[English] HUNTING LILA

Hunting Lila
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‘Jack told me you were just outside when the alarm went off, that must have been a bit of a surprise.’

I thought back to the crush of Alex’s weight as I lay on the pavement and my first ride on a motorbike. ‘Yeah. It was pretty exciting.’

‘It’s never happened before. You should have seen the reaction inside the building.’

‘Really?’ I asked. ‘I didn’t see anyone coming out to check what was going on.’

‘Lockdown,’ Sara explained. ‘The entire building shuts down when the alarm goes off. We can’t get out.’

‘I’m glad I was outside, then.’ If only Rachel had been a few minutes behind schedule I’d never have met her, I thought. I wouldn’t have run off. But then I wouldn’t have found out I was being guarded and I wouldn’t be getting to spend the night with Alex.

What did it matter, anyway? Alex and Rachel obviously had a thing going on. I shut my eyes. When I opened them, I saw Sara looking at me with a concerned expression. I tried to smile but it came out as a grimace.

‘Don’t worry. The Unit are on top of this. You’ll be perfectly safe until you go back to London.’

My jaw clenched. Go back to London. Like I needed a reminder about that.

Jack came back into the room. He strolled over and kissed me on the top of my head. ‘I’m going back to the base with Sara now. We’ll see you tomorrow.’

I looked quizzical. ‘It’s Alex’s birthday tomorrow, remember? You’re still on for a party, right?’ she said, looking at Alex.

He looked at her. ‘Do I have a choice?’

‘No!’ She laughed. ‘But we’ll do dinner beforehand. Just the four of us.’

At least it wasn’t five. If I had to sit through a double date with Rachel the chances were that more than a window was going to get broken. It would be far too dangerous in a room with forks. And knives.

Alex followed them out into the hallway and I heard him setting the alarm.

‘Come on, let’s get you to bed,’ he said, when he came back in.

‘No, really, I’m fine here on the sofa,’ I protested.

‘Listen, if I have to pick you up and carry you in there, you’re sleeping in my bed.’

The words sounded so good – it was a shame they didn’t mean what I wanted them to. I thought about protesting some more, but decided it would be more dignified to walk.

In his bedroom, Alex opened the wardrobe. I stared at myself in the floor-length mirror. Still dressed in my shorts and pink vest, my hair hanging in waves down my back, I noticed the scrapes on my knees. My eyes looked tired, with faint shadows under them. I felt like I’d lived through the longest day.

Alex turned and threw me a T-shirt. ‘Here, you can sleep in this if you want. Just don’t go stealing it again.’

‘I didn’t steal it,’ I stammered in protest. I had so stolen it.

‘I’m just kidding with you. You can keep it if you want.’ He was laughing.

I turned away so he wouldn’t see my face turning beetroot.

He crossed over to the windows and drew down the blinds then came over and put his arm around me. ‘Sleep well,’ he said, then bent and kissed me on the top of my head.

Always the top of my head.

13

There was a soft knocking at the door. I rolled over, unwinding myself from the tangle of sheets I’d straitjacketed myself in. The door opened at the same time my eyes did and I saw a bare-chested Alex in his shorts, standing there with a steaming mug in his hand.

‘Tea?’ he said.

‘Happy Birthday,’ I replied, sitting up. The room spun a little as I did so, Alex’s bare chest was like a flashing billboard in Times Square. My eyes were drawn back to it again and again, before my gaze fixed on the shallow dips on either side of his hips that were swallowed up by the waistline of his shorts. It was all I could do not to trace the shadows with the tips of my fingers.

He grinned at me a little sheepishly, setting the tea down by my side.

‘I should be bringing you tea in bed,’ I said, though really I was thinking that I wouldn’t mind Alex serving me breakfast in bed every morning for the rest of my life . . .

He crossed over to the windows and pulled up the blinds, letting in ribbons of sunlight. Then he moved to the wardrobe, giving me a simultaneous view of his front, reflected in the mirror, and his muscled back. I bit my lip as I took in the line of his spine and the soft shadow of his ribs under his skin. He pulled a T-shirt out of a drawer and slipped it on. I sighed in disappointment.

‘Did you sleep well?’ he said, throwing me a glance.

‘OK. You?’

‘Not bad,’ he said, already out the door. ‘If you want to take a shower or anything, be my guest. I’ll fix breakfast. Jack’ll be over in about half an hour.’

I got out of bed. My legs were aching from yesterday’s run. I glanced in the mirror opposite. The sunburn had eased and I had some colour across my face now, a few freckles making their comeback on my nose, but still I looked tired. No, not tired, sad. I looked sad.

I would be leaving soon and it didn’t look like I’d ever be coming back. And Rachel would sink her manicured claws into Alex and that would be that. My life would be over.

Jack arrived while I was getting dressed. I heard him talking to Alex in the kitchen and followed his voice down the corridor.

‘She can’t come back. It isn’t safe. It’s never going to be safe. Not until we’ve caught him.’ I froze mid-step. It was Jack talking.

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‘That might not be for a while,’ Alex replied. ‘You can’t stop her. Lila’s got a mind of her own. Maybe you should tell her the whole story. I don’t like keeping it from her.’

‘You know we can’t. Rachel would never allow it.’

My heartbeat was so loud they must have heard it. The conversation swerved off in a different direction.

‘Coffee?’ I heard Alex ask.

I walked into the kitchen.

‘Hey,’ Jack said, looking shifty. I hoped his job never required him to do undercover work.

‘Hi,’ I answered.

‘You ready for breakfast?’ Alex asked, serving up some bacon and eggs onto a plate and pulling out a stool for me.

I contemplated him for a second. He was avoiding my eyes. I climbed onto the stool. What was the whole story? Who was the him they were talking about catching? Why couldn’t Jack listen to Alex and just tell me? And why wouldn’t Rachel allow it? Who the hell was she to tell them what to do?

Only their boss, I remembered with a sinking feeling.

