There Scarlett saw a large area marked ‘Experiment Laboratories’, another, larger zone saying ‘Holding Pens’ and two smaller rooms labelled ‘Lab Equipment’ and ‘Super Soldiers Room’. “What does it mean?” she said scratching her head.
“Read the box of text at the top of the map.”
Scarlett looked further up the page. At the top were the words: “FLOOR THREE. ZONE B. CONFIDENTIAL. WARNING: This area is strictly off limits.” Below that, it said: “Zone B is used for the development of PM Goulden’s innovative Prime Powers Project. Only a select few authorised security staff, technicians and scientists are allowed to enter this area. Please do not share this map or information with third parties, including family and friends or you will be contravening section 2:18 of your employment contracts.”
“Prime Powers Project? He has more people with super powers?”
“No,” Neelam said. “Look at the mention of a lab, scientists and patients. It sounds to me like he’s making people with super powers. My educated guess is that he’s experimenting on normal members of the public to do it.”
“That’s sick!” Scarlett exclaimed in disgust.
“I know,” Neelam said. “And knowing Goulden, it’s probably far worse than we imagine.”
Chapter 18
Forty minutes later, Neelam and Scarlett raced back into the house and through to the sitting room. There was no one there.
“Everybody! Come downstairs,” Neelam yelled through the team’s mind link. “Now!”
“Yowch, did you have to shout?” Jay muttered as he trudged into the room rubbing his head.
“What on earth is going on?” Lucy asked as she walked in behind him.
“We have some news,” Neelam explained, out loud this time. “Where’s Dylan?”
“I’m here,” Dylan said in a grumpy tone. Scarlett tried to make eye contact with him, but he wouldn’t even look at her. It was clear he was still in a mood.
“What’s the news?” he asked. “And where have you two been?”
“We went to Camden to where Andrew and the others live.”
“What were you doing there?” Dylan asked. He was staring directly at Scarlett now, eyeing her suspiciously.
“That’s not important,” Neelam said. “I want to tell you what we found…”
“It is important,” Dylan snapped. “You two went off alone to the house of a group that have attacked us dozens of times. Why would you do that?”
Neelam gulped and looked at Scarlett, who knew her friend didn’t want to betray her confidence.
“We went to find Alex,” Scarlett said.
Lucy glared at her, Jay looked shocked, but Dylan’s expression didn’t change one bit.
“I see,” he said calmly. His face stayed cold and still as he refused to give any emotions away.
“Dylan.” Neelam began. “It’s not what you think.”
“What does it matter what I think?” he said. “You said you found something out. What was it?”
It was clear he didn’t want to hear any more about Alex.
“Why does he have to be so stubborn? Scarlett thought. “Why won’t he let me explain? Well, fine if that’s how he wants to play it, I’ll stick to just talking all business-like too.” She wasn’t going to make a fool of herself by trying to make Dylan listen to her.
“They stole some plans from a policeman at the unit,” Neelam explained. “And to cut a long story short, we somehow took them.” She nodded at Scarlett, who removed the large, folded-up paper out of her pocket.
“It’s some kind of map,” she explained.
“We think it reveals that Goulden is experimenting on people to give them superpowers.” Neelam added.
Dylan looked at the girls in horror as he struggled to find something to say.
“Do you think he’d really do something like that?” Scarlett asked. “It seems so extreme even for him.”
“Of course he would,” Jay said. “He’s evil.”
“And a murderer,” Lucy added. “What’s a few immoral experiments to someone who has killed thousands of people, including Dylan’s family?” Scarlett pretended not to notice as the young blonde grabbed his arm protectively.
Dylan shrugged Lucy off and paced across the room. He stared at the wall before turning to look at Scarlett. “Are you sure about this?”
She nodded and held the paper forward for him. “Look what it says.”
He strode over to her and glanced at the map. Scarlett’s skin tingled at standing so close to him, even if he did have his arms folded to shut himself off from her. She desperately wanted everything to be OK between them again.
