Hit Squad

by Sophie McKenzie

  We didn’t talk much. I couldn’t stop worrying about Nico and Ed – and whether Cal’s plan would work. At last footsteps sounded along the stone corridor outside. I peered through the thick reinforced glass panel at the top of the door. Broken Nose was heading towards us. Cal leaped up, his body tensed for action.

  ‘Get ready,’ I hissed. ‘This is it.’

  8: The Lake

  ‘Okay?’ Cal whispered.

  ‘Yes.’ I glanced round. Dylan was, as arranged, lying curled up on the floor across the cell from the door. The lantern stood beside her, creating dark shadows across her face. Cal and I waited on either side of the door. Tania huddled behind Cal.

  Broken Nose wouldn’t be able to see us unless he came right into the room.

  We had ripped the bottoms of our T-shirts off earlier. I held one of the strips of material in my hand. The footsteps grew close. Broken Nose was right outside the door. I could hear his wheezy breathing as he positioned the key in the lock.

  Dylan gave a low moan.

  ‘What is matter?’ Broken Nose asked Dylan as the door creaked open.

  Dylan bent over her stomach and groaned more loudly. ‘Aaagh, it hurts.’ Her right hand rested lightly on the lantern.

  I held my breath.

  ‘Where others?’ Broken Nose was edging into the room now, his hand on his gun. He craned his neck trying to see into the dark corners on either side of the door, where Cal and I were hiding.

  Dylan moaned again. ‘Aaagh.’ She sounded completely convincing.

  Broken Nose looked around. He muttered something in his own language that I didn’t understand. I pressed myself flat against the wall behind the door as Dylan, right on cue, smashed the lantern onto the ground.

  The light went out. The room sank into darkness.

  ‘HEY!’ There was a note of panic in Broken Nose’s roar. We had to shut him up. And take his gun.

  ‘Now!’ Cal yelled.

  I rushed towards Broken Nose, just able to make out his outline in the dark room. I grabbed his arm. Wrenched it back.

  Broken Nose yelled out, pushing me away. I clung on. Cal grabbed the man’s other arm. Tania rushed to help me. Dylan jumped up. A moment later she and Cal had the man’s arms behind his back and were tying them together.

  ‘Shut him up,’ Dylan ordered.

  I reached up with my T-shirt strip and wound the cloth round his mouth. Broken Nose’s yells were instantly muffled. Tania was clamped round one of his legs. Cal bent down and wound a third strip of material around his ankles.

  Dylan pushed Broken Nose to the floor. ‘Done,’ she said, panting.

  ‘Everyone okay?’ My heart was beating fast.

  ‘Awesome,’ Cal said. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’

  We ran through the open door and into the corridor. The stairs that led up to the ground floor were to our left. Voices drifted down towards us.

  We turned right, away from the voices. We ran along the corridor. Around the corner. We passed a couple of windowless cells like the one we had been kept in. A few seconds later we arrived at the end of the corridor and a narrow set of stone steps that led down to the floor below.

  ‘Come on,’ Cal said.

  ‘No.’ Tania tugged at my arm. ‘Way out upstairs.’

  ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Think about what Tania’s saying. We won’t get out if we go down these stairs. We’re already in the basement. We need to be going up to the ground floor.’

  Cal hesitated for a second. Then Dylan grabbed my arm.

  ‘Listen!’ she whispered.

  The sound of footsteps filled the corridor we had just run along.

  ‘Someone’s coming,’ Dylan whispered. ‘We have to go down.’

  She was right. We crept quickly down the narrow stone steps. It had been cold everywhere in the castle, but as we ventured through the darkness it seemed to get chillier. I still couldn’t see much, but the wall beside the stairs was damp as well as cold. I pressed my hand against the moss-covered stone. Freezing air was blowing in from somewhere down here – and the smell of stagnant water.

  I thought back to our arrival all those hours ago and the lake we’d seen beside the castle.

  ‘We must be close to the water,’ I whispered as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

  A rough stone tunnel led away from the steps. Light glimmered in the distance. For a second, I was reminded of my earlier vision – but that had been a bright, blinding glare.

  Cal was already running towards the light. Dylan followed quickly after him.

