“Very well. Tell them I’m on my way.”
Scarlett pressed her ear to the door as she listened to the men walk away. She was glad that was over; not only did it mean they could get out of here, but she didn’t have to hear any more of Goulden’s gloating either. It made her sick. She couldn’t believe he took so much pleasure in spreading misery. Or killing people. Millions of people.
“He’s taken the devilpox,” she said to the others. “We have to stop him.”
Without waiting for a response, she telekinetically unlocked the door and ran out onto the air-raid shelter floor. She wasn’t being reckless this time, racing after Goulden was their only option. She didn’t want to confront him down here though in case he locked them inside, she would fight him in the safety of the outside world, where they were free to stop the devilpox attack. Dylan would approve of that part of the plan at least because he’d given her the idea earlier.
“Neelam,” she called into her friend’s head as she ran. “Tap the others in and tell them we have to be smart and careful here. We must catch Goulden and find out which airfield the devilpox has been taken to without getting caught.”
“Done,” Neelam said. “They all know.”
“Is that it?” Lucy said through the mind link. She sounded unimpressed. “That’s your plan?”
“Pretty much. All I can suggest is we hit him with all we’ve got. Sergeant Marks, I’m following Goulden blindly here. I assume we can get out of the building this way.”
“We can, there are some stairs on the right up ahead.”
No one said a word as they ran to the dingy concrete steps and up to the outside world. Scarlett took a deep breath as they neared the top. She had no need to worry about being cold anymore; she felt hot and dizzy from the fear of heading into yet another battle. It didn’t matter how many times they faced Goulden, it never got any easier for her. The anxiety she felt was like an extreme form of stage fright, but she channelled the adrenalin so it spurred her on to do what she had to do.
She telekinetically opened the door at the top and raced out into the street. Just ahead of her, Goulden was climbing into a smart black Jaguar car. She couldn’t let him get away.
“He’s over there,” she called to her friends as she dashed in Goulden’s direction and telekinetically threw him away from the car. He landed flat on the floor, but quickly pushed himself up onto all fours and glared in her direction.
“You again. I’ve had enough of this.”
Goulden reached into his pocket, presumably for his gun, but Scarlett didn’t give him time. She mind lifted him high into the air and spun him upside down. Sure enough a gun fell out, along with a black leather wallet and a slim, silver mobile phone.
“Where’s the airfield?” she said.
He refused to say a word.
“I’ll ask you again. Where’s the airfield?”
Three of Goulden’s men raced towards Scarlett, but she deflected them away with her left hand, while keeping her right one pointing towards Goulden.
“Answer her,” Dylan said.
He glanced around for water, but there was none. Why did this have to be one of the few days when it didn’t rain in Manchester? He needed Scarlett to enhance his powers if he was going to play any part in this fight.
“Give me a boost,” he said as he took her hand.
Scarlett souped-up Dylan’s power as he encapsulated Goulden’s car in a solid block of ice, then created an ice cage to hold the PM’s men. Goulden was on his own now with no means of escape.
“The airfield,” Dylan said. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know.” Goulden rolled his eyes flippantly. He was cocky for someone being dangled in mid-air and outnumbered by a group of superheroes.
“Of course you know. You have everything planned meticulously.”
“And you said you’ll radio the pilots when it’s time to fly,” Scarlett added.
“Oh, what do you children want? A medal?”
“Neelam?” Scarlett said via their mind link. “Can you dig into his brain?”
“I can’t read his mind,” Neelam replied. “I’m trying, but he must have a telepathic blocker in place.”
Goulden, who was still dangling in the air, sighed with impatience. “Can you let me go now?”
“No,” Scarlett snapped.
“It’s not a request, it’s an order. Let me go now.”
“Or what?” Lucy said
“Or they will get you.”
Before anyone could ask who ‘they’ were, Lucy squealed as an all-too-familiar laser ball blasted past her, almost scorching her arm.
Scarlett’s heart sank as she realised they’d forgotten to tell Lucy her brother had been brainwashed into switching sides. In fact, amidst all the drama, she and Dylan had neglected to tell any of their friends about their awful discovery.
“What the hell?” Lucy shouted as she dodged another blast from Aaron.
He, Isabella and Jay were now dressed in the dark grey Super Soldier uniforms and they’d been joined by Toshiko, Andrew, Mallory, Ethan and Hayden, who didn’t waste any time using his fire powers to melt the ice around the PM’s car. Aaron threw a laser ball at Scarlett, causing her to drop Goulden to the ground.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to,” Goulden said as he stood up and brushed himself down. He leapt into the car along with his driver and men. “You children play nicely now.”
As Goulden made his escape, Lucy stood shock still, oblivious to the flames that Hayden was launching at her, but Alex teleported her away just in time.
“We can’t fight them,” Neelam said in their heads. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m trying,” Scarlett said as she deflected a car Andrew threw at her. “They won’t let us.”
To her left, Toshiko somersaulted over to Neelam and kicked her so hard in the chest that she knocked her to the ground. Scarlett rushed to help her friend, but someone else beat her to it. The Echidna appeared from nowhere, socked Toshiko in the jaw, punched her round the head, then performed a swinging kick that sent her flying.