“What am I looking at?”
“This map shows the third floor of a building...”
“I can see that,” he snapped.
Scarlett sighed and folded the paper in half. “Well this side of the floor on the right is dedicated to something called Prime Power Project. Look what it says.” She watched in silence as Dylan read the words at the top of the page before looking over the laboratories and holding pens labelled on the map.
“It certainly appears to be some kind of secret document,” he said. “Are you sure it’s not another set-up?”
Scarlett shook her head. “We heard Alex telling the others that he’d snatched it from a policeman’s pocket.
“And how did you get it? Did he give it to you?”
“No, it kind of teleported into my hands.”
“What? How can that happen? Are you sure you didn’t telekinetically swipe it?”
“No chance. Neelam and I were outside spying and they were indoors. We were eavesdropping while they talked about the map and suddenly it flashed into my hands.”
Dylan scratched his head. “That’s weird.”
“Maybe Alex accidentally teleported it to her,” Jay suggested.
“He can’t do that,” Dylan said. “He can only teleport himself and take other people or things with him.” He stopped and looked at the map. “We’ll come back to that mystery later – for now, let’s focus on this. Do you know what building this map belongs to?”
Neelam and Scarlett shook their heads.
“They didn’t name it or mention it at all?” He sounded impatient.
“They did say it was a workhouse or something like that,” Scarlett said. “They may have mentioned a name, but I can’t remember it.”
“It began with an H, I think,” Neelam recalled.
“You think?” Dylan rolled his eyes.
“Well, that’s something to go on,” Jay said, trying to keep the peace. “Give them a break, they did well getting hold of this map and remembering anything while they were spying on the likes of Sasha and co. I would have been wetting myself with worry that they’d spot me.”
“We were,” Scarlett said, relaxing just enough to give Jay a smile.
“Then why did you go there?” Lucy snapped.
“Because...”
“Save it. We’ve no time for that,” Dylan said. Scarlett was getting well and truly sick of his behaviour.
“I don’t know why we’re worrying about all this anyway,” Lucy said. “We should be concentrating our efforts on finding our families.”
“Lucy, are you mad?” Dylan said in disbelief.
“No,” she sulked, stamping her foot. “I think it should be our priority. He’s threatened our families. He knows they’re alive. We need to find them to protect them.”
“Yeah good luck with that,” Dylan scolded. “Doesn’t it occur to you that Goulden might be waiting for us to do exactly that? He’s expecting us to go running to help our families. In fact, he wants us to, so we lead him straight to them. Can’t you see that’s what will happen?”
“I suppose so. I guess I didn’t think,” Lucy whispered.
“Of course you didn’t,” Dylan replied, raising his voice. “You never do, do you?”
“Dylan, calm down,” Neelam said.
“Shut up, Neelam. Do you think you r
un this team now?”
“Dylan!” she yelled.
“You’re always undermining me lately.”
“I am not!”
“Then why do you repeatedly tell me my decisions are wrong and why do you keep leading missions of your own? First you took the girls off to Kerridges to pick Goulden’s brain – and look how that turned out, you got false information that led us on a mission that nearly got us all killed – then you and Scarlett go off to Camden to snoop around on our enemies. Will you never learn?”
Neelam looked furious. “Firstly,” she snapped. “You were just as fooled by Goulden’s trap as I was, as we all were. I seem to remember you were the one who led us to that security base even though I said we were being too hasty. Yes I made a mistake, but so did you. And secondly, Scarlett went off on her own today and I followed her to look out for her. I was being a friend.”
Dylan folded his arms stubbornly. “And you didn’t think to bring Scarlett back?” he said.
Neelam took a confrontational step towards him. “What are you really angry about Dylan? That we went there alone, or that you think Scarlett went after Alex?”
“Oh shut up.”
“You shut up.”
