Pep Squad (22 page)

That thought jolted Jess into action. She put everything she'd learned in self-defence classes into practice: stamping hard on his foot and trying to use his own weight against him to slam him into the wall at the side of the stairwell, but she barely even managed to slow him down. Metsen may have been manic, but years of training meant he could easily counter all of Jess's moves.

Realising she couldn't overpower him physically, Jess switched tactics.

‘It'll never work,' she said.

‘Excuse me?' said Metsen, slowing his pace ever so slightly.

‘Even if you make it out of here, no one from P.E.P. Squad is going to go along with this.'

‘So you think you've figured it out, huh? Not everyone in P.E.P. Squad has such high ideals as yourself,' laughed Metsen, pushing Jess up another flight of stairs.

‘Well the people I know–'

‘The people you know are trained killers. Lying to their families about what they do. Do you really think I can't spin this so that the majority of my hand-picked minions won't think this is the greatest weapon of all time?'

‘They'll agree that it's powerful, but that's its only greatness,' said Jess. ‘You try to do what you've said you'll do with the virus and P.E.P. Squad will hunt you down. You haven't built yourself an army of mercenaries: you've built yourself a moral compass who will take you out rather than have you play chicken with a deadly virus.'

‘The blissful ignorance of youth,' mused Metsen almost dreamily, before fixing Jess with a hard stare. ‘Believe me, after being operatives for long enough to see their colleagues, their friends, die on missions, there aren't many in P.E.P. Squad who would willingly risk their lives when a deterrent like BS3 is available.'

‘The teachers would,' said Jess.

‘I wouldn't base your knowledge of P.E.P. Squad personnel on Theruse Abbey staff. Remember the saying: those who can, do; those who can't, teach.'

‘Some of us still have what it takes to survive in the field,' boomed a voice from below. ‘It's over, Metsen. Let her go.'

Metsen whirled around, holding Jess in front of his body, one arm around her throat and his gun pressed against her head. Had he not been holding her so tightly, Jess would have fallen down the stairs in shock.

Standing on the landing below them was Lieutenant Parry. But unlike those of the man Jess had seen moments before on the phone display, Lieutenant Parry's clothes were ripped and his face was covered in blood, as were the knuckles on both hands.

Metsen laughed.

‘Or what? You're unarmed and I have the world's deadliest weapon in my pocket,' said Metsen. He shifted his gun into his other hand, ramming the barrel into the base of Jess's jaw, and extracted a vial from his jacket. ‘BS3 virus. No known antidote. Don't think I won't use it.'

Then Jess saw another expression she'd never before seen on Lieutenant Parry's face. Fear.

‘That's got your attention, hasn't it?' laughed Metsen.

‘You can't. You don't know what it could do if released into the atmosphere …'

‘I've got a pretty good idea,' said Metsen, pulling a balaclava out of his pocket and yanking it over his head. Jess recognised the material of the balaclava. It was the same as her P.E.P. Squad-issue thermal underwear.

Lieutenant Parry laughed.

‘That won't keep you safe, Metsen. Don't forget, I've seen Hess's research. The virus structure is finer than the weave of the material. It'll get through and kill you too.'

Metsen cocked his head and looked at Lieutenant Parry.

‘You're bluffing,' he said.

With a sudden movement, Metsen went to strike the vial against the wall. A shot rang out and Metsen fell backwards, letting go of the vial. Jess dropped to her knees and thrust out a hand, catching it millimetres before it could hit the floor and shatter.

She looked down the stairwell and couldn't believe her eyes. On the landing below Lieutenant Parry, a red-and-black uniformed guard with half his face peeling off was holding a weapon, pointed just to the right of Jess where Vladimir Metsen had been standing seconds before.

‘That's for my mother,' said Krivan, starting to shake uncontrollably.

Jess and Lieutenant Parry bolted down the stairs to Krivan, taking care not to slip on the trail of blood seeping out of the hole in Metsen's forehead. The lieutenant took the gun and eased Krivan down to a sitting position.

‘Ivan, thank goodness, I thought you were dead,' said Lieutenant Parry.

‘So did I! I saw you get
shot
,' exclaimed Jess.

Krivan ripped his shirt open to reveal a silver disc in the middle of his black thermals, saying, ‘Bullet-proof underwear, remember?'

Jess gasped with relief. ‘Does that mean Emily and the boys are OK too?'

‘I didn't wait to check,' said Krivan. ‘I had to save you.'

Jess was torn. Her first instinct was to run back to the dungeon to check on her friends but she owed Krivan, who had single-handedly saved the mission, not to mention Jess's own life, and so she felt she should stay with him. Then a door burst open and the decision was made for her.

‘
Ivan
!' cried Mr Krivlyakaev, barely recognisable in his camouflage gear, sinking to his knees and clasping his son tightly. Krivan buried his face in his father's shoulder and started to sob.

Lieutenant Parry whispered quietly to Mr Krivlyakaev, then grabbed Jess by the upper arm and walked her back towards the dungeon.

‘Jess,' he whispered quietly, his lips touching her ear, ‘I cannot begin to explain to you how important it is that you tell
no one
that Ivan shot Metsen. Is that clear?'

Jess nodded.

‘There's no telling what Metsen's cohorts may do to him if they find out. Nice work snatching the vial, by the way. Now catch me up on what's been happening.'

