Hit Squad Read online

Cal and I laughed.

  ‘Let’s eat and drink something,’ Cal suggested. ‘I’ll be ready to go again in about ten minutes.’

  Dylan took off her backpack and started handing out the bottles of juice we’d packed the night before. Ed was on his feet now, looking less pale. Nico had wandered across our field to a line of trees. Once upon a time I’d have followed him, eager to put right whatever was wrong between us, but right now I felt too annoyed.

  I took a bottle of orange juice and strolled in the opposite direction from Nico. Now we were under way, I felt strangely relaxed. I knew it wouldn’t last. Our plan was to head for the northern coast of Australia, then land-hop across the islands of Indonesia until we reached the Asian mainland. It sounded like a holiday, but we were on a mission and there was no time to stop. Once we got as far as India, Cal was aiming to get us to Kima, in northern Europe, in a series of flying stints. Cal anticipated that the whole journey would take us a couple of days.

  Kima was the source of our one and only lead. From computer files we’d found, we knew that Medusix was being developed there, and Ed and I had been checking the internet every day for reports of anything suspicious happening in the region. Two days ago we’d stumbled across a small online report from a local news station, about some bizarre-sounding occurrences in Lovistov, a small town in the south of Kima. In one instance a passengerless car with the engine off had apparently moved – almost glided, the witness statement said – across a supermarket car park. In another, a set of work man’s tools had appeared to dance around each other in mid-air. No one was anywhere near them at the time. Again, there was nothing conclusive to go on, but both sounded like possible demonstrations of telekinesis. Proof, perhaps, that Medusix was in use here.

  Whatever the truth, once we were in Lovistov, everyone would be relying on me to have a vision of the specific place we needed to go to. Up until right now, I’d really been feeling the pressure, but this place we’d landed in was so peaceful, it seemed to ease my anxieties.

  The sun was growing stronger and the sky bluer as I looked out across the green fields ahead. The others were still chatting to each other over bottles of juice, apart from Nico who had wandered some way off to the edge of our field.

  I steadied my gaze on the middle distance – a blur of green and blue. If I could see into the next few hours, it would be a massive help. I let my mind go blank, as I’d done so many times, then took my focus onto the image of us flying into Lovistov. I had no real idea what the town would look like, so I just concentrated on the name and the picture of the five of us in the sky. A few deep breaths – and lights flashed before my eyes.

  It was coming. The familiar strong, sickly smell that preceded all my visions filled the air and I was there . . . in the future.

  Darkness. My hand in Cal’s as we fly . . . Landing with a bump. Stumbling. The air is cold. The ground covered in frost.

  While keeping a mental hold of what I was seeing, I encouraged the vision to skip ahead. This was a technique I’d learned recently. It gave me more control over what I was seeing, though not as much control as I would have liked.

  A church spire looms overhead in the moonlight. Frost crackles under my feet. I am with others, though I can’t see them.

  As I tried to get a sense of who I was with in the vision, my mind, unbidden, skipped ahead again. A series of quick, dramatic images filled my inner vision.

  The side of the church. Graves to the right.

  Unbidden, my mind skipped ahead again. The images came thick and fast – almost too quickly for me to register them.

  An uneven lane . . . houses . . . a large wooden door with green paint peeling off the panel. Nico’s hand, twisting to undo the lock . . .

  Trying to slow the vision down, the images skipped ahead once more.

  A cold, damp passageway . . . another door . . . creaking open . . . a bare concrete room . . . cold . . . a pain in my leg . . . can’t breathe . . . a bright light, blinding me . . .

  With a jolt, the vision left me. I stood, gasping for air in the middle of the field. It took a second to remember where I was. And why. I turned around. Nico had rejoined the others. They were packing their juice bottles away. Dylan was slipping on the backpack. Cal beckoned me over with a smile.

  ‘Did you see something?’ he asked as I walked back. ‘You looked a bit glassy-eyed earlier. I thought maybe you were going to try for a vision.’

  I nodded. ‘We should head for the church in Lovistov. The place we’re going is nearby. It was hard to work out the sequence but I saw a large green door after I saw the church and after we’d walked down a lane of houses . . .’

