The Hostage

by Sophie McKenzie

  ‘But what about my warning . . .’ As I said the words I realised they were pointless. I was too late. A bomb had already gone off here – how could it not be the Rainbow bomb?

  ‘There’s something wrong,’ Ed said. ‘But I don’t understand what.’

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘Come on, before someone stops us.’

  We raced out of the hospital car park. As we reached the nearby underground station my phone rang. Nico calling.

  ‘I’m so glad it’s you,’ I said, the words tumbling out of me.

  ‘It’s not,’ said a gruff voice. ‘It’s er . . . it’s Mr Fox.’

  ‘Oh.’ I could feel my face reddening. ‘Mr Fox . . . hi . . .’

  ‘I’ve borrowed Nico’s phone. Where are you, Ketty? Is Ed with you?’

  I glanced sideways at Ed. He was leaning against the station entrance wall, rubbing his forehead and staring anxiously at me.

  Oh God. ‘Er . . . yes he is,’ I went on. ‘He’s fine. We both are.’

  ‘So where—’

  ‘I got the hospital wrong,’ I blurted out. ‘I had another vision and realised it was Gayton Hospital in South London not Linhurst in the East End. So we came over here and—’

  ‘You’re in South London?’ Mr Fox sounded incredulous. ‘Why didn’t you just find me or call Geri and tell us what you’d seen when you had this second vision?’

  There was no answer to that without explaining about Foster holding Lex hostage so I fell silent. Mr Fox sucked in his breath.

  ‘I don’t understand, Ketty, and I have to tell you I’m very concerned about this. For a start you’re out of school in the middle of the night—’

  ‘I know, sir.’ Oh, shit. ‘I’m really sorry, sir.’

  ‘Get back here immediately.’ Mr Fox rang off, sounding deeply troubled.

  I felt sick all the way back on the tube. I’d let down Mr Fox who I liked . . . and Geri would be furious. Worst of all, I had no idea if Lex was still safe – or what Foster was really planning to do with him.

  Geri herself was waiting outside the station, a stony expression on her face. She tugged her long, camel overcoat round her and opened the back door of her car. ‘Get in,’ she snapped.

  Ed and I shuffled across the back seat. Geri got in beside us and directed her driver to take us back to Fox Academy.

  ‘This has to stop, Ketty.’ Her lips set in a thin line. ‘If you see something in a vision the whole point is to tell me – not to act on your own.’ She glanced across me at Ed. ‘Or drag other people into your own reckless activities.’

  ‘It wasn’t Ed’s fault,’ I said. ‘I made him come.’

  Geri rolled her eyes. ‘So what happened?’

  I explained in more depth the version of events I’d already given Mr Fox.

  ‘But I don’t understand why the bomb at Gayton Hospital wasn’t a Rainbow bomb,’ I said.

  ‘I’m afraid I do.’ Geri turned to Ed. ‘Do you have your laptop with you, Ed?’

  ‘Yes.’ He pulled it out of his backpack.

  Geri took it and tapped at the keyboard for a few seconds.

  ‘Our monitoring software picked this up about fifteen minutes ago.’ She handed me the laptop and pointed to the screen. ‘It explains everything.’

  I gazed at the screen. A head shot of Foster. He was sitting in a chair – a relaxed pose with his legs loosely crossed and his head slightly tilted to one side.

  ‘Hello.’ As usual Foster’s voice was smooth and menacing. ‘By now you’ll have realised that despite all your special resources I have had no trouble planting and detonating a bomb in a hospital.’

  I glanced at Ed. He was staring at the screen, transfixed. What did Foster mean by special resources? Was that a coded reference to us . . . to the Medusa Project?

  ‘However,’ Foster went on, ‘as you will also have realised, this was not the Rainbow bomb. That still remains in my possession. Whether or not it is used is up to the British government who have a choice to make.’ He paused. ‘My brother Rick is in prison for life for a crime he didn’t commit. I have worked, tirelessly, for his release for the past two years. But all I encounter is bureaucracy and stonewalling. Nobody, it seems, is interested in miscarriages of justice any more. But maybe they’ll be interested in a bomb which is capable of killing hundreds of people in one blast.’

  My mind went back to the reply Foster had given me when I’d asked him why he was planning to bomb a hospital – it’s all about Rick . . . Now it made sense.