As they made their way back to the dungeon, Jess quickly explained everything that had happened since Krivan had faked his injury, including the accidental death of the snowmobile rider, the ROACH reconnaissance and Krivan's request to his father for help.

‘Wow,' said Lieutenant Parry as they strode along a corridor linking the roof staircase to the dungeon staircase. ‘Krivan handled the situation like a pro, but why didn't he come to me?'

‘He, er, wasn't entirely sure you weren't in on it,' said Jess.

‘That poor kid,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘He worked that all out single-handedly, got shot, saved our lives, the mission and clocked up two kills which will probably haunt him for the rest of his life. That's a heck of a day for a sixteen-year-old.' He turned to look at her. ‘How are you doing?'

‘I don't want to think about that right now. Let's go see if the others are all right.'

As they reached the lower corridor, Jess's legs started moving as if they had a mind of their own. She sprinted down the corridor, towards the moaning sounds of two boys and a girl, in pain but very much alive. Jess cried with relief as she tried to hug them all at once.

‘How are they?' Lieutenant Parry asked Dr Hess, who was tending to them.

‘They'll be sore at the impact points, both from the bullets and where they landed, but no serious damage has been done.'

‘Good to hear it,' said Lieutenant Parry.

‘Wayne, you're a sensible man,' said Hess. ‘I know that your current employment is of a somewhat … secretive nature, but I why did you bring children into this mess?'

‘I was under orders,' said Lieutenant Parry.

‘Whose orders?'

‘Orders from the most secret spy network in the world.'

Hess raised an eyebrow.

‘Come to think of it, our research arm would really benefit from a mind like yours,' continued Lieutenant Parry.

‘That's good news, given that I'm assuming my “employment” contract here has been effectively terminated,' said Hess. ‘But what about my research staff?'

‘I have a special drink for your research staff,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘It's called Memory Wipe. No long-lasting effects, but they won't remember a thing from the time they began working on the project once we administer it. What do you say?'

‘Bottoms up,' said Hess.

It was a very subdued group of cadets that sat down to a late supper at the Wirtshaus. Jess in particular noticed Krivan's absence, made all the keener as the others kept asking questions about their break-in to the castle and the showdown with Metsen on the staircase, which of course she had to lie about.

The questions didn't let up the following day either. But this time they were posed by professional P.E.P. Squad agents during a regulation debriefing. Jess, Emily, the twins, Lieutenant Parry, and presumably Krivan, were interviewed individually and then asked to confirm each other's accounts. At the end of the day they were brought together in a room, although Krivan was still absent. A man Jess didn't recognise, wearing a suit and tie, stood before them.

‘I hardly need to tell you that what happened at Altganz Castle is not a typical work-experience assignment. We have never before placed our cadets in such serious danger, and we have never before had to deal with such a crisis at top-management level.

‘For the moment we think it best to keep the details of what happened here, including Vladimir Metsen's involvement, classified. You are not to breathe a word of what happened here to anyone, including each other, once you leave this room.'

The man handed out some stapled A4 pages to each of them.

‘These are your official cover stories. You spent the last three days at Dublin Airport, working with customs. You have five minutes to read through them and ask me questions.'

Neither the lieutenant nor the other cadets had questions, so they were dismissed and sent home. Jess did have one burning question which she was afraid to ask. What had happened to Krivan?

She was still pondering this eighteen hours later, as she crossed the finish line of the assault course at Theruse Abbey and collapsed.

‘That was disappointing, Leclair. You only managed to shave one second off your previous time,' said Lieutenant Parry.

Jess lifted her head off the ground and glared at him. He dropped his voice and continued, ‘How are you holding up?'

‘I'm OK, I think.'

‘You know I'm here if you need someone to talk to.'

Jess smiled gratefully and nodded, and the lieutenant walked away.

‘How was your work experience?' asked Aidan, coming over and offering Jess a hand up.

‘Pretty dull, really,' said Jess. ‘I can't wait to get to do something a little less routine next year.'

‘Jess,' called Svetlana, coming over with a towel around her neck.

‘Hi Svetlana,' said Jess.

‘I haven't seen Ivan since he came back. Do you know if he's okay?'

Jess paused ever so briefly.

‘He had to go back to Russia. Some family crisis. Quite handy our work experience was at the airport so he could get a flight straightaway.'

Svetlana's eyes narrowed. ‘Funny, that's what Matt said. Word for word.'

‘What was that about?' asked Aidan as Svetlana walked away.

‘Beats me,' said Jess, glad that her red face from running disguised her sudden blush.

‘So when did you get back?' asked Aidan.

‘Late last night,' said Jess.

‘Did you hear the news?'

‘What news?' asked Jess.

‘Metsen's dead. Apparently some terminal disease he'd been hiding for years. I wonder who the new principal's going to be?'

Jess glanced over at Lieutenant Parry and raised an eyebrow. ‘I know a good candidate when I see one.'

Later that evening, when Jess finally sank down into her own bed, body and mind completely exhausted, one last thought snaked into her consciousness, making her eyelids fly open. Whose was the second voice on the ROACH tape and what were they planning now?

Eileen O'Hely was born in Australia to Irish parents. She is the author of the successful ‘Penny the Pencil' series for 5–8 year olds. This is her first book for older children. She currently lives in Sydney.

www.mercierpress.ie/authors/eileenohely

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