Caged Read online

  Spartacus had drawn up a whole set of instructions which he’d printed out and pinned on their notice board.

  The first three were:

  Do nothing unusual.

  Do nothing out of the ordinary.

  Do nothing that attracts attention to yourself.

  The List of Rules was long, but the Cage Fighters obeyed them out of loyalty to Spartacus, who’d taken them off the city streets.

  When Kai had first decided to run away from home, he’d headed for London. He’d known what the city was like, had scoped it out on the Internet before taking off. He wasn’t dopey – his schoolwork was fine until the man he called Evil Eddy appeared in his house – so he made a plan. A classmate said his cousin would let him doss down in his flat, and he could find a job in one of the city markets. Once Kai was on the train he sent a text to his mum to tell her that he was with friends and not to worry. He sent her the same text every week and deleted her replies trying to persuade him to come home. He bought another cheap pay-as-you-go phone for everyday use and, although he missed her and his school friends, he was getting by and felt less stressed without Evil Eddy around.

  Then one day his pal’s cousin left with the rent well overdue, and Kai had to give the rest of his savings to the landlord’s debt collectors, who threatened serious injury if he didn’t pay up. He was reduced to sleeping rough wherever he could find a safe spot.

  Kai hadn’t expected the London streets to be made of gold, but neither had he expected them to be so dangerous. He thought that if he left folks alone they would do the same to him. But instead, as soon as it was apparent that he was homeless, he was pestered nonstop. There were shady people offering young boys as well as young girls ‘free’ food and accommodation. Creeps on the lookout for those who’d come to London with lots of hope in their hearts but little money in their pockets.

  Eventually Kai made himself a squat by the river. He liked being near water and sometimes found useful objects which had been dumped from passing boats. But the market work soon dried up, which meant he was increasingly hungry by day and cold at night, and he and his clothes were getting scruffy. Then he began to be hounded by a gang who were operating on the same stretch of riverbank and twice had to fight his way free of them. He was on the point of packing his rucksack to move on when Spartacus had turned up. Said he was scouting for fighters and had heard Kai was handy with his fists. Invited Kai to talk over a project he was planning with similar teenagers on the streets. And so Kai met Magog, Beowulf, Boudicca, Medusa and…Raven.

  Spartacus had explained his idea of staging a Cage Fighters for Freedom tournament in a steel-barred metal cage, and filming it for the Internet. Like the rest of the fighters, Kai was swayed by the plan to set up a pay-per-view website with a button where viewers could also donate to help homeless kids.

  ‘Everyone involved gets a share of the pay-per-view cash,’ said Spartacus. ‘The donation money will go to a homeless charity. Some of you know Tech from the gym. The bank accounts will be in his name, and he’s the IT expert who’ll produce the films and manage the promotion side of it. If you guys get on board, then as well as giving you some income, it would raise awareness of how many young people are sleeping rough in Britain today. Public opinion might shame the government into doing something about it.’ Spartacus stopped speaking and waited for their response.

  It was an easy sell. Every fighter had their story of living in alleys or doorways, under a flyover or among a clutter of rubbish bins. Homeless creatures: half starved and jittery with fear of being beaten up, robbed, or worse.

  Spartacus made his conditions clear from the start, the main one being that it was top-secret, as he didn’t want anyone else muscling in on his project. He told them that he wasn’t registering with any UK licensing authority. They’d regulate themselves, but they’d need to be hyper-careful as the police would definitely be unhappy if they found out that a group of teens were living in organized dens deep below street level.

  Which was why the Cage Fighters respected Spartacus’s rules. Everyone agreed that they felt secure here – especially as Tech had the entry and exit tunnels of their HQ monitored so no one could approach without him knowing.

  Kai took his helmet and gloves from his rucksack.

  Padded gloves.

  In his heart he didn’t like hitting people, but at least with gloves it was a cleaner way of doing it. Whereas using bare knuckles…he damped down the thoughts that were always there; ready to rise to the surface of his mind.

