TimeBomb: The TimeBomb Trilogy: Book 1 Read Online Free Page B

better say something. ‘I am called Kaz. What is your name?’ was the best he could come up with.
    ‘Yojana,’ replied the heap in an American accent. ‘Sorry, no, Jana. My name’s Jana.’
    ‘Hello, Jana.’
    Jana managed to raise herself again but this time she went for the less ambitious option of sitting up.
    ‘Hi,’ she replied.
    Before either of them could start asking the questions that were forming in their minds, there was another burst of vivid scarlet light. They both scrambled backwards to clear a landing space for the dripping-wet girl who dropped from nowhere with a piercing scream and crashed in the spot vacated by Jana only a second before.
    Once again the fire vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Dust billowed and swirled in the moonlight.
    Then the two main doors groaned in protest as they were forced inwards. A tall man stepped forward, framed in torchlight, looking down at the three figures sprawled on the floor.
    ‘Welcome to Sweetclover Hall,’ he said. ‘We’ve been expecting you.’
    The wet girl looked up, apparently recognising the man’s voice.
    ‘My lord?’
    ‘Hello, Dora,’ said the man. ‘Welcome back. You’ve been away for a very, very long time.’
    Kaz smiled to himself; maybe he’d found the adventure he’d been hoping for after all.
    Steve the security guard leaned forward and grabbed the CCTV control, zooming in on the face of the man in the doorway. He was a tall man in his early forties, dark haired with thick streaks of grey at the temples, heavy browed, with deep brown eyes and a square jaw. Solid was the best word to describe him.
    He could see the man’s mouth was moving so he turned up the sound.
    ‘… sure they don’t touch each other. We move them in separate vans. Quickly.’ Four men in generic security guard uniforms entered the room, grabbed the three protesting teenagers and bundled them outside.
    As the dust settled in the now silent room Steve saw a small flash, like the glint of moonlight on the blade of a sword.
    An external camera displayed three black vans with their rear doors open. Steve watched the captives being forced into them. Jana wasn’t putting up much of a fight, and Dora seemed cowed by the unexpected presence of her lord and master. Kaz punched the man carrying him hard in the stomach, but his burly escort barely even flinched.
    The van doors slammed and the engines revved. Steve didn’t stay to see them drive away. He was already pulling on his coat and reaching for the keys to his motorbike.
    The black-clad figure stood in the shadows of the treeline and watched Steve roar away on his motorcycle, then vanished in a flash of red fire.

3
    Soft. That was good. She liked soft. Warm, too. Nice.
    Dora nuzzled down into the pillows, comfortable and cosy in the seconds of amnesia that accompanied her waking. She felt odd. There was a pain in her arm and an ache in her head. What had …?
    She froze rigid. She felt the panic rising in her again but she forced it back down. She was warm, in a bed, although a softer bed than any she’d slept in before. That implied safety, at least for the moment.
    Keep calm, Dora, she told herself. Take a moment to compose yourself before you open your eyes. You may not be alone. This thought led swiftly to the realisation that she was naked, which led to an involuntary cry of alarm. So much for remaining composed.
    She admonished herself. Of course she had been undressed, her clothes had been wet through. To leave her in them would have caused a chill or worse. Whoever had undressed her – and she shied away from considering the possibility it had been Lord Sweetclover – they had done her a kindness.
    The room was silent except for a strange background hum, similar to that she had detected in the clean white room with the tall, fat man. Was that where she was? From the way her cry had rebounded from the walls she could tell she was in a small chamber unlike any she’d known before; the sound