Hunted (17 page)

I called Geri from my cell phone. She answered right away, her voice curt.

‘Where are you, Dylan? What on earth are you all doing?’

‘We’re on a mission, Geri,’ I said.

‘I thought I’d made it clear you were to do
nothing
without a full briefing from me so that I can provide you with proper back-up,’ Geri said, speaking at a hundred miles an hour in a low, terse voice. ‘It’s bad enough the four of you picking your own missions without you clearing off in the middle of the night to carry out some secret—’

‘Listen, Geri,’ I interrupted. ‘I didn’t call to fight with you. We need to find someone and I think you know where he lives.’

‘Who?’ she said suspiciously.

‘This guy . . . Bookman. He used to run the Hub – he was your boss years ago. Remember?’

A long pause.

‘Of course I remember. Why do you want to find Bookman?’ She hesitated. ‘Does this have something to do with the Medusa gene code?’

‘Sort of,’ I said. ‘I think Bookman knows who killed my dad. In fact, I think he might be the one who did it.’

Geri sucked in her breath. ‘Dylan, I’m sorry, but that’s nonsense. Your father died in a traffic accident.’

‘I’ve got reason to believe he was murdered by Bookman,’ I said.

‘What reason?’ Geri gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Dylan, this would be funny if it wasn’t so stupid. I worked for Bookman. He was a . . . a civil servant . . . a man behind a desk shuffling papers and rubber-stamping agency operations.’

‘My mom thought it was him. She confronted him and he killed her to stop her talking to anyone else.’

‘Your mother was an hysteric. She went to pieces after your dad died. Where are you getting this ridiculous information?’

I said nothing. I didn’t want to mention Laura – or Harry. I was sure Geri would be able to find us once she had Laura as a lead.

‘Dylan, think about what you’re saying.
Why
would Bookman want to kill your dad? It doesn’t make sense. William Fox was a genius. He was
working
for us. Yes, he’d gone off the rails a bit since he found out the Medusa gene killed the mothers, but we were all confident he would calm down. It wasn’t his fault that the gene mutated – he’d tested it
and
the virus it was embedded in. After he’d got over the shock, he would have come back to work.
That’s
what Bookman wanted. William Fox back in the lab. Not William Fox dead.’

‘Maybe my dad knew something bad Bookman had done,’ I said stubbornly. ‘Maybe Bookman thought he had a reason to kill him.’

‘
What
reason? It wasn’t in Bookman’s interests to kill him – we were both trying to encourage him to resume his research. We didn’t want the mothers to die either. We’d already agreed that we wouldn’t use the Medusa gene code until William had sorted out the problem – and clearly, we
didn’t
use it, otherwise there’d be more than just the four of you.’

I paused. It was true that there were only four of us with the Medusa gene. Ed had even admitted earlier that he was only able to do remote telepathy with Nico, Ketty and me. Everything Geri said made sense and fitted in with everything I’d ever heard about my dad . . . until I saw his death listed as murder.

I took a deep breath. ‘I saw the classified report on my dad’s death when we did that mission to the records office, looking into the accidental death at the care home.’

‘What?’
Geri sounded utterly shocked.

‘My dad wasn’t filed under accidental death. He was filed under murder.’

‘No,’ Geri insisted. ‘You weren’t reading it properly. That database covers murders
and
classified deaths. I’ve seen it. Your dad’s death was in the classified section because he was doing secret work for the government. That’s standard practice.’

I hesitated. Was that true? I couldn’t remember what the precise name of the database had been.

It didn’t matter. My mom had been sure Bookman had killed my dad. I owed it to her to at least discover if that was true.

‘I’m going to find Bookman whether you like it or not. I have to at least
ask
him what he talked to my dad about in those meetings they had.’

‘No, Dylan. This has to stop. You must—’

‘I’ve got the Medusa gene code,’ I said. ‘I found it in my mom’s things. You can have it if you tell me where to find Bookman.’

I waited, heart in mouth, certain that offering up the code would weigh more heavily with Geri than any other argument. Not that I had any intention of handing it over to her.