  While Kai appreciated the gloves as being useful, his helmet he loved for the sheer glory of it. Tech was a wizard at construction. Not only with his electronics and electric wiring, but also at making things – the Cage Fighters’ costumes were works of art. Kai’s helmet was ebony black and decorated with an inferno of fierce red flames that seemed to leap and burn when he moved. Leo’s had a background of jungle green with the bright orange head of a roaring lion.

  Leo…

  Something about Leo was niggling in Kai’s head. An irritation, like an itch that needed to be scratched. There’d been animosity from the moment they met. And it wasn’t just to do with the fact that Leo was Kai’s main rival in the Cage. Although they were in competition with each other, the fighters got along OK. Kai knew that he was moody. Magog was annoying because he avoided his share of the chores. Medusa could be bossy and Raven short-tempered. Leo was sarcastic and Boudicca liked to argue – with Beowulf always pitching in on her side. But they painted each other’s make-up and body tattoo-style art before their contests, played endless computer games, and all hung out together.

  Except Kai and Leo.

  Spartacus had noticed the tension between them as he introduced Leo to the group. ‘Uh-oh!’ he exclaimed when Kai reached out to shake Leo’s hand. ‘Powerful personality clash here!’

  Kai hesitated. Leo dropped his outstretched hand. And from that moment their relationship went downhill.

  A big source of the friction was Raven. Beautiful, dark-haired, dark-eyed, mysterious Raven. She was fiercely independent, but Kai had been slowly building a friendship with her, and then Leo arrived on the scene. It was obvious that Leo liked her. The way he looked at Raven; the way he was always trying to chat to her riled Kai. When Kai had warned him off, Leo said he wasn’t aware that he needed Kai’s permission to be friends with Raven, and if Kai objected why didn’t he speak to Raven about it? He’d smiled in his silky manner and walked away, leaving Kai fuming, because they both knew that Raven wouldn’t be told what to do.

  But Kai disliked Leo for more than that. He didn’t fully trust him. The reason Leo had given for being homeless didn’t seem right. Most of the Cage Fighters had good cause to be on the run. But they didn’t share details of the what, or the why.

  Only Leo, who came last to the group, had told everyone about his former life: wealthy, busy parents who didn’t care about him, being sent away to boarding school where he was bullied, his retaliation where he’d broken the bully’s arm, getting expelled, his failed attempt at suicide. Overhearing his parents talking with a doctor who’d advised a course of treatment involving a stay in a locked ward in a psychiatric hospital, Leo had done a runner, but lost his money and lived by begging on the street. Members of the group liked him for his openness, but there were bits of what he said that didn’t quite fit together.

  Kai promised himself that, one day, he’d investigate Leo’s story and check if it was true.

  And Leo was an expert at needling Kai. Constantly making sneering comments, trying to get Kai to lose his temper. Like in Tech’s den, when Sarema had intervened. He’d need to thank her for calming him down.

  Kai paused in the act of hanging up his helmet.

  A thought jarred in his head. To do with Leo earlier. Not his taunting remarks. Something else…

  Leo calling out. What was odd about that?

  When Kai heard the argument going on, he hadn’t wanted to go into Tech’s den. He’d stood at the e
ntrance while Raven went to the computer console. Sarema had come over to join Kai. Between them they blocked the door.

  Yet Leo had called to him from across the other side of the room.

  Tech’s den was way bigger than anyone else’s allocated space. It had been a connecting passage for Tube passengers transferring to another line. Tech had panelled the blocked-off end from roof to floor, making pigeon holes and dozens of nooks and crannies to keep his IT equipment. There was only one way in and out.

  Leo was among the last to leave the fight arena. He’d been behind Kai and Raven as they were walking along the tunnel.

  So, how had Leo got into Tech’s den without passing them?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  All information must be shared.

  That was another item on the List of Rules. Spartacus had explained that their very lives might depend upon it.

  Outside his den, Kai slotted the door bar in place and went to study the map which Spartacus had fixed onto the wall next to the notice board.

