Jimmy Coates by Joe Craig

something will help.” She quickly searched the drawers of one of the desks and gestured to the others to do the same. Within minutes, they were sitting round the largest desk with a pile of crisp packets and sweets in the centre.
    â€œWe should search the desks and computers for information as well,” said Jimmy’s mum. “There has to be something in this building about Chris’s arrangement with the Capita. Something about the H Code. What about in his office?”
    â€œI’ll see what I can find,” said Saffron, “but he was so secretive. He refused to have his own computer in case it was hacked, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he hid anything about the Capita from his advisors. After all, he hid it from me.”
    She turned away and started work on one of the computers, but Jimmy caught a glimpse of the heavy sadness in her eyes. She and Viggo were meant to love each other. How much of that was left after all these months of secrets and deception?
    â€œWhat if it wasn’t the capital?” Felix asked.
    â€œ Capita ,” Jimmy corrected him. “It means ‘the head’, or something…” He trailed off, lost in the memory of his encounter with the Capita’s boss. Darkness had obscured the man’s face, but he remembered the hoarse Italian whisper and the hiss of the man’s wheelchair. His immense power had come at the expense of the use of his body. From what Jimmy had seen, the Capita boss was a head kept alive on an almost-dead body. His men even referred to him as ‘The Head’.
    â€œWhatever,” Felix went on. “It might not be these ‘head people’. I mean, the woman might have been lying. She could even have been from NJ7!”
    â€œShe wasn’t NJ7,” Jimmy said urgently. The voice was thrust from his gut before he even realised he was talking.
    â€œI agree with Jimmy,” Saffron added over her shoulder, still tapping at one of the computers. “NJ7 would have killed Chris straight away. Now the election is over, Chris will be a marked man again. But the Capita have good reason to keep him alive.”
    â€œThey might even have taken him partly to protect him from NJ7,” Helen added, thinking aloud. “The Government has been trying to show everybody how fair and honest they are, but now they’ve won it’ll be time to punish their enemies. That includes Chris and anybody who supported Chris during his campaign.”
    Jimmy looked round at the rows and rows of empty desks. The place had obviously been abandoned in a hurry. Several chairs had been knocked over. Jimmy knew that not one person would dare turn up for work in the morning – even if it was just to collect some of the personal belongings that were strewn across the desks and the carpet.
    â€œThe Capita wants this ‘H Code’ from him,” Jimmy muttered, “and we have twenty-four hours to deliver it to them if we want Chris back alive.”
    There was a deadly silence and Saffron stopped typing. Jimmy immediately regretted what he’d said. The feeling side of him seemed cut off from the world while his calculating assassin side tried to work out what their next step should be.
    â€œWhy don’t we just pay them back the money?” Felix suggested. Jimmy was grateful to his friend for breaking the silence, but not impressed by the idea.
    â€œYeah, nice one, Felix,” he said. “Let’s all chip in and see how much we’ve got.”
    â€œDon’t you know what you could do?” Felix asked, scrunching his wild hair in his fingers. “You’re sitting there with these amazing… skills, and you don’t even know what to do with them. You have superpowers! Rob a bank!”
    Jimmy’s mum stood up straight away.
    â€œFelix!” she cried with a laugh. “Are you serious?
    â€œWhy not?” said Felix.
    â€œAre you a criminal all of a