Hit Squad Read Free

smell that preceded all my visions filled the air and I was there . . . in the future.
    Darkness. My hand in Cal’s as we fly . . . Landing with a bump. Stumbling. The air is cold. The ground covered in frost.
    While keeping a mental hold of what I was seeing, I encouraged the vision to skip ahead. This was a technique I’d learned recently. It gave me more control over what I was seeing, though
not as much control as I would have liked.
    A church spire looms overhead in the moonlight. Frost crackles under my feet. I am with others, though I can’t see them.
    As I tried to get a sense of who I was with in the vision, my mind, unbidden, skipped ahead again. A series of quick, dramatic images filled my inner vision.
    The side of the church. Graves to the right.
    Unbidden, my mind skipped ahead again. The images came thick and fast – almost too quickly for me to register them.
    An uneven lane . . . houses . . . a large wooden door with green paint peeling off the panel. Nico’s hand, twisting to undo the lock . . .
    Trying to slow the vision down, the images skipped ahead once more.
    A cold, damp passageway . . . another door . . . creaking open . . . a bare concrete room . . . cold . . . a pain in my leg . . . can’t breathe . . . a bright light, blinding me . .
.
    With a jolt, the vision left me. I stood, gasping for air in the middle of the field. It took a second to remember where I was. And why. I turned around. Nico had rejoined the others. They were
packing their juice bottles away. Dylan was slipping on the backpack. Cal beckoned me over with a smile.
    ‘Did you see something?’ he asked as I walked back. ‘You looked a bit glassy-eyed earlier. I thought maybe you were going to try for a vision.’
    I nodded. ‘We should head for the church in Lovistov. The place we’re going is nearby. It was hard to work out the sequence but I saw a large green door after I saw the church and
after we’d walked down a lane of houses . . .’
    ‘So you think the green door belongs to one of the houses?’
    I nodded.
    Cal looked at me, impressed. ‘Wow, that’s ace.’
    Ed smiled. ‘Well done, Ketty.’
    Dylan snorted. ‘It’s all a bit vague, isn’t it? What’s behind the door?’
    I shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Some sort of passageway . . . a room. But I saw Nico unlocking the front door, so I know we go in there.’
    ‘It’s a start,’ Cal insisted.
    I glanced at Nico who had remained uncharacteristically silent throughout this exchange. Once he would have leaped to my defence, not left it to Cal.
    ‘Did you see anything else?’ Nico’s voice was cold.
    ‘Only that there was a frost,’ I said. I decided not to mention the pain in my leg or the dazzling light. I couldn’t explain either – and it was hopeless trying to get
the others to understand the way my visions jumped around.
    Nico offered me a curt nod. He said nothing.
    And when, a few minutes later, we flew on again, he stood once more beside Dylan, not me.
    The rest of the journey was uneventful. Once we reached the coast, Cal rested again. Then we flew on, over Indonesia and Cambodia, too high up to make out anything distinct in the landscape. We
stopped to eat and sleep only in short bursts but it was nearly dawn the following day when we arrived in Lovistov. Taking into account the time difference, Cal had been flying us for over
forty-eight hours and was practically dead on his feet. He landed us – more raggedly than usual – in a copse on the edge of town. The church spire I’d seen in my vision was
visible in the distance and the air was as cold as my vision had suggested. Once we reached the church, I knew the house with the green door would be close by.
    Nico immediately took charge. ‘Okay, Cal and Ed stay here to rest. I’ll go with Dylan and Ketty to scout around. See if we can locate the house Ketty saw.’
    ‘Any more clues for us, Ketty?’ Dylan drawled.
    I shook my head. I’d been trying to have