  Where Kai stood was marked as the Cage Fighters’ HQ. A long time ago it had been known as Grove Road Tube Station, and was one of the earliest original London Underground stations. Grove Road, and the connecting tunnels surrounding it, had been closed down when the railway network was extended and redirected after the end of the Second World War. From here, different coloured lines radiated out showing these abandoned passages. Anyone finding a new one was meant to report to Spartacus so he could sound it out and add a coloured line to the wall map. That way everyone would be kept up to date.

  And safe.

  Green, blue, brown, yellow, black and orange lines meant they were OK to use. These were the huge old tunnels that had carried trains, plus a maze of other passages on various levels: air-vent ducts and those once used by maintenance workers, with connecting access shafts dotted here and there. The no-go ones were marked in bright red: the underground rivers, and the floodwater run-offs. When he looked at those lines Kai had to quell a rising sense of dread and apprehension. He shuddered. The bulk of the earth above, below and around, was a heavy, unyielding presence. Supposing there was a breach in one of the red-line passages? The force of the water could tear apart the ancient bricks and mortar. A torrent of foul water would come pouring in. Everyone would be trapped.

  It was mainly Mole, a skinny, pasty-faced boy with a shock of dirty blond hair, who explored the unmarked tunnels. Raven had told Kai that the whole Cage Fighters for Freedom idea wouldn’t have happened if Spartacus hadn’t come across Mole, who’d spent most of his life underground. Mole wasn’t interested in their plan to stage a Cage Fight tournament to draw attention to the number of homeless children in the city. He was working on a project of his own, and only agreed to help Spartacus find a suitable place for setting up his HQ in exchange for electrical equipment: torch batteries, cables and micro cameras to help him map unknown passages. From time to time he appeared with extra intel to add to the network on the map.

  Some of the passages had names and numbers, and every Cage Fighter had memorized their own escape lines in case they ever had to leave in a hurry. In the event of an emergency Spartacus or Tech would press the alarm button and they’d evacuate immediately. Kai was with Raven on the northern exit. With his finger he traced their designated route.

  North on Main Tunnel (green line) and down Access Chute Ladder 4 (blue); along to Air Duct 6 (brown); Air Duct 6 to Workers Tunnel 1 (white); Workers Tunnel 1 to Manhole Cover 9. Climb up and out to fresh air.

  Fresh air.

  Kai tilted his head back, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. But the musty smell of the tunnels clogged his nose and mouth. He sighed.

  ‘Time for tea?’

  Kai opened his eyes and there was Sarema. She seemed to magic herself beside him whenever his mood was low or tense. He liked her company, and they walked together towards the café area. On first arriving in the tunnels, the Cage Fighters had worked with Spartacus to level out the rubble piled up in the gap between the old platforms. They’d laid down boards of wood to make a larger space for them to use and live in. At one end was the Arena which held the steel-barred Cage raised up on bricks, with training equipment nearby. The dens were scattered around: some at the bottom of the closed-off staircases, some hollowed out of the walls. In the middle was the place the Cage Fighters called ‘the café’, with kettle, microwave oven, a table and chairs. On the far side, near the toilet facilities, was the locked storeroom where Spartacus had stacked food and provisions. Beyond that was Spartacus’s own den.

  Gita was already sitting at a table in the café. She pointed to her cup and made a drinking motion. Kai nodded.

  While Sarema was boiling the kettle, Kai thought again about how Leo could have got into Tech’s den. On the wall map there was only a single line leading there. No new addition had been added as an entrance or an exit. Leo must have found another passage but wasn’t sharing the information. Kai felt a glow of pleasure. Now he had something on that smug beggar. He’d save this for a suitable moment and then let Spartacus and the rest of the group know that Leo was breaking one of the Rules.

  Sarema spooned herbs into a cup from a small hessian bag tied around her waist. The twins had taken to carrying food within the folds of their clothes – prepared to move on at short notice. Gita produced a snack bar from her sleeve, slid it across the table and pointed at it.

  ‘Gita thinks you should eat,’ Sarema explained.

