they’re for emergencies. He could easily put his back out or something.’
Bruce tutted. ‘James, we’re supposed to be ruthless. You’re carrying on like you want to marry the kid.’
‘But there’s ruthless and there’s this, Bruce. You threw him off the platform, psycho.’
‘Me and Kyle used to do it all the time when we were red-shirts,’ Bruce said dismissively, as he put his foot out over the edge and leaned forward. ‘Nighty night.’
James watched Bruce disappear through the branches. As James looked down, he was relieved to catch a glimpse of Kevin stumbling out of a net to safety, crying but apparently undamaged. Then Bruce screamed out in pain.
‘Bruce?’ James yelled frantically as he looked down. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Do I sodding well sound OK?’ Bruce yelled back.
James crouched down and felt under the platform for one of the emergency ropes. Once he’d undone a leather buckle, a length of knotted rope dropped down towards the ground.
‘I’m coming,’ James shouted, as he lowered his boots off the side and stepped down on to a knot.
Bruce kept moaning as James scrambled down the rope. He raced up towards Bruce, who was crumpled on the ground.
‘What happened?’
‘God knows,’ Bruce groaned, ‘but my leg is killing me.’
Kevin stepped up behind James. ‘I saw,’ the younger boy sniffed, as he pointed up towards a section of black netting with a gap in it. ‘His boot got caught in the hole and his leg made this massive crunch.’
‘Run to the medical unit and get someone to drive straight up here,’ James said. ‘I think it’s just a dislocated joint, but it might be broken.’
‘Gotcha,’ Kevin said, before he sprinted off.
James knelt over Bruce and grimaced when he realised that Bruce’s boot was almost pointing backwards.
‘Actually, I think that is broken,’ James said, recoiling at the thought that it was probably even more painful than it looked.
‘If you …’ Bruce croaked weakly.
‘Eh?’ James said, as he moved his ear closer to his friend’s mouth.
‘I’ve jumped off that platform a hundred times,’ Bruce moaned. ‘And if you say I told you so, I swear to god I’ll kick every single tooth out of your head.’
James broke into a giant smile. ‘I told you so, Brucey boy.’
24. CALLS
Lauren was woken by her MC Hammer ring tone at three in the morning. She leaned way over the side of her bed and grabbed the phone off her desk. It was a man’s voice; someone she didn’t know, speaking in Russian.
‘Is that Anna?’
‘No,’ Lauren said. ‘But she’s here, do you want to speak with her?’
Anna whispered anxiously from across the room. ‘Hang up!’
‘Sorry, Anna doesn’t want to speak to you,’ Lauren said.
‘I’m Anna’s friend and I want to help her. I can tell her where Georgy is.’
Lauren looked up from the phone. ‘He says he knows where Georgy is.’
The room was dark, but there was enough light for Lauren to see Anna twisting her face uncertainly as she crossed the room and grabbed the mobile.
‘Hello,’ Anna said nervously.
‘Anna,’ the man said in a gentle voice.
Anna made a choking noise. ‘Mr Broushka.’
‘You made us a promise, Anna. We took a lot of risks and paid a lot of money to take you to England. All we asked was for you to come and work in our factory to pay off your debts.’
Anna didn’t answer; she just gawped at the phone.
‘I know where Georgy is,’ the man said reassuringly.
‘Where?’
‘I’ll tell you all about it when I come to collect you.’
Anna smiled. ‘So you don’t know where I am?’
‘You owe us money, Anna. You should have called us sooner. You shouldn’t have run away.’
‘I didn’t run,’ Anna said. ‘They left me on the boat.’
‘Where are you, Anna?’
Lauren shook her head frantically.
‘If you don’t tell me, Georgy might have a fall,’ Mr Broushka purred. ‘Or maybe he’ll reach up and pull a saucepan of boiling water down on himself.’
‘I’m,’ Anna spluttered, but she snapped the phone shut and threw it back at Lauren. She collapsed against the bed and started sobbing. ‘They …’
‘Who was he, Anna?’
‘Mr Broushka was an old man who used to fix things at our children’s home. They didn’t have any money for maintenance, so he’d help out, mending broken windows, replacing light bulbs. He used to be friendly to all the kids; not like the staff who were as mean as hell. Sometimes he’d bring us hot pies from the bakery and cheap toys for Georgy and the little kids.
‘After a while, he started telling us about this cousin who had a