Spy/Undercover girl #5 - Twisted
(Excerpt from Chapter 1 and 2)
Jesse Sharpe swerved to a stop on her skis. Snow shot over her boots. Trying to ignore the rapid beating of her heart, she looked back over her shoulder. Then, carefully, she scanned the white mountain slope in front of her. Left to right. Then back again.
There was no sign of the mysterious man she was to meet. He was late.
Jesse felt a shiver, and it wasn't from the cold.
Her assigned partner, Liam Heggarty, should be meeting this man. But Liam was nursing a twisted left ankle. Yesterday, a skier who had learnt to take off, but not stop, used him to break her downhill run. Liam wasn't badly hurt, but he couldn't easily ski.
Jesse stared at the towering peaks around her. This place was secluded and quiet. She imagined herself skiing across the slope and away, to freedom. She'd have a head-start if she fled now. But the C2 organisation would be ruthless in searching for her. If they found her, they would drag her back to headquarters, or make sure that she disappeared for good. They wouldn't want their enemies getting hold of one of their living experiments and finding out the reason for her enhanced abilities.
Erasing thoughts of freedom, Jesse sighed. She would never run away without Jai and Rohan, her adopted brothers. And now there was Tamarind to think about. Besides, Jesse was tied to C2 in a way that few people could imagine.
She rested her ski poles against her legs, propped her sunglasses on top of her head and took a tiny pair of binoculars from her pocket. Then she put the binoculars to her eyes and focused the lenses.
Further down the slope, a dark figure on skis waited, motionless.
There he is.
Returning the binoculars to her pocket, Jesse pulled down her sunglasses. Gripping the ski poles, she bent her knees and took off down the slope.
Seconds later, above the sound of the cold wind whipping her face and her skis sliding on the snow, she heard a disturbing sound that sent warning prickles across the back of her neck.
The man down the snowy slope didn't move.
He can't hear it yet, thought Jesse, and wasn't surprised. Her hearing was extra-sensitive.
A black helicopter flew over the top of the mountain and the sound became louder.
It could have been a pilot flying skiers to untouched slopes, but she didn't think so. Her instincts screamed at her to hide. But there were no trees on the slope, no shelter. She hoped the sun's bright reflection off the snow would make it harder for the pilot to see.
Rotor blades whirring, the helicopter flew closer.
The windows were tinted so Jesse couldn't see who was inside. Aware that a moving target was harder to hit, she skied left, right, then left again.
Steadily, the helicopter circled, like a mosquito about to sting. Small missiles were attached to its sides. Jesse's back muscles stiffened as she anticipated the helicopter shooting at her. It circled again and flew over her head, towards the top of the mountain.
Jesse struggled to keep her balance. It was hard to ski downhill, watch where she was going and keep an eye on the helicopter.
There was an explosion, a flash of red.
The people in the helicopter had not fired at Jesse or the mysterious man. They had aimed for the top of the slope. Jesse heard an enormous growl, as though a giant dog was behind her. There was a crack, and another.
Suddenly, she felt sick. She knew what was happening, even before she looked back one last time. A wall of snow was plummeting down the slope towards her. The helicopter's missile had started an avalanche...
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