Hit Squad (24 page)

‘Guys, we really need to go,’ Ed said.

I shook myself. He was right. We still faced a huge challenge to escape the building. It was going to take all Dylan’s powers to protect the three of us – and the fire upstairs would
be raging harder than ever.

I grabbed Ketty’s hand. ‘Come on.’

We rushed back to the stairs we’d come down earlier. As we got closer, the ceiling above us gave a warning creak. I looked up. Cracks were splintering across the white plaster which was
flaking down. Swirls of smoke were drifting through too.

The whole thing was about to collapse.

‘We can get through!’ Dylan shouted.

‘No!’ Ed grabbed her arm.

‘Get back!’ I shouted.

The ceiling gave a huge crack. I dragged Ketty backwards. Ed and Dylan stumbled after us. Another crack. More plaster.

And then the whole ceiling caved in.

My lungs filled with plaster dust. I bent over, coughing.

‘No!’ Ketty wailed.

I straightened up. The whole ceiling – from just beyond where we were standing to the stairs – had collapsed. Piles of rubble blocked our exit.

‘Now what?’ Ed clutched at his forehead. Like the rest of us he was covered in dust – and choking.

It wasn’t just the dust. Smoke from the room above was now whirling overhead. The fire had found its way down to us at last.

‘Along here!’ I turned and pounded along the corridor. Surely there had to be another way out?

I ran, pulling Ketty behind me. The smoke and dust eased slightly. Ketty’s slim wrist was real in my hand. She was alive. I still couldn’t believe it. I wanted nothing more than to
stop and hold her again. But we had to find a way out of the building before the rest of the ceiling collapsed and the fire engulfed us.

Around a corner. Along another corridor. Stairs leading up to the ground floor appeared at the end. I speeded up.

‘No, Nico!’ Ed yelled after me. ‘They lead up to the centre of the building. We’d never get through the fire there.’

I skidded to a halt. Ketty stopped, breathless, beside me. I turned to Dylan.

‘Can’t you protect us all?’ I said.

She shook her head. ‘I could maybe look after myself. But extending the energy round three of you . . . where the fire’s at its worst . . . there’s no way . . .’

My stomach screwed into a knot. I slid my hand fully into Ketty’s and gripped it tightly. The others all looked at me expectantly.

‘We’ll find a way,’ I said. I looked back along the corridor we’d just run down. There were two rooms on either side.

‘Let’s check these out,’ I said. ‘See if there’s a window we could open.’ It was a long shot. Ketty’s cell hadn’t had windows and nothing
I’d seen in the rest of the basement so far suggested there were any elsewhere down here. But it was all I could think of.

Smoke was already curling around the corner we’d just run round.

‘Move!’ I said.

Dylan and Ed raced into the rooms on the right. Ketty and I ran through the first door on the left. Some kind of storage area full of cardboard boxes. No windows.

I looked around, suddenly feeling helpless. We were trapped down here.

Ketty reached up and touched my face again. Her fingers were cool on my cheek.

‘I’m sorry I was so angry with you about . . . about Amy pretending to be me . . . it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t even really hers, she’s just a kid.’

I gazed into her golden-brown eyes. ‘Maybe it was a bit my fault,’ I said. ‘I mean, I did act like an idiot, going off on my own and . . . and . . .’ I took a deep
breath, ‘. . . showing off and stuff . . .’

Ketty smiled.

‘When I thought you were . . . gone . . .’ I said, struggling for the words, ‘. . . I realised that nothing else mattered except you not . . . being gone . . .’

‘Me too,’ she said.

We stared at each other for another second, then Ketty shook herself.

‘Where are the others? D’you think they found something?’ she said.

Taking her hand again, we re-entered the corridor. It was rapidly filling with smoke now. We didn’t have much time. We crossed over to the door I’d seen Dylan fly through just
seconds before.

Unlike the other rooms, this one was in darkness. I stood in the doorway, trying to adjust to the shadowy interior. Beside me, Ketty gasped. She pointed across the floor to where Dylan lay
sprawled. She was moaning, clutching her head. A figure was bending over her. As we watched, open-mouthed, he stood up.

