24

I’d seen eyes like his on a dead shark carcass once. That was all I could think of as we sat opposite each other at the picnic table. It was an unlikely location for a head-to-head with a murderer. Too light. Too peaceful. Like a scene from Bambi.

I shifted uncomfortably on the wooden planks of my seat and looked around. I wondered where Jack and Alex were by now. Probably just getting to the bottom in the cable car, or possibly already on the road. It was pointless I knew, but I glanced over my shoulder to look for them, half hoping they were still up the mountain and were about to launch a rescue mission. But the pain I was feeling inside and the ache between my ribs told me loud and clear that Alex was really gone.

I scanned the clearing again anyway. Amber and Ryder were taking a stroll arm in arm down one of the many paths that led off the picnic area. Harvey and Bill were rolling cigarettes at a table twenty metres away to our right. Nate’s body was slumped over the table between them. He looked like he was sleeping off a hangover. As I watched, Bill took a sweater, rolled it up and placed it under Nate’s head.

Suki was sitting next to Demos, eyeing me through those spider-leg lashes of hers. I could feel her rooting around inside my head, making my scalp tingle. Or maybe I was just imagining it. I looked away from her, trying to block her out, if that was even possible.

After half a minute more of absolute silence, she turned to Demos, shaking her head. ‘They’ve told her all sorts. Something about you wanting to steal nuclear weapons? It’s like an L. Ron Hubbard story in there.’

I stared at her, my lips parting.

‘I’m going to get something to eat. Leave you two to it,’ she said, leaping up from the bench and skipping off towards the café. I watched her go.

‘I’m guilty of maybe half of what they say.’

I swivelled my head back to Demos. He had his hands clasped in front of him on the table. I considered his words for a few seconds. ‘Which half?’ I asked.

He snorted. I guessed it was laughter. ‘I like you. You’re feisty,’ he said. ‘Just like your mother.’

I gripped the edge of the table until I felt a splinter dig under the skin of my thumb. ‘Do not talk to me about my mother.’ My voice came out as a hiss.

‘I’m sorry.’ A deep furrow formed between his brows. ‘You’re just so like her – I mean the way you look, your mannerisms. It’s . . .’ He shook his head and stared at me in what I took to be amazement.

I sat for a few seconds in a state of total shock. ‘How do you know what my mother was like? You only knew her long enough to kill her.’

The furrow in his brow had become a trough. He looked down at the table, then back up at me. ‘Lila, I did not kill your mother.’

I stared at him unmoving, unblinking, unbelieving.

‘I admit I am guilty of some of the crimes they accuse me of. The breaking and entering, probably the treason, certainly one murder.’

I inhaled sharply

‘But I’m definitely not interested in stealing nuclear weapons,’ he said, raising his eyebrows in obvious amusement. ‘And I did not kill your mother.’

I wasn’t sure if Demos was stilling my voice or whether my brain just didn’t know how to function anymore. I could still hear myself thinking though, turning circles, running after questions, so he couldn’t be. And my feelings were still there. I tried to decipher them. There was definitely anger. But mostly pain. And a whole lot of confusion. I didn’t think he could be doing anything to me.

‘I knew your mother.’

I looked up, startled. ‘How?’

‘She was a friend of mine.’

‘Of course she was. And Nate’s not here under duress and you’re not holding me hostage. And really you’re a nice guy – I bet you like puppies and teach Sunday School. When you’re not killing people on your day off.’

His fists hit the table, making me jump, but he was laughing, his body shaking.

‘Wow, Suki was right, they really have done a number on you.’

I ignored him. I knew what I’d read. But Alex had told Jack not to believe everything he read. Damn, I didn’t know what to believe anymore. But then I looked at Demos and I knew for sure there was no way my mother would have been friends with him.

‘My mother would never, in a million years, have been friends with you,’ I said, but my power of conviction was already starting to waver.

He stopped laughing. ‘She was, Lila.’

‘You’re lying. Why are you lying to me?’

‘For a time she was more than just a friend.’

I shook my head and laughed.

‘I loved her very much.’

My laughter died as abruptly as his had. My hands automatically moved to cover my ears. ‘Stop it!’ I shouted. ‘Why are you doing this?’

