Teaser chapter
Deadlock - chapter one
1
Cornwall, England: Sunny spells, 17°C
Marcus Galt stared at the carnage in disbelief. As he
turned his head to take in the full extent of the damage, his long grey plait
writhed on the back of his jacket like an angry snake. He clenched the top of
the tube-shaped weapon he held across his chest, grinding his thick-soled black
boots into the mud.
‘That’s it! I’ve had it up to here with them.’ He
chopped at his throat. ‘They’ve totally devastated everything. They’ve got to
die!’
His partner, a willowy woman in her early sixties, stood
beside him, blonde hair threaded with white but worn long like a girl. Her hand
fluttered to his arm, appealing for mercy, as her tie-dye scarves flapped in
the breeze.
‘Isn’t that a bit cruel, my love?’ she asked.
‘It’s no more than they deserve.’ Marcus’s face was set
behind his steel-rimmed glasses. ‘The stuff’s ready now – been brewing long
enough. We have enough to wipe them all out. It’s my secret weapon of mass
destruction.’
‘But, Marcus –’
‘By tonight, there won’t be a single one left alive.
What do you think of that, eh, Darcie?’
Marcus Galt raised his voice to snag the attention of
their guest who was in the bean patch, half hidden behind the shed. Darcie
stood up and stretched – her back was killing her from all the hard work they
had put her to since her arrival.
‘Yeah, go for it,’ Darcie said, slicking back her black
fringe as it tumbled into her eyes.
‘Good girl. Got more gumption than you, Claire.’ Marcus
unscrewed the top of the plastic bottle and tipped. A pale brown liquid glugged
into a shallow tub set into the soil. ‘Anyway, it’s all organic. Bye bye,
slugs. Die happy in my homebrew,’ the gardener chanted vindictively, nudging
one over the edge into the liquid.
Job done, Marcus took a swig from the bottle for himself
and returned to digging his row of potatoes.
Darcie watched him for a moment, but when he didn’t
explain, decided she had to ask.
‘Mr Galt –?’
‘Marcus, love, Marcus.’
‘Erm, Marcus, what’s with the beer?’
‘The slugs have been ruining my brassicas. They sniff
out the homebrew and drink themselves to death. Not a bad way to go.’
Pondering this strange form of chemical warfare, Darcie
put down the full basket of runner beans and sat on the step by the shed. She
poured herself a coffee from the thermos flask and nibbled on one of Claire’s
wholemeal biscuits. She was starving. Since arriving in the dead of night at Mr
and Mrs Galt’s house a week ago, she had spent most of the daylight hours with
them on their allotment on the edge of Truro, a pretty cathedral city in the
far south-west of England. It had been a surreal experience: at one moment, she
was in Egypt, running from the American president, her escape masterminded by
her friend Stingo, an SAS officer; next she was in a green corner of the
English countryside where the biggest enemy were slugs. She remembered asking
Stingo to find her a quiet, sunny beach to lie on until her problem with
President Morris blew over; he’d brought her here, to get a tan while picking
beans with his parents.
‘Truro, no safer place,’ he’d told her. Beaches only a
few miles away. And she’d be back home in England where it would be easier to
protect her from her enemies.
Perhaps he was right – though to be honest, England felt
a foreign country to Darcie, who had spent most of her life abroad. But it was
as good a place as any to go to ground because, even if the president stopped
chasing her, there was still the little matter of a grudge borne her by Madame Tsui,
head of an organised crime syndicate in the Far East. It was more than enough
powerful enemies for one fourteen-year-old schoolgirl to have made in the last
few months.
But then, Darcie Lock’s life had stopped being ordinary
when she first learned that her parents were spies. Michael Lock was a British
Secret Intelligence Service agent; her mother, Ginnie, a CIA operative. Darcie
had been sucked into their life of espionage and couldn’t seem to find a way
out.
In Truro, she was trying her hardest to escape the
octopus grip of the secret services. Cut off from contact with her parents for
the time being, holidaying in a place well off everyone’s radar screen, she
might be able to claw back some normality for herself. It was a strange,
hangover-from-the-hippy-sixties normality with the Galts, but it was safe. No
one was shooting at her, trying to blow her up, or leaving her pegged out in a
desert to die. Safe.
