Double-Cross (22 page)

‘Amy?’ Ketty’s shocked voice echoed my own.

I looked at the girl I’d been kissing. It was, indeed, Amy. As I watched, her face rounded out and her hair lengthened and straightened. I stared into her anxious eyes, feeling completely bewildered.

‘Amy?’ Ed said from the doorway of the Snug. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’

‘Geri brought me here,’ Amy stammered desperately, her eyes fixing on her brother. ‘She found out I’d taken her passport and impersonated her on the ferry. She kidnapped me back in England and forced me to show her my shape-shifting. Then she made me come with her here.’

‘And Geri got you to shape-shift into Ketty?’ I said.

‘Yes.’ Amy looked at the floor. ‘She forced me to look like Ketty so that you’d be sure to do what she told you. She said I was her secret weapon.’

I glanced over at Ketty. Surely she would understand my kissing Amy now? But Ketty avoided looking me in the eye.

‘Geri and Dylan are outside,’ she said. ‘Cal’s with them. He’s called an ambulance for Avery. We need to keep him warm till they get here.’

‘Okay.’ I hurried over to Avery and knelt beside him. He was still unconscious. I touched his hand. Frozen.

‘How long has it been since he was shot?’ Ketty said.

‘Just a few minutes,’ I said. My heart felt like it was lodged in my throat. Surely I couldn’t have just found my real father, only to lose him again within hours.

Behind us, Ed and Amy were talking in low voices. Amy was sobbing. As Ketty dragged a rug along the floor to cover Avery, I slipped a cushion under his head.

He moaned softly. At least that meant he was alive.

Ketty drew the rug over Avery. I caught her wrist as she turned away.

‘I thought Amy was
you
,’ I said. ‘You have to believe I didn’t know I was kissing her.’

Ketty met my eyes at last. Her expression was wary.

‘It’s more complicated than that,’ she said.

I frowned. ‘How?’

‘I get that Amy was tied up before, but once you took the gag off her mouth, why didn’t she explain it was her? Why didn’t she change back straight away?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Because she
likes
you, that’s why . . .’ Ketty bit her lip. ‘And what I’m asking myself is why Amy would think that she stood a chance with you.’

‘What?’ I couldn’t properly follow what she was saying. ‘Amy
doesn’t
stand a chance with me. Man, she’s a kid. And . . . and . . . I’m with
you.
’

‘Are you?’ Ketty narrowed her eyes.

I had no idea what she was getting at. But before I could even try and get my head round it, another gunshot rang out.

I was so preoccupied with worry over Avery and what Ketty was driving at that it took me a second to work out that the shot had come from outside – where Dylan had taken Geri. I glanced at the table where Dylan had laid Geri’s gun. It was still there.

Did Geri have another hidden weapon?

I leaped to my feet. ‘Dylan!’ I rushed to the door, Ed right behind.

As we ran past the swimming pool, I could see Dylan and Cal in the distance. They were standing by the car that Geri, McMurdo and I had driven here in. Neither looked hurt.

Man, what on earth had happened?

We ran along the drive. Geri was visible now through the trees. She was bent over, staggering, clearly in agony. Cal and Dylan had their hands in the air as if in surrender. I frowned. That didn’t make sense. Dylan’s Medusa ability meant she didn’t need to surrender to anyone. And why hadn’t Cal flown away? What was going on?

And then another figure emerged from behind the car. McMurdo. Even from this distance, it was obvious that he was barely able to stand. His face was white as paint and contorted with pain. He advanced, limping, towards Dylan. The Medutox can dangled from his hand.

‘I’ve shot Geri. I’m going to shoot you. I’ll kill all of you.’

Ketty and I skidded to a halt. My heart pounded.

McMurdo must have sprayed Cal and Dylan with Medutox. They’re completely vulnerable. I can’t mind-read them remotely any more.
Ed’s thought-speech burst into my head.

Ketty clutched at my arm. ‘I’ve seen this,’ she said. ‘Earlier. It didn’t make sense, but now I see. McMurdo’s going to shoot them.’

‘No.’ Fury swirled in my head. Geri had already shot my father. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt my brother or Dylan. ‘I’ll get the gun off him. Teleport him away.’