It was Foster.

‘How dare you do this to me?’ He glared at us. ‘How dare you destroy my work?’

I was so shocked that, for a second, I thought it was Amy again, impersonating Foster. But the look of furious contempt in his eye was utterly genuine. I glanced at Ketty. She looked terrified.
Anger rose up in me.

‘How dare
you
kidnap Ketty and con those children into forming your own personal team of assassins?’ I snapped. ‘The Medusix you’ve created doesn’t even work
properly yet. You’re using those kids like lab rats. Your own nephew collapsed after—’

‘Nico.’ Ketty gripped my hand more tightly, warning me not to provoke Foster further.

Foster let out an impatient snarl. ‘That’s what this lab was for . . . developing the drug so it
would
work. And now you’ve destroyed it. Everything’s
gone.’

‘Everything?’ I could hear the hope in Ketty’s voice.

My own spirits soared. If the lab was gone, then our mission had succeeded.

‘Everything,’ Foster repeated. ‘All the samples . . . the formulae . . . the research notes . . . it’s all destroyed.’ He paused. ‘
I’m
destroyed.’

I stared at him. Dylan was still prostrate at his feet, eyes closed, emitting low moans. But Foster was making no effort to stop us from running away. He might have hit Dylan, but he
hadn’t pulled a gun on us. And then I realised that he had no need to do any of these things. He knew the fire would get us. The fire would get all of us.

‘Is that why you came down here?’ I said. ‘To go down with your ship?’

‘I saw you coming towards the complex. I couldn’t see how many of you, but I knew you were coming for Ketty,’ Foster said. ‘And I wanted to be here too. To make
sure.’

‘Sure of what?’

‘That if I’m not going to survive this, then you aren’t either.’

Nico?
Ed’s voice sounded in my head.
I’m next door. Does Foster have a gun?

Probably, though he hasn’t drawn it. But he’s more or less knocked Dylan out. She’s on the ground.

I’ve found a way out. I just need a minute.

I glanced up and down the corridor. I couldn’t see either end of it, the smoke was now so thick. Its acrid scent was creeping towards us. Ketty coughed.

Hurry up!
I thought-spoke.

‘Contemplating your own mortality, Nico?’ Foster asked nastily. ‘Or working on your exit strategy?’

Keep him talking
, Ed thought-spoke.
Don’t let him know I’m down here too.

My mind whirled. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Panic filled me. There was so little time and, somehow, Ketty and I had to get a barely conscious Dylan away from Foster
and
stop him from following us into the next room.

Ask him about StopMed
, Ed suggested.

‘What’s StopMed?’ I said immediately.

Foster blinked, clearly shocked that I knew the name.

‘How do you know about that?’ he said.

I coughed. A wave of dark, acrid smoke swirled around us. I reckoned we had less than a minute before we started passing out.

‘Is it another drug?’ Ketty asked.

‘It’s designed to arrest the Medusa gene. Permanently,’ Foster snapped. ‘It was a by-product of the Medusix tests . . . Obviously it hasn’t been tested on live
subjects.’

Okay
, Ed’s voice appeared in my head again.
It’s time.

There was no time to think. No time to hesitate. The smoke was in my eyes and up my nose and down my throat.

I raised my hands. Using all the focus I could muster, I twisted one wrist, raising Foster off his feet and flinging him against the wall. With the other, I lifted Dylan off the ground.

Still groaning with pain, she zoomed towards me. I guided her through the door. Ketty was already out, in the corridor. As she raced next door, I slammed the door shut. I raised Dylan again. Ran
after Ketty. The room next door was bigger, full of stacked tables and chairs. No windows that I could see . . . so where was this way out?

‘Over here, Nico.’

I looked to the corner of the room. Ketty and Ed were bent down over an air vent. Ed had pulled the covering off, revealing a metre-square hole in the wall.

‘It goes a couple of metres up,’ he said. ‘There’s a ground-floor vent to the outside at the top. Can you get it open?’

