The Hostage

by Sophie McKenzie

  What did a hospital have to do with Foster’s plan to sell the bomb? I closed the file then glanced sideways. Ed was still deep in his book.

  I highlighted the file and pressed ‘delete’. The computer asked me if I was sure.

  Yes. How could I do anything else? This was the only way.

  A second later the whole flash drive was wiped clean.

  I quickly yanked it out of the laptop and, leaning forward again, shoved both laptop and flash drive back into Ed’s bag.

  He glanced up at me and half-smiled. I sat back, my hands shaking.

  Oh God, what had I done?

  14: The plant

  A few minutes later we reached Euston. Half the carriage emptied, so Nico was able to sit down next to me. He asked if I’d heard from Lex. I said I had – and that Lex had managed to get away from Foster and was staying with some friends who lived in France.

  I hated lying to him but I just couldn’t see an alternative. I changed the subject as quickly as possible, asking Nico how he’d got past the lock on the hut in Foster’s car park. He shrugged . . . said it was easy . . . but I could tell he was pleased that I’d asked.

  We chatted a bit. It should have made me feel great that everything was okay between us but all I could do was worry. Would I be responsible for what Foster did with the Rainbow bomb? What was Geri going to say when we arrived back at school empty-handed? Was Lex okay?

  A car met us at the station. Dylan was still, pointedly, listening to music through her headphones. The bass pounded through the car as we drove back to school. Dylan made no attempt to talk to any of us. She didn’t even take the headphones off until we arrived back at school. I didn’t care any more. Dylan’s rudeness was the last thing on my mind – I’d lost all appetite for a fight now that we were so close to home.

  Geri was at the school gates, smartly dressed as always in beige trousers and a pale pink twin set. As she led us to Mr Fox’s office, I told her Lex was in France.

  ‘That explains why the police haven’t picked him up, then.’ She adjusted the pearls round her neck. ‘Is he safe?’

  I hesitated for a second, almost unbearably tempted to tell her what was really going on. Then I remembered what Foster had said about having a source inside the government security agency. I couldn’t afford to risk telling Geri the truth. If Foster found out I’d betrayed him, he’d kill Lex for sure.

  ‘Yes, Lex is fine.’ The lie cut me like a knife. ‘I don’t know where he is in France though.’

  ‘I’ll get Interpol onto it straight away. We need him back with that recording asap.’

  I nodded, feeling numb.

  Mr Fox was waiting for us by his office door, all solemn and concerned. ‘I’ve told Geri that you have to make up the lessons you’ve missed today,’ he said.

  ‘What?’ Nico screwed up his face, annoyed. ‘What kind of a thank you is that?’

  ‘Room 14, when the school day finishes,’ Mr Fox went on, ignoring him. ‘I’ve asked all your teachers to provide me with the work you’ve missed. I’m going to personally oversee your assignments.’

  ‘Excellent,’ Nico muttered. ‘I can’t wait.’

  Geri swept past us, into the office. Mr Fox stared, sullenly, after her, but didn’t protest as Geri called the four of us inside and shut the door in his face.

  ‘Right, now let’s see what you’ve got.’ Geri held out her hand and Ed passed her the USB flash drive.

  She inserted it into Mr Fox’s PC. Everyone else crowded round but I hung back on the edge of the group, my heart pounding.

  A blank screen appeared. ‘What is this?’ Geri’s voice rose. ‘Where are the contents?’

  All eyes turned on Ed. Oh, God.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he stammered. ‘It’s just been in my bag . . .’

  ‘What a loser,’ Dylan snarled. ‘All that effort for nothing.’

  Geri’s lips were pursed tightly together. ‘Damn,’ she said.

  ‘Why would Foster go to the trouble of hiding an empty flash drive?’ Nico said.

  ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ Geri agreed. She looked at me.

  ‘My vision just showed a loose tile in the hut,’ I lied, ‘it was only a hunch that Foster might have hidden something in it.’

  ‘Maybe Foster was waiting for data to be put onto the flash drive,’ Dylan suggested.

  ‘That’s possible I suppose.’ Geri shot a suspicious look at Ed.

  His face was burning red. Guilt flooded through me.