“Thanks,” Scarlett said as she helped Neelam up.
Before The Echidna could respond, Alex teleported over with Dylan and Lucy, grabbed their hands, then whisked them all out of there. Scarlett knew it was for the best. As they’d learned earlier, they couldn’t fight or free their friends, so the best thing they could do was run when they had the chance. Anything they could do to stay alive and still have a shot at stopping Goulden’s plans.
Chapter 24
Seconds later, the six of them were standing in completely new surroundings. Scarlett looked around at the grassy area, which was lined with trees and had a children’s playground to the right of them. It’d been a while since the sounds of laughter had rung out there though; the empty play area consisted of nothing more than a few metal frames without swings, a broken roundabout and the steps to an absent slide. The gate had been snapped away from the railings and the whole area was strewn with litter, broken beer bottles and disposed syringes. It was filthy.
And yet it seemed oddly familiar.
She took another glance around the green park and realised where she was. This was Fog Lane Park on the edge of Didsbury, a suburb of South Manchester. She and Alex had hung out here when they were younger: many years before her parents relocated to London, and a long time before they found themselves in this weird alternate version of their world. This park was so different to the happy place she knew that she barely recognised it.
She turned to speak to Alex and the rest of the group, but Lucy beat her to it.
“What was that? My brother is fighting for Goulden now? And you two didn’t even seem surprised.” She pointed a finger accusingly at Scarlett and Dylan. “Did you know?”
“Yes but…” Scarlett started to say.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There was no time! We found out just before we met you at the air-raid s
helter and I forgot.”
“You forgot?”
“We’re trying to save the world here. I’m kind of preoccupied.”
“Lay off, Lucy,” Dylan said. “To cut a long story short, we saw Goulden taking Aaron, Isabella and Jay from the Arndale Workhouse. We raced to save them, but it was too late; they’d already been brainwashed into becoming Super Soldiers. We knew we couldn’t fight them, so we fled and came to find you. Oh yeah, and just before that, Goulden almost killed Scarlett, but The Echidna saved her. We’ve not exactly been out there having fun.”
Realising that The Echidna had now come to their rescue twice, Scarlett turned to thank her, but she was nowhere to be seen even though she’d teleported there with them a minute before.
“And she just saved Neelam before we came here, but where’s she gone?”
“She?” a confused Neelam said. “Are you talking about The Echidna?”
“Yeah, it turns out that the ‘fearsome male gang boss’ is really a young woman who isn’t much older than us. She was one of Goulden’s first Rejects and has a healing power along with some side effects; that’s why she wears the mask. She escaped his lab and fled up here.”
“She’s a Reject? I had no idea.”
“None of us did. Anyway, where’s she gone? We could do with her help.”
“We could not. She’s a criminal,” Dylan said. “And she told us to keep out of her way, even after saving your life that first time.” He didn’t look too keen on the idea of finding her.
“Yeah and then she came back and helped us again. She can’t be all bad and she has a lot of connections in this city. Don’t you think she could help us?”
Dylan walked off in the other direction. The group was panicking as they too often did in the middle of a crisis. They needed to pull together, not start arguing, so instead of yelling at Dylan, Scarlett bit her lip and chased after him instead. She placed her arms around him to encourage him to loosen up; he was always so tense when he was in this mood. Not that she could blame him for being on edge, the last few days had been eventful and depressing even by their standards.
“Let’s not row, it’ll be OK.”
“Yeah.”
He still seemed preoccupied, but at least he was forcing a smile. Scarlett took his hand and led him back to the others.
“Hang on a minute,” he said as he realised someone was missing. “Where’s Sergeant Marks? Didn’t he come with us?”
Alex shook his head.
“He sped off in a car before I teleported us. Didn’t you see him? I’m hoping he went to get help from the army.”
“I wouldn’t count on them taking action against Goulden,” Scarlett said. “It’s down to us to stop him killing everyone in Greater Manchester; that’s our only priority now. As concerned as I am about Aaron, Jay and Isabella, we’ll have to worry about saving them later and put aside any differences we have for now. Does everyone agree?”
She looked at Lucy, who folded her arms and glowered at Scarlett, then reluctantly nodded her head. “Oh, OK.”
Lucy’s concern for her brother was causing her old petulance to rise to the fore, but she was maintaining enough maturity to at least try to put her feelings aside and work with the team.
“Great.” Scarlett clapped her hands together. “I don’t know what we do now though.”
She turned to Dylan for help. While she was good at thinking quickly in the heat of the moment, he was best at coming up with strategic battle plans.
“Why do you always look at me for answers?” He shook his head and laughed, finally loosening up a little.
“Because you’re the brains of this outfit.”
“Yeah, but I have no idea how to find this airfield and without that we’re stuck. Lucy, have you still got your laptop?”
“Nope, it’s at the hideout.”
Two flashes of light came from nowhere, almost blinding them all, then they saw Alex stood in front of Lucy with the laptop in his hands. He’d teleported back to Salford to fetch it.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks,” Lucy said, before sitting down on the grass and using her powers to switch it on. She did a quick search for information, but wasn’t too happy with her findings. “There are so many airfields in the area. How do we know which one it is?”
