Hit Squad Read online

  ‘Dylan?’ It was Jack Linden himself: Harry’s dad and a total pig of a man, as far as I was concerned.

  ‘Get that flashlight out of my eyes!’ I snapped.

  ‘I take it you’re all right?’ Jack said drily.

  ‘Peachy, thanks,’ I said, trying to sound braver than I felt.

  A huge piece of masonry right in front of me was dragged away from the pile. I heard it thud onto the ground as rubble fell around me, filling the gap the stone left.

  ‘Be careful,’ I yelled.

  ‘Aren’t you using your force field?’ Jack asked.

  I grimaced. Jack had always known and understood far too much about our Medusa abilities. I’d liked him so much when I’d first met him – he was interesting and exciting and was offering me a totally new life. Plus he was my godfather – once a good friend of my parents. To be honest, though I’d never admitted it to anyone, I was hurt that he’d betrayed us. Upset that he had put his own self-interest before his loyalty to my mom and dad.

  ‘Is she okay?’ That was Ed. It sounded like he was just a few metres away from the rubble.

  ‘I’m great,’ I shouted. ‘Though I think I may have broken a nail or two.’

  Above my head, Jack laughed. Another huge shift in the masonry around me. Now I could see the sky above clearly: half a moon and some stars across a ragged circle of navy. Ten seconds later and there was a big enough gap to pull me through. Hands reached in and clutched at my arm. I released the force field around my wrist and let myself be hauled up and out of the rubble. I scrambled the last bit, onto the pile of stones, then half climbed, half slid back down to the ground. I was free.

  The men who had dug me out were staring open-mouthed. I could see why as I looked back at the heap that had smothered me. Surrounded by other debris, it was at least two metres high. I shivered, realising that without my Medusa ability I would undoubtedly have been killed under all those stones.

  Jack was standing a few metres away, silhouetted against the light from the castle.

  ‘Welcome back, Dylan,’ he said with that smooth smile I knew so well.

  I ignored him, turning instead to Ed who stood nearby, his arm held by Broken Nose.

  ‘Where’s Nico?’ I said.

  ‘Inside, I think,’ Ed said. ‘We both got sprayed again,’ he added.

  I gave him a curt nod. My mind had gone back to the last communication we’d had – about Ketty. I didn’t want to think about her . . . about Cal’s face as he’d come out of the lake that last time.

  Cal. Where on earth was he? He was supposed to be bringing the local police so we could rescue Ed and Nico. I glanced out over the lake, wondering if he was on his way at last. Jack followed my gaze.

  ‘Time to go,’ he said. ‘We’re leaving the castle. Now.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ Ed asked.

  ‘Hey!’ I spun around. ‘Not so fast. I need a shower. Not to mention some fresh nail polish.’

  It was vital we didn’t leave until Cal and the police arrived. For the first time since I set off for the castle I regretted running over here. If I’d kept my distance and watched the commotion rather than getting caught up in it, I would have been able to spy on Jack as he left with Nico and Ed – discovering useful things such as the licence number of his car and his direction of travel.

  ‘No shower,’ Jack said shortly.

  ‘But look at me,’ I said. ‘I’m a total mess.’ It was true though not, of course, my main reason for wanting the delay. My hair and clothes were covered in dust from the rubble I’d just been under and there was a layer of grey silt on my face.

  ‘No shower,’ Jack repeated. And then he stepped forward and sprayed me with Medutox. I engaged my force field but – as before – it was impossible to prevent the fine Medutox mist from entering my airway.

  One of the guards gripped my arms. Before I knew what was happening, a car swerved round the corner. It backed up in front of us and Ed and I had sacks shoved over our heads. We were bundled inside. From the voices outside I could tell Nico was being forced into the seat behind. At least the three of us were together.

  But as the car drove off, it struck me that now there was no way for Cal or anyone else to find us.

  We were worse off than ever.

  18: An Old Friend

  The car journey took just over an hour, but we stopped frequently along the way so I was guessing we had just travelled back to Lovistov. Ed and I didn’t speak much, for fear of being overheard by whoever was driving. In the end I was so tired I fell into an uneasy sleep, waking every few minutes with a jolt of anxiety.

