The Disappearances (28 page)

‘But why do they want Raffy? I mean, I know you said it’s because they think he can turn the System back on, but why?’

‘That’s what we need to find out,’ Linus said, breathing out heavily. ‘We need to find out what they want with the City and the System. We need to work out why they’re here. Because one thing is for sure, they are not a force for good. And they’re also very clever. Which in my book is not a great combination.’

He rubbed his head. Evie’s eyes narrowed. ‘What?’ she said.

Linus looked her curiously.

‘What else,’ she said, folding her arms. ‘You’re not telling us everything. I can tell.

Linus grinned. ‘You can’t tell,’ he said, raising an eyebrow curiously.

Evie raised an eyebrow right back at him and Lucas felt his heart lurch hopelessly.

‘Fine,’ Linus relented. ‘It’s nothing, really. Just a hunch, an idea. But looking at the chronology of this civilisation, the way it was in place before the Horrors finished …’ he trailed off as though unwilling to finish the sentence.

‘Tell us,’ Evie said, frowning. ‘Tell us your hunch.’

Linus sighed. ‘It just seems too … fortuitous. Too clean. It’s almost like they knew. Knew what was going to happen.’

‘But that’s impossible,’ Lucas said, frowning.

‘Maybe,’ Linus pulled a face. ‘But looked at from a different angle, what seems impossible one day might look possible the next,’ he said. ‘In fact, most things that people think they know are actually not the truth at all. People used to think the world was flat. People used to think that the sun revolved around the earth. People think a whole lot of things that turn out to be wrong. People think what is easiest to believe. I haven’t got the right angle to look at this yet. Maybe, if I keep looking at it hard enough …’

‘So you might be wrong?’ Evie asked, then, her intelligent eyes penetrating Linus’s fearlessly. ‘I mean, you just said most of what we think is wrong, so you could be wrong now, couldn’t you?’

Linus didn’t seem to take offence. He smiled. ‘Could be,’ he conceded. ‘But either way, there’s a civilisation out there that has kept itself a secret for a very long time, that has been able to hide itself from me.’

‘And they’re going to want to hide if they don’t want to be destroyed by me,’ a booming voice said from the ledge behind them, and a tall, majestic-looking man with dark skin and short, slightly greying hair appeared. ‘They have destroyed the Settlement. Everything we built. Everything …’

‘Benjamin!’ Raffy jumped up, ran towards him and helped him down. ‘What happened? Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here.’ He looked genuinely upset, Lucas noticed, genuinely worried.

‘What happened,’ Benjamin said, putting his arm around Raffy and walking slowly, grimly towards the group, ‘is that we are at war again.’

He walked over to Linus and held out his hand; Evie could see tears pricking at his eyes. ‘I’m at your service,’ he said. ‘If you want me.’

‘Of course I do,’ Linus said, moving so that Benjamin could sit down. ‘Otherwise I’d never have told you how to find this place. But tell me. What happened?’

‘What happened was what you told me would happen. But the attack was from the air. A bomb. The whole Settlement was destroyed.’

Lucas saw Raffy’s face drain of blood. ‘It’s been destroyed?’ he said, looking ill.

‘Only the buildings,’ Benjamin said, gravely. ‘Our people are safe in the caves,’ Benjamin nodded, shooting Linus a look of gratitude. He looked older, Evie noticed. As if he’d aged a decade in just a day. His eyes were flashing with anger, but his body looked defeated, beaten. ‘They’ll be fine for a few weeks. But I am not fine. I am angry.’

‘You came on foot?’ Lucas asked. ‘How did you get here so quickly?’

Benjamin shook his head. ‘Linus suggested many years ago that I keep a vehicle in the cave, just in case. I never thought I would need it.’

‘Well I’m glad you came,’ Linus said, moving towards him and putting a hand on his arm. ‘Not about why you came, but it’s good to have you here.’

‘I am here to get justice. I am here because I need this to stop.’ Benjamin’s eyes were flashing, his jaw set firm. ‘It was a good place, the Settlement. We troubled no one. We gave the City what it asked for.’

Linus raised his eyebrows. ‘These people don’t care about that,’ he said with a shrug. ‘You know that as well as I do. They don’t care about the City, for that matter. Acting for the City was just a means to an end for them.’

‘So what do they care about?’ Evie asked, her voice wavering.

