I glanced at Suki – maybe she had been pushed over the edge. It explained a lot.
‘But your mum, she was special, she saw her ability only as a good thing. Something that she could use as a gift. To help others.’
‘But—’
He held up a hand. ‘I’m getting to it. Your mum was an idealist. She honestly believed she could change the world. She believed that if she went into politics she could make a real difference. I guess that’s what most politicians think. Well, maybe not most. But she did have an advantage over the others. She thought if she could read people’s minds she’d have no problem influencing people. Believe me, I saw your mum working her magic and it was impressive. She should have been a lawyer. She could have made millions. She could have turned a whole jury in seconds.’
‘So why did she dump you?’
He winced. ‘She met your father. I couldn’t compete with his English accent.’
Or with his morals, charm or good looks, I thought.
I heard a tiny giggle emanate from Suki’s direction.
‘And it was over just like that.’
I was so glad my mum had come to her senses. Demos could have been my father. Not worth contemplating.
‘I was madly in love with her. And when you’re madly in love you do crazy things.’ I could have sworn he was looking at me in a pointed way but then he carried on. ‘All I could think about was stopping her from feeling anything for Michael, your dad. I thought if I could do that she’d come back to me – stupid, I know. But before I could do anything she heard me – she read my mind as soon as I had the thought. I wouldn’t even have done it, I don’t think. But she heard it, called me out on it and cut me off. I didn’t blame her.’
He halted a moment before carrying on. ‘We didn’t speak for almost seventeen years. She moved to the East coast to get away from me. Married your father. Had you and Jack.’
Was he expecting sympathy for his tragic love life?
‘Great. So now I know all about how much you loved my mum. It doesn’t tell me why she’s dead and why they’re blaming you, though.’
He ignored me. ‘The next time I heard from your mum, she called me up out of the blue. She was working for some senator and she’d discovered something she was really scared about. She would never have called me otherwise. We hadn’t had contact for a very long time.’
‘What did she say?’
‘She needed my help. She said I was the only one who would know what to do. So I went straight to DC.’ He frowned at the table, then at me. ‘But she was dead before I even got there.’
I shut my eyes and tried to keep breathing. When I opened them again I saw him and Suki both watching me warily.
‘How do you know for sure it was Burns that killed her?’
Demos leant towards me, his arms nearly touching mine. ‘It was him. I got proof. I sent someone I knew, a guy called Thomas, to find out. He could project. It didn’t take him long to find out. Not that there were any other suspects, anyway. I needed to know what your mum had found out, why he’d needed to kill her.’ He laughed under his breath. ‘I wanted to do it like your mother would have. No violence. Nothing illegal. Believe me, it went against the grain. I would sooner have killed him for what he did.’
It went against my grain too. I wished he had killed him.
‘Thomas sat in on some fairly interesting conversations. He managed to pass on quite a bit of information before he disappeared.’
I prised the words out of my mouth. ‘What happened to him?’
‘I assumed he’d been murdered too.’ He looked sideways at Suki and I saw them exchange a smile.
‘So what did you do?’ I asked nervously.
He eyed me for a moment, weighing his words, trying to gauge my likely reaction. ‘I killed Burns.’
I didn’t flinch. I met his stare head on. He didn’t back down. No, definitely no remorse there.
‘But it was too late to stop what he’d started.’
‘What do you mean? What had he started?’
Demos inhaled hard. ‘The Unit. Burns was the man behind it.’
My hands fell flat onto the table and I leant forward. Our arms were touching.
‘Burns was taking kickbacks from a defence company, Stirling Enterprises. They were paying six-figure bribes. Unsurprisingly the company won a very large, very lucrative military contract.’
‘He killed her over money? That’s what it was about?’ Fury fizzed in my voice.
‘It wasn’t just the bribes your mum found out about. It was the details of the contract. That’s what they couldn’t afford to become public knowledge. On the surface it was a standard defence contract, to develop and supply new weapons to the military. But your mum found out exactly what they were researching and developing.’