‘I’m telling the truth, Lila. I loved your mother and for a time she loved me back.’ He pressed his hands against his forehead and closed his eyes. ‘Then I did something stupid and she wouldn’t forgive me – not that I blame her.’ He opened his eyes again. ‘She met your father and . . .’ he took a deep breath, ‘not long after that she was expecting your brother. It was too late.’

‘You – and my mother? You expect me to believe that?’ I pushed back from the table to standing. I had to get away from him.

Before I could go anywhere he reached into his back pocket and I fell back onto the seat, suddenly afraid. But he was just taking out his wallet. He slipped a square of paper out from inside and handed it across the table to me. I took it from him slowly.

It was a photograph. Black-and-white, taken in a photo booth. A tiny square holding two familiar faces. Only I couldn’t quite make sense of it. I stared at the person smiling at the camera, long hair cascading down her back, her eyes just like mine. It was my mum, no doubt about it. And she looked so happy. The other person wasn’t my dad, though. It was Demos. No question about it, albeit a lot younger. He had his arms wrapped around my mum and he was nuzzling – there was no other word for it – nuzzling her neck.

I put it down on the table and pushed it back towards him with my index finger. I noticed my hand was trembling. A splash of rain plopped onto the table in front of me and I looked at it in surprise before realising I was crying.

Demos started speaking softly now, almost fervently. ‘I loved her. I loved how she was passionate and idealistic and impulsive. I loved how she always wanted to do the right thing, no matter what it cost. How she always knew the right thing to say. I loved the way she used to push her hair back out her face, just like you’re doing now, and the way she would smile and her whole face would light up.’

I took several breaths before I could get the words out: ‘You didn’t kill her?’

‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.’

‘But if you didn’t, who did?’

I could hear my heartbeat rushing in my ears like a waterfall.

‘The senator she was working for. He had her killed.’

Several seconds expanded and contracted in front of me. Andrew Burns? But he’d been killed too. I’d seen the report. Demos had been tried and convicted of his murder. I wondered if he knew that there was an electric chair plumped and waiting for him at the base.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. ‘Why would he have wanted her dead?’

His brow furrowed again and his eyes became even more hooded under the weight. ‘Because, Lila, your mother was unique – like you. She had a very special gift.’

I stood up again, struggling to unknot my legs from under the bench. Then I was stumbling and tripping over the packed earth. The next instant I was kneeling on the ground and Demos was by my side.

‘Stop doing that to me. Stop controlling me!’ It came out as a half-cry, half-growl.

‘I’m not, Lila. I’m not doing anything, I swear. Here . . .’ He held out a hand and I looked at it.

Then I reached out slowly and let him pull me up to standing. Once on my feet, I tore my hand away and we stood there for a long while just watching each other.

‘What could she do?’ I asked finally.

‘She could read minds – like Suki.’

My mouth fell open. Demos put a hand out to me. ‘I’m sorry. I realise that must be a shock.’

A shock? He was king of understatement. I was getting fairly adept at handling the surprises, revelations, muggings and kidnappings that were occurring on an hourly basis, but this – this was straight out of left field. How could my mum have hidden a secret like that for so long? I had only been keeping my ability secret for four years and already it felt like half the world knew. Yet Jack and I had never known. I wondered if my dad had.

‘Now you know your mum was one of us, do you still believe that rubbish they’re feeding you about us being subhuman monsters?’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Seriously? Come on.’ He was looking at me like he was trying to assess exactly how gullible I was.

I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Alex in the motel. He had said he didn’t believe the Unit anymore. Because of me. A pain that seemed to strip the muscle from the bone peeled through me. I wanted him here with me so much right now. I wanted him to help me make sense of everything.

I looked at Demos, struggling to find an answer. ‘I . . .’

‘I brought you two some food.’ Suki appeared suddenly by the picnic table. She was holding up a brown paper bag and beckoning us over.

I looked at Demos. I wanted to finish the conversation, preferably not with her anywhere near me.

‘Come on, sit down. Have something to eat.’ He put his hand in the small of my back and started to lead me to the table.

I knocked his hand away. ‘I don’t want to eat. I want you to tell me what happened to my mother.’

‘I will tell you, Lila. Just come and sit down.’