“Will you all just shut up?” Scarlett yelled. She couldn’t take any more, they were giving her a headache.
Neelam and Dylan turned and stared at her. Jay looked up from a newspaper he’d started flicking through while they argued. Lucy was now staring out of the window. She seemed lost in thought.
“What is wrong with this team?” Scarlett asked. “We need to start pulling together and we need to do it now. It was all the bickering that distracted us in our last mission. If we’d been less focused on rowing, we might have seen through Goulden’s plan.”
“We do seem to be arguing a lot lately,” Jay remarked.
“Too much,” Neelam said.
“She’s got a point,” Lucy agreed, turning back from the window.
“We need to start working together,” Scarlett pointed out. “We’re a team and we’re friends. We have no real reasons to be upset with each other, so why don’t we all try to be a bit more patient and communicate better in future. And no more secret missions.”
“You’re the one who went off on your own today,” Dylan snapped. “I agree, we’ll all try to get along more. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to the basement. I want to do some training. Lucy, you do some research and see if you can find out about any workhouses in this country that might fit the plan on this map.”
Before anyone could answer, he’d stomped out of the room.
“Is that the meeting over then?” Jay asked, picking up his newspaper and heading out the door.
“Well, it looks like I have work to do,” Lucy said, as she headed to the computer room.
Scarlett turned to Neelam. “So that’s how they start doing teamwork, is it?” she asked before collapsing on the sofa in despair. Neelam sat next to her.
“Don’t worry, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You’re right, we do need to pull together, but it’s hard when Dylan’s ignoring you.”
“He hates me, doesn’t he?”
“Things will work out. He has to listen to you at some point. Come on, I’ll make you some lunch.”
Scarlett reluctantly got up and followed Neelam to the kitchen, but she couldn’t shake her feeling of unease as she remembered the cold looks Dylan had given her.
“What do you want?” Neelam asked.
“Oh I dunno, I’m not really hungry. I’ll just have a bit of whatever you’re having.”
“You’ve got to eat,” she insisted. “I could make you something light like my special tuna and bean salad.
“Sure,” she agreed. “That is one of my favourites.” She found it hard to get excited though because her mind was on Dylan. How could everything have suddenly gone so wrong between them?
“Why don’t you go and sit down?” Neelam said. “I’ll bring your food through when it’s done.”
That was the advantage of having a telepath for a friend. She instinctively knew when Scarlett wanted to be on her own.
“Thanks,” she said as she shuffled back to the front room, hopped onto the sofa and grabbed the TV remote.
When Neelam brought lunch through 15 minutes later, Scarlett was still flicking through the channels.
“Fifty-four channels and still nothing on,” she grumbled. “See if you can find anything.”
“I’ll give it a go,” Neelam laughed.
At that moment, she heard someone come crashing down the stairs.
They both turned around and peered over the back of the sofa and out of the room. There in the hallway were Dylan and Jay. They were both hastily pulling their jackets and trainers on.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“No time to explain,” Jay said. “We’ve got a lead, but we have to go now.”
“Well, wait for us.”
“No,” Dylan said. “It’s too dangerous. You girls stay here and follow up any other clues you find.”
“What happened to our pact about team work?” Neelam protested.
“Neelam, please, you’ve got to trust me. We’ll be OK and I need you girls to stay here and take care of things. We’ll be in touch, I promise.”
And with that they ran out the door.
“Men!” Neelam grumbled as she threw a cushion at the door.
“Tell me about it,” Scarlett muttered.
Chapter 19
“Cor, where’s our pizza? We called it an hour ago,” Lucy moaned.
“Sshhh,” Neelam said. “I want to see what Steve Clarkson says about Sandi’s performance on To The Stars.”
“He’ll say it was awful,” Scarlett said. “He hates her and I don’t blame him. She’s rubbish! Can’t we watch something else?” she grumbled.