I blinked at him several times as I absorbed the information.
‘They’re researching us, Lila. That’s what your mum found out. The Unit is trying to isolate the gene that triggers our abilities so they can then use it to create new weapons.’
I threw back my head and laughed so loudly that Bill and Harvey looked over at me.
‘Yeah, OK, that makes complete sense.’
‘No, we’re not mad.’ Suki was responding to the silent accusations I was now throwing their way. ‘Imagine if someone could do what Demos can do – only to hundreds or thousands of people at a time.’
‘That’s not possible.’ I might not have listened too hard in biology lessons but I knew that it wasn’t possible.
‘Yes it is,’ Demos interrupted. ‘Gene therapy is the fastest advancing science of our time. You should see the progress they’re making in medicine. It’s actually quite fascinating when you have time to study it. All of this, everything we’re talking about, is possible.’
OK, maybe I didn’t know that much after all. ‘So you’re telling me that this company, the Unit, is not developing new guns or bullets, or bombs, but is, in actual fact, trying to create a super-army of mind-control freaks?’
‘I wouldn’t use that exact terminology, but – yes. Why else is a defence company employing geneticists and neuroscientists?’
I thought immediately of Sara. No way. Did she know what was happening? She couldn’t. She was so nice. Jack was so in love with her. A split second later my body froze, the muscles contracting up my spine. ‘Jack and Alex? Do they know?’
Suki shook her head, her hair slicing against her cheeks. ‘No. They don’t know. They think the scientists are just there to do psych evaluations. They have no idea what else is going on.’
‘They’re just soldiers, Lila. Pawns in a game.’
I looked at Demos.
‘They were recruited on purpose. Why else would two eighteen-year-olds be approached in their freshman year? It was genius. They’re exploiting your brother and Alex’s obsession for revenge and using it to catch me. And they knew that recruiting Jack would give me pause for thought.’
I raised my eyebrows sceptically. It didn’t seem to have given him much pause for thought.
‘He’s Melissa’s son. They knew I wouldn’t be able to hurt him.’
Yeah, I thought, that depends on how you define hurt. Kidnapping me and sending Jack on a crazy suicide mission qualifies as hurting, to my mind.
‘We didn’t have a choice, Lila.’ It was Suki again. I kept forgetting she had access to my thoughts.
I was about to launch into a tirade but Demos interrupted, his voice so final it stopped me like a red light. ‘And the real tragedy of it, the really sick thing, is that all this time, while they’ve been coming after me, your brother and Alex have actually been working for the very people who killed your mother. The company told Burns to do it.’
Licks of energy started to flicker up my arms and legs. The sandwich in front of me suddenly spun away across the table. Demos’s hand shot out and he caught it in mid-spin. His eyes widened in a gentle warning. I worked on my breathing, trying to steady my whirring mind.
> He spoke the next words slowly, watching me carefully for any more adverse reactions. ‘The men who killed your mum are from the Unit. Your brother and Alex lead them.’
I put my head on the table, resting my forehead against the rough wood, feeling wave after wave of nausea wash over me. Prickles of sweat started to bead the back of my neck. I had probably shaken hands with the men who’d killed my mother. How could any of this be allowed to happen?
I felt a hand, Suki’s I guessed, start to stroke my forearm, then her voice, light and smooth, answering my silent question. ‘The Unit operates completely outside of any normal parameters.’
Demos spoke up. ‘It answers to no one, Lila. It’s so top secret only a few people in government know its real mission.’
I lifted my head from the table, it was heavy as marble. I remembered Alex saying the Unit operated under a higher authority even than the President. The clearing started to blur like I was on a merry-go-round. I felt myself lurch to the left, my elbow cracking against the side of the table. I put my head back down and closed my eyes.
‘Why do they want you so badly? Because you killed Burns?’ I asked, once the world had stopped spinning.
