The Medusa Project: The Set-Up

by Sophie McKenzie

  Dylan, Ed, Ketty and I all looked at each other, then back to Geri.

  ‘The original investigative operation came to a close when we realised that Fox’s Medusa gene had fatal side effects.’

  ‘You mean it killed all our mothers,’ Ketty said.

  ‘That’s right, dear. And very sorry I am about it too,’ Geri said, quietly. ‘Anyway, in response William Fox told us that all the research and gene engineering data on Medusa had been destroyed. We had no reason to doubt him – he was genuinely appalled by the cancer your mothers were infected by and particularly devastated that his actions were going to cause the death of his own beautiful wife.’

  I glanced at Dylan. She was staring stonily at the ground.

  ‘However, despite his anguish, William couldn’t quite bring himself to destroy his research. Instead, he hid all his notes in his family home, only telling one person – his brother – where they were. We questioned Fergus after William’s death, but he backed up William’s story. And managed to make sure that Ed and Ketty’s true identities were kept quiet.’

  I stared at Fergus with a new respect.

  Geri sighed. ‘Without the state resources I’d enjoyed before, my operation was closed down, there was no way I could find you. And – to be honest – little point in doing so at that time. William Fox had made it clear that the effects of the Medusa gene wouldn’t kick in until puberty. And, of course, we couldn’t be sure back then that the gene would really work.’

  ‘So what changed?’ I said.

  ‘Last year, when I knew your abilities would be emerging, I got the government to fund a new project and set Jack to find you all. Dylan – as Fox’s own daughter – and Nico – who we knew was living with Fergus – were the easiest to track down. The other two, as you know, took more time. And it would all have gone very smoothly, if Jack hadn’t stumbled across the Medusa gene formula . . .’

  ‘. . . and Carson hadn’t offered him twice as much money as you were paying him,’ I added.

  Geri nodded.

  ‘So what’s the purpose of this new project that the government’s agreed to fund?’ Fergus asked.

  ‘And how do the four of us fit into it?’ I asked.

  Geri was silent for a moment, the only sound the wind and waves raging. Then she spoke again.

  ‘The four of you are the new project,’ she said.

  ‘What does that mean?’ I said.

  ‘That’s up to you, dear,’ Geri went on. ‘There are three options . . .’

  ‘Go on,’ I said.

  ‘Okay.’ Geri cleared her throat. ‘Option one. I call the gutter press and tell them all about you. I make sure they know wherever you go and whatever you do. They hound you forever.’

  ‘No!’ Behind me, Fergus exploded. ‘That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to protect them from! That’s . . .’

  ‘Option two.’ Geri continued as if Fergus hadn’t spoken. ‘We keep everything secret and I hand you over to a team of government scientists. They will keep you locked up in lab conditions, away from your friends and families, for the rest of your lives.’

  ‘What?’ Ketty said.

  ‘You can’t,’ I said.

  ‘These kids have rights!’ Fergus was red in the face. ‘You’re not their legal guardian, you can’t just whisk them away and turn them into . . . into . . .’

  ‘Research experiments,’ I finished for him. ‘Those are crap options, Geri.’

  Geri smiled at me. ‘But you know I can make them happen,’ she said. ‘You saw how fast I was able to remove the records of Jack’s helicopter’s flight this morning. He called me on the way to the heliport, claiming he had new intel on Viper’s identity. I didn’t know he was double-crossing me with Carson at the time – so when he said he needed to throw the police off his scent I just assumed he’d broken some minor law to get a lead on Viper and covered his tracks as he requested. It was – literally – as easy as making a phone call.’

  ‘You’re still offering us crap options,’ Ed stammered.

  ‘Yeah.’ I nodded. ‘Media victims or lab rats isn’t much of a choice.’

  ‘You haven’t heard the third option,’ Geri said slowly. ‘How would you like to go back to school and still stay in touch with your families? No press. No labs. A normal life. Your old life, in fact.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be an old life for Dylan,’ I said.

  ‘Dylan’s already agreed to option three,’ Geri said briskly. ‘She did so months ago, when we first met in the States. You can ask her yourself, but I know for a fact she was – and is – very keen to leave Philadelphia and begin a new life here . . . at her uncle’s boarding school.’

