گرفتن جاسوس

Chapter four

Spy Catching

Where are we going?’ Kara asked. She was following Martin down the bumpy track that passed Owl Hall.

‘I want to see where this track goes,’ Martin answered. After a hundred metres, the track started to go up a hill. Kara heard her mother’s voice inside her head saying, ‘Don’t go too far’. Kara used the phone to film the ground beneath her feet, the bushes on either side of the track and the fields behind the bushes.

Martin walked along the track in front of her. He was carrying a large stick he had found in the bushes. Kara watched him lift the stick and hit a bush.

A brother and sister can be so different, she thought. She and Martin looked very different. Kara had dark hair while Martin had ginger hair. Kara had green eyes while Martin had brown eyes. Kara was quite tall and slim but Martin was shorter and well-built.

Martin was strong and Kara was not. Sometimes, when they fought, Kara thought he did not know how strong he really was. But probably the biggest difference between them was their personalities.

Kara was quiet and shy while Martin was loud and outgoing. In many ways, Martin was like his father and Kara was like her mother.

When Mum and Dad had decided to separate, Martin had changed. It was not a sudden change. Kara was not sure if Mum had noticed the change at first. Kara had noticed it because she spent a lot of time with her brother. In the past, Kara had usually known what Martin was going to say or do.

During the separation, it became difficult to know what Martin was thinking. His character would sometimes suddenly change. When Martin’s character changed, Kara had to watch him carefully.

They were quite far away from Owl Hall now and Kara was starting to worry.

‘I think we should go back,’ she said.

‘No, there’s a house up that hill. I want to see it,’ said Martin.

So they climbed the hill and reached the house. There they came face to face with Max, the dog from last night. Kara and Martin did not move. Kara remembered Howard, the dog’s owner. He had said that the dog liked people but Kara thought it looked dangerous.

‘Max!’ Martin said to the dog. ‘It’s OK. We’re friends.’

Then Martin walked over to the dog and stroked its head. The dog wagged its tail.

‘He’s OK,’ Martin said. ‘He’s big but he won’t hurt you.’

They walked through the gate and came to the house. It was a tall, narrow building that did not look loved.

‘This must be Howard’s house,’ Kara said. ‘He said he had a house near Owl Hall.’

Suddenly a face appeared at one of the upstairs windows.

‘Come on!’ Martin shouted as he turned and ran back down the track in the direction of Owl Hall. Kara ran after him, imagining the person at the window running downstairs and chasing them.

When they were back in her bedroom at Owl Hall, Kara and Martin connected the phone to the laptop and watched the video that Kara had made earlier.

‘Awkward Productions presents.’ Kara’s voice said. Kara did not want to watch the whole video. She wanted to find the Moment when she had seen someone or something in the bushes outside the barn.

‘This is it!’ Kara said when she reached the moment when the phone fell to the ground. She went back a few seconds and watched carefully. As the image moved in closer to the barn, she pressed pause and pointed to a shape in the bushes.

‘Look, Martin. Can you see?’ she asked. ‘There’s someone watching us.’

Martin nodded his head and watched the shape moving in the bushes. A few seconds later the phone fell to the ground.

‘It’s a spy,’ Martin told her.

‘I’m going to upload the video to my blog,’ Kara replied.

She logged in to the site and started uploading the video. Suddenly a message appeared on the screen. It said:

You have one new message. Click here to read.

Kara looked at Martin, who nodded.

‘Go on,’ he said.

She clicked on the link and a new window opened with a message.

I need to talk to you. Meet me in the barn at five o’clock. Come alone. A friend.

‘It’s a message from the spy,’ Martin said. ‘Be careful. It might be a trap.’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ replied Kara.

Then both of them jumped because someone had rang the doorbell. Kara and Martin waited for Mum to answer the door but a few seconds later the bell rang again. Then the visitor started knocking on the front door.

‘I’ll go,’ said Kara. She looked from Martin to the laptop. ‘Don’t read my blog, Martin.’

‘Why would I want to read your blog?’ Martin asked.

Kara walked quickly downstairs and opened the front door. The man they had met last night was standing outside. He smiled, showing his perfect teeth, and held out his hand.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘I’m Howard. Do you remember me?’

‘I remember,’ said Kara, but she did not shake his hand. She was wondering if Howard had watched her and Martin when they had visited the narrow house on the hill.

‘Is your mother at home?’ Howard asked.

‘I think so,’ Kara replied.

Kara did not asked the man to come inside. She went through the kitchen but her mother was not there. Kara looked in the living-room but she was not there either. Then she went back into the kitchen and through the utility-room to the gym. There she found Mum joking on a treadmill.

‘Mum!’ Kara said. ‘We’ve got a visitor.’

Mum looked up, but she was not looking at Kara, she was looking over her shoulder. Kara turned round and saw Howard in the door way.

‘Howard!’ Mum said as she was speaking an old friend.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘I wanted to see how you are,’ Howard replied.

‘We are fine,’ Mum said. She stopped the treadmill and Kara noticed that she seemed nerves.

‘Kara, darling,’ Mum said. She usually called darling when she wanted her to do something. ‘Please, can you go and make some tea. Would you like some tea, Howard?’

‘I’d love some,’ he said, turning and smiling at Kara. Kara knew that neither Howard nor Mum really wanted a cup of tea, they wanted Kara to leave them along so they could talk.

As Kara went back to the kitchen, she heard the door closing quietly behind her. She searched around the kitchen and managed to make to cups of tea.

‘Tea is ready!’ she shouted. Then she went back upstairs into her room and decided to play the video again. She stared for a long time at the person in the bushes, wondering who a friend might be.