The Hostage

by Sophie McKenzie

My phone rang. Almost absently I took it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen. I didn’t recognise the number.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Ketty?’ It was Lex. He sounded desperate.

  ‘Where the hell are you? Are you okay?’

  ‘I’m . . .’ His voice cracked. ‘I’m okay but . . . it’s Tessa.’

  He stopped. All I could hear was his breathing, fast and shallow. A cold, tight feeling spread across my chest. ‘What?’ I said. ‘Where are you? Where’s Tessa?’

  Another pause. ‘She’s dead.’ Lex’s voice shook as he spoke. ‘A car accident on her way to work this morning. Except . . . I’m sure it wasn’t an accident. Foster must have arranged it . . . killed her. Yo u were right about him, Ketts – somehow he knew I’d made that recording . . . that I gave a copy to Tessa.’

  ‘Oh God.’ My legs nearly buckled. I couldn’t think straight. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Just outside Highgate tube.’ Lex paused. ‘Ketty, I’m so sorry I didn’t listen properly the other day. How did you know—?’

  ‘Never mind about that. Tell me what happened.’

  ‘Okay.’ Lex paused, as if collecting his thoughts. ‘After I left you, I went after Tessa. I followed her to where she works, but she wouldn’t speak to me so I went home and . . .’ His voice faltered . . . ‘Someone had been there – Foster’s men, I guess – searching the place, making a mess. They must have been looking for the recording, though I don’t know how they knew I’d even made it—’

  ‘Lex, stop. D’you remember when you left the Rufus Stone? The car coming in the other direction?’

  ‘Vaguely,’ Lex said. ‘What’s that got to—’

  ‘It was Foster. God, Lex, he held me and Nico at gunpoint. We only just got away.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’d seen you spying on him in the car park and hacked your texts to Tessa.’

  ‘No,’ Lex said, horrified. ‘But that means I put you in danger and I led Foster to Tessa. Jesus . . . she’s dead because of me.’

  ‘No.’ Oh, God. This was my fault. I should have made Lex come with me. I should have told Geri about Tessa. She could have protected her.

  ‘Ketty, please be careful.’ Lex’s voice shook with emotion. ‘If anything happened to you as well, I couldn’t bear it.’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ I said, trying to push away the guilt about Tessa.

  Silence on the end of the phone.

  ‘Lex?’

  ‘How do you know about all this, Ketty? About Foster and the MoD hacking? I . . . I don’t understand . . .’

  I took a deep breath. ‘Okay.’ I explained as fast as I could about the Medusa gene and how it was inside the four of us – and how Geri Paterson had forced us to come together as the Medusa Project.

  ‘What?’ Lex sounded completely flabbergasted. ‘Please tell me you’re making this up.’

  ‘I’m not.’ I glanced up the corridor. Lola and Billy Martins were walking towards me, hand in hand. I had a bit of a thing with Billy last term. It seemed like a million years ago now. ‘Geri knows all about Foster. She was the person who first told me. She’s got the police looking for him now. And you.’

  ‘Looking for me?’ Lex’s voice rose in panic.

  ‘Yes, so she can protect you. You should stay exactly where you are. She can send someone to pick you up.’

  Lola and Billy walked past. Neither of them looked at me.

  ‘No.’ Lex was almost shouting. ‘No. This person you’re talking about – Geri Paterson. I don’t know why she’s telling you you’re psychic and involving you in criminal investigations, but it sounds really dodgy. I mean, she’s the one who told you about Foster. For all you know it could be her who told Foster about us.’

  ‘What?’ I hissed, trying to keep my voice down. ‘No, Lex, you’ve got this all wrong. Geri’s head of the Medusa Project, like I told you. In fact she’s sending us to Foster’s offices right now . . . to that hut in the car park.’

  ‘To Fostergames? Why?’

  ‘To see if searching the place where you made the recording about Rainbow sparks off a vision for me,’ I explained. ‘Rainbow is a kind of bomb and—’

  ‘ A bomb? No way, Ketts,’ Lex yelled. ‘Ketty, you can’t go to Fostergames. It’s ridiculously dangerous. Foster will kill you.’

  ‘Calm down,’ I said. ‘Geri says there’s no way Foster will actually be there.’

