The guard ushered us down a narrow flight of steps and into a basement room. It was as bleak and cold as the rest of the building – empty apart from another guard who sat in front of a row of computers.
I peered at the screens. There were four computers altogether, all showing pictures from webcams trained on different rooms. One revealed the room we were in now. The next two showed bleak-looking cells, both containing two low camp beds and a child of about ten or eleven sitting on each one. These must be the kids Foster had conned into his hit squad. I exchanged a look with Harry. Now all we had to do was work out exactly where those rooms were – and somehow get to the kids inside them.
The guard prodded my shoulder. ‘This way,’ he said.
As I turned to follow Harry, I caught sight of the fourth computer on the end of the row. I stopped, stunned by what I was looking at. The guard prodded me. I had to walk on, but my head was spinning.
Surely what I’d seen wasn’t – couldn’t be – true.
Could it?
NICO
25: Checkpoint
We waited around the corner, under cover of some trees. Ed had just made contact with Dylan and we knew there were two guards at the checkpoint, each armed with a concealed weapon. I turned to Fergus. My stepdad was wearing an anxious frown. It struck me, not for the first time, that Fergus really wasn’t cut out for this kind of mission. He belonged in a school, where the biggest conflicts he’d ever get involved in would be arguments with rebellious students over doing homework on time or the proper wearing of their school uniforms.
Military-style rescue operations weren’t his thing. And yet here he was, trying to help us do what we needed to do in order to save the children Foster had recruited to his hit squad and prevent him from developing the Medusix drug.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked him.
Fergus looked at me, startled. ‘Yes, er . . .’ He turned to Ed. ‘Shouldn’t you be attempting to contact Dylan or Amy yet?’
I knew he was worrying about not having a more traditional way of keeping in touch, anxious about relying on Ed’s ability to communicate through remote telepathy.
‘We agreed five minutes,’ Ed said patiently. ‘I have to give them time to get past the checkpoint. If they find me in their heads while they’re in the middle of dealing with Foster’s guards, it might put them off their stride.’ He paused. ‘Especially Amy.’
I sighed. Ed was still really unhappy that the rest of us had insisted Amy be allowed to join us on this mission. I could understand why he was protective of her, but the truth was Amy had an amazing Medusa skill. Her ability to appear identical to Foster himself was the single biggest advantage over Foster’s men we had – and the best option for getting her, Avery, Harry and Dylan inside the complex without anyone suspecting our plan to rescue Foster’s latest hit squad recruits and blow up the lab.
We stood in silence for a few more minutes. Cal was hovering above the ground. I’d noticed he deployed his ability to fly like that whenever he was nervous. Not that Cal would admit he was scared.
As I glanced again at Ed, his expression took on that faraway look he gets when he’s communicating telepathically with someone.
He blinked, presumably breaking the connection.
‘Ed?’
‘It’s Amy,’ he said. ‘She says everything’s going to plan. Dylan and Harry have been taken off to the hit squad kids and she and Avery are heading for the comms centre now. The guards were completely convinced she was Foster.’
He turned away, making remote contact again.
‘Goodness, that’s such a lot for Amy to deal with,’ Fergus said, a fretful edge to his voice.
‘She’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘Once she’s got to the communications centre and ordered the alarm system to be disabled, we’ll be able to get through no problem.’
‘I still don’t see why I can’t just fly us in,’ Cal grunted.
I rolled my eyes. ‘We’ve been over this,’ I said. ‘If anyone spots us in the air, we’ll be open targets. Even though we know Foster and the Lovistov guards aren’t here right now, his other men are bound to be fully aware of our Medusa skills. They’ll be on alert as it is.’
‘Not long now,’ Ed said. ‘Amy says they’re almost at the comms centre. She’s going to give me the directions to the lab as soon as she and Avery can work out where it is.’
