Cloak of Silence (Jake Harding Adventures Book 1)

The lights were on at Thunder Bay, in the office and syndicate rooms. Jenny looked up as Jake opened the office door.

‘Where’s my dad?’ he asked, out of breath from his sprint through the village.

‘Jake, you okay? I’ve been worrying where you’d got to.’ She looked him up and down, took in his damp clothes and shortness of breath but decided not to ask questions.

‘Yeah, I’m fine, but is my dad back?’

She caught his urgency. ‘No, he’s still out visiting tavernas with your mum. Matt’s out too with Rob, doing the same.’

He grimaced – at least his dad had said this was the final night of putting themselves through this torture.

‘Jake?’ Jenny was looking at him strangely. ‘You sure you’re okay?’

He nodded silently, still breathing hard.

She didn’t look convinced. ‘I’ll make some coffee. Sit down and we’ll have a chat. The grommets are in syndicate sessions preparing for tomorrow.’

‘No coffee thanks.’ He paused, unsure, but went on. ‘Listen, Jen, there’s something going on in the monastery grounds.  Would it be okay to borrow a couple of people from red group to help me keep watch?’

She looked horrified. ‘Jake, look, I’ve been left in charge. Please don’t ask the impossible.’

‘Jen, I’m going back.’ He could have added ‘and you can’t stop me’ but decided against it. ‘Wouldn’t it be better if a couple of the guys came with me? As back-up if you like?’

‘Jake, you’ve got that fiercely determined expression. Just like Richard.’

‘Look, it’s an adventure school. They’re here for adventure. It’s only monks.’ He almost blushed at how sparing he was being with the truth.

‘What’s going on, exactly?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘Jen, you know what I think; Zoë was taken prisoner because she saw something that she wasn’t meant to see.’

‘So you’ve been keeping watch.’ It was a statement rather than a question.

‘Yeah. And tonight there’s a boat coming and going with people being taken offshore.’

‘Really? You sure?’

Jake didn’t want to go into details. For one thing there wasn’t time and if he told her half of it there was no way she would let anyone go with him. And she’d try to stop him going.

‘Yes, I’m sure, but I want to check it out. A couple of people with me would be a massive help.’ But he had a plan forming in his head that involved more than merely watching.

Jake could see the agony of decision on Jenny’s face. She looked at her watch: 10:20. The others would still be another hour or more at the tavernas so it was up to her. She couldn’t leave Thunder Bay and go with him.

‘I must be mad, but…’

‘Thanks, Jen,’ Jake interrupted, heading for the door.

‘You will need to ask them though,’ she called after him. ‘Not me.’

‘Sure, no problem,’ he replied over his shoulder.

He raced to the Red syndicate room. He hadn’t fully worked out what to say before he burst in. Six surprised faces turned towards him.

Cath was standing at a flip chart, a marker pen in her hand. The others sat at a table that was strewn with notes, maps and drinks cups. They were planning how they would tackle the Friday Project, the tough all-day event that pitted the groups against each other in a search for missing ‘treasure’. Clues would be scattered over a wide area, some tied to the anchors of buoys out in the bay, others halfway down a cliff face that could only be reached by abseiling. They would have to split into twos or threes to find them all. It was the culmination of everything they had covered during the week.

Cath had written ‘Task Allocation’ as a heading on the flip chart and ‘Individual Skills’ under that with their names listed below. There was obviously a debate raging as to which of them should undertake the likely tasks.

Jake held up his hands. ‘Sorry to interrupt…’

‘Waddya want, windsurfer boy?’ Doug asked.

‘There’s something I need your help on…’ Jake began.

‘Is this part of the course?’ Jamal asked, a pencil in his hand.

‘No, it’s not. It’s my own thing.’

‘I bet it’s part of the course. This is exactly the sort of thing they do to get us going,’ Ruby retorted.

‘Yeah,’ Doug agreed.

Cath rapped on the flip chart with her marker pen. ‘Look, Jake, we’re right in the middle of a discussion.’ But there was something about his expression that stopped her short of asking him to leave. She held up one finger. ‘You’ve got one minute to tell us what you want, then we must get on.’

The others nodded in agreement. Doug looked pointedly at his watch.

Jake flashed her a grateful smile.

‘Right guys, it’s like this,’ he began. ‘I’m desperate to find my sister. It’s been a week now. She vanished from that bench near the monastery. The police refuse to believe the monastery’s involved, but I’ve found out that it is. I haven’t got time to explain how I know, but she’s being kept prisoner by some of the monks at a place called Syntagma. The monks have a RIB, that’s a kind of speedboat, which is going out again at 11:30 from Monastery Bay, the little bay down below the bench. I want to be on that boat and I really could use a couple of you to help me out. I want to get to Syntagma. It might all sound crazy but this is for real.’

There was a stunned silence.

‘It’s rubbish,’ Doug said eventually. ‘It’s all complete rubbish.’

‘It is part of the course, isn’t it?’ Ruby asked, looking curiously at Jake.

‘Guys,’ Jake’s voice had an edge to it. ‘One, it’s not rubbish. Two, it’s not part of the course. Three, I’m going even if you decide not to help me, and four, yes, it might be dangerous but it is… well, a real adventure.’

They looked at each other uneasily.

‘Are you up for it?’ Jake asked into the silence.

Then they were all talking at once.

‘I’ll go,’ Jamal said.

‘It’s a spoof, Jammy, can’t you see,’ Doug said.

‘Sounds a bit hairy to me,’ Liv remarked.

‘You done amateur dramatics before?’ Ruby asked with an innocent look.

‘I’ll go too,’ Sam announced and Doug gave him a dirty look.

Cath rapped the marker pen on the flipchart again. ‘We do things as a group,’ she told him. ‘Can you wait outside while we discuss, please?’ She looked at him steadily.

‘Okay,’ Jake said reluctantly. ‘I’ll come back in five minutes. That’s all the time I can give you.’

He ran across the courtyard to the empty house and up to his room. His bedside clock said 10:34. He didn’t know what was ahead that night, so he decided to put on his wetsuit. At least that would give him some warmth and buoyancy if he landed up in the water again. He pulled his dark blue tracksuit over it and put on his trainers. He’d kept his mobile phone charged and slipped it into his tracksuit pocket.

On the way back to the syndicate room he collected two torches and some short lengths of thin rope from the storeroom. His plan was starting to take shape.

There was a buzz of conversation in the syndicate room, which died down as he knocked on the door.

‘Wait,’ Cath called.

He closed his eyes momentarily in frustration and counted under his breath from ten downwards.

He had got to ‘three’ when the door opened and he was beckoned in.

‘Right,’ Doug seemed to be spokesman now. ‘We’re coming.’