  The sun was just rising when the car stopped for the last time and rough hands hauled me out of the back of the car. I could hear footsteps beside me. Ed was complaining about being pushed . . . Nico was protesting too. We were dragged up what felt like ten sets of stairs and shoved past a door. More rough hands removed the bindings round my wrists – and, at last, the blindfold.

  I looked around as the guards who’d brought us here left the room. We were in a modern apartment. Sparsely but cleanly furnished with two sofas and a TV. A small kitchen area stood at one end of the room. A loaf of bread, a pint of milk and some plates containing slices of ham and cheese had been left out on the counter. I walked over to the window. There were no bars, at least, but the glass was thick – doubleglazed I was guessing – and the window itself locked. Outside was a narrow alley. The wall opposite – about two metres away – contained no windows as far as I could see. In fact, the only things I could see, apart from the concrete ground below, were a couple of black bins and the car we’d come in.

  I turned around. Ed was examining the food on the kitchen counter. Nico was on his knees, peering at an air vent in the wall close to the floor.

  ‘They’re pumping Medutox through this,’ he said. ‘I can just feel the spray in the air coming through the air con.’

  Ed held up the loaf of bread. ‘D’you think this is okay to eat?’ he said anxiously.

  ‘It’s eat or starve, Chino Boy,’ I said. ‘All I’ve had all day is a few carrots I found in this barn across the lake where Cal left me. Anyway, if they wanted to kill us, we’d already be dead. Now will you please tell me what the hell’s been going on?’

  As we devoured the food, Ed explained what had happened since we’d got separated. I wasn’t all that shocked that Foster was attempting to set up some lunatic hit squad. I mean, the man had clearly been totally unhinged even before his brother died, when he was trying to blackmail the government to release him.

  I explained that Cal had gone for help earlier and that I had no idea what had happened to him. ‘He was supposed to make a phone call to Avery and Fergus in Australia and get the local police to go to the castle and rescue you guys.’

  ‘At least he wasn’t recaptured,’ Ed said glumly.

  There was a pause and then came the question I’d been dreading.

  ‘So what happened with Ketty?’ Nico said, not looking at me directly.

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t like remembering it. Let alone talking about it. Some things stick in your mind forever. And I already knew that, for me, one of those things would be Cal’s face as he came out of the lake after failing to save Ketty.

  ‘I already told Ed remotely,’ I said, not wanting to go over it again.

  Nico looked up at me. His expression was hard, but I could see the pain buried deep in his eyes.

  ‘Okay.’ I sighed. ‘We had to swim under this fence in the water to get away from the castle. Ketty didn’t surface, so Cal swam back for her. She was unconscious. Trapped under the fence. You’d have needed bolt cutters to get her free, which of course Cal didn’t have. In the end he had to come up for air . . .’ I paused. Both Nico and Ed were hanging on my words. I looked away. ‘It was too late for Ketty. Cal had no choice.’

  A terrible silence fell in the room. I don’t think any of us knew what to say. I sure didn’t. I hadn’t let myself feel just how horrible it w
as to know Ketty was gone. I couldn’t let myself. It wasn’t like me and her were great friends. But we’d been through so much together. The original Medusa Project was her and me and Ed and Nico. Ketty not being with us left a huge hole – one I couldn’t ever see being filled. Plus Ketty is . . . was . . . kind of cool.

  Actually, she was one of the coolest people I’d ever met.

  Ed cleared his throat. ‘Er . . . did either of you notice if Foster came into the house with us?’

  ‘Nah.’ Nico turned away. He moved over to the window and peered out at the little alley. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought there were tears in his eyes. ‘I definitely didn’t hear Foster. Just Jack and the guards.’

  ‘So what, Ed?’ I knew I sounded way too aggressive. I mean, it was obvious Ed was just trying to change the subject away from Ketty. But sometimes, even when I don’t want to sound angry, that’s the sort of thing that comes out of my mouth.