  Geri asked some more questions about the mission. I made up a few details about my supposed vision, then shut up and let Nico and Dylan explain how they found the flash drive. Nobody mentioned my absence at the car park.

  After about twenty minutes, Geri set off for central London in her car. I left Nico, still grumbling about having to do an extra class after school finished, and went for a run. It was the end of lunch break so I didn’t have much time but I had to get away from everyone. I ran and ran, letting my head clear. I ran right through the two playing fields to the edge of the school grounds, then back round the Top Field. At last I stopped, exhausted. I was going to be late for afternoon lessons, but I didn’t care.

  Just then my phone rang. Number withheld.

  ‘Hello?’ I said, anxiously.

  ‘Ketty?’ It was Foster.

  ‘Is Lex okay?’ I said. ‘Have you let him go?’

  ‘Lex is fine. More importantly, my source tells me the flash drive arrived empty.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I’m assuming you had a look before deleting it. Did you understand what you saw?’

  I thought rapidly back to the contents of the memory stick.

  ‘It was a hospital,’ I said. ‘And, no, I didn’t understand. What’s a hospital got to do with you selling a bomb?’

  There was silence on the other end of the phone. And, in that moment, I suddenly realized that Foster had never intended to sell the Rainbow bomb. His plan was to use it himself.

  ‘You’re going to blow up the hospital, aren’t you?’ I blurted out. ‘You’re going to hurt loads of innocent people – for absolutely no reason.’

  There was a pause and when Foster spoke, his voice was icy. ‘I have a reason,’ he said.

  ‘So where’s Lex?’ I asked. ‘Let me speak to him.’

  Silence. I could hear the phone being passed between hands.

  ‘Ketty are you okay?’ Lex was talking fast . . . breathless . . . ‘I’m being held in an empty building near—’

  ‘That’s enough.’ Foster was back.

  ‘I did what you asked,’ I said. ‘Now let him go.’

  ‘I don’t think I’m ready to do that quite yet.’

  Foster’s calm, menacing voice slid through me like ice water.

  ‘What d’you mean?’ I stammered.

  ‘Just that there’s something else I want you to do for me first. After school I want you to call Geri Paterson and tell her you’ve had a “vision”.’

  ‘A vision?’ I said. ‘Of what?’

  ‘Me on the phone explaining that I’m about to plant the Rainbow bomb at Linhurst Hospital, in East London.’

  ‘Linhurst Hospital?’ I repeated the name, my head spinning. Linhurst wasn’t the name of the hospital whose blueprints were on the flash drive. That was Gayton Hospital in South London.

  ‘Tell Ms Paterson that you’ve seen me on the phone saying I’m at Linhurst and that I’m about to plant the Rainbow bomb somewhere in the hospital.’

  Oh God, oh God . . . ‘My . . . my visions are usually more hazy than that . . .’ I said, playing for some time to think.

  ‘That’s no problem,’ Foster said quickly. ‘In fact, I want you to be hazy about the bomb’s exact location inside the hospital. That way the police will be kept busy searching for me—’

  ‘. . . while you set off the actual bomb somewhere else.’ Of course. That explained why the schematic I’d seen on that USB drive was of a different hospital.

  Foster sucked in his breath. ‘You do rea
lise your brother’s life depends on you keeping my actual intentions quiet.’

  I gasped at the enormity of the lie I would have to tell. ‘You’re asking me to give the police fake data and stand by while you explode a bomb in another hospital?’

  ‘Yes. The one thing you must be specific about is when the bomb is going to go off,’ Foster went on. ‘Timing is everything here. Tell them you heard me saying it’s set to detonate first thing tomorrow morning – 6 a.m.’ He paused. ‘Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Rainbow bomb. Linhurst Hospital. 6 a.m. tomorrow.’

  ‘Good.’ He rang off.

  I stood, the phone in my hands and the wind on my face. It felt like the world was whirling around me.

  I trudged back towards the school complex trying to get my head around what I had to do: pretend to have a vision and give Geri Paterson false information.

  I stopped in my tracks as the full weight of the situation hit me.

  This could carry on forever.

