Hit Squad Read online

  I thought back to my parents. Both dead within months of my birth. At least they had loved each other. At least I had that. Jack hadn’t really loved Harry’s mom, Laura. I wasn’t sure he’d really cared about Harry all that much, until he died to save Harry’s life.

  Footsteps echoed behind me, loud on the paving squares. I turned round, instantly alert, and peered past the war memorial. A red-haired girl was crossing the square. She clearly hadn’t spotted me behind the statue. She looked somehow familiar. An uneasy feeling crept down my spine. And then the girl turned round.

  I gasped. It was like a punch to the guts. Red hair. Green eyes. Long legs. My own reflection stared back at me.

  Except . . . my brain resisted what my eyes were telling me. For a start, there was no mirror. Plus the ‘Dylan’ in front of me looked different. This wasn’t a reflection where the features are transposed to the other side of the face . . . it was me . . . how I looked to others, only wearing different clothes.

  I stared at myself. No nose piercing. And I would never wear a scarf that shade of orange. Which left only one explanation.

  ‘Amy?’ I said.

  As I spoke, she changed, the hair darkening and shortening and the whole body shrinking down into itself. A second later Ed’s sister was herself again. She looked up at me with big, worried eyes.

  ‘Sorry, Dylan . . .’ she stammered. ‘I was practising in case . . .’ She tailed off.

  I blinked, still thrown by what had happened. I shook myself.

  ‘Cal didn’t mention you were coming with him,’ I said. ‘Where is he? Where are the others?’

  Amy pointed across the square. Ed, Harry and Nico were emerging from our hiding place. Avery Jones and Fergus Fox stood on either side of them, Cal to one side. I looked over at the two men. Fergus was, as usual, dressed in his teacher-type clothes. Everything a bit shapeless and worn. He was tall, of course, but Avery was taller. Almost bald, with his remaining hair close-cropped and wearing a sharp designer suit. The two men were about the same age, but worlds apart in terms of dress sense and personality.

  At the sight of the two men, something released inside me. A sob rose in my chest – after the past few days of stress and fear, at last we were safe. Amy was gazing at me thoughtfully.

  ‘Are you all right, Dylan?’ she said.

  The timid kindness in her voice irritated me. Who was Amy to feel sorry for me?

  ‘I’d be a lot better if you weren’t here,’ I snarled.

  Amy looked crestfallen.

  For a second, I could hear Ketty’s voice in my head. Why d’you have to be so rude, Dylan? I shook myself, not wanting to acknowledge the wave of grief washing over me. Since when did I care so much about Ketty?

  The others walked up. Uncle Fergus put his hand on my shoulder. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘Cal told us about Ketty.’

  Tears were pricking at my eyes. I forced them back.

  ‘I thought you’d be mad at us,’ I grunted.

  ‘Oh, we are,’ Avery said. I followed his gaze to Nico, but Nico’s expression was blank. There was no trace of the pain I knew he was feeling over Ketty – he had that buried deep again.

  At least Nico’s biological father – Avery – and his stepfather – Fergus – were here now. Avery’s presence reinforced the fact that Cal was Nico’s half-brother, while Fergus, being my uncle, was a reminder that I was Nico’s cousin.

  All of which, I guessed, made us family.

  Jeez, listen to me. I’d be bawling in a minute.

  ‘First things first,’ Fergus said briskly. ‘We’ve hired two cars and our rented house is about thirty minutes away. Let’s get you back there and warm and fed.’

  As we headed for the two cars, I looked around for Harry. He was behind me and smiled as I caught his eye.

  ‘When we get in the car, you’re sitting next to me, Red,’ he said.

  ‘Oh am I?’ I said, feeling secretly pleased.

  Nico gave a snort. ‘Puke-a-rama,’ he said.

  I glared at him. How dare he talk like that after Harry’s father had just died. But Harry just gave Nico a thump on the back.

  ‘You wish,’ he said.

  Nico offered up a hollow chuckle. I shook my head. Boys and their banter . . . I didn’t get it. At least they were trying to act normally, I supposed.

  Ed and Amy were already in the back seat. They were arguing in hushed voices about Amy being here.

