Authors: Sophie McKenzie
Double-Cross
Award-winning books from Sophie McKenzie
GIRL, MISSING
Winner Richard and Judy Best Kids’ Books 2007 12+
Winner of the Red House Children’s Book Award 2007 12+
Winner of the Manchester Children’s Book Award 2008
Winner of the Bolton Children’s Book Award
Winner of the Grampian Children’s Book Award 2008
Winner of the John Lewis Solihull Book Award 2008
Winner of the Lewisham Children’s Book Award
Winner of the 2008 Sakura Medal
SIX STEPS TO A GIRL
Winner of the Manchester Children’s Book Award 2009
BLOOD TIES
Overall winner of the Red House Children’s Book Award 2009
Winner of the Leeds Book Award 2009 age 11–14 category
Winner of the Spellbinding Award 2009
Winner of the Lancashire Children’s Book Award 2009
Winner of the Portsmouth Book Award 2009 (Longer Novel section)
Winner of the Staffordshire Children’s Book Award 2009
Winner of the Southern Schools Book Award 2010
Winner of the RED Book Award 2010
Winner of the Warwickshire Secondary Book Award 2010
Winner of the Grampian Children’s Book Award 2010
Winner of the North East Teenage Book Award 2010
THE MEDUSA PROJECT: THE SET-UP
Winner of the North-East Book Award 2010
Winner of the Portsmouth Book Award 2010
Winner of the Yorkshire Coast Book Award 2010
With thanks to Moira, Julie, Gaby, Mel, Lou and Lily
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd,
A CBS COMPANY.
Copyright © 2011 Sophie McKenzie
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
The right of Sophie McKenzie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor, 222 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8HB
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-0-85707-069-2
eBook ISBN: 978-0-85707-070-8
Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed and bound in Great Britain.
www.simonandschuster.co.uk
www.sophiemckenziebooks.com
www.themedusaproject.co.uk
For Jo, Michele and Pat
Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox
implanted four babies with the Medusa gene – a gene
for psychic abilities. Fox’s experiment left a legacy:
four teenagers – Nico, Ketty, Ed and Fox’s own
daughter, Dylan – who have each developed their
own distinct and special skill.
Initially, the four worked together as the
Medusa Project – a secret, government-funded,
crime-fighting force.
But now the teens have discovered that their
mentor – and head of the Medusa Project –
Geri Paterson has betrayed them.
In fear for their lives, the Medusa teens
have run away to France . . .
1: The JourneyI still couldn’t get my head around it.
Geri Paterson – the person who’d brought the four of us together as the Medusa Project – had tried to kill me.
Not just me. She’d tried to kill Dylan, too – and would have gone after Ketty and Ed if she’d had the chance.
And now we were running away from her, from home and from England . . .
‘Nico.’ Ketty’s voice beside me brought me back to the reality of the ferry’s café where the two of us had just shared a chocolate bar. ‘They’ve just announced we’ll be docking in ten minutes; we need to get into position.’
I shook myself. Time to focus.
It was late at night and we were on a ferry bound for Calais in France. Having no ID with us – and not wanting to leave a trail for Geri to follow – we’d sneaked on board using a combination of Ed’s hypnosis/mind-reading skills and my telekinetic ability to move stuff with my mind.
So far so good. But getting off without having to go through any security checks was going to be
much
trickier.
Ed and Dylan raced up and the four of us made our way to the back of the ferry. Outside the wind was fierce, and the salt smell strong in the night air. As the ferry docked, Ketty shivered in her sweats and I put my arm round her.
Her dark curls brushed against my skin. For a second, I wished we could be alone, but I put the thought to the back of my mind. I’d have the chance to spend some time with my girlfriend later.
‘So what’s the plan?’ Dylan snapped, fixing me with her piercing green eyes. She’d been in a bad mood ever since we’d left England. And though she had saved my life last night, my patience with her was wearing thin.
