The Ruby Redfort Collection: 4-6: Feed the Fear; Pick Your Poison; Blink and You Die

Ruby didn’t ask what it was but hoped it was a good one. ‘What about LB?’ was all she said.

‘She’ll back me if everyone else is onboard,’ said Hitch.

Ruby gave a slow nod. ‘So what is this idea of yours?’

‘You ever been on an assault course?’ said Hitch, indicating the alleyway, trash cans and fire-escape ladder.

‘Yeah,’ she said slowly.

‘So this is like an assault course but with a twist.’

Ruby looked around. ‘I don’t see any course; just buildings and walls and stuff.’

‘You heard of parkour, kid?’

Ruby looked blank.

‘Let me explain.’ Without warning, Hitch ran. He was across the parking lot in the blink of any eye and headed straight towards a high brick wall – but he didn’t stop, he didn’t slow his pace, he ran at the wall and then up the wall, and when he got to the top he didn’t stop running, he jumped a narrow gap, grabbed a ledge, hauled himself easily onto a narrow pediment, leapt from the pediment onto a sloped roof, ran along the ridge tiles, vaulted onto a wall, ran to where the wall ended, did a handspring from the wall onto the ground, rolled, and landed back on his feet.

‘OK, that’s cool,’ said Ruby. ‘The last bit was a bit showy-offy but all in all, cool.’

Hitch rolled his eyes. ‘Always the smart mouth but you’re right, this isn’t about handsprings and acrobatics; it’s not about adrenalin or competition – leave that to the free runners. This is a discipline. You have to train and you have to understand the mindset.’

‘And you’re telling me that’s not risky?’ said Ruby.

‘Sure there’s risks, but these are risks you assess, you work up to. Never take a risk that isn’t worth taking. Be aware of your body’s own capabilities. Fear should be respected but should not control you. These are some of the principles of parkour.’

‘OK,’ said Ruby.

‘You have to feel it – the sensation of moving fluidly through space, mind and body as one. It’s almost like meditation. It’s not like crane-hanging or one of those daredevil pursuits. It is not you pitting yourself against the urban landscape, not you against fear. It is you harnessing your fear, overcoming physical and psychological challenge through training. The more you practise the stronger you will become both in body and mind. If your fear is telling you no, then you listen. The aim is not to lose your fear but to work through it – fear is your friend.’

‘OK,’ said Ruby.

‘You want to know how to run up a wall?’ Hitch asked but before Ruby could answer they were interrupted by a small buzzing sound and Hitch looked at his watch and then at Ruby.

‘A message from me?’ asked Ruby.

‘Well, a message from your watch,’ said Hitch.

Ruby made a face. ‘The skywalker, you think?’

‘Could be anyone,’ said Hitch.

‘Anyone who can encode a message,’ corrected Ruby.

‘Doesn’t exactly narrow the field as far as the villains we know go,’ said Hitch. ‘For all you know we might have the Count on our tail.’

Ruby shivered. She didn’t like to think the Count’s name, let alone hear it spoken out loud. ‘So what are you gonna do?’

He shook his head. ‘Whoever this bozo is, it would seem he wants our attention but for now he can’t have it.’ Then he looked up. ‘So where were we?’

‘You were running up a wall,’ said Ruby.

‘So I was,’ said Hitch. ‘Any questions?’

‘Yeah, are you going to teach me how to do that or what?’

‘Are you going to stop behaving like a numbskull at least some of the time?’ asked Hitch.

‘It’s a strong possibility,’ said Ruby.

‘OK, that’ll have to do,’ said Hitch, rolling his eyes heavenwards. ‘I’ll teach you.’

Ruby didn’t go to school on Monday, nor Tuesday, nor Wednesday. Hitch had written a very convincing letter explaining that Ruby had suffered a road traffic accident (which wasn’t actually a lie) and was suffering psychological trauma (which may have been a tiny one). Instead of sitting at her desk in Twinford Junior High, Ruby spent her time in parking lots, shopping malls, alleys and low-rises, devoting the days to parkour, to practising the skills and getting into the mindset. Parkour was about moving in harmony with the city. It was about challenging the self – mind and body adapting to the urban environment, rather than competing with anyone else. Running and climbing, jumps, drops and vaults, fluid balanced moves and above all staying in the now – something that fear actually helped with.

Ruby understood why Hitch had wanted her to learn the principles, because it was all about dealing with obstacles in the most efficient way possible, never taking unnecessary risks. She found, training with him, that she could drop great distances – further than she would have thought possible – by perfecting a move called a “roll”, turning downward force into forward momentum. She learned the importance of building strength and working towards the more challenging jumps, drops and vaults. Without training and proper preparation you could injure yourself badly, possibly permanently, and for Ruby that would mean kissing goodbye to her dream of making it as a field agent. She listened to everything Hitch told her; she did not want to blow this chance.

Soon she was leaping from building to building, rolling when landing, running up walls and swinging herself round stairwells, using her agility and momentum to traverse the city. Her vocabulary now included wall runs, swinging lachés, feet first underbars, monkey vaults and tic-tacs.

The more she focused on keeping herself in the moment, the more she began to tune into the rhythm of the city, to see the buildings and parks as spaces she could interact with. No longer were the buildings separate from her, they were her domain, an urban landscape she was now connected to. The amazing thing was that the more Ruby practised parkour, the clearer things became. The fragments were coming together; she was beginning to see things as a whole again.

It was when she jumped from the Beyer Building, landing neatly on one of its several flagpoles, allowing herself to drop from it and catch the flagpole directly below, spinning herself around it like a gymnast might, using the momentum to somersault herself down and land gracefully on the sidewalk, that she looked up and saw it.

It was an old faded sign on the side of a building, a ghost sign, with an address and a phone number at the bottom. But it wasn’t those that caught Ruby’s eye, it was the letters above. They spelled out:

Suddenly, Ruby had an idea about the numbers she’d given to Hitch, the numbers from the cards.

The poetry book was the key to it all.

Chapter 42. (#ulink_fa5342d3-966f-5833-8ebc-90da15ee7f86)

RUBY ARRIVED AT SPECTRUM, her mind free of the fog it had been clouded in. She grabbed a drink from the canteen and made her way to her desk. She took out the four sets of numbers and the book of poems and then she began to work.

She looked again at all four cards, the numbers of each clear to her.

3 14 1 10 14 8 15 14 13 17 14 15

And now she thought the meaning was clear too.

The paperweight, the shoes, the book of poems, the tie-clip. Of these the poetry book had been the most mysterious item. It was a book written to hold secrets; the poet had designed it that way – there was the missing poem 14 for one thing, or rather the hidden poem, which Ruby had found as soon as she’d figured out that the title gave the clue.