I laid Dylan down, rushed over and peered up. The air vent leading to the ground floor above our heads was clearly visible. A twist of my hand and the latch gave. Now we could get out.

‘Done,’ I said.

‘Okay,’ Ed said. ‘Teleport me up there and outside. I’ll help everyone else.’

Seconds later Ed was through the air vent. I looked round for Ketty.

‘Dylan first,’ she said.

Obediently, I teleported Dylan up off the floor and up through the vent. I waited till Ed had hold of her, then turned to Ketty.

‘Your turn,’ I said.

She leaned forward and kissed me. ‘I’ll be waiting up there,’ she said.

I smiled and teleported her up.

Then I crawled into the vent myself. I stood up. My fingertips just reached the bottom of the opening to the ground floor. Ed’s head and shoulders appeared above me. His face was barely
visible, ghostly pale in the gloom. He reached out his hand. I grabbed his arm and braced myself. My ability to teleport only worked on others, not myself. I was going to have to use the wall as
leverage to raise myself up a bit. Ed wouldn’t be able to carry my weight alone, even if I moved him using telekinesis while he held on to me.

As I positioned my back and feet against opposite sides of the shaft, a bang echoed from next door. Was that Foster coming after us?

‘Hurry up,’ I gasped.

Ed strained, pulling on my arm. I inched up the shaft a few centimetres.

And then a hand clutched at my ankle.

‘Get back here,’ Foster roared.

I lost my grip on Ed – and my footing. I tumbled to the floor in a heap. Foster pulled me out. I tried to resist but I was weak from the smoke. It was thick in the room now, choking
me.

Still holding me with one hand, Foster drew his gun.

‘Only one bullet left,’ he panted. ‘I was saving it for myself, but now . . .’ He pointed the gun at my head.

I stared in disbelief at the tiny metal barrel.

Was I going to die?

The smoke was filling my lungs. I didn’t have much time either way. And then I looked into Foster’s mean grey eyes and I thought of all the terrible things he had done and all the
terrible things that had happened since I realised I had the Medusa gene and I knew that it couldn’t end like this.

I couldn’t let it.

Using all the power I had left. I turned the gun telekinetically, just as Foster pulled the trigger. The gun fired into the wall.

Foster stared at me. He let out a roar.

‘Come on.’ I stood a step towards the vent. ‘We can both get out.’

‘No,’ Foster said bitterly. He backed away from me. ‘No, I’m not—’

I felt fingers grab my shoulder from behind. With a
whoosh
, my body was sucked into the air . . . I closed my eyes and sailed up, through a narrow space and into clear, fresh, beautiful
air. I soared through space, eyes still tight shut, then landed with a thump on my back.

What had happened? I lay still, my head spinning, winded. And then I opened my eyes, just as Ketty fell on her knees beside me.

‘Nico,’ she breathed, her tears falling onto my cheek.

Was she real? I closed my eyes again, feeling hands under me . . . lifting me . . . carrying me away.

A minute or so later I was carried inside something – a car – and laid across a seat.

‘Careful with his head,’ someone said. Was that Fergus?

Voices were chattering around me. Doors slamming. An engine roared. Light danced across my closed eyelids.

I looked up.

My head was in Ketty’s lap. She was smiling down at me.

‘Am I alive?’ I said.

‘Yes.’ That was Fergus.

I moved my head. Just a fraction. He was peering over his shoulder from the driver’s seat at the front of one of the big cars we’d arrived in. Cal sat beside him.

‘You did it,’ Fergus said. ‘You got Ketty and all the hit squad children are free. They’re in the other car with Harry and Amy and Avery.’

‘What happened to Foster?’ Cal asked.

I gulped. The past few minutes already felt like a dream.

‘I told him we could both get out,’ I stammered, ‘but he was too angry . . .’

I closed my eyes. Foster must be dead by now.

‘He got what he deserved,’ Cal said angrily.

I looked up at Ketty. ‘I tried to save him.’

She nodded. ‘I know.

‘What about Ed and Dylan?’ I said, struggling to sit up.