Out Of Time (Book 0): Super Unknown (3 page)

About
an hour later, the van finally came to a stop again and the group listened as
the policemen got out and closed the doors once more.

“Is
this it?” Dylan said. “Are we here?”

“Who
knows,” Jay said. “Maybe we’re picking up another hero to add to our super
team.”

“If
we’re so super, why are we still stuck here?” Toshiko asked sarcastically.

“I
don’t see you helping out,” Neelam snapped. “If you have any bright ideas,
please do share them.”

Toshiko
just shrugged her shoulders coolly and folded her arms. “This is boring.”

Suddenly,
the back door swung open. Dylan glanced at his watch and saw that it was just
gone 8.30pm.

“Well,
here we are,” the podgy policeman said. “Get inside quickly and no funny
business. There are a lot more of us here, so you don’t stand a chance.”

Dylan
helped Sophia down and saw they were parked right outside the door to a huge,
nondescript building. The entrance was open and eight uniformed men were stood
inside.

“In,”
the officer repeated.

Dylan
and Sophia did as they were told, closely followed by the rest of the group. They
were each grabbed by one of the men and marched down a long corridor, where
they went through some double doors and kept walking until they reached a room
at the end. The short, chubby policeman who’d driven them here unlocked the
door.

“Say
hello to your new home,” he said to the teenagers. He then looked at the guards.
“Throw them inside and two of you wait out here in case they attempt to escape.
They’re an annoying little bunch.”

Dylan
was shoved in first and he was surprised to see another boy his age sitting on
a bed in the corner. There were two girls of around 12 with him and judging by
the wide-eyed looks on their faces, they were just as shocked to see him.

“Who
are you?” the boy asked.

“I’m
Dylan, this is my sister Sophia and this lot are our new friends Jay, Neelam,
Toshiko, Lucy and Aaron.” He turned and pointed at the group, who had all been
locked in with him.

The
room itself was white and bare, with nothing but empty pin boards for
decoration. It reminded Dylan of a hospital, but he couldn’t be sure that it
was one. The four beds made it look like a ward, but it was even less inviting
than any he had visited.

“Nice
to meet you,” the boy said. “These are my sisters, Rhianna and Louise, and I’m
Andrew.”

“Andrew!”
Neelam yelled. “Were you run over earlier today?”

He
nodded. “How do you know?”

“I
read the minds of the people who kidnapped us and they seemed to think you
developed some kind of super power during the accident.”

“Super
power?”

“Yeah,
didn’t you?”

Andrew
looked down and patted his arms and chest. “Well, I was hit by a car and thrown
into the air, but survived to tell the tale. I was thinking I was just very
lucky.”

“Mate,
you were hit by a car?” Jay said incredulously. “You look fine.”

“Yeah
not a scratch on me.”

“Sounds
like invulnerability to me,” Jay said.

“How
did you get here?” Dylan asked. He was keen to find out.

“I
was in hospital after the accident and some guys suddenly whisked me and my
sisters away out of a side door. They said they were transferring me to another
hospital, but they didn’t – they brought me here. Other than some tests they
carried out on the way, there’s been no sign of me receiving medical care.”

“How
long have you been here?”

“About
half an hour, I guess. They drove us down here from Carby in Yorkshire earlier
this evening. So, Neelam, I apologise for prying, but did you say you read
minds? That’s crazy.”

“Well
you’re invulnerable,” she said.

“True.”
He laughed.

“They
think we might all have powers for some reason,” she explained. “Dylan here can
control water and Lucy can throw lightning bolts. We’re all pretty new to our
powers though.”

“The
rest of us don’t even know if we have them yet,” Jay said. “I hope I can do
something pretty good though. Flying would be cool.”

At
that moment, the door unlocked and two girls were thrown in. They both looked
Spanish or Italian with their olive colouring and wild curly black hair. The
youngest one fell to the floor.

“I’ll
kill you if you hurt her,” the older girl shouted. She hovered in the air and
flew towards the door, but a guard shut it in her face.

“Ow,”
she yelped as she banged her head and tumbled to the ground.

“Well,
I guess someone beat me to flying,” Jay said with a jokey sigh.

“Are
you OK?” Neelam asked.

“Yeah,
yeah fine,” the girl said. “I head butt doors every day.”

Neelam
winced a little at the girls’ harshness.