  I went back to the screen and Foster’s broadcast. He was leaning forward in his chair, his face intent. ‘These are my terms. You have forty-eight hours to release Rick to my care or innocent citizens will die. I’ve proved I can outwit you. Don’t test my patience.’ He leaned further forward, so his face filled the screen. His cold, grey eyes bored into me. ‘A brother is a precious commodity. A brother’s safety can be bought in many ways.’ He smiled. ‘The rest is silence.’

  The screen fizzled black and grey.

  I gasped. That last part of the message – about brothers – that was for me, I was sure. Specifically for me. Foster was telling me to keep quiet. Which meant . . . my heart leaped . . . that in spite of everything, there was still a chance for Lex.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Ed wrinkled his nose. ‘The rest is silence?’

  ‘It’s a line from a Shakespeare play . . . Hamlet,’ Geri said briskly. ‘No doubt Foster thought he’d round off with something suitably portentous to make sure we took him seriously.’

  ‘So are you?’ I said. ‘Taking him seriously, I mean? Will the government let his brother go?’

  ‘No.’ Geri snapped the laptop shut and handed it back to Ed. ‘The policy of this country is not to negotiate with terrorists. We’re going to have to rely on all our intelligence sources to flush out Foster and his Rainbow bomb.’ She looked at me quizzically. ‘I don’t understand how you got the hospital wrong – did you just mishear the name in your first vision?’

  ‘I guess,’ I muttered.

  ‘And how on earth did you misunderstand about the bomb?’ Geri went on. ‘Why would you see Foster talking about setting off a Rainbow bomb when he was actually planning on using something much smaller?’

  My face burned. ‘Maybe he changed his mind,’ I stammered.

  ‘Or maybe Ketty sees different versions of the future. You know, alternate realities,’ Ed added.

  ‘Mmm.’ Geri pursed her lips. ‘It’s certainly very disappointing.’

  She turned and stared out of the window.

  I glanced at Ed. I was grateful that he’d tried to cover for me, but privately I agreed with Geri. I mean, okay so I’d lied to her about both the hospital visions, but my ability was disappointing. It was ludicrously limited. Flaky, even. I should have been able to see what Foster was planning right from the start – but all my predictions came in fits and starts, making little sense out of context.

  I didn’t want to think about that. My mind wandered back to Lex. I hadn’t stopped Foster from exploding his hospital bomb. Surely he’d release my brother now? I felt for the little troll doll in my pocket and rubbed it between my fingers like a worry bead. Staring out of the window at the dawn sky I tried again to have a vision, but I was too tired. My eyes ached from blinking, filling with tears that seemed to well up from the deepest loneliness I’d ever known.

  The car drew up at Fox Academy’s main entrance. It was still early. Most people at school would be getting up, maybe wandering down to breakfast in the canteen. In spite of everything, I was suddenly ravenously hungry.

  Mr Fox, Nico and Dylan were standing by the front door. My heart thumped as I saw Nico. He looked gorgeous – his sleek hair slightly tousled, his school sweatshirt a little crumpled. I walked towards him, filling with relief. So long as Nico was with me, I could stand everything.

  I smiled at him, soaking up his face – the olive skin, the way all the features sat in perfect symmetry. There were dark shadows under his eyes. I f
elt a stab of guilt that he must have been worrying about me.

  ‘Hey.’ I stood in front of him. The others were there too but I barely saw them. All I could see was Nico’s dark eyes. They were boring into me, hard and questioning. Why wasn’t he smiling back at me? The hunger that had been gnawing at my stomach just seconds before, vanished.

  ‘Hey,’ Nico said coldly. He glared from me to Ed, then back to me again. ‘We need to talk.’

  17: The truth

  Nico glowered at me all through the debrief. Geri made me go through the whole sequence of events again – then asked Ed for his version.

  Ed backed me up. He sounded guilty as hell while he was doing it but then that just looked like normal Ed – all shy and blushing and not looking anyone in the eye.

  I soon realised what Nico was so upset about. Without being able to explain why I needed Ed’s laptop it was impossible to make Nico understand why I’d asked Ed to go with me to the hospital instead of him.