I let him push me back towards the table and sat down in a huff. Suki sat opposite me, next to Demos. I gave her one of my best scowls. I didn’t need her reading my thoughts just now. Or ever, in fact. How did the others stand it? She handed me a sandwich silently, the smile gone from her face. When I ignored the offering, she placed it on the table in front of me.

‘Your mother was a remarkable woman, Lila.’ Demos was looking at me so lovingly that I was in no doubt that he was seeing my mother in front of him. At least I hoped he was. I arched an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest.

‘I’m sorry – you know this. You don’t need me to tell you. It’s just uncanny seeing you right here in front of me.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s making it all seem so real again. Like it was just yesterday.’ He stopped and took a breath. ‘I met her when she was not much older than you are now. We were freshmen at Stanford. We met on campus in the first week – for me it was love at first sight. She was beautiful.’

My nostrils flared. I did not want to listen to this.

He noted my reaction with a smile and a nod, but carried on anyway. ‘She was really something special – and she saw through me straightaway . . .’ He laughed under his breath at the memory and it felt like a horse kick in my gut.

‘A talent like your mother’s is a difficult one to handle.’ I saw him throw a glance in Suki’s direction and registered her half-smile back at him. ‘I’ve seen it drive people mad. Usually listening to your own inner voice is enough to push you over the edge – imagine what it does to you when you’re able to tune into everyone else’s.’

I glanced at Suki – maybe she had been pushed over the edge. It explained a lot.

‘But your mum, she was special, she saw her ability only as a good thing. Something that she could use as a gift. To help others.’

‘But—’

He held up a hand. ‘I’m getting to it. Your mum was an idealist. She honestly believed she could change the world. She believed that if she went into politics she could make a real difference. I guess that’s what most politicians think. Well, maybe not most. But she did have an advantage over the others. She thought if she could read people’s minds she’d have no problem influencing people. Believe me, I saw your mum working her magic and it was impressive. She should have been a lawyer. She could have made millions. She could have turned a whole jury in seconds.’

‘So why did she dump you?’

He winced. ‘She met your father. I couldn’t compete with his English accent.’

Or with his morals, charm or good looks, I thought.

I heard a tiny giggle emanate from Suki’s direction.

‘And it was over just like that.’

I was so glad my mum had come to her senses. Demos could have been my father. Not worth contemplating.

‘I was madly in love with her. And when you’re madly in love you do crazy things.’ I could have sworn he was looking at me in a pointed way but then he carried on. ‘All I could think about was stopping her from feeling anything for Michael, your dad. I thought if I could do that she’d come back to me – stupid, I know. But before I could do anything she heard me – she read my mind as soon as I had the thought. I wouldn’t even have done it, I don’t think. But she heard it, called me out on it and cut me off. I didn’t blame her.’

He halted a moment before carrying on. ‘We didn’t speak for almost seventeen years. She moved to the East coast to get away from me. Married your father. Had you and Jack.’

Was he expecting sympathy for his tragic love life?

‘Great. So now I know all about how much you loved my mum. It doesn’t tell me why she’s dead and why they’re blaming you, though.’

He ignored me. ‘The next time I heard from your mum, she called me up out of the blue. She was working for some senator and she’d discovered something she was really scared about. She would never have called me otherwise. We hadn’t had contact for a very long time.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She needed my help. She said I was the only one who would know what to do. So I went straight to DC.’ He frowned at the table, then at me. ‘But she was dead before I even got there.’

I shut my eyes and tried to keep breathing. When I opened them again I saw him and Suki both watching me warily.

‘How do you know for sure it was Burns that killed her?’

Demos leant towards me, his arms nearly touching mine. ‘It was him. I got proof. I sent someone I knew, a guy called Thomas, to find out. He could project. It didn’t take him long to find out. Not that there were any other suspects, anyway. I needed to know what your mum had found out, why he’d needed to kill her.’ He laughed under his breath. ‘I wanted to do it like your mother would have. No violence. Nothing illegal. Believe me, it went against the grain. I would sooner have killed him for what he did.’

It went against my grain too. I wished he had killed him.

‘Thomas sat in on some fairly interesting conversations. He managed to pass on quite a bit of information before he disappeared.’

I prised the words out of my mouth. ‘What happened to him?’

‘I assumed he’d been murdered too.’ He looked sideways at Suki and I saw them exchange a smile.

‘So what did you do?’ I asked nervously.