Linus breathed out. ‘There’s a question,’ he said. He leant forward. ‘Maybe they cared about something else, a long time ago. Maybe they thought there was some justification for what they were doing. The trouble is, Evie, that anyone who thinks they have an answer, a solution, anyone who thinks that they’re right, will inevitably become a tyrant. As soon as you proclaim one right answer, all other answers must be wrong. Dictators, religions … they think they want to save us, but all they really want to do is tramp over everyone and attack anyone who challenges them. It’s all just megalomania with a story attached to justify it.’

‘So they’re megalomaniacs?’ Evie frowned.

Linus smiled. ‘Something like that. Ends justifying means. Violence brushed under the carpet, dissenters silenced. Believe me, it’s nothing new. But we have something they need, or at least the key to it. We need to play this very carefully. That’s the only way we’re going to win this little battle.’

‘You mean the System?’ Lucas asked.

‘The System,’ Linus nodded, breathing out slowly. ‘What I really want to know, though, is why.’

He left the question hanging for a few seconds, then clapped his hands together. ‘Now, however, it’s time to get some rest.’

‘Rest?’ Evie asked indignantly, then stifled a yawn.

‘Sleep,’ Linus said firmly. ‘Come on, I’ll show you where I keep the blankets.’

Thomas Benning watched the news and smiled as desperate reporters stood in front of cameras, trying to interpret the latest attacks that had devastated the City of London and Birmingham on the same day: the first, an attack on wealth and capit-alism; the second, the work of religious extremists.

Or so they thought, Thomas thought to himself with a smile.

He wandered into Adrian’s office. ‘Two more weeks, then we go big,’ he said.

‘Big? You mean …’

‘I mean war. I mean armies, destruction on a global scale. It has to feel like the world is coming to an end.’

Adrian appeared to consider this. ‘But … the bombs here. They’re already pretty big.’

‘Yes, yes,’ Thomas said impatiently. ‘But they’re just
here
. Now it’s time for phase two. We block off information from the rest of the world. Total blackout.’ Adrian’s face screwed up as he opened his mouth to ask a question. ‘A blackout that no one is aware of because we simultaneously fill the void with the content we want them to see,’ Thomas continued, before Adrian could interrupt. He found explaining all the time so tiresome. ‘And do the same going out from the UK.’

‘So no one knows what we’ve done?’

‘Would you know that I’d taken over the airwaves if your television channel continued as normal?’ Thomas asked.

Adrian shook his head.

‘Would you know your friend in Europe was dead if you continued to receive emails from her, phone calls and web updates?’

Adrian shook his head again. ‘But when people come here, when they fly out, they’ll see the reality,’ he said.

‘Which is why the curfew and the closure of airports comes first,’ Thomas said, rolling his eyes. ‘You don’t think I’ve thought of everything? You don’t think I’ve got every single detail worked out?’

He laughed. ‘Just do as I tell you, Adrian. Do what I ask and everything is going to happen just as it’s supposed to.’

Evie followed Linus towards the cupboard where he kept the blankets and took some out. Lucas was behind her; she gave one to him. He looked awkward. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Are there enough?’

Evie glanced up at him; she could smell him, could feel the warmth of his skin. He looked so different from the man she’d known in the City, like a completely different person. But not a stranger. He looked older than he had when she’d seen him last; lines had appeared around his clear blue eyes. He looked exhausted. Like he’d almost given up on himself, she found herself thinking.

She nodded. ‘There are plenty,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘Take another. It’ll probably be cold.’

Raffy was a few metres away; too far away to hear them talking, but she could feel his eyes scrutinising them, could feel his anger.

‘One’s fine.’ Lucas forced a smile. ‘And I’m sorry. Sorry you had to come here. Sorry it had to come to this.’ His eyes kept meeting hers then looking away again, as though he couldn’t bear to actually look at her, as though he wanted to forget what had happened between them.

Evie forced a smile. ‘Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. You’re only trying to protect him. Protect the City.’

Lucas nodded. He was still just inches away from her; neither of them seemed able to move. ‘I thought I’d never see you again,’ he said suddenly, his voice was husky, low. And he was looking right at her now; Evie felt his eyes boring into her, like they might consume her if she wasn’t careful.

‘I thought I’d never see you, either,’ she said, her voice catching. Her nails were digging into her palms, reminding her to hold it together. ‘So how was the … I mean, in the City … what have you …?’ She had no idea what she was saying. Her brain had stopped working, had become a blank screen.