As soon as I said goodbye to Alex and the door shut behind me, I could feel the pull, that elastic band around my heart being stretched again. How was it going to feel with a whole ocean separating us? It didn’t bear thinking about.

Down in the car park, Alex’s motorbike stood at an angle as though leaning over to be petted.

Jack saw me gazing at it lovingly. ‘I hope you enjoyed your first ride on that thing,’ he said, ‘because it was also your last.’

Actually I’d had two rides on Alex’s bike, but I didn’t pull Jack up on the technicality – maybe Alex hadn’t told him about me running off.

We walked over to Jack’s Audi which he beeped open. I slid into the passenger seat and tried to spot what one hundred and twenty thousand dollars bought. The speed gauge went all the way to two hundred and fifty miles an hour. Maybe that was it. I wondered if I could convince Jack to show me some of that speed. I scanned the dash. There were two buttons without icons on them. Bass? Treble? On/Off? Or something more exciting, like an ejector seat? I considered pressing one but realising how that might play out if they weren’t audio balance buttons gave me pause for thought.

We swung out of the car park and into the blazing sunshine. I turned my head, trying to spot the black car that had been waiting on the street last night. It didn’t seem to be there anymore.

A few minutes later, I checked again to see if it was behind us but nothing. I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to figure out how to broach the subject once more.

‘Jack,’ I eventually said, ‘if I leave next week, when can I come back?’

He stepped on the gas. ‘Lila, you’ve seen what’s happened just in the few days you’ve been here. You need to stay in London, where you can’t be a target. If you’re here, I can’t keep you safe.’

‘But you don’t need to. I can look after myself,’ I said, with something approaching conviction.

Jack glanced over at me with one eyebrow raised, snorted and then looked back at the road.

I glared ahead. I needed to tell him. It was suddenly so obvious. If I told him and Alex about my ability then maybe they wouldn’t feel they had to keep protecting me. They might relax and let me stay. It was a long shot, and there was still a chance they might totally freak out and send me off to some secure unit for testing, but I had to rely on the fact that one of them was my brother and the other was, well, Alex, and he never overreacted to anything.

Jack had parked the car and turned the engine off before I even realised we were back at his.

‘Sara’s coming round later,’ he said, unlocking the door to the house. ‘She thought you might like to get ready for the party together.’

I smiled. It would be good to spend time with another girl, and I might be able to get more out of Sara than I’d been able to pry out of Alex. I looked at the clock on the wall. I had ten whole hours to kill before I saw Alex again. It felt like five centuries. But possibly it was just long enough to figure out a present for him, as in a real present, not one of the imaginary gifts I’d like to give him. It might also be long enough for me to figure out a way to tell them both about my ability without either of them running from me screaming.

The present-giving problem was easily resolved in the end. In the back of my diary was a strand of brown leather Alex had once given me – a hastily pulled-together goodbye present from when I left five years ago. I’d worn it on my wrist for approximately a week in London before my new teacher told me to remove it or lose it. I figured that Alex might appreciate the return gesture. There was a risk that he might look at it and wonder why I was giving him a worn-out piece of leather as a birthday present, but I’d take it. I had no money other than a pile of loose change, so it was either the strand of leather or a popsicle.

The other problem I thought I’d solved too. I figured that it was all about the way you looked at things. I could sell my ability to them as something freakish – or I could sell it to them as a superpower. The image in my head shifted from Alex staring at me in horror and running away, to him looking at me the way Jack looked at Sara, and asking me out on a date. A superpower might just put me on a par with Rachel.

I had it all planned – I would tell them tonight. After the party. The only minor spanner in the works was the fact my ability wasn’t so super and neither was my control of it. Still, I’d cross that bridge when I had to.

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14

A knock on my bedroom door blasted me out of my daydreams.

Sara poked her head around the door. She was wearing a little black dress with a gold detail around the edge which reflected onto her skin, making it glow. She also had a bag the size of a small suitcase in her hand.

‘You look gorgeous,’ she said, coming to stand next to me.

I looked in the mirror. I was wearing the blue silk dress I’d packed. Not that it mattered what I wore. If I’m the boss Barbie was in the room, Alex wouldn’t even notice me.

‘Right, let’s have some fun,’ Sara said, opening her bag with a flourish. It was filled with make-up and shoes. I had never felt so grateful to anyone in my whole life. Now I might actually have a shot at being noticed. Alex wouldn’t be able to see me as quite so little if I was wearing heels and lipstick and Rachel, if she was there, might even think twice about making another comment about babysitting.

‘So, when was the last time you three all saw each other?’ Sara asked, as she brushed powder onto my cheeks.

‘Three years,’ I said. A long three years.

‘That was in Washington, wasn’t it?’ She stopped what she was doing and knelt back.

‘Yes. Just after they dropped out of college. My dad flew back to try to talk some sense into Jack, and I came too.’

‘Yeah, he told me about that visit. He said your dad was really angry.’

That was an understatement. My dad had totally flipped. I wondered at the time how Jack could have triggered such a reaction. But I didn’t complain because before I knew it we were on a plane back home and I was wishing he’d dropped out sooner.

I looked at Sara. She was giving me a funny look, like she’d lost me into daydreams.

‘You know,’ she said, ‘Jack thinks that joining up was the best decision he ever made.’

‘For him, maybe.’ I couldn’t help but think how much better things would have been if he hadn’t. How he’d probably still be talking to my dad. How I’d actually be able to come back and stay here with him.

‘I know it’s really hard for anyone to understand and I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to explain it properly to you, but for Jack, joining the Unit was his way of dealing with what happened to your mum.’

‘I think I do understand.’ More than she knew.

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

She squeezed my knee. ‘I’m sure he’ll make up with your dad. You shouldn’t worry about it. Just give him time.’

Yes, time to catch them. I wished I could be as positive as she was.

Jack came knocking as Sara was finishing up. She had insisted on lending me a pair of heels I could barely stand up in, let alone walk in. I looked in the mirror and smiled back at the stranger there. With my hair up off my face, my cheekbones stood out more prominently and my eyes looked huge.

