Hit Squad (5 page)

That wasn’t fair. I wasn’t looking for special treatment but, if Nico was going to talk about everyone’s skills, how come he didn’t acknowledge that without my vision of
the green door we wouldn’t be here in the first place?

We all took our positions, Nico and Dylan in front. Nico twisted his hand. The large door groaned as the lock released. Dylan stepped forward and pushed it gently open. We all huddled behind
her, making it easier for her to reach out with her arms and extend her protective force around us all.

Dylan walked through the doorway. Peering over her shoulder, I could make out a high-ceilinged church interior, with rows of wooden pews leading to a simple wooden altar at the far end. Dawn
light shone in through the grubby windows, lighting the dust that floated in the air.

My heart pounded as we followed Dylan further inside. Where was the cold, damp passageway I’d seen after the door in my vision? I’d been skipping through time when I saw it . . . did
the passageway belong to a different place? This church interior certainly didn’t feel the same as anything in any of my visions.

‘Maybe there’s nothing relevant to Medusix in here,’ Ed whispered.

I shook my head. That was the one reliable thing about the ability to see into the future. I rarely saw things that didn’t turn out to be significant. And my vision had showed me the
church door. Surely the church itself
must
be important?

‘Let’s take a look round,’ Nico whispered.

‘AAAGH!’ A loud, high-pitched scream.

I jumped. The sound had come from a door at the far end of the church, beyond the altar.

Who on earth was there?

‘Come on,’ Nico ordered.

‘Shouldn’t we split up . . . some of us hold back?’ Cal asked. ‘It could be a trap.’

‘No.’ Nico frowned. ‘We have to stay together. We’re stronger as a unit.’ He strode off across the church. Ed and Dylan followed. Cal and I exchanged a glance. I
knew, without either of us saying anything, that we were both slightly irritated by Nico’s high-handed manner. I mean, staying together made sense to me as well, but he could at least have
waited for us to agree before walking away.

The atmosphere was tense as we reached the door.

Dylan pushed past Nico. She tried the handle. The door wasn’t locked. It opened slowly, creaking into the echoing silence of the church. A bead of sweat trickled down the back of my
neck.

Beyond the door was a small, windowless room with a table, several chairs and a row of cassocks hanging from pegs along the wall. The only light came from a lantern perched on the table. As my
eyes adjusted to the light, I caught sight of a shadowy figure huddled against the wall opposite.

‘Hello?’ I said.

‘Hello.’ The voice was a girl’s. Young and nervous and with a strong accent.

She stepped into the light of the lantern. She was younger than us – about eleven or twelve I was guessing – with long dark hair and a grubby smudge on her button nose. I was
guessing she was quite pretty under the dirt.

‘I, Tania,’ she said. She gulped.

I looked around. Ranged in a row as we were we must look really intimidating.

I stepped forward, smiling to put the girl at her ease.

‘We heard you scream,’ I said. ‘Are you okay?’

Tania nodded.

‘What on earth is going on?’ Ed muttered.

‘You’ll have to mind-read her, Ed,’ Dylan said, her voice full of suspicion.

‘No,’ I said. ‘We can’t just assume everyone we meet is untrustworthy.’

Dylan snorted.

‘Anyway I don’t think mind-reading would work with her, beyond general emotions,’ Ed said. ‘She doesn’t sound like she thinks in English.’

‘Mind-read?’ Tania said.

She said it too casually. I was suddenly certain this was a trap.

‘She knows what we can do,’ I said, my anxieties mounting.

Behind us, the door slammed shut. A key turned in the lock. Nico immediately raised his hand.

‘My telekinesis isn’t working,’ he said.

I looked at Tania. ‘What’s going on?’

Tania shook her head.

‘Look!’ Cal pointed to an air vent in the base of the wall beside the table. A thin tube poked out through its bars. As I saw it, I felt a fine mist clutch at my throat.

‘It’s Medutox,’ I said.

Medutox. The drug we’d encountered for the first time just a couple of weeks ago, which had rendered all our psychic abilities useless.

Nico was twisting his hand – a classic telekinetic move. Except . . . He turned to meet my eyes. His shocked expression said it all.

‘I’ve lost my powers,’ Ed gasped.

‘Me too,’ Dylan cried beside him.

I looked round frantically. There must be some other way out of the storeroom. But it was completely sealed. No doors or windows. I groaned. We couldn’t have picked a worse place to escape
from if we’d been trying.

The Medutox was still being pumped into the room. Cal tried to leap up, onto the table. But instead he just landed back on the ground with a dull thud.

‘It’s reached me too,’ he said. ‘I can’t fly any more.’

I stared at the metal pipe, knowing that my own flaky ability to see into the future must be gone too. Who was out there? Was it the man experimenting with Medusix? It must be, if he also had
access to the counter-drug, Medutox.

‘What do you know about the Medutox?’ Dylan demanded angrily, turning on Tania.

‘What about the Medusix?’ Nico added, his fists clenched. ‘Why are you here? Who sent you?’

Tania backed away.

‘I am recruit,’ she said. ‘I join to get special powers.’

I stared at her. ‘Recruit for what?’ I asked.

‘Join what?’ Cal demanded.

And then the door opened. My hand flew to my mouth as a familiar face peered round the doorway.

It was Jack Linden – the man who had originally found us and brought us together. Linden had tried to take us and sell us to the highest bidder more than once before. His wolfish face
creased with a smile, his bright blue eyes twinkling as he looked around the room.

‘How nice to see you all,’ he said smoothly.

‘It’s
you
?’ Dylan sounded appalled. ‘
You’re
the person who’s been experimenting with Medusix?’

