Double-Cross by Sophie McKenzie Read Free Book Online

that the article I’d found wasn’t the first place that Professor Jones had publicly disagreed with William Fox. According to Ed, who did the research online, they’d been engaged in a long-running feud over several years.
    It took a while to discover this, however, as most of the next three telepathic sessions I had with Ed involved him berating me for taking Amy (now safely back at home) to the clinic and drawing so much attention to myself while I was there.
    The third exchange took place just as I drew into Liverpool Street Station in London.
    Why did you go to the clinic anyway? It’s so typical of you to go off on your own like that. I bet you didn’t find out anything useful either . . . I mean, if the Sydney who Geri sold the Medusa code to has nothing to do with Amy’s surrogate mother, then . . .
    And on and on he ranted.
    I waited until he was finished – well, there isn’t much choice when Ed’s inside your head – then told him what I’d found out about him and Amy originally being IVF twins.
    That shocked him. His voice in my head went completely silent and, when he spoke again, his tone was sadder and calmer.
    So, if we were originally twins, Amy was conceived at the same time as me, which means this Sydney person can’t have been responsible.
    I acknowledged that this was the conclusion I’d already come to and told him about the existence of Avery Jones in Sydney. Ed went straight off to investigate, making contact with me half an hour later.
    Okay, we’ve done some research on Professor Avery Jones , Ed thought-spoke. He’s still practising as a psychologist and he still lives in Sydney Australia, but get this . . . He stopped all his consultancy work at fertility clinics within a few months of William Fox dying.
    Just after the point when Geri must have sold him the Medusa gene code , I thought-spoke.
    Exactly. And there’s more. Avery Jones knew about Medusa. We found a blog he wrote saying that he knew William Fox was working on a synthetic biology project involving mutant genetics. It was published the week before Fox died – and it actually uses the Medusa name. It hints that Jones wanted the gene and that he was on the verge of finding out a load more about it. But he never wrote about it again.
    We have to go to Sydney to find him , I thought-spoke. I expected Ed to begin ranting at me again, but to my surprise he agreed.
    I know. We’ve already been onto Laura. She’s going to help.
    Laura was Harry’s mum and Dylan’s godmother . . . She knew all about our history and had already put herself in danger to help us escape England on the ferry to France.
    How can Laura help us get to Sydney?
    Well, firstly, Geri doesn’t know we’ve been in touch with her, so there’s no trace on her phone. Secondly, Laura’s got someone who’s agreed to fly you in secret to Helsinki and arrange for us to meet you there.
    What about when we get there?
    Laura’s managed to get in touch with all our parents. They know Geri’s watching them, but they’ve smuggled our original passports – you know the ones from before Geri gave us new identities – down to her. She’s going to give them to you – plus four tickets from Helsinki to Sydney.
    What if Geri traces us?
    It’s a risk, but she’s likely to be focusing on airports in England and France.
    This was true, though not entirely reassuring.
    Three hours later, fortified by a chicken sandwich at Victoria Station, I arrived at the small town of Bixbury in Kent, where Laura was going to pick me up and explain the details of the plan.
    It was early afternoon and the sun was high in the sky, beating down on my head through the still air. This had to be the hottest day of the year so far. As I waited outside deserted Bixbury Station, my thoughts drifted to Ketty. Ed hadn’t mentioned her earlier – and I didn’t have a phone to call her with. Those thoughts led to others and it was with a jolt that I realised Laura was driving up beside me