  Kai smiled his thanks. Gita ducked her head and covered her face with her headscarf so that only her eyes were showing. Of the two girls she was the most traumatized by their experience of homelessness. She rarely spoke. It was left to Sarema, who was keen to speak better English anyway, to do the talking for both of them.

  When Kai had found them in the skip, he sensed that it wasn’t really the prospects of arranged marriages that had made them run away. From the little bits he’d learned about their former life, he guessed that they’d been trafficked into Britain with false promises of earning money in a legitimate job. Kai didn’t hassle Sarema for more information as to what had happened to them when they reached Britain. He had secrets of his own that he wasn’t sharing. He’d reckoned that if they didn’t get something to eat and warm shelter soon then Gita might die. But it had taken an enormous amount of persuasion to get Spartacus to agree that the twins could come into the tunnels.

  ‘We’ve been planning this project and laying down stores for weeks,’ he’d said. ‘We can’t allow two stray girls to spoil it.’

  ‘How could they spoil it?’ Kai had argued back. ‘They’ll be happy to stay underground for a few weeks until the tournament is finished. When they’ve got their strength back they’ll be in a better state to decide what to do.’

  ‘How do you know there’s not a full-scale search going on for them?’

  Kai had thought of that. ‘I dropped by an Internet café and checked some news sites.’

  ‘I don’t want any trouble from the people traffickers if they’re looking for them,’ said Spartacus. ‘Those folks can be dangerous.’

  ‘You took Raven, Medusa and Boudicca away from the sleazy scumbags that try to pick up young girls,’ Kai had pointed out.

  ‘I didn’t rescue those girls because we’re running a charity. I chose them because I thought they had the potential to be Cage Fighters. We have to keep focused on our main aim, which is staging the Cage Fighters for Freedom tournament. Our films show street kids fighting on behalf of street kids. Links to our posts are beginning to go viral on Twitter and key social media sites. And Tech’s extra material will make our voice the one that shouts loudest about cuts to housing benefits, and every other anti-social policy that’s made young people desperate and homeless.’ Spartacus laughed. ‘From your description of these two, it sounds as though they couldn’t punch their way out of a paper bag. We don’t have the resources for passengers.’

  ‘Extra hands would be useful,’ Kai argued. ‘The fighters could do with m
ore recovery and training time. We can’t fight well if we’ve got to keep awake during the night watching the monitors. They could take our shifts and do some extra cleaning. You’re always complaining about how messy this place is, how we’ll be overrun with rats.’

  Spartacus still wasn’t for it. ‘I’ll give you one of the spare mobiles. You can go topside, make an anonymous call to Social Services saying where they are, and then throw the phone in the river.’

  ‘They say they’ll kill themselves if I do that.’ Kai recalled the look on the girls’ faces when he’d suggested calling the Social. ‘And I believe them.’

  ‘There are other organizations that can help, like the Samaritans. Ring them and let them take care of things.’

  In the end, Kai threatened to quit if Spartacus didn’t offer the twins shelter. Spartacus wasn’t pleased, but had to comply. Amongst the Cage Fighters Kai was the most skilful and was racking up massive hits on the pay-per-view website that Tech had set up. With each bout the view numbers for the boys were increasing steadily. The girls – Raven, Medusa and Boudicca – had a solid fan base, and so did the other guys, but Kai’s audience figures outranked them all.

  Kai couldn’t have abandoned the twins. They’d eaten most of the food they’d brought with them and were beginning to starve. Gita was shaking so much that she could hardly walk and it turned out that Sarema was useless at shoplifting. When he first met her, Kai had given Gita one of the snack bars he carried in case he ever got stranded. Now it was a special message between them. Gita always had a snack bar to give Kai.

  Kai picked up the one she offered him. He tipped it to his forehead to salute her. Ripping off the cellophane, he munched a chunk of it and exclaimed, ‘Yum-eee!’

  Gita giggled. Then a look of fright came into her eyes and she drew her shawl more tightly about her.