“Sorry,
I’m just sick of all this. Some guys took me and my sister hostage and I’m
furious with myself that I couldn’t protect her.” She stood up and walked over
to the younger girl. “You OK, Maria?”

“Fine,
Sasha,” she insisted. “Don’t worry about me.”

“So
who are you guys?”

Neelam
quickly did the introductions and was going to quiz Sasha about her flying
abilities when the door opened again. This time two boys were thrown into the
group.

“Where
are we?” one of them asked.

“A
lab or hospital or… actually we’re not sure,” Dylan said. “So what’s your
story?”

“I’m
Alex. Some guys took me from my house in Manchester and brought me to this
place. We picked up Ethan on the way. In… where was it? Birmingham?”

“Coventry,”
Ethan corrected him with a laugh. “But you were close. Don’t worry, a lot of
people make that mistake.”

“So,
what are your powers?” Lucy asked.

The
two boys looked at each other blankly.

“Powers?”
Alex said.

“Yeah,
they think we’re all some kind of super heroes,” Jay explained. “Lucy, Neelam,
Andrew and Dylan have some kind of special skills, but the rest of us don’t.
I’m guessing you’re with the latter group.”

“I
don’t have any super anything,” Ethan laughed.

“Me
neither,” Alex said. “They’ve made a big mistake there. What on earth led them to
think that?”

“No
idea,” Neelam said.  “So do you think this is it? The room is very overcrowded
now, surely there can’t be anyone else to…”

Her
words were interrupted by an almighty clang that came from the corridor.

“Get
her!” a voice shouted.

“I’m
trying.”

More
crashing, bashing and smashing noises ensued along with a great deal of
shouting. Then there was a massive thud, which sounded like something or
someone being thrown against a wall, followed by loud yelps.

“You
buffoons, stop letting a girl beat you,” a voice said. A huge bang rang out
throughout the corridor. Then it all went quiet.

“Get
in there you little witch,” one of the men said as he opened the door and
pushed a teenage girl in roughly. She fell to her knees. “There goes one tough
cookie,” he said to his friend as he locked the door behind him. “She nearly
had us there.”

“I
know John, it took 20 men to catch her over in Dulwich, you know.” Their voices
faded as they walked away.

“Hi,”
Dylan said to the girl, whose jet-black bobbed hair and fringe were covering
her face as she kneeled over on the floor.

She
lifted her head. “Hi,” she said with a smile, looking up at him with huge green
eyes. “I’m Scarlett.”

“Well,
hello, Scarlett. That was quite an entrance,” Dylan said with a grin. This girl
was gorgeous and feisty too from what he’d just heard. “It sounds like you gave
those men a run their money.”

“I
tried,” she said as she stood up from the floor and brushed herself down.
“There were too many of them though. And they had guns. It wasn’t really a fair
fight. At least I threw a few of them against the wall and did some damage.”

“Threw
them? Are you super strong or something?”

“Ha,
no. I’m telekinetic, which means I can move people and things with my mind.”
She paused thoughtfully. “I don’t know why I just told you that – I’ve never
revealed my powers to anyone before. I never expect anyone to believe me.”

“Well,
trust me, I definitely do. I can control water and quite a few of us in this
room can do special things too.”

“Really?”
Scarlett looked around in surprise.

“We
think that’s why we’re all here. Someone wants us for our powers – or in the
case of those of us who are still ‘normal’, the potential to have powers, I
guess.”

“Great.
I was afraid something like this would happen, that’s why I never told anyone
what I can do. Did one of you blab?”

Dylan
shook his head and turned to Andrew. “No, one of us was exposed.”

“That’d
be me,” Andrew said. “Sorry about that.”

“What
happened?”

“I
was hit by a car.”

“Yowch.”

“I’m
fine though. Turns out I’m invulnerable, which is handy.”

“I
fly,” Sasha said, fairly boastfully.

“I
create lightning,” Lucy whispered.

“And
I can read minds,” Neelam said.

“You’re
not reading mine, are you?” Scarlett said suspiciously.

Neelam
laughed. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that.”

Scarlett
didn’t look so sure. She looked around the group, eyeing up each one of them
individually.

“So…”
Dylan said. “What are we going to do? I reckon we should try to get out of
here. I don’t fancy waiting around to see what these people have in store for
us.”

“Too
late,” said a voice at the door.

Dylan
spun around. He hadn’t even heard anyone approaching. Four men in black
uniforms were stood there staring at them. These goons were all starting to
look the same now.