Jack’s face said it all. If his jaw could have detached, it would have hit the floor. His eyes almost popped out his head and rolled around the floor like golf balls.

‘Nice top,’ was all he managed to say.

‘It’s a dress,’ I replied.

Sara’s elbow made contact with Jack’s ribs. ‘She looks beautiful. Come on,’ she said, pushing him out into the hallway, ‘We can’t stand Alex up on his birthday.’

The restaurant was hushed and candlelit and when we walked in I pretended we were on a double date, with my date already there, waiting for me at the table in the corner.

Alex stood up when he saw us and I almost stumbled into the back of the waiter. It was the shoes. I wasn’t used to wearing heels and salivating at the same time. Alex was wearing black trousers and a dark grey shirt. He glanced at me and I caught the now familiar pulse of muscle in his jaw and a flash of something else in his eyes which glimmered sapphire in the low light of the room.

I pulled out my carefully wrapped present and handed it to him across the table.

Alex took it with a tight smile and a thank you then put it in his pocket without opening it. I stared at him, feeling my heart begin to stutter.

Jack put his menu down. ‘Do you remember when we were here before? How that waiter couldn’t keep his eyes off Rachel?’

I lifted my menu up to hide my face as my double-date fantasy fizzled out.

‘Alex, the waiters are going to think you’re the man: last week you turn up with Rachel, this month you’re with another gorgeous girl!’

I could hear Sara laughing. Alex didn’t reply. I moved the menu closer and scrutinised the small print. He had brought her here. On a date. I felt like I’d been cleaved in two with a blunt spoon.

The waiter came over to take our order. It was bad timing. The pen shot out of his hand like a wayward rocket. I watched it ping off the ceiling and land at his feet where he scrabbled for it.

I stole a look at the others to see if they’d noticed. Only Alex was looking bemused. When he saw me watching him though, he looked away.

Since the Rachel comment he’d gone a little quieter, no doubt wishing she was here with him instead of me. I was sure he’d be looking over in this direction more if I had her perfect face. I slid my shoes off under the table and wished I could unpin my hair and wipe off my make-up. What was the point? I could probably have been sitting here stark naked with a sign over my head saying I loved him and he still wouldn’t notice me. I would always just be Jack’s sister. Jack’s little sister.

I switched my gaze away from Alex and towards the kitchen door which was swinging backwards and forwards as a steady stream of waiters came and went, with plates piled high. I knew where this was going before I could stop myself. The next waiter had his plate whipped out his hand like a torpedo had hit it. I saw the look of confusion on his face as the plate flew out of his fingers and spun across the room, depositing a tangle of spaghetti on the floor like it was a canvas and he was Jackson Pollock. The whole room turned to look, several dozen pairs of eyes flitting from the plate on the floor to the waiter with the tomato-spattered trousers. I bit my bottom lip hard.

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* * *

The walk from the restaurant to Belushi’s only helped magnify my despair. Alex had barely looked at me all through the meal and now he wasn’t even speaking to me. Jack and Sara were way ahead, leaving me and Alex to bring up the rear, walking a few feet away from each other in stone-cold silence. I kicked off Sara’s high heels, which were slowly crippling me, and walked in my bare feet. I could have sworn I caught a flash of a smile on Alex’s face as I reached to pick up the shoes, but he kept his eyes on the road ahead and his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

I shivered in my dress and hugged myself, rubbing the goose-bumps off my arms. Alex veered towards me and I thought, or maybe just hoped, that he was going to put his arm around me but his hands stayed resolutely put. The moonlight had bleached his hair white and was casting shadows onto his face. No doubt he had walked back this way with Rachel. I bet she managed to walk in heels. And that he’d put his arm around her. I managed to not bend the lamp post around.

The club was heaving. I looked around at the bodies pressed against the bar and condensing around the small ****tail tables. The whole unit was there. They weren’t wearing uniform but they were so obvious they may just as well have been. The rest of the men in the place were giving them a wide berth, like you would a pack of wild dogs.

Alex walked straight over to a crowd of them at one of the tables and I stared after him feeling completely undone, like a zipper had been pulled and all of me was tumbling out.

‘Hey, you’re here.’

I turned around. It was the young guy from the base. What was his name? Jonas, maybe?

‘Can I get you a drink?’

‘Um, er—’

‘No, we’re good thanks, I’ll get this round,’ Jack half growled.

I shrugged in Jonas’s direction and looked over at Sara. She rolled her eyes at me.

‘What do you want?’ Jack said, looking at me like I was deaf. I realised he’d already asked me twice.

What did I want? Now there was a question. I looked over at Alex, then realised he was asking me what I wanted to drink.

‘Um, Coke, thanks.’

Jack pushed his way through the crowd. Jonas had taken the hint and rejoined the men from his team.

‘He’s pretty gorgeous, isn’t he?’

I spun my head around. Sara was nodding in Jack’s direction.

I looked at Jack’s back. ‘Um, yeah, I guess. He’s my brother.’

‘No. I’m not talking about him!’ She laughed softly. She nodded her head across the bar and I followed her gaze as it settled on Alex.

‘Oh.’ My face froze as I wondered how I should react.

‘So how long have you been in love with him?’

I almost fell over. ‘I’m not – I – um . . .’ The denial stalled on my lips. I looked over at Sara and took a deep breath. ‘All my life.’

She gave me a little smile.

‘Is it that obvious?’ I could feel the anxiety written all over my face.

‘No, not at all. Just to me. I get paid to observe people’s reactions, remember.’

She lowered her voice. ‘I see the way you change every time he comes near you.’

I looked at her in horror. ‘What, what do I do?’ I had visions of my unpoker face in a hangdog grin.

‘Oh, it’s not that bad.’ She was desperately trying to calm me. ‘It’s very subtle. Almost like you’ve been given a little particle charge. You’re on edge, buzzing slightly. I recognise it because it’s how I feel when I’m near Jack.’