  Normally Nico would have snapped at me to shut up. But right then he said nothing. Just carried on staring out of the window. Ed was also looking away from me, gazing down at his plate of bread and cheese.

  I wanted to say something to make everything okay. But even as I had that thought, I was also thinking that it didn’t matter what I said or did, nothing was going to bring Ketty back.

  And then the key turned in the lock and the door slowly opened.

  Instinctively I tried to engage my force field in readiness for whoever was about to come in, but of course – thanks to the Medutox – my ability wasn’t working.

  Nico turned around. Ed stood up.

  And Harry Linden walked into the room.

  The shock literally took my breath away. He looked straight at me.

  ‘Hi,’ he whispered.

  I couldn’t speak. I just stared at him. Harry and I are kind of going out. I say ‘kind of’ because we haven’t got to spend very much time together so far, though we talked quite a lot in the last two weeks when I was in Australia and he was still at home in England. I wouldn’t admit it to his face, but Harry’s gorgeous. He’s got these piercing blue eyes and the way he looks at me makes me melt.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Nico said, looking as shocked as I felt.

  ‘I’ve come to get you out,’ Harry said, glancing at the door. He put his finger to his lips indicating we had to keep quiet. ‘Come on, they’re in the room next door.’

  He led the way into the tiny hall. Voices came from the room to our left. My heart was in my mouth as I followed Harry, with Nico and Ed right behind. We tiptoed to the front door of the apartment. Harry punched a number into the keypad on the wall, then opened the door. We crept outside. Harry raced across the concrete hallway and pressed the button for the lift. A red light above the door showed it was rising from the sixth floor. The sign beside said we were on the tenth floor.

  ‘Come on,’ I muttered.

  Nico looked warily around him.

  ‘Shouldn’t we take the stairs rather than wait?’ Ed suggested.

  Harry shook his head. ‘One of the guards is out there having a smoke. He’s supposed to stand by the front door, keeping watch, but he’s always slipping off for a fag.’ I followed his glance to the light above the lift. It had reached the eighth floor. I looked down and Harry met my gaze.

  ‘Hey, Red,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘How did you find us?’ I whispered, soaking up that smile. My heart was thudding – and not only because we were still standing outside the flat.

  ‘I followed Dad,’ Harry said softly.

  I nodded. Harry’s dad was, of course, Jack Linden. Once upon a time Harry’s parents and mine had been good friends.

  ‘Dad was really angry when I turned up here,’ Harry went on, ‘but he’s let me stay until he’s got time to get me on a flight home. I couldn’t believe it when I heard them bring you guys in.’

  The lift pinged to a stop in front of us. I glanced over my shoulder. No one appeared to have noticed we were missing. I felt Harry reach for my hand. I gave it a squeeze, my heart leaping. We were almost out. We were going to make it.

  And then the lift door opened and I gasped in horror.

  Foster was inside, his gun in his hand.

  19: A New Hit

  For a moment everyone froze. I don’t know who was more shocked – Foster or us. Foster recovered quickly. He raised his gun.

  ‘Get back,’ he snarled, striding out of the elevator.

  Again, I instinctively tried to engage my force field but nothing happened. I stood where I was. Harry grabbed my hand. For a second, all I was aware of was the feel of his fingers against mine. Luckily Nico was thinking smarter. He shoved Ed sideways. Ed stumbled. Foster’s eyes shot to him. Nico darted forward and grabbed Foster’s arm, knocking the gun to the ground.

  ‘Run!’ he yelled.

  Harry and I turned together. We raced to the door leading to the stairs. But – as we reached it – the guard who’d been smoking out on the steps walked through. He barked something in his own language, clearly an order for us to stop. He lunged at Harry, shoving him backwards.

  ‘Leave him alone!’ I shouted.

  ‘Enough.’ Foster’s voice stopped me in my tracks.

  I turned round to face him. He was standing in the middle of the landing, his gun pointed at Nico’s head. Ed stood helplessly to one side.

  I held up my hands, my stomach in knots. Another attempt to escape Foster had ended in disaster.

  For the first time since we’d arrived in Lovistov I wondered if we were ever going to get away from him. Or if the rest of us were going to die here, like Ketty. I pushed these dark thoughts away and held my head high. No way was I going to show Foster how vulnerable I really felt.