He eyed me for a moment, weighing his words, trying to gauge my likely reaction. ‘I killed Burns.’

I didn’t flinch. I met his stare head on. He didn’t back down. No, definitely no remorse there.

‘But it was too late to stop what he’d started.’

‘What do you mean? What had he started?’

Demos inhaled hard. ‘The Unit. Burns was the man behind it.’

My hands fell flat onto the table and I leant forward. Our arms were touching.

‘Burns was taking kickbacks from a defence company, Stirling Enterprises. They were paying six-figure bribes. Unsurprisingly the company won a very large, very lucrative military contract.’

‘He killed her over money? That’s what it was about?’ Fury fizzed in my voice.

‘It wasn’t just the bribes your mum found out about. It was the details of the contract. That’s what they couldn’t afford to become public knowledge. On the surface it was a standard defence contract, to develop and supply new weapons to the military. But your mum found out exactly what they were researching and developing.’

I blinked at him several times as I absorbed the information.

‘They’re researching us, Lila. That’s what your mum found out. The Unit is trying to isolate the gene that triggers our abilities so they can then use it to create new weapons.’

I threw back my head and laughed so loudly that Bill and Harvey looked over at me.

‘Yeah, OK, that makes complete sense.’

‘No, we’re not mad.’ Suki was responding to the silent accusations I was now throwing their way. ‘Imagine if someone could do what Demos can do – only to hundreds or thousands of people at a time.’

‘That’s not possible.’ I might not have listened too hard in biology lessons but I knew that it wasn’t possible.

‘Yes it is,’ Demos interrupted. ‘Gene therapy is the fastest advancing science of our time. You should see the progress they’re making in medicine. It’s actually quite fascinating when you have time to study it. All of this, everything we’re talking about, is possible.’

OK, maybe I didn’t know that much after all. ‘So you’re telling me that this company, the Unit, is not developing new guns or bullets, or bombs, but is, in actual fact, trying to create a super-army of mind-control freaks?’

‘I wouldn’t use that exact terminology, but – yes. Why else is a defence company employing geneticists and neuroscientists?’

I thought immediately of Sara. No way. Did she know what was happening? She couldn’t. She was so nice. Jack was so in love with her. A split second later my body froze, the muscles contracting up my spine. ‘Jack and Alex? Do they know?’

Suki shook her head, her hair slicing against her cheeks. ‘No. They don’t know. They think the scientists are just there to do psych evaluations. They have no idea what else is going on.’

‘They’re just soldiers, Lila. Pawns in a game.’

I looked at Demos.

‘They were recruited on purpose. Why else would two eighteen-year-olds be approached in their freshman year? It was genius. They’re exploiting your brother and Alex’s obsession for revenge and using it to catch me. And they knew that recruiting Jack would give me pause for thought.’

I raised my eyebrows sceptically. It didn’t seem to have given him much pause for thought.

‘He’s Melissa’s son. They knew I wouldn’t be able to hurt him.’

Yeah, I thought, that depends on how you define hurt. Kidnapping me and sending Jack on a crazy suicide mission qualifies as hurting, to my mind.

‘We didn’t have a choice, Lila.’ It was Suki again. I kept forgetting she had access to my thoughts.

I was about to launch into a tirade but Demos interrupted, his voice so final it stopped me like a red light. ‘And the real tragedy of it, the really sick thing, is that all this time, while they’ve been coming after me, your brother and Alex have actually been working for the very people who killed your mother. The company told Burns to do it.’

Licks of energy started to flicker up my arms and legs. The sandwich in front of me suddenly spun away across the table. Demos’s hand shot out and he caught it in mid-spin. His eyes widened in a gentle warning. I worked on my breathing, trying to steady my whirring mind.

He spoke the next words slowly, watching me carefully for any more adverse reactions. ‘The men who killed your mum are from the Unit. Your brother and Alex lead them.’

I put my head on the table, resting my forehead against the rough wood, feeling wave after wave of nausea wash over me. Prickles of sweat started to bead the back of my neck. I had probably shaken hands with the men who’d killed my mother. How could any of this be allowed to happen?

I felt a hand, Suki’s I guessed, start to stroke my forearm, then her voice, light and smooth, answering my silent question. ‘The Unit operates completely outside of any normal parameters.’