Another silence fell. I tried to keep my focus on the job in hand. The rest of the mission was a huge challenge: while Amy and Avery disabled the alarms and Harry and Dylan found Foster’s hit squad recruits, the rest of us had to try and reach the lab area. This was bound to be the most thoroughly guarded part of the complex and I was going to need all my strength and nerve to get us there and destroy it, especially as things stood – with Cal feeling disgruntled about us not making more use of his flying ability, Fergus looking downright terrified and Ed all distracted with worry over Amy.
However, even as I tried to force myself to go over the plan again, my thoughts – as they had done so often in the past couple of days – went to Ketty. It was the same thing as usual . . . I’d manage not to think about her for maybe a minute or two at a time. Then the memories – and the pain – came flooding back, worse than ever. The same three questions kept circling my head like vultures.
How could she be dead?
How could the world carry on without her in it?
How would I survive?
There were no answers to these questions. Just a horrible dark hollow feeling in my head and my guts when I asked them.
‘Okay.’ Ed’s voice interrupted my thoughts. ‘Amy says that they can’t turn off the communication link to the checkpoint from inside the complex.’
‘Oh no.’ Fergus’s eyes widened with alarm. ‘But we have to get past those guards. And . . . and Avery said they were armed . . .’
I glanced at Cal. It was kind of funny hearing an adult get so worked up about something that really wasn’t going to be a problem. Cal grinned back at me.
‘It’s cool,’ I said. ‘Let’s go.’
We crept through the trees until we were directly behind the checkpoint hut. Cal took hold of Ed’s wrist on one side and Fergus’s on the other. He caught my eye.
‘Just in case,’ he said.
I nodded. The last thing we wanted was to draw attention to ourselves but it was good that Cal could get the others away from the scene in seconds, if need be.
‘Okay.’ Ed broke his mind-reading connection. ‘Amy says the CCTV showing the checkpoint is down. You can go, Nico.’
I darted away from the others, running right up to the edge of the checkpoint hut. I focused on the barbed wire fence that stretched along the boundary of the complex. Then I used my telekinesis to raise a large branch from the ground opposite and hurled it against the fence. It crashed against the wire mesh, then thudded to the ground.
‘What was that?’ said one of the guards inside the hut.
As he spoke, more noises sounded from behind the hut – created, I knew, by Cal, Fergus and Ed. Our plan was to divide the two guards, to make it easier for us to deal with them.
I raised the branch telekinetically and flung it against the fence again.
Footsteps from inside. Both guards appeared. One immediately sped round to the back of the hut investigating the sound that had come from that direction. The other stood where he was, staring at the branch I’d thrown. There was no wind in the air – it was a still, calm evening – and he was obviously wondering how the branch had travelled to the fence. He reached inside his jacket and drew out a gun.
Gotcha.
With a swift flick of my wrist, I tugged the gun out of his hand. It was simple, mostly because he wasn’t expecting it.
I tossed the gun high in the sky, then flung it far out into the woods beyond the complex. The guard spun round, his eyes wide with panic. He reached for his radio. With another firm flick, I wrenched both the handset and the receiver off his belt and flung them in th
e opposite direction. The guard staggered backwards. He opened his mouth to yell out. Before he could make a sound, I picked him telekinetically off the ground and sent him round to the back of the hut. He whirled through the air. I followed after. The others were running towards us. I could just see the second guard, bound and gagged, behind them. I smiled as I ran. Ed had obviously managed to hold the man’s mind long enough for Cal and Fergus to tie him up. I set my guard down in front of them. Immediately Ed made eye contact and the guard froze. Fergus whipped out a pair of handcuffs, while Cal bound the man’s ankles.
Fergus tied a gag round the man’s mouth. As I ran up, Cal pushed the guard to the ground. He shrank away, clearly in a state of complete shock.
‘Sorted,’ Cal said with a grin.
‘Like taking sweets off a couple of toddlers,’ I said, grinning back.
‘That’s all very well, but those men had proper guns,’ Fergus said disapprovingly. ‘Any one of you could have been seriously hurt.’
Ignoring him, I turned to Ed. He was gazing into space, clearly attempting remote telepathy once more.
