The Hostage Page 5

  ‘I know, but they were talking about the MoD database before I started recording and you could find out about the Rainbow, couldn’t you?’ Lex said desperately. ‘That’s why it’s called investigative journalism. It’s a big story, Tessa. Exactly the sort of thing you said you needed . . . you know, to be noticed.’

  Tessa rolled her eyes. ‘For God’s sake, Lex, I don’t even know if that’s really Foster’s voice.’

  ‘It is.’ They both looked at me.

  ‘And how would you know?’ Tessa asked.

  ‘I saw him in a vision.’ The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

  Tessa stared at me as if I was completely mad. ‘A vision?’

  Lex groaned. ‘Ketty, please . . .’

  Crap. ‘Forget that,’ I said. ‘The point is I’m sure Lex is right.’

  Lex took Tessa’s elbow and drew her to one side. They started talking in low voices. I glanced back at the tree where Nico was hiding and smiled to reassure him everything was okay.

  And it was, sort of. I mean, at least now I knew Lex was trying to expose Foster, not collude with him. The meeting I’d seen between them in my vision hadn’t taken place here. It was clearly still in the future. Which meant if I could just get Lex to give me that phone of his, maybe I could change the future – ensure that the meeting between Lex and Foster never happened at all.

  I went over to where Tessa and Lex were arguing. Lex glanced round as I approached. Tessa didn’t appear to see me.

  ‘This is about us, isn’t it?’ She glared at Lex. ‘When I told you to be more ambitious, I didn’t mean you should make up some crazy story about your boss to try and get me back.’

  ‘I didn’t make it up. I—’

  ‘I told you last week. It’s over.’ Tessa stood back, her hands on her hips.

  I stared at them, shocked. So that was it . . . Lex was hoping to win Tessa back by giving her information on Foster that she could turn into a big news story.

  ‘Please, Tessa. I’m not making it up about Foster,’ Lex insisted.

  ‘He really isn’t,’ I added. ‘Foster is involved in—’

  ‘Shut up!’ Tessa shouted.

  ‘Hey,’ Lex protested.

  ‘For God’s sake, Lex, are you telling me your crazy kid sister is the only person you could find prepared to back up your crazy made-up story?’ Tessa was yelling now. ‘You’re pathetic.’

  She shoved her phone into her handbag and stomped back to her car.

  ‘Tessa!’ Lex called.

  But Tessa sped up, her heels clacking against the rough stone path. A second later she had reached her car and zoomed away.

  I looked down at Lex’s hand. He was still holding his silver phone, containing the original recording.

  ‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘We can take what you recorded to . . . to the police.’ I really needed to get the phone to Geri Paterson, but the police could do that. ‘They’ll make sure you’re safe.’

  ‘No, I have to go after Tessa. Make her believe me.’

  ‘You can’t. Foster is after you. He wants to kill you.’ My voice rose in panic.

  ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t understand how you know any of this, but Foster doesn’t even know I overheard him talking about this Rainbow thing.’ Lex was already running away from me. ‘Don’t you see? I’ve just made things worse between me and Tessa. I have to make her see I’ve got a real story for her. Then we can go to the police.’

  I raced after him. ‘Wait.’

  Lex reached his motorbike and picked up his helmet. I turned, desperate.

  ‘Nico, help!’

  Nico darted out from behind his tree and raced towards us. Lex did a double take.

  ‘Who on earth—?’

  ‘That’s Nico,’ I said. ‘My . . . er . . . my boyfriend.’ I blushed. I’d never said those words before, about anyone.

  Lex stared at me. ‘Really? Good. Then he can make sure you get back to school okay.’ He fished in his pocket for some money and shoved some notes into my hands. ‘I’m sorry I don’t have a spare helmet for you or I’d drop you somewhere, but I have to go after Tessa and straighten this mess out. Please phone a taxi. Get on a train back to London. Please.’

  ‘No . . .’

  ‘I’ll call you later.’ And with that, Lex jammed his helmet on his head and sped off so fast he nearly collided with a large blue Mercedes driving towards the car park. The car swerved to avoid him, its wheels spinning into a ditch.

  Nico raced up, panting, as the car revved, desperately trying to back out of the ditch. ‘What happened?’