  I stared at Dylan. ‘So you were never staying with relatives,’ I said slowly. ‘You and Jack made that up because you didn’t want to have to explain you were moving here.’

  Dylan crossed her arms and gazed out to sea. I suddenly remembered what she’d told me on our train journey back from Scotland.

  Geri made it sound like coming here would be the most exciting thing that would ever happen to me.

  I frowned. How could she think joining Fox Academy would be exciting? There had to be something Geri wasn’t telling us. ‘What’s the catch?’ I asked.

  ‘No catch,’ Geri said. ‘But we will need something in return.’

  The wind died again. A seagull squawked overhead.

  ‘And what’s that?’ I said.

  Geri’s high, tinkly laugh rang out. ‘Every now and then, a difficult situation arises in the world which can’t be dealt with by normal means. Your abilities will help.’

  I narrowed my eyes. ‘You want to use our abilities?’

  Geri nodded. ‘That’s why we set up that elaborate con in the casino – to test out how well you performed under pressure. Unnecessarily, as it turned out. All four of you have had to work under far greater pressure today – and it has been a huge success.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Ketty said. ‘You’re saying you want us to form some kind of crime-fighting force?’

  ‘To fight criminals?’ Ed added. ‘Using our abilities? No.’

  ‘They’re just kids,’ Fergus pleaded.

  Geri shrugged. ‘You’ll get relevant training and a proper briefing each time. And you’ll be able to develop your team-working abilities too, under Mr Fox’s guidance.’

  Team-working? I made a face. That didn’t sound much like fun.

  ‘I want no part of this,’ Fergus snapped. ‘These are children whose lives you’ll be risking.’

  ‘Would you rather we went back to options one or two?’ Geri sighed. ‘Anyway, from what I’ve seen, the four of you work together very well.’

  I glanced from Ketty and Ed to Dylan. My secret girlfriend, plus the boy who wanted her and the most arrogant girl on the planet, whom everyone appeared to think I was actually going out with.

  Oh yeah. Loads of team-working potential there.

  ‘There isn’t a choice, then,’ Ketty said flatly. ‘We’re part of this project whether we like it or not.’

  Ed put his arm round her shoulders.

  I looked away.

  ‘We’re agreed then.’ Geri smiled. ‘In that case,’ she said, ‘welcome to the Medusa Project.’

  Two weeks later and we were settled back at school for the start of the summer term . . . back to our old lives. Well, except everything was different of course.

  Dylan was there for a start. I don’t think she was very impressed that I’d spread a bunch of rumours about us going out together last term, but she didn’t seem any more bothered by the gossip about us than she was by the legions of boys queuing up to get it on with her. She ignored everything and everyone – keeping herself to herself most of the time.

  As for me, once it was obvious that Dylan and I weren’t together I got a load of teasing, especially from Tom and Curtis. But I didn’t care.

  I had Ketty.

  She did as she’d promised and cooled it with Ed straight away. But they still hung
out a lot after school. I left them to it, knowing I’d see Ketty later. We met up – outside usually – for a couple of hours every evening. Those times were great. I just wished it didn’t have to be this big secret, but Ketty kept saying Ed needed a chance to get used to them only being friends. Then she’d tell him, and everyone else, about us.

  It was the end of the first full week of term. We were going to have our first team-working session the next day, Saturday. God knows what it was going to be like.

  At least Fergus and I were getting on better. After that little chat we’d had back on the cliff top at Penhagen House, Fergus promised that from now on he would treat me like an adult. No hiding the truth from me any more.

  And, true to his word, he told me as soon as Geri Paterson contacted him to say they’d captured Jack Linden.

  That meant a lot.

  Anyway, like I said, it was Friday afternoon, school had finished and I was outside, sitting on the low wall out the back of the main building.

  I heard footsteps and looked up. Ketty and Ed were running towards me. Ketty reached me first.

  ‘Mr Fox wants us in his office,’ she said, catching her breath.

  ‘Really?’ I smiled at her. She looked beautiful, with the sun shining on her hair and her eyes all wide and excited.