  As long as Foster had Lex, he had me in his power – he could get me to do whatever he wanted.

  I went back to my dorm, changed and then walked in a daze to my next lesson. I don’t remember what subject it was. I looked round me – at Tom and Lola flirting with each other . . . at Curtis copying someone’s homework under his desk.

  I’d been like them once . . . living just for my running, my biggest worry whether I’d ever get to run a marathon . . .

  I stayed in a daze for the rest of the afternoon.

  Could I really do what Foster asked? Destroying existing evidence was one thing . . . but telling such an enormous lie was evil. A hospital was going to be blown up – people’s lives were at stake.

  It was horrible. I couldn’t do it.

  Except that I knew I had to . . . or else Lex would die.

  As soon as school was over for the day, Mr Fox whisked Nico, Ed, Dylan and me off for our extra two-hour session. He told us to give the usual Medusa Project cover story – that the four of us were being given extra maths coaching.

  As Nico pointed out before, anyone thinking about it would have realised the strangeness of this in an instant. Ed already got consistently high marks in maths (and everything else), while Nico and I were in a different maths set from Dylan, whose own knowledge on the subject was based on an alternative, thanks to her years at American schools.

  I didn’t care about any of that today. I just sat there while Nico and Dylan moaned loudly about having to catch up on their classwork and Ed got on with it.

  I couldn’t see a way out.

  If I refused to give Geri the false information, Foster would kill Lex. If I went along with Foster’s demands many more people would die when the Rainbow bomb went off.

  Finally the two hours were up. I couldn’t delay any longer. I had no idea where Geri either lived or worked, but she’d given us an emergency mobile number during our first ever briefing. Heavy-hearted, I headed outside to call her. Nico caught up with me as I passed the main stairs.

  ‘Where are you going?’ he demanded.

  ‘I—’

  ‘Doesn’t matter.’ He grinned. ‘You’re not going there now, anyway.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No. You, me, Tom and Lola are going to see a movie.’ Nico put his hands on my shoulders. ‘Come on. It’s what we need . . . getting out of here for a bit. I’ve got us passes ’til ten.’

  I hesitated. There was nothing I’d have liked more than to put Foster and his blackmail out of my head for a couple of hours and escape with my gorgeous boyfriend to the movies, but I had to call Geri.

  ‘I can’t,’ I said.

  The smile faded from Nico’s face. ‘Why?’ he said.

  I blinked, trying to think up an excuse to be on my own for a while.

  ‘I need to go for a run,’ I stammered.

  Nico stared at me. ‘You’d rather go for a run than hang out with me?’ he said slowly. ‘After everything that happened today – all the covering up I did for you?’

  ‘It’s not like that,’ I said.

  ‘What is it like, then?’ Nico paused, his forehead creased with a frown.

  ‘I just want to be outside,’ I repeated, lamely.

  ‘Okay.’ Nico shrugged. ‘We can hang out in the Top Field.’ He reached for his phone. ‘I’ll text Tom and Lola. Cancel.’

  There was nothing I could do. I let Nico send his text, then lead me outside, to the tree where we often met up.

  ‘Mmm,’ he said, leaning against the trunk and putting his arms round me. ‘So what was all that about earlier? You running off at the car park?’

  I shook my head. ‘Let’s not talk about it,’ I said.

  Nico grinned. ‘Not talking’s cool.’ He leaned forward and kissed me.

  And then my phone rang.

  ‘Don’t answer,’ Nico said, lowering his mouth to my neck.

  I pulled out my mobile and glanced at the screen over his shoulder.

  Number withheld

  Shit. It had to be Foster. The phone rang again. I hesitated.

  ‘Switch it off,’ Nico murmured.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  I disentangled myself. ‘It’s Lex,’ I lied. ‘I have to speak to him. Let him know Geri’s looking for him . . . that she’ll protect him when he comes back to England.

  ‘Go on, then.’ Nico sighed, letting me go. ‘But don’t get into a long one, okay?’

  ‘Okay.’

  Nico wandered over to a nearby flower bed and sat on the grass. My phone was still ringing.