  As the guard ushered us back inside and into the room we’d been locked into before, Harry’s arm crept round my shoulder.

  ‘You okay, Red?’ he said.

  ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve been a prisoner before.’

  Harry shook his head. ‘Don’t give me that,’ he said. ‘I know about Ketty.’

  I looked at him. I didn’t know what to say. I felt like he could see right inside me – all the misery over Ketty and how Foster had trapped me – twice.

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get you out,’ Harry said quietly.

  I glanced around. Ed and Nico were sitting side by side on the couch, talking in low voices. Nico’s head was in his hands. Neither of them were looking at us.

  I looked back at Harry. ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ I said.

  Harry opened his mouth as if to say something, but before he could, a shouting match started next door. Foster and Jack were yelling at each other. It was hard to work out what they were saying at first, as they were both speaking at once.

  ‘He’s my son,’ Jack shouted. ‘You can’t lock him up.’

  ‘He can’t be trusted,’ Foster yelled back. ‘You’re lucky I didn’t kill him.’

  I raised my eyebrows.

  ‘That’s you they’re talking about, Harry,’ Nico said from across the room.

  Harry shrugged. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ultra-casually. But I could hear the fear behind the bravado.

  After a few minutes, the yelling subsided. I half expected Jack to come storming through the door and drag Harry away. But of course Foster was never going to let him do that.

  Harry himself grew very quiet as time passed. We talked for a bit about how he’d discovered Jack had hacked into his phone to find out whether we’d taken the bait to travel to Lovistov. Jack had already set off by then, but Harry did some hacking of his own – Jack had taught him a lot about how to do that several years ago, when they had a much better father-son relationship – and found out where Jack was staying. Harry traced him to this apartment where, until Foster’s arrival just now, Jack had managed to keep him hidden.

  ‘So Jack says Foster spends all his time at the castle?’ Nico asked.

  Harry nodded. ‘Dad says he’s obsessed with developing th
e Medusix – that he’s convinced he can use it to build this huge army of kids with psychic powers.’

  ‘Why give the drug to children?’ Ed asked.

  ‘Because Medusix only works on kids,’ Harry explained. ‘It just makes adults unconscious for a few minutes.’

  I nodded, remembering what Jack had told us earlier.

  ‘Maybe also because he reckons he can boss kids around more,’ Nico added with a snarl.

  I caught his eye. ‘Well, he’s wrong about that, isn’t he?’

  The door opened. Foster and a skinny boy a bit younger than us stood in the doorway. I recognised the boy immediately from Ed’s description of Foster’s nephew and tensed, on guard in case he tried any telekinesis on me.

  ‘Hi, Bradley,’ Ed said.

  Bradley scowled.

  ‘You two,’ Foster ordered, pointing at me and Harry. ‘Out here.’

  I glanced around at Ed and Nico. I could see both of them were prepared to put up a fight but Foster still had his gun and his guards stood behind him.

  There was no point in resisting right now.

  Harry took my hand. Foster led us into the room next door. It might once have been a bedroom but now there was no sign of a bed or indeed any furniture apart from a small white wardrobe that stood in the corner.

  Harry and I stood together opposite Foster and Bradley. They didn’t look much like each other. Foster oozed fury and arrogance. Bradley’s eyes – though a similar grey to his uncle’s – were shrouded in self-consciousness. He hadn’t looked at me properly yet.

  ‘Bradley’s telekinesis skills are developing well, though he’s still struggling with telepathic communication,’ Foster said.

  Despite everything I had to bite back a giggle. Foster sounded like a teacher giving a report on a child – with me and Harry as the parents.

  ‘That means so much to me,’ I said drily.

  Foster pursed his lips. ‘I want you to show him how to create a protective force field around himself, Dylan,’ he said.

  ‘I can’t,’ I said honestly. ‘It didn’t . . . doesn’t happen like that.’

  Foster narrowed his eyes. ‘I’ve spoken with Jack Linden. He told me he gave you guidance when he met you.’