  Ed ran up and the smile fell from my face. I knew it wasn’t really Ed’s fault that Ketty was keeping our relationship a secret, but it didn’t exactly make me like him any better. I almost wished he’d break his own rules about mind-reading – and find out the truth for himself.

  ‘Hi,’ I said.

  ‘Come on.’ Ed stared at me, as usual not quite making eye contact. ‘Mr Fox says it’s important.’

  ‘Really?’ I faked a yawn. ‘What does he want us to do? Colour-code his paper clips?’

  There was a pause. Ed and Ketty looked at each other, then back to me.

  ‘It’s our first mission,’ Ketty said. ‘For the Medusa Project.’

  I sat bolt upright, all my bitterness at Ed forgotten. ‘You’re kidding.’

  ‘No.’ Ketty’s eyes sparkled with excitement and fear. ‘Come on, they’re waiting.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Mr Fox and Geri Paterson . . .’ she said.

  ‘And Dylan,’ Ed added

  ‘Did Fergus say anything about what we were going to have to do?’ I asked, jumping down from the wall.

  ‘Only that the people we’ll be dealing with make Carson look like Snow White.’

  I turned to Ed. Despite the sunshine, his face was pale. ‘So what d’you think about all this?’ I asked.

  Ed shuffled from one foot to the other. ‘I don’t like it,’ he said. ‘It’s wrong and it sounds really dangerous. But if Ketty’s up for it, then I am too.’

  I nodded. As we set off, Ed started talking to Ketty in a low voice, clearly not wanting me to hear. I hung back a little, watching his sandy head next to her dark curls. Ed was right. Whatever lay ahead of us was going to be dangerous. But on the other hand . . .

  This was my chance to spend more time with Ketty. And maybe if the mission went well, Ed would get more confident and she’d stop feeling she had to look after him quite so much. In fact, maybe I could use the mission like a deadline.

  As Ed walked through the door into the school building, I grabbed Ketty’s hand, pulling her back. ‘Listen,’ I whispered. ‘I can see Ed’s a bit freaked by having to do this mission, but once it’s over – whatever happens – we tell him and everyone we’re going out together. Deal?’

  Ketty smiled at me. A big, beautiful, loving smile.

  ‘Deal,’ she said.

  I let go of her hand and we walked on. That was good enough for me. As we stood, knocking, outside Fergus’s office door, my confidence surged. So long as Ketty was by my side, I could handle anything.

  Grinning, I followed the others into the room.

  TO BE CONTINUED . . . in The Hostage

  If you enjoyed The Set-up,

  look out for the next exciting book

  in THE MEDUSA PROJECT series,

  The Hostage, coming soon!

  1

  Like I didn’t have enough problems?

  Right now the four of us were on our first mission as The Medusa Project. Our brief was to get inside a gym in Central London, break into locker 333 in the men’s changing room and look for a digital recording device.

  Simple enough with our range of psychic abilities – and yet we’d been standing outside the gym, arguing, for ten minutes already.

  ‘But, Ed, suppose we need you to mind-read someone?’ Nico insisted.

  ‘I don’t care,’ Ed said, looking at me for support. ‘I’m not going inside. What we’re doing is wrong.’

  ‘But you have to come.’ Nico’s eyes widened with exasperation. He turned to me too. ‘Ketty, tell him.’

  I shrugged, not wanting to take sides. It was a dreary, cloudy day that made everything – from street to sky – look grey.

  ‘For God’s sake, let’s just leave the loser behind.’ Dylan threw Ed a sneering glance and turned to Nico. ‘It doesn’t make any difference. You can still distract the receptionist – and we don’t need Ed to sneak past and find the changing rooms.’

  I folded my arms, annoyance burning in my chest. I hated the way Dylan looked down on Ed . . . well, the way she looked down on almost everyone. But particularly Ed. I felt bad enough about him as it was. I guess I should explain . . .

  A few weeks ago Ed and I had sort of started going out. But then I found out that Nico, who I’d really liked all along, liked me back – so I ended things with Ed and started going out with Nico. But Ed didn’t know just yet. We’re keeping it secret for a bit so as not to hurt his feelings.