  ‘Come on,’ Dylan hissed over her shoulder.

  I grabbed Tania’s arm. As we raced after the others, a voice yelled out above our heads. Again, I didn’t understand what was being said, but whoever was shouting sounded furious.

  ‘They know we’ve got out,’ I panted. ‘Hurry!’

  As we ran, the tunnel sloped down and the stones underfoot became damp and slippery. We had to slow down so as not to fall over. I could hear people – the guards – shouting, their footsteps pounding along the corridor above.

  Up ahead, Cal careered around a corner and disappeared from view. Dylan followed. Tania and I sped around the corner after them, then skidded to a halt. I stared at the scene in front of me.

  The stone path we’d been running along widened out slightly, then disappeared underwater. The tunnel itself ended a few metres away, where an iron fence – like a portcullis – rose up out of the water. Its top reached right up to the tunnel ceiling and it was bound on both sides by the tunnel walls.

  Beyond it the lake stretched away into the distance.

  ‘No wonder it was damp,’ Dylan said.

  I nodded, my heart drumming against my throat. The fence was constructed of narrow metal bars. The space between them was far too small to slip through.

  There was no way to get past.

  ‘We’re trapped,’ I said.

  Dylan looked over her shoulder, back towards the tunnel we’d just run through. The guards’ footsteps thundered down the stone steps.

  ‘There has to be a way,’ Cal said.

  I looked round, desperate. Light reflected off the water, dancing over the damp, mossy walls. Across the tunnel an iron lever stuck out from the wall. I raced across the slippery stone. Grabbed the lever. Yanked it down.

  With a rusty clank, the iron fence that blocked our exit shifted. The bars rose up, creaking as they disappeared into the stone ceiling overhead.

  I looked down at the water level. The fence was rising up but the bars were not yet clear of the water surface. The guards were closing in, their footsteps echoing off the stone walls.

  ‘Come on.’ I seized Cal’s arm. ‘We’ll have to swim under the fence.’

  He looked at me. A moment passed. The guards’ yells grew even nearer.

  ‘She’s right,’ Dylan said. ‘Take a deep breath first,’ she ordered, then took one herself.

  With a splash, she landed in the water. A second later Cal jumped in after her. They disappeared under the surface.

  ‘Let’s go!’ I turned to Tania. She was backing away from the water’s edge. ‘No. I no swim.’

  I stared at her. ‘You’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘Trust me.’ I held out my hand. A beat passed. The guards were surely almost here.

  Tania nodded. I gripped her arm and, together, we leaped into the water.

  The shock of the cold wet made me gasp. The water was freezing. My clothes clamped to my body. Beside me Tania was thrashing about in a total panic, creating waves of icy water that splashed over my face. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a guard rushing round the corner.

  ‘Stop it!’ I yelled. I raised my hand and slapped Tania’s face.

  Tania instantly stopped moving.

  ‘Breathe!’ I commanded. I took a deep breath myself, then forced my head under the water, dragging Tania behind me. She didn’t resist. Still gripping her arm, I dived down, towards the fence. The water was murky, but not particularly deep – just
a few metres. The iron bars of the fence were clearly visible just ahead. There was a gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground – only about a metre or so, but enough room to swim under. Dylan was through. Cal was forcing his way under. As I swam towards them, the fence stopped rising.

  I swam hard, dragging Tania behind me. Panic rose inside me again. Was she okay? I couldn’t look round. I had to get us both under the fence and out of the water as soon as possible.

  I was already running out of breath. I focused on the fence ahead. Cal was through now. And then the fence gave a judder. I felt the vibration through the water.

  No. I watched, appalled, as the fence began to lower. It was only a metre off the ground, getting closer to it every second.

  I swam even harder, hauling myself and Tania through the cold, gloomy water. The fence was coming down – steadily, surely. I reached it and grabbed the bars, pulling Tania through the water until she was level with me. Wide-eyed she grabbed the iron bars of the fence.

  The gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground was just half a metre now. There was no sign of Cal or Dylan. My lungs burned inside me as I pointed to the rapidly closing gap underneath. I had to get Tania through.