  At the end of the corridor I could see Mr Fox deep in conversation with Ed. Dylan was standing idly next to them, twisting her hair round her finger. She noticed me look up and beckoned me over.

  Crap. It was almost time for us to leave.

  ‘Promise me you won’t go, Ketts,’ Lex pleaded. ‘Look, I’ll meet you wherever you like. You can take me back with you . . . to this Geri Paterson. But whatever she’s told you about psychic powers is rubbish – nobody can see into the future—’

  ‘Yes, they can. I can, and—’

  ‘Listen to me,’ Lex insisted. ‘Even if everything you say is true, then that’s all the more reason to stay away from Foster. He’s a murderer, and seeing visions of the future won’t protect you from that.’

  ‘I know, but he won’t be there and anyway the others have different abilities which do protect me. Like Nico . . . he . . . Anyway . . . Please let me tell Geri – she’ll send a car and—’

  ‘No,’ Lex said. ‘Come yourself. I’ll find somewhere more hidden round here to wait. You can call me when you get to Highgate.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘It’s the only way. Then you’ll know I’m safe and I’ll know you’re safe.’

  I bit my lip. What choice did I have? Lex was in too much of a state to be reasoned with.

  ‘Okay,’ I agreed, reluctantly. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

  I rang off, changed out of my uniform and into my sweats and trainers and joined the others at the front door, my mind reeling. I badly wanted to tell Nico about Lex’s call, but he didn’t even look up – he and Dylan were playing a game with the paper clips Nico had teleported into his hand in Mr Fox’s office. Nico was sending the paper clips zooming through the air towards Dylan, who was preventing them from hitting her using her protective force field or whatever it was.

  They were laughing as they tried to bat the paper clips around without anyone seeing. In spite of everything else going on, I felt a stab of jealousy. They seemed so relaxed together. Plus Dylan was so perfect-looking. That long red hair and creamy skin and her endless legs in their skinny designer jeans.

  Maria and the new agent, James, drove us to Fostergames’s offices.

  ‘Our rendezvous point for the pick-up is the corner of Parkway, opposite Camden station,’ Maria explained. ‘We’ll be too busy drawing the security guards away from you to pick you up outside the offices – you’ll attract less attention if you slip out quietly and make your way on the Northern Line to Camden.’

  I sat in the back of the car, chewing on my lip. I wasn’t going to be able to get away until they let us out at the Fostergames office. There was no way I could say anything to Nico or Ed without Maria hearing. Anyway, it was better for the others if they didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. Whatever happened to me, I didn’t want to get anyone else into trouble.

  In the end I found the receipt from my Asics in my pocket and scribbled a note to Nico on the back:

  I’m really sorry. I know I don’t have the right to ask you for any favours but I can’t handle this mission. I don’t want another vision. I need to be on my own. Please wait for me to call before meeting Maria and James and please stop E and D grassing me up, if you can. Soz for everything. K xxx

  We reached the drop-off point. Maria and the other agent stopped to let us out, then sped off towards the Fostergames office.

  Dylan sighed and leaned against a nearby wall.

  We were supposed to wait until we got a signal from Maria that the coast was clear, then make our way along the final couple of streets to the Fos
tergames office. I hesitated for a second, then screwed up my note, and shoved it into Nico’s hand. Before he had time to react, I’d turned and raced away. I ran as fast as I could, in and out of the crowds on nearby Long Acre.

  I stopped, panting, at Leicester Square tube. I looked over my shoulder. No sign of the others.

  I took the Northern Line up to Highgate and called Lex as soon as I exited the station. He was in the local cemetery. ‘It’s massive,’ he said. ‘Really old with loads of places to hide out. Just walk down the hill and turn right.’

  There were several missed calls from Nico on my phone. I ignored them and followed Lex’s directions into a park and, from there, to the cemetery. He was right – it was huge. There was even a section you had to pay to visit. I made my way past a large tomb and headed down the overgrown path Lex had directed me to.

  I was so intent on reaching him that it was a full ten seconds before I realised my surroundings were somehow familiar. I stopped, my heart racing. And then the sun went behind a cloud and the whole place fell into shadow. Flashing lights raced in front of my eyes. The air grew sweet and still and heavy.

