‘I suppose I’m lucky I’m only grounded.’

‘Yes, you are. I can probably beat him down to two weeks for you, but I think we can safely say you’re grounded.’

The third eldest Bened ict brother, Victor, came cal ing after we’d gone to bed. I could hear Simon swearing as he fumbled for his dressing gown to throw over his T-shirt and shorts. Sal y came to fetch me.

‘Not asleep yet?’

‘No. Wha’s up?’

‘The FBI are in the kitchen. They want a word with us.’

Victor was with a female col eague. He had straight, long dark hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a sharp black suit with a silver tie. Like his father, he had a calm aura, as if he could be surprised by few things. The col eague struck me as more nervous. She was tapping her stylus on her electronic memo, her hawkish face shadowed, her short brown hair sleeked back behind her ears.

‘Sky.’ Victor held out a hand to me and led me to the seat opposite him. It was strange how he acted as if he was in control in our kitchen. Sal y and Simon had given way to him without a murmur, hovering on the margins while he ran the show. ‘Do you mind if we record this?’ He gestured to the BlackBerry lying on the table.

I glanced at Simon. He shook his head.

‘That’s OK. I don’t mind.’

He pressed a button. ‘Record on. Incident seven, seven, eight, slash ten. Interview four. Present in the room are agents Victor Benedict and Anya Kowalski and witness, Sky Bright, a minor. Also in attendance are the witness’s parents, Simon and Sal y Bright.’

Cripes, this sounded like a trial.

‘Have I done something wrong?’ I asked, rubbing at the tea stain on the table top.

Victor’s expression softened and he shook his head. ‘Other than go out with my idiot brother, I’d say not. Sky, you’re sixteen, is that right? What’s your date of birth?’

‘Um …’

Sal y jumped in. ‘No one is sure of her exact date as she lost her birth parents when she was six. We chose the day we adopted her—first of March—as her birthday.’

The hawkish agent made a note.

‘OK,’ said Victor, giving me a speculative look.

‘Now, Sky, I want you to tel us in your own words, remembering as much detail as possible, what happened this evening out in the woods.’

Pushing a few stray grains of sugar to and fro on the table, I relived the experience for the record, running it in my head like one of my plots frame by frame, leaving out only the fact that for some of the time Zed and I had been using telepathy. Oh, and the kiss. I didn’t think they needed to know about that.

‘Zed said you were the one to realize that there was more than one shooter. How did you know?’ Ms Kowalski butted in when I had reached that part in the story.

I wondered if I should make up something about hearing a noise or seeing another person, but decided I’d better stick to the truth.

‘It was a gut feeling—you know, like an instinct.’

‘Sky’s always had good instincts,’ added Sal y, embarrassingly over-eager to assist the authorities with their enquiries. ‘Remember how she never liked that tutor we employed for her that time, Simon?

Turned out he’d been involved in a hit and run incident.’

I’d forgotten that—it had happened years ago. Mr Bagshot had made me feel panicky—guilty—when I was with him as if his emotions were spil ing out and swamping me.

‘Interesting.’ Victor laced his fingers together. ‘So you saw nothing, just felt it?’

‘Yes.’ I rubbed my temples, the headache back.

Victor dug in his pocket and pul ed out a packet of aspirin. ‘Zed sent these. He said you’d forget to take one.’

He’d seen this and not that we’d get shot at if we went for a walk? Second sight was annoyingly patchy. I took a tablet with a gulp of water and finished the story.

‘Have you caught the men who did this?’ Simon asked. Both he and Sal y were pale: they hadn’t heard the details of what happened, nor how close the bul ets had come.

‘No, sir.’

‘Any idea who they were?’

‘Not at this time.’

‘Is Sky in danger?’

‘We have no reason to think so.’ Victor paused. ‘I want to tel you something in confidence; you need to understand so you can make sure Sky is safe, but I have to ask you to keep it to yourselves.’

I wondered for a horrid moment if he was about to tel my parents about the savant stuff. They’d never believe him.

‘You can trust us,’ Simon confirmed.

‘My family are here as part of a witness protection programme run by the FBI. We’re afraid that news of their location must have leaked to associates of the people they helped send to jail. The attack was aimed at them, not your daughter, so we think she is under no further threat as long as she keeps her distance from us.’

‘Oh.’ Sal y sat down, sagging like a col apsing inflatable. ‘You poor things—to be living under that pressure.’

Simon had guessed the next step. ‘Wil you be moving now your location is no longer a secret?’

‘We hope not. We al try and keep a low profile—’

‘I’m stopping as Colorado junior champion andretiring undefeated’, Xavier had said. He didn’t want to become too wel known across state boundaries.

Zed had avoided making more than a good impression on the basebal diamond, ducking attention.

‘But it’s a bit early to say—and hard to uproot the whole family. Our preference is to deal with this threat, contain it, and see where we stand then.’

I drew a circle with my fingertip. ‘And if you’ve a leak in the FBI, you have to plug it before moving or the problem would just fol ow you al .’

Victor’s gaze sharpened. ‘You’re a bright girl, aren’t you? No pun intended.’

‘But I’m right, aren’t I?’

‘Yeah. We can protect ourselves better in a place we know until we can be sure it’s safe.’

‘I see.’

He got up and pocketed the recorder. ‘Yeah, you do, don’t you. You’re sweet, just like Dad said you were. Thanks for your time, Sky, Mr and Mrs Bright.’

‘No problem, Agent Benedict,’ Simon said, showing them to the door.

Sal y sat down next to me at the table. Simon sat on my other side and reached for my hand.

‘Wel ,’ he said.

‘Yeah.’ I leant my head on his shoulder, our earlier argument forgiven.

‘I’m sorry, Sky, but we can’t let you see that boy out of school, or any of his family for that matter, until this is al sorted out.’

‘It’s not fair.’

‘No, it’s not, darling. I’m sorry.’

Unable to see Zed in my free time, I couldn’t wait to catch up with him at school to find out what was going to happen to his family. I felt very confused when he didn’t turn up for the next few days. He’d left me worried sick and facing everyone with an unexplained black eye. It was total y embarrassing—

the kind that makes you want to curl up quietly in a corner.

‘Whoa, Sky, you take up boxing?’ Nelson exclaimed in a loud voice on seeing me in the school hal way.

I tried to pul a hank of hair over my injury. ‘No.’

Other students were now looking at me as if I were an exhibit. Funny Girl with Black Eye, rol up, rol up!

‘How’d’ you do it then?’

I put on a spurt of speed, hoping to reach my form room before he got it out of me.

‘Hey, Sky, you can tel me.’ Nelson caught my arm, no longer teasing but serious now. ‘Did someone hurt you?’

I shoved my hair off my face and looked at him straight. ‘I ran into an elbow yesterday.’

‘Whose?’

‘Zed’s. No big deal.’

‘No big freaking deal! You’re joking! Where is he?’ Nelson looked fit to burst. ‘I knew no good would come of it. He should take better care of you.’

‘It’s OK.’

‘No, it is not OK, Sky. Zed’s not right for a girl like you.’