  ‘So you think the green door belongs to one of the houses?’

  I nodded.

  Cal looked at me, impressed. ‘Wow, that’s ace.’

  Ed smiled. ‘Well done, Ketty.’

  Dylan snorted. ‘It’s all a bit vague, isn’t it? What’s behind the door?’

  I shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Some sort of passageway . . . a room. But I saw Nico unlocking the front door, so I know we go in there.’

  ‘It’s a start,’ Cal insisted.

  I glanced at Nico who had remained uncharacteristically silent throughout this exchange. Once he would have leaped to my defence, not left it to Cal.

  ‘Did you see anything else?’ Nico’s voice was cold.

  ‘Only that there was a frost,’ I said. I decided not to mention the pain in my leg or the dazzling light. I couldn’t explain either – and it was hopeless trying to get the others to understand the way my visions jumped around.

  Nico offered me a curt nod. He said nothing.

  And when, a few minutes later, we flew on again, he stood once more beside Dylan, not me.

  The rest of the journey was uneventful. Once we reached the coast, Cal rested again. Then we flew on, over Indonesia and Cambodia, too high up to make out anything distinct in the landscape. We stopped to eat and sleep only in short bursts but it was nearly dawn the following day when we arrived in Lovistov. Taking into account the time difference, Cal had been flying us for over forty-eight hours and was practically dead on his feet. He landed us – more raggedly than usual – in a copse on the edge of town. The church spire I’d seen in my vision was visible in the distance and the air was as cold as my vision had suggested. Once we reached the church, I knew the house with the green door would be close by.

  Nico immediately took charge. ‘Okay, Cal and Ed stay here to rest. I’ll go with Dylan and Ketty to scout around. See if we can locate the house Ketty saw.’

  ‘Any more clues for us, Ketty?’ Dylan drawled.

  I shook my head. I’d been trying to have another vision for most of the past two hours, but I was too stressed now. Nothing was coming.

  ‘Great,’ Dylan said sarcastically.

  ‘I’m not staying behind,’ Cal said stubbornly.

  Nico sighed. ‘Come on, man, you’re exhaust—’

  ‘No, I’m coming with.’

  For a second, Nico and Cal glared at each other. Then Nico shook his head. ‘All right, but we don’t want too many people wandering about, drawing attention to ourselves, so Dylan, you’ll have to stay here with Ed.’

  ‘Fine with me,’ Dylan yawned, settling herself against a tree.

  Nico checked his watch. ‘Ed, give us ten minutes, then contact me with remote telepathy. Okay?’

  Ed agreed and Nico, Cal and I set off. The night air was freezing cold. Our thin jackets – which were all we’d needed in sunny Sydney – only offered limited warmth. We walked single file, the only sound the crunching of the frosted grass under our feet. In a few minutes we reached the church I’d seen in my vision. An unevenly laid road led off on the right. I was sure it was the one from my vision. The large green door had to be along here somewhere. My confidence soared.

  ‘Down there,’ I said.

  We headed over. My breath was coming fast and shallow, a white mist around my head. We reached the top of the roa
d. The whole town felt completely deserted.

  ‘Which door is it?’ Cal whispered.

  I looked up and down the street. It wasn’t a long road and all the doors were painted a dull brown. I’d been wrong. The door from my vision wasn’t here after all.

  ‘It’s not the right street,’ I whispered.

  Nico rolled his eyes. I didn’t say anything to his face, but inside I was feeling annoyed. Why did he have to act so superior? Didn’t he understand my Medusa ability wasn’t a precise or controllable gift?

  I opened my mouth to protest that we just needed to retrace our steps and try another street, when heavy footsteps sounded behind us.

  I spun around. Two men – burly and unsmiling – were just a few metres behind us. They stopped as we stopped. One of them barked something at the other in a foreign language.

  ‘Looks like we’ve chosen the wrong hood to make a mistake in,’ Cal hissed.

  Nico smiled at the men. He raised his hands. ‘Hi,’ he said.

  The two men looked at each other. One, the taller of the two, gave a menacing, gap-toothed grin.