‘We hide until everyone’s off the boat,’ I said, wiping spray off my face. ‘Then I teleport you over the sea to that pier over there, one by one.’ I pointed across the dark water to a wooden structure a few hundred metres away that reached into the sea. It wasn’t a modern pier with buildings and fairy lights strung up for tourists, but old and bleak, with what looked like a small lighthouse at the end.
‘Suppose someone sees us?’ Ed asked.
‘They won’t,’ I said. Our ferry was moored at the end of a dock, facing out to the ocean. The route across the sea to the pier was dark and unwatched. If I kept the others low over the water, there was no reason why anyone should spot them.
‘What about you?’ Ketty looked up with concern. ‘How will you get off the ferry?’
‘I’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘It’ll be easy to sneak through security if it’s just me by myself. Plus, I’ve got my telekinesis – and if anyone stops me, I’ll just talk my way out of trouble.’
‘Yeah, you’ll be good at that,’ Dylan said with a slight sneer to her voice.
I gritted my teeth. I could understand why she was upset. Geri Paterson had tried to kill us yesterday because we’d found out she murdered Dylan’s parents when we were all babies.
Still, the news didn’t just affect Dylan. Her dad, William Fox, was the scientist who discovered, then copied, the Medusa gene . . . the very person who’d given us all our psychic gifts.
Finding out Geri had killed him – and lied about it – was a big deal for us all. Knowing she was prepared to kill us to keep us quiet was about the biggest deal I could imagine.
The ferry emptied. We waited, still hidden at the back of the boat. After five minutes or so all the other passengers had gone.
‘Time to go,’ I whispered. ‘Ketty, you first. I’m going to teleport you right to the end of the pier, next to that little lighthouse.’
She nodded. ‘Don’t drop me in the water,’ she said with a nervous grin.
I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. ‘I won’t.’
‘Get on with it,’ Dylan hissed.
Ignoring her, I turned to Ed. ‘You need to use your telepathy to keep in constant contact with Ketty while I’m teleporting her, so she can let us know if there’s some obstacle I can’t see in the darkness.’
‘Sure.’ Ed swallowed.
‘Dylan, you keep watch,’ I said.
‘Awesome,’ Dylan scowled. She crept onto the deck and scanned the ferry. ‘I can’t see anyone.’
‘Good, let’s go.’ I focused for a second, then lifted Ketty with my mind. She hovered momentarily, just off the deck, tucking herself into a ball so as to be less noticeable.
‘This is weird,’ she said.
I moved my hand, gesturing in the direction I wanted her body to move . . . over the side of the ferry and down low, to a position just half a metre or so above the sea.
I teleported her slowly and carefully across the dark water. After a few metres she disappeared from view, swallowed up in the night. I kept propelling her towards the pier, trying to keep her body at a steady pace and height over the waves. Ed stood beside me, concentrating intently. He was inside Ketty’s mind, our only way of communicating.
‘How’s Ketty doing?’ I whispered.
‘Fine, but she says she’s a bit too close to the water,’ Ed whispered back. ‘Her feet are getting wet.’
I lifted my hand, sensing Ketty’s body rise slightly into the salty air. I focused on the pier ahead. By my reckoning, Ketty should be over halfway there by now.
‘There’s still no one coming,’ Dylan hissed from across the deck, ‘but I can hear voices in the distance.’
I gulped. Chances were that someone on the ferry would walk around, checking to see that all the passengers had got off. We had to hurry. I increased the speed at which I was moving Ketty.
‘Slow down, Nico,’ Ed urged. ‘Ketty says she’s almost there. Yeah, she’s saying stop and lift her up to the pier.’
I visualised Ketty hovering over the water and raised my hand to lift her up telekinetically. Across the sea, the pier loomed in the moonlight. I strained my eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of movement.
There.
A tiny, dark blur at the very end of the pier. It could have been a bird flapping past, or a shadow, but I was certain it was Ketty.
‘Right, she’s over the pier now,’ Ed said. ‘Put her down.’