Oh God. ‘Does Jack know?’ I glanced once more in his direction. He was at the bar now.

‘Oh. No of course not. I won’t tell him, Lila. Don’t worry.’

‘Thanks,’ I whispered, glancing around to make sure no one could hear us.

‘Have you thought about telling him?’

‘Who – Jack?’ Was she mad? I’d sooner be tortured. ‘Why would I do that? He’d—’

She interrupted me. ‘Not Jack, Alex.’

‘Are you kidding me? NO. Absolutely no way. No. He’s totally not interested in me like that. He sees me as a sister, that’s all.’ I felt my face throbbing. ‘And anyway, there’d be no point.’

‘Why not?’ She seemed genuinely interested. Like it wasn’t obvious.

‘Er. Well, for one, Rachel.’ Hell, did I need to spell it out?

I saw her smile falter. ‘Oh, yes. There is that.’

A sucker punch to the stomach. So I was right.

Sara pulled a face. ‘Rachel is definitely into him. That’s obvious. But I’m not sure he’s actually into her.’

‘Why wouldn’t he be?’ I asked quietly, my eyes fixed on Alex’s back.

‘Lots of reasons.’

‘But she’s beautiful.’

‘Oh come on, you know Alex has a bit more to him than that. Yes, she’s beautiful . . .’

‘And bright.’

‘Yes, and bright. But there’s plenty about her that’s not so appealing.’

Yes, she’s a bitch, I thought.

‘I think you should tell him.’

I laughed. ‘Are you insane? I’d never be able to look him in the face again.’ I shook my head violently. ‘It would ruin everything, our whole friendship. He doesn’t see me like that.’

‘He loves you.’

My heart stopped for a few beats then started galloping. Had he said something to her? Then it tumbled to a standstill as I realised the love she was referring to was the brotherly kind.

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‘Exactly,’ I said, swallowing hard. ‘He loves me like a sister.’ I tore my eyes off Alex’s back.

‘But he might start to see you differently if you told him how you felt.’

‘Yeah, he might start to see me like a complete idiot.’

She bit back a smile. ‘If you don’t tell him, won’t you wonder your whole life what he might have said?’

‘Er, no. I have a good enough imagination.’

‘It might not be that bad,’ she laughed.

‘Yeah, it would, it’d be worse.’ My mind was conjuring several scenes that were making me want to drop to the ground right there and then and curl into a ball. ‘It’s impossible, totally impossible.’

‘Anything’s possible, Lila.’ Sara paused for a second as though thinking. ‘If you both really want it enough. If it was me, I’d take the risk.’ I drew in a breath but she cut me off, holding her hand up to still me. ‘You’ve loved him your whole life. I think it’s safe to assume you’ll love him for the rest of your life, don’t you?’

I didn’t reply. Of course I would love him for the rest of my life.

‘So how can you not tell him?’ she whispered.

She had a point.

‘I’m scared.’

She glanced over at Jack, heading back towards us with the drinks, and then said, ‘You know, there’s this old saying, I’m not sure of the exact translation, but it’s something like “he who fears *****ffer, suffers from fear” – think about it.’

She turned away to give Jack a huge smile and take the drink he was offering.

I looked over again at Alex and thought about what she’d said. He still had his back to me. I imagined walking over to him, tapping him on the shoulder, waiting until he turned around and then saying, ‘I love you.’

Yeah, I was happy *****ffer from fear.

15

The ladies’ toilets were at the back of the bar. As I walked in, the door shut behind me with a metallic bang, and I heard a bolt slam to. I spun round, my heart in my mouth. A man was leaning against the door, his hand resting on the lock.

My first and only thought was that they’d got it wrong. That the killers hadn’t fled to Mexico. That they’d found me and this was going to be the retaliation Alex had warned me about.

Then the man turned around to face me and I recognised him from the Seven-Eleven. It was the crazy noodle man. I edged back against the sink, my eyes darting around the room looking for something to hurl. There was nothing. Just a pile of paper towels – they weren’t going to do much damage.

‘I need your help,’ the man said, coming towards me.

‘Who are you?’ I stammered.

‘I—’ He took another step towards me and I flinched back against the sink. I looked over at the door and willed the bolt to move. He didn’t notice my glance, and took another step towards me, his hands raised defensively. I felt the bolt start to slide back.

‘I’m known as Key – I need your help, Lila.’

The bolt stopped moving when I heard him say my name. He didn’t look around at the door but kept his eyes on me.

‘How do you know my name?’ I asked in a whisper.

‘I know your name, I know who you are. I know what you can do. I know everything about you and your brother.’ He spoke slowly, letting the impact of each word hit me.

‘What? Who are you?’ My mind was spinning. What did he know? ‘I don’t understand, what do you know about me? About Jack?’

‘Don’t panic. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not one of them.’ His hands were making a hushing gesture.

‘One of who?’ I said it tentatively.

‘Them. The people your brother is trying to protect you from.’

My stomach folded over on itself. ‘How do you know about that? You’re not one of the Unit.’ I was whispering now.

‘No, no, I’m definitely not one of them, either.’ He shook his head once, his expression grim.

‘How do you know all this, then?’ I asked, leaning heavily on the sink to keep me upright.

‘Because I’m looking for the same people as your brother.’

‘Why?’

I saw stripped pain in his dark eyes. ‘Because they have my son, Nate.’

A knock on the door made us both jump. The man looked over at it and back at me, panic on his face. He was begging me silently not to give him away.

‘Hang on,’ I shouted out in a shaky voice.

‘What’s going on in there?’ a woman’s voice yelled back.

‘There’s a leak, we’re just trying to fix it.’

We heard footsteps walking away. I turned back to the man. He had relaxed his posture and was slumping against a cubicle door. I tried to unscramble my thoughts.

‘Why would they take your son?’

He looked up at me. His eyes were hooded and heavy. He didn’t look like anybody significant.

‘Who are you that they would take your son?’