  And then he drew a knife.

  3: The Patrol

  The man held the knife out towards us.

  ‘Stop,’ he said with a strong eastern European accent.

  ‘Oh man, they want to rob us,’ Nico groaned.

  I stared at the knife, my heart beating fast. Why couldn’t I have seen this in my vision earlier? Then we could have avoided it.

  Cal looked at me, his eyebrows raised. He edged closer and I realised he was trying to suggest we made a run for it . . . that he could fly us into the air and we could get away.

  It made sense, but Nico was already ahead of us, arms outstretched. At first I thought he was trying to snatch the man’s knife using telekinesis, then I realised his hands were open in a gesture of surrender – he was trying to talk to the two men. I gulped. Nico obviously felt more confident than I did right now.

  Both men looked mean: the one with the knife was short and balding, with stubble over his chin; the other was taller and thinner, with a broken nose that gave his face a squashed look.

  ‘We don’t have any money with us,’ Nico said. ‘We’re just here trying to find out about some strange things that have been happening.’

  Knife Man narrowed his eyes.

  ‘What strange things?’ he said suspiciously.

  My heart skipped a beat. The man was still clutching his knife. Was he holding it too tightly for Nico to teleport it away if he needed to?

  ‘Weird stuff,’ Nico said. ‘There was a car that moved without a driver. Some tools that spun in the air.’

  The two men stared at him blankly. Knife Man turned to Broken Nose with raised eyebrows. ‘These sound crazy things.’

  Broken Nose shook his head. ‘You must come with us.’

  ‘No,’ Nico insisted. He raised his hands again and, this time, I was certain he was going to try and whip Knife Man’s weapon away using telekinesis.

  But before Nico could act, Knife Man leaped forward. He grabbed my arm and twisted me round. I felt the cold press of metal on my skin. Cal and Nico stared, helpless, at the blade against my throat.

  I froze.

  ‘You come with us,’ Knife Man said.

  My stomach lurched, sickeningly, into my chest.

  Nico thrust out his hand and twisted it. He was definitely trying to wrench the knife away using telekinesis, but the man was gripping it too hard. Cal hesitated, clearly torn between flying away to sound the alarm and staying to help me.

  ‘Don’t hurt her,’ he cried out.

  ‘Move,’ Broken Nose ordered. ‘Or we kill the girl.’

  Knife Man spun me around, his weapon still against my throat. He shoved me forward.

  I had no choice but to let him lead us away.

  I stumbled across the road, the knife cold on my skin. I didn’t dare look round to see if the others were okay. Both boys were talking at once, Nico demanding that the men let us go and Cal simply imploring them not to hurt me.

  A moment later we were back at the road opposite the church. The town was starting to stir, the morning air crisp and clear. A woman appeared outside a house with a basketful of washing to hang on the line. When she saw us, she scuttled back inside. As we passed the church, I glanced along the far side of the building.

  The large green door from my vision was there.

  ‘No.’ The word burst out of me. Why hadn’t I insisted we looked around here properly before? I’d been so certain that my vision had skipped ahead from the church to a different place entirely, I hadn’t considered that the green door might simply be on a different part of the building.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Nico asked urgently.

  ‘The green door I saw earlier,’ I said. ‘It’s on the side of the church.’

  ‘Quiet.’ Knife Man pressed the metal tip of his weapon against my throat. I gasped with terror, my mind spinning. In trying to find out about Medusix we appeared to have walked into another, equally dangerous, situation.

  ‘Where are you taking us?’ Cal demanded.

  ‘Silence,’ Broken Nose ordered.

  I chewed anxiously on my lip. We’d left Ed and Dylan back by the trees just a moment ago. Ed would attempt to contact us by remote telepathy in a few minutes. Unless Nico and Cal could somehow get the knife off my captor, he was our best chance for escape.

  We left the church behind and turned onto a street full of shops and cafés. Most of these were either closed or boarded-up. Knife Man pushed me inside the second café on the right. It was empty – a small room with a bar and food counter at one end and a clutch of tables and chairs by the window.