Demos spoke up. ‘It answers to no one, Lila. It’s so top secret only a few people in government know its real mission.’

I lifted my head from the table, it was heavy as marble. I remembered Alex saying the Unit operated under a higher authority even than the President. The clearing started to blur like I was on a merry-go-round. I felt myself lurch to the left, my elbow cracking against the side of the table. I put my head back down and closed my eyes.

‘Why do they want you so badly? Because you killed Burns?’ I asked, once the world had stopped spinning.

‘No, not because of that.’ He was laughing softly to himself. ‘I did them a favour. Saved them a lot of money and the bother of doing it themselves.’

Suki butted in. ‘They’re after Demos because he’s the most powerful of all of us. He’s one of a kind. Not like the rest of us.’ I opened my eyes and looked up. She sounded in awe of him.

I noticed the blush rising up her neck.

‘It’s enough that we know what the Unit is doing,’ Demos said. ‘But, yes, the main reason they want me – all of us, in fact – is that if they catch us, they hit the mother lode. Every known ability in one go. They’ll test us like lab rats. Get what they want, then dispose of us.’

I watched as the blush drained from Suki’s cheeks. Then her chin lifted and her head snapped to the side. She and Demos rose from the bench in unison, both looking over towards the table where Bill and Harvey were still sitting. I noticed that Amber and Ryder had joined them. I wondered what was going on, then saw Nate was sitting up between them. He was back.

I jogged after Demos and Suki, who by now were halfway towards him, Suki struggling to keep pace with Demos.

‘What’s happening?’ Demos demanded as we reached them.

‘They’re there. They’re in.’

I inhaled so loudly everyone turned to look at me.

‘In the building? How’d they manage it?’

‘They took Rachel.’ Nate’s face was fairly gleaming with exhilaration, like he’d just played a video game and had broken through to the final level.

Amber edged down her side of the bench and patted the empty space next to her while looking over at me. I studied her a while and then eased myself slowly down onto the bench. Bill grinned at me, and Harvey gave me a one-sided smile and a nod, cigarette still clamped in the corner of his mouth.

‘It was really clever. They went straight to her house on the base. Alex goes strolling up and knocks on her door like he’s there to watch the game or something. She’s all over him as soon as she answers the door.’

I was glad I was sitting down.

‘She was all “Where have you been? Oh my God!” Alex totally played to it. Tells her he had to go after Lila . . .’ he paused to glance at me, with a slight apologetic smile, ‘’cos she’d run away. He said that he’d found her, given her a good talking-to and packed her off on a plane home. Then the next thing he’s got a gun to Rachel’s head and told her to come take a ride. Seriously, it was like the coolest move, like he was Jason Bourne or something. They got her in the car. Did I mention the car? They stole it from outside the base. A hardcore 4×4 turbo engine. It’s awesome.’

‘Nate.’ Demos’s voice was hard as stone. ‘What did they do?’

‘Sorry.’ He felt the rebuke. ‘They took her to the Unit. Told her to cooperate or she was as good as dead. Jack told her that they were all going in and that she was going to authorise a prisoner swop. Something about taking Thomas and Alicia over to the Washington Head Office.’

Thomas? Thomas was dead. ‘What do you mean, Thomas?’

Everyone turned to look at me, except for Demos. ‘Nate,’ he said, ‘go back now. Tell us when they’re on their way.’

Nate nodded, eager as a puppy. Ryder caught his shoulder moments before his unconscious head smacked onto the table. He replaced the rolled-up sweater gently. Suki reached over and stroked Nate’s hair.

Demos was fixing me with one of his looks. ‘Thomas is alive. Alex told us.’

‘When did he tell you that?’

‘Earlier, in the clearing. He told us Thomas was alive and that he’d bring us him and Alicia in exchange for your safe return.’

I thought back to Alex standing there with a gun against his head. The silent communication he’d had with Suki. The look in his eyes before he’d turned and left me. My fingers traced the bracelet on my wrist, remembering the way his hands had felt holding my face, the way his breath had tickled my neck, the pressure of his lips on mine.

And I couldn’t stand it anymore. It felt like my mind was going to shut down, switch off. I lurched upright and started to back away from the table. I braced myself for the inevitable freeze but when it didn’t come I turned and started to run towards the trees in the distance.

‘Let her go,’ I heard Demos say.