He shook his head at me. ‘It’s not me they’re trying to get to. They don’t know about me. It’s him, it’s what he can do.’

Understanding crept up on me, like anaesthetic inching up a vein. ‘What can he do?’ I whispered.

‘We’re like you.’ The coldness hit my core. ‘We can do – things.’ He didn’t break eye contact with me.

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I swallowed, trying to keep calm. ‘What things?’

‘We’re the same. Well, not quite the same, but similar – we all have talents . . . I can’t explain now, but I need your help.’

This was a trap. It had to be. What if he was one of the bad guys? One of the people who was after me? There was no way I was going to admit anything to him about my ability. ‘I don’t understand. You’re not making any sense.’

He looked at me with his eyebrows raised, as though begging me to drop the pretence. If he was one of the people after me, why had he come here alone? I glanced at the door again, then back at him. His expression was silently pleading.

‘Why are you telling me this? We need to tell Jack. He can help you. I don’t know anything about the people who have your son.’

He took a step towards me, bounding forward from his slump. ‘No. You can’t tell Alex or Jack or anyone from the Unit.’

‘Why? How do you know the Unit?’

‘Listen to me.’ He steadied his voice, but his expression was fierce. ‘You cannot tell them.’

A deadening fear finally overtook me, making my voice shake. ‘Why?’

He was only a few inches away from me now. My hands were gripping the basin, holding me up.

‘Because, Lila, they’ve been hunting people like us for five years.’

Another knock on the door caused me to sink to the floor.

‘Lila?’

My eyes flew to the door.

Jack called my name again. ‘Lila?’

I froze. Key was staring down at me, his eyes round with fear. Who was this man? Why should I trust him? That was my brother out there. I hesitated, on the verge of calling out to Jack for help, but instead I held Key’s gaze. What if what he was saying was true?

‘I’ll be out in a second,’ I finally croaked.

‘What’s taking so long?’ Jack yelled, trying the door handle. ‘Why’s the door locked?’

‘I’m just . . .’ I looked around feeling pinpricks of sweat break out all over my body. ‘I’m, um – just – girl stuff.’

I closed my eyes and prayed that Jack would be too embarrassed to ask anything else and would just walk away. There was a full ten seconds of silence from the other side of the door. And then the handle lifted. ‘Oh,’ we finally heard him say. ‘OK, I’ll see you in a bit.’

He left.

I waited until Key had straightened up and then I stood. ‘Like us?’ I asked. ‘What do you mean they’re hunting people like us?’

I could see the yellow of his eyes, tinged with red streaks. ‘I mean they’re hunting people like you, like Nate, like me. People who have a talent. Who can use their minds in different ways. The Unit don’t know about me but I’m scared they know about my son.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

He sighed, ‘Lila, I’ve seen you, I know what you are. I’ve been following you ever since I saw you at the base with your brother and that guy Alex. The spaghetti at the restaurant earlier?’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘You did that with your mind.’

My breath caught in my throat. How did he know this? ‘How did you see any of that? You’re lying.’

‘I don’t need to be in my body to move around. To see things and hear things.’

‘Huh,’ I snorted. ‘Right.’ What was I thinking? I should have yelled for Jack when I had the chance.

‘I can project – leave my body and go places.’

This time I laughed. ‘You’re telling me you can fly? You honestly expect me to believe that?’ The man was a lunatic. What was I doing listening to this?

‘Can you move things with your mind?’

I stopped laughing. When he put it like that. I narrowed my eyes at him. He didn’t look like he could fly. But then it wasn’t like I looked any different to anyone else.

‘So you’re saying there are others, then?’ I asked quietly.

He nodded, holding my gaze intently as if scared I was about to do something crazy. ‘Some the same as you; some, like me, who can do different things.’

I laughed under my breath. Why had I imagined there wouldn’t be others? ‘So—’

Before I could get the rest of the sentence out, he cut me off, his voice urgent. ‘But that doesn’t matter right now. I need your help.’

I ignored him. ‘And the Unit – when you said they’re hunting people like us, what did you mean?’

He licked his lips and I found myself literally hanging on his words. ‘That’s what they do, Lila.’ He paused. ‘That’s their single remit – to find those with abilities like ours and—’ He broke off.

I swallowed hard. ‘And what?’

Key turned away from me. ‘I don’t know exactly. But when they take someone onto the base at Pendleton – they call it containing them – they never come back. That’s why I triggered the alarm at the base, so he wouldn’t take you inside. I wasn’t sure if I’d see you again if he did.’

He. He meant Alex.

‘But . . .’ I couldn’t find the words to finish the sentence. Alex and Jack, all this time, hunting for something – and that something was me. Or people like me.

I looked up into Key’s eyes. ‘I don’t understand. Why?’

He looked back at me and shrugged slightly. ‘Fear of the unknown? Fear of what you might be able to do?’

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‘But why would anyone be afraid?’ Then I remembered the boy whose eyeball I’d nearly skewered. He’d been pretty afraid.

‘Lila, not everyone’s like you, or me. Just trying to get by in life without drawing attention to what we are. The people who took my son, the people your brother is trying to catch, this man Demos, he is something to fear.’

‘Demos? Who is he? And why is he something to fear?’

‘Because Demos wants power – he wants control.’

Key walked over to where I was standing by the door. He was looking at me as though it should be obvious what he was talking about it, but I didn’t have a clue. Power? Control? Over what? The only thing I did know was that I needed to get away and find Alex.

And then came the crushing realisation that if what Key was saying about the Unit was true, I couldn’t go and find Alex. I couldn’t go near him or Jack ever again. They were after me. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I bent over *****ck in some air.

Key grabbed hold of my shoulders and started to shake me hard. ‘I need your help!’ He was shouting in my face and I flinched away from him.

‘You keep saying that,’ I sobbed, ‘but what can I do? You’re telling me there are others like me, but worse, and that my own brother would hunt me down if he knew?’ I gave a hollow laugh. ‘That’s ridiculous, Jack’s my brother. He’d never let anyone hurt me.’

