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CHAPTER FOUR

Luca was sat in the communal area of the Refuge, idly bouncing a ball against a table. There seemed to be some sort of crisis on somewhere, hence the area being deserted. Luca was staying out of it as much as possible: He appreciated being allowed in on all the family secrets but that didn't mean he was keen to get involved in Tomorrow People business.

A dark-haired girl a couple of years older than him came in and looked around, before approaching him as the only option available. "Are you one of them then?"

"No way,"Luca answered. "And I intend to stay that way as long as possible. What about you?"

"The same. Well…no. I'm one of them, but I'm not one of them, if you know what I mean. I'm really here for my sister."

"Same here. My brother, that is."

The girl held out a hand. "I'm Sophie, Cara's sister."

"Luca, Stephen's brother." A thought occurred to him. "Hey, does that make us, like, heirs to the throne or something?"

Sophie grimaced. "I hope not."

Luca thought for a moment, then his expression matched hers. "Yeah, me too." He gestured to the games consoles. "You want a game?"

A strike unit had gathered in the briefing room: Russell, Mike, Lucy, Troy, Piper, Astrid and others, with Stephen and Cara leading them. "Remember, this is a capture,"Stephen reminded the group. "We want this lot back here where we can deal with them."

"Guess these old Ultra facilities have their use after all,"Mike commented.

"We always thought so,"Troy agreed.

Irene was handing out small hand-held devices to the group. "These will help you."

"What are they?"Russell asked.

"Stun guns,"Stephen told him.

"Which we could probably have used before,"Irene noted, looking accusingly at Stephen.

"Yeah, I should have smuggled a dozen or so out of the Ultra armoury,"Stephen noted sarcastically. "That wouldn't have looked at all suspicious."

Cara stopped by Astrid, who was checking her stun gun. "You sure you want in on this?"

"This lot helped someone who was trying to wipe out my species,"Astrid reminded her. "Yeah, I want in."

The briefing room screen suddenly flashed up information. "Ah, that's the alert from Tim,"Irene noted. "Natalie's group just teleported home."

Stephen looked round at the team. "Then let's go."

Natalie let a gold necklace play across her fingers. "I might keep this one. The rest of them…Kyle, how much do you think your fence will give us for them?"

One of her group shrugged. "He'll try and mark us down but with a bit of telepathy I should be able to get what he knows is a fair price out of him."

At that moment, the Tomorrow People teleported in around them. Stephen crouched and fired his stun gun, downing his first target, before another opponent jumped on him.

Jedikiah entered the monitoring room. "What have you got?"

John was standing over a technician and gestured to the screen in front of him. "That group we've been tracking. We detected a paranormal surge, as if they'd all gone back to base. But a few moments later, there was another surge in the same area. As if…"

"As if another group had just teleported to the same place." Jedikiah gave a knowing smile. "I think this could be just the opening we're looking for. You know what to do. And remember…no-one can see you."

Stephen had despatched one opponent and was wrestling with another. Near him, Russell was locked in a similar grappling contest. Astrid had managed to stay clear of the hand-to-hand and downed one of the girls with her stun gun. One of the guys leapt on her, knocking her to the ground. Cara blasted him off her with her own stun gun. Another guy grabbed Cara from behind but an elbow to the stomach and kick to the shin convinced him of the foolishness of that.

Natalie, who had managed to get free of the melee, looked round. Most of her people were already out for the count and it was clear the stun guns were giving the Tomorrow People the edge. Her best option was to find a safe place to teleport and get as far away as possible. She dashed round a corner…and ran straight into John. Before she could react, he grabbed hold of her and injected the contents of a hyperdermic into her neck. She collapsed into his arms.

Kyle, who had had the same idea, also came running round the corner, and stopped when he saw what was going on. "John?"he asked in confusion. John shot him once through the chest, then teleported away, taking Natalie with him.