‘Come on,’ I urged. ‘Has Amy told you where the labs are yet? We need to get there as fast as possible.’
‘Wait.’ Ed held up his hand. He looked worried.
I rolled my eyes. Honestly, he was as big a fusspot as Fergus.
Cal’s eyes were shining. ‘That was awesome, bro,’ he said.
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Everything’s going totally to plan. This mission’s going to be a breeze.’
‘No it’s not.’ Ed turned to me, white-faced. ‘I can’t make contact with Amy.’
I stared at him. ‘Are you sure?’ I said. ‘Maybe she’s just focusing on being Foster . . . maybe—?’
‘No.’ Ed shook his head to underline his point. ‘No, you don’t understand. I think she’s been sprayed with Medutox.’
‘But that means—’ I looked at him in horror.
‘That means she’s been found out,’ Ed said.
A tense silence fell over us.
I gritted my teeth. ‘Then we have to go in and get her back,’ I said. ‘Come on. We’ll find the labs after.’ And without looking to see if the others followed, I set off through the gate towards the complex.
26: Finding Amy
I crept past the gate. The CCTV camera at the front of the complex was positioned just above the front door, about twenty metres directly ahead of me.
Cal, Ed and Fergus raced over.
‘Let me fly us in,’ Cal said. ‘It’s a flat roof. Maybe there’ll be a door down to the main part of the building from there. If not, I can fly us off.’
I hesitated. It was a risk – Cal’s flying was likely to attract attention. On the other hand, if the CCTV showing the front of the building wasn’t disabled, then we wouldn’t stand a chance trying to get inside by breaking a window or attempting to storm in through the front door.
‘I don’t like this,’ Fergus said. ‘It sounds really dangerous.’
‘Cal’s excellent in the air,’ I said. ‘He can fly us in and out super fast. I think it’s a good plan.’ As I said the words, it occurred to me that if Ketty were here, we wouldn’t need a plan – she’d be able to see into the near future for us. I met Ed’s eyes and knew he was thinking the same thing.
A beat passed. The pain weighed like a stone in the pit of my stomach.
‘Well,’ Ed said with a sigh. ‘I hate to agree with any proposal that involves flying but Cal’s right. It’s the only option.’
‘Why don’t we go in through the ground floor?’ Fergus asked.
I looked over at the complex. ‘Because all the entry points there are under surveillance. We’re too vulnerable. We’ll be seen and captured.’
‘I’m not sure we should be going in at all,’ Fergus added. ‘It’s too risky. Perhaps we should wait until Ed manages to make contact with Amy?’
I stared at him. ‘If Amy’s been sprayed, that isn’t going to happen. Ed’s really good at remote telepathy. If Amy was reachable, he’d be able to reach her.’
‘Well, what about Dylan?’ Fergus insisted, a frown creasing his forehead. ‘Try contacting her. See if she knows what’s going on.’
‘I have,’ Ed said patiently. ‘I can’t reach either of them.’
‘We can’t wait,’ I said.
‘No.’ Ed nodded his agreement. ‘We have to go after Amy.’
Fergus opened his mouth to protest again, but I grabbed Cal’s wrist.
‘Fly us onto the roof,’ I said.
Cal reached for Ed’s wrist. The three of us stood in line. Fergus took a step back.
‘Let’s just wait a second and think this through,’ he said.
Cal and Ed both looked at me.
‘There’s no time,’ I said.
‘But—’ Fergus started.
‘Fly!’ I ordered.
Cal zoomed high into the sky, Ed and I on either side of him. The wind rushed past my face and I had that exciting, slightly off-balance feeling of leaving my stomach behind on the ground. In seconds we had soared so far off the ground that Fergus was just a tiny dot below us and the complex like a toy building.
‘We shouldn’t leave Fergus,’ Ed said, looking past Cal towards me.
‘No choice,’ I said. ‘He’s too hesitant. He’s not cut out for missions. Having him with us risks everything. For him. For us. And for the others.’