‘Evie? Are you coming?’ It was Raffy, walking towards them. Immediately Lucas moved away, the spell broken. Evie watched him go, then turned back to Raffy, her heart thudding in her chest.

‘I’m coming,’ she said.

They found places to sleep – Raffy and Evie in an area near the kitchen; Lucas in front of the fire. Linus and Benjamin had set themselves up on the other side of the cave; Lucas suspected they had intended to talk, not sleep, but already he could hear gentle snores coming from their direction.

He closed his eyes, allowed his head to loll backwards. His head hurt and he needed to sleep, needed sleep more than anything in the world, and yet he was finding it impossible because he couldn’t relax, couldn’t stop thinking, not for one moment. It felt like his brain had knotted together too tightly, as though someone were squeezing it together, wringing out any moisture, any air that might bring him comfort. His thoughts felt compressed; he couldn’t untangle them, couldn’t think straight. He felt heavy with tiredness but was too alert to sleep, his mind too active, his body too primed for action.

He’d thought it would be easier, thought that he was stronger, wiser. But he wasn’t at all. Watching Evie with his brother was like physical pain itself, like a red-hot poker being jabbed into his eyes. If he’d hoped that he’d be able to remain impassive, that hope had been dashed the moment he’d set eyes on Evie, seen those eyes of hers, those eyes that were so alive, so questioning, so knowing. And every time he looked at her, he knew that he would never find peace, never find happiness. Not when she was with someone else, not when she was with his brother.

He took a deep breath. He had to sleep.

He remembered the hospital, and decided once again to count, not to stay awake this time but to take his mind away from this place, away from reality. He counted, up to a thousand and then down again. And as he counted, he felt himself get heavier. And as he sunk into a deep slumber, he saw Evie’s face next to him, and he imagined Evie was caressing him, that she was embracing him, whispering in his ear that everything would be okay, that he was with her now, that all the pain had gone for ever.

Evie watched Raffy silently, watched him sit on the edge of their bedding, refusing to look at her but refusing to go to sleep. And the more his angry silence went on, the less Evie felt capable of breaking it. It was as though she’d run out of things to say to Raffy, but she knew that she hadn’t; in fact there was a flood of things, but she just couldn’t start because if she did she might not stop, and now wasn’t the time. So instead, Evie had got into their makeshift bed and told Raffy she was tired. He looked at her balefully, then slowly stood up, got undressed and crouched down on the corner of the blanket. And that’s where there’d been for the past hour; Evie not sleeping, Raffy not moving. She knew that he was struggling, knew that he was angry at the loss of the Settlement, angry at the Informers, at Lucas, at Linus. And she knew that it was up to her to help him, to allow him to express himself, to get out the thoughts that would currently be jumbling his mind. That’s what she always did; acted as his sounding board, his confidant, re-assuring him, explaining things to him. Now, though, she did not know the right sentence to say that would unlock his confusion and fear. All she could find were silent images of Lucas flashing through her head, making her stomach lurch and her heart quicken, making her redden every time Raffy glanced at her, flooding her with guilt, flooding her with anger because Raffy was so obstinate when it came to his brother, so impossible.

‘Raffy,’ she said, finally, knowing that only she could break the stalemate; that Raffy would never speak first. ‘Raffy, come to bed. Stop being so angry. Lucas came because you were in trouble. And everyone is here because of it. The Settlement doesn’t even exist any more. This is bigger than you and Lucas. This is more important than that.’

Raffy opened his mouth, then closed it again, stood up, his eyes anguished. ‘You don’t get it, do you? After all this time, you just don’t get it.’

‘Get what?’ Evie asked uncertainly.

Raffy shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter. You know what? It just doesn’t matter any more. I’m going to sleep.’

He got into the bed, lay down, facing away from Evie and pulled the blanket over him. Evie pulled the blanket back.

‘It obviously does matter,’ she said, trying to keep her voice calm. Now was not the time, she kept reminding herself. But it was no good. ‘So tell me,’ she said, sounding like a schoolteacher, her voice tight and cross when it should be sympathetic and supportive. ‘What exactly has Lucas done that’s so terrible? Apart from pretending to be someone he wasn’t all his life to protect you? Apart from risking everything several times to keep you alive? What has he done that’s so terrible?’ Raffy grunted; Evie moved away wearily. ‘I wish you’d stop being so blinkered,’ she said. ‘Lucas isn’t the bad guy. I don’t get how you can’t see that.’