Dylan looked at her with mistrust. “Then why kidnap the King of Mendia instead this morning? Why spend a year working as a crime boss?”
“Oh, both of those are all about the money. Why else?”
Scarlett was as angry as Dylan now and all sympathy she felt for The Echidna was rapidly dissipating.
“And why did you kill those four superpowered teens today?” she asked.
The Echidna shrugged. “They were in my way.”
“We knew them.”
She stared at them both blankly. “Oh. Sorry.” It didn’t sound like she was though. It was obvious that The Echidna had little empathy for them and while she may have superpowers, her cause was starkly different to theirs.
She bent down to pick her mask up, leapt to her feet and turned to them both.
“Well, see you around. I have to admit, I do admire you two, but what I said before about staying out of my way still stands. Don’t mess in my business.”
She placed her mask on and leapt over the railings without another word. Scarlett watched her go, then turned to Dylan and took his hand.
“Sometimes, I feel like you’re the only good person in this world. Everyone else seems to be so selfish with their own agenda.”
He stroked her hair from her face and looked her in the eyes. “You’re the best person I know, Scarlett, but don’t give up on humanity. Remember all the kind friends we’re trying to rescue. The wrong ’uns shout the loudest, so you notice them more, that’s all. There are lots of good people out there and they’re the ones we’re trying to save this world for.”
She smiled, closed her eyes and gave him a hug.
“We should get out of here,” he said. “And find out if Jay, Isabella and Aaron are still in the building.”
But as Scarlett opened her eyes and peered over Dylan’s shoulder, she realised that not only were they going nowhere fast, but she was very certain that their friends hadn’t left the hotel yet.
There, standing at the other side of the roof terrace, were Isabella, Aaron and Jay and they didn’t look in the mood for a friendly chat. Judging from their hostile stares and the fact that Goulden was with them, it looked like they’d been brainwashed and were planning to attack any second now.
She pulled away from Dylan and spun him around.
“I think we’ve found them.”
Chapter 21
There was no denying it. Scarlett and Dylan had a dilemma on their hands. Isabella, Jay and Aaron were staring at them coldly like they’d love to rip the flesh from their bones and there was no point trying to reason with them.
They didn’t want to stay and fight their friends, but they couldn’t bring themselves to flee and leave them at Goulden’s mercy either. The Prime Minister had them in checkmate. They couldn’t even attack him while he was standing so close to the other three either. That was probably part of his plan, but there was no way Scarlett was standing for it.
She telekinetically lifted Goulden away from the group and threw him across the roof. Isolating him was the only way she could ambush him without hurting her friends, but as she wrenched a section of iron fence free to fling at the PM, Aaron threw a laser ball that sent her stumbling backwards. Before she had chance to get up, Goulden was already back on his feet.
“Kill her,” he said.
She’d never seen him so full of contempt.
“No!” Dylan shouted.
He rushed to Scarlett’s side, grabbed her hand and tapped into her boosting power, which allowed him to create a thick ice wall between them and their attackers. It wouldn’t hold Aaron’s laser balls back for long, but it would give them a minute to gather their thoughts. Thankfully, Isabella’s time talents and Jay’s super speed were no use against the frosty barrier.
“I have no idea what to do,” Scarlett said.
Being attacked by a friend was the final straw for her. It seemed like, whatever they did, Goulden always won. Sensing her mood, Dylan tried to make her stay positive. He placed his arm around her and encouraged her to stand up.
“We can do this, Scarlett. We will free them, but we need to accept that it isn’t possible at this second.”
“So we leave them with Goulden?”
“What choice do we have? They’ve been brainwashed to kill us; we can’t compete with that. Plus we have a city to save, we’re supposed to be delaying the war and preventing the biological attack killing millions of people. We have to focus on that first.”
Scarlett knew Dylan was right, but she hated to admit defeat. Although she didn’t feel like they were making much headway stopping the attack either. Suddenly, she had an idea. She used her telekinesis to fly Goulden over the wall before dropping him in front of them.
“A brave move,” he said. As usual, he maintained a cool and composed demeanour as he clambered to his feet and straightened his tie. “What do you want?”
“We want you to call off the war.”
Goulden laughed and shook his head.
“No.”
“You don’t understand. Millions of people are going to die if you go ahead with this…”
“Who cares?”
“We do, you do. I’m not talking about people in Mendia, millions of innocent citizens will die in Greater Manchester if you go to war. Mason saw it with his powers.”
Scarlett expected him to be shocked by her revelation, but Goulden didn’t look in the least bit surprised.
“Did you hear what I…”
“Yes, yes! I heard what you said.” Goulden was angry. “You damn kids are really starting to get on my nerves now. Do you have to be so good and moralistic about everything?”
He spat the words out like being good and moralistic were things to be ashamed of.
“You don’t care?”
“Of course I don’t care, Miss Shortt. By the time the biological weapon hits Manchester, all the people worth saving will be protected by my new shield.”
