Forget Me Never

questioning, delay it if you can. They’ll listen to someone in your position. You’re credible. It’ll take too long for me to explain.’
    I ran out of breath and waited. After a moment McIntyre’s voice came over the line, sounding businesslike.
    ‘What does this man look like?’
    Thank God I’d got a photo! ‘I’ll send a pic over now,’ I said. I had to hope this meant that McIntyre would do as I said. Sophie and Aiden were vanishing down the steps into the station. Sophie turned and gave me a pleading look.
    ‘Gotta go,’ I said. I could say nothing more. I’d just have to hope he would do the right thing. After quickly emailing McIntyre the man’s photo I caught up with Sophie. It crossed my mind how this whole thing had blown up in my face. I’d started off helping Sophie because I’d been curious about whether we could be friends again, and now we were trying to uncover a murder and prevent the sale of a dangerous formula.
    But there was no time to mull over how insane this had become – I had to focus. As we headed down into the station we hit a wall of people. The delays on the line evidently hadn’t eased up. I guessed there hadn’t been a train for a while, though according to the display board one was due in one minute. Pushing between wheelie cases and people with huge rucksacks, we got closer to Aiden. He was standing right at the edge of the platform.
    And then he glanced over his shoulder. Sophie and I both ducked, but we weren’t quick enough. Surprise and alarm showed on Aiden’s face. He started moving down the platform, pushing past people. We followed. The train thundered in. And then things happened very quickly.
    A smartly dressed man I’d never seen before stepped out of the crowd into Aiden’s path. For a moment I thought he was just getting in position to get on the train first. But then I saw his hands, shoving Aiden forward. Aiden swayed, off balance, and I realized he was going to fall right into the path of the train. But someone grabbed his arm, pulling him back to safety. Sophie!
    The man that had pushed Aiden glowered. He took a step towards Sophie. I did the first thing I could think of, which was to grab my cricket bat from my bag and slam it across the man’s chest. He fell back. Then suddenly the train doors opened and people were surging into the carriages.
    ‘Get the hell out!’ someone was shouting. I realized it was Aiden. He’d got on to the train. ‘Don’t you get it? They’ll kill you!’
    Whatever else he was going to say was blotted out by the closing doors. I hit the side of the train with my bat, futilely hoping the driver would reopen them. But the train began moving – and I saw that the man was still on the platform. I grabbed Sophie’s hand.
    ‘Come on!’
    We ran towards the escalators. I had no idea what the man would do next, but instinct told me to get away – pronto . At the top of the escalator I looked back. My heart pounded as I saw the man behind us, pushing his way up. Part of me was screaming to run. But another part was telling me to act normal. We had to remain calm . As we followed the crowd on to the travelators, the man appeared again – moving even more rapidly. We sped up. It felt like we were moving awfully quickly, and I almost stumbled at the change of pace when we stepped off. The man was still on our tail. What was worse, he seemed to be gaining on us.
    We had to get to the open reception area. We could lose him there. Or better still, inside the terminal. There were security guards all over the place. He couldn’t do anything to us there.
    We hurried off the second travelator and up the stairs. Out in the open we made a beeline for the terminal doors, almost running now. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see the man bearing down on us – but he had stopped. I blinked; was I seeing things? No – he was heading in the opposite direction, suddenly looking casual and relaxed.
    ‘The hell?’ I gasped, looking at Sophie, who was trying to catch her breath. I realized I was still holding her hand. Maybe it had become clear that he wasn’t going to catch us, or maybe he’d seen that we were just kids. I didn’t like this at all.
    ‘Let’s get out of here, Soph. The Piccadilly line’s probably still screwed. Want to see if we can get a bus?’
    I didn’t need to add that I’d rather not go back to the underground after what we’d seen happen to Aiden. Right now, all I wanted was home, and the