  Mr Fox told Ed and I that we were going to have to do our lessons as normal today, in spite of the fact that we must be tired after being up so much of the night. As soon as Geri dismissed us, with a severe warning for me and Ed about going off on our own again, Nico was by my side.

  ‘Outside,’ he hissed.

  Oh, crap.

  I followed him out into the Top Field. It was empty, as it usually was at this time of the morning. Almost everyone in school was in the canteen, having breakfast. My heart pounded as Nico led me down to the tree where we used to meet up. We reached the tree and he turned to face me, his eyes cold.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he said. ‘You came to my dorm in the middle of the night and woke up Ed instead of me?’

  ‘Yes, that’s true,’ I stammered, ‘but I had a good reason and . . . and technically Ed was already awake when I got there.’

  ‘Why did you want him with you instead of me?’ Nico went on, his voice rising. ‘Did you think his stupid mindreading would be more useful than what I can do? Is it because you know sometimes my telekinesis goes out of control when you’re around?’

  ‘No.’ I frowned. How could Nico even think that? ‘No . . . I needed to borrow his laptop. There was something I wanted to look up on the internet.’

  ‘In the middle of the night?’ Nico’s voice got even louder. ‘Something that you couldn’t find on one of the school’s computers?’

  I stared at him. Oh, God . . . oh, God . . .

  ‘Well, say something, Ketty!’ Nico was shouting now. He swore. ‘Tell me, why you’d go off with Ed when you’re supposed to be going out with me?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ I stood, shivering, in the chilly morning air, uncertain how to explain. ‘I was worried about my brother.’

  ‘What’s that got to do with it?’ Nico snapped. ‘You told me he was in France.’

  I took a deep breath. I was going to have to tell him everything. It was the only way to make him understand – plus I was way too exhausted to come up with any more lies. I shivered, tugging my jumper closer round me. It was the one Ed had shoved at me in the basement music room – a pale blue school sweatshirt several sizes too big for me.

  Nico mistook my hesitation for reluctance. His eyes flashed – dark and furious. ‘Okay, if that’s how you feel, then—’

  ‘No, I’ll explain.’ I grabbed his arm. ‘I’ll explain everything.’

  ‘Yeah?’ he hissed. ‘Then why don’t you start with why you’re wearing Ed’s jumper?’

  ‘It’s not his—’

  ‘Forget it, Ketty,’ he snapped. ‘I’m hungry. I’m going to get some breakfast.’

  ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Please, Nico, listen.’

  He hesitated, staring at me.

  ‘If Nico won’t listen, you can tell me something.’ It was Dylan, striding towards us across the grass, her green eyes cold and curious. Nico and I had been so caught up in our own conversation we hadn’t even seen her coming.

  She stopped. ‘What I’m particularly interested in is where you really went yesterday when the rest of us were in Foster’s office car park looking for that flash drive – and why all the data on it mysteriously emptied just after you used Ed’s laptop.’

  My stomach twisted into knots.

  The three of us stood in silence for a second.

  ‘Go on, then, Ketty,’ Nico said quietly. ‘Explain to both of us.’

  I bit my lip. I didn’t want to have to talk in front of Dylan but Nico was giving me no choice. I glanced at him . . . at the hurt behind the anger in his dark brown eyes.

  ‘Foster is holding my brother hostage,’ I said. The words sounded strange being said out loud. Flat, somehow, and unreal. ‘He told me to delete the contents of that flash drive. He said if I didn’t, he’d kill Lex.’

  Nico and Dylan stared at me. The wind whistled around us. In the distance, in some other, ordinary universe, Tom was shouting at Curtis to hurry up or he’d eat all the sausages at breakfast.

  Dylan gasped. ‘No way.’

  Nico looked at the grass.

  ‘Foster also made me pretend to have a vision of him saying he was planting a Rainbow bomb at Linhurst Hospital at 6 a.m. this morning. I knew he was really planning on attacking Gayton Hospital, but I lied to everyone to save Lex.’

  ‘Whoa,’ Dylan said.

  ‘And I couldn’t stand it and . . . I ended up telling Ed because I was looking on his laptop for details of the Rainbow bomb. We went to Gayton Hospital to try and stop the bomb going off anonymously, but—’

  ‘But you got there too late . . .’ Dylan breathed.

