The Rescue

by Sophie McKenzie

  ‘Keep quiet.’

  This was Nico’s cue. He held his bound hands outstretched towards the man, clearly working out where he was from his voice. Then he telekinetically whipped the sunglasses from the man’s face. Before the man had time to react, I jumped up, right into his face, forcing him to meet my eyes.

  Whoosh. The man’s mind filled with shock and fear.

  What . . . what’s happening . . . how . . .

  I sensed the man’s personality – dull and plodding with a cruel streak. I let him expend his energy in confused raging, while focusing all mine on holding his mind in place.

  ‘Over here, Nico, the key’s on his belt.’

  Nico shuffled towards us, feeling his way with his hands. As he got closer I reached out and yanked off his blindfold, still keeping my gaze on the guard. Able to see at last, Nico chucked my blanket over the camera, then unhooked the key from the guard’s belt and undid first his own hands and feet, then mine.

  ‘So that’s how they work,’ he muttered. ‘That’s a really clever design.’

  ‘Come on,’ I said. My heart was beating fast. Once the guys in the communications room noticed the monitor showing us was covered, they’d be here in seconds.

  As Nico fastened the chains round the guard’s hands and feet, I felt the man’s resistance to my mind control increase.

  It’s not a part of my ability that I like, being able to control people’s actions. It works in kind of a weird way. Obviously I can’t stop people from thinking and feeling whatever they’re going to feel, but I can prevent thoughts which are basically instructions to the body from getting through.

  ‘Done,’ Nico said, fastening his blindfold around the guard’s mouth.

  I broke the connection with the guard at last, pushing him down onto the bed.

  We raced to the door, ducking under the blanket that was still covering the camera lens. How much time did we have before more guards arrived from the communications room to see what had happened?

  We ran out into the corridor.

  ‘Where are the girls?’ Nico asked.

  ‘Down here.’ I pointed to the room where, such a short time ago, Luz had been killed. I shivered.

  We ran down the corridor. Shouts were already echoing towards us from the communications room round the corner – presumably the security guards had just seen that the camera in our cell had gone dark. God, were we going to have enough time to reach the girls?

  Nico skidded to a halt at their door. With a single twist of his hand, it flew open. Dylan and Ketty jumped up from where they were sitting on the far side of the room. I didn’t want to look at the place where Luz had died, but my eyes took me there anyway. The mattress was gone – as indeed was all the furniture in the room – only a bloodstain on the wall was left.

  My heart thumped a furious beat against my ribs, as Ketty ran across the room and flung herself into Nico’s arms. Sobbing, she reached out for my hand.

  ‘Oh, Ed,’ she whispered, ‘you’re safe . . . you’re both safe . . .’

  At that moment the screech of a high-pitched alarm started. Footsteps sounded in the distance.

  Dylan’s eyes were wide. ‘What—?’

  ‘Nico!’ I shouted. ‘The lock.’

  Nico spun round and locked us in the room. ‘I’ve jammed it too,’ he said. ‘Keys won’t work in it now, they’ll have to break the door down to reach us.’

  ‘Good,’ I said.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Ketty asked.

  ‘It’s our only way out of here,’ I said.

  ‘What is?’ Dylan snapped. ‘You’ve just locked us in.’

  ‘Where’s Geri?’ Ketty gasped.

  ‘Trust me,’ I said.

  ‘But Geri . . .?’ Dylan said.

  ‘Geri’s not helping,’ Nico said, checking the door, as someone started thumping on the other side.

  ‘Open up!’ yelled a guard.

  The door handle rattled, but the jammed lock held.

  ‘What d’you mean, Geri’s not helping?’ Ketty asked.

  ‘Get a second key,’ another guard ordered from outside. ‘This one’s not working.’

  ‘Quick,’ I said. ‘We have to—’

  ‘No way Geri isn’t helping,’ Dylan said, folding her arms. ‘What did she say?’

  ‘There isn’t time to explain,’ Nico said. ‘Do what Ed says.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘For once in your life, Dylan, just listen,’ I shouted. ‘We have to get out of this building and there’s too much security just to walk out the front of the compound.’

  Huge thumps now against the door. More yells. We had to hurry.