“How can you be so sure?” Scarlett asked. “And how did you know it’s a biological weapon? I didn’t mention that...”
“Because he’s behind the whole thing.” Dylan said.
He suddenly realised that Mendia weren’t the ones who were going to carry out the attack, Goulden was. That’s why he was rushing through this Cities Of The Future scheme. He wanted the rich and powerful to survive, but he didn’t care what happened to everyone else. He’d be hailed a hero for saving some of the people and he’d blame it on Mendia to justify escalating his war plans. Dylan glared at Goulden defiantly, silently willing him to admit he was planning to murder millions, but the Prime Minister simply shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
“Can I go now?”
“No.”
Dylan snapped off a sharp shard of ice from the wall and hovered it towards Goulden’s chest.
“Tell the truth, you’re the one who’s going to attack Manchester. Admit it!”
Goulden smirked. “You might be right, but that would be telling, wouldn’t it? I don’t want you stopping me.”
Dylan paced towards Goulden.
“Just tell the truth!”
But before the PM could answer, one of Aaron’s laser balls broke through the wall and caused it to come crashing down. Jay ran towards them at super speed and punched Dylan so hard on the chin that it sounded like his jaw had broken while Scarlett screamed in horror. They both knew it was time to retreat.
“Time we weren’t here,” she said.
Scarlett grabbed Dylan’s hand and guided him upwards as they both flew away from the hotel roof and towards Spinningfields, where she could see The Shield taking shape. The four pieces of glass had started to rise from the ground and the one in front of them was now more than 500 feet tall, which was about three quarters of the height of the Irwell Tower. There was still some way to go before it was complete.
Dylan steered them up and over the dome, across the River Irwell and towards Salford, where they picked a quiet side street to descend into.
�
��Let’s make this quick,” he said.
He rubbed his jaw, then dashed down the litter-strewn road towards the hideout to check for a message from Lucy, Alex and Neelam. They needed to come back together as a group now if they were going to stand any chance of stopping the PM’s plans for the city and getting their friends back. Hopefully, the three would have teleported back by now to leave a note about their whereabouts.
As they reached the front door of the hideout, Scarlett telekinetically unlocked the door and dashed over to the staircase, where she prised open the bottom step. It would only budge slightly, so she stuck her hand inside and rummaged around amongst the cobwebs and dirt. She squirmed as she searched for the note; there had better not be any spiders in there.
“Any luck?” Dylan said.
Scarlett wriggled her hand around a bit more, hoping to find something. And there it was: a crisp piece of paper. She pulled it out to make sure it wasn’t junk and unfolded it to find a message in Neelam’s neat, loopy handwriting.
“Yes! Look…”
Dylan ran over to read the note, which simply said “Ethinance Air Raid Shelter”.
“Where’s that?” Dylan said. “Do you know?”
“I have no idea.”
“What are they doing in a bomb shelter anyway? They were supposed to be looking for Aaron, Isabella and Jay.”
“Perhaps they hit upon a lead and got distracted. We did, after all.”
“True. They could be helping people hide down there before the attack.”
“That’s possible, but we won’t find out standing around here chatting. Are you sure you don’t know where it is?”
“There are a lot of Ethinance banks and food stores, Dylan. Well, there used to be back in my world, but I haven’t seen them since I came to yours now I come to think of it.”
As she racked her brain, Scarlett could only picture the Ethinance supermarket in West Didsbury where her mum used to take her food shopping. She raced through her memory, trying to recall the branches in central Manchester. There was the one in Piccadilly Gardens, a shop near the Printworks, the one near the Ethinance Tower and….”
She slapped her forehead. “Of course!”
Dylan gave her a quizzical look.
“The old Ethinance Tower on Miller Street.”
He still looked clueless.
“Remember when we first got here and Alex and I were shocked that the huge Ethinance Tower was no longer there and Rachel later told us it’d been flattened along with the other buildings in the area?” She was babbling quickly in the way she always did when she hit upon an idea.
“I think so…”
“There’s an air-raid shelter under there. I remember Alex banging on about wanting to go on a tour down there once.”
“So we know where they are?”
“Yes!”
“Then lead the way.”
The two of them walked back to a quiet spot before soaring up high into the skies where they were sure no one would spot them. When she’d first learned to fly down in London, Scarlett was worried people would spot her whizzing through the air, but it was fascinating to notice how few people actually stopped to look up. Most of them were far too busy going about their day, staring at the floor, their phone, the road ahead or chatting to their loved ones. Everyone had far too much on their mind to look up to the open skies above, and even the few that did see her had to take a second look before they could believe their eyes, and by that point Scarlett was gone.
She and Dylan flew back over Manchester centre, over the dome and towards the other side of the city before landing beside one of the many disused buildings near Miller Street. The roads were as deserted as they had been when they left Rachel’s place the other day. There was little chance of being spotted round here, but Scarlett was still on the lookout in case Goulden was on their tail. You never knew if police or Detectobots would be patrolling these parts too.