  ‘And the bomb at the hospital was only a bluff anyway,’ I added. ‘Foster just wanted the government to see he meant business. He still has the Rainbow bomb and he still has Lex. He used me and now he wants me to keep quiet about it.’

  ‘That is sooo heavy,’ Dylan said.

  I bit my lip. Nico looked at me with cold, hard eyes.

  ‘I didn’t have a choice,’ I insisted. ‘Do you understand?’

  Nico shook his head. ‘I understand that you lied to me about Lex being okay,’ he said, coldly. ‘And I understand that I was standing right next to you when you frigging faked that vision about a bomb being in a hospital.’ He paused. ‘Which means, I suppose, that what I understand most of all is that you don’t trust me.’

  Silence. I could feel Dylan beside us, watching, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Nico. I’d never seen him look so angry. That icy look in his eyes terrified me far more than his earlier shouting.

  ‘I do trust you,’ I said, pleading with him now. ‘I was just trying to protect you. I didn’t want you to have to choose between me and all those people at the hospital being killed . . .’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Nico strode off towards the school.

  I darted after him, leaving Dylan behind. ‘Nico, please . . . please.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, marching on without looking at me. ‘I’m not going to grass you up.’

  I stared at him. How could he think that was what was on my mind right now?

  ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you the truth,’ I wept. ‘I . . . I don’t know what else to say.’

  ‘Then try saying nothing. Make a nice change from your lies . . .’

  ‘Nico—’

  ‘Leave me alone.’ Nico reached the school door and stormed through it.

  I stood for a second, like I’d been punched in the guts. Then I took a step forward. I had to follow him. Try explaining again.

  I felt a hand on my arm.

  ‘I wouldn’t.’ It was Dylan. ‘He’s so mad right now that nothing you say will do any good.’ She gazed at me, a disdainful look in her eyes.

  ‘Guess you screwed things up big time,’ she said.

  For God’s sake. ‘Thanks for the newsflash.’

  To my surprise, Dylan grinned. ‘I kinda admire your guts, though.’

  I stared at her. Was Dylan actually saying something that wasn’t a sneer or an insult?

 
‘I mean, I’ve never met anyone as determined as you . . . it’s cool.’

  I must have looked as astonished as I felt, because Dylan made a face.

  ‘Don’t look like that. I’m just saying “I get it”. You’re loyal to your brother. That’s cool. You’re prepared to do what it takes to make sure he’s safe. That’s about as cool as it gets.’

  ‘Er . . . does that mean you won’t tell Geri about me making stuff up?’ I said.

  ‘More than that,’ Dylan said. ‘It means I’ll help you find Lex, if you want.’

  ‘Really?’ I stared at her. ‘You’d do that?’

  ‘Provided we also try and find out where Foster is actually going to detonate the Rainbow bomb.’ Dylan twisted her hair round her hand. ‘Look, I thought Geri was all that when I met her, but she’s using us the same as everyone else. She’s got a whole bunch of ambitions and we’re just a way for her to make them happen. Now, personally, I love having the Medusa gene and being able to protect myself with my Gift. And I used to think going on missions would be cool. But Geri’s just using us. And as for Uncle Fergus and his trust games . . .’ She shook her head.

  I stared at her. It was funny hearing Dylan refer to Mr Fox as her uncle. I’d completely forgotten his brother, William Fox, the creator of the Medusa Gene, was her dad.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said.

  ‘No sweat.’ Dylan smiled, revealing her perfectly even, white teeth. ‘So I guess that predicting the future thing you do is the key, isn’t it? Tell me how it works.’

  ‘I don’t really know,’ I admitted, shoving my hands in my pockets. ‘I mean my visions can happen anywhere, at any time . . . I don’t know what brings them on, though I can make them happen now. Hey . . .’ I felt the troll doll in my pocket. ‘Maybe I could specifically try to focus on something of Lex’s before I go into the vision. That might help me see where he is.’

  ‘Sure.’ Dylan’s eyes widened. ‘Let’s go somewhere and try it.’

  But just then the bell rang for first period and other students swarmed into the corridor. Tom, Lola and Curtis were among the crowds heading towards us. Tom and Curtis’s eyes latched onto Dylan as they approached. Like all the other boys in our year they appeared to have a major crush on her – not that she’d shown the slightest interest in any of them.