Still, I’d cross that bridge later.

There was a long silence. ‘I don’t know where Bookman is,’ Geri said eventually. ‘I haven’t worked for him for many years. He retired soon after the Hub closed down.’

‘You can find anyone, Geri,’ I said. ‘We both know that. You’re probably tracking this call right now, so you can find us.’

‘I don’t have those kind of resources up here.’ Geri sighed. ‘Fine, I’ll get back to you – but it’ll take time.’

‘Make it soon,’ I said, ‘or I destroy the Medusa code. It’s the last remaining copy, remember?’

‘I’m putting in a call to the MoD right now.’ She hung up.

I hurried back to the others, drew Nico, Ketty and Ed to one side and told them what Geri had said.

‘She’s buying herself time,’ I said. ‘And I don’t trust her not to try and track us through our phones, whatever she says. We need to dump them and be ready to move as soon as she calls back with the info on Bookman.’

‘Er . . . don’t you think this is all moving a bit fast?’ Ed said.

‘Only for someone who moves like a snail,’ I snapped.

There was an awkward silence.

‘Come on, Dylan. You have to admit Ed has a point,’ Nico said. ‘Geri does, too . . . I mean, Bookman didn’t have much of a motive for killing your dad, did he?’

I shrugged. ‘I still have to find out why my mom suspected him.’

‘I don’t trust Geri with the Medusa code,’ Ed said sullenly. ‘I don’t want you to give it to her.’

‘I’m not going to,’ I said. ‘That was just bait. For Pete’s sake, Ed . . . Geri isn’t the problem. She might be ambitious and manipulative, but her number one priority has always been to protect us. Let’s stay focused on finding Bookman.’

We sat in silence for a while longer.

At last Geri called back.

‘I can’t access the information immediately, Dylan,’ she said. ‘I’ve put in an urgent request at the MoD for them to examine the archives, but they’re saying it’ll take a while to come through. The best thing you can do for now is come home. We can make a plan for dealing with Bookman together.’

‘I’ll think about it.’ I hung up, switched off my phone and turned to the others.

‘Geri didn’t take the bait,’ I said, feeling annoyed. ‘She says she’s pushing the MoD to give her information on Bookman, but I don’t know . . . it all sounds real slow.’

‘Er, Dylan?’ Harry was standing in the doorway leading back to the little office. He looked slightly self-conscious. ‘Can I have a word?’

I caught Ketty’s eye as I stood up. She winked at me.

I threw her a disdainful look. After the way Harry had made a fool of us earlier, he stood no chance with me whatsoever. Not that he ever had.

I stalked over to where he was standing, aware that the others were watching us.

‘What?’ I snapped.

‘Come in here,’ Harry said in a low voice.

I followed him into the office. ‘What’s this about?’ I said.

He stared at me, then shut the door that separated us from the others. For a second I thought he was going to try and kiss me. I steeled myself, force field firmly engaged.

Harry took a step towards me, then stopped. ‘I think I can trace Bookman,’ he said.

I wasn’t expecting that.

‘How?’ I said.

‘He worked for the government . . . for the MoD. There’s a list of employees and former employees . . . names, addresses, dates of birth . . . basic stuff.’

‘And you have access to this list?’ I said.

Harry’s face reddened. ‘Not exactly, but I know how to hack into it.’

I stared at him. ‘How?’

‘My dad showed me,’ he said. ‘It was on one of his random visits. About three years ago. Please don’t tell Mum. She doesn’t know, but he taught me loads of basic hacking stuff. It’s kind of a hobby of mine now. I don’t do anything dangerous or bad with it, and I’m not that good, but government stuff’s relatively easy.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?’

Harry kept his gaze on me. In the dim light of the office his pupils were huge, making his eyes a much darker blue than before.

‘Go on, then,’ I said. ‘See what you can find.’

Without speaking, Harry pulled a laptop from the backpack he’d been carrying earlier, and sat with it open in front of him. I let him work for a few minutes, watching as a stray lock of hair fell over his eyes. He was concentrating intently, his forehead furrowed in a frown.