She led them towards Dantzic Street then up to the vast open space that used to be full of Ethinance buildings. The air-raid shelters had to be underground around here somewhere, but how did they get to them? She hadn’t stopped to work out that part of the plan.
“What now?” Dylan said.
He grabbed her hand protectively, showing that he was as on edge as she was. Scarlett didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t too sure what to do next and she had no idea how to get down to the air-raid shelters. It was at moments like this that she wished she had a wide range of powers like Superman. X-ray vision in particular would come in handy right now.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the whirring sound of a Detectobot approaching, so she quickly unlocked a cellar door in the floor next to them and they jumped inside. Seconds later, the spherical robot hovered past above them, making an ominous mechanical sound as it went by.
“That was close,” Dylan said.
He hovered up to the cellar door and pushed it to get back outside, but Scarlett had a better idea.
“This way,” she said.
She walked further into the underground tunnel they’d found themselves in, hoping that it would lead to the air-raid shelter.
“Where are we going?”
“Alex used to have a fascination with underground Manchester and if my memory serves me correctly, there’s a whole maze of tunnels under this part of town that link up all the buildings and the air-raid shelter.”
“And the door we just came through leads to them?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll give it a try.”
They ventured along the dark, damp tunnel until coming to a staircase that led further underground. Unfortunately, it was boarded up, but that wasn’t a problem for Scarlett. She telekinetically ripped her way through before heading down the steps.
The staircase smelt of damp and the walls were patchy with brown and grey splotches all over them. It looked like no one had been down here in years and she didn’t blame them. It was creepy. Each step creaked under their weight, the noise echoing eerily around the silent, empty cavern they were descending into.
Finally, they reached the bottom and were faced with a choice of left or right. She had completely lost her bearings, so she took a guess at heading right. That seemed to be the way towards where the shelter should be and the tunnel on the left was flooded further down. The direction they chose wasn’t much better though. Scarlett felt her feet squelch as the squidgy dampness on the ground seeped into her trainers, making her feet feel all wet and cold. The archways here were made from brick and were barely large enough for them both to fit through.
As they made their way further along, their surroundings grew grander and the tunnels began to look like proper rooms rather than a toxic sewer. Bottle-green Victorian tiles lined the walls and Scarlett found herself wondering what fascinating things this area had been used for in days gone by.
“It’s like there’s a whole world lost down here,” Dylan said in awe. “It’s madness.”
Scarlett nodded in agreement. If they hadn’t been on such an important mission, she could have wandered around here all day. It was fascinating. She could almost picture men and women dressed in Victorian finery rushing through these passages from one building to another.
Suddenly, a loud clattering interrupted her thoughts and jolted her back to reality with a huge bang.
“What was that?”
She looked around wildly, trying to identify the source of the noise. When you were attacked and ambushed as frequently as they were, it had a habit of making you paranoid.
“Don’t worry,” Dylan said. “It was just a cat.”
“Funny sounding cat.”
“I think we scared it and it knocked some junk over. Don’t be so jumpy.”
That was easier said than done, but Scarlett composed herself and kept going. They soon reached another crossroads, with the option to go left, right or through the door in front of them. Seeing as the door was right there, it would be silly not to see what lay beyond it.
“Shall we see what’s in here?” she asked Dylan. He nodded, so she telekinetically turned the large, circular handle until the lock popped undone, then swung the door open. She and Dylan poked their heads around the opening to check the coast was clear before venturing inside, where they found a vast, open space the size of an aircraft hangar. This could be the shelter they were looking for, but it was full of rows upon rows of shelves; there was no room for people to hide out down here.
Dylan walked over to the shelves and started rummaging through the boxes of stored items.
“Scarlett,” he whispered. “Take a look at this.”
The containers were full of weapons, bombs and guns and many of them were similar to the ones they’d seen being produced in the Arndale Workhouse down the road. As they made their way down the aisle, the shelves were stocked with sturdy metal boxes, many of which had a scary-looking skull-and-crossbones sign on them. Scarlett wasn’t sure what they meant, but she knew it wasn’t good.
She tried to pull one of the tins forward to take a closer look, but it was too heavy to lift with her hands, so she used her mind to scoot it forward. As she did so, it made a loud screeching noise. She panicked and stopped moving the box, but it was too late; the sound of footsteps running towards them was already echoing around the room. She must have alerted someone to their presence. The pair started edging back towards the exit, but there was no time to escape.
“Don’t touch that,” a voice said.
Scarlett looked up to see a man in a pale green uniform and a matching metal helmet.
“Sorry. I was just looking.”
“Well don’t, miss. That’s dangerous.”
“Do you need our help, Sergeant Marks?” another voice said from beyond the shelves.
It was accompanied by the sound of several more sets of urgent footsteps.
“It’s all under control. Some teenagers snooping around, that’s all.”
“Teenagers?” a girl said as she stepped out from behind the sergeant. “Could it be…”
“Neelam!” Scarlett shouted as Alex and Lucy appeared beside her.
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 16