‘No, not because of that.’ He was laughing softly to himself. ‘I did them a favour. Saved them a lot of money and the bother of doing it themselves.’
Suki butted in. ‘They’re after Demos because he’s the most powerful of all of us. He’s one of a kind. Not like the rest of us.’ I opened my eyes and looked up. She sounded in awe of him.
I noticed the blush rising up her neck.
‘It’s enough that we know what the Unit is doing,’ Demos said. ‘But, yes, the main reason they want me – all of us, in fact – is that if they catch us, they hit the mother lode. Every known ability in one go. They’ll test us like lab rats. Get what they want, then dispose of us.’
I watched as the blush drained from Suki’s cheeks. Then her chin lifted and her head snapped to the side. She and Demos rose from the bench in unison, both looking over towards the table where Bill and Harvey were still sitting. I noticed that Amber and Ryder had joined them. I wondered what was going on, then saw Nate was sitting up between them. He was back.
I jogged after Demos and Suki, who by now were halfway towards him, Suki struggling to keep pace with Demos.
‘What’s happening?’ Demos demanded as we reached them.
‘They’re there. They’re in.’
I inhaled so loudly everyone turned to look at me.
‘In the building? How’d they manage it?’
‘They took Rachel.’ Nate’s face was fairly gleaming with exhilaration, like he’d just played a video game and had broken through to the final level.
Amber edged down her side of the bench and patted the empty space next to her while looking over at me. I studied her a while and then eased myself slowly down onto the bench. Bill grinned at me, and Harvey gave me a one-sided smile and a nod, cigarette still clamped in the corner of his mouth.
‘It was really clever. They went straight to her house on the base. Alex goes strolling up and knocks on her door like he’s there to watch the game or something. She’s all over him as soon as she answers the door.’
I was glad I was sitting down.
‘She was all “Where have you been? Oh my God!” Alex totally played to it. Tells her he had to go after Lila . . .’ he paused to glance at me, with a slight apologetic smile, ‘’cos she’d run away. He said that he’d found her, given her a good talking-to and packed her off on a plane home. Then the next thing he’s got a gun to Rachel’s head and told her to come take a ride. Seriously, it was like the coolest move, like he was Jason Bourne or something. They got her in the car. Did I mention the car? They stole it from outside the base. A hardcore 4×4 turbo engine. It’s awesome.’
‘Nate.’ Demos’s voice was hard as stone. ‘What did they do?’
‘Sorry.’ He felt the rebuke. ‘They took her to the Unit. Told her to cooperate or she was as good as dead. Jack told her that they were all going in and that she was going to authorise a prisoner swop. Something about taking Thomas and Alicia over to the Washington Head Office.’
Thomas? Thomas was dead. ‘What do you mean, Thomas?’
Everyone turned to look at me, except for Demos. ‘Nate,’ he said, ‘go back now. Tell us when they’re on their way.’
Nate nodded, eager as a puppy. Ryder caught his shoulder moments before his unconscious head smacked onto the table. He replaced the rolled-up sweater gently. Suki reached over and stroked Nate’s hair.
Demos was fixing me with one of his looks. ‘Thomas is alive. Alex told us.’
‘When did he tell you that?’
‘Earlier, in the clearing. He told us Thomas was alive and that he’d bring us him and Alicia in exchange for your safe return.’
I thought back to Alex standing there with a gun against his head. The silent communication he’d had with Suki. The look in his eyes before he’d turned and left me. My fingers traced the bracelet on my wrist, remembering the way his hands had felt holding my face, the way his breath had tickled my neck, the pressure of his lips on mine.
And I couldn’t stand it anymore. It felt like my mind was going to shut down, switch off. I lurched upright and started to back away from the table. I braced myself for the inevitable freeze but when it didn’t come I turned and started to run towards the trees in the distance.
‘Let her go,’ I heard Demos say.