  ‘In case you hadn’t noticed,’ Dylan said, narrowing her eyes, ‘there’s also too much security on the other side of this door to go through it. And there’s no window in the room, so there isn’t another way out.’

  ‘Yes there is.’ I looked from her to Ketty, meeting their eyes but easily resisting the pull to mind-read. ‘It was something Djounsou said about the walls that made me realise. They’re really thin, look, with spaces in-between to carry air ducts.’ I stepped over to the wall opposite the door and gave it a sharp rap. It made a light, hollow sound. ‘We use a battering ram to get through them. Find our way out of the compound through the spaces that run between the rooms.’

  I saw them both register what I was saying, their eyes reflecting their view of the madness of this idea.

  ‘I know it sounds crazy . . .’ I said.

  ‘. . . but at this point it’s pretty much our only option,’ Nico added.

  Ketty glanced frantically round the empty room. ‘Except there isn’t anything we can use as a battering ram,’ she said.

  ‘Yes there is,’ I said, as more thumps and yells rained down on the door.

  ‘What?’ Dylan glared at me.

  ‘You,’ I said.

  23: Escape

  ‘Me?’ Dylan blinked rapidly, her pale green eyes uncomprehending.

  ‘Yes, you,’ I said. ‘The three of us ram you into the wall as hard as we can, and you use your Medusa ability to stop from getting hurt.’

  The yells and thumps coming from the other side of the door had died down. Instead, the guards were muttering into walkie-talkies. I could hear the fuzz of the machines, though not what the men were saying.

  ‘That is the most totally insane idea I’ve ever heard,’ Dylan said, her eyes hardening.

  My heart sank.

  ‘But you’ll give it a go?’ Nico raised his eyebrows.

  ‘I suppose so.’ Dylan thought for a second, then turned her back on me and crossed her arms across her chest. ‘Okay, Ed, I’m going to lean back on three. You take my shoulders. 1 – 2 – 3 . . .’ She leaned back into my arms. I caught her and held her, as instructed. Nico reached for her thighs.

  ‘Lower,’ Dylan snapped. ‘Nico, you hold just above the knee. Ketty can do higher up. Jeez, how come this never came up in our attack and defence lessons?’

  Rolling his eyes, Nico took Dylan’s legs and held her off the ground. Ketty ran over and grabbed Dylan round the hips. Between us, she was heavy, but manageable.

  More muttering outside. I glanced up at the camera over the door. Anyone in the communications room would be able to see what we were doing – still, that couldn’t be helped.

  ‘Ready?’ Nico said.

  ‘Yup.’ Dylan gritted her teeth.

  ‘On my count,’ Nico said. ‘Ready . . . steady . . .’

  I tightened my grip round Dylan’s shoulders.

  ‘Ram!’

  The three of us charged towards the wall. Wham. The soles of Dylan’s shoes made a dent in the plaster, nothing more.

  ‘Take a bigger run-up,’ she ordered.

  We carried her back to the door. Outside we could hear the guards muttering to each other.

  ‘There’s something wrong with the lock,’ one of them was saying. ‘I’m going to try shooting it off.’

  ‘Hurry up,’ Ketty hissed.
/>   Nico counted us down again.

  Run. Ram. Wham.

  A small hole appeared in the plaster.

  ‘It’s working,’ Nico said, excitedly.

  ‘Do it again,’ Dylan said.

  ‘You okay?’ I asked her.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said, glancing up at me. ‘Go on.’

  3-2-1. Wham.

  Dylan’s feet broke through the wall.

  A single gunshot on the other side of the door made us all jump.

  Panic swamped my head. I stared at Nico.

  ‘Keep going,’ he shouted. ‘I’ll hold the door in place.’ He frowned, focusing his gaze on the door.

  It worked. The door stayed firmly shut, even as the guards hurled themselves against it.

  We rammed Dylan’s feet against the wall again – and again. I kept my focus on her face. She was clearly concentrating hard, her eyes squeezed tight shut. I couldn’t tell from her expression if she was in any pain.

  A couple more rams and there was a hole in the wall big enough to crawl through.

  ‘That’s it,’ I said.

  ‘Put me down.’ Dylan shook herself as she stood up.