  I desperately needed to breathe. My lungs were bursting. The pressure inside me was unbearable. I shoved Tania under the fence. It was still coming down. Tania wriggled through, clawing her way beneath the bars. I followed, pushing her along. My body rose in the water slightly. I was almost out.

  Aaagh. A searing pain drove through my leg. One of the descending iron bars had struck my left thigh.

  Horror flooded through the pain. This was it . . . the moment from my vision.

  I wanted to scream but the need to breathe was more urgent. Tania was thrashing in the water beyond the fence. I had to reach her . . . to help her . . . but I couldn’t move my leg where the bar had struck me. Darkness clouded my eyesight. Come on. I had to move, but my whole body was refusing to obey me. Panic swirled like a tornado inside me. There was no room to pass. The bars were almost down. Above me. On top of me. Trapping me. Panic filled me, a tearing fear. Darkness overwhelmed me. Then a bright light, shining at the end of a long dark tunnel. Blinding me. This was from my vision too. Wetness all around me. Seeping into me, into my lungs. Darkness. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think.

  Images flickered through my mind’s eye. Mum and Dad watching TV . . . my brother, Lex, handing me the little troll doll he’d won at a fair, a crooked smile on his face . . . and then Nico, his dark eyes twinkling . . .

  Nico, I thought. And then the dark tunnel enveloped me and I let myself drift towards the light.

  ED

  9: Demonstration

  The others disappeared down a flight of stone steps.

  I pulled back from my guard. He pressed his knife into my ribs.

  ‘Come on, Ed,’ Jack Linden said. ‘They’ll be okay. We’re going along here.’ He pointed across the hallway.

  I exchanged a swift glance with Nico. It was horrible not being able to communicate telepathically. I couldn’t quite believe how much I missed it. Only a few months ago I’d hated my mind-reading ability.

  Nico looked furious.

  ‘We have to follow Jack. We don’t have a choice,’ I muttered, in case Nico was thinking of making some kind of mad run for it. That would be just the kind of thing Nico would do . . . and without warning me first, either. And it would be pointless. Apart from Jack himself, there was also Knife Man walking right behind us.

  ‘Fine,’ Nico said bitterly.

  We followed Jack across the cold stone floor. Even though we were inside, my breath made a white mist in front of my face. Jack led us through a wooden door and up a flight of stairs. We were now in a passageway on the first floor. Through another door and, all of a sudden, the castle warmed up a little. A thick carpet softened the floor and the walls were covered with brocade wallpaper and oil paintings. Clearly we’d entered the inhabited part of the building.

  ‘Who lives here?’ I asked Jack.

  ‘Yeah, and who are you working for?’ Nico added.

  Jack’s head whipped round. ‘What makes you think I’m working for anyone?’

  ‘You’re no scientist,’ I said. ‘And whoever’s kidnapped us wants to use us to help develop Medusix. Though I don’t understand how he thinks we can do that.’

  Jack stared at me, his expression carefully blank.

  ‘I thought he had developed Medusix anyway,’ Nico went on. ‘Tania said you’d given it to someone else . . . a boy you conned into coming here like her?’

  Jack opened the door to a small room. It was furnished in the same style as the rest of the inhabited part of the castle, with heavy, dark-coloured wallpaper, bars at the windows and a thick carpet on the floor. The room contained a lot of furniture – bookcases, chintzy sofas, elegant wooden side tables, ornate lamps . . . If Nico had been in possession of his telekinetic abilities he could have hurled any or all of these things at Jack and Knife Man.

  But Nico, like me, had lost his Medusa powers back in the church about twenty minutes ago. Once again, I felt their absence keenly – and not just because of the vulnerable situation we were in. When had being able to mind-read become such a vital part of who I was?

  Jack ushered us inside the room. He sprayed us both in the face with Medutox.

  ‘You haven’t answered our questions,’ Nico persisted. ‘Who are you working for?’

  ‘You’ll find out later,’ Jack said shortly. He walked over to the door. ‘It won’t be long.’

  ‘What about the boy you gave the Medusix to?’ I asked. ‘Bradley, where is he? Is he still unconscious?’

  Jack paused, his fingers curled round the door handle.

