“So,” Freya said. “Care to explain the secret mission?”

I nodded.

“We need your phone. Have you got it?”

Freya grinned.

“Of course,” she said. “Oddball.”

We opened Freya’s Maps app and found where we were. Then we zoomed out to see the whole city. But every time we made the map bigger, the street names disappeared. It was hopeless.

“Library,” I said. “We need a proper map.”

“Now?”

“Yes – now,” I said. “The reference library’s open till seven.”

Within ten minutes, we were hunched over a big paper map. I traced my finger around it, until I found the railway station.

“Jacob told us the den is where the railway line and river meet,” I said. “So we start here and follow the line.”

“Ooh,” Freya said. “You’ve engaged Detective Mode.”

“Huh?” I said.

“From the Batman video games?”

“Never played them,” I said.

“Never!” Freya said. “You can’t be a Bat-Geek and not play Arkham! Holy cow!”

“Ssh!” I whispered. “It’s a library, remember.”

I followed the railway line towards the river, but at no point did they meet.

“What do we do now?” I asked. “Jacob definitely said river and railway, didn’t he?”

Freya thought for moment.

“Move over, Bats,” she said.

This time she followed the line. But where the river and railway were closest, she stopped and moved left.

“Jacob said disused line,” she said. “And if you look here, there’s an old bridge over the river. I reckon this is where he meant.”

She tapped the map and grinned.

“Wow,” I said. “That’s real Detective Mode.”

An old railway map showed that Freya was right. The line had been scrapped in 1987. Next we found bus timetables.

“Number 16,” Freya said. “It’s not far. We get off on Meadway Avenue, where it meets Stonebridge Road.”

As we walked across town to the 16 bus stop, I felt like I was the star of my own comic. I had my favourite girl with me, and a friend to rescue. All that was missing was a cape.

*

Stonebridge Road was a deserted dead end that stopped at the river. Above us, the disused line sat on a steep bank protected by a tall fence. The bridge itself was grimy and covered in graffiti.
It was freezing cold, and the one working
street-lamp buzzed on and off.

“It’s spooky here,” Freya said. “What if we get mugged?”

“Who’s going to mug us?” I asked her. “There’s no one around.”

We scanned the area for signs of Jacob. But the fence was solid and topped with barbs. There was no way Jacob had climbed it.

“Look!” Freya said. She grabbed my arm. “See where the road ends. There’s a wall and some bushes. We could go that way.”

She was right. A thick wall cut the road off from the river. But between the wall and the end of the barbed fence, was a tiny gap. Freya crouched and shoved her way through the tangle of bushes. I followed and when I stood up, she pulled a torch from her pocket.