Read Blood Ransom for Free Online

I was half tempted to go outside and attempt the break-in alone – but I didn’t know the layout of the island or where Daniel was.
It would have been crazy.
    I closed my eyes, exhausted, and let an image of Theo swim in front of me . . . his smile crinkling his face . . . I wondered if he was out with his friends right now, if he was thinking about
me.
    Then I wondered whether Mum and Dad were worrying. Hopefully they’d assumed I was out with friends and had forgotten to charge my phone.
    A soft shower of earth, heavier than the rain, fell on to my cover.
    I jumped, my heart pounding.
    Was that Milo?
    I crawled out from under the tarpaulin and peered over the side of the boat. It was moored to a short jetty above a sandy beach. I couldn’t see far in any direction – the coastline
curved sharply round on both sides, with trees blocking the view and the island ahead rising up towards a hill.
    At the end of the jetty was a wooden shelter. Milo was in his wheelchair, huddled underneath.
    ‘Over here!’ His voice was a soft hiss, almost lost in the wind and rain. ‘Hurry!’ He pointed to a camera positioned above him. Its lens was swivelling slowly in my
direction.
    I didn’t need to be told twice. Forcing my stiff, cold legs to move, I stumbled across the boat and onto the jetty. I raced over to the shelter and threw myself, panting, at Milo’s
feet, just as the camera passed overhead.
    ‘Well done,’ Milo whispered. ‘No one suspects a thing.’
     
    14
Theo
    First things first.
    Money.
    I only had a few dollars, but Mum was bound to have more.
    I could use her credit card to buy a plane ticket to Scotland, and her cash to go to the guy in my year at school who specialised in creating fake ID. If anyone could fix me a new passport, it
was him – and there was no way I could travel on the passport that had brought me to the States. The authorities would be able to trace me far too quickly and easily.
    I still couldn’t work out what could have happened to Rachel. If RAGE had taken her, they would surely have killed her straight away. No games. No ‘suicide’ cover story. RAGE
didn’t believe clones like us had a right to life.
    And if Elijah had taken her . . . well, that seemed even more unlikely. What would Elijah want with her? It was my heart he’d been after last year. Rachel couldn’t provide him with
useful body parts. She wasn’t his clone. So why else would he risk exposure to kidnap her – if he had?
    My guts twisted into knots. Thinking about what might or might not have happened was just making me feel sick. I had to act.
    I opened my bedroom door and crept down the corridor. Mum was on the phone, laughing at something the person on the other end had just said. Her bag was hanging on the coat peg by the front
door. As I passed by, I reached for it . . . took it down.
    My palms were sweating as I opened the flap on the bag and peered inside. Mum’s usual jumble of pens and pills and receipts and lists written on scraps of paper met my eyes. I took out the
paperback she was reading, lifted a Hershey bar – she’d become totally addicted to those since we’d moved here – and saw her purse. It was bulging with coins, notes, and
cards. Holding my breath and listening out for any sound of movement from the living room, I carefully unzipped the purse.
    And then my phone rang. It was in my trouser pocket and the ring tone sounded so loud that I jumped.
    ‘Is that you in the hall, Theo?’ Mum called.
    ‘Er, yeah,’ I said, struggling to zip her purse back up and retrieve my phone at the same time.
    I heard Mum say goodbye to whoever was on the landline, then her footsteps sounded on the living-room floor.
    I shoved her purse back and quickly hung the bag back on the wall. Hands trembling, I checked the caller display on my mobile. Name and number withheld.
    ‘Theo?’ Mum appeared in the doorway.
    ‘Just a minute, Mum.’ I put the phone to my ear and retreated to my