Double-Cross (21 page)

Geri stared at him, clearly trying to decide whether he was telling the truth. I tore my eyes away from Avery’s anxious face and focused on a cushion on the sofa behind her. The effects of Medutox wore off after about thirty minutes. It had surely been that long since McMurdo had last sprayed me. I concentrated on trying to make the cushion move. A flicker of telekinetic energy pulsed through me, then disappeared. The edge of the cushion shifted a millimetre. It was something . . . but nowhere near enough.

Geri was now prodding at the keyboard, trying to eject the disk. After a moment, she stood back with an exasperated sigh.

‘I’ll take the computer,’ she said. ‘It’s not as if McMurdo is going to need it again.’

‘I saw what you did to him,’ Avery said. He glanced at me. ‘You can’t possibly hope to get away with his murder.’

‘It wasn’t murder, it was self-defence,’ Geri snapped. ‘Just remember I’m letting you off lightly here, Avery. You get to keep your family safe. All I ask in return is that you don’t attempt to pursue me.’

I looked at the screen behind her. The video showing her confession was over. I focused on the mouse pad on the computer, putting all my effort into depressing it telekinetically. With a jerk, the cursor sped across the screen.

Yes.
An idea flickered into my head. I glanced back at Geri. She was still looking at Avery.

‘Why didn’t you tell me Nico was my son,’ Avery said bitterly. ‘You’d met me in London. You knew where to find me.’

Keeping one ear on the conversation, I turned back to the screen.

‘Goodness, your ego is bigger than William Fox’s,’ Geri said tartly. ‘I
didn’t
know until McMurdo told me earlier.’

I focused on the screen. Using my telekinesis, I moved the cursor to save the file containing the film of Geri’s confession to the desktop, then looked for the internet browser on the machine.

‘You
must have
known,’ Avery insisted. ‘William would have wanted to know the identity of the father before he implanted Lucia with the gene.’

It gave me a start to hear Avery say my mum’s name. It suddenly occurred to me that if Avery was my dad, he must have had some sort of relationship with my mum. But there was no time to think about that now.

I shook myself and focused on the screen again. The internet browser was open now. I used telekinesis on the letter keys so that they spelled out the name of the site I was looking for . . . the site that was going to help us get our revenge on Geri, whether she took the computer or not.

I focused on the last letter of the URL I wanted and pressed ‘go’.

The site flashed up.

www.youtube.com

I set to work.

25: Exposure

I entered my YouTube user name. I could feel my telekinesis getting stronger . . . I could manipulate all the computer keys and the mouse pad with only the lightest of efforts.

I glanced at Geri. She was still talking.

I just had to enter the title of my post:
UK govt agent Geri Paterson admits to murd—

‘What are you doing?’ Geri roared.

She raced towards the computer, her eyes wide.

Telekinetic energy surged through me. With a focused effort, I released the rope that bound my wrists and leaped forwards. But Avery had already moved, He reached Geri as she turned.

The shot rang out – the scene a virtual repeat of McMurdo’s shooting. Avery flew backwards, clutching his arm. Geri advanced on him, her gun gripped tightly in her hand.

Avery slumped to the ground, his eyes shut. I stared in horror, my mind tumbling over and over itself with the shock.

And then a muffled yell from Ketty brought me back to my senses.

I swivelled back to the computer. I could still upload the file at least.

‘Stop!’ Geri cried. ‘Stop or I shoot her.’

I froze, then looked around. Geri was pacing towards Ketty, her gun tightly gripped in her hand. As she passed the computer, she slammed the lid down.

I swallowed. Geri’s face was screwed up with an intense fury. I glanced back at Avery. He was lying, clearly unconscious, on the floor. A trail of blood was seeping out from underneath his arm.

‘I warned you, Nico!’ Geri shrieked. She reached Ketty and shoved the gun against her temple.

‘No!’ I cried.

I reached out, determined to wrench the gun telekinetically out of Geri’s hands. But she was holding it too tightly.

‘Get back!’ Geri shouted. ‘Stop!’ She pressed the gun harder against Ketty’s skin.

I stopped, the blood pounding in my ears.

Ketty stared back at me, her eyes huge and round and full of fear.

‘Please.’ The voice that came out of me was not one I recognised. I dropped to my knees. ‘Please, Geri, don’t hurt her.’

Geri’s whole face tightened. ‘You’ve blown it, Nico,’ she said. ‘I realise that there’s no alternative. And I can see how to play it, too . . . There was a showdown between Avery and McMurdo. You and Ketty got caught in the crossfire. I tried to stop the shooting, but the two men were beside themselves . . . wouldn’t listen to reason . . .’

I listened to her words, but I couldn’t take them in. My mind raced. There had to be a way of stopping Geri.

‘No,’ I said.

As I spoke, Ketty lunged forward in her chair, clearly aiming to knock Geri off balance. I leaped forwards, but before I could reach them, Geri had pushed Ketty away with such force that Ketty’s chair toppled over backwards, Ketty still strapped inside it.

I gasped as the chair and Ketty crashed to the floor behind the low table.

Geri pointed her gun downwards, at where Ketty was lying. She kept her eyes on me. ‘I won’t make you watch me kill her,’ she said coolly. ‘That’s something, isn’t it?’

‘Please, Geri?’

‘Three,’ she said.

No.
I summoned all my focus. I was going to have to try teleporting the gun again.

‘Two,’ she said.

I put every atom of energy I could muster into the effort, but Geri was gripping it too tightly. The gun wouldn’t budge.

‘Please,’ I sobbed.

Geri threw me a thin, cruel smile.

‘One.’

‘NO!’ As I cried out, I heard the same word being yelled by other voices behind me.

