Mutation by Chris Morphew Page A

freaking moron!’ hissed Peter, suddenly behind us, and it took me a second to realise he was talking to Mike. ‘You led them right here!’
    â€˜We’re not the ones who left our crap lying around for anyone to find,’ said Mike, as one of the guards started kicking through the scraps on the rug.
    But obviously none of that was the real reason they’d shown up.
    It was us. Shackleton had seen that we’d stopped here, and he’d sent security to sort us out.
    Calvin skulked around like a wild dog, itching for an excuse to do something horrible to us.
    â€˜Ugh,’ said Peter. ‘I liked it so much better when he was crippled.’
    â€˜Back inside,’ I whispered, dragging Mike and Peter with me.
    â€˜Hey – no – we need to get out of here,’ said Peter. ‘If he finds us …’
    â€˜What, you think you’re going to swim back over without being seen?’ I said. ‘Because you weren’t exactly stealthy the first time.’
    â€˜Calm down,’ said Tank. ‘No-one even knows about this place.’
    â€˜We found it okay,’ Peter muttered.
    But Tank was kind of right. The Co-operative couldn’t have known what he and the others were doing in this place, or else they would’ve put a stop to it. If we were lucky, Calvin would give up soon enough, and –
    â€˜They’re coming!’ said Mike, back at the entrance. ‘They’re walking around the lake.’
    But since when had we ever been lucky?
    I turned to Luke. ‘How well did you two hide your bags and stuff?’
    Luke cringed. ‘Pretty well.’
    Great.
    I got down low and crept over to look out at the shore again. Calvin and his men were already halfway around the lake. Their eyes were mostly on the bushland, which was good, but they’d still have no problem finding the cave if we gave them a reason to look over here.
    And unfortunately, it looked like we already had.
    There was a blotch of white gleaming out from under one of the bushes. The corner of a shirt, somehow even more noticeable in the fading light.
    â€˜ Pretty well, ’ I muttered.
    Nothing we could do about it now.
    Mike was still at the entrance. He bent down, wrapping his fingers around the rope trailing down into the water.
    â€˜What are you doing?’ I hissed.
    â€˜Pulling it in. They’ll see it, otherwise.’
    â€˜What they’ll see ,’ I said, grabbing his wrists, ‘is that rope sending ripples across the whole lake.’
    Mike stared at me for a minute, not impressed that I was telling him what to do.
    Then he released his grip on the rope.
    I let go of his hands, breathing again.
    â€˜All right,’ he said, following me back into the cavern. ‘How are you getting us out of this, then?’
    â€˜I’m not,’ I said. ‘We’re going to wait here until they go. Nothing else we can do.’
    â€˜Yeah there is,’ said Cathryn, turning to Mike. ‘ We haven’t done anything wrong. We should just hand these guys over and –’
    â€˜And what?’ said Mike. ‘Just invite them into the cave? How happy do you think the overseers are going to be if the town finds out about this place?’
    â€˜Be quiet,’ said Luke. ‘All of you – please. Jordan’s right. We need to just sit tight and wait for this to blow over. We can all go back to hating each other tomorrow.’
    Silence. I figured that was as close as we were going to get to an agreement.
    â€˜Everyone move to the back of the cavern,’ I said. ‘I’m going to go keep an eye on them.’
    Mike stepped forward, but I held up a hand.
    â€˜ I’m going to keep an eye on them.’
    He let it go, and I tiptoed up the tunnel alone.
    I crawled the last few metres, sticking to the shadows, trying to catch a glimpse of Calvin on the shore. But they’d already come around too far. No way to see them