  ‘But I don’t understand why they brought you,’ Ed was saying.

  ‘Because Fergus and Avery thought I could be useful,’ Amy protested.

  The door shut behind them. Cal was already sitting next to Avery up front in the other car. Harry and I got in behind them. Harry put his arm round me and I leaned against his shoulder.

  I must have fallen asleep – deeply asleep – because when I woke up I was in bed, still dressed, but tucked into crisp cotton sheets that smelled of soap powder.

  I opened my eyes. I was in a simply furnished room with cream walls and lemon-coloured curtains hanging at the window. The curtains were drawn open and a bright sun was visible through the glass, high in the sky.

  The single bed across the room was empty, but unmade. From the crumpled pink pyjamas and bright orange scarf on the sheets, I was guessing that was where Amy was sleeping.

  I got up. I felt a bit achy, but otherwise fine – though I was starving hungry. I went out of the bedroom and found myself on a landing. Through the open doors around me I could see there were two other bedrooms and a bathroom. None of them were occupied, but excited voices were drifting up from the ground floor. I made my way down the stairs. The whole house was like the bedroom I’d woken up in – neat and clean and plainly furnished with cream walls throughout and functional wooden furniture.

  The stairs brought me to an open-plan living area. I could see through to a kitchen at one end, where Nico, Ed, Cal and Harry were all sitting at a table talking loudly.

  ‘Hi, Dylan.’ It was Amy. I hadn’t noticed her before. She was sitting, curled up on the huge couch opposite the fireplace. As I looked over, she smiled.

  ‘Hey, it’s Princess Ten-Faces,’ I said, in a not-unfriendly way.

  Amy’s smile seemed to freeze into place. ‘Er . . . we’re sharing a room,’ she said.

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Awesome.’ What did she want? A prize? I strode past her, making for the boys in the kitchen. As I went in, Harry got up and came over. He put his arm round my shoulders.

  Nico whispered something in Cal’s ear. Cal looked up at us and stifled a laugh.

  Jeez, they were sooo immature.

  ‘Okay, Red?’ Harry asked. ‘You’ve like been asleep for hours.’

  ‘I’m good.’ I leaned in closer and kissed him.

  Harry beamed. At the table Ed was blushing a deep red, while Cal stared at me with his mouth gaping.

  Nico raised his eyebrows. ‘Wow, you are loved-up, Dilly,’ he said.

  I stared at him. Nico’s eyes were blank, but he wasn’t fooling me. He might sound all hard and cool, but I could see he was hurting. Still, if everyone was trying to behave normally, I might as well join in.

  ‘Don’t call me Dilly,’ I snapped. I took Harry’s hand and led him back to the table. We sat down next to each other. ‘I heard you talking from upstairs. What’s going on?’

  ‘Harry’s just hacked into one of Foster’s accounts,’ Ed said. ‘We’ve found out where he’s holding the children he’s recruited and where he’s transferred all the stuff from the castle lab.’

  I smiled at Harry who pinked a little.

  ‘It’s a complex about five miles away,’ he said.

  ‘Fergus and Avery have gone out for supplies,’ Nico added. ‘We’ve just been working out the best way to get into this complex. It looks mega-secure.’

  Harry nodded. ‘There’s an outer gate plus CCTV and alarms and guards . . .’

  ‘You mean Fergus and Avery are going to let us go in alone?’ I said, surprised.

 
Cal and Nico exchanged glances.

  ‘No, they’re coming too,’ Cal explained.

  ‘They didn’t want us to go into the complex at all,’ Nico said. ‘But we have to stop Foster developing Medusix.’

  Ed nodded. ‘We can’t let him use it on those children he’s trying to turn into a hit squad.’

  ‘And we have to pay him back for Ketty,’ Nico said.

  There was a long silence, then Cal cleared his throat. ‘We don’t want the authorities to find out we’re here, so we’re going to have to be careful.’

  ‘The authorities wouldn’t be much help even if they knew. We’re the only ones who can get past Foster’s security without him realising,’ Nico said grimly. ‘We’re going to need all our skills.’

  ‘Especially mine,’ Amy said from the doorway.

  I looked up and gasped. She had transformed herself into Foster.