Key was looking sceptical.

‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘what do you care?’

‘I care because right now you’re the only person who can help me.’

I shook my head dumbly.

‘Demos has my son and I don’t know where they’ve taken him. I need to find him. I need to get him back before the Unit get to them. I can’t lose my son.’ A flash of pain crossed his face. He glanced up at me quickly. ‘I was following the Unit and then they caught Alicia and I lost them.’

‘Who’s Alicia?’

‘The person your brother’s team caught the other night. The night you arrived.’

It took me a few seconds to process all this.

‘Lila? Do you know anything?’

‘Like what? This is all news to me. I don’t know. I’m sorry.’

‘But you might have overheard something? Has your brother mentioned anything to you – anything at all about their missions?’

I suddenly remembered something. ‘They’ve crossed the border. Into Mexico. I don’t know where exactly.’

‘Are you sure?’ He came close. ‘Why would they go down south?’ He turned and started pacing, kneading his head in his hands.

‘I don’t know, that’s just what Jack said.’

Key turned back to me. ‘What else did he say?’

‘Nothing, he doesn’t tell me anything.’

The guy was in my face again, his breath like a cigarette blowing in my eyes. ‘Are they close? Is the Unit near to catching them?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t know, they’re following them. I don’t know what’s stopping the Unit from arresting them.’

‘Arresting them? Is that what you think they’ll do?’ A harsh laugh spat from his lips. ‘Lila, you can be sure they won’t be arresting them – which is why I need to find them before the Unit does. I need to get my son back before your brother and his friends catch up with them.’

I felt tears slicking down my face again.

‘I need you to find out where they are and what the Unit is planning.’

‘How? You just expect me to ask him? Just like that?’

‘No.’

I wiped the back of my arm over my face. ‘If you know so much about me – about Jack and the Unit – if you can do what you say you can do and fly places . . .’ he winced but I carried on, ‘then why can’t you find the information? Why do you need me to help?’

‘I can’t get into your house because of that damn alarm system.’

I drew in a sharp breath. ‘Is that what it’s for?’ I asked. ‘To keep people like you out?’

Key raised an eyebrow. ‘People like us, Lila,’ he said.

‘Well, how come I can get in then?’ I shot back.

‘It only works – it only goes off – if we use our power. Some kind of electromagnetic sensors. No projector can get through it. Neither can a telepath.’

I thought about Suki on the doorstep peeking through the letter box. If I’d have set the alarm that morning would it have gone off? Then I remembered how I’d broken the window with a flying hairbrush and how I’d turned the light switch on and off without touching it.

‘Well how come I haven’t triggered it, then?’ I demanded, my voice shaking. ‘All the time I’ve been here, how come I haven’t set off this so-called alarm? There’s a dozen times I could have triggered it.’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, looking bewildered, ‘was it on?’

I paused with my mouth open and tried to think back. When the hairbrush flew off the dresser the alarm hadn’t been on because I’d just breezed into the house and switched it off. The time with the bag, Jack had switched the alarm off when we came in the house. But there were other times – what about the time with the light switch? I frowned at Key. It seemed too random that the alarm had always been off at those moments. Too lucky. And luck wasn’t exactly something I had in spades.

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‘Look,’ said Key in a rush, ‘please can you just take a look in the house? I can’t risk going near the place. Not with all the security and the cars outside. I don’t want the Unit knowing about me – it’s too risky.’

‘You think there’s something in the house? Like what?’ I asked.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe Jack has information on Demos and his people, information on where they are or when they’re planning on making a move. I want to know if they even know about Nate. Listen, I wouldn’t be coming to you if I had any other choice. But I can’t get into their headquarters and I can’t get into any one else’s apartment. Besides, your brother’s a lieutenant, he’s surely got access to more information than the others.’

My mind whirled. If what Key was saying was true and Jack had information in the house somewhere, I needed to find it. I needed to know what was going on. I needed to know if any of this was true.

‘OK,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll help you.’

The relief on his face was palpable. I thought he was going to cry. ‘Thank you.’ He squeezed my hand.

‘I’ve got to go,’ I said. ‘They’ll be wondering where I am.’ The words trailed off.

Key nodded. ‘OK. I’ll go before they come looking.’ Before I could even wrap my head around what he was saying he had inched open the door, peered around it and left.

I stood staring at the spot where he’d been standing, my breath starting to come in gasps. Little black dots began jumping in front of my eyes and I staggered backwards, falling into a cubicle. I dropped onto the seat and put my head between my knees. A hacking, laboured sob burst out of my chest and I pressed my fist against my lips to stifle it.

They didn’t know it but Jack and Alex were hunting me. My own brother and the person I’d been in love with since forever would kill me, or ‘contain’ me, whatever that meant, if they ever found out what I was. Everything I had imagined about the Unit couldn’t come close to this.

I sat up and took a deep breath. Maybe Key was making it all up. He had to be. It was too absurd. It must be a wind-up.

But the voice inside my head was calm, telling me loud and clear that this was no wind-up. Because, in a messed-up way, it actually made sense. The pieces were suddenly slotting together: the secrecy, the alarm, the fact they hadn’t been able to catch the people they were after even though they’d had them in their sights. Because their targets had powers, abilities – just like I did.

I had to leave right now. This second. Get on a plane and get out of here before they figured it out.

But how could I just leave? I hesitated. Maybe they would never find out. Maybe I could stay.

No. I had to go. Given my lack of control and the number of alarms all over the place it was a miracle Alex and Jack didn’t already know about my power. Would they have locked me up if they did? I’d been right about them thinking I was a freak and taking me to a secure unit for testing. It was hilarious. I was actually laughing out loud. No, that was hysteria. Even I could recognise it for what it was.

I heard the door open to the bathroom and the noise of the bar rushed in followed by the close-up shrieks of some women. The sound snatched me back into the present. I was sitting in a toilet cubicle in a club full of men who wanted to contain me. I needed to pull myself together and get out of there.