  Rain. Leaves. Ivy. Stone. Gun.

  A flash of a vision in the corner of my eyes. I blinked it away. Took another step.

  Foster’s angry eyes fixed on Lex. His gun, wet in the rain. Rain on ivy. Stone.

  I shook myself out of the vision. Terror filled my whole body as the realisation hit home.

  This was it. This was where my vision took place. I glanced up at the sky. The clouds were dark and threatening. You could smell the rain in the air.

  Oh, God, it was about to happen. Everything I’d seen was about to happen.

  Foster was here.

  Lex was here.

  Lex was going to die.

  11: The end of the vision

  I broke into a run. If Foster was already here, he could be anywhere. I raced down the uneven path. Lex had told me to look out for a large tree set beside a huge gravestone topped with a square, sculpted cross.

  As I ran, various possibilities sped through my mind. Maybe Foster was already with Lex . . . Oh God, maybe he’d already carried out his threat to kill him . . .

  I hurtled along. Where was the tree? The gravestone?

  Then I saw a large tree up ahead. Beside it was a huge, broken-down stone half hidden by branches and crowned with an elaborate cross. Was that it?

  I skidded to a stop. Low voices drifted towards me. I switched my phone to vibrate and crept closer.

  There was Lex, standing in front of a tall, ivy-clad gravestone. My stomach lurched as I saw it. That was the stone in my vision.

  As if on cue, a slow drizzle of rain began to fall. I crept a little closer. I could see Foster now. Calm but menacing – in grey trousers and a crisp, white shirt.

  The rain fell harder. It pattered on the stones and leaves around us. This was the scene from my vision. Gravestones covered in ivy and faded writing. Rain streaming down, darkening the stones, dripping down my neck.

  ‘But you killed Tessa . . . she hadn’t done anything to you.’ Lex’s voice shook with anger and fear.

  ‘She would have,’ Foster said softly. ‘After I’d hacked your text to her and followed you to the Rufus Stone I did some investigating. Once I realised she was a journalist it was relatively straightforward to hack into her home computer. She’d managed to find out what the Rainbow was and had emailed her news editor at 2 a.m. with the promise of a “big story in the morning”. She told them she had a recording that would implicate a major businessman in a government crime. I had no choice. I had to shut her up. I had to get her copy of your recording.’

  ‘How did you know I was here?’ Lex asked. ‘I got rid of my old phone.’

  ‘Yes, but you bought a new one under your real name. Once I got the new number I just had to wait for you to make another call – to your sister, Ketty, wasn’t it? I triangulated your position half an hour ago and got straight over here.’ Foster cleared his throat. ‘You’re meeting Ketty here, aren’t you? I’d like to meet her myself . . . I’ve got a few questions for her . . .’

  I froze behind my tombstone. What the hell did that mean?

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Lex snarled. ‘Leave my sister out of this.’

  I held my breath, too overwhelmed for a second to think straight.

  ‘Where is the recording?’ Foster pointed his gun at Lex, his eyes cold and angry.

  Lex held out his phone. ‘On here.’

  ‘This has everything? What I said about the MoD data?’ Foster asked, taking the mobile.

  ‘Yes, it’s the only copy.’

  I shivered, rain trickling down my face. This was exactly what I’d seen in my vision.

  ‘What about after you made the recording? Did you look inside the car park hut? Did you see the tile . . . the hiding place? Did you tell anyone?’

  ‘No,’ Lex said.

  Tile? Hiding place? I scrabbled for my phone.

  More calls and angry texts from Nico:

  At hut. Where r u?

  Told E n D u meetng us here . . . hurry up!!!!

  Ed ok but D losing it . . . CALL ME . . .

  I quickly sent a text back.

  Had vision . . . som sort of hdng plce in hut. A tile?

  Somthng to do with Rainbow is in there.

  ‘Did she . . . Tessa, the car accident . . . was it quick?’ Lex’s voice shook with emotion.

  ‘Quick enough.’ Foster smiled – a mean, cruel smile. ‘It looked like an accident – which was the point . . . And it’s your own fault. What happened to the girl was inevitable after you gave her that recording.’