I turned back to McMurdo. He was right behind Cal now, his arm hooked round Cal’s neck. I raised my hands.

Amy ran up. ‘Wait,’ she said breathlessly. ‘He’s too close. If you teleport McMurdo off the ground, he’ll take Cal with him. I’ll be you, Nico. Watch.’

‘What?’ Ed said.

But Amy was already changing. She grew taller, her face lengthening, her skin darkening.

‘No,’ Ed said.

Seconds later a mirror image of myself stood in front of me. It was one of the most bizarre sights of my life.

‘What are you doing, Amy?’ Ketty demanded.

‘You don’t have to—’ I started.

But Amy was already tearing towards McMurdo, her arms waving in the air. ‘Hey!’ she yelled ‘Wait!’

My pulse throbbed in my temple. I had to move.
Now
.

As McMurdo turned towards Amy, I ducked down, diving into the trees. The sudden coolness of the shade swept over me, clearing my head. I pounded through the woodland, keeping the edge of the trees close by. I emerged a few metres higher up and peered across to the car. Geri lay on the ground, motionless, next to the vehicle.

McMurdo still had a tight hold of Cal, who was struggling in vain to get away. Dylan stood beside them. McMurdo was pointing the Medutox can at Amy, but no spray came out. It was clearly empty. He threw it to the ground with a curse and raised his gun, pointing it at Amy.

She looked exactly like me.
Man
, that was weird.

‘Stop or I shoot,’ McMurdo yelled.

Nico?
Ed made contact. His thought-speech was wild with panic.
Do something!

Tell Cal to stop resisting
, I ordered.
I need McMurdo to loosen his hold
.

I can’t
, Ed thought-spoke desperately.
He can’t hear me. Nor can Dylan
.

Then tell Amy to drop to the ground. Now!

Ed’s presence in my head vanished. I crept closer. I was behind McMurdo now. His gun was still pointing straight at Amy, his free arm still gripping Cal.

I reached out my hands. I was only going to get one chance at this.

Go!
Ed’s voice burst into my head.

As he spoke, Amy dropped to the ground. I turned to McMurdo. For a split second his attention left Cal as he focused on the version of me in front of him.

In a single movement, I raised McMurdo into the air, ripping the gun out of his hand. As I let him fall, I focused on Cal and Dylan and Amy, teleporting them in the opposite direction.

Swept off their feet, they landed in a heap close to Ed and Ketty.

I raced up to McMurdo, who had landed on his back at the end of the drive. He was lying, his body twisted and his eyes closed. With trembling fingers, I reached for his pulse.

Nothing. He was dead. This time definitely dead.

I straightened up and walked in a daze over to Geri.

She was lying on her side, her face twisted with pain.

I knelt down beside her. ‘Geri?’

She gazed up at me. ‘I didn’t mean this to happen,’ she whispered. ‘All I ever wanted was the Medusa gene . . . to know that you are possible . . .’ She closed her eyes. ‘I didn’t mean them all to die . . .’

The air seemed to grow still as I watched the life ebb out of her. I thought about all the people who had lost their lives because of the Medusa gene. My mother . . . all our mothers . . . and Dylan’s dad, William Fox. And some of the people we’d met on missions, like McMurdo and poor Luz, the girl back in Spain.

And now Geri.

The others raced up. I could hear their feet pounding the dusty ground. We stood over Geri in a circle – all six of us – as she gave up a last sigh.

‘Omigosh, is she dead?’ Amy said in a timid whisper.

Ketty crouched down and reached for the pulse in Geri’s neck. She looked up, nodding, as the blades of the emergency helicopter Cal had called for Avery whirred overhead.

I turned away, walking into my own shadow as the sun beat down. It was over.

We stayed at the ranch for another week. After a few uncomfortable hours in a Sydney police station giving statements, we finally got someone to call Fergus and Laura. They persuaded the police to take us back to Avery’s ranch. Philly and Caro were already there with the children and insisted we stayed with them until Fergus and Ed’s dad could fly out to take us home.

I had no problem with this. To be honest, I needed some time to let everything that had happened sink in. Avery was taken to hospital in Sydney. He had lost quite a lot of blood, but the bullet had passed cleanly through his arm and he was back home within forty-eight hours.