“Oh come on, you know you love it really,” Lucy giggled. “I’m going to call Whizza Pizza and ask them where our food is.” She picked up the phone and left the room.
“Lighten up, Scarlett” Neelam said as she hutched up closer to her friend on the sofa. “We’re supposed to be having a girlie night off from all the drama and saving the world stuff.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I’m just worried, you know…”
“We’re all worried,” she said. “We haven’t heard a thing from Jay and Dylan since they left yesterday, but I’m sure they’re OK. Don’t stress, they can look after themselves.”
“But what if they can’t? What if something’s happened to them?” Scarlett felt sick just thinking about it.
“It hasn’t, Neelam promised. “I have a feeling that I’d, you know, ‘know’ if they were hurt.” Neelam tapped her head and smiled reassuringly.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Lucy came running back into the room. “They said the pizza’s on the way, so it shouldn’t be long,” she smiled as she leapt onto the sofa. “Oooh, look, Damsels in Distress are singing next. Brilliant!”
“Lucy, they’re awful! I can’t believe you like them,” she teased. “They’re even worse than The Saturdays.”
“I love The Saturdays!” Lucy shrieked. “Mollie’s my favourite. She’s gorgeous.”
“If you say so.” Scarlett rolled her eyes. “I don’t see the attraction myself.”
“They’re better than those skinny, dirty kids in the indie bands you like,” Lucy scowled.
Ding dong!
“That must be the pizza!” Lucy yelled. She jumped up and ran to the door.
“I’ll get the plates,” Scarlett said, following her into the hallway.
When Lucy opened the door, Scarlett couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Dylan!” she yelled as she ran past Lucy to give him a big hug. “You’re OK.”
“Yeah,” he said. He hugged her back, then he seemed to remember he was angry with her and pushed her aside.
“Sorry,” Jay said. “We lost our keys.”
“Where on Earth have you been?” Neelam asked
as she ran into the hall. “We haven’t heard a thing from you.”
“Yeah sorry about that,” Jay said flippantly as though it was no big deal. “Dylan’s worried our phones might be tapped, so we couldn’t call you just in case.”
“So that’s why you haven’t been in touch,” Lucy deduced.
“Yeah… You haven’t called anyone, have you?”
“Nah,” Lucy said. “Just the pizza guy.”
“Without me?” Jay moaned. “No fair!”
Neelam sighed. Scarlett didn’t need to read her mind to know Jay’s joking around was annoying her after they had been so worried.
“Why were you gone so long?” she asked.
“Yeah, where have you been?” Lucy added.
Dylan and Jay took their jackets off and walked through to the front room. The three girls followed them, eager to hear their story.
“Before we left, I was reading a newspaper,” Jay explained.
Scarlett nodded. “Yes I remember. You were more interested in reading the sports pages than talking to us.”
“Well, I was flicking through the boring business pages upstairs when I spotted a photo of Goulden. It was a profile of a guy called Jonathan Rayman, who runs some kind of sciencey medical business in Coventry. Apparently, he’s been doing some ground-breaking research, so Goulden has given him a knighthood.” Jay explained.
“I thought the Queen gave those out,” Scarlett said.
“She does, but the PM can too,” Dylan explained. “Goulden usually hands them to people he wants a favour from. So anyway, Jay and I decided this guy might be something to do with the workhouse laboratories, so we went to his place of work to check it out.”
“Why did you leave in such a hurry?” Neelam asked.
“And why didn’t you take us?” Scarlett added.
“The article said Goulden was visiting the plant yesterday afternoon, so we wanted to get there as soon as possible. Jay could run and I could fly, so we were there in half an hour. It would have taken too long for us all to go, and I didn’t want to put you at risk.”
“Did you find anything?” Lucy asked.
“Well, we found out a lot at the place in Coventry, but it was mostly technology. They’re working on upgrading the Detectobots, but that’s as much as we discovered.”
Out Of Time Page 15