‘Well, well, look who it is!’ exclaimed Claire, shading
her eyes as she gazed down the slope to the road. Beyond the boundary of the
allotments, the spike of the cathedral spire shot up from the bottom of the
valley like one of Marcus’s cabbages that had gone to seed, towering over the
other buildings. Much closer, walking briskly up the cinder path towards them,
was Stingo.
‘Hardly ever get a visit from him and now he comes twice
in ten days,’ muttered Marcus, digging his spade into the soil to leave it
standing.
‘Darling, this is unexpected!’ exclaimed Claire, wiping
her hands on her patchwork apron and moving down the path to hug her son.
‘Everything all right?’
‘Hi, Mum.’ Stingo returned her embrace before letting
go. He ran his hand briefly over his short sandy crop as if suddenly reminded
of how different he was from his long-haired parents. Stingo was about Claire’s
height but at least twice her bulk, thanks to the serious physical training he
did each day. ‘Yeah, everything’s fine. How’s things? Is she behaving?’ His
pale blue eyes flicked towards Darcie, already smiling.
‘She’s been an angel.’ Claire beamed at her guest.
‘Of course I’m behaving,’ said Darcie, returning
Stingo’s hug. ‘They’ve survived having you in the house as a teenager; I must
be a dream.’
Darcie was so excited to see him, having felt completely
out of the picture for the past few days. He’d know where her parents were –
how President Morris had reacted to her disappearance – where she was going
next.
Stingo reached out a hand to his father. ‘Dad.’
‘Kennedy.’
Kennedy? What kind of a name was that, wondered Darcie
as the two men shook hands stiffly. No wonder he used a nickname.
‘I hope you’re staying for lunch, darling?’ asked
Claire.
‘Yeah, if you’ve enough. I promised Darcie a beach so I
thought I’d take her surfing this afternoon.’
‘Great!’ Darcie smiled broadly at him, feeling the day
was definitely looking up – anything was better than an afternoon of gardening
chores among the drowning slugs.
‘Thought we’d hit the north coast – the surf’s up and
some of my squad will be there. They’re sorting you out a board and a wetsuit.’
‘Fantastic!’ She could think of nothing better than
spending time with Stingo and the other SAS men; they worked hard but really
knew how to play when they had a chance.
‘We’re already taking bets on how long you’ll last.’
She punched him in the ribs. ‘Longer than you. I’ve got
pretty good balance.’
‘OK, I’ll take that bet.’
‘What do I get when I win?’
‘When?! Prepare to be humiliated, Darcie. Ready to put
your money where your mouth is?’
‘Kennedy!’ his father said reprovingly.
‘Er, you get the glory, of course. Couldn’t possibly encourage
a teenager to place money on a bet, could I?’ Stingo said with false innocence
as he winked at her behind his father’s back. Being with his parents was making
his mischievous side emerge.
Lunch was vegetarian pâté sandwiches, celery sticks and
carrot cake, eaten on a picnic blanket on a grassy patch in front of the shed.
Stingo’s parents kept pressing him for personal stuff – information about his girlfriends,
career, what he did with his free time – but he avoided answering them with
expert diversionary tactics. Darcie enjoyed following the game, picking up tips
for when she next saw her own parents. When Claire asked if he was still seeing
‘that nice Italian girl’, he asked about progress on her quilting. When Marcus
began to express loud views as to the war on terror and role of the Special
Forces therein, Stingo turned the subject to the ongoing battle his dad was
having with the neighbour on the next allotment over the use of pesticides.
The question Stingo couldn’t dodge was the one to which
he knew he owed his parents an answer. Taking advantage of the opportunity
presented by Darcie going off to take the picnic basket back to the car, Claire
Galt jumped in with the subject they had been saving up all week.
‘If you don’t mind me asking, darling, how do you know
Darcie, exactly? You said she was in trouble – I know we spoke to her parents
on the phone about having her to stay for a while – but can’t you explain some
of it to us? We’re dying of curiosity.’
‘She’s done nothing wrong,’ Stingo said quickly,
wondering how much he could tell them. They all watched Darcie walk down to the
Galts’ cranky old car, her long black hair bobbing in a high ponytail. Tall for
her age, she moved with the rangy pace of an athlete.
‘Of course not. She’s a sweet girl, we know that. But still
. . .’