“It’s about 15 miles from here over near Glossop,” a new voice said. “You won’t find any information on that thing because it isn’t a real airfield, Goulden’s set up a temporary one in the countryside. I can take you there if you want.”
The five of them spun around to see The Echidna stood before them. She had five henchmen with her.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. I fetched this lot as back-up to take Goulden down. Seeing as we have a common interest, I thought we should team up. What do you reckon?”
“You know where the airfield is?” Scarlett said. “And what he plans to do there?”
“Yeah, I hung around and heard what he said to you about mass murdering the whole city on the Midland Hotel roof. That’s why I came to your rescue again, we need to work together if we’re going to stop him. I’ll be honest, I’m not too keen on the idea of hanging out with you kids, but I don’t fancy dying either. He needs to be stopped and I’d like to help you. We’d like to help you.”
“I don’t trust her,” Neelam said in their heads.
“Me neither,” Scarlett replied via the group mind link. “But she knows where to go.”
“If you believe her.”
“She seems genuine. For once,” Dylan argued.
“I think we should go with her. We need the help,” Lucy said. “Alex?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Whatever you lot reckon.”
“Majority says yes then,” Scarlett said.
She walked over to The Echidna and looked her right in the eyes. She felt anything but confident standing up to her, but she wanted to assert some authority. The villainess would be less willing to screw them over if she thought they weren’t pushovers. Well, that’s what she hoped anyway.
“OK then. No funny business though. We’re pretty dangerous, you know.”
“And I’m invulnerable thanks to my healing power.”
“No one’s completely invulnerable. Even you must have a chink in your armour.” She smiled sweetly yet sarcastically.
The Echidna laughed and extended her hand. “Alright then.”
Scarlett was still dubious as she accepted the handshake, but she was pleased they were at least making progress. She couldn’t be sure that The Echidna wasn’t going to betray them, but she was inclined to trust her because they all had the same goal now: to stay alive.
“So how do we get to this Glossop place? Alex?”
“I’ve never been out that way. I don’t know if I could...”
“No worries, my boys will drive us there,” The Echidna said. “Follow us.”
Scarlett, Dylan and Neelam went in a car with one of the henchmen, while Lucy and Alex joined The Echidna and one of her men in another. A third vehicle of criminals led the way as they drove down the road out of South Manchester.
It reminded Scarlett of the time she had travelled through the city for her grandfather’s funeral when she was 13. That had been one of the most awful days of her life and she’d spent the whole journey to the church full of dread and sadness, wondering if she’d be strong enough to make it through the service. Today was worse, she felt like she was heading to her own funeral.
And maybe she was.
As the cars whizzed out of the city, she watched the suburban houses pass her by, wondering if the ordinary families inside these normal houses had any idea that their lives were at risk. What would they think if they knew they’d been doomed to death by Goulden’s madness simply because they weren’t deemed important enough to live within his Shield. She turned to look at the city centre behind them and saw that construction of the dome was nearing completion in the distance.
The car pulled up at a
pedestrian crossing, where the light had turned red to let a young family cross. Scarlett felt close to tears as she watched them laughing and joking, oblivious to what lay ahead. The daughter, who was around six years old, paused in the middle of the road to grab a doll she’d dropped. As she stood up, she spotted Scarlett through the window and gave her a wave before her dad hurried her across. She looked so happy and innocent as she skipped along, clutching her cherished toy. Tears stung Scarlett’s eyes as she realised how important it was that they succeeded today. They had to stop this attack for these people. She needed to be brave for them.
Soon, the cars turned onto the motorway and they passed the striking red-brick viaduct at Stockport, which was a landmark Scarlett had been in awe of since she was a little girl. She sat back in her seat as the cars raced down the motorway until they took the slip road to turn off 10 minutes later. She had never travelled this way out of Manchester before and she gasped in wonder as the urban landscape flew by to reveal beautiful green rolling hills and pretty stone houses. It took her breath away.
“This view is incredible,” Dylan said, speaking the first words of the whole journey.
Scarlett nodded in agreement, then they went back to sitting in silence.
A few country lanes later, the cars pulled up next to a wide expanse of fields, which unfolded to reveal a patchwork of hills in many shades of green. The scene was even more stunning thanks to the early evening sun that was bathing everything in a golden light. Fluffy, perfectly formed clouds peeked out from beyond the horizon, lending the feel of a renaissance painting to the landscape.
Scarlett stepped out of the car, stood next to a dry stone wall and soaked up the abiding view for a moment. “I hope I get to see this again,” she thought.
Remembering the mission at hand, she mentally shook herself and turned her attention to the here and now. In the near distance, she could see three small planes and a large truck surrounded by a group of six men. A Jaguar car that she recognised as Goulden’s was parked 50 feet or so from the aircraft. They had definitely come to the right place. As she watched, Goulden stepped out of the car, followed by Jay, Isabella and Aaron. Beside them, Andrew, Toshiko, Ethan, Hayden and Mallory climbed out of another vehicle. All eight teenagers were wearing formal grey Super Solider uniforms.
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 18