  ‘You bastard.’ Lex lowered his voice. I could only just hear him over the drumming of the rain. My clothes were completely stuck to me now. Rain plastered Foster’s hair to his face. Lex wiped the wetness off his cheek.

  ‘Killing the girl was the only option.’ Foster’s voice was a low rumble. He turned slightly so I could see right into his furious eyes. ‘And now I’m going to have to kill you, Lex.’

  No. I forgot the phone in my hand and Nico and the others in the car park.

  This was real. This was now. My whole body was shaking.

  Do something. DO something.

  Foster strode towards Lex, gun outstretched. He pressed the tip against Lex’s throat. ‘Just tell me one thing – your sister and her boyfriend have some extraordinary powers . . .’ Foster paused. ‘Does the name Medusa mean anything to you?’

  My head spun. How did Foster know about Medusa?

  ‘Leave Ketty alone.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands,’ Foster said, smoothly. ‘Do you?’

  Lex stared at him. His heart was beating so fast I could see his chest thumping through the thin shirt, now pasted wet to his skin.

  Foster pressed the gun closer to Lex’s neck. I looked wildly round, praying for someone . . . anyone . . . to be here. If only Nico was here. If only I’d defied Lex and got Geri to send someone to pick him up.

  But it was down to me. At least Foster hadn’t seen me.

  ‘Give me your wallet and phone,’ Foster demanded. ‘This is going to look like a random mugging.’

  Hands shaking, Lex reached into his pockets.

  This was my chance. Now.

  I lunged forwards, knocking Foster sideways. He stumbled, the gun falling from his hand. I snatched it up and held it out.

  ‘Ketty.’ Lex was white-faced beside me.

  I stared at Foster, the gun outstretched in front of me.

  ‘Put that down.’ He reached out for the gun.

  ‘Get back,’ I shouted. My hand shook. ‘Stay back.’

  Foster dropped his hand. His white shirt was soaked, the sleeves clinging to his arms. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’ He sounded sure of himself, but there was a wary look in his eye. With a jolt I realised he was scared of what I might be able to do, what powers I might have . . .


  ‘We’re leaving,’ I said. ‘Stay here or . . .’

  A trickle of rain dripped down my nose. I wiped it away.

  ‘Or what?’ Foster said, smoothly. ‘I’m curious about you, Ketty . . . you and your boyfriend and your other, special, friends . . . there are four of you, aren’t there? Viper, Cobra, Sidewinder and Mamba.’

  Oh, God. He even knew our Medusa code names.

  Foster reached out his hand again. ‘Give me the gun and we’ll talk and everything will be okay.’

  I shook my head. Into the stillness, my phone vibrated. A text. For a split second I jumped, startled. In that tiny moment, Foster lunged forwards, grabbed my wrist and twisted it.

  ‘Oww!’ I yelped with pain.

  ‘Get off her!’ Lex swung a punch.

  Foster ducked, tugging me round so my back was against his chest, my arm twisted behind my back. He took the gun from my hand and pressed it against my ribs.

  Lex moved towards us.

  ‘Not another step,’ Foster warned. He dug the tip of the gun against my side. The rain was still beating down but I hardly felt it. He’s going to kill me. My heart raced. For a second I thought I was going to pee myself.

  ‘Mobile,’ Foster hissed into my ear.

  I held up my phone. Raindrops splashed against the screen. Foster dragged me back into the shelter of the huge tree.

  ‘Show me that text.’ He pressed the gun against my ribs.

  ‘Please,’ Lex pleaded.

  ‘I’ve told you already. Stay back.’

  Hand shaking, I opened the message. Foster read it over my shoulder.

  Found hdng place . . . flash drive inside!!! Taking flash drive n leaving now. Where cn u meet us? I cnt cover 4 u bk @ skool. soz 2 . . . pls call . . . Nxxx

  Foster sucked in his breath. ‘They’re in the car park hut? They’ve found the flash drive?’

  I nodded.

  Foster swore. The gun pressed harder against my ribs. ‘Is it Medusa doing this?’

  I gasped. ‘How do you know about Medusa?’

  Foster leaned closer, his breath hot in my ear. ‘Blake Carson is not a man who makes up stories . . .’