'They've taken Katie hostage,' Nicola told her.
Joy nodded. 'I know.'
'Can you tell us where she is?' asked Sean. 'We'll rescue her.' He punched his fist into his hand.
'It's impossible,' said Joy. 'She's in the hostage room.'
'Hostage room?' said Tyler. 'This house has its own hostage room?'
'Enrico had it built specially. It has twenty security cameras, thirty alarms, and tripwires on every doorway. A team of his Security Thugs guards it. There's no way anybody could get past them.'
'Yeah, this Enrico is such a nice person,' said Tyler sarcastically.
'Will they treat her badly?' said Nicola. Her heart plummeted at the thought of Katie alone and terrified.
'Only if you fail to complete your mission,' said Joy. 'At the moment she's perfectly comfortable. There are books and a television and all her meals will be provided. She's a hairity so she'll get five-star service. But I can assure you, it is physically impossible to rescue her.'
Nicola sat back on her heels and watched the steam rising from the rapidly filling bath.
'I just don't know what we can do. It seems - hopeless,' she said.
Greta lifted her chin. 'You shouldn't give up like that, Nicola. It's not very good leadership. Oh, and just a little suggestion - maybe next time you could do a bit more research before you accept a mission from a psychopath.'
Nicola's cheeks burned and it wasn't because the bathroom was heating up. Greta was right. It wasn't good leadership to give up. Maybe she should step down and let Greta take over as leader of the mission.
She opened her mouth to speak but Shimlara spoke first. Her face was clenched, as if she had a toothache. 'I was reading Enrico's mind before. Even if we do achieve the mission he doesn't intend to let us off Shobble. He knows that more and more people are supporting Topaz and they'll be upset if anything happens to her, so he wants to make examples of us all. He's planning a huge public trial. We'll all be found guilty of murdering Topaz and then he'll put us in something called a mobile jail for the rest of our lives. We'll be taken around from village to village in a glass cage so the people can throw rocks and spit at us. He thinks the meaner he is to us, the more the people of Shobble will love him. He wants to give the people someone to hate - and that will be us.'
Nicola, Sean, Tyler and Greta all stared at Shimlara with open mouths. Even Joy looked shocked. This nightmare was getting worse and worse.
'Oh!' said Shimlara. 'One more thing. To ensure we can never tell anyone the truth, he's going to do to us what he did to Silent Fred. He was so pleased with himself for thinking of it. He kept saying to himself, My extraordinary intelligence never ceases to amaze me.' She looked at Joy questioningly. 'What does that mean? What did he do to Silent Fred?'
Joy's eyes filled with tears. She took a trembling breath and explained, 'Once my husband had a beautiful voice. He was the lead singer of The Fleas, a famous Shobble rock 'n' roll band. When Enrico came into power he banned all music. He introduced the Quiet-please decree. Well, Fred thought he couldn't be serious and went ahead and performed. Straight after the concert Enrico's Security Thugs took Fred away. They gave him something to drink and told him it was lemonade. It wasn't! It was a sort of chemical concoction that burns your tongue so badly you can never speak again. The last five words Silent Fred ever said were, "Gee, thanks! I love lemonade!"'
There was silence except for the sound of running water as everybody imagined their tongues being burned so badly they could never speak again.
Each time Nicola thought she couldn't be more shocked by Enrico's evil, she learned something new and disturbing about him.
'I guess we could just say no thank you to lemonade,' mused Sean, but everybody ignored him.
'How did such a vile person become the Commander-in-Chief of such a lovely planet?' asked Shimlara.
'He wasn't always evil,' said Joy. 'I've known him since he was a teenager. He was a charming, rather nervous sort of boy, although he did like to get his own way. Anyway, he rose up through the ranks until he became the Commander. People adored him! And that's when he slowly began to change. All that power and popularity went to his head. It rotted him from the inside. Yes, rotted! That's the word! He's gone black and evil like rotten fruit!'
The bath was nearly full. Joy wiped a tear from her eye and leaned towards them, her sweet face serious.
'You're in a terrible predicament and I believe there is only one person on this planet who can help
.'
'Who is that?' asked Tyler.
Joy paused, as if she wasn't sure if she should say what she was about to say. Then she took a deep breath and said, 'Topaz Silverbell. The girl you've been hired to kill!'
15
It was about three o'clock in the morning and Nicola lay in her four-poster bed staring into the darkness.
STOP THINKING AND GO TO SLEEP, she ordered herself.