  ‘As far as I know, yes, he’s still unconscious,’ he said. ‘The Medusix worked for a bit, then . . .’ He shut the door. Nico and I were left alone.

  ‘That’s terrible,’ I said, sinking into a chair. ‘They’ve made that boy really ill.’

  Nico paced across the room. ‘It is terrible,’ he said. ‘And it means the Medusix doesn’t work properly. Which explains why we’re here.’

  ‘No it doesn’t.’ I looked up at him. ‘How is having access to us going to help? People have tried before, haven’t they? Taken our blood and done tests and everything . . . it’s never made a difference before.’

  ‘Well, maybe these people think they’re onto something new,’ Nico said darkly.

  I closed my eyes and tried to access my mind-reading ability again. It was no good. ‘Jack just sprayed us again, which means the Medutox will wear off in about half an hour, won’t it?’ I said.

  Nico nodded. ‘We’ll have to be ready to act as soon as it does,’ he said.

  ‘Suppose Jack comes back and sprays us again before then?’ I asked.

  Nico shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’

  He sat down on the sofa opposite me. He looked as desolate as I’d ever seen him. I wanted to ask him how he was . . . quite apart from the situation we now found ourselves in, things between him and Ketty were obviously not going well. I’d seen the scornful looks they’d been giving each other. But Nico didn’t look like he wanted to talk about it.

  About an hour passed. Knife Man appeared a couple of times, to spray us with Medutox. Eventually Jack returned.

  ‘Okay, guys, let’s go.’ Jack brushed his sleek dark hair back off his wolfish face and smiled.

  ‘Go where?’ I asked.

  ‘To do what?’ Nico added.

  ‘You’re both going to give a live demonstration of your powers,’ Jack said.

  Nico rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve just taken our powers away,’ he said.

  ‘As you well know,’ Jack went on, unperturbed, ‘the Medutox you have been sprayed with will wear off . . .’ he checked his watch, ‘. . . in about twenty minutes. Come on.’

  Gagged and bound, with blindfolds over our eyes, Nico and I were taken downstairs again. The cold air whipped across my face as I was shov
ed outside, then bundled onto the back seat of a large car. I could hear Nico’s muffled shouts coming from the seat behind me as the car drove off.

  My heart thudded in my chest. Where were we going? What was Jack going to make us do?

  We drove fast and hard. Jack sprayed us during the journey with Medutox, then left us alone. We drove on for what felt like ages, though probably less time passed than I imagined. I kept trying to reach out using remote telepathy but my powers didn’t return, so it couldn’t have been thirty minutes yet since the last spray.

  The road changed from bumpy to smooth and back to bumpy again. At last we stopped. I was dragged out of the car and set on my feet. My hands and feet were untied and I was pushed across uneven ground. The sun beat down on my face, brightening the dark blur of my blindfold. Dextrous hands picked at the tape across my mouth. Then Jack’s voice spoke in my ear.

  ‘Don’t yell out when I take this off,’ he instructed. Then he ripped the tape off.

  Ow. ‘Where are we?’ I said, rubbing my mouth. ‘Where’s Nico?’

  ‘I’m here,’ Nico said beside me.

  Jack removed my blindfold. We were standing in a field. Nico was on my left – his wrists still tied together. Knife Man stood in front of us. Like Jack, he was wearing sunglasses.

  Another man, also in shades, stood beside Jack.

  I looked at the open countryside all around us. The field we were standing in led to another and another. Beyond the fields I could just make out a copse of trees and a long black railway track, with mountains in the distance.

  ‘What are we doing here?’ Nico said.

  ‘It’s almost thirty minutes since you were sprayed with Medutox, Ed,’ Jack said, ignoring Nico. ‘You should be able to mind-read in a few seconds.’ He paused.

  I thought of Ketty back at the castle. Maybe Jack’s calculations were wrong and my powers were already back. I focused as hard as I could, trying to reach Ketty with remote telepathy. Nothing happened.

  ‘Who do you want me to mind-read?’ I said.

  Jack nodded at the man beside him. He was suntanned and old – at least sixty – with greying hair and dark, leathery skin.