  Ketty was already scrambling into the space behind the wall. ‘There’s just enough room to walk properly,’ she called out. ‘Come on.’

  ‘Go right, then head left,’ I said. ‘There’s a communications room near here. That’s our best chance of finding the way out.’

  I pushed Dylan in after Ketty. Nico was still concentrating on holding the door shut against the guards.

  At that moment the shrieking alarm stopped. My ears rushed with the sudden silence. I hurried after Dylan into the space behind the wall. The passageway was extremely narrow. Ketty, as the smallest of us, might have room to move about, but I could only just stand widthways.

  I looked up. Ketty and Dylan were already out of sight in the gloom beyond. I raced after them, ducking my head to avoid the wires and pipes that ran along the inside of the wall. I could hear Nico right behind me, his breath heavy and ragged in my ear.

  The roars of the guards echoed towards us. From the snatches I could pick up it was obvious that they were inside the wall but none of them were able to walk properly in the space and were having to stand sideways in order to move.

  Good. That should buy us a little time.

  I caught up with Dylan and Ketty. They’d stopped in front of a grille in the bottom of the wall. Light filtered through the wire mesh, casting a criss-cross pattern of shadows over our legs. Ketty crouched down, peered through the grille, then stood up again.

  ‘This looks like the communications room,’ she whispered. ‘There’s a big screen on the wall next to this grille and I can see security monitors on the wall opposite.’

  ‘That’s it,’ I whispered.

  Nico huddled closer. ‘How many guards?’ he asked.

  ‘Just one,’ Ketty whispered.

  ‘Let me through.’

  We shuffled along and Nico eased himself down beside the grille. In seconds he had telekinetically removed the screws holding the top two corners of the grille in place. I bent down and held the grille steady as he undid the bottom screws, then, between us, we took it out and laid it beside us.

  Down the dark air duct corridor, the guards’ footsteps were getting louder. Closer.

  I peered into the communications room. The one security guard was busy studying the monitors on the wall opposite, his back turned to us.

  ‘Hurry,’ I whispered.

  Nodding, Nico held up his hand. With a single twist he teleported the guard’s gun out of his holster and rammed it, hard, against his head.

  The guard fell to the floor with a thump.

  ‘Nice work,’ I murmured.

  Nico grunted as he eased himself through the grille space. As the rest of us followed, Nico ran to the door that led back to the corridor where we’d been kept and telekinetically locked it. He gave his wrist an extra twist. ‘There,’ he said, ‘jammed.’

  ‘When did you work out how to do that?’ I said.

  ‘Under that frigging blindfold,’ Nico muttered. ‘I told you I’ve been practising.’

  Ketty was at the other door, peering round.

  ‘I can see the exit,’ she said. ‘Two guards on the inside.’

  ‘There’s another guard outside, by the exit to the compound.’ I pointed at the security monitors.

  Nico followed my gaze, staring intently at what we were up against. ‘No problem,’ he said.

  ‘Come on, then.’ Dylan ran over to Ketty at the door.

  I glanced round. The big screen on the opposite wall caught my eye. It was an electronic whiteboard, loaded with a map. I went over. As I did, we could hear muffled shouts from the guards who’d been following us down the air duct passages.

  They were almost here.

  ‘Hurry, Ed,’ Nico whispered.

  I stared up at the map. The compound was clearly marked with a cross. A road ran past it. I scanned the map, searching for the name Mahore. There. It was one of a small cluster of villages to the north-east of the compound.

  ‘Ed, what are you doing?’

  I grabbed the electronic pen from the shelf below the whiteboard and ringed Mahore in a large black swirl.

  Now Carson would know where to find us.

  And I would be able to take my revenge for Luz.

  Nico grabbed my arm and yanked me across the room. ‘Frigging come on!’ he snapped.

  I joined the others, my heart pounding. We raced through the door, down carpeted floors – this part of the building was like a business office. The two guards on the front door turned as they heard us.

  Before the men had time to reach for their guns, Nico had teleported them both into the air and slammed them against the glass wall behind. Then he turned and hurled them back out into the corridor behind.

  Their yells rang out as they thumped onto the ground.

  We raced through the front door, into bright, sudden light and stifling heat. I blinked in the glare of the sun.