‘There,’ he said at last. ‘Bookman – no longer on active service. Real name: Gordon Jellicoe. Last known address: Benton Manor, Benton. He’s seventy-two.’

I leaned over his shoulder, looking at the screen. A picture of a man with glasses and greying hair met my eyes. He looked like a typical, middle-aged office worker. I frowned, remembering Geri’s description of Bookman as ‘a man behind a desk shuffling papers’. Was this man really capable of murder?

Harry turned towards me. Our faces were suddenly very close.

I pulled away abruptly.

‘I’m getting the others,’ I said. ‘We’re going to Bookman’s house now.’

‘What about me?’ Harry jumped up.

‘You should go home with your mom.’

‘I want to come with you,’ Harry insisted. ‘I could be useful.’

‘How?’ I sneered. ‘What’s
your
superpower? A bit of hacking and lying doesn’t cut it with us.’

I walked out, not looking back at him. I told the others what Harry had found and that I was going after Bookman whether they liked it or not.

‘Fine,’ Nico said. ‘But we take things one step at a time.’

‘Whatever.’

‘What are you four discussing?’ Laura said, walking out of the kitchen.

‘Geri called back with Bookman’s address,’ I lied, not wanting to get Harry into trouble. ‘We’re going to go there now. You and Harry should leave here, too. I don’t trust Geri not to try and track us down.’

‘But you can’t go after Bookman on your own,’ Laura protested. ‘It’s dangerous.’

‘We’re going anyway,’ I said.

‘At least let me drive you,’ Laura said. ‘You’ll get there faster.’

I glanced at Nico. He nodded.

‘Okay, thanks,’ I said. ‘But you and Harry have to wait outside.’

‘Of course,’ Laura said.

I wasn’t entirely sure she was as willing as she sounded to let us confront Bookman alone, but we could deal with that later.

We arranged to leave in five minutes. I spent the time taking a plastic bag and a trowel from the kitchen, then retrieving the microchip from
The Tao of Physics.
Making sure no one could see me, I snuck into the back garden. There was a patch of loosely dug earth near a bed of white flowers. It was hidden from view of the house by a large oak tree. I put the microchip inside Mom’s mother-of-pearl box, then wrapped it in the plastic bag. I dug a shallow hole just behind the flowers, buried the box, then rushed back inside.

Everyone was ready. We clambered into Laura’s car, going over the plan again. Harry said nothing. I hadn’t looked at him since he’d done that hacking for me. I hoped at least he appreciated I hadn’t ratted him out to his mom about it.

We stopped just long enough to ditch our mobiles and buy pay-as-you-go phones. As we drove on, the conversation died for a bit. I pulled on my headphones and listened to some music. I was trying to keep my mind off the mission, but in the end it was Harry that kept intruding into my thoughts – and how he hadn’t tried to kiss me in the office after all.

19: Bookman

It was totally dark by the time we arrived on the outskirts of Benton. The journey there had been a nightmare – Laura’s satnav wasn’t working properly and we’d missed the turning to the village three times. Ironically, once we’d reached Benton itself, the manor wasn’t hard to find . . . three imposing storeys of brick set around two courtyards. There was a wide, tree-lined drive in front of the house and what appeared to be a landscaped garden behind it.

‘Bookman seems to have done real well for himself,’ I commented drily.

The house was mostly in darkness, but one room on the ground floor was lit. As we drove past, however, it was impossible to see in. Drapes had been drawn at the window.

Laura parked her car a short way down the road.

‘I’m coming with you,’ she said, opening her car door.

‘No.’ Nico slammed it shut using telekinesis. ‘We already agreed. We’re on our own here.’

Laura jerked round, clearly shocked.

‘We appreciate your help,’ Ketty said quickly. ‘But we’ll be better and faster on our own.’

‘But—’

‘We’re not walking in the front door and asking politely for an interview,’ I said. ‘We have to take him by surprise . . .
force
him to talk to us.’

‘How are. . . ?’