25
Suki found me. I was sitting against the base of a tree. I reckoned I’d been there about an hour. Possibly longer. The light filtering in shafts through the branches above me was almost horizontal.
‘There you are,’ Suki said.
‘Is Nate back?’ I asked.
‘No. Not yet.’
I sank back against the tree. They had been shot or captured, I knew it. I covered my face with my hands and squeezed my eyes shut.
‘They’ll be fine, Lila. It’s Alex and Jack. They’re good at what they do. Let’s go and wait for Nate. He might even be back already.’
I scrambled up, my legs stiff from sitting cross-legged so long. We walked back in silence. There seemed little point in talking.
The clearing was barred with shadows, the sky above us turning indigo. Everyone was gathered around watching Nate, who was still slumped over the table. Amber turned first, sensing our arrival. Everyone else looked up, following her gaze, and I saw the anxiety on their faces. They looked like family at the bedside of an intensive care patient. They smiled when they saw us and I felt myself redden. Only a few hours before I’d been doing telekinetic battle with Bill while Ryder held a gun to Jack’s head. Now we were all friends, suddenly? God, what was happening? Maybe I had that thing – what was it called, Stockholm Syndrome? – where the kidnappee develops a bond with the person doing the kidnapping. Sometimes they even fall in love with the kidnapper. I looked at Demos. No, that was definitely never going to happen. What on earth had my mother been thinking?
I hesitated a few metres away from the table.
‘Come on, we won’t bite,’ Suki whispered, brushing past me and going to stand next to Demos.
Demos nodded over at me, then went back to studying Nate’s unconscious face. I stood dangling on the periphery for a minute, then went and sat down on the very edge of the bench, next to Ryder. The minutes ticked by, the sky darkening as though a pot of ink had been diffused into it.
I was beginning to feel the last strains of hope leaching away when Suki and Amber both seemed to stiffen. Amber lifted her head off Ryder’s shoulder and Suki bounced forward and put her arm around Nate. We all stared at his face, waiting for signs of life. He blinked a few times then sat up, shaking his head. The dazed expression started to clear and suddenly he was grinning at us.
‘They made it. They’re on their way.’
The tension evaporated just like that. Harvey stubbed his cigarette out and started rolling another. Amber let out a huge si
gh and I watched as Ryder gently stroked her hair. It was done with such tenderness that just watching them felt like fish hooks were being embedded into my skin. I looked at Nate instead, willing him to tell me more. To let me know how they were, whether they were hurt.
‘What happened? How did they do it? Did anyone get hurt?’ Suki was asking for me.
‘No, they’re fine. They’re all fine. Well – kind of.’ He looked at Demos and I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. ‘Alicia’s pretty pissed off. But she’s fine. Just a few bruises. Thomas – he’s not so good.’
I felt my body release like a popped balloon. My fingers uncurled from their position clutching the underside of the seat.
‘Let’s go,’ Demos said, striding off.
Without another word everyone was up and moving after him.
Nate was walking just ahead of me, next to Suki. I hurried over to them. ‘Is Alex OK? Is my brother?’
They both turned to me. ‘They’re fine,’ Nate said, grinning widely. ‘It was a breeze. They didn’t even break a sweat – it was so cool.’ He sounded like he had a crush on them.
‘How did they do it?’
‘Dunno. I couldn’t go in – or near the building. I waited outside. They just went in then came out twenty minutes later with Alicia and Thomas. Then they all got in the car and drove off. I hung out for a bit with them in the car then came back here.’
‘What about Rachel? What did they do with her?’ I asked.
‘Oh my God.’ Suki stopped dead. ‘Nate!’
Demos stopped still ahead of us, then marched over. ‘What?’
‘Rachel. They’re bringing Rachel,’ Suki told him.
Nate’s face was stricken. ‘Yeah, sorry, I forgot to tell you. They didn’t want to leave her, they thought she might sound the alarm, so they brought her with them. They had to put her in the trunk.’ He shrugged.
Hunting Lila Page 22