I stood up, straightened my dress and unlocked the door. I stopped in front of the sink and threw cold water over my face, wiping away the remains of my make-up, staring back at the wide-eyed girl in the mirror – I looked like I’d just crawled out of a car wreck.

Time to go.

I pushed the door open slowly, hovering on the precipice of the room, looking around at the members of the Unit scattered across the bar, laughing and necking their beers. A shiver ran up my spine, like someone was walking over my grave. I wouldn’t stand a chance, not even with my ability, not even with all that beer taking the edge off their aim. Still, no one had missed me while I’d been stuck in the bathroom with Key, so why they would start noticing me now, I had no idea.

Then I saw Alex. It was easy to make him out in a crowd. It was the way he stood, like he was permanently on guard. Which, I now knew, he was. Against me. He turned then so I could see the side of his face, the graze of his stubble and the shadows his lashes made under the low lights. He was laughing at something the person he was talking to was saying.

And suddenly the idea was preposterous. I couldn’t leave Alex. It was impossible to even contemplate. I would just tell him everything. Walk over there right now and tell him. He had promised he would never let anything happen to me. Maybe once I told him, the Unit would realise they were making a mistake trying to contain people like me. Alex would listen and make everything OK. He always made everything OK. I took a step towards him.

He turned then and I saw that the person he was talking to, laughing with, was Rachel.

She looked amazing: blonde, svelte and gleaming, like she’d been dipped in gold. I felt as if I’d been winded, like Rachel had walked over in her three-inch heels and minuscule minidress and, with a smile on her face, punched me viciously in the stomach.

They made a silent tableau: Alex bending his head towards her, hand hovering at her waist as though about to pull her into his arms. Rachel looking up at him wide-eyed, cheekbones refracting the light like prisms. They looked like they were posing for an aftershave advert. Whatever she was saying to him, he was clearly intrigued, leaning in further towards her, his expression fervent. I waited for the death strike and for her to swallow him whole.

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I wanted to yell across the bar at him to evade and resist. Wasn’t that what Marines were supposed to be good at? Instead I turned on my heel, stumbling through the crowd towards a blurry green light. Blurry because I was half blinded by tears. Ahead of me, the fire exit threw itself open with such force it cracked against the outside wall. I struggled to rein in my emotions before something bad happened, like a roomful of men, including my own brother, pulled out their guns or nets or whatever and aimed them at my head. The door slammed shut behind me with a metallic clunk. I found myself standing at the top of three concrete steps, looking out over a back parking lot.

I sank down onto the top step and tried to get a grip. I wished that I had the power to make the ground open up right there in front of me so I could hurl myself head first into the chasm. This was it, then. There was no point in staying. Even if I hadn’t met Key there would be no point in staying. I needed to get back to the house, find whatever information I could, then leave. Tonight. There was no other choice.

I got up from the step and looked around the parking lot. There was a chain-link fence to the left, running the length of the building, and a slim alleyway leading onto the street out the front. I squeezed down it and rounded the corner.

‘Lila!’

I froze at the sound of Jack’s voice. He stepped out of a mass of men knotted by the door area and came towards me.

‘Lila, there you are. Are you OK?’ He looked away, embarrassed, as he asked.

‘Yeah, fine,’ I mumbled.

‘We’ve got to go.’ He gestured towards the men behind him. They were loading up into two black SUVs with tinted windows. ‘The alarm’s gone off again at the base. We have to respond, though I’ll put money on it being another false alarm. I’m really sorry to be ***ching out on you.’

A car horn blared next to us and I jumped. The door of the nearest SUV stood open, dark shapes inside gesturing at Jack, the other car already heading away from the kerb, pulling into the traffic on the highway.

‘Alex is staying, so are half the guys. Stick around and enjoy yourself.’ He got out his wallet. ‘Here, take this.’ Jack shoved fifty dollars in my direction. ‘Buy a round for everyone. Sara and Alex will see you get home. I’ll be back in the morning.’

Then he ducked quickly into the car, the door slammed and the car manoeuvred fluidly into the traffic.

I had fifty dollars in my hand, Jack was tied up at the base, and I couldn’t go back into the bar to face Alex and Rachel. I thought about it for a split second, then stuck my arm out and hailed a cab.

16

I ran up the porch steps. The security light blinked on as I unlocked and opened the door. I crossed to the alarm and deactivated it, glancing up at the sky outside, wondering if Key was up there – was that how it worked? If he was, could he come inside now without triggering it? I kicked off my shoes. I needed to focus. It would only be a matter of time before someone came looking for me and I needed to be out of here long before then.

I stood at the bottom of the stairs, frozen. I would never see Alex again. The consequences of leaving suddenly seemed more impossible to bear than the consequences of staying. I shut my eyes and felt the walls closing in on me.

My eyes snapped open. I’d find whatever information I could and then I’d decide if I was staying or going. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, though a sheaf of papers explaining why there were government-sanctioned units dedicated to eradicating us like a nasty flu virus would be handy. Or information on what they did with such people when they caught them.

‘With us,’ I said out loud, ‘when they catch us.’

I ran into the living room. Jack’s laptop was on the table and I switched it on. It asked for a password. I hesitated a few seconds then tried ‘Sara’ but it beeped angrily at me and demanded I try again. I tapped in the code for the alarm. Another angry beep and a warning that I only had one more try before permanent lockout. I swore loudly. Then my eye caught the photo of my mum on the bookcase. I looked back at the keyboard and typed in my mum’s name: Melissa.

Password accepted.

I stared at the screen in shock for a moment then quickly scrolled across the desktop to Jack’s most recent documents and clicked on the first one.

It was titled Demos.

It took me a moment to figure out the connection. Then I remembered Key’s words and my heart stalled. Demos was the man Key said had taken his son. Apparently the same man the Unit had tracked to Mexico.