“The
boss wants to see you,” one of them said. The other three stopped and pointed
their guns at the teenagers. “And what he says goes, so you’d better come with me.
One false move and they shoot. Understand?”

They
all nodded begrudgingly and trudged after the men. Dylan kept his eyes peeled
for a chance to escape, but the menacing, uniformed guys never took their eyes
off the teenagers for a second. The group followed them down a maze of
corridors until they were led into a large meeting room. An older man was stood
near the front with his back to them.

“Sit
down,” one of the men ordered, pointing at the rows of seats near the front of
the room.

Toshiko,
Sasha, Maria, Alex, Ethan, Neelam and Jay perched apprehensively on the front
row while Lucy, Aaron, Andrew, Rhianna, Louise and Scarlett sat behind them.
Dylan looked around dubiously as he led Sophia over to the chairs, then took
the two positions next to Scarlett. The room looked innocent enough, like a
large classroom with cream walls, blinds on the windows and harsh lighting. The
guards stood by the doors to make sure none of them could make a run for it.

“This
is weird,” Scarlett whispered.

“I
know.” Dylan said. “It’s like school or something.”

“It’s
not
that
bad,” she joked.

“Ah
hello,” the man at the front said. He turned around to face the group. “Please
accept my apologies for the abrupt way you were brought here today.”

Dylan
stared at the man, who looked around 45. He was wearing an expensive-looking
suit and had an air of importance about him. He seemed strangely familiar, but
Dylan couldn’t quite place why.

“Is
he famous?” Sasha whispered to the front row. “I feel like I know him from
somewhere.”

“As
you all undoubtedly know, I am Prime Minister Adam Goulden, the leader of this
great nation and I have a strong vision for making Britain and the world a
better place,” he looked at them all expectantly, as if waiting for a sign that
they were impressed. “Since I took over this summer, I have started
implementing my plans for change. Changes for good.”

“The
Prime Minister,” Dylan thought. “That’s why I know him – he only runs the whole
country.”

“For
too long now, we have been seen to be a weak nation. I want to start a war that
will show people we mean business. There is trouble brewing in the Middle East
and Eastern Europe right now and I want to step in and make sure it doesn’t
turn into World War Three. Cause a little conflict now to avoid much worse
happening down the line. Do you follow me?”

He
paused and waited for them to nod, so they did so dutifully.

“Of
course, this war will have the added bonus of warning people not to attack us.
The old parties have allowed terrorists and violent groups to threaten us for
far too long and we, the New Way Party, want to do things differently by
sending a loud and clear message out there. Don’t mess with us.”

“Are
you serious?” Dylan said. “That sounds like the perfect way to invite people to
mess with us.”

Goulden
shot him a silencing, disapproving look.

“No
wonder my dad hates this guy,” Dylan thought. “He’s a power-hungry maniac.”

“What
does this have to do with us?” Scarlett asked.

“Ah,
Miss Shortt, I’m glad to meet you. I’ve heard great things about the way you
handled yourself today.”

His
flattery didn’t work on her. “Well, you ambushed me. What did you expect?”

Goulden
laughed. “To answer your question, I want you people to be my super soldiers. I
have a formidable army and security team, including the guards who are taking
care of you here. However, with your amazing powers, you will make my team
unstoppable. No one will dare to take us on.”

“What
if we say no?” Dylan asked.

“You
have no choice. I drafted a new Bill Of Parliament today, which says all
citizens in possession of a super power must do national service for at least 10
years between the ages of 14 and 30. Those of you under 14 can stay here and
train until your birthdays.

“No
way,” Scarlett said. “I’m not doing this.”

Goulden
nodded his head towards the back of the room. “Bring him in,” he said.

One
of the uniformed guards entered, dragging a boy behind him.

“Dan!”
Scarlett shouted as she jumped up from her seat. She lifted a chair and flung
it in Goulden’s direction, but 10 men instantly ran towards her with their guns
raised.

Scarlett
backed down. “What have they done to you?” she asked Dan. “Are you OK?”

He
looked at her with a petrified look in his eyes as he was pushed to the front
to stand next to Goulden.

“This
is your brother, I believe?”

Scarlett
nodded. “What do you want from him?”

“The
same as I want from you. Power.”

“But
he doesn’t have any. Do you?”

Dan
shook his head.

“Oh
but he might have,” Goulden said with glee. “So that’s good enough for me.”

He
paced back and forth in front of the group before pushing Dan towards them.

“Sit
down,” he commanded.

Dylan
got up to grab another chair and shuffled it in between him and Scarlett so her
brother could sit with them.

“Now
then, as most of you will know, this all started when Andrew miraculously
survived being hit by a car today. One of my trusty contacts alerted me to the
news and we quickly apprehended him. While he was being driven down here from
Corby…”

“Carby,”
Andrew corrected.

“Whatever.
It’s the north. I don’t care. Anyway, while he was en route, my contact ran a
quick DNA test and theorised that Andrew has these powers because of a genetic
quirk caused by a medical trial his mother took part in at Haybridge University
many years ago.”

“My
mum went there,” Lucy said.

Goulden
ignored her. “So, we came up with a list of the children of the other women who
were involved in this experiment, which was to test a contraceptive pill or
something. Whatever the drug was, it was found to be dangerous and never made
it to market.” He waved his hand as though he didn’t care about the smaller
details. “And we came across you lot. Shall we check I have you all?”

He
picked up a piece of paper from a desk to the right of him and began reading
from it.

“Dylan
and Sophia Nicolson.”

The
room stayed silent.

“
Here?
”
he asked sternly like a strict headmaster.

Dylan
sighed. “Yes.” This man really was insane.

“Andrew,
Rhianna and Louise Harper.”

“Here.”

“Ethan
White.”

“Here.”

“Alex
Connor.”

“Here.”

“Lucy
and Aaron Watts.”

Here.

“Sasha
and Maria Gomez.”

“Here.”

“Jason
Ryder.”

“Here.”

“Toshiko
Kobayashi.”

She
huffed and rolled her eyes. “Here.”

Goulden
raised an eyebrow, but let her insolence go.

“Neelam
Nori.”

“Here.”

“Scarlett
and Dan Shortt.”

“This
is ridiculous,” Scarlett said.

“Scarlett
and Dan Shortt.”

“Here,”
she snapped.

“Excellent,”
Goulden smiled. “We have a full house. Well done, men, you managed to capture
them all.” He turned back to the group. “Now here’s a question I’m intrigued to
hear the answer to – how many of you have powers so far?”

They
squirmed in their seats and looked at each other.

“It’s
a simple question.” He glowered at them angrily. “How many? Let’s do this the
easy way, shall we? Put your hand up if you have some kind of special talent.”

Dylan,
Neelam, Lucy, Scarlett, Andrew and Sasha reluctantly raised their arms in the
air. Goulden appeared to make a mark by their names on his list.

“So,”
he said. “None of the younger siblings can do a thing yet as my doctor friend
predicted. You must be too young for your abilities to have manifested. But
what about Jason, Ethan, Toshiko and Alex? Are you sure you can’t do anything?”

“Way
to make us feel dumb,” Jay laughed.

Goulden
wasn’t impressed.

“No,”
Jay said.

“Well,
maybe you’re on the verge of becoming powerful. We’ll run some tests on you all
tomorrow and see if we can identify your powers. Maybe we can even force them
to kick in.”

“You’re
not going to hurt us, are you?” Toshiko asked. “Because I don’t like the sound
of being prodded and poked in some tests.”

“It
will all be very harmless, don’t worry,” Goulden said.

Dylan
couldn’t help but think he was lying.

“As
long as you do as I say, that is. If you make any attempt to defy me or escape,
I will hurt you. Make no mistake about that.” He glowered at the group coldly
to make it clear that he meant what he said. “Now, I think you should all get
to bed. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow. My men have prepared rooms
for you. I’m sorry that there isn’t space for you to have one each, but it’ll
be more comfortable than where you were when you first arrived.”

“It
couldn’t get much worse,” Jay said quietly so Goulden didn’t hear him.

Neelam
stifled a giggle.

“Sasha,
Maria and Toshiko, you will be sharing room A. Alex, Ethan and Neelam will be
in room B. Room C is for Andrew, Rhianna and Louise. Lucy, Aaron and Jay will
take room D and Scarlett, Dan, Dylan and Sophia will be in room E.”

Dylan
tried his best not to look pleased that he’d been teamed up with Scarlett. At
least one thing had gone right today.

“Get
your rest, you’ll need it,” Goulden said. He walked towards the door to show
the meeting was over. “Guards, take them to their rooms.”