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“What kind of a deal are they looking at?” I ask Chloe P.
“He just said that negotiations for a possible release of hostages would take place at four thirty,” she says, panting alongside me.
“Are you sure they weren’t taken by the serial killer?” Jessa pipes up. She’s torn between excitement and concern. I hear gasps of dismay from the younger kids. I stop to catch my breath and I’m amazed at just how large a crowd has gathered, squashed into almost single file on a track that hasn’t seen too many walkers in its time.
“Get back to the Houses,” I say firmly. “All juniors back to your Houses!”
There are complaints and pleading and the younger boys especially are begging me to let them come along.
“We need to have the Houses guarded as well,” I tell the leaders standing around me. “I read about this happening in ninety-two. They kidnapped three students and while the leaders went to negotiate, they invaded the Houses and the teachers never found out because the students were kept hidden.”
“Why would we hide them?” the leader of Hastings asks.
“No choice. The rules of invasion allow the invaders twenty-four hours of diplomatic immunity within enemy territory,” Raffaela explains to them.
“Any point of entry in every House is to be locked and all juniors are to be confined indoors. Raffy, I want you back home.”
It takes us a while to get to the boundary and I have to spend most of the time listening to the threats from some of the senior boys about what they’ll do when they come across the Cadets. Which is slightly amusing because, knowing these guys, one look at Jonah Griggs and they’ll be pushing me forward as a human shield.
We reach the clearing and Chloe P. is brought back up to me.
“Is this the place?” I ask patiently.
She nods solemnly. “See, there’s Teresa’s beret.”
More sobbing from Trini, who clutches the beret tragically. Ben exchanges a long-suffering look with me and I push him towards her. While he methodically pats her on the back, I walk away and check the markings of the boundaries. I can’t help thinking how petty the Cadets have been on this occasion. The girls would have taken no more than two steps into their territory before they were on them. I begin to wonder what Jonah Griggs is up to. I try to listen out for their approach, giving the others a silent shush gesture. But staying inconspicuous is not going to work. Trini is hyperventilating and some of the senior boys are continually swinging around in a paranoid attempt to see who’s behind them. Even I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Outside the dramatics of the Jellicoe students, there is a stillness around that makes it seem as if no one else exists, but the Cadets are cu
“This means we’re going to lose another trail or part of the property,” Ben says to me quietly.
“Shhh.” I take a few steps back. “Who knows,” I whisper, “but we’re ru
Four thirty comes, as does five o’clock, but nobody surfaces. I stay, standing the whole time, on guard, but by five twenty I’m exhausted and almost ready to give in to the suggestion of one of the guys that we invade.
“It’s best that we stay put on our side of the boundaries,” I tell them. “I don’t know what Griggs’s game is, but we need to know what we’re up against and I’m betting that the moment we cross that line they’ll be on us like a ton of bricks and trying to negotiate back seniors is going to be a lot harder.”
“I don’t think they’re around, Taylor,” the leader of Murray tells me.
“Don’t bet on it.”
After sitting for almost an hour, Richard comes to stand alongside me. It’s his way of making it seem that we’re equal and of asserting some kind of power in this whole farce.
“If they want something from us,” I tell him calmly, “I’m going to give them the trail closest to your House so that every time you see them loitering behind those trees you’ll remember how your little coup attempt contributed to this.”
“Why don’t you just go and have a breakdown somewhere?” he says, walking away.
By five thirty I’m pissed off and bored and I have absolutely no idea whether these guys are going to jump out of the sky or walk straight out of the bushland in front of us.
“Jonah Griggs!” I call out.
“Taylor Markham!” he answers from the bushes right in front of me.
Ben looks at me, rolling his eyes, and I turn around and motion for the others to step back.
“Stay here,” I say to Ben, stepping over the boundary lines.
Griggs comes out of hiding and approaches me as if he is on some Sunday afternoon walk, appreciating the nature around him.
“Where are they?” I ask, seething.
He peers closely at my face.
“Don’t like these things,” he says, pointing to what I’m presuming are the rings under my eyes. “You really need to get some sleep.”
I slap his hand away. “Where are they?” I ask again, forcefully.
“You didn’t warn them about the boundary lines. Those girls had absolutely no idea, whereas my juniors could point them out in their sleep.”
“Why don’t you just give yourself a pat on the back for being the world’s best leader, then.” He gives himself a pat on the back and I can tell he is enjoying himself at my expense.
“I can’t believe how petty you are. They’re in year seven!”
“Why is this a surprise to you?” he asks. “This has always happened. One of you ventures into our territory and there’s payback. Do you remember that?” he calls out to Ben. “Payback for trespassing?”
“With alarming clarity,” Ben calls back.
“Same with us. Happened to my friend Choi here, last year. Do you remember that, Choi?”
Behind him I notice at least one hundred Cadets either sitting in trees or coming out from behind shrubs and branches. I have to hand it to them. When it comes to camouflage, they certainly know what they’re doing.
“He ventured into your territory and our leader had to go fight your leader to get him back.”
Anson Choi nods solemnly. “Traumatic time. They put me into Murrumbidgee House. Very uptight bastards in there. They thought I’d be good at chess and they forced me to play all night.”
“So you and I are going to have a punch-up?” I ask Griggs.
“What do you propose I do?”
“Hand back my year sevens.”
“This is how the territory wars have always been fought,” he says firmly. “It’s in the handbook. Do you think they’re just about threats and ‘don’t walk on our boundaries’? It’s hand-to-hand combat. Someone is always going to lose. Sometimes it’s just one to the jaw. Other times a few to the gut and, presto, we hand back the hostages. The only thing is that for the past four years the leaders have been male.”
“Let’s change the rules this year. Because just between you and me, you’re scaring me.”
He looks at me closely again. “You need to put all your shit behind you because we’ve had at least two meetings about the Club House without you there and Santangelo and I are about this close,” he says, indicating a couple of centimetres with his fingers, “to breaking each other’s necks.”
“Jonah, hand over the kids,” I say tiredly.
He turns around and gives a whistle. The three Darling kids are taken out of their hiding spot and I relax slightly, a bit grateful, a bit surprised. This is a good victory for me in front of my school. All done with not one drop of blood or petty skirmish.
“Are you in charge?” he calls over my shoulder.
I turn around and watch Richard nod smugly. “Technically,” he says, walking towards us.
“Technicalities rarely interest me,” Griggs says, and then he smashes Richard in the face.
“We don’t really like scaring the kids,” he says patiently, looking to where Richard has fallen. “So you need to warn them that for every one of them who enters our territory, their leader gets payback. You, of course, can distribute punishment to them for your troubles. I’ve found in the past if I have to be the punching bag for one of my juniors, I usually get him to polish my shoes, maybe do my washing—the petty things, you know. But it rarely happens. You see, my juniors know who’s in charge. We try not to confuse them because it puts them in danger.” Griggs feigns confusion. “So who is in charge around here?”