  I turned away and whispered into it. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Problem, Ketty?’ Foster’s voice was icy. ‘My source tells me you’ve been free from your two-hour, after-school catch-up session for over fifteen minutes and you don’t appear to have called Geri Paterson yet.’

  I gasped. How did Foster know so precisely what I’d been doing?

  ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘I told you already – my source in the security services,’ Foster paused. ‘So, what are you waiting for?’

  ‘Nothing.’ I glanced over my shoulder. Nico had pulled a handful of coins out of his pocket and was concentrating hard on teleporting them in a circle, just above the grass. The dying sun above our heads glinted off the coins, giving the whole scene a sinister glow.

  ‘You’re not making any sense,’ Foster said, the threat in his voice unmistakable. ‘Which is very bad news for your brother.’

  ‘How do I know you’ll even let Lex go once I’ve done what you ask?’

  ‘When I’ve got what I want, I won’t need him any more,’ Foster snapped.

  ‘Why are you setting off a bomb, anyway?’ My breath caught in my throat. ‘Why do you want to hurt a load of innocent people?’

  There was a long pause. Nico let out an exasperated sigh as one of the coins he was teleporting whizzed off into the bushes.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt people.’ Foster’s voice was suddenly heavy. ‘But you’ll remember I have a brother too. Rick. It’s all about Rick. Now go and do what I bloody told you to.’

  He rang off.

  What did that mean? I bit my lip. In the end, it didn’t matter what Foster’s motives were. I had to do what he said. It was Lex’s only chance.

  I wandered uneasily back to Nico. He held out his hands and all the coins he was teleporting zoomed into his cupped palms. He shoved them into his pocket and turned to me with a grin.

  ‘Lex okay?’

  I nodded, forcing a smile.

  ‘Good.’ Nico put his arms round me. ‘Now, where were we?’

  We kissed for a bit, but Foster’s demand kept going through my head.

  ‘Ketty?’ Nico pulled away from me. He frowned. ‘What’s up?’

  I hesitated. I so wanted to tell him. But it wasn’t fair. If he told Geri what I was planning, Lex would die. And if Nico went along with my lie then I’d end up making him responsible for the deaths of all the people in the hospital too.

  ‘
Nothing.’ I took his face in my hands and tried to kiss him again, but it was no good. I wasn’t going to be able to focus on anything else until I’d pretended to have the fake vision Foster wanted. I hesitated for a second. Either I did that now, or I told Nico I didn’t feel very well and went inside alone.

  Get it over with. All of a sudden I went rigid in his arms. Not breathing . . . my eyes wide and glazed over.

  ‘Ketts?’ Nico stood back, staring at me. ‘Ketty?’

  I stood there, trying not to blink. How long did my visions usually last? From what the others had told me only a few seconds. I counted to five in my head. Nico’s breathing was shallow and fast. ‘Ketty?’ he whispered. He sounded scared.

  I hate myself. Four . . . five . . .

  I blinked rapidly, letting my body relax. ‘Oh . . .’ I said. ‘Oh my God . . .’

  ‘What was it?’ Nico put his arms round me again. ‘Was it a vision?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. I told him what Foster had told me to say – that I’d seen him talking . . . saying a bomb was going off at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning in Linhurst Hospital in East London. ‘Oh, God, Nico . . . a hospital . . . all those people . . .’

  ‘But you’ve got a date and a time,’ he said. ‘Which means the police’ll be able to stop the bomb going off. Geri can send in a team of disposal experts or something.’ He tugged me away from our tree, back towards the school. ‘Come on, he urged. ‘This is big. We should tell her now.’

  ‘Sure.’

  Feeling sick to my stomach, I let him take my hand and lead me towards the main school building.

  15: The hospital

  Everything was in motion now – though Nico, Ed, Dylan and I were no longer part of it. At first, when I told Geri about my ‘vision’ she sounded a little sceptical – but the fact that I could give her a specific name for the Rainbow bomb’s location – Linhurst Hospital – helped convince her. Within a few minutes she was on the phone to some bomb disposal unit, pretending she’d intercepted an email about Foster’s intentions, and the hospital was being evacuated. Some of the patients there were very sick but there was, thank goodness, nobody whose life was put in danger specifically by being moved.