  I explained, my voice faltering as I spoke. ‘And now Lex is gone and he’s still got the recording and Foster is out there and—’

  ‘It’s okay, Ketts.’ Nico smiled. ‘All we have to do is call Geri. Get her to get the police to pick him up.’

  Behind us, the driver of the blue Mercedes got out of his car. But I wasn’t looking at him. My whole focus was on Nico.

  ‘That’s a brilliant idea.’ I hugged him.

  ‘Course it is,’ Nico grinned. ‘I mean, I hate having to do it in a way, but we need Geri’s help. And it’s okay now. I mean, she won’t like Lex trying to give the Rainbow information to a journalist, but it’s not as if he’s actually involved in what Foster is planning. I bet we won’t be in trouble either, even though we skived off school. Not once Geri hears about this Rainbow thing Foster wants to steal.’

  I looked up the track towards the main road. The man from the blue Mercedes had turned away from his car and was looking in our direction. For a few seconds I didn’t recognise who it was.

  And then the man started walking towards us. His angry grey eyes fixed on me, his face set in a snarl.

  Foster.

  My heart seemed to stop beating. Beside me, Nico stiffened.

  Foster stared at us. Something metallic was in his hands. It glinted in the sun.

  ‘Oh crap.’ Nico grabbed my hand . . . pulling me closer towards him.

  I stared at what Foster was holding, my brain taking a few seconds to catch up with my eyes.

  And then I realised. It was a gun.

  7: The gun

  Foster was taller than I’d imagined from my vision. Thickset too, with intense grey eyes and wavy hair that curled onto the collar of his open-neck shirt. His expression was chillingly calm as he pointed his gun at us. ‘Off the path. Into the trees,’ he ordered.

  I caught Nico’s eye as we stumbled through the bushes. He looked more scared than I’d ever seen him.

  Once under the cover of the trees, Foster pointed us to stand a metre or so away from him. He held the gun out towards me.

  ‘I saw you talking with Lex before he bloody ran me off the road. Who are you? Why were you meeting him?’

  My mouth fell open. How had he found us?

  ‘Who’s Lex?’ Nico said.

  He sounded completely genuine, but Foster just shook his head.

  ‘You can skip the lies,’ he snarled. ‘I know Lex has been spying on me. I saw him on our office car park CCTV . . . looked like he was recording something on his phone. And I hacked his texts earlier. He was meeting someone here . . . Tessa . . . is that you?’

  ‘No. He wasn’t . . . he didn’t . . .’

  ‘I saw you together.’ Foster’s voice was low and deeply threatening. ‘And it looked like he was leaving in a hurry. He didn’t even see my car on that bike of his. What happened? What did he tell you?’

  I didn’t know what to say. My eyes fixed on the gun in Foster’s hand.

  ‘Speak.’ Foster cocked the gun and took a step closer to me.

  ‘This is Ketty,’ Nico said quickly. ‘She’s Lex’s sister. She’s not the person he came here to meet.’

  Foster frowned. He lowered the gun a fraction. ‘His sister? Why did he want to see you?’

  ‘He didn’t,’ I said, trying to keep my voice steady. ‘I followed him . . . I just wanted to see him . . . he’s my brother .
. .’

  ‘You’re lucky you can see your brother.’ Foster’s voice had a bitter edge. ‘I haven’t been able to see mine properly for two years.’

  I shook my head. What was he talking about?

  ‘Don’t mess me around, Ketty,’ Foster snarled. ‘I know Lex spied on me and then came here to meet someone. I saw the two of you together. What did he say? Did he give you something?

  My legs shook. I suddenly remembered the girl Foster had mentioned in that second vision. The one whom killing was the ‘only option’.

  Nico had been right. That was me, wasn’t it?

  ‘Just give me whatever Lex gave you and you can go.’ Foster levelled his gun at me.

  Nico gripped my hand.

  I swallowed. ‘Seriously, we don’t have—’

  ‘Now,’ he said.

  I turned to Nico. Our only chance was his telekinesis. I was sure Foster didn’t know anything about that. I could see from Nico’s expression he knew what he had to do. He gave me a slight nod.

  ‘Mr Foster . . .’ he began.

