Read Urban Outlaws for Free Online Page A

you’d lose ten pounds.’
    Obi groaned, seeming to remember the conversation with Charlie. If it was anyone else but her, Obi would have made some suggestions as to where they could shove the salad.
    Jack pulled the two pizzas from the oven and set them on chopping boards. He called Slink over. ‘Cut these up, would ya?’ he said, and glanced at the clock on the wall. Charlie had been missing for the past three hours and there was only one place she’d be. He left the kitchen and walked down a corridor.
    Apart from the main communal area, the bunker had a further eleven smaller rooms, comprising of six bedrooms, the generator room, the electrical room – which was no bigger than a cupboard – a bathroom and separate toilet, and lastly Charlie’s workshop.
    The workshop itself was three metres wide and ten long. Halogen lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room in overlapping bands of light. Benches ran down each side, and the left one held all manner of electronics: circuit boards, salvaged parts out of old radios, TVs, computers. In the middle of the mayhem was a soldering station under a spotlamp.
    The bench on the right was a jumble of metalwork, with vices, saws, drills and a whole range of tools hanging on the wall. There was even an electric wheelchair that Charlie was ‘modifying’.
    To the untrained eye, the workshop looked like a disordered mess. Charlie insisted it was organised chaos.
    Jack had a basic understanding of what everything in here did, but he was a thinker rather than a builder.
    Electronics and making stuff was Charlie’s thing.
    Charlie’s mother had died giving birth to her. Jack had once caught a glimpse of a picture of her mum that she kept in a drawer, and seen where Charlie got her jet black hair and Asian looks from, but she rarely talked about her.
    Her striking jade eyes were just like her German father’s, but she had inherited much more from him. He had been a mechanic, so she’d grown up with cars and motorcycles. As soon as Charlie was old enough to hold a screwdriver, she’d taken stuff apart: engines, bikes, televisions. Several times her dad had saved her from electrocution, burning or decapitation.
    Jack knew Charlie missed him because every time she mentioned her dad she got a distant look in her eyes, as if she were back in his workshop with him, or he with her, and she’d turn away if even a hint of a tear formed.
    Jack walked to the end of the room where Charlie was sitting hunched over a desk.
    He dropped into the chair next to her. ‘Whatcha doing?’
    Charlie started. ‘Jack, knock next time, will ya?’ She looked guilty about something.
    Jack frowned at the laptop in front of her. Charlie had a website open – the Dr Benjamin Foundation for Missing Children. ‘You do know that my mum and dad are dead, right?’ he said.
    ‘I’m not looking for you .’ Charlie turned back to the laptop and continued to scroll down the list of kids and families.
    ‘Then who are you looking for?’
    Charlie hesitated and glanced at the door.
    ‘Let me guess,’ Jack said. ‘Wren. You’re looking for her parents, aren’t you?’
    Charlie returned her attention to the laptop.
    Jack said, ‘I thought they were dead.’
    ‘Only one of them.’ Charlie scrolled down the list.
    Now it was Jack who was glancing at the door. He lowered his voice. ‘She told you her story?’
    ‘Bits.’
    There was a long silence as Charlie seemed to be weighing up whether to tell him or not. Eventually, she let out a breath and turned in her chair to face him. ‘Wren’s mum and dad broke up before she was born. Her mum banned him from ever seeing Wren. Said she wanted him to have nothing to do with her or the baby.’
    ‘Sounds harsh.’
    Charlie shrugged. ‘We’ve all had to deal with our own stuff.’
    That was true. Charlie’s dad had been murdered by an unhappy customer with a gun. He hadn’t stood a chance.
    As for Jack? Well, his own parents died in a car accident