Free Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson Page B

event that the police hadn’t been able to? How had they even known where to start looking? What the hell did their unit do?
    I uncurled myself from the foetal position I was lying in and sat up. This was bad. Really bad. We weren’t talking about teenage muggers. We were talking about murderers. I couldn’t let them do this. I had to talk Alex and Jack out of it.
    ‘Lila, what’s taking so long?’
    ‘Nothing. I’m here.’
    I ran down the stairs. Jack was hovering at the bottom, an impatient look on his face. I was running late because I’d only fallen asleep as dawn was breaking. It was ten in the morning now and though I’d had about four hours of sleep, it felt like only five minutes, all of it restless and filled with ugly dreams.
    ‘Let’s go,’ I said, smiling at him and walking through the door into the garage.
    The car, I noticed for the first time, was an Audi. It was sleek and black and glossy and I wondered how he’d paid for it. I stroked along its side. I wasn’t that into cars but this one I could covet.
    ‘Nice car,’ I said, as I slid into the passenger seat. We were heading to the base. Jack was popping in to do some work – what I wasn’t sure – and I was meeting Alex. We were going for a run and I planned to use the time to convince him to walk away, back off, stop looking for my mum’s killers. I’d beg and plead if I had to. I’d be more convincing than last night. I wouldn’t let his hands or his eyes or his voice distract me. We’d be running. I’d focus on the road.
    ‘It’s a company car,’ Jack said, turning the key in the ignition.
    I refocused on Jack. Cars. We were talking about cars.
    ‘The military pays for seventy-thousand-dollar cars now? Taxpayers must love that.’
    ‘One hundred twenty with the modifications and yes, the taxpayers would be fine if they knew why we needed them.’
    ‘What modifications?’ There were no spoilers. No go-faster stripes. Not even any flashing lights.
    ‘It goes a bit faster than the speed dial admits and it has a few hidden features.’
    I guessed he wasn’t talking about heated seats. I’d have a play with some of the buttons when I was next in it alone.
    Jack pressed a button on his key chain. The garage door eased up over our heads, letting in a wash of bright sunlight. The windows were tinted but I still pulled the visor down to shield my eyes. A laminated card fell onto my lap. I turned it over and saw it was a picture of Jack. He looked a little younger, more tired around the eyes, and thinner than he was now. United States Marine Corps was indented across the top and then, in finer print underneath, Stirling Enterprises: Special Operations.
    The thing that caught my eye though was the word before his name: Lieutenant. I was peering at the rest of the information when Jack snatched it from my hand and tucked it into his side pocket as he accelerated out of the driveway. The street was empty but for a few parked cars reflecting the sun like a row of mirrors.
    ‘Lieutenant Jack Loveday?’ I said. ‘That’s good, right? That means you’re in charge?’
    ‘Depends on how you look at it. And no, I’m not in charge – there’s a whole load of ranks above LT. But I am a team leader.’
    ‘What’s Alex, then?’
    I wanted to know whether either of them outranked the other. That would be really awkward.
    Jack paused. ‘He’s the same,’ he said. ‘He runs another team, though. He’s Alpha team and I’m in charge of Beta.’
    ‘OK, so it’s a little bit more organised than the A-Team, then?’
    He laughed at my amateur description. ‘Yes, a little. There are three teams in our unit. Each has eight men at any given time.’
    ‘That’s small, isn’t it? I mean, twenty-four men isn’t many.’ I was a bloodhound, sniffing for clues.
    ‘Twenty-four men is a lot.’
    I nodded as if I understood. ‘But it’s not that many for dealing with drug traffickers.’
    He let out a hoot that I assumed was mirth.