‘I met her on a personal protection assignment in Africa.
She got involved in something dangerous thanks to . . . well, let’s say her
parents don’t stack shelves in the supermarket for a living.’ He decided not to
mention the Egyptian angle: his parents were bound to have followed the Shelly
Morris kidnap on the news and would guess too much. ‘She needs to stay
somewhere for a while until things die down. In fact, I was going to ask you a
favour: can she stay a bit longer?’
Claire glanced at Marcus. ‘As long as she needs,
darling.’
‘I can’t pretend that there’ll be no danger if we’re really
unlucky and the people after her catch up with her whereabouts. It shouldn’t
happen – but I can’t promise it won’t.’
‘Even more reason for her to stay,’ said Marcus gruffly,
fiddling with the gold hoop he wore in one ear. ‘Sounds like she needs some
friends.’
‘Thanks.’ Stingo met his father’s eyes. ‘You know, Dad,
when I was going out on a limb to help Darcie a few weeks back, I thought of
you.’ He looked down. ‘I thought it’s the one thing I’ve done you’d be proud
of.’
Marcus cleared his throat. ‘But I am proud of you,
Kennedy: I may not agree, but I’ve always been proud. I respect you for doing
what you think is right. We’ll take care of her for you and her parents, don’t
you worry.’
Darcie was unaware that she’d been the catalyst for
something of a family reconciliation when she returned, but she could feel the
warmth in the family group and see the smiles. Stingo looked much younger than
normal, squatting alongside his dad as they discussed the cricket. The
tough-nut warrant officer had cracked to reveal the sweet fact that he was
somebody’s son. It was good to have him around: Marcus and Claire were nice
enough, but they were a bit odd and knew nothing about who she really was.
Stingo was her only connection to her real life with her parents. Perhaps he’d
come to say they’d found a way to get her out of hiding?
‘So, Darcie, how do you fancy going to school in Truro?’
Stingo asked.
Darcie felt a swoop of disappointment in her stomach
like missing a step in the dark. It seemed as if she was going nowhere fast.
‘What, here?’
‘Yeah. Schools go back next week. Your parents want your
nose to the grindstone, studying for your GCSEs. They’ve sorted it out through
their own channels and picked a school for you. Enrolled you as Darcie Galt.’
He gave her a wry smile. ‘We’ll pretend you’re my cousin.’
Annoyed with her parents now, Darcie wondered why they
hadn’t asked her first, instead of sending Stingo to do their dirty work. ‘So
what you’re really saying is that it’s all sorted and I don’t have a choice?’
‘Don’t blame your mum and dad,’ said Stingo, ‘they’re
out of it at the moment. Your mum’s been hauled back to Washington – she’s
getting a lot of hassle.’
Darcie scowled. It wasn’t difficult to work out who was
giving her mother a hard time. Ginnie’s chief would be down on her hard, trying
to find out where she’d hidden her daughter. In most cases when someone at work
gets at you, there is a boss higher up to whom you can appeal; the problem for
Ginnie was that her chief was the president of the United States and you can go
no higher than that. He was on the campaign trail and was worried that if it
came out he had sanctioned the use of a child to spy on his own daughter, it
would ruin his chance of re-election. He wanted to tuck Darcie away somewhere
until the danger of a media backlash passed, but there was no guarantee when
that would be.
‘You should cut your parents some slack,’ Stingo
continued. ‘This isn’t easy for them either.’
Darcie crumbled the remainders of her bit of cake so
that it fell between her fingers. ‘OK. Fine. Whatever.’
Stingo rolled his eyes. ‘Well, that’s a really mature
response, Darcie, after everyone’s gone to so much trouble for you.’
‘Who are you now, Stingo: my dad? ’Cause you sound a lot
like him.’ Darcie jumped up to walk off her frustration. Stingo watched her
stalk away, his brow creased.
Claire reached out and patted her son’s hand. ‘She’s
right, you know. You were being too tough on her considering you’d just
delivered bad news. I think she was hoping you were going to take her home.’
Marcus chuckled. ‘I never thought I’d see the day when
my son turns into an old nag.’
Stingo’s face cracked into a smile. ‘Teenagers!’ he said
with an exaggerated sigh. ‘Bet I was never like that.’