  ‘This isn’t a discussion—’

  Wham.

  With a sudden upward jerk of his hand, Nico teleported Foster’s gun up, out of his hand and away, into the bushes. A twist of Nico’s other wrist and Foster himself stumbled, losing his footing and falling onto his side on the soft ground.

  ‘Run!’ Nico grabbed my wrist. We dived through the trees and out into the car park. We turned left and raced up the track that led back to the road.

  Nico was running fast, almost dragging me after him. I found my feet. Sped up. One thing I know how to do is run. I dug into the ground with my heels, propelling myself forwards.

  A roar behind us. Foster. Nico darted sideways into the trees. He let go of my hand as we flew across the dropped leaves, weaving in and out of brambles and bushes and more trees.

  ‘Come here!’ Foster sounded close.

  Nico glanced over his shoulder. ‘This way.’

  He tugged me with him, through a thick clump of trees. Together we burst out, onto the main road. Cars were zooming past.

  Panting, Nico held out his hand, thumbing for a ride. I looked over my shoulder. I could hear Foster crashing through the undergrowth, though I couldn’t see him.

  ‘Come on, stop!’ Nico shouted at the traffic. His face was screwed up, red and sweaty. He looked insane.

  ‘Let me do this.’ I pushed his raised arm down and stood in front of him. I raised my hand. Two cars passed. Then a third slowed to a standstill beside us.

  An elderly lady leaned out. ‘This is a dangerous place to stop,’ she said. ‘Does your mother know you’re out here?’

  ‘Yes,’ I lied, trying to stay calm – we didn’t have time for questions. ‘We were supposed to meet her in Ringwood, but we got off at the wrong bus stop.’

  The elderly lady frowned. ‘Well, you’d better get in . . .’ She looked past me at Nico. ‘Is that your friend?’

  ‘Er . . . yes,’ I blushed.

  ‘All right. You can both get in. I’m going to Ringwood anyway.’

  We scrambled into the back of her car. As she sped off I looked out the back window in time to see Foster emerging from the trees just metres from where we’d been standing. He looked round wildly. I was certain he didn’t spot us.

  ‘That was close,’ I whispered.

  Nico nodded. He sat back against the seat, shaking his head.

  ‘How come you didn’t see that in your visions?’ he muttered.

  I shook my head, still trembling. I would have liked the answer to that question myself.

  ‘What are your names?’ the elderly lady asked. ‘Have you two been to school today?’

  Nico answered, spinning some entirely convincing lie about our teachers having a training day. I could barely follow what he was saying. I was counting the seconds until we reached Ringwood and were free to call Geri.

  A few minutes later the lady dropped us at the coach stop. As Nico studied the timetable for buses to London, I rang Geri. I told her I’d had another vision of Lex at the Rufus Stone and followed him down here. She was shocked. Really shocked . . . That I’d had the vision. That Nico and I had gone off on our own. That my brother was involved. That Foster had been carrying a gun . . .

  She was particularly interested, of course, in Lex’s recording about the Rainbow.

  I told her everything – except that Lex was trying to give the recording to a journalist. I knew Geri wouldn’t like that and I didn’t want him to get into trouble. I made out Lex only ended up at the Rufus Stone because he was in a panic, running away from London. That it was a random destination.

  At Nico’s suggestion I also pretended that we’d been forced to act independently because we couldn’t get hold of Geri earlier. She tutted at this, asking quite reasonably why we hadn’t gone to Mr Fox or Maria instead, but said a proper debrief (or ‘telling off’, as Nico translated) could wait until we were back at school.

  ‘Foster knows my full name now,’ I said. ‘D’you think he’ll be able to find out where I live?’

  ‘Not a chance,’ Geri said. ‘There’s no network access to Fox Academy’s school records. As soon as you’re back at school we’ll make sure your surname and any identifiable pictures are taken off the other online presences you have.’ Geri paused. ‘The important thing now is getting you back safe.’

  It turned out there was a coach to London due in a couple of minutes. Geri told us to get on that, and that she’d send Maria to meet us at Victoria station.

  ‘And you’ll get someone to find Lex?’ I asked.

  I could hear Geri’s pen tapping against her desk.