  Across the room and down some stairs to a cellar. In the sudden darkness I could just make out a dusty space filled with crates and boxes, then through to the tiny, empty room behind. Knife Man shoved me through the door. I spun round in time to see Nico and Cal being hurled in after me and then the door slammed shut on us with a bang.

  We were locked in.

  Cal rushed over. ‘Ketts, are you all right?’ I nodded.

  Nico thumped the door with his fist. ‘Let us out!’ he yelled.

  I looked around. The room was completely bare – stone floors and concrete walls painted a dirty shade of grey. It wasn’t large – maybe three metres square. And there was just one small window, high up on the far wall. Cal followed my gaze. A second later he zoomed off the ground. He hovered, two metres off the ground, peering closely at the glass. He prodded the handle with his fingers.

  ‘Locked,’ he said.

  ‘Get me up there,’ Nico ordered. ‘I’ll sort that.’ He grinned at me. ‘Lucky you’re here with me rather than Ed or Dylan.’

  ‘Or Amy,’ I said.

  The smile fell from Nico’s face at this reminder of our earlier argument.

  Cal swooped down and grabbed Nico by the arm. ‘Come on,’ he said.

  ‘What d’you think’s going on?’ I asked. ‘If those men just wanted money they’d have mugged us. Why have they brought us here?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Nico said sharply as he soared up behind Cal. ‘We just need to get out of here and get back to the mission. All that matters is finding out if someone’s really developed Medusix.’

  ‘I know that’s the priority,’ I said, just as sharply back. ‘I’m just asking.’

  Up in the air, Nico twisted his hand and the lock on the small window clicked free. With a creak, the window itself opened.

  ‘It leads straight onto the pavement outside,’ Nico said.

  ‘Right, you go through,’ Cal said. ‘Then I’ll go down and fetch Ketty.’

  Both boys looked down at me. I nodded.

  Cal carefully hovered closer to the window, moving his hold from Nico’s arm to round his waist, then positioning Nico so that he could crawl through the narrow opening. Nico reached through with his head and arms. I watched, holding my breath as he gradually disappeared from view. Cal staye
d beside him, guiding his lower body.

  The bolts on the other side of the door rattled as someone dragged them back. Cal caught my eye. He was still pushing Nico through the window. He looked terrified. A key turned in the lock.

  ‘Go!’ I hissed at Cal. ‘Come back for me in a minute.’

  Cal shoved Nico fully through the window, but didn’t follow himself.

  ‘Come on, Ketts,’ he hissed, one hand clinging on to the window ledge, the other reaching down for me.

  The door handle started to turn. ‘No, there’s no time. Come back for me.’ With a grimace, Cal slithered through the opening – and I faced the door.

  Broken Nose stood in front of me. His mouth gaped as he took in the empty room. He looked up at the open window and shouted something in a language I didn’t understand. I heard Knife Man pounding up the stairs to the ground floor.

  I held my breath, hoping Cal and Nico had enough time to get away.

  Broken Nose and I stared at each other. I took a step away from him. Hopefully Cal and Nico were hiding outside, around the corner. As soon as Broken Nose left me again, Cal could come back and fetch me.

  But Broken Nose didn’t leave me. Instead he grabbed my arm and dragged me from the room. I tried to resist. He shouted. Then he opened the door of a tiny cupboard. It contained a mop and bucket full of cleaning rags and bottles, plus a ladder. Broken Nose shoved me inside. I fell against the ladder. The door slammed shut.

  I stood gasping with the shock. My arm hurt where I’d landed on the rungs of the ladder. But worse, far worse, was the fact that the cupboard was pitch black.

  And that I was now completely alone.

  4: The Trap

  I banged on the door, panic rising and whirling inside me. It’s not that I’m afraid of the dark, but the cupboard was tiny. Worse, no one knew I was here. If Cal and Nico did manage to escape Knife Man and come back, they would have no idea where to find me.

  Well, I’d just have to make sure they heard me. I thumped on the door again, yelling at the top of my voice.

  ‘Let me out! Help!’

  I shouted for a whole minute, then I stopped and listened. I could hear nothing outside. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself. Perhaps if I looked a little way into the future, I would see the boys coming back to rescue me.