  ‘Shit.’ Dylan pointed down the path. The guard at the exit point was watching us, his rifle raised to shoulder level.

  ‘Stop. Now,’ he barked.

  Nico, Ketty and I skidded to a halt.

  ‘For God’s sake.’ Dylan marched towards him, a look of grim determination on her face.

  ‘Can she stop bullets?’ I asked Ketty.

  ‘I guess she thinks she can,’ Ketty breathed, not taking her eyes off Dylan.

  The guard was staring at her too, clearly bewildered by her lack of fear. His walkie-talkie crackled. He levelled his rifle at Dylan.

  ‘Stop,’ he ordered. ‘Stop, or I’ll shoot.’

  I could hear the lie in his voice. ‘He’s been ordered to take us alive,’ I said.

  Shouts from inside the compound.

  ‘He’s not getting the chance to take us at all.’ Nico darted sideways, as Dylan reached the guard.

  She stopped just a metre in front of him. ‘Go on, then,’ she said defiantly. ‘Freakin’ shoot me.’

  As she spoke, Nico twisted his hand and the rifle flew out of the guard’s hand. It sailed into the distance. The guard reached for his handgun but Nico was too fast. He teleported the man flat onto his back, then shoved him away from us, in the opposite direction to the gun.

  ‘They’re outside!’ It was Carson’s voice.

  I glanced up. He was racing into the carpeted entrance area, accompanied by the two guards Nico had sent flying earlier.

  ‘Run!’ I yelled.

  The four of us pounded towards the exit. Gunfire behind us.

  ‘Shoot the girls,’ Carson shouted. ‘Don’t aim at the boys.’

  ‘Charming,’ Dylan muttered.

  We raced onto the road beyond the exit. I glanced up and down the road. It was a dusty track – smooth, but not tarmac. No sign of any vehicles.

  Nico peered round the wall back into the compound. ‘Oh, man, Carson’s got about ten guards with him.’
/>
  ‘I’ll draw their fire,’ Dylan shouted, lunging for the exit.

  ‘No!’ Nico yelled, but Dylan was already racing past him.

  A burst of gunfire.

  ‘Oh God,’ Ketty moaned. ‘How are we going to get away?’

  I looked up and down the road again. Was that a truck in the distance? Yes, it was roaring down the track towards us, dust billowing up from its wheels.

  My heart leaped. ‘We make the truck stop,’ I said. ‘I’ll mind-read the driver.’

  ‘How?’ Ketty said. ‘He won’t be close enough.’

  ‘I’ll do it remotely.’ I took a deep breath and focused on the driver. It was hard without seeing his face. I concentrated on telling him to stop as he reached us. Get here and stop. My head spun. I had no sense of connection with him.

  ‘It’s not working.’ Ketty voiced my own desperate thoughts.

  The truck was just a few metres away now. Rap music blared out from its window, mixing with the gunfire from the compound and Nico’s yells as he continued to tell Dylan to get out of the way.

  I closed my eyes. Stop. Stop. Stop.

  ‘Noooo!’ A high-pitched scream jerked my eyes open.

  My whole body froze. Ketty was in the road. Arms outstretched, pleading with the driver to stop.

  But the truck wasn’t slowing. I went to move, to push Ketty out of the way, but time slowed and my leg had barely left the ground before the truck was here. Here. Almost on top of her.

  ‘Ke—!’ My own yell had barely left my mouth when the truck screeched to a halt, just centimetres in front of Ketty.

  She stood glassy-eyed, as the truck driver stuck his head out the window.

  ‘What the hell you doing, stupid little bitch?’ he shouted.

  I raced round. He looked up. Whoosh. I was inside his mind. Ignoring all his panicky thoughts, I focused on preventing him from moving or speaking.

  ‘Nico,’ I yelled. ‘We’ve got a ride!’

  With a whoop, Nico was there. In a flash, he’d teleported the driver out of the truck and back down the road. Using the side of the truck as cover, he resumed his defence of us. The guards – and there were at least ten – were pouring out of the exit.

  My heart raced. No way could Nico deal with all of them on his own. For a moment it struck me that Nico and Dylan had been right about the attack and defence training we’d had back at school. We’d needed more of it, not less – so that Ketty and I could help too.