  ‘I’ll have the police pick him up asap,’ she said briskly.

  ‘Please hurry. I’m worried about Foster reaching him first.’

  Geri reassured me and rang off. I tried to call Lex myself, but his phone was switched off. I couldn’t even leave a message.

  The coach was hot and stuffy. Nico fell asleep after a while, his head lolling against my shoulder.

  I gazed out of the window. The sun was setting to the left of the motorway – a low orange disc in a now clear pink sky. I suddenly felt terribly alone. Why did I have this curse of a psychic ability? My visions were too random to be helpful . . . all that time I’d wasted thinking Rufus Stone was a person . . . then assuming it was the place where Lex was meeting Foster. I kept getting it wrong, over and over . . . and now Lex was in serious danger and I couldn’t even help him.

  A tear trickled down my face as I stared out at the passing trees. For the first time I truly understood why Ed hated his ability so much.

  ‘What is it, Ketts?’ Nico’s voice was soft and concerned. He turned my face towards his. ‘Why are you crying?’

  ‘I hate having visions,’ I wept. ‘I hate what I see. I hate not knowing when it will happen. I don’t even know whether or not I can change things once I’ve seen them. I hate it.’

  I sobbed into his chest for a minute, then pulled away to blow my nose.

  As I wiped my eyes, Nico held my face in his hands. For a second all I could feel was the softness and strength of his fingers. The hugeness of how much I felt for him pulsed through me again. It was overwhelming. Terrifying.

  ‘Let me help you, Ketts,’ he whispered.

  I nodded, barely trusting myself to speak. ‘How?’ I whispered back.

  Our faces were centimetres apart. His eyes were gentle and chocolate brown. Melting me.

  ‘I’ve got an idea.’ Nico’s beautiful face slid into a smile. ‘I’ll show you once we’re back at school . . .’

  8: Visions

  It was hours before Nico and I were finally on our own together. Geri and Fergus were waiting for us when Maria delivered us back to school.

  As soon as we got out, Fergus whisked Nico away and Geri took me into an empty classroom. She sat at the teacher’s table, arms folded, her thin, lipsticked lips pressed disapprovingly together.

  ‘This won’t
do, dear,’ she said crisply. ‘I can’t have you running off on your own, it’s too dangerous. And I can’t keep coming up to Fox Academy to see you – not every day. That’s why you have my phone number, so that you can reach me – and Maria here, posing undercover as a tutor.’

  ‘But we tried to reach you . . .’ I lied. ‘And . . . and it was Lex . . . my brother was in trouble . . .’

  ‘All the more reason to let me help.’ Geri flicked back her blonde bob. ‘Believe me, I want you to use your abilities. But not without back-up.’ She paused. ‘Anyway, I think you’d better start from the beginning again. What happened?’

  I repeated what I’d told her – Nico and I had gone over our stories before reaching London to make sure they matched up. We were basically telling the truth about everything except Tessa Marshall. Nico had agreed straight away that Lex would be in trouble if Geri knew he’d been talking to a journalist, so went along with my decision not to mention her. When Geri asked why I thought Lex had made the Rainbow recording, I told her that he’d originally intended to take it to the police, but was now too scared of Foster to do so.

  Geri interviewed me for about thirty minutes, then let me go – after extracting a promise from me that I would never again act without consulting her and promising, for her part, that the police were doing all they could to find Lex. I’d tried his number again, but now all I got was a recorded message saying the phone service had been discontinued.

  ‘Something must have happened to him,’ I said to Nico when we finally met up later that evening in the common room.

  ‘Not necessarily. In fact it’s a good sign,’ Nico said. ‘Lex has probably realised he can be tracked through his phone, so he’s got rid of it.’

  This sounded plausible, though it didn’t stop me worrying. If I could only bring on a vision I might be able to find out where Lex was. I was about to ask Nico what he’d meant earlier when he’d said he could help me, but Fergus came into the common room and shooed us off to bed.

  We met again straight after breakfast. The Tranquillity Garden is a small, walled patch of grass with rows of rose beds beyond. It’s totally private, being neither overlooked nor en route to any of the major school buildings, and, because there’s a rule about being silent there, it’s hardly ever used.