Hunted (10 page)

I looked round, my mouth open to yell again at Jez and Alex.

Except Jez and Alex weren’t in the car.

Now I was up close I could see that the male driver was older than Jez, with shorter hair. His female passenger had turned and was facing me. She was older, too, with a jowly face and sallow skin.

Fear surged through me.

Ketty reached for the locked door, grappling hopelessly to try and open it.

‘Let us out,’ she yelled.

The sallow-skinned woman kept her gaze on me. ‘Hello, Dylan, it’s a pleasure to meet you.’

‘Who are you?’ I said.

‘Can’t you guess?’ she said. ‘We’re old colleagues of your father . . . William Fox.’

My eyes widened. ‘Milton and McKenna?’ I breathed.

The woman nodded. ‘I’m Dr McKenna,’ she said.

My mind went instantly back to my conversation with Harry. Milton and McKenna were the scientists after the Medusa code. The people who, Harry claimed, must have killed my dad.

My blood iced up. I stared at Dr McKenna, my heart pumping furiously as the car shot down the road at top speed.

‘What do you want?’ Ketty’s voice rose frantically.

Dr McKenna threw her a dismissive look. ‘Please don’t be alarmed, Keturah, we don’t want to hurt any of you. It’s Dylan we’re interested in.’

Beside me, Ketty’s eyes glazed slightly. I guessed that Ed was contacting her through remote telepathy. Hoping Dr McKenna wouldn’t notice, I took a deep breath.

‘I don’t know where the Medusa code is,’ I said.

‘That’s right.’ Dr Milton spoke for the first time. His voice was harsh and hoarse. ‘You don’t know,’ he said. ‘But we do.’

11: Milton and McKenna

‘You’re wrong,’ I said to Dr Milton. ‘You can’t know where the code is, because I don’t have it. Seriously, I have no freakin’ idea where it is.’

‘Where are you taking us?’ Ketty interrupted. ‘What did you do with Jez and Alex?’

‘Jez and Alex are fine. We left them tied up on the side of the road.’ Dr McKenna smoothed a strand of her long, dark hair off her face. ‘Dylan, you have the code with you right now.’

I shook my head. ‘I
sooo
don’t have it.’

‘What makes you think that she does?’ Ketty insisted.

Dr Milton leaned across and muttered something in McKenna’s ear. McKenna nodded.

‘We’ll stop in a minute,’ McKenna said to us, as if that was an answer.

I pushed against the door, but it was locked. I sat back, trying frantically to work out how Ketty and I could escape. We were driving through open, deserted countryside. Even if we could get away from the car, I couldn’t see how we could hope to outrun it.

Still, we had to try.

Ketty’s eyes had glazed over again. She was either trying for a vision or communicating telepathically with Ed.

I slipped my hand into my pocket and reached for my mobile. I wasn’t sure who I could call or how it would help, but I had to do something.

I’d programmed Harry’s number in earlier. Maybe I could contact him? After all, Ed and Nico would undoubtedly have let Geri know what was happening, which would put the police on our tail. But Harry – and his scientist dad – might have specific advice for dealing with Milton and McKenna.

The car sped along. McKenna was still watching me. Ketty folded her arms.

‘Where are you taking us?’ she said. ‘Geri will find us, you know.’

McKenna shifted her gaze from me to Ketty.

‘We won’t need you for long,’ she said.

What did that mean?

Unnerved, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, hiding it in my hand. The text that had arrived while I was in Henson’s bedroom was registering on the screen.

I warned u, bitch. Stop looking or die.

Another message with the sender’s name blocked.

Before I could scroll to Harry’s number, McKenna caught me.

‘I’ll take that,’ she snarled. She held out her hand for my phone.

Reluctantly, I handed it over.

‘I know you killed my dad,’ I said. ‘Whatever happens now I won’t forget that.’

McKenna frowned as she reached for Ketty’s cell phone, too.

‘What are you talking about?’ she said. ‘Of course we didn’t kill your father.’

‘Yeah, you did. And you sent me the texts, too,’ I said. ‘Warning me off looking into his death and tracking down the Medusa code. They didn’t work . . . as you can see.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ McKenna glanced down, reading the text. ‘We didn’t send this or any other texts.’

‘You’re denying it?’ I said.

Dr McKenna rolled her eyes. ‘Why would we send you any texts like this? It doesn’t make sense for us to warn you. For a start, we didn’t know you were even aware of the Medusa code . . . Plus, why put you on your guard when we’re waiting outside to capture you as you left the house?’

This was true. It didn’t make sense, but before I could think about it any more, Dr Milton turned off the main road and drove the car slowly down a rough dirt track.

We bumped our way over earth and stones. The only light was coming from the car’s headlamps. I had no idea where we were. Milton drove us into a large wooden shed that loomed out of the darkness. He stopped the car.

We were inside some kind of workshop, with building tools lined up on the shelves and a long workbench against the wall. Beside me, Ketty glazed over again. Hoping she was communicating our position to Ed, I tried to keep the two doctors’ focus on me.

‘Okay, so where the hell do you think this Medusa code is?’ I said.

‘It’s inside something you wear all the time,’ Milton said. ‘Show me your hands.’

‘For Pete’s sake!’ I held my arms out towards the front seat.

‘There.’ McKenna grasped my right hand. Her skin was cold and rough. She clutched at Mom’s white-gold wedding ring on my middle finger.

‘Don’t touch th—’

I was too late. In a single, swift movement she’d tugged the ring off my finger.

I stared at it, desperate to get it back. ‘How can the Medusa code be on that?’ I said.

Ignoring me, Milton took the ring, then unlocked the car and got out. McKenna produced a gun and motioned Ketty and me outside, too.