  I know, it’s complicated. But my life is complicated right now.

  ‘Okay, that’ll work.’ Nico’s voice drew me back to the present. He was speaking to Dylan.

  She nodded. ‘It’ll be easier with just the two of us,’ she said.

  ‘What about me?’ I said.

  Dylan raised an eyebrow. ‘I don’t see what use your abilities would be.’

  I stared at her. Rude cow. The worst thing was she was right. I couldn’t see what use I could be, either. My gift is precognition – that means I can see into the future. But I can’t control when I see into the future or what I’m seeing or whether I’ll be able to change any of it.

  ‘I’m helping Nico check inside the locker,’ I snapped. ‘Anyway, Geri said we should stay together.’

  Geri Paterson was head of the Medusa Project, and had briefed us on this first mission, stressing the importance of the four of us working as a team. She wasn’t exactly my favourite person, but she’d gone up in my estimation recently by getting my brother, Lex, a job he loved in a really cool company.

  Dylan tossed back her hair. ‘Well, Ed’s already blown the staying together idea out the water, so I don’t see why—’

  ‘Ketty’s in,’ Nico said firmly.

  There was a short pause, then Dylan pursed her lips. ‘Whatever.’ She peered sulkily into the gym.

  I caught Nico’s eye. He grinned at me and suddenly everything seemed lighter . . . easier . . . I knew he thought Dylan was a bossy, arrogant pain in the arse too. Just looking at him made me feel better. He’s so gorgeous – not just his dark eyes and high cheekbones – but this way he has of looking at you from under his fringe that makes you think he’s laughing, and wanting to kiss you, all at the same time. I suddenly remembered us doing both those things – laughing and kissing – behind the huge oak tree in the school playing field last night. Oh, God . . . it hit me that I was really falling for him. More than I’d ever fallen for anyone ever.

  The realisation made me blush, then another thought drained all the heat from my face. I knew Nico liked me – he’d saved my life, for God’s sake – but was he falling as hard as I was?

  How could I know for sure?

  ‘Come on, Ed,’ I said, hoping no-one would notice my
confusion. ‘You won’t have to do anything, just come with us.’

  Ed rubbed his sandy hair roughly so the fringe stood up in a tuft. ‘It’s not just that.’ He said. ‘The assignment doesn’t make sense. All we’re doing is breaking into a locker. Geri could have sent the police for that.’

  There was a short pause, then Dylan rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. Stay here.’

  Ed turned away. I sighed. I didn’t like leaving him out, but what could I do?

  ‘Okay, let’s go.’ Nico glanced from Dylan to me. ‘Wait for my signal.’

  As he opened the gym door I stared into the lobby. It was smart, with a lush red carpet and a smooth pale wood reception desk in the corner. The blonde receptionist was bent over an open folder next to a tall glass vase of flowers.

  I watched Nico closely. I’d only seen him use his telekinesis properly once before – and as I’d been falling down a cliff at the time, I hadn’t been able to see exactly what he did.

  Nico lifted one hand and made a slight twisting motion in the direction of the vase. Seconds later it tipped over. Water splashed down the desk. Glass smashed onto the carpet. The receptionist squealed, then started mopping frantically at the drenched folder in front of her. She didn’t notice Nico.

  He beckoned Dylan and me through the door. We scurried silently past the reception desk and were through the swing doors, into the café, in seconds. As expected, it was virtually empty – just one guy reading a paper in the corner. The end of the afternoon was apparently the quietest time – before the after-work rush.

  Nico grinned. ‘Well, that was easy.’

  ‘Awesome,’ Dylan said briskly. She pointed to a set of stairs on our left. ‘According to the building plan Geri showed us, the men’s changing area’s up there.’

  As we climbed the stairs, Nico moved closer and gave my hand a quick squeeze. ‘You okay?’

  ‘Sure,’ I nodded. The truth was I felt bad for Ed, but I didn’t want to say that to Nico. My feeling sorry for Ed was a bit of a sore point between us. In fact, it was usually better not to mention Ed at all.