Fergus and Ed’s dad arrived shortly afterwards and suddenly the house was full of adults asking questions.

Ed and Amy had a few questions, too. They immediately asked their father why he’d never revealed the truth that they were IVF.

‘And the woman you used as a surrogate for Amy must have died after giving birth to her,’ Ed said, nearly in tears. ‘How could you and mum do that?’

‘We didn’t.’ Ed’s dad sighed. ‘The surrogate for Amy was a cover. William Fox had started to have suspicions about Geri Paterson when you were conceived. He injected you both with the Medusa gene, but froze the Amy embryo in order to keep her secret. He didn’t tell us about Medusa, but he warned us to keep Amy’s identity hidden. Three years later we had to decide whether to let the embryo be destroyed or whether to let her develop inside the womb. Your mother was already ill, but she was determined to give Amy a chance of life. She carried her herself; there was no surrogate. That was a cover story, to protect Amy.’

While Ed and Amy were with their dad, I spent as much time as I could with Ketty – but there was a distance between us now which I didn’t understand and didn’t know what to do about.

Ketty said nothing about seeing Amy and me kissing again and we hung out like we always had, but it wasn’t the same. I tried talking to Amy about it, too. I mean, I was really embarrassed that I’d told her I loved her, thinking she was Ketty, but why hadn’t she identified herself when she’d had the chance?

If anything, Amy seemed even more humiliated by the whole incident than I was, so I dropped the subject.

The evening Fergus arrived, he and Avery took me to one side and confirmed again that neither of them had known – until Avery did the DNA test – that I was definitely Avery’s son. They both seemed very concerned that I shouldn’t be upset about the fact that I was discovering this so late in the day. I wasn’t. Not once I understood how it had happened: Avery had left for Australia before my mum ever knew she was pregnant. Then, after Mum met Fergus, she decided it was best for me if she kept the true identity of my birth father secret. I guess she was trying to protect me. It certainly wasn’t anyone else’s fault that the truth had only just come out.

‘It didn’t even occur to me that you might be mine until I saw the classified MoD files last week,’ Avery said. ‘The truth is that I hardly knew Lucia. We only dated a few weeks. Plus, there’s no obvious physical connection. You have your mother’s dark colouring . . . all my other kids are blond, like
their
mums. I called Fergus when I found out because I wanted to talk to someone who knew you better than me about how to break the news.’

Fergus nodded his agreement. ‘I was just taking an hour to work out what to say to you, but by the time I called back you’d gone.’

‘You didn’t show Ed any of this when he mind-read you,’ I said to Avery. ‘How did you manage that?’

Avery shrugged. ‘I’ve done a lot of work on understanding the way people’s minds operate . . . a lot of work on my own mind. Holding stuff back from a telepath is just discipline.’

Another few days passed. Geri Paterson’s death and the online confession that I’d posted on YouTube had, clearly, sent shockwaves through the British government. A team of representatives from London turned up to interview all six of us with the Medusa gene. They talked to us collectively and individually, asking for information and demonstrations of our powers.

It was clear that without Geri’s confession we would have been totally screwed over Bookman’s death. Geri had thoroughly framed us for that, using – as we’d suspected – the fact that we were angry at being manipulated to explain our motivation for the murder of the man behind the original medusa project.

After a few days the government agents went away to investigate further. We all knew they would be back before too long. They took with them McMurdo’s computer, but not before Ed and I had managed to download a number of files. We’d been working our way through them and, so far, we’d found McMurdo’s scientific formula for Medutox – and records of several suspicious-sounding meetings with various people referred to only by their initials.

Two more days passed. We played computer games and hung out by the pool. Dylan and Cal showed Ketty how to ride a horse. She loved it and spent all her waking hours from then on outdoors in the saddle.

I kept myself to myself. It’s hard to explain, but seeing people die in front of you changes who you are. I used to think stuff like that was cool . . . exciting. Now I knew that it’s mostly just shocking . . . and scary.

And then, one day, I found an item among McMurdo’s files that shed a fierce beam of light on his recent work.

It was a secret journal of his attempts to create the drug that would replicate the power of the Medusa gene itself. The entry that caught my eye went like this: