The Rescue (13 page)

My head spun as I watched him. Sitting down for the first time in hours I realised how tired I was. What a relief that I’d run into Stanley . . . that he was looking after us like this, prepared to go to such lengths to help.

The concierge vanished and Stanley came over to us.

‘If there’s a signal now I’d like to call Geri,’ I said. ‘Tell her what’s going on.’

Stanley fished out his BlackBerry. ‘Signal’s still dead,’ he said. ‘The concierge says all the main lines are still down too. He’s just gone next door to raise his brother to take us to my helicopter.’

I sat back, feeling uneasy. But there wasn’t time to think. A few seconds later the concierge was back, accompanied by a short bald man who looked just like him.

‘Let’s go,’ Stanley said, hauling Dylan to her feet again. ‘Goldie’s waiting for us at the helicopter. We need to get to your camp before Fernandez realises what’s going on. If we can arrive before everyone’s up, we’ll be able to launch a surprise attack on the camp, get your friends out fast and clean.’

As I carried his suitcases to the taxi, the question that had been building up in my mind forced its way out.

‘Why are you doing all this?’ I said. ‘I mean, rescuing Dylan and Luz was one thing, but the camp’s miles away – what about all your business work?’

Stanley placed Dylan carefully in the back of the cab, then got in the front. As Luz and I settled ourselves in the back and the taxi set off, Stanley turned to face me.

‘I told you last night, it just feels like the right thing to do. Sandra and I agreed that if a child came our way in need of help, it was our duty to step up to the plate. Plus, if I’m honest, it’s also a buzz.’ He grinned. ‘Like I told you, I miss the army – and it’d be a shame to let that combat training go to waste, eh, kiddo?’

I nodded, still not entirely convinced. Something wasn’t quite right here, though I couldn’t see what. After all, Stanley had done nothing but help me so far. My dad was always saying that people were basically good – and just needed the opportunity to work hard to make the most of their potential.

On the other hand, Mum always said that beliefs like that explained why other people were rich and Dad was still a struggling builder who couldn’t afford to replace our ancient, battered Ford Fiesta.

The helicopter was waiting for us at the edge of town. As we reached it, a red-haired man in jeans and a stained, greasy top emerged from the hut nearby. He grinned as we all got out of the taxi, revealing a gold front tooth.

‘This is Goldie,’ Stanley said. ‘My pilot.’ He jerked his thumb at the boot and Goldie retrieved the suitcases.

We helped pull Dylan out of the taxi and set her down in the shade of the nearby hut.

‘We leave in five minutes,’ Stanley said. ‘There’s a toilet in the hut if anyone needs to go.’ He repeated this in Spanish for Luz. She went inside immediately.

I sat down next to Dylan as her eyes flickered open. She raised her hand to her head and gave a moan as she rubbed her forehead.

‘Jesus, what happened?’ she grunted.

‘You okay, Dylan?’ I said, sitting beside her.

‘Yeah, freakin’ fantastic,’ she snapped, her eyes coming properly into focus. ‘Where am I?’

‘Still in San Juan. We, er . . . we rescued you and Luz and now we’re waiting for a helicopter ride out of here,’ I said. ‘This man, Andrew Stanley, he’s helping us get to the camp so we can get Nico and Ketty.’

Dylan rubbed her head again. ‘Why don’t we just call Geri – or the police?’

‘There’s no signal to call out from round here – and the local police won’t move against Fernandez – they all knew about that Escondite place – the whole scam.’

Dylan nodded, then yawned. ‘I can hardly keep my eyes open.’

‘Stanley said that you would – he said that’s what it’s like after . . . after what happened to you.’ I was in no hurry to admit to Dylan that I was the one who had knocked her out.

‘So why are those two men helping us?’ Dylan said, trying to repress another yawn.

I looked over at Goldie and Stanley, deep in conversation by the helicopter.

‘I don’t really know,’ I admitted. ‘I guess they’re just good people.’

Dylan gave a contemptuous snort and slumped back against the wall. Seconds later her breathing grew shallow and even. She was clearly asleep.

Stanley beckoned me over. He laid a large map of the area on the ground and pointed at a spot to the west of San Juan.

‘This is where we are now.’ He waved his hand across the desert beyond San Juan on the map. ‘Where d’you think your camp is?’

I studied the map. I’ve always like orienteering and I know how to read maps well. A range of mountains ran to the north of the town we were in. I distinctly remembered seeing the sun setting to the right of those, which meant that when Fernandez and I had driven towards San Juan from Camp Felicidad, we must have been journeying southwards. I pointed to the desert area above San Juan on the map.

‘The camp’s here somewhere. Due north of the town – as far away as it would take a jeep travelling at about fifty miles an hour to do the journey in two hours, so . . .’ I thought for a second, ‘roughly one hundred miles north of San Juan.’

Stanley smiled. ‘Well done, kiddo.’

A few minutes later we were all in the helicopter. Dylan grumbled as we woke her to make her get on board. She sat right at the back and fell asleep again immediately, her head wedged against the window. Luz huddled close to me in the row in front. I put my arm round her again as Goldie and Stanley got in behind the controls. I was anxious about what lay ahead. It wouldn’t be easy to liberate Nico and Ketty from the camp, but on the other hand we were here with two adults – one of whom certainly knew how to handle himself – and with the resources to make an easy and speedy getaway.

I didn’t know anything about helicopters, but this was a smart one. There was a spare seat beside me and Luz, and two behind us, next to Dylan. I wondered idly why Stanley needed such a capacious machine when all he was travelling with were a couple of suitcases, but then Luz snuggled closer to me, laying her head on my chest, and everything else went out of my mind.

She smiled up at me, her eyes glinting sea-green in the dim light. As the helicopter engine started and the blades whirred above us, she said something in Spanish. The noise was too great for me to follow exactly what she said, but I caught the words
tu corazon
and
muy rapido.

I blushed. My heart was certainly beating very fast and not entirely, if I was honest, because we were about to set off on a dangerous rescue mission. I bent my face closer to hers. I had no idea what to say . . . still, the way Luz was looking at me, maybe I didn’t need to say anything at all.

And then the helicopter gave a lurch and we were off, rising into the air.

My stomach rose into my throat as we swooped down and rose again. All thoughts of kissing Luz deserted me as overwhelming fear and a strong desire to vomit took their place.

Luz seemed to sense my anxiety. She patted my arm and pulled away from me.

‘No te preoccupes, Eds,’ she said.

Don’t worry.

I swallowed and closed my eyes. I’d felt sick on my last helicopter ride, when Nico and I had gone to Cornwall to rescue Ketty. She was being used as bait to lure us into a trap, so that we could be handed over to a weapons dealer called Blake Carson.

Carson himself was planning to sell us on to military outfits in other countries, to use – or misuse – our abilities for their own ends. Luckily Nico and Ketty had saved us that day – and the police had arrested Carson.

Well, today I would repay the favour. Today it was Nico and Ketty’s turn to be rescued.

12: The rescue

I felt sick for the whole helicopter ride. Luz, on the other hand, seemed to be loving the experience. She shuffled across a seat so that she could look properly out of the window and made constant exclamations in Spanish. Stanley had explained to her by now that once we had rescued Nico and Ketty he would take her to a safe place where the process of tracking down any remaining family could begin.

She’d explained to me that both her parents were dead – that she’d been in and out of a number of care homes, getting in trouble with the police for various minor incidents. She thought her aunt and her grandmother lived in Toledo, and was eager to try to reach them.

‘Maybe I go live with them, Eds,’ she’d said eagerly.

I couldn’t see this as a very likely outcome. After all, if they’d wanted to take her in why hadn’t they done so after her parents died? Still, I supposed it was worth a try.

Luz asked me about my telepathy on the flight. Fighting my nausea, I explained in extremely limited Spanish that it was just an ability I’d been born with and that I didn’t like to use it too much. Luz looked bemused, but accepted what I said, turning back to the window to gaze out in wonder at the town spread out beneath us.

As the journey went on, she told me more about her life. How she’d never known her dad, how her mum and older brother had been drug addicts, how she’d lived rough after they died before being picked up by the police. Her story, told partly in Spanish and partly in broken, stumbling English, transfixed me. I’d never met anyone who’d gone through half as much. I mean, all of us with the Medusa gene had to live with the knowledge it had killed our mothers – and I was the only one who actually knew his real father. But that was
nothing
compared to Luz’s experiences.

I’m not sure how long we were in the air, but the sun was well up in the sky when Luz clamoured excitedly that she’d seen a building that looked like the camp. Dylan, I noticed, was still sleeping soundly, so with a great effort I turned my head and identified it as Camp Felicidad.

We banked swiftly and zoomed towards it. Goldie lowered the helicopter several hundred metres away, behind a sandy hillock. It couldn’t be seen from the camp there, though anyone watching would have certainly noticed it land. However, according to Stanley’s watch it was now almost 5 a.m., which meant no one would be up yet to notice anything.

‘Tell me about the camp,’ Stanley said.

I explained quickly how it was laid out and where the male and female sleeping areas were. ‘I don’t know where Fernandez, Cindy and Don sleep, though,’ I admitted. ‘They must be somewhere in the main building.’

‘Not to worry.’ Stanley patted the Lockdown in his pocket. ‘There’s no way Fernandez will be here yet – he still thinks you’re on the run from him in San Juan and will be looking for you there. All we have to worry about are two adults who are a) probably asleep and b) unaware we’re here. They might be armed, of course, but so are we.’

I felt for my own Lockdown. I didn’t want to have to use it again, not after what I’d done to Dylan. But at least I knew I could if I had to. I smiled. ‘This’ll be our third rescue mission in as many hours,’ I said.

‘Yes, and potentially the most risky.’ Stanley didn’t smile back. ‘So keep your wits about you.’

After a short deliberation, Stanley left Goldie, Luz and the still-sleeping Dylan with the helicopter.

‘Best if we keep the gung-ho factor to a minimum, kiddo,’ Stanley said. ‘If we take too many people, there’s more risk of accidental noise. Plus,’ he smiled at me, ‘I know
you
know how to handle one of those.’ He pointed to my Lockdown.

We set off across the desert, the dawn air chilly against our faces. Our plan was to creep up on the camp, using the barn on the side as cover. We would break one of the windows to get into the main building, find Ketty, then move on to the outhouse dorm where Nico slept.

The first part of this went as smoothly as it could have done. Stanley broke the window with a speed and a style that even Dylan would have envied. We were safely through and breaking down the door to the girls’ dorm in less than a minute. Stanley waited outside while I raced in to wake Ketty. She was stirring, woken by the noise from the door lock smashing. Several of the other girls looked round, but lay back when they saw me. I understood this attempt to stay out of the trouble we would undoubtedly be in if we were caught.

Ketty’s eyes widened as she registered my presence. Her dark, curly hair was a tangled mess around her head but she still managed to look fresh and pretty in the shaft of early sunlight that fell across her bed.

‘Ed?’ she whispered. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

I leaned over the bed. ‘We’re getting out of here. Now. Hurry. I found this man in San Juan who’s helping us. He’s got a helicopter and—’

‘
What?
’ Ketty rubbed her eyes. ‘Slow down, Ed, I don’t under—’

‘There isn’t time to explain,’ I tugged at her arm. ‘The helicopter’s waiting – just outside camp.’

At last, Ketty registered what I was saying.

‘Are you sure we can trust this man . . .?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Absolutely. He’s been brilliant.’

‘But Geri’ll be phoning again in a few days. Why don’t we just wait for her? This is all a bit dramatic.’ Ketty frowned.

‘Because Fernandez will be back long before Geri gets here and I don’t want to think about how he’ll punish me and Dylan for running off.’