Guardian Angel by Robert Muchamore

Author:Robert Muchamore [Muchamore, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780340999219
Amazon: 0340999217
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2013-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

20. PIPE

Ethan didn’t get anything to read and the hours sitting in the dark with nothing to do were starting to scramble his brain. He made mental lists – ten sexiest film stars, ten favourite bands, ten best cars. He counted up to 17,492 and invented a game where he filled his mouth with water and spat it at bugs crawling across the floor.

That evening some of Kessie’s workers socialised in a clearing behind the cage hut. Now that Ethan had a hose to flush his piss and crap into the drain, he could turn the empty bucket upside down and stand on it to look out of the window.

He rested his elbows on a ledge and watched a soccer game, lit up by the headlights of two tractors. There was a lot of boozing going on and players faced off every time a dirty tackle went in. Older ranch workers sat at the edge watching, and the girls from the kitchen sat in their own lively circle, gossiping and rebuffing the occasional sweaty footballers who came over to flirt.

Ethan didn’t know what had gone on the day he’d been taken to the riverside shower, but the order had clearly been sent down that he needed to be checked on more frequently. Michael had delegated this task to the small lad who’d swept out his old cell, but he was something of a star on the football field, so it was his long-legged pal who came through the door at around ten p.m.

The boy was no more than thirteen, barefoot and wearing filthy nylon shorts and a Barcelona football shirt. Ethan had watched the lad charging around on the football field, mad keen but talentless. He was out of breath and sweat was beading up through his close-cropped hair.

The boy turned the lights on. It was far from floodlit, but Ethan was so used to dark that even the gloomy strip lights along the centre of the barn were enough to make him squint. The boy didn’t seem entirely certain what checking on Ethan was supposed to involve, so after a brief-but-awkward stare he spun and bolted back outside.

Ethan stood back on his bucket and watched the boy approach Michael, who was playing in goal. Michael seemed satisfied with whatever he was told and the boy ran back on to the field to continue charging hopelessly after footballs.

The boy had closed the outer door of the building, but for the first time since arriving Ethan found himself alone in the cell with enough light to study his surroundings in detail. One of the cages at the far end was used to store tools and for the first time he properly appreciated how many bugs came out to crawl up the walls in the night.

Ethan was briefly intrigued by a metal handle sticking out of the floor close to the cage block’s main entrance. This lever was designed so that all the animals on his side of the block could be let out to graze.

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