Suddenly I felt a hand round my arm, lifting me off the ground. A quick flash of Geri’s shocked face, and my arms and legs were flung out. Geri vanished into a blur as something . . . someone . . . hurled me round like a machete. I flexed my feet. A split second later my heels rammed into Geri’s shoulder.

She flew backwards. Her gun fired into the ceiling. She landed on her back on the floor.

The hand holding me let me go. I fell to the ground, narrowly missing the edge of the couch by the door. I lay for a second feeling dizzy, gasping for breath, then scrambled to my feet.

Cal was standing next to me. It was he who’d flown into the room and, using the momentum created by that movement, hurled me across the room and into Geri. Dylan was here, too . . . and Ed by the door.

All three of them had their eyes fixed on Geri. She was on her feet again. Her hair, normally a sleek blonde helmet, was ruffled with flecks of powder from the ceiling plaster and her smart jacket was torn along the sleeve, but she held her gun steadily as she pointed to the computer on the table.

‘Give me the Mac,’ Geri ordered.

‘No.’ Dylan stepped right in front of her. ‘Give me the gun.’

I turned. Across the room, Avery lay slumped, the blood still seeping out of him. Further away, behind the low table, Ketty was still on the ground. I could just see her foot peeking out from behind the table.

A shot fired. I spun round. Geri had fired into Dylan, but Dylan was still standing.

A smile spread over Dylan’s face. ‘It’s over, Geri.’

She reached out and grabbed Geri’s gun, then turned it on Geri herself.

Geri blinked, her eyes suddenly sharper and wilder.

‘You don’t know how to use that,’ she snapped.

‘Actually, I do,’ said Dylan.

For a second, I was torn in so many directions I stood paralysed. What I wanted to do most was rush over to Ketty, but Avery needed my help more.

I tugged at Cal’s arm. ‘Avery was shot in the arm,’ I said. ‘Call an ambulance.’

Cal followed my pointing finger to where Avery lay on the ground. He gasped, his hand flying to his mouth. I realised Cal must have rushed into the room so fast and acted so quickly that he hadn’t even noticed his father, unconscious, on the floor.

In a flash, he crossed the room. He knelt down and touched Avery’s cheek.

‘Dad?’ His voice cracked.
‘Dad?’

I turned back to Dylan. She was still holding Geri’s gun, her eyes narrowed with determination.

‘What are you doing?’ I said.

‘I’m going to kill Geri,’ Dylan said steadily.

‘Don’t be stupid.’ Geri’s voice was as brisk and sharp-toned as ever, but – for the first time – she looked terrified.

‘Please, Dylan,’ Ed protested. ‘Killing Geri won’t solve anything. We’ve got the evidence that she murdered your dad. She’ll be brought to justice and we can go home.’

‘No.’ Dylan shook her head so vigorously that her long, red ponytail whipped round her face. ‘Geri will crawl out of it somehow. She always does. It won’t matter who in the police we go to . . . she’ll find some way to make sure what she’s done gets covered up.’

‘Not this time.’ I rushed over to the computer and opened it up. ‘I’ve got the confession here. Look.’ I spun the computer round so that it was facing Dylan and Ed. ‘You’re right about Geri. She can stop investigations and smother evidence. But even Geri can’t control the internet. Once her confession is out in public and online, nobody can hush it up.’

I bent down and clicked to upload the film onto YouTube. It was done.

Geri let out a furious snarl.

Dylan took a step back. ‘Well, I’m still tying her up.’

‘Be my guest.’ I chucked Dylan the rope that had previously bound my own hands.

Dylan put down Geri’s gun. As she fastened Geri’s wrists, I glanced over at Avery. Cal was kneeling beside him now, his head in his hands.

‘Cal,’ I said sharply. ‘Call your . . . our dad an ambulance.’

Cal looked up at me, clearly completely shell-shocked.

‘Come on,’ Ed said gently. ‘I’ll do it, but come with me to the phone. I don’t know what 999 is in Australia.’

Cal got to his feet and followed Ed out of the room.

‘I’m going to take Geri outside . . . tie her to the railings by the pool,’ Dylan snarled, shoving Geri after Cal and Ed.

I stood for a second, alone, my pulse racing. Everything that could be done was being done.

A low moan from the other side of the coffee table reminded me that Ketty was still on the floor where Geri had pushed her down.

I raced over. Why hadn’t she got up already? The answer was obvious as soon as I peered over the low table. The chair Ketty was tied to was too heavy for her to lift while her hands were still bound. Her face above the gag was red with the effort of trying to move it.

I reached out and teleported the rope off her wrists, then the gag from round her mouth. As they fell away, Ketty pushed herself up. It flickered across my mind that there was something different about the way she was holding herself. But I barely had time to think this before she had hurled herself across the short distance between us and was hugging me fiercely. As I held her, I felt a huge wave of emotion surge up through me.

‘You’re okay . . . you’re okay . . .’ I murmured.

Ketty turned her face up to mine and I was sure that whatever had happened, Ketty and I were cool again.

And I kissed her. Again I had the slight sense that something didn’t feel the same as usual, but I was so happy I didn’t stop to think about it. I just kept my eyes squeezed shut, holding onto her for all I was worth, as the relief of knowing she was safe and that we were okay overwhelmed everything else.

‘Nico?’
It was Ketty’s voice. And it appeared to be coming from the doorway several metres away.

Shocked, I leaped backwards, opening my eyes.

The girl in the doorway was definitely Ketty. She was staring at the girl I’d been kissing. I followed her gaze, my heart racing.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

‘Amy?’
I said. ‘Is that
you
?’

26: Medutox