Cal whooshed us across the sky. We were now hovering directly above the complex. I looked down. Yes, there was a raised structure on the flat roof . . . with a door that must lead below.
‘Put us down,’ I said to Cal.
Seconds later we’d landed on the roof beside the door. Immediately I released Cal’s wrist and studied the door. It appeared to contain at least three different kinds of locks. A metal padlock – that would be easy to spring open – plus an electronic bar and an alarmed laser field.
My heart sank. It was going to take all my skill and experience to get through those last two locks, especially the laser field – I’d never faced anything like it before. I twisted my wrist and released the padlock. That, at least, was straightforward. Ed pushed at the door but of course it was still shut fast.
‘This is going to take some time,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘I need to visualise the two locks on this door and they’re both state of the art.’
‘What about the card Jack gave us?’ Ed asked. ‘Maybe it’s a key card for opening doors.’
‘Maybe, but it won’t work on this door.’ I shook my head. ‘It doesn’t use that kind of system.’
‘Try it anyway,’ Cal urged.
I took the card out of my pocket and let Cal wave it around the frame of the door but, as I’d suspected, the door stayed shut.
Cal made a face. ‘This sucks,’ he said, handing the card back to me.
‘I know.’ I focused on the lock again. ‘Give me some space, okay?’
Cal and Ed retreated a couple of metres across the roof and sat down. I carried on trying to visualise the electronic bar and the laser system. Thoughts of Ketty kept creeping into my mind again. The stone at the pit of my stomach weighed heavier than ever.
I told myself I should be concentrating on dealing with the people who were still alive: Amy and Avery and Dylan and Harry. Each one of them was important to me. In spite of her sharp tongue, Dylan was a good friend – and what I’d seen of Harry so far made me sure he would become one. Amy was a sweet kid and as for Avery . . . well, I’d only recently found out Avery was my biological father. We still had a lot of catching up to do.
They were all important to me. So why was it Ketty who still filled my thoughts? Ketty . . . whose image in my mind threatened to distract me from my focus on this door in front of me . . . Ketty, who I missed so much that it hurt.
Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen. I turned away, taking a break. Cal and Ed looked anxiously on. I turned back to the door and tried again. Something in the door released – the electronic bar, I
thought – but it still wouldn’t open. ‘Nearly there,’ I muttered.
Time ticked away until we’d been on the roof for almost twenty-five minutes. From where we were standing it was impossible to make out the guards, still tied up behind the checkpoint, and though we could see the gate, Fergus was no longer in sight.
I was desperately aware that anyone – Foster or one of his Lovistov men – could turn up at any moment. As soon as they found the guards we’d tied up, our cover would be blown. That’s if it wasn’t blown already, with Ed still unable to reach the others inside.
As I turned to focus on the door again, footsteps sounded on the other side.
I froze. Cal grabbed my arm. He was already in flight, Ed on his other side. We zoomed around the jutting structure on the roof, hiding behind the wall to the side of the door.
I held my breath as the door opened. Cal kept his hand on my arm, poised to whisk us all into the air again if needed. I tensed myself, ready to disarm whoever was there.
A slow, single footstep across the flat roof. And then Dylan’s face peered round the wall.
I lowered my hand. Cal released my arm.
‘Dylan?’ I said.
‘They’ve got Amy,’ she whispered. ‘Come on, follow me.’
‘How did you know we were here?’ I said.
‘Sssh.’ Dylan put her finger to her lips, then beckoned us after her.
Ed, Cal and I followed her around the wall and through the door that had proved so hard for me to open.
Dylan crept on ahead. She had wrapped a blanket over her shoulders which seemed odd – though it was certainly cold in here. Down a flight of winding concrete steps. Something was wrong. Something to do with Dylan and that blanket. We reached the bottom step. Through another door into a white corridor. Round a bend . . . and then everything happened at once.
Dylan ducked. Two guards appeared out of nowhere. Before I could move or speak, one pointed his gun at my face. The other sprayed me with Medutox, then pulled me towards him, reaching to spray Ed who was right behind me.
Hit Squad Page 14