  Ed shook his head.

  ‘Meet our secret weapon,’ Nico said.

  I tilted my head to one side. ‘Not bad, Ten-Faces,’ I said. ‘But you need to look meaner.’

  ‘Like this?’ Amy scowled. She did look remarkably like Foster.

  ‘Awesome,’ I said.

  Amy/Foster grinned.

  Ed shook his head again. ‘Even if Amy’s impression gets us through the first security gate, there are plenty of other places where we could be stopped and discovered,’ he said.

  ‘Then we better go prepared,’ I said. ‘What’s the plan?’

  24: Getting In

  We travelled in separate cars until we reached a spot about two hundred metres from Foster’s new complex. It was in the middle of nowhere, a sprawling single-storey building made of white concrete and surrounded by a barbed wire fence and then open countryside.

  We stopped the cars on the edge of the trees and got out. The sun was fading in the sky and, already, bright lights were illuminating the outline of the complex. As Harry’s hacking had discovered, there was absolutely no way to approach the building without being seen. We had to go in through the security gate which was set into the fence just half a mile further down this road.

  We clustered around Avery Jones as he went over our plan one last time.

  ‘Okay, Amy,’ he said at last. ‘Time to transform.’

  Amy nodded nervously. She was already wearing one of Avery’s old suits with the trousers rolled up. She had her own shoes – plain, brown loafers – but they would barely show under the trousers.

  As she closed her eyes and focused on becoming a Foster lookalike, Uncle Fergus spoke to the rest of us.

  ‘Remember, the plan is to stay in two groups of four,’ he said.

  I exchanged a look with Nico. Fergus and Avery had insisted that one adult should accompany three of us each. As if they’re looking after us, Nico had muttered earlier.

  ‘We know the plan,’ I said, feeling slightly irritated. Fergus was a good, kind, straightforward man – but he was also overprotective and prone to worry about details that just weren’t important.

  ‘I know you know.’ Fergus sighed. ‘My point is that once we’re inside, things can go wrong and in the chaos of the conflict all sorts of unforeseen challenges may come up.’

  I shook my head. Did he seriously think we didn’t know that? Still, maybe I should try and reassure him.

  ‘Well, before, when we had Ketty, even when we knew what was going to happen – which I guess wasn’t often – it didn’t always help. I mean, it didn’t need to. We’re good at thinking on our feet.’

  There was an awkward silence. Nico glared at me.

  Jeez, I hadn’t meant anything . . . I was just making a point about how experienced we all were. Surely Nico didn’t think I was putting down Ketty’s Medusa ability?

  I blushed, remembering the many occasions on which I’d done so.

  ‘I didn’t mean it wasn’t useful sometimes,’ I mumbled. ‘Ketty’s gift was cool.’

  ‘I want you to be careful,’ Fergus went on, ignoring me. ‘Don’t waste time looking at Foster’s experiments and research. Just concentrate on destroying it all.’

  ‘Can we get on with this?’ Nico said rather sharply.

  I glanced at him. There were lines around his eyes and his normally smooth olive skin was sallow, almost grey. It struck me that he’d been looking like that for a while now – since he’d heard about Ketty. It’s funny, if you’d asked me a week ago, I’d have said that Nico was fond of her, but that the relationship wasn’t really that serious – at least from his point of view. But the last day had proved to me that Nico was hurting almost more than he could bear.

  ‘Well, I’m ready.’ We all turned to look at Amy.

  It was an amazing transformation – even better than in the kitchen earlier. Tall and male, with her suit trousers now rolled down, she looked at us with cold grey eyes. It was impossible to tell that she wasn’t Foster.

  ‘Okay,’ Avery said briskly. ‘Team A into the first car.’ He pulled on a leather jacket that was supposed to make him look like one of Foster’s men. Having met some of them, I knew that Avery was simply too groomed to be really convincing – but hopefully the security checkpoint guards would only give him a cursory glance. Avery got into the driver’s seat and opened the door for Amy – as Foster – to sit beside him. Fergus bound my hands loosely behind my back while Nico did the same for Harry. It would be easy enough to slip off these ropes when we needed to. The point was to get us through the checkpoint looking like Foster’s prisoners.