Milton had gone straight to the workbench. It was a trestle table, strewn with tools – everything from hammers and screwdrivers to more drill bits. Milton laid my ring on the table and switched on a powerful table lamp.

Aware of McKenna’s gun, still trained on our heads, I took a deep breath. I couldn’t hope to reach the ring without leaving Ketty exposed, but somehow I had to get it back off Milton.

‘Why do you think that ring contains the code?’ I said. ‘It doesn’t even have any special engraving on it, just my parents’ initials and the date of their marriage. I’ve looked.’

‘Your father
said
it was there,’ Dr Milton said. ‘We recently found a note, scribbled to your mother, about the code being
“inside the most precious expression of our love
”
.
’

Ketty breathed out slowly. ‘Their wedding ring,’ she said.

‘Exactly,’ McKenna said.

I shot a look at Ketty, hoping that she’d been communicating with Ed . . . that help was on its way . . .

Milton had picked up a tiny drill. He switched it on and a low hum filled the garage.

I watched, open-mouthed, as he positioned the drill over the ring.

‘You’re not cutting it open!’ My voice sounded as hollow as I felt. My mother’s wedding ring . . . not just the most precious expression of my parents’ love for each other, but the most precious memento from either of them that was still in my possession.

‘Has to be done, Dylan,’ Dr McKenna said briskly. ‘By the way, I understand your Medusa gift allows you to withstand physical pain, is that correct?’

I nodded blankly, only barely noticing what she was saying.

Across the room, Dr Milton switched on the drill. It filled the workshop with a loud hum. In a single, swift motion, Milton sliced the ring into two pieces.

My hand flew to my mouth. My eyes could hardly take in what I was seeing.

Milton held one of the pieces of ring under the light.

‘Dylan?’ McKenna said sharply. ‘I want to know more about your Medusa gift.’

‘Leave her alone.’ Ketty stepped in.

McKenna raised her eyebrows. ‘Perhaps we’ll start with you, Ketty. Tell me about your precognition.’

I was dimly aware of Ketty refusing to explain the limits of her own psychic ability, but I kept my focus on Milton and the ring.

After a couple of minutes, he turned towards McKenna, an expression of bewilderment on his face.

‘It’s not here,’ Milton said. He held out the ring in his hand. It was now cut up into several tiny segments.

I stared at it, feeling sick.

‘It
must
be,’ McKenna said.

As she took a step closer, the huge garage doors behind us sprang open.

I spun round. Nico, Ed, Alex and Jez were in the doorway. With a roar, Nico teleported a ladder propped up by the door into the air. Seconds later the ladder was hurtling over our car, straight at Milton and McKenna. The ladder slammed into them, forcing them both against the wall behind.

Pieces of ring fell from Milton’s hand. With another yell, Nico forced the ladder harder against the two scientists. As they stumbled backwards, he twisted his hand in the air and all hell broke loose.

Tools and boxes and bits of wood soared into the air. A tornado of nails whirled around the garage. Beside me, Ketty darted over to the car. She crouched behind it, shielding her head.

Instinctively, I summoned my force field. I stared at Nico. He looked as furious as I’d ever seen him. Red-faced, eyes bulging, he ran towards Milton and McKenna, hurling the storm of teleported items towards them.

Jez and Alex rushed over to Ketty, still crouching behind the car.

‘Get her out of here!’ Jez yelled at Alex. ‘I’ll deal with Nico.’

But Ketty had frozen. Like me, she seemed transfixed by Nico’s outburst. He was still forcing the ladder he’d teleported across the garage against the two scientists. Nails and drill bits and pieces of wood were slamming into the wall behind them. Both Milton and McKenna were shrieking their heads off, struggling to get free, but Nico held them pinned against the wall.

The ladder had fixed Milton at chest level. Head ducked to avoid all the implements rushing by, he was trying to push the ladder away. McKenna, on the other hand, was trapped at the neck, the ladder pressing against her windpipe. She was gasping, clearly struggling to breathe.

Work tools soared around their heads: a drill, a sander, a whole case of screwdrivers . . . stray items careered out of orbit, narrowly missing the car and Jez, Alex, Ketty and me.

‘Stop, Nico!’ Ketty yelled, banging on the car roof. ‘Stop!’

Nico didn’t even seem to hear her.

‘Do something, Dylan!’ Ketty shouted. ‘He’s out of control, he’s going to kill them.’

She was right. Nico’s rage had taken over . . . he looked insane . . .

And then I saw the hammer hurtling towards me.

It was coming. Closer and closer. About to smash into my face.

12: Hidden

No time to think.

Force field fully engaged, I reached up and deflected the hammer away with my fist.

I ran to Nico and grabbed his shoulder.

‘Enough!’ I yelled in his ear. ‘Enough!’

Like a light switching off, the telekinesis stopped. All the objects in the air fell to the ground. Nico slumped, arms at his side, as if he were suddenly exhausted. In a single, swift movement, Ketty raced over and flung her arms around him.

He pressed his face into her hair. As Jez and Alex moved in on Milton and McKenna, I caught Nico’s agonised whisper.

‘I thought they would kill you, babe,’ he said. ‘I knew they were after Dylan and I thought they would kill you before I got here.’

He hugged her tighter as she whispered something I couldn’t hear in his ear.

I looked away.

Jez and Alex put handcuffs on the two scientists and led them out of the garage. I went over to the workbench where Milton had been dissecting my parents’ ring. Nothing remained: it had all been swept up in the tornado of Nico’s telekinesis. A metallic glint on the floor caught my eye. I bent down. It was a fraction of the ring. Solid white gold with my dad’s initials visible on one side:
WF.