Agent 21 by Chris Ryan Read Free Book Online

the corridor. He wasn’t at all sure that if he left his own room the door wouldn’t shut behind him, so he took one of the spare trainers and propped it against the door frame before stepping out into the corridor.
    The closest two doors were directly opposite each other, about ten metres from Zak’s room. He tried the right-hand one first, gripping the white door knob and trying to turn it. Nothing moved – the door was locked, but it puzzled Zak that there was no keyhole or keypad. As far as he could tell, the only way to unlock this door was from the inside. The same went for the door opposite. Zak pressed his ear up against the wood to listen to anything going on inside.
    Nothing.
    Then . . . footsteps.
    They were coming up the stairs at the end of the corridor. Zak glanced guiltily towards them and hurried back to his room. He wasn’t sure if he’d closed the door in time and he could feel his skin flushing. When Raf knocked and reappeared, though, he showed no sign of knowing that Zak had been snooping around.
    Like Zak, Raf had changed, but was still dressed entirely in black – black jeans, black polo neck, black boots. ‘Ready?’ he asked.
    ‘Yeah,’ Zak said. ‘I guess.’ But ready for what, he didn’t really know.
    The room to which Raf led him was back on the ground floor. It was large, with a big oak desk in the middle and floor-to-ceiling windows, through which Zak could just make out the sea, grey and threatening in the distance – an impossible perimeter that he knew he could never cross. The air was thick with the aroma of cherry tobacco. Michael was here, smoking one of his thin cigarillos, but he wasn’t alone. A woman stood in front of one of the windows. She was in her twenties with shoulder-length white-blonde hair and large, icy-blue eyes. Like Raf, she was dressed all in black, and she gave Zak a friendly, open smile as he walked in.
    ‘Good to see Raphael picked you up OK, Zak,’ she said. ‘Wanted to do it myself – us girls are better at creeping around in the dead of night, you know.’ She winked at him. ‘Raf says it’s because we’re more sneaky, but that’s such a horrid word. “Subtle” sounds much better, don’t you think?’
    Michael interrupted her. ‘Zak, I’d like you to meet Gabriella. Gabriella, Zak.’
    The woman walked forward. Her movements were like a cat’s – elegant but silent. As she walked past Michael she brushed an affectionate hand against his arm and Zak noticed that her nails were painted in baby pink. ‘Michael is
so
polite. He’s like someone’s grandfather, isn’t he? Maybe he
is
someone’s grandfather. I suppose we’ll never know.’ By now she was standing just in front of Zak, holding out her right hand. ‘Call me Gabs, sweetie,’ she said. ‘Everybody does.’
    Zak shook her hand a bit warily. ‘Pleased to meet you, Gabs,’ he said.
    Gabs rolled her eyes. ‘He’s adorable,’ she said to nobody in particular. ‘You know, Zak, if Raf had a face like yours, he could fool anyone.’ She winked at Raf. ‘Of course, we wouldn’t change him for the world, though.’
    Raf’s frown grew more pronounced, but he didn’t say anything.
    ‘That’s enough, Gabriella,’ Michael said. ‘We don’t have time to play. There are things Zak needs toknow.’ The old man walked to one side of the table and opened a drawer. He removed a piece of paper, then placed it on the table top. ‘Have a look, Zak,’ he said. ‘Tell me what you think.’
    Zak took the piece of paper. It was a printout of a newspaper article. The headline, in thick black lettering, was chilling enough, the rest even more so:
    BOY KIDNAPPED IN BUNGLED ROBBERY, FEARED DEAD

    A teenager, still missing following a robbery on Monday night at the Camden home of his uncle and aunt, is feared dead, according to police sources. It is thought that Zachary Darke, 13 – who was staying with relatives after the tragic death of his parents six months ago – disturbed