Miss No One - Mark Ayre (top 10 most read books in the world txt) 📗

could see an open field. Big. With a line of trees marking its end. They seemed a long way away. Sprinting, Abbie could probably make it from where the field began to those trees in thirty seconds.

In other words, you wouldn't want to flee across the field to escape an armed assailant. Unless you loved getting shot in the back.

The red block itself, within which Gary claimed to have met Smoker, was L-shaped. Abbie was facing the top of the letter. Here, double doors led into a corridor, at the end of which, one would turn away from the field to enter the L's base. Here were a small entrance area and more double doors. The building wasn't large. Maybe six rooms on the field side, five on the other.

Trembling, Gary appeared at Abbie's shoulder. He pointed to the closest double doors.

"Those were the doors he used. Lock's broken, so we can walk straight in. The classroom is the third down on the field side."

Third down. That made sense. Almost equidistant from each exit, plenty of corridor to fire down should enemies attack from either side.

Abbie traced the windows on the building's near side. If Orion was here, and his team was small, this was the place to keep the lookouts. Or possibly in the building opposite. Abbie saw no movement, but this wasn't surprising. Any sentries would be hiding further back in the rooms.

"Come on," Abbie muttered to Gary.

Keeping low, she darted towards the building. Arriving at the near wall, she dropped and pressed her shoulder to the brickwork. Turning, she glanced across the windows of the building opposite.

Nothing.

The double-doors Gary had pointed out were behind Abbie, around the corner. Coming up behind, Gary touched Abbie's shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"What are we doing," Abbie corrected. "We're a team, remember? Equal partners, except I'm in charge. Super in charge. Don't misbehave."

She looked back at Gary, who appeared bewildered by her latest spout of babble.

"The double doors behind us are unlocked," he said. "That's the doors they use."

"Who are they? You said you only met one guy here."

Gary flushed. Abbie remembered why she had trust issues.

"I only saw one, but they all use this place. They have to, right?"

The explanation was garbled and unconvincing. Internally, Abbie found herself once more cursing Ben, and her need for distraction.

"Whether it's they or he," said Abbie, "if that's the door they always use, then it’s the door we must at all costs avoid. Got it?"

"But the doors at the other end are locked."

Abbie put a hand against Gary's mouth. It was pretty gross, but at least it got him to shut up.

Suspicion was no longer the right word for what she was feeling in response to Gary’s claims, but the question was obvious: if Gary had only been here once, and if he had entered the block through the double doors at Abbie's back, how did he know those at the other end were locked?

"A couple of things you need to remember," Abbie said in a quiet, stern voice. "Firstly, locked doors can't stop me."

Gary's look transformed from bewilderment into amazement. Possibly bewildered amazement.

"Because I can pick them. I'm not like a ghost with the ability to phase through solid matter."

This, Gary found less impressive.

"Secondly, I'm extremely dangerous, particularly to people who lie to me."

Abbie let this hang in the air a moment or two before turning towards the bottom of the L.

"Is there anything you want to tell me before we proceed?"

Silence.

"Remember, I'm not looking at you, so nodding or shaking your head, that's no good to me."

"Oh, right, sorry. I said no. No, I don't have anything to tell you."

Abbie closed her eyes, sighed. She didn't believe the lanky teenager, and now was the perfect time to turn back.

But she couldn't. Ben's words rang in her head, and she was still searching for a distraction. Besides, there was always a chance Abbie was wrong to be suspicious; Gary was both honest and correct: Isabella was here. Even if the child wasn't, Orion or some segment of his team might be. There was still a chance Abbie might learn something of value about Orion's mission or Isabella's location if the child and boss were elsewhere, but Abbie played the situation right.

If there was one thing Abbie had learned about traps, it was that the trapee always had the capacity to turn the tables on the traper. Especially when the trapee in question was Abbie.

No longer worrying about whether Gary was following, Abbie made her way along the L-block's brick wall, towards its base. She remained beneath the block's windows while keeping an eye on the building opposite. All the way along, Abbie expected someone to pop out and start shooting. But she heard no one, and no one appeared.

At last, and unscathed, Abbie reached the L's base, turned, and worked her way to the double doors.

Lowering herself almost to the ground, Abbie poked her head around the last corner and looked through the lower glass pane of the double’s left door.

No lights were on inside. Although the sun was high, the interior was gloomy, shaded. Even so, Abbie could tell the entrance hall was empty. If anyone was inside the block, the closest they could be was right around the long corridor corner.

Rising to a crouch, Abbie positioned herself before the double doors. They were locked, as Gary had claimed. This gave Abbie cause to glance back at the teenager, who flushed.

Turning away, she set about sorting the doors, and fifteen seconds after she'd begun, the lock was no longer a problem. Abbie demonstrated by opening the door.

"Wow," muttered Gary, speaking in the same way he might have if Abbie had walked through the solid surface rather than picking the lock.

"Come on," Abbie said.

Gary expected Abbie to creep into the hall and was therefore surprised when she closed the now unlocked door and carried on around the building's next corner. So surprised that, at first, he didn't think to follow.

By the time Gary got moving,