy of your
e-mail capture software?’ Julian asked suddenly.

  ‘Surely we don’t need to read Rohan’s mail messages,’ I said. ‘We know Sarah’s the mole.’

  ‘I don’t want to load the program onto Rohan’s machine. I had someone else’s PC in mind.’

  ‘Whose?’ I asked.

  ‘I won’t say – in case I don’t manage it,’ Julian said mysteriously. ‘But if I do pull it off, we’ll have all the info we’ll ever need to stop Pardela in his tracks.’

  There was no mistaking the gleam of satisfaction on Julian’s face at the thought of it.

  ‘Now that we know who the mole is, do I have to go back to ANTIDOTE tomorrow?’ Halle asked.

  ‘I don’t see why,’ I said. ‘Or maybe it would be better if you did go for a couple of days, in case Sarah gets suspicious.’

  ‘At least I can have a lie-in. They don’t need me until two o’clock tomorrow afternoon,’ Halle said.

  As I saved all the acquired data onto Mum’s hard disk and deleted it off Halle’s memory stick so that it could be re-used, Julian asked, ‘Has anyone got any other suggestions?’

  ‘There’s still my mum’s phone,’ I admitted. ‘I’m sure there’s something on that. Something more than just the identity of the ANTIDOTE mole. But I haven’t managed to crack the password yet.’

  ‘But are you certain it’s got something on it that we can use?’ asked Julian.

  I shook my head.

  ‘D’you think you’ll be able to crack the password – and soon?’ asked Julian.

  All eyes were on me. I took a deep breath. ‘By tomorrow at the latest,’ I said.

  And what’s more I would do it, too. I had to. I just had to.

  Tuesday