‘You were just like that, Kennedy,’ said Claire with a
fond smile. ‘Exactly like that.’
You can buy Deadlock now. Just follow the links that you will find on this page.
Messages
JANE wrote on 23 March 2012:
I LOVED THE OTHER TWO BOOKS AND CAN'T WAIT 2 GET THE NEXT 1 . THE TEASER SOUNDS REALLY GOOD R U GOING 2 DO ANOTHER DARCIE LOCK BOOK
If I can! It will depend on how many downloads etc I get.
donna wrote on 13 February 2012:
It sounds amazing!!! XX Can't belive there really is a Marcus Galt! That's so cool x
marcus galt wrote on 09 February 2012:
Julia- This is rather disturbing, yet quite my twin. Have we met? Marcus Galt, Richmond, Virginia USA
Dear Marcus Good gracious I don't think so! Marcus is quite a hero so I hope you are pleased with your twin.
Emegah Eleode wrote on 03 February 2012:
wow. can't wait to read the book, love it already From your biggest book fan Emegha x
Zoe wrote on 26 January 2012:
AWESOME i really want to read it
Ruth wrote on 14 December 2011:
I'm so exited, i can't wait to get the full book! Unfortunatley i have to wait for christmas but i love this chapter.
bee wrote on 19 November 2011:
this was great i ve just finished the other two and now im gonna ask my teacher if she'll buy m ithe book
Louise wrote on 12 November 2011:
Hi, WOW!!!! that was fabfantastic!!!! was just wondering, is Deadlock going to be avaliable in an actual book rather than an ebook thing??? As i cannot get it from the library right now, even as a request... Lxxx
Follow the link on my home page and you can buy a physical copy. Julia
Rhian wrote on 01 November 2011:
Hi, I noticed that your third book in this series is on amazon but that its still pre-order. Can I only buy it on the website you have a link to? Or will it be coming out on amazon? Just wondering :) Can't wait to read it.
Hi The links to buy are on my home page. I think the Amazon link is dud as it is to an old plan where Egmont were publishing it but they decided not to go ahead. I'm taking this new route. Julia
Esme wrote on 01 November 2011:
WOW! I got the Darcie Lock ebook last night and I finished it this moirning! Deadlock is amazing! Thank you! I will be ordeering the print on demand version soon, just could wait for it to be released! Will you be releasing a sequel? I really hope so as I'm desparate to find out what happens to Darcie now and follow her on more advemtures :)
Wow - that was fast! You win the title of My First Reader, Esme! If the book gets enough downloads and sales I will write the final part that I have in mind. If you feel like posting a review on Amazon that will help the book get noticed. Julia
Izzy wrote on 30 October 2011:
Can you alert me? Izzy
Jenny wrote on 29 October 2011:
I love all of your books. They are all amazing! Why do you have several pen names? Is it because they are for different ages?
Yes and for different genres in the teen section.
Amanda wrote on 29 October 2011:
Hi Julia, can you alert me when Deadlock is available please? I can't wait!
rose wrote on 29 October 2011:
I cannot wait! please let me know when deadlock comes out!
Lizzie wrote on 23 October 2011:
Hi, Please can you add me to the alert list? Thanks! Is Deadlock coming out as an ebook or as a real book? Thanks again, Lizzie
Both :)
lilac wrote on 23 October 2011:
when is it out in the UK????
Leave me your email and I'll let you know.
Esme wrote on 20 October 2011:
Thank you for the response. Preview chapter is great, love Darcie Lock series. My mum's getting fed up as everyday I mention the new book, so excited. How will the print on demand version work, you print it yourself at home?? Anyway can't wait, keep writing, your books are great!! :)
No, you get a proper book - just it is from a company that specialises in printing as things are ordered rather than holding stock in advance. Might be the future of the print market...
Izzy wrote on 20 October 2011:
Hi Julia! Could you notify me when Deadlock is out please? Thanks!
Will do! J
Elcy wrote on 20 October 2011:
Hi, I go to boaridng school and I was wondering when will the new darcie lock book come out in Australia?? Thanks
Same as everywhere else as it is online. I'll let you know.
Hannah wrote on 18 October 2011:
Hi, can you email me when deadlock comes out. darcie lock and cat royal are my favirot books!
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