  As I scrambled into the back seat after Harry, Fergus gave my shoulder an anxious squeeze.

  ‘Be careful,’ he said.

  ‘We’ll be fine,’ I said. I guess losing Ketty must have really shaken him up, but surely Fergus realised we’d been going on challenging missions just like this for the past six months. I had my Medusa power back. I could extend my force field around everyone in seconds if the need arose.

  Avery drove off. He took the bumpy track slowly, coming to a stop at the security gate. Close to, we could all see there were two men inside the checkpoint hut, both dressed in smart blue uniforms. Neither were visibly armed, but knowing Foster I was sure both were carrying guns.

  Ed appeared in my head. How many guards? he thought-spoke.

  Two guards. Concealed weapons, I replied.

  Thanks. Ed broke the connection. He was waiting with the others around the corner. He, Nico and the rest of the second team would distract and capture the men at the checkpoint . . . after Amy – in disguise as Foster – had got Avery, Harry and me inside the building.

  One of the checkpoint guards sauntered over as Avery wound down his window. The guard peered into the car.

  ‘Evening, sir,’ he said to Amy. He glanced over his shoulder at me and Harry in the back seat. ‘Do you want me to take the new kids in for you?’

  ‘Er . . . no thanks,’ Amy said.

  I froze. Her voice wasn’t low enough. And she sounded too hesitant and polite. The real Foster would have barked out his refusal.

  The man seemed to sense something wasn’t quite right too.

  ‘Are you sure, sir?’ he said, an ingratiating tone to his voice. ‘I took the last lot inside. I know where they go.’

  Amy was now turning red in the face. For goodness’ sake. I dug my knee into the back of her seat. She needed to get a grip.

  Unfortunately the checkpoint guard spotted what I was doing.

  ‘Need me to teach this one a lesson, sir?’ he asked, jerking his head in my direction.

  ‘There’s nothing you could teach me except how to be an idiot,’ I snapped, the words flying out of me before I could bite them back.

  Amy said nothing. No. Now the guard looked really startled, not just at my outburst but at Foster’s lack of reaction.

  I caught Harry’s eye. No, no, no. Everything was going wrong, even before we’d begun.

  There was a moment of tense silence. Amy was still silent – and bright red in the face. Any second now the guard was going to guess
this wasn’t really Foster. I had to do something to make him believe it was. And fast.

  ‘You’re all a bunch of losers,’ I snarled. ‘Especially you, Foster.’ I prodded my elbow into the back of Amy’s seat again. Hopefully she would realise I was deliberately trying to provoke her – to give her a reason to get angry and to show her – or, rather, Foster’s – temper in action.

  Another second passed, then Amy took the bait.

  ‘Shut up!’ She made her hand a fist and swiped it across my face.

  I engaged my force field just in time, so the blow brushed over me like a breeze. I pretended to reel away, howling in pain.

  ‘Stop it!’ Harry’s yell sounded completely authentic.

  I held my breath. Had Amy’s display of violence convinced the guard she was Foster?

  ‘Get out of the way!’ Amy shouted at the guard. ‘Your job is to stay here, not chaperone kids into the complex.’

  I looked up. Chastened, the guard was backing away from the car, waving us through. Avery revved the engine and we drove off. As he wound up the window again, Amy gave a sigh of relief.

  ‘That was close,’ she said. ‘I didn’t hurt you, did I, Dylan?’

  ‘No,’ I snapped. ‘And don’t relax just yet. There’s still a long way to go.’

  We reached the front of the complex. Amy drew herself up and rapped on the door. Another guard in a blue uniform opened it.

  ‘Take these two to join the other kids,’ Amy ordered. She sounded cold and hard, just like Foster.

  ‘Yes, sir.’ The guard nodded and led me and Harry away, along a bleak concrete corridor. Everything was in motion. Amy and Avery were going to try and get to the communications nerve centre of the building while Nico and the others dealt with the checkpoint. My job – and Harry’s – was to rescue the hit squad children. I gripped the ends of the rope that was still wound loosely around my wrists. I had to hope that the guards didn’t spot it wasn’t properly tied.