I clicked the file open, my hands shaking. A face expanded across the screen. The image was grainy and unfocused and it was hard to make out the details clearly. What I could see was a man with a widow’s peak of black hair, a square jaw, flat blue eyes and dark stubble. My eyes flicked down to the paragraphs of text beneath the picture.

First name/alias: Demos

Real name: unknown.

Height: 6´

Weight: approx 180 pounds.

Known ability: Psychokenosist.

What the hell was a psychokenosist? I had no idea, but surely anything that required the word ‘psycho’ at the front could not be good. I read on –

Summary: Considered maximum risk to national security. SOU priority one. Extremely dangerous. Only known Psychokenosist in USA. Failure to apprehend on multiple occasions. No weapons sufficient for containment.

Convictions: Tried and found guilty in absentia of the murders of Melissa Loveday and Senator Andrew Burns (see crime report and Quantico profiling and forensic analysis).

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I felt dizzy. The words jumped around in front of my eyes. I scrolled back up so I could see the photograph again. My mother’s killer. I was staring right at him. The man who had broken into my house and stabbed her to death. The same man who had Key’s son. The same man who may or may not have been coming after me to use me as a pawn in his game of girlfriend barter. Alex had lied to me. The people the Unit were hunting were the same people who had killed my mother. And the people who had killed her were like me.

I closed my eyes whilst the room spun and kept them closed whilst I hit the scroll down button. I didn’t want to open them and see Demos’s face again. I read down.

Convicted also in closed court (Fort Bragg, SOU) in absentia of the following crimes: Robbery, Extortion, Kidnap, First degree murder, Attempted murder, Treason, Conspiracy to commit treason (See court statements, restricted personnel only). Sentenced in absentia to death by lethal injection. To be administered within 24 hours of capture.

He had already been convicted? And sentenced to death? I fell back into the chair. My eyes tracked to the text below:

Known associates: Leader of a highly organised and fast expanding group of psygens.

Psygens? Was I one of those? Underneath were the profiles of eight or so people. Small boxes of text with photographs sitting next to them. I scanned down the list, burning the names and faces into my memory.

Alicia Harmon (Telepath) CONTAINED CP

The picture was of a striking black woman, her eyes flashing at the camera in defiance. The background was bright, white light. There was a cut across her eyebrow and her lip looked swollen but she was still managing to tilt her chin at the camera and smile.

Relationship: Girlfriend

Crimes: Robbery, Treason, Conspiracy to commit treason, Extortion.

Sentencing: In process.

This was the woman that Demos wanted back. That they’d thought he might want me to exchange for. I studied her picture. ‘Contained’ was stamped underneath it. Contained. I said it out loud. It sounded like the word exterminators used when they were done catching vermin.

I moved down the list.

Ryder (Sifter) Last name unknown.

The picture underneath was taken with a zoom lens but was better quality than the one of Demos. It was a side profile shot of a regular-looking guy walking down the street, late twenties, longish hair, slight roguish quality due to the way his lip curled, like he knew he was something special. A sifter? What was that? Why couldn’t they use plain English for goodness sake – it wasn’t like I could take down the dictionary and find the definitions.

Relationship: Long-term associate of Demos.

Crimes: Theft, Breaking and entering, Carjacking, Treason, Conspiracy to commit treason, Burglary, Bank robbery, Confidence crimes, Automobile theft, First degree murder, Second degree murder . . .

The list went on for another paragraph. I got the picture loud and clear, though, so I skipped down, wondering if he was one of the people who’d come after my mum. He had to be. Another surge of anger overtook me.

Bill Fields (Telekinetic)

He was like me, then. Another person who could make things move with his mind. I should have been excited at the knowledge, but I was horrified. The man looked like a fighting dog, his neck as broad as his head, which was shaved and battered like a boiled egg that had been dropped on the floor. I scanned through his list of crimes, It was as long as Ryder’s. Murder thrown in amongst the lesser crimes like an afterthought.

Underneath his entry was one for a woman: Amber Stark. She had flaming red hair, lips the colour of crushed beetles and skin so pale it was translucent. The picture was a headshot. She looked to be in her late twenties but it was hard to tell. I peered closer. Glancing down I saw that this girl’s ability was listed as Reader. Clearly nothing to do with books.

Beneath Amber was a man called Thomas Taylor. They were calling him a Projector. Thomas had been contained too. Key’s statement that when people got caught they didn’t come back was looking fairly accurate.

Beneath Thomas was Harvey James. The photo showed a man in his early thirties. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was wearing Ray-Bans. He could have passed for one of the Unit. He was telekinetic. The record said he had done time for bank robbery, aggravated assault, breaking and entering and that he was suspected of murder. Who wasn’t? I thought. Stamped at the bottom of the page were the words: Escaped San Quentin Prison.

The last photo was of a girl: Japanese, beautiful, and grinning like a Cheshire cat posing for Mario Testino. I looked at the name under the photo feeling like my world was crumbling around me; it was already half in ruins, but this was the final tremor to bring everything tumbling down.

Suki Nakamura (Telepath)

She was a mind-reader, then.

A hand suddenly slapped over my mouth and my feet were lifted off the floor. My nose was half covered by rough fingers. I gasped in a lungful of air, my brain one step ahead of my thoughts and gearing up for a scream before I had even processed what was happening. But no air could get through and all I could do was choke.

A man’s voice whispered in my ear, ‘Shut up, be quiet!’

I struggled to obey, panic causing tears to spring up in my eyes. I tried to scan the room to find an object that I could smash into him but I couldn’t calm myself enough to focus on my surroundings. What an idiot, I thought. One of the only people on the planet with a special ability to see off attackers and I can’t even make it work.

‘Shhhh, it’s me, it’s me. Is Jack here?’ The tone was frantic.

The hand loosened its grip and I sucked in some air, gulping it down. I twisted my head, my eyes lighting on the phone. The words he’d spoken sank in about the same time I saw his face and in the second I took to compute that it was Key who was holding me, the phone came flying through the air towards his head. It fell to the floor with a crash, hitting his foot and making him swear.