‘No, my job was just to find you,’ Jack said, still smiling as if we’d all just met up for a picnic.

‘What d’you mean?’ I said. ‘Why?’

Jack ignored me. He entered the room properly.

Two men followed him inside. I stared at them. ‘That’s Knife Man and Broken Nose . . .’ I breathed.

‘How the hell are they here?’ Nico demanded.

‘They were
dead
,’ Ed gasped.

‘A trick,’ Jack said. ‘For some reason we don’t understand, Medusix just makes adults unconscious for a few minutes – so they look like they’re dead –
then it passes, leaving no trace. The effect on children is different . . .’

‘What does it do to kids?’ I asked. ‘Does it give them psychic abilities?’

‘Never mind that now.’ Jack clicked his fingers and the two men headed straight for Nico and Dylan, handcuffs dangling from their hands.

Nico jumped back, still twisting his hands, desperately trying to make his telekinesis work. But it was no good. The Medutox had completely taken our powers away.

I sucked in my breath. This had
all
been a trap. Knife Man and Broken Nose had been working for Jack all along.

‘How did you find us?’ Nico asked as Broken Nose clamped his wrists with handcuffs.

‘Technically
you
found
us
,’ Jack said. ‘Thanks to the stories you read about telekinesis in the area.’

‘You mean those were made up?’ Ed said, his face paling.

‘No, the stories were true.’

‘So someone really
was
performing telekinesis?’ Nico demanded.

‘So Medusix works?’ Dylan asked.

‘But you said it just made adults unconscious for a few minutes,’ Ed added.

‘Did you give the Medusix to children? Did it work on them?’ I asked.

Jack batted away our questions with his hand. ‘None of that matters right now.’ He smiled at me. ‘Anyway, once we knew you were coming, we relied on Ketty to do the
rest.’

I looked at the dusty wooden floor. How humiliating. All my efforts to have a vision. And they’d just led us all into this trap.

‘It’s all worked out very well.’ Jack grinned. ‘I wasn’t sure if the Medutox would work unless we got you in an airtight space.’ His grin deepened.
‘Wonderful stuff, Medutox.’

I looked over at Tania again. She was blushing, her expression a mix of pride that she’d played her part in trapping us and embarrassment that she’d tricked us. And there was
something else too – a look of concern. What was that about?

‘You did good, Tania.’ Jack chuckled. ‘Come on, we’re going back to the castle.’

‘How is Bradley?’ Tania asked.

‘Who?’ I said.

Tania threw a glance in my direction. ‘He takes the Medusix first. My turn next, but he is not well.’

‘We can talk about that later,’ Jack said. ‘There’s been a set-back.’

‘What set-back?’ Tania asked.

But Jack paid her no attention. He gave a signal and Knife Man strode over to me, drew a set of handcuffs from his pocket and fastened them around my wrists.

For the second time in less than an hour, I was a prisoner.

Jack bundled us into the back of a van that was parked outside the church. He locked the door. As soon as the van set off, everyone turned on Tania.

‘What do you know about Medusix?’

‘Who told you?’

‘How did you find out?’

Cal, Nico and Dylan all spoke at once. The girl’s eyes widened. She looked terrified.

‘Okay, back off, everyone,’ I insisted. Sometimes the others – especially Nico and Dylan – didn’t realise how overwhelming they could be. And Tania, whatever part
she’d played in trapping us, was still only a kid.

Dylan rolled her eyes, but all three of them quietened down. I turned back to Tania. ‘Please don’t be scared.’ I spoke slowly and with a smile. ‘We just want some
answers.’

The girl nodded. ‘Mr Jack came to me. Said he would make me special.’

I glanced at the others. This was a familiar story. Jack had introduced himself to all of us in much the same way, promising us the world if we would let him help us develop our Medusa gene
powers.

‘My name is Ketty,’ I said. I introduced the others.

‘Did Jack . . . Mr Jack . . . give you special pills or . . . or a . . .’

‘Medusix,’ Tania said. ‘But not Mr Jack. Another man. He bring a drink of Medusix. But only Bradley drinking it so far.’

Cal let out a low whistle. ‘So you haven’t been given Medusix yet?’ he said.

‘No.’ Tania’s face scrunched into a worried frown. ‘Only Bradley drink. Then he sick. Very sick.’

‘That’s because Mr Jack is a bad man,’ I said. ‘So is this other man.’

‘You think?’ Dylan snapped sarcastically.

‘No.’ Tania shook her head. ‘It will all be good.’

‘No, it won’t,’ I said. ‘You can’t trust Jack.’

Tania stared at me.

‘Ketty’s right,’ Ed said. ‘Jack’s one of the bad guys.’

‘Where is this other boy . . . Bradley?’ Nico asked.

‘I . . . I don’t know.’ Tania looked uncertainly from Nico to me.

The van turned a corner and we started bumping along a rough, ridged track.

‘I don’t understand how Jack laid this trap for us,’ Ed said thoughtfully. ‘I mean, he knew we would probably come to Lovistov, but how did he know exactly when
we’d arrive?’

‘Did anyone mention the fact that we were coming to anyone?’ Nico glared round the truck.

‘No, of course we didn’t,’ I said.

‘Actually, I told Harry,’ Dylan said, a defensive note in her voice.

We all stared at her. Harry Linden was Jack’s son. There was no love lost between father and son, to be sure, but still I was shocked Dylan had taken such a risk.

She threw me a defiant look. ‘There’s no way Harry would have said anything. You know he doesn’t even talk to his dad.’

This was true. Since being used by Jack to trick us earlier in the year, Harry had worked tirelessly to help us. He and Dylan were going out together